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Tag: Legal proceedings

  • US appeals court overturns West Virginia landmark opioid lawsuit decision

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    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a landmark decision in West Virginia that had rejected attempts by an opioid-ravaged area to be compensated by U.S. drug distributors for a influx of prescription pain pills into the region.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled that a lower court judge erred when he said West Virginia’s public nuisance law did not apply to the lawsuit involving the distribution of opioids.

    “West Virginia law permits abatement of a public nuisance to include a requirement that a defendant pay money to fund efforts to eliminate the resulting harm to the public,” the 4th Circuit wrote. “West Virginia has long characterized abatement as an equitable remedy.”

    The ruling sends the case back to U.S. District Court in Charleston for “further proceedings consistent with the principles expressed in this opinion.”

    Thousands of state and local governments have sued over the toll of opioids. The suits relied heavily on claims that the companies created a public nuisance by failing to monitor where the powerful prescriptions were ending up. Most of the lawsuits were settled as part of a series of nationwide deals that could be worth more than $50 billion. But there wasn’t a decisive trend in the outcomes of those that have gone to trial.

    In July 2022, U.S. District Judge David Faber ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors who were accused by Cabell County and the city of Huntington of causing a public health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years in the county. AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. also were accused of ignoring the signs that Cabell County was being ravaged by addiction.

    Faber said West Virginia’s Supreme Court had only applied public nuisance law in the context of conduct that interferes with public property or resources. He said to extend the law to cover the marketing and sale of opioids “is inconsistent with the history and traditional notions of nuisance.”

    Last year the federal appeals court sent a certified question to the state Supreme Court, which states: “Under West Virginia’s common law, can conditions caused by the distribution of a controlled substance constitute a public nuisance and, if so, what are the elements of such a public nuisance claim?”

    The state justices declined to answer. That 3-2 opinion in May returned the case to the federal appears court.

    “We hold that West Virginia’s highest court would not exclude as a matter of law any common law claim for public nuisance caused by the distribution of a controlled substance,” the 4th Circuit wrote Tuesday. “Therefore, we necessarily conclude that the district court erred when it held that a public nuisance claim based on the distribution of opioids was per se legally insufficient under West Virginia law.”

    During arguments earlier this year before the state Supreme Court over the certified question, Steve Ruby, an attorney for the companies, called “radical” the plaintiffs’ arguments to extend the public nuisance law to opioid manufacturers. If allowed, he said, that would “create an avalanche of activist litigation.”

    The appeals court previously noted that the West Virginia Mass Litigation Panel, which works to resolve complex cases in state court, has concluded in several instances that opioid distribution “can form the basis of a public nuisance claim under West Virginia common law.”

    In his 2022 decision, Faber also said the plaintiffs offered no evidence that the defendants distributed controlled substances to any entity that didn’t hold a proper registration from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or the state Board of Pharmacy. The defendants also had suspicious monitoring systems in place as required by the Controlled Substances Act, he said.

    But the 4th Circuit Court found Tuesday that the lower court “misconstrued the distributors’ duties” under the Controlled Substances Act.

    The plaintiffs had sought more than $2.5 billion that would have gone toward opioid use prevention, treatment and education over 15 years.

    In 2021 in Cabell County, an Ohio River county of 93,000 residents, there were 1,059 emergency responses to suspected overdoses — significantly higher than each of the previous three years — with at least 162 deaths.

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  • Jury deliberations start in trial of Illinois deputy who killed Sonya Massey

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    PEORIA, Ill. — An Illinois jury has begun deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of a sheriff’s deputy who shot Sonya Massey, a Black woman in her home who had called 911 for help and was later killed because of the way she was handling a pan of hot water.

    The eight-woman, four-man jury received the case just after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Jurors must decide whether Sean Grayson, 31, is guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Massey in her Springfield home. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison. They also have been given the option of considering second-degree murder, which carries a term of four to 20 years.

    Grayson and another deputy answered Massey’s emergency call reporting a prowler outside the 36-year-old woman’s home early on the morning of July 6, 2024.

    In closing arguments, prosecutors characterized Grayson as “an angry man with a gun” whose impatience with Massey, who was suffering a mental health episode, inflamed his temper.

    Defense attorneys argued that when Massey retrieved a pot of steaming water from the stove, Grayson gave clear commands to drop it. They said he only fired when she said, “ I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” and, in the ensuing confusion, picked up the pan again and acted as if she would throw it and scald him.

    Massey’s killing raised new questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes. The accompanying publicity, protests and legal action over the incident prompted Judge Ryan Cadagin to move the trial from Springfield, 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, to Peoria, an hour’s drive north of the capital city, because of pre-trial publicity.

    In an unusual step for a defendant in a murder case, Grayson testified in his own defense. Grayson said he considered using a Taser to subdue her but was afraid it wouldn’t work given his distance from Massey and the counter separating them. He said he determined that Massey was a threat and drew his 9 mm pistol only after she uttered her “rebuke” twice — although prosecutors pointed out that was because he didn’t hear her the first time and asked her to repeat it.

    Second-degree murder applies when there is a “serious provocation” which causes “a reasonable person to become impassioned or if an incident can be characterized as ”imperfect self-defense,” in which defendants believe their actions are justified even if that belief is unreasonable.

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  • Ex-wife of Angels employee to face cross examination in trial over pitcher’s overdose death

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    SANTA ANA, Calif. — The ex-wife of a Los Angeles Angels employee at the center of the overdose death of one of the team’s star pitchers will face more cross examination Tuesday after testifying she saw players and clubhouse attendants passing pills and alcohol while partying on the team plane.

    Camela Kay told jurors in a Southern California courtroom on Monday she had traveled on the Angels team plane with her then-husband Eric Kay, who was convicted of providing drugs that led to the 2019 death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. She said she had seen players partying, playing card games, gambling and drinking.

    “They’re treated like kings,” Camela Kay said of her observations on the plane. “I had seen them passing out pills or drinking alcohol excessively.”

    The testimony came in a trial for a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ family contending the Angels should be held responsible for letting Eric Kay, then the team’s communications director, stay on the job and access players while he was addicted to and dealing drugs. The Angels have said team officials did not know Skaggs was taking drugs and that any drug activity involving him and Eric Kay happened on their own time and in the privacy of the player’s hotel room.

    Camela Kay testified she told an Angels employee that her then-husband may have been intending to sell drugs to Skaggs on at least one occasion. That was based on information Eric Kay told his sister during a hospital stay for a drug overdose, she said. Camela Kay said the sister then told her, and she told an Angels employee.

