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The city of Stockton, CA, will find out on October 30 whether it can continue its financial recovery after declaring bankruptcy.

Stock is due to appear in court to ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein to approve its plan for reorganizing the city’s $900 million-plus in debt.

However, the city’s single creditor, Franklin Templeton Investments, argued that the city hasn’t considered using its pension fund to pay back the $32.5 million it owes. Klein ruled in October that Chapter 9 bankruptcies, like Stockton’s, could treat pension obligations like other debt.

This could spell trouble for the city’s residents and workers who depend on that pension plan, especially if it results in reduced benefits.

Michael Sweet, a bankruptcy attorney in San Francisco, said that there haven’t been any Chapter 9 bankruptcies that have attacked pensions.

Chapter 9, which relates to municipal bankruptcies, offers the chance for the city to pay off debt, unlike a Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy, which liquidates all assets and can affect an individual’s credit for about a decade.

Once the city has met with Klein, they may receive an approval, end up back in negotiations with Franklin Templeton, or have their bankruptcy claim rejected.

Stockton filed for Chapter 9 protection back in 2012, after Vallejo, CA. and before San Bernardino, filed for Chapter 9. Stockton was the nation’s largest bankruptcy until Detroit filed in 2013.

So far, the city’s officials have spent nearly $16.3 million on the Chapter 9 bankruptcy and have budgeted for about $25 million more, totaling around $41.3 million in the cost of the filing. Even worse, the city is expected to have around $48 million in settlements and obligations even after recovering from the bankruptcy.

City leaders blame the bankruptcy on economic problems brought on by the recession. Before it hit, they spent millions of dollars trying to revitalize the downtown area with the purchase and construction of a new City Hall, a marina, a sports arena, and a ballpark.

The city had issued 3,000 permits annually to build new homes, and police were paid premium wages and health benefits.

After the recession, the city experienced a rash of foreclosures, and even the new City Hall couldn’t pay its bills. The police force was cut by millions of dollars and 25% in personnel, which sent crime skyrocketing.

The troubles from years before could make things worse if pensions are cut, according to David E. Mastagni, an attorney for the Stockton Police Officers’ Association. “If they impair the pensions,” he said, speaking of the police force, “you’ll see mass walk-offs.”

Former City Manager Bob Deis, who helped create Stockton’s proposal, is hopeful that the plan will receive approval from Klein.

“I can’t imagine it would be a thumbs-down scenario,” Deis commented. “I am hopeful that it’s thumbs-up. It’s time for the city to be able to move on and get this difficult chapter behind it.”

Facebook is bringing some complex wrinkles to modern court cases. Just last month a judge allowed a man to serve his ex-wife legal papers over Facebook when she proved impossible to contact through traditional means, and many divorce lawyers admit that they use Facebook to compile evidence against a partner in child custody cases.

But the integration of Facebook into legal affairs is being met with some resistance in a New Jersey appeals court, which is embroiled in a legal battle after a friend request during a personal injury lawsuit brought ethics into question.

The original case began after then 18-year-old plaintiff, Dennis Hernandez, was doing push-ups in his driveway and was hit by police officer Brian Coughlan’s cruiser. The impact fractured his femur, which only recovered after multiple surgeries.

Allegedly, Coughlan’s defense lawyers assigned a paralegal to friend Hernandez on Facebook in order to view information on his profile, which court documents claim was not available to the public.

The social media prying came to light during the deposition, at which point the defense lawyers asked Hernandez about dancing, travel and other activities he posted about on Facebook that would have brought the severity of his injuries into question.

Photos and video from Hernandez’s Facebook page were later used as evidence against him, but since the Facebook evidence was produced after the discovery deadline, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Rachelle Harz barred its use, and the case was settled for $400,000 in 2010.

But Hernandez and his lawyer weren’t done. In light of the questionable Facebook snooping, they filed an ethics grievance. It was dismissed by the district ethics committee, but the Office of Attorney Ethics later found basis to investigate and filed a formal complaint in 2011.

The complaint alleges that the paralegal who sent the friend request to Hernandez did so in violation of his privacy settings, which he’d recently upgraded. Both defense lawyers are being charged, but they claim they never told their paralegal to friend him, just to perform a general internet search.

“We have long instructed clients to not post on Facebook or other social media about their case and to be really cautious about what others post,” explains Gary Burger, Partner and Attorney at Canton & Burger, LLC. “If a person claims serious injuries to their neck or back due to an injury caused by the Defendant, and they post on Facebook images of them carrying heavy loads, doing handstands or other strenuous activity, then they are disproving the extent of their injuries and harming their claim to compensation. Defendants regularly ask about Facebook and social media posts and subpoena those records.”

With the intervention of the OAE, the problem has become one of jurisdiction, not social media. A panel will convene this week to determine whether or not the OAE can file ethics grievances against lawyers even after district ethics committees have turned them down.

Since social media is still a fairly new phenomena, it’s likely that many precedents like this will need to be set, to determine how Facebook and court matters can be allowed to intersect.

Acne affects an estimated 40 million to 50 million Americans, regardless of age, health and other factors. For this reason, there are hundreds of acne treatment products and methods on the market today which promise to reveal smooth, healthy skin. However, new research shows that you may be more likely to find an effective cure for your acne in your glass of wine than in your local drugstore: an antioxidant found in red grapes, which are often used in the popular alcoholic beverage, has been shown to kill off the bacteria that causes breakouts.

Previous studies have found that resveratrol, the antioxidant in question, has been successful in preventing free radicals from forming and can also kill off the P. acnes bacteria, which causes pimples. However, scientists were unsure exactly how this happened. To gather data, a team at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles applied concentrations of resveratrol, benzoyl peroxide (a popular ingredient in many acne treatments), and combinations of both to colonies of P. acnes. The researchers also cultured human skin and blood cells from volunteers with and without acne.

