San Antonio Legal Blog

The number of deaths from alcohol-impaired drivers has decreased over the past 30 years, yet drunk-driving crashes still took the lives of almost 11,000 people in the United States in 2017. This continuing problem is causing one state to pass tougher laws that lower the acceptable blood alcohol content 40 percent from the current limit accepted in Texas and other states nationwide. Drivers over this limit face severe consequences from DWI charges.

Since 2000, all states have accepted a maximum blood alcohol content of .08 for adult drivers. One state passed a law that has lowered its maximum BAC limit to .05. While this is the lowest limit of any state in this country, many other countries already have used this as their maximum. There are even some nations that have limits as low as .02. Supporters note that these countries enjoy just as much alcohol consumption as the United States but with fewer associated deaths.

The holiday season has always been the busiest time of the year for delivery companies. With the recent boom of online shopping and ecommerce, the industry's holiday business has grown exponentially, and the need for workers has grown just the same. Some workers are permanent employees, and others are seasonal. For one Texas delivery driver, his employment came to a sudden end recently after he was accused of theft. Now he finds himself focusing on his criminal defense instead of enjoying the holiday festivities.

On Dec. 12, a UPS security manager flagged down deputies to report a theft. The manager claims he saw a delivery driver take packages that were to be delivered on his route and hide them in the back seat of his personal car. He also claims that he overheard a phone call placed by the driver, during which he revealed plans to return at a later time and steal more packages. The manager said he confronted the driver, who supposedly admitted to the theft before fleeing the scene.

Many of today's rap videos seem the same. In most there are a bunch of guys hanging out, usually with cars or guns being shown off, girls dancing around and money raining down. Yet another rap video was following a similar format while being filmed in a Texas park in March, and now, after months of investigation, 20 men are facing felony or misdemeanor charges related to the video.

It appears that the rappers in the video made a number of bad decisions that led to their trouble with police. The video was apparently shot in a Texas park that is located next to an elementary school. Police say it occurred around the time school was being dismissed, so some students even made it into the video.

Neighbors can be a blessing as well as a pain. While some neighbors can be great about babysitting, feeding the dog or loaning that cup of sugar, other neighbors are more of a problem than a help. Some are nosy, rude or just plain weird. Someone in Texas can now blame his neighbor for leading police to almost $3 million worth of heroin, meth and fentanyl in his apartment thanks to a fire in the neighbor's home.

Police and firemen responded to a fire at a three-unit apartment complex on a recent Wednesday night. A fire started in the center unit, quickly raged out of control and spread to one of the adjoining units. Those two units were completely destroyed. The third unit was spared from the fire but had water and smoke damage.