    Defense attorneys for the Angels began their cross examination of Camela Kay on Monday and questioned her direct knowledge of Eric Kay’s interactions with Skaggs.

    Camela Kay said she was concerned that her then-husband had a drug problem after observing his erratic behavior, and family members mounted an intervention with him in 2017. The next day, she said, two team officials came over to speak with him and one of them pulled a series of plastic baggies containing white pills from the bedroom, which fueled her concerns that Eric Kay was not only struggling with substance abuse but selling drugs to make money.

    “Him being in the clubhouse with the players, my guess would be he is supplying to them,” she said.

    Camela Kay also described how her then-husband was driven home by an Angels employee after he was dancing in his office, shirtless, at the stadium in 2019. After he got home, she found a bottle with blue pills inside and called police to press him to go to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed an overdose involving six different drugs, she said.

    He was hospitalized for three days and then went to rehab, which was communicated in text messages between Camela Kay and team officials shown to jurors.

    She said her sister-in-law told her after visiting Eric Kay in the hospital that he told her the pills were for Skaggs. She said she found text messages on his phone about him getting his “candy” at the stadium and relayed the information about both to Angels officials.

    She said she was concerned about Eric Kay heading on the road with the Angels after completing a six-week stint in rehab, adding he was still acting erratic and she suspected he was abusing a drug meant to treat opioid addiction.

    After Skaggs’ death, Camela Kay filed for divorce, according to Orange County court records.

    The trial comes more than six years after Skaggs, then 27, was found dead in the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying as the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report said Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.

    Eric Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from him at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.

    Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

    Skaggs’ family is seeking $118 million in lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against the team.

    After Skaggs’ death, the MLB reached a deal with the players association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.

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  • Ex-wife of Angels employee expected to testify over pitcher’s drug overdose death

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    SANTA ANA, Calif. — The ex-wife of a Los Angeles Angels employee is expected to testify in a trial over whether the MLB team should be held responsible for the drug overdose death of one of its star pitchers.

    Camela Kay is expected to take the stand Monday to speak about her ex-husband, Angels’ communication director Eric Kay, who was convicted of providing a fentanyl-laced pill that led to the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs. He was later sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.

    After Skaggs’ death, Camela Kay filed for divorce, according to Orange County court records.

    The testimony is expected in a civil trial for a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ family contending the Angels should be held responsible for letting a drug-addicted and dealing employee stay on the job and access its players. The Angels say team officials did not know Skaggs was taking drugs and that any drug activity involving him and Kay happened on their own time and in the privacy of the player’s hotel room.

    The trial comes more than six years after Skaggs, then 27, was found dead in the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying as the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report said Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.

    Eric Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from him at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.

    Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

    Skaggs’ family is seeking $118 million in lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against the team.

    After Skaggs’ death, the MLB reached a deal with the players association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.

    The trial is expected to take weeks and has included testimony from Angels outfielder Mike Trout.

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  • JPMorgan Chase wants out of paying $115M legal tab for convicted fraudsters

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    NEW YORK (AP) — For nearly three years, JPMorgan Chase has picking up the legal tab of Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar, the two convicted fraudsters who sold their financial aid startup Frank to the bank.

    But the two have racked up an astronomical, nine-figure legal bill that far exceeds any reasonable amount the two may have needed for their defense, the bank said in a court filing late Friday. Chase shouldn’t have to pay and its agreement as part of the startup purchase to shoulder the costs should end, the bank argued.

    According to the filing, Javice’s team of lawyers across five law firms have billed JPMorgan approximately $60.1 million in legal fees and expenses, while Amar’s lawyers have billed the bank roughly $55.2 million in fees.

    In total, the bank alleges Javice and Amar’s lawyers have racked up legal fees of $115 million, with one law firm receiving $35.6 million in reimbursements alone. In comparison, Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors in the Theranos case, reportedly ended up with a legal bill of roughly $30 million.

    The bank would be “irreparably injured” if the court does not put an end to “abusive billing,” the bank said. Javice and her lawyers have treated the process “like a blank check,” Chase said.

    Javice, 33, was convicted in March of duping the banking giant when it bought her company, called Frank, in the summer of 2021. She made false records that made it seem like Frank had over 4 million customers when it had fewer than 300,000. Amar was convicted of the same charges.

    Early in the case, a Delaware court ruled that the bank was required to advance Javice and Amar for any legal fees, which was part of the bank’s agreement when Frank was acquired in 2021.

    Part of Javice’s legal team is Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, who is also the lawyer who has previously represented Elon Musk. Spiro did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

    A law firm representing Amar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    “The legal fees sought by Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar are patently excessive and egregious. We look forward to sharing details of this abuse with the court in coming weeks,” said Pablo Rodriguez, a spokesman for the bank

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  • JPMorgan Chase wants out of paying $115M legal tab for convicted fraudsters

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    NEW YORK — For nearly three years, JPMorgan Chase has picking up the legal tab of Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar, the two convicted fraudsters who sold their financial aid startup Frank to the bank.

    But the two have racked up an astronomical, nine-figure legal bill that far exceeds any reasonable amount the two may have needed for their defense, the bank said in a court filing late Friday. Chase shouldn’t have to pay and its agreement as part of the startup purchase to shoulder the costs should end, the bank argued.

    According to the filing, Javice’s team of lawyers across five law firms have billed JPMorgan approximately $60.1 million in legal fees and expenses, while Amar’s lawyers have billed the bank roughly $55.2 million in fees.

    In total, the bank alleges Javice and Amar’s lawyers have racked up legal fees of $115 million, with one law firm receiving $35.6 million in reimbursements alone. In comparison, Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors in the Theranos case, reportedly ended up with a legal bill of roughly $30 million.

    The bank would be “irreparably injured” if the court does not put an end to “abusive billing,” the bank said. Javice and her lawyers have treated the process “like a blank check,” Chase said.

    Javice, 33, was convicted in March of duping the banking giant when it bought her company, called Frank, in the summer of 2021. She made false records that made it seem like Frank had over 4 million customers when it had fewer than 300,000. Amar was convicted of the same charges.

    Early in the case, a Delaware court ruled that the bank was required to advance Javice and Amar for any legal fees, which was part of the bank’s agreement when Frank was acquired in 2021.

