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☆ Death toll in Kenyan starvation cult rises to 58 - police
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Hereward Holland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The death toll, which has repeatedly risen as exhumations have been carried out, could rise further. The Kenyan Red Cross said 112 people have been reported missing to a tracing and counselling desk it has set up at a local hospital. Kenya's Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome, visiting the scene, said the death toll included 50 people found in mass graves as well as eight who were found alive and emaciated, but later died. Koome said 14 other cult members were in police custody. Reporting by Hereward Holland; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Alexander WinningOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Upfront's Mark Suster has become the star of LA's booming startup scene. Not everyone is a fan.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

"I have worked with more than 50 VCs and nobody comes close to what it is like to work with Mark Suster," said a founder backed by Suster. "Mark and the Upfront Summit helped put LA tech and investing on the map," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the cofounder of DreamWorks and WndrCo. Several years ago, a founder whose startup Suster invested in was in a conference room rehearsing their presentation for the Upfront Summit. If you're going to put him on your board, you're letting the fox guard the henhouse. "If you're going to put him on your board, you're letting the fox guard the henhouse."

☆ U.S. Voters Want Limited Government
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Judge Glock | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

They claim Republicans have used culture-war “wedge” issues to win over the public even though Democrats are more popular on the core pocketbook issues Americans really care about. Many so-called national conservatives have embraced this consensus and argued that the Republican Party needs to adopt a more interventionist economic model to win mainstream and working-class voters. One of Republicans’ most consistent electoral advantages in recent years has been the economy, which voters have ranked as their most-important issue. This success owes to the widespread belief among Americans that government is too large and taxes too high. Contrary to the reigning arguments both for and about big-government populism, the actual populist position in America is for limited government.

☆ Fox News is about to enter the true No Spin Zone
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Good progress was made and the presiding judge noted that there were “more than enough jurors” to start the trial as scheduled on Monday. I’ve watched thousands and thousands of hours of the right-wing channel’s programming. Fox News is about to enter the true No Spin Zone, where deception is strictly prohibited. The case hasn’t even started and the presiding judge has already lost his patience with Fox’s legal team and put them on notice. But if they play out like the last few weeks of court have, Fox News is in for a brutal ride.

☆ Abortion pills are still available right now despite a judge's ruling in Texas
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

That gives the Biden administration time to appeal, and means the abortion pill is still available. The future legal status of the drug was also complicated by a contradictory ruling issued in Washington state also on Friday. However, the judge gave seven days before the ruling would take effect, giving the Biden administration time to appeal the decision and request emergency relief. For now, the drug is still legal and available in states in which it was legal and available prior to Friday's ruling. It's unclear what will happen next, but the Biden administration is very likely to appeal.

☆ Dominion’s historic defamation case against Fox News will go to trial, judge rules, in major decision dismantling key Fox defenses
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Marshall Cohen Oliver Darcy | Marshall Cohen | Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN —Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation case against Fox News will proceed to a high-stakes jury trial in mid-April, a Delaware judge ruled Friday, in a major decision that dismantled several of the right-wing network’s key defenses. Both sides had asked Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis for a pretrial ruling in their favor, declaring them the winner. After thousands of pages of filings and exhibits, and a series of courtroom clashes, Davis decided the case should go to trial. Incriminating texts and emails have shown how Fox executives, hosts and producers didn’t believe the claims the network was peddling about Dominion. Despite what appeared on air, Fox News executives and hosts privately criticized the Trump camp for pushing claims of election fraud.

☆ A gag order for Donald Trump is 'extremely likely' once he's before a judge, legal expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But once he's arraigned, it's "extremely likely" he'll be put under a gag order, one expert said. But the judge is likely to issue a gag order on the lawyers from both sides, along with Trump, he said. If there's a gag order, Levin said Trump will be "very limited" in what he's able to say, even if there may be proxies who speak for him. Former Indiana Attorney General Jeff Modisett said he also expected that a judge could narrowly craft a gag order that could survive an appeal. "Theoretically, a litigant who breaks a gag order could be thrown in jail," he said.

New York CNN —Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation case against Fox News will proceed to a high-stakes jury trial next month, a Delaware judge ruled Friday, declining to declare a pretrial winner. But in his Friday ruling, Davis said that the evidence Dominion presented shows Fox News aired falsehoods about the company. “The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote. The on-air statements, from various Fox News hosts after the 2020 election, had accused Dominion of rigging the election by flipping millions of votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Incriminating texts and emails have shown how Fox executives, hosts and producers didn’t believe the claims the network was peddling about Dominion.