The results were interesting: while benzoyl peroxide was able to effectively kill off the bacteria, the effects lasted no longer than 24 hours. In comparison, concentrations of at least 50 ug/mL of resveratrol were able to kill off P. acnes by weakening the outer membrane of the bacterial cells. These doses were also able to last for 48 hours. However, the most effective compound was the combined benzoyl peroxide and resveratrol: all concentrations killed the bacteria, and the results lasted longer than either product on its own.

One of the researchers, Dr. Emma Taylor, stated that the team was surprised by their findings: because benzoyl peroxide is an oxidant, they had initially hypothesized that the two opposing ingredients would cancel each other out. Instead, their data showed that benzoyl peroxide has a higher toxicity level, which may be why many patients report developing skin irritation and dryness when they use products with this ingredient. The resveratrol reportedly neutralized this toxicity, allowing the combination to treat acne more effectively with fewer side effects.

This finding has the potential to improve non-invasive acne treatments, creating better products that can be used by a greater number of patients. However, the research team is calling for further study, including tests on actual patients with acne, to see how the compounds actually work together before these ingredients can be paired in treatments.

As winter quickly approaches, homeowners are starting preparations to winterize their homes and prepare for the cold and snowy months ahead. Some of the to-do items on homeowners’ lists include replacing screens with storm windows, changing the direction of ceiling fans, taking shovels out of the basement and restocking on salt to help clear ice off sidewalks and driveways.

Once the snow finally arrives, alarm clocks need to be set about 15 minutes earlier, as well, to leave enough time to shovel the driveway. While some may view morning snow shoveling as their morning workout, most people dread having to throw on snow gear and head out early to clear their driveway of last night’s snowfall. Some people may elect to hire a plow service, or the kid down the street, to get rid of the snow, but if the plow or neighborhood shoveler doesn’t arrive on time, these people end up doing the work themselves anyway.

Wouldn’t it be great to wake up in the morning on your own time, knowing that no matter how much it snowed the night before, the driveway will be snow-free? Believe it or not, it can be done. Heated driveways are a great way to eliminate the need to shovel or hire a plow, and they also keep people safe from slipping on dangerous ice that often accumulates on the driveway.

Last year’s harsh winter that dumped heaping piles of snow across the country led to a drastic increase in heated driveway installations over the year, according to The Times Herald. With weather experts forecasting another harsh winter this year, a heated driveway doesn’t seem like a bad investment, especially since other types of driveways can take a beating during the winter.

While small-stone gravel driveways provide good traction, they can be ruined by plows and shovels. Regular concrete driveways can also be harmed in the winter from being overloaded with road salt. As salt melts the snow, excess moisture in the concrete can cause concrete driveways to crack. Heated driveways melt snow as soon as it touches the surface, and prevent ice patches from building up, as well.

Heated driveways can run on the pricier side, but what homeowners are really paying for is peace of mind, and can you put a price on that?

Here comes the bride, all dressed in whi– wait a minute, not so fast.

According to a recent report from Pew Research, it is predicted that more people under the age of 35 will be single forever. Forever? Yes, forever and ever.

The number of Americans who have never been married, and are likely to never do so, is at an historic high, based on data from the report. This is in part due to the fact that many do not have jobs or feel financially secure enough, and also because traditional views on marriage have dramatically changed. Marriage isn’t as highly regarded as it was in past generations. Over the course of the last four years, the number of young singles who want to get married significantly decreased, as attitudes have shifted.

Based on census data and Pew’s own surveys, the report is the latest to project that marriage rates are sharply declining. Young people are saving marriage for later in life, choosing to focus on their education and establishing careers before walking down the aisle — if they decide to walk down the aisle at all. Nearly 20% of Americans older than 25 had never been married in 2012, up from 9% in 1960. The numbers are even starker in the black community, with 36% of black Americans older than 25 having never married, which is nearly four times the number from 50 years ago.

So why are so many people choosing not to get hitched anymore? According to the study, 30% of people have yet to find the right person, 27% did not feel financially ready or stable enough, and 22% are simply not ready to settle down. However, researchers aren’t quick to label this as the new normal just yet.

Some young people are putting off tying the knot, and while many are choosing instead to live together in long-term relationships, the number of couples moving in together in lieu of getting married is still lower than one might think. “Cohabitation is much less common than marriage and cohabiting relationships are much less stable than marriages,” says Kim Parker, co-author of the study. “It’s hard to imagine marriage being replaced any time soon.”

The Pew researchers also managed to squeeze out other reasons by asking participants what they wanted in a spouse. The majority of women are choosing practicality over romance, and want a husband with a stable job, followed closely by similar beliefs in raising children, which was the exact same quality men desired in a spouse.

In 1960, 93% of men between the ages of 25 and 34 were employed, compared to 82% in 2012. Young men who are employed now just aren’t bringing home as much bacon as they did at one time. Factoring in inflation, the median hourly wage of men ages 25 to 34 are up to a fifth less than what they were in 1980. Also, women are contributing to the labor force in much higher numbers, with some earning higher salaries than their counterparts. While there are more single and available men than women, there are substantially fewer employed men who are single than employed women.

However, postponing marriage may be smart, as divorce rates continue to increase across the United States. Perhaps after seeing their own parents’ marriages end in divorce, millennials are wary about rushing down the aisle. Several studies have indicated that marriages are more likely to be healthier, and therefore last longer, when people marry at an older age, have a higher education, and earn more money.

This doesn’t mean that marriage is falling out of favor, but instead illustrates how attitudes regarding the American dream have changed.