    Part of Javice’s legal team is Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, who is also the lawyer who has previously represented Elon Musk. Spiro did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

    A law firm representing Amar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    “The legal fees sought by Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar are patently excessive and egregious. We look forward to sharing details of this abuse with the court in coming weeks,” said Pablo Rodriguez, a spokesman for the bank

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  • Jury awards more than $40 million to family of man who died in privately-run jail

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    NEW ORLEANS — A federal jury found a private company running a Louisiana jail liable for the 2015 death of a man who died of head injuries he received while in custody, and awarded the family more than $40 million in damages.

    Attorneys representing Erie Moore Sr.’s family say they believe the verdict handed down this week in the Western District of Louisiana is among the highest ever jury awards for an in-custody death in the U.S.

    “For the past 10 years, my sisters and I have been tormented knowing he is not resting easy,” said his son, Erie Moore Jr. “This trial has shined light where there was darkness. It has brought our family truth, justice, and peace.”

    Moore was a 57-year-old mill worker father of three with no criminal history who was arrested on Oct. 12, 2015, for disturbing the peace at a doughnut shop in Monroe, Louisiana.

    Moore became “agitated and noncompliant” while being taken into custody at Richwood Correctional Center, according to court filings. His attorney, Max Schoening, says Moore was “mentally unwell” at the time he was taken into custody.

    Schoening says guards pepper-sprayed him at least eight times during the 36 hours he was in jail.

    Court records, including footage from jail security cameras submitted as evidence and viewed by The Associated Press, show Moore being brought down forcefully by several guards. Other footage shows the guards picking up Moore by his legs and handcuffed hands when one of the guards stumbled, and Moore’s head lands on the ground.

    Moore was then brought to a secluded area of the jail without security cameras. He was kept there, out of sight, for nearly two hours, during which no one called for medical attention, court records show.

    “The jury found the guards continued to use excessive force against Mr. Moore in the camera-less area,” Schoening said. “When sheriffs from another law enforcement agency arrived to pick him up to transport him to another jail they found him unconscious and completely unresponsive.”

    When Moore eventually arrived at the hospital hours he was already in a coma and died about a month later, court records show. The Ouachita Parish coroner ruled Moore’s death a homicide due to the head injuries.

    A federal jury found three guards liable for negligence, battery and excessive force. The jury also found LaSalle Management Co., which runs Richwood Correctional Center, liable for causing the death of Moore due to the negligence of at least one of its guards.

    No one has been criminally charged in Moore’s death, Schoening added.

    The jury ordered LaSalle and Richwood to pay $23.25 million in punitive damages and $19.5 million in compensation to Moore’s three adult children.

    “This is the largest compensatory damage award I have ever heard of,” said Jay Aronson, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of “Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do about It.”

    The city of Monroe contracted the Richwood Correctional Center facility for its jail from 2001 to 2019. LaSalle, which is part of the same business enterprise as Richwood Correctional Center, operates detention facilities across Louisiana and Texas, court filings show.

    The Richwood Correctional Center now serves as a federal immigration detention site. Last year, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency stated that LaSalle is an “important part of ICE’s detention system.”

    LaSalle did not respond to requests for comment sent to its attorneys or a spokesperson. The City of Monroe declined to comment.

    “Erie Moore Sr.’s life was a gift to his family and community. LaSalle Management Co. ended it with utter indifference,” Schoening said. “It is a testament to his children’s love, courage, and resilience that, in the face of enormous obstacles, they obtained justice for their father and a historic victory for civil rights in this country.”

    ___

    Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Michael Jordan laughs at NASCAR’s claims as bitter antitrust feud barrels toward a trial

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    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR and two of its teams returned to court Thursday after two failed days of mediation and resumed their bitter antitrust fight with a hearing that included team owner Michael Jordan laughing in disbelief at some of the testimony as the two sides hurtle toward a trial.

    “Today’s hearing confirmed the facts of NASCAR’s monopolistic practices and showed NASCAR for who they are — retaliatory bullies who would rather focus on personal attacks and distract from the facts,” Jeffrey Kessler, who represents the two teams, said afterward. “My clients have never been more united and committed to ensuring a fair and competitive sport for all teams, partners, drivers and fans. We’re going to trial to hold NASCAR accountable.”

    The lawsuit was filed a year ago by 23XI Racing, co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Bob Jenkins-owned Front Row Racing. They are the only two organizations out of 15 to refuse to sign extensions for new charter agreements following more than two years of negotiations. Charters are at the heart of NASCAR’s business model, guaranteeing revenue and access to weekly races, and without them both teams say they will almost surely go out of business.

    Other teams have called for a settlement to clear the air and move the stock car series forward, but three mediation sessions have apparently gone nowhere and the hearing laid bare how far apart they are. The trial is scheduled for Dec. 1.

    U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell and Jeffrey Mishkin, a former executive vice president and chief legal officer of the NBA, both participated in mediation Monday and Tuesday and Bell opened the session by thanking both sides for working in good faith during the sessions. NASCAR wants Bell to throw the lawsuit out and the hearing focused on the series’ bid to narrow the scope of damages the two teams say they are owed.

    NASCAR has accused 23XI and FRM of manipulating other teams and conducting themselves with “classic cartel behavior, ultimately because they received less than they would have” under charter extensions signed late last year. It struggled to make those arguments Thursday.

    NASCAR repeatedly insisted that teams are free to compete in both IndyCar and F1, failing to disclose that entry into F1 is nearly impossible and the financials of IndyCar are simply not even close to the value of competing in the stock car series. Kessler likened a NASCAR move to IndyCar to a Major League Baseball team moving to the minors.

    “Experts found that the (IndyCar) prize money and TV ratings were too low to make them a minor league team,” Kessler argued. “Michael Jordan, if you put a gun to his head and said you have to join IndyCar, it better be a pretty big gun.”

    NASCAR also mischaracterized Chip Ganassi Racing’s sale of its NASCAR team to Trackhouse Racing ahead of the 2021 season as an opportunity for Ganassi — whose name was repeatedly mispronounced by NASCAR attorney Christopher Yates — to reinvest in IndyCar and expand that program to four cars. Ganassi has long run three to four cars in IndyCar and for more than three decades has been considered one of the top two teams in IndyCar.

    Jordan multiple times laughed and smiled at NASCAR’s claims, and at one point Hamlin and Jenkins vehemently shook their heads at NASCAR’s assertion that it pays its teams a higher percentage of revenue than F1 does to its teams. Jordan did not speak with reporters afterward.

    The original charters lasted from 2016 through 2020 and were automatically renewed to continue through Dec. 31, 2024. NASCAR contends they have added more than $1 billion in equity for its teams but owners have pushed for changes.