☆ Judge rejects Fox motions, allows Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation suit to go to trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A Delaware judge on Friday said Dominion Voting's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. and its networks could go to trial in April. Judge Eric Davis of Delaware's Superior Court rejected Fox's arguments that it should bypass a trial since it's protected by the First Amendment. We look forward to going to trial," Dominion said late Friday afternoon. The former president, who was indicted Thursday in an unrelated criminal matter, has repeatedly made false claims about the election being rigged against him. The depositions of both Murdochs, as well as other Fox Corp. executives, are to be included in the trial, too.

In a 31-page decision on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan also dismissed all claims against the billionaire Ma, including for insider trading. Beijing announced an antitrust probe in Dec. 2020, and fined Alibaba $2.75 billion four months later for requiring "merchant exclusivity" to do business. Daniels said Alibaba shareholders lacked standing to sue over Ant, because the IPO did not happen and thus they never bought or sold Ant shares. He said they could sue Alibaba, Chief Executive Daniel Zhang and former Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu over the antitrust compliance statements. The case is In re Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

☆ Grand Central Madison: Moving With the Commuting Tides
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Michael J. Lewis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Inside the new Grand Central Madison in New YorkNew YorkYou can’t judge Grand Central Madison, the new terminal of the Long Island Rail Road, by looking at it; there is nothing to see. The entire station sits underground, all 700,000 square feet of it, stretched out along a five-block concourse from 43rd to 48th streets. (Only a discreet ventilation facility at either end is visible from the sidewalk.) Such a structure you must judge by moving through it, as passengers have been doing since it opened this January, if not yet the 160,000 daily riders that are expected.

☆ Trump's lawyers keep getting in trouble with judges. Here are the 17 sanctioned so far.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Lawyers representing Trump keep getting sanctioned by courts. Many of Trump's lawyers, even if they are not sanctioned, end up needing lawyers of their own to ward off the worst consequences. Insider identified 17 lawyers who have been personally sanctioned because of their work for Trump. The least successful, however, was a sprawling lawsuit Trump filed against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and several other figures linked to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. He was part of Trump's "Elite Strike Force" of lawyers trying to convince judges to cancel votes and have Trump declared the victor.

Companies Conocophillips FollowWASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - The oil industry on Monday cheered the U.S. government's greenlighting of ConocoPhillips' multibillion-dollar oil drilling project in Alaska's Arctic, but court challenges could mire the plans in further delays. President Joe Biden's administration approved a trimmed-down version of the $7 billion Willow project on federal lands in a pristine area on Alaska's north coast. Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, another group involved in the previous suits, said Monday's approval for the Willow project is "still inadequate in numerous respects." Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, told reporters the state's lawmakers are prepared to defend the decision against "frivolous" legal challenges. Even if Interior could beat back the oil company's challenge, it would probably only mean another delay for Willow, he said.

☆ Ron Klain credits Rep. Jim Clyburn for pushing Biden to put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ron Klain gave credit to Rep. Jim Clyburn for the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Clyburn urged Biden in 2020 to promise voters he would put the first Black woman justice on the court. That promise was important to Clyburn, whose endorsement played a big role in Biden becoming president. But he defended Jackson during confirmation battles, urged "strong bipartisan support" for her, and said she "will make an extraordinary Supreme Court Justice" when she was sworn in. She was a finalist when President Barack Obama selected now-Attorney General Merrick Garland for a Supreme Court nomination, he said.

☆ UBS loses bid to stop Chinese businessman's $500 mln London lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Sam Tobin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - UBS (UBSG.S) faces a $500 million lawsuit in London brought by an exiled Chinese businessman after an appeal court on Wednesday rejected the Swiss bank’s latest attempt to have the case thrown out. UBS had previously told a lower court that the claims are denied in their entirety. Lawyers representing Guo and Ace Decade did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Judge Geoffrey Vos said in the written ruling on Wednesday that “the damage caused to Ace Decade and (Guo) occurred in London when the H-shares ... were sold by UBS London”. “UBS London significantly participated in the events which have given rise both to the claim and to the loss claimed.”Reporting by Sam Tobin; additional reporting by Kirstin Ridley.

The families, comprising more than 10,000 people, had asked U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan to put his Feb. 21 decision on hold while they appeal. "An important public interest lies in the enforcement of terrorism judgments," Daniels wrote. In ruling against the families, Daniels said awarding them the frozen assets would effectively recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government, which the Biden administration has not done. The president ordered $3.5 billion set aside to benefit the Afghan people, leaving the rest for the families to pursue. The case is In re Terrorist Attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

☆ 9/11 victims are blocked from seizing $3.5 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan because Biden would have to recognize the Taliban
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The families of 9/11 victims are blocked from seizing $3.5B in frozen Afghan central bank funds. A federal judge ruled that seizing the funds would mean recognizing the Taliban as legitimate rulers. A group of families of 9/11 victims had previously sued the Taliban for their losses, winning a default judgment when the militant group did not turn up to court. Last February, Biden cleared a legal path for relatives to pursue the $3.5 billion held in Afghanistan's central bank to pay off the judgment debts. "This decision deprives over 10,000 members of the 9/11 community of their right to collect compensation from the Taliban," he said.

