The Supreme Court has turned away an attempt to use a new Missouri congressional map backed by President Donald Trump. Friday's decision puts an end to a long-running legal dispute as absentee voting is underway in the midterm elections. The justices halted a last-minute revival of the Republican-friendly map by lower-court judges. The decision leaves in place a Missouri Supreme Court ruling requiring the state to hold the November election using a map adopted in 2022. A new map passed last year was aimed at helping Republicans gain an additional U.S. House seat. It was used in the August primary. But Missouri’s top court later ruled that it can’t take effect unless approved in a statewide referendum.
A New Mexico jury has found Facebook liable of deceiving users about privacy protections on the social media platform. The verdict arrived Friday, the latest legal setback that has already cost the company billions of dollars. It is now up to the judge to determine how much the company would pay. Attorneys representing the state are asking for the maximum $5,000 penalty per violation. The two-week trial centered on accusations that Facebook deceived users about a data breach stemming from a third-party personality quiz that harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate targeted ads. The now-defunct firm’s clients included the 2016 campaign for Donald Trump.
A police detective says Tasia Fortune was apparently killed in a drug dispute before her body was hung in a tree in a “staged” lynching behind an abandoned home in the Mississippi capital this summer. Police Det. Samuel Dukes, citing the medical examiner's opinion, offered the testimony Friday during a hearing for the first of two men who have been arrested in the killing. Like Fortune, both defendants are Black. A third man turned himself in Friday. Fortune's hanging body was discovered on Aug. 3. The case has attracted widespread attention because it has recalled actual lynchings in the Southern state.
Verdicts are expected Friday in the trial of four people linked to the killing of former Argentina rugby player Federico Martín Aramburú. Aramburú was killed in March 2022 after leaving a bar in Paris. Advocate General Philippe Courroye has requested a 27-year prison sentence for Loïk Le Priol, who prosecutors say fired the fatal shots, and 20 years for Romain Bouvier, who also allegedly shot Aramburú. The two men admitted involvement but denied premeditation, claiming they acted out of fear. Prosecutors have also requested prison sentences for Le Priol’s ex-girlfriend and another defendant for concealing evidence.
The family of Nolan Wells is continuing to release pieces of their independent investigation, as they push for transparency from local investigators and for federal authorities to investigate. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump discussed the results of a forensic cellphone examination Thursday as well as official autopsy results that he says raised questions about whether the 18-year-old Black college student drowned. A Mississippi grand jury earlier this week declined to recommend charges, saying Wells’ death after a boat trip to a July 4 party on a barrier island was “consistent with drowning.” The high-profile death in a Deep South state with a history of racial tension has sparked rampant speculation and suspicion.
Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the upcoming trial against a 71-year-old Utah man who spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing that he says he didn’t commit. Utah County prosecutors said newly analyzed DNA evidence from the killing of Eva Olesen did not match defendant Douglas Stewart Carter. The state Supreme Court last year had ordered a new trial, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter remains in custody. His attorney on Thursday requested a bond hearing and said he will ask for Carter to be freed while the case is pending.
Florida authorities arrest NC State's ex-head trainer accused of sex abuse of Wolfpack male athletes
N.C. State’s former director of sports medicine faces felony and misdemeanor criminal charges after being accused of sexually abusing former Wolfpack male athletes under the guise of treatment. Authorities in Florida arrested Robert M. Murphy Jr. on Wednesday night. He was being held on out-of-state fugitive warrants from North Carolina. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman says a grand jury indicted Murphy on nine felony counts of sexual contact under pretext of medical treatment and 23 counts of sexual battery. More than 30 athletes have accused Murphy of misconduct in civil lawsuits dating to 2022.
Three people have filed lawsuits against Six Flags Magic Mountain, claiming they suffered traumatic brain injuries from the park's famous X2 roller coaster. The lawsuits, filed Monday, follow a recent settlement over a wrongful death case involving the same ride. The plaintiffs' attorney, Gary Dordick, says more than 100 clients have reported brain injuries from the ride in the past two years. One of his clients remains in the hospital in a vegetative state. Six Flags has not commented on the pending litigation but said the ride has been closed since July 12.
A judge in Iowa has dismissed President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The Des Moines Register and its former pollster. Trump sued in December 2024, accusing pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Iowa newspaper of publishing a survey that misrepresented the state of the presidential race that year. District Judge Scott J. Beattie on Wednesday rejected the president’s claim that the poll violated Iowa’s consumer fraud law by deliberately misleading consumers. Selzer and the Register said the lawsuit promotes a conspiracy theory.
A federal judge weighing President Donald Trump’s ban of three news outlets from White House grounds expressed some skepticism Wednesday in response to the government’s defense of the move. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly didn’t rule from the bench after hearing arguments in the extraordinary showdown. But the judge questioned whether the administration met its legal responsibilities and provided the news outlets with adequate due process before banning them. Trump has assailed what he calls “fake news” and has said negative coverage is dangerous for the country. The news outlets called the ban a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment. Kelly says he will rule on the case as soon as possible.