    23XI and FRM initially won a preliminary injunction to be recognized as chartered teams this season while the case played out, but that was overturned and the combined six cars have competed as “open” teams as the season nears its season finale Nov. 2.

    Kessler argued that damages in the case should date to the 2021 season because of 28 exclusionary items he says prevent NASCAR teams from competing in any motorsports series that closely resembles their version of stock car racing. NASCAR conceded that there was at least one exclusionary item in that charter agreement that began in 2021.

    Bell was supposed to hear testimony from expert witnesses but scheduled two November court dates, two weeks after Hamlin will race for the Cup Series title in suburban Phoenix.

    ___

    AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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  • Michigan acquires shipwreck artifact as part of settlement in police case

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    DETROIT — DETROIT (AP) — The state of Michigan has acquired a life ring that washed ashore 50 years ago from the Edmund Fitzgerald, a rare artifact that strangely became part of a settlement in a lawsuit that had nothing to do with the famous shipwreck.

    Taxpayers are paying $600,000 to settle the lawsuit by Larry Orr, who accused a state police officer of violating his rights during a sexual abuse investigation that was discredited, court records show.

    Orr, in turn, agreed to give up the life ring, which he owned. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Grand said it was an “unusual settlement conference” when lawyers appeared in court on Oct. 8 and put the deal on the record.

    The Associated Press reached out to the state police this week to try to learn why it wanted the life ring and who had authorized Lt. David Busacca’s attorney to bargain for it.

    “Upon learning the details of the settlement, we are not comfortable with the life preserver being included and will be reaching out to Mr. Orr’s attorney,” spokesperson Shanon Banner said in an email Thursday.

    Banner wouldn’t answer follow-up questions. The state already has the orange ring.

    Orr found it on the Lake Superior shore after the Fitzgerald sank during an incredible storm in November 1975. All 29 men on the ore vessel died. Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot memorialized the disaster with an iconic ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

    Orr had planned to auction the ring, figuring it might attract more attention around the 50th anniversary in a few weeks, said his attorney Shannon Smith.

    Busacca apparently knew that Orr had one, and it was suddenly brought up during talks to settle Orr’s lawsuit against him, Smith said.

    She said it probably represented half the value of the $600,000 deal reached over allegations of police misconduct.

    “Are we at a mediation for a wrongful prosecution or an estate sale?” Smith said she wondered.

    Busacca’s lawyer, Audrey Forbush, declined to comment when reached by AP. Orr, who is in his 70s, also declined to comment.

    The life ring had been on loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula until Orr retrieved it this year.

    “They’re pretty unusual,” museum director Bruce Lynn said. “I don’t honestly have any idea how many are out there.”

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  • Alabama to execute man for 1993 murder in state’s latest nitrogen gas execution

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama inmate convicted of killing a man over a drug debt was set to be executed Thursday evening in the state’s latest death sentence carried out with nitrogen gas.

    Anthony Boyd, 54, was sentenced to death for his role in killing Gregory Huguley in Talladega County more than 30 years ago. Prosecutors said Huguley was doused in gasoline and set on fire after he didn’t pay for $200 worth of cocaine.

    Lawyers for Boyd were unsuccessfully in their attempts to have courts give additional scrutiny to the execution method to be used when his sentence is carried out Thursday evening at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southern Alabama. They argued it was unconstitutionally cruel.

    The method that Alabama began using last year uses a gas mask strapped over the inmate’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing the person to die from lack of oxygen.

    Nationally, the method has now been used in seven executions: six times in Alabama and once in Louisiana.

    A jury convicted Boyd of capital murder during a kidnapping and recommended by a vote of 10-2 that he receive a death sentence for his part in the killing of Huguley, whose burned body was found Aug. 1, 1993, in a rural Talladega County ballfield. Prosecutors said Boyd was one of four men who kidnapped Huguley the prior evening.

    Boyd was convicted after a prosecution witness, testifying as part of a plea deal, said Boyd taped Huguley’s feet together before another man doused him in gasoline and set him on fire.

    Boyd has maintained his innocence.

    “I didn’t kill anybody. I didn’t participate in any killing,” Boyd said by telephone during an Oct. 8 news conference organized by supporters.

    Defense lawyers said he was at a party on the night that Huguley was killed and that the plea deal testimony is unreliable. Boyd’s supporters placed multiple billboards across the state urging Alabama to halt the execution.

    Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office in an earlier statement said that Boyd’s case has been litigated for three decades and, “he has yet to provide evidence to show the jury got it wrong.”

    Boyd has been on Alabama’s death row since 1995. He is chairman of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, an anti-death penalty group founded by men on death row.

    Shawn Ingram, the man prosecutors accused of pouring the gasoline and then setting Huguley on fire, was also convicted of capital murder. He is also on death row.

    Earlier this month, a federal judge refused to stop Boyd’s execution. His lawyers had argued that execution by nitrogen gas violates the Eighth Amendment because inmates are subjected to “conscious suffocation” and feel the pain and terror of being deprived of oxygen.

    Boyd’s lawyers pointed to witnesses descriptions of inmates shaking and appearing to gasp during nitrogen executions. The state has maintained the method is constitutional and the movements are largely involuntary because of oxygen deprivation. The judge rejected Boyd’s request.

    The Rev. Jeff Hood, who was the spiritual adviser at the first nitrogen execution, will serve as Boyd’s spiritual adviser. Hood, who has also witnessed multiple lethal injections, said that the nitrogen execution was “most viscerally horrible by far.”

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  • Reddit sues over ‘industrial-scale’ scraping of user comments

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    Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI and three other entities on Wednesday, alleging their involvement in an “industrial-scale, unlawful” economy to “scrape” the comments of millions of Reddit users for commercial gain.

    Reddit’s lawsuit in a New York federal court takes aim at San Francisco-based Perplexity, maker of an AI chatbot and “answer engine” that competes with Google, ChatGPT and others in online search.

    Also named in the lawsuit are Lithuanian data-scraping company Oxylabs UAB, a web domain called AWMProxy that Reddit describes as a “former Russian botnet,” and Texas-based startup SerpApi.

    It’s the second such lawsuit from Reddit since it sued another major AI company, Anthropic, in June.

    But the lawsuit filed Wednesday is different in the way that it confronts not just an AI company but the lesser-known services the AI industry relies on to acquire online writings needed to train AI chatbots.

    “Scrapers bypass technological protections to steal data, then sell it to clients hungry for training material. Reddit is a prime target because it’s one of the largest and most dynamic collections of human conversation ever created,” said Ben Lee, Reddit’s chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday.