NEW YORK, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge said on Tuesday victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are not entitled to seize $3.5 billion of assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank to satisfy court judgments they obtained against the Taliban. U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan said he was "constitutionally restrained" from finding that the Taliban was Afghanistan's legitimate government, a precursor for attaching assets belonging to Da Afghanistan Bank, or DAB. Daniels said letting victims seize those assets would amount to a ruling that the Taliban are Afghanistan's legitimate government. He said U.S. courts lack power to reach that conclusion, noting that Biden administration does not recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's government. The case is In re Terrorist Attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

☆ Analysis: Investors see Erdogan's earthquake response as pivotal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Kopf was referring to Turkey's 2002 election which came three years after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Izmit near Istanbul that killed nearly 18,000 people. The southeast region hit by Monday's disaster accounts for a much smaller 9.3% of national GDP and a modest 8.5% of exports. Erik Meyersson, a senior economist at Handelsbanken, said it was that power that voters would now need to see working. "But if he bungles the response, perhaps this is the straw that breaks the camel's back." Magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit southern Turkey on Feb. 6Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Susan FentonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Meta acquisition of Within reportedly approved by court in loss for FTC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., left, arrives at federal court in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. The FTC could still appeal the decision and may also still decide to go through with in-house administrative proceeding on the merger. A Meta spokesperson said in a statement at the time the case was "based on ideology and speculation, not evidence. "In respecting the court's order, the FTC is not able to comment at this time," an FTC spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.

☆ Prosecutors say Sam Bankman-Fried tried to obscure his crimes with Robinhood’s stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Kara Scannell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Federal prosecutors said FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s efforts to control about $500 million worth of Robinhood shares last year indicates steps the former crypto entrepreneur has taken to “obscure” his alleged crimes. In a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan involving Bankman-Fried’s bail, prosecutors argued he should still be prevented from moving FTX assets. Prosecutors want to limit who Bankman-Fried can be in touch with from FTX and its sister hedge fund Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked for the limitations of his contact with FTX assets be lifted since prosecutors have not proven he was behind a mysterious transfer. Correction: A previous version of this article provided the wrong date for the judge to unpause his Monday ruling.

☆ U.S. judge grants preliminary approval to Juul consumer settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Juul Labs Inc on Friday secured preliminary court approval of a $255 million settlement resolving claims by consumers that it deceptively marketed e-cigarettes, as the company seeks to resolve thousands of lawsuits. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said the proposed class action settlement resolving claims by consumers who said they overpaid for Juul's vaping products was "fair, reasonable, and adequate," according to a court filing. The settlement is part of a larger, global agreement by Juul to resolve thousands of lawsuits by school districts, local governments and individuals accusing it of contributing to a youth vaping epidemic. The company last month said it had reached settlements with about 10,000 plaintiffs covering more than 5,000 cases. It has not said how much it will pay, though the Wall Street Journal reported deal is valued at $1.7 billion.

Kaye Hearn, a justice on South Carolina’s Supreme Court, wrote the majority opinion this month that struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban. Two women, Court of Appeals Judges Stephanie McDonald and Aphrodite Konduros, were initially in the running for Hearn’s seat but withdrew Tuesday. (The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court for criminal cases, also has an all-male bench; the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, has both female and male justices.) In 1988, Toal was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Hearn, who was elected to the state’s Court of Appeals in 1995, joined her on the bench in 2010.

☆ U.S. judge grants preliminary approval to Juul settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Juul Labs Inc won preliminary approval of a settlement aimed at ending thousands of lawsuits alleging the company was a major cause of a youth-vaping epidemic in the United States, according to a court filing on Friday. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said Juul's deal to settle almost 10,000 lawsuits filed by local governments across the country seemed to be "fair, reasonable, and adequate." Juul did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The court document provided no details of the terms of the settlement. The company earlier said it had reached settlements with about 10,000 plaintiffs covering more than 5,000 cases in California.

☆ Rapper Meek Mill says he was pardoned by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf for 2008 charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Mirna-Alsharif-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Mirna Alsharif | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Rapper Meek Mill says he was pardoned by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf for 2008 drugs and firearms charges that he served prison time for in 2017, according to a post on his Instagram account. One other charge is mentioned in the document as "possession of" with the rest redacted from the picture posted by the rapper. The office of Governor Tom Wolf did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but a news release published Thursday announced that Wolf issued 369 pardons this week. This brings the total pardons Wolf has issued during his time as governor to 2,540, according to the news release. His high-profile case has become a focal point for critics, including the rapper himself, calling for criminal justice reform.

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