    Perplexity said it has not yet received the lawsuit but “will always fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge. Our approach remains principled and responsible as we provide factual answers with accurate AI, and we will not tolerate threats against openness and the public interest.”

    Oxylabs and SerpAPI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. AWMProxy could not immediately be reached for comment.

    Reddit compares the companies it is suing to “would-be bank robbers” who can’t get into the bank vault, so they break into the armored truck instead. The lawsuit alleges they are evading Reddit’s own anti-scraping measures while also ”circumventing Google’s controls and scraping Reddit content directly from Google’s search engine results.”

    Lee said that because they’re unable to scrape Reddit directly, “they mask their identities, hide their locations, and disguise their web scrapers to steal Reddit content from Google Search. Perplexity is a willing customer of at least one of these scrapers, choosing to buy stolen data rather than enter into a lawful agreement with Reddit itself.”

    Much like its lawsuit against Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, Reddit claims that Perplexity has accessed Reddit’s content despite being asked not to do so.

    Reddit made a similar argument in its lawsuit against Anthropic. That case was initially filed in California Superior Court but was later moved to federal court and has a hearing scheduled for January.

    Along with digitized books and news articles, websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language.

    Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI and other companies that are paying to be able to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit’s more than 100 million daily users.

    The licensing deals helped the 20-year-old online platform raise money ahead of its Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company last year.

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  • Opening statements Wednesday in trial of ex-Illinois officer who killed Sonya Massey

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    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Fifteen months after Sonya Massey, a Black woman who had called 911 for help, was killed in her home, the former police officer who fired the fatal shot is set to go on trial.

    Sean Grayson, 31, a former deputy for the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department in central Illinois, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder.

    The trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday with opening statements. If convicted of murder, Grayson faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison. Prosecutors dismissed single counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.

    On July 6, 2024, Massey, a 36-year-old single mother of two teenagers who struggled with mental health issues, called emergency responders over a suspected prowler. When Grayson, who is white, and another deputy entered her Springfield home to report finding no one, Grayson noticed a pan of hot water on the stove and ordered it removed.

    According to body-camera video that is certain to play a key role in the trial, Grayson and Massey joked about how the deputy backed away as she moved the pan before Massey said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” Grayson later told sheriff’s investigators he thought Massey’s statement meant she intended to kill him, yelled at her to drop the pot and in the subsequent commotion, fired three shots, striking her just below the eye.

    The incident has prompted continued questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes and generated a change in Illinois law requiring fuller transparency on the background of candidates for law enforcement jobs.

    A jury of 10 women and five men, including three alternates, will hear testimony that’s predicted to end next week. The questioning of prospective jurors on Monday by Sangamon County State’s Attorney John Milhiser and defense attorney Daniel Fultz focused on attitudes toward law enforcement during a volatile time in America.

    Witnesses scheduled to testify for both the state and defense are reported to be experts in police training, generally accepted police practices, use of force, body camera video, use of video in investigations and the review of incidents involving the use of force.

    The national attention the case has garnered prompted Sangamon County Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin to move the trial from Springfield to Peoria, 167 miles (269 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

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  • Trump administration pledges to speed some student loan forgiveness after lawsuit

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration has agreed to resume student loan forgiveness for an estimated 2.5 million borrowers who are enrolled in certain federal repayment plans following a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers.

    Under the agreement reached Friday between the teachers union and the administration, the Education Department will process loan forgiveness for those eligible in certain repayment plans that offer lower monthly payments based on a borrower’s earnings. The government had stopped providing forgiveness under those plans based on its interpretation of a different court decision.

    The agreement will also protect borrowers from being hit with high tax bills on debt due to be forgiven this year.

    “We took on the Trump administration when it refused to follow the law and denied borrowers the relief they were owed,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Our agreement means that those borrowers stuck in limbo can either get immediate relief or finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

    The Education Department said the Trump administration is reviewing forgiveness programs to identify ones that were not affected by court rulings that blocked much of the Biden administration’s efforts to cancel student debt.

    “The Administration looks forward to continuing its work to simplify the student loan repayment process through implementation of the President’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the department said in a statement.

    According to the deal, the Trump administration must cancel student debt for eligible borrowers enrolled in the following plans: income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, income-contingent repayment plans, Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) plans.

    If borrowers have made payments beyond what was needed for forgiveness, those payments will be reimbursed. The Education Department must also continue to process IDR and PSLF “buyback” applications. Balances forgiven before Dec. 31 will not be treated as taxable income, as they will in 2026 due to a recent change in tax law.

    The administration must also file progress reports every six months with the court to show the pace of application processing and loan forgiveness, according to the AFT.

    An estimated 2.5 million borrowers in IDR plans will be affected by the agreement, and another 70,000 are waiting for forgiveness through the PSLF program.

    Even with the agreement in place, mass layoffs at the Education Department could factor into processing times for forgiveness, said Megan Walter, senior policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

    If borrowers continue to make payments while their application is pending forgiveness, that will be refunded to them if they are successful, Walter said. “But keep really good records,” she said.

    Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which has been in place since 2007, forgives federal student loans for borrowers who have worked at non-profit organizations or in public service after 120 payments, or 10 years. The Biden administration also created an option for borrowers to “buy back” months of payments they missed during forbearance or deferment in 2023, to allow more people to qualify for that forgiveness.

    To determine if you qualify for a buy-back under the PSLF program, consult this page at the Education Department.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

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  • Ex-Amazon driver sues civil rights agency for dropping her case following Trump’s executive order

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — A former Amazon delivery driver has filed a lawsuit accusing a federal civil right agency of abruptly and unlawfully abandoning her sex discrimination case and others like it following an executive order from President Donald Trump.

    The lawsuit filed by the former Colorado driver demands that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resume investigating her claims that Amazon discriminates against female drivers by failing to provide adequate bathroom breaks.

    The lawsuit is the latest example of workers and others scrambling to find recourse as federal agencies abandon their cases in response to Trump’s shake-up of the country’s civil rights enforcement infrastructure.

    The EEOC, which enforces civil rights laws in the workplace, decided last month to discharge any complaints based on “disparate impact liability,” which holds that policies that are neutral on their face can be discriminatory if they impose unnecessary barriers that disadvantage different demographic groups.

    The EEOC’s decision came in response to an executive order in April directing federal agencies to deprioritize the use of disparate impact liability. The Trump administration argues that disparate impact assumes any racial or gender imbalance in workplaces is the result of discrimination and leads to practices that undermine meritocracy.

    The former driver, Leah Cross, filed a motion Tuesday asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stay the EEOC’s new rule prohibiting investigations and enjoin the agency from enforcing it.

    The EEOC has already dropped its sole lawsuit arising from a disparate impact liability charge, a case alleging that the Sheetz convenience store chain’s background check practices discriminated against Black, Native American and multiracial job applicants.

    Separately, the agency has dropped lawsuits on behalf of transgender workers and subjected new complaints to a higher level of scrutiny, following Trump’s executive order declaring that the government would only recognize two unchangeable sexes.

    It’s unclear how many worker complaints involving disparate impact liability or LGBTQ+ workers have been sidelined by the EEOC. In her lawsuit, Cross demanded that the EEOC, which handled more than 88,000 discrimination charges in 2024, give the court a list of the disparate impact liability charges it has shut down.

    The EEOC referred questions about the lawsuit to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment.

    Cross, who worked as a driver from August to November 2022, filed her EEOC charge two years ago, arguing that the company’s delivery schedules make it nearly impossible for drivers to find time to use bathrooms. An EEOC investigator told her lawyers last month it was closing her case because of the disparate impact rule, according to the lawsuit.

    Amazon declined to comment on Cross’ case but referred The AP to its policies around its drivers, who deliver packages in Amazon-branded vehicles but work indirectly for the company through third-party companies called Delivery Service Partners. Amazon says its technology builds routes that ensure time for two 15-minute rest breaks and a 30-minute meal break. The company also said its Amazon Delivery app provides a list for drivers to see nearby restroom facilities and gas stations.

    But in an interview with The AP, Cross said it was so hard for to her stop for breaks that she had to pack a Shewee — a portable urination device for women — as well as a change of pants “in case I ended up accidentally urinating on myself.”

    Cross’ lawsuit against the EEOC argues that the agency is legally obligated to investigate all charges based on disparate impact liability, which Congress codified in the 1991 Civil Rights Act.

    The EEOC “isn’t allowed to throw away an entire category of charges without looking into their facts just because the president doesn’t like the type of discrimination those charges are based on,” said Karla Gilbride, an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit.

    Gilbride was the EEOC’s general counsel until she was fired in January along with two Democratic commissioners in a purge that cleared the way for the Trump administration to root out diversity and inclusion programs, roll back protections for transgender workers and elevate religious rights. ________

    The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • What to know about the murder trial of a sheriff deputy who killed Sonya Massey

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    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The murder trial of an Illinois sheriff’s deputy charged with killing Sonya Massey, a Black woman shot in her home last year after calling police for help, is set to begin Monday.

    Sean Grayson, 31, responding to a call about a suspected prowler, fired on the 36-year-old Massey in her Springfield home early on July 6, 2024, after confronting her about how she was handling a pan of hot water Grayson had ordered removed from her stove.

    Jurors will report Monday and the trial could continue into next week.

    Massey’s killing raised new questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes and it prompted a change in Illinois law requiring fuller transparency on the background of candidates for law enforcement jobs.

    Here’s what to know about the charges.

    In addition to first-degree murder, Grayson is charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Widespread attention on Grayson’s shooting of Massey prompted Sangamon County Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin to move the trial from Springfield, 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Jurors will instead come from Peoria and surrounding areas, an hour’s drive north, and will hear the case in their local courthouse.

    Grayson, who is white, faces a sentence of 45 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.

    After Grayson and another deputy checked the area around Massey’s house, body camera video shows Grayson knocked on her door to report they had found nothing suspicious. He entered the house to obtain details for a report, noticed a pan on the stove and ordered its removal. Massey picked it up.

    She laughingly asked Grayson why he was backing away; he said he was trying to avoid the “hot, steaming water.” Massey responded, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.” Grayson wrote in an incident report, “I interpreted this to mean she was going to kill me.”

    According to body camera video, Grayson pulled his 9 mm pistol and yelled at Massey to drop the pot. She apologized then put the pan down and ducked behind a counter, but in the confusion, as Grayson yelled, it appears she picked it up again. Grayson fired three times, hitting Massey once just below the left eye.

    Massey, a single mother of two teenagers who had a strong religious faith, was beset by mental health problems. When she answered Grayson’s knock minutes before the shooting, she said, “Don’t hurt me,” and then, as she was questioned and Grayson asked her if she was all right, she repeatedly said, “Please God.”

    Earlier that same week, Sonya Massey had admitted herself to a 30-day inpatient mental health program in St. Louis but returned two days later without explanation.

    County records indicate that in the days leading up to the shooting, three 911 calls were made by Massey or on her behalf. In one, her mother, Donna Massey, told authorities her daughter was suffering a “mental breakdown.” Donna Massey also told the dispatcher, “I don’t want you guys to hurt her.”

    Grayson was not aware of the calls or Massey’s background. County officials have since said there’s no practical way to determine and communicate such information for police responding to emergency calls.

    Grayson was arrested 11 days after killing Massey and fired from the sheriff’s department.

    As his background was scrutinized, Massey’s family and others questioned why Grayson, who had been a Sangamon County deputy sheriff for 14 months, had been hired at all.

    In his early 20s, he was ejected from the Army for a drunken-driving arrest in which he had a weapon in his car. He was convicted of a DUI again within the year.

    Before joining the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department, Grayson had four policing jobs in six years — the first three of which were part-time.

    There was no indication Grayson had been fired from any job, but evaluations from past employers documented concerns about him. One department reported that while Grayson worked hard and had a good attitude, he struggled with report writing, was “not great with evidence — left items laying around office” and was “a bragger.”

    Jack Campbell, the Sangamon County sheriff, was forced to retire six weeks after the shooting. He insisted though that none of Grayson’s issues disqualified him from working as a deputy.

    State law enforcement authorities had certified Grayson to serve in each of his previous jobs, but Campbell required him to attend the 16-week police academy training course nonetheless.

    In August, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law requiring that prospective police officers permit the release of all personal and employment background records to any law enforcement agency considering hiring them. Legislative sponsors of the measure acknowledged it doesn’t prevent candidates with checkered paths from being hired but provides greater transparency.

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  • Man who appeared to fake his death and flee to the UK faces sentencing for Utah rape

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    SALT LAKE CITY — SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid rape charges is scheduled to be sentenced Monday on one of two rape convictions in Utah.

    Nicholas Rossi, 38, faces between five years and life in prison when sentenced Monday by District Judge Barry Lawrence in Salt Lake City.

    The sentence is the first of two scheduled for Rossi after he was convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 4 for the second conviction, also for five years to life in prison.

    In August, jurors found Rossi guilty of rape after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents each took the stand. Rossi did not testify on his own behalf.

    It took more than a decade from the time of the rapes to his convictions. Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit tied to the other case. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog.

    Months after he was charged in that case, an online obituary claimed Rossi died on Feb. 29, 2020, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead.

    He was arrested in Scotland the following year while receiving treatment for COVID-19. Hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos — including the crest of Brown University inked on his shoulder, although he never attended — from an Interpol notice.

    He was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after a protracted court battle. At the time, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Investigators say they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture.

    In his first Utah trial, Rossi’s public defender denied the rape claim and urged jurors not to read too much into his move overseas.

    The victim had been living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury in 2008 when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist. They began dating and were engaged within a couple weeks.

    She testified that Rossi asked her to pay for dates and car repairs, lend him $1,000 so he wouldn’t be evicted, and take on debt to buy their engagement rings. He grew hostile soon after their engagement and raped her in his bedroom one night after she drove him home, she said.

    She went to police years later after hearing Rossi was accused of raping another woman in Utah around the same time.

    The victim in that case went to police soon after Rossi attacked her at his apartment in Orem. The woman had gone there to collect money she said he stole from her to buy a computer.

    Rossi grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and returned there before he appeared to fake his death and flee the country. He was previously wanted in the state for failing to register as a sex offender. The FBI says he also faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.

    ___

    Gruver reported from Ft. Collins, Colorado.

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  • California lawsuit says makers of plastic bags lied about products being recyclable

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California ramped up its efforts to curb plastic pollution Friday — suing three plastic-bag makers, alleging the companies falsely claimed their products were recyclable.

    State Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said companies Novolex Holdings, Inteplast Group and Mettler Packaging violated a state law passed in 2014 that banned plastic bags at grocery store checkouts that weren’t recyclable.

    Under the law, shoppers could pay 10 cents for thicker plastic bags that needed to be reusable and recyclable. But the makers of the bags labeled them as recyclable even though they were not — recycling facilities cannot process them and they end up dumped in landfills, incinerated, or in the state’s waterways, Bonta said.

    “In California, we’re making it clear,” he said at a news conference. “Truth matters. Public trust matters. Environmental protection matters.”

    The companies did not respond to email and phone requests for comment.

    The state filed a similar lawsuit against ExxonMobil about a year ago over the oil giant’s plastic products. The lawsuit said the company deceived the public by falsely promising that its plastic products would be recycled. The oil giant said California’s recycling system was ineffective and that the state should have worked with the company to keep plastics out of landfills.

    California lawmakers later decided the 2014 law didn’t go far enough. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law last year that will ban all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores starting next year.

    At least a dozen states have some type of statewide plastic bag ban, according to the environmental advocacy group Environment America Research and Policy Center. Hundreds of cities also have their own bans.

    Bonta announced Friday the state reached settlements with four other companies California alleged violated the 2014 law: Revolution Sustainable Solutions, Metro Poly, PreZero US Packaging and Advance Polybag. The businesses agreed to collectively pay the state nearly $1.8 million and halt plastic bag sales in California after selling the rest of their existing stock.

    The lawsuit and settlements hold companies accountable for mislabeling their products as recyclable, said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for environmental group Californians Against Waste.

    “Plastic bags are a uniquely wasteful product,” he said in an email. “Nothing we use for minutes should pollute our environment for centuries, especially something so lightweight that it’s practically designed to become litter.”

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  • Trump commutes sentence of former US Rep. George Santos in federal fraud case

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he had commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who is serving more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges.

    The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign.

    He reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey, on July 25 and is being housed in a minimum security prison camp with fewer than 50 other inmates.

    “George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” Trump posted on his social media platform. He said he had “just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY.”

    “Good luck George, have a great life!” Trump said.

    Andrew Mancilla, one of Santos’ lawyers, said Friday he was “very, very happy with the decision,” though he said it’s unclear at this point when Santos will be released. Spokespersons for the Bureau of Prisons didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

    Santos’ account on X, which has been active throughout his roughly 84 days in prison, reposted a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post Friday.

    During his time behind bars, Santos has been writing regular dispatches in a local newspaper on Long Island, The South Shore Press. In his latest letter, published Oct. 13, Santos pleaded to Trump directly, citing his fealty to the president’s agenda and to the Republican Party.

    “Sir, I appeal to your sense of justice and humanity — the same qualities that have inspired millions of Americans to believe in you,” he wrote. “I humbly ask that you consider the unusual pain and hardship of this environment and allow me the opportunity to return to my family, my friends, and my community.”

    Santos’ commutation is Trump’s latest high-profile act of clemency for former Republican politicians since retaking the White House in January.

    In late May, he pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who in 2014 pleaded guilty to underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he ran in Manhattan. He also pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two federal prison stints.

    But in granting clemency to Santos, Trump was rewarding a figure who has drawn scorn from within his own party.

    After becoming the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress in 2022, Santos served less than a year after it was revealed that he had fabricated much of his life story.

    On the campaign trail, Santos had claimed he was a successful business consultant with Wall Street cred and a sizable real estate portfolio. But when his resume came under scrutiny, Santos eventually admitted he had never graduated from Baruch College — or been a standout player on the Manhattan college’s volleyball team, as he had claimed. He had never worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

    He wasn’t even Jewish. Santos insisted he meant he was “Jew-ish” because his mother’s family had a Jewish background, even though he was raised Catholic.

    In truth, the then-34-year-old was struggling financially and even faced eviction.

    Santos was charged in 2023 with stealing from donors and his campaign, fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits and lying to Congress about his wealth.

    Within months, he was expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives — with 105 Republicans joining with Democrats to make Santos just the sixth member in the chamber’s history to be ousted by colleagues..

    Santos pleaded guilty as he was set to stand trial.

    Still, a prominent former House colleague, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, urged the White House to commute Santos’ sentence, saying in a letter sent just days into his prison bid that the punishment was “a grave injustice” and a product of judicial overreach.

    Greene was among those who cheered the announcement Friday. But U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican who represents part of Long Island and has been highly critical of Santos, said in a post on social media that Santos “didn’t merely lie” and his crimes “warrant more than a three-month sentence.”

    “He should devote the rest of his life to demonstrating remorse and making restitution to those he wronged,” LaLota said.

    In explaining his reason for granting Santos clemency, Trump said the lies Santos told about himself were no worse than misleading statements U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal — a Democrat and frequent critic of the administration — had made about his military record.

    Blumenthal apologized 15 years ago for implying that he served in Vietnam, when he was stateside in the Marine Reserve during the war.

    “This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!” Trump wrote.

    The president himself was convicted in a New York court last year in a case involving hush money payments. He derided the case as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.

    __

    Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak in New York and Susan Haigh in Connecticut contributed to this report.

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  • Execution scheduled for man who taunted police with message in victim’s blood

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    COLUMBIA, S.C. — COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina inmate who killed a man, burned his eyes with cigarettes and then painted “catch me if u can” on the wall with the victim’s blood more than 20 years ago has been scheduled to be executed next month.

    The state Supreme Court issued the death warrant Friday for Stephen Bryant, 44. The court denied a request from Bryant’s lawyers, who asked for a delay because they work with the federal court system and the U.S. government is shut down.

    While Bryant is being put to death Nov. 14 for one killing, prosecutors said he also shot and killed two other men he was giving rides to as they were reliving themselves on the side of the road during a few weeks that terrorized Sumter County in October 2004.

    Bryant will be the 50th person executed in South Carolina since the state restarted the death penalty in 1985 and the seventh inmate put to death in less than 14 months since the state was able to obtain a drug for lethal injection and reopen the death chamber after an unintentional 13-year pause.

    Bryant will have until Oct. 31 to choose if he wants to die by lethal injection, firing squad or in the electric chair. Since the long pause, four inmates have chosen lethal injection and two have died by bullets.

    A total of 38 men have been executed so far this year in the U.S., with an inmate scheduled to die Friday by lethal injection in Arizona. At least five other executions are set in the U.S. during the rest of 2025.

    Bryant admitted to killing Willard “TJ” Tietjen after stopping by his secluded home in rural Sumter County and saying he had car trouble.

    Tietjen was shot several times. Candles were lit around his body. Someone took a potholder made by his daughter when she was child, dipped the corner in blood and wrote “victem 4 in 2 weeks. catch me if u can” on the wall, authorities said.

    Tietjen’s daughter called him several times, getting more worried when he didn’t answer. On the sixth call, she testified a strange voice answered.

    The person on the other end told her she had the right number. Then she demanded to speak to her father.

    “And he said ‘you can’t, I killed him.’ And I said, ‘this isn’t funny, who are you?’ He said, ‘I’m the prowler. And I said, ‘excuse me, who are you?’ He said, ‘I’m the prowler,” Kimberly Dees testified before a judge who determined Bryant’s sentence.

    Prosecutors said Bryant also killed two men — one before and one after Tietjen. He gave the men rides and when they got out to urinate on the side of lonely, rural roads he shot them in the back.

    As deputies frantically looked for the killer, many of the 100,000 people in Sumter County lived in fear over the random attacks. Officers stopped nearly everyone driving on dirt roads and told people to be leery of anyone they did not know asking for help.

    Bryant’s lawyers said he was troubled in the months before the killing, begging a probation agent and his aunt to get him help because he couldn’t stop thinking about being sexually abused by four male relatives when he was a child.

    “He was very upset. He looked like he was being tortured. It’s like his soul was just laid wide open. In his eyes you could see he was hurting and suffering and he was living the abuse over again as it was coming out,” aunt Terry Caulder testified.

    Bryant tried to help himself through the pain by using meth and smoking joints he sprayed with bug killer, his defense attorneys said.

    The six inmates executed in South Carolina since September 2024 have argued the state’s methods are cruel and unusual punishments, but have not been able to stop their deaths.

    With the firing squad, attorneys for the inmates say the three volunteers with rifles nearly missed the heart of the second man killed, Mikal Mahdi. They suggested Mahdi was in agonizing pain for three or four times longer than experts say he would have been if his heart had been hit directly.

    Condemned inmates have also scrutinized the lethal injection procedures, which appear to now use two doses of the powerful sedative pentobarbital. They said inmates drown in a rush of fluid into their lungs but are paralyzed and cannot react.

    Witnesses to the four executions have not seen any signs of struggle and report the prisoners appear to have lost consciousness in about a minute.

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  • Arizona set to execute a man who killed 4 members of a Phoenix family in 1993

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    PHOENIX — PHOENIX (AP) — A man who was convicted of killing four members of a Phoenix family over 30 years ago as an act of revenge is set to be put to death Friday in what is set be Arizona’s second execution of the year.

    Richard Kenneth Djerf, 55, is scheduled to die by pentobarbital injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence.

    He pleaded guilty to murder in the deaths of couple Albert Luna Sr. and Patricia Luna; their daughter Rochelle Luna, 18; and son Damien Luna, 5, at their home on Sept. 14, 1993. Djerf, who has been in prison for over 29 years, chose not to seek clemency.

    If the execution is carried out, it will be the fourth in the country this week and the 39th of the year.

    Prosecutors said Djerf blamed another family member, Albert Luna Jr., who did not witness the killings, for an earlier theft of electronics from his apartment. Djerf became obsessed with exacting revenge and went to the home months later claiming to be delivering flowers, prosecutors said.

    Authorities say Djerf sexually assaulted Rochelle Luna and slashed her throat; beat Albert Luna Sr. with an aluminum baseball bat and stabbed and shot him; and tied Patricia and Damien Luna to kitchen chairs before fatally shooting them. During Friday’s execution, a team of four people including medical doctors and a phlebotomist will prepare syringes of saline and pentobarbital, insert an IV and inject the chemicals into Djerf. Arizona has been criticized in the past for taking too long to insert IVs during lethal injection executions. Experts say it should take seven to 10 minutes from the beginning of insertion until a proclamation of death. The state has paused executions twice since 2014 amid concerns over its use of the death penalty.

    There was a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by difficulties in obtaining the needed drugs and criticism that a 2014 execution was botched: Joseph Wood was injected with 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours, leading him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.

    Executions resumed in 2022, and three prisoners were put to death that year. They were paused again in 2023 after Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ordered a review of the capital punishment protocol and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes agreed not to pursue any. The review ended in November 2024, when Hobbs fired a retired federal magistrate she had appointed to examine execution procedures, and the state corrections department announced changes in the lethal injection team.

    Arizona last carried out a death sentence in mid-March, executing Aaron Brian Gunches for the 2002 killing of Ted Price.

    There are currently 108 prisoners on the state’s death row.

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