Minnesota
MyPillow, owned by election denier Mike Lindell, faces eviction from warehouse
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A court plans to order the eviction of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used, but company founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell said Wednesday that it’s just a formality because the landlord wants to take the property back.
Lindell denied in an interview with The Associated Press that the eviction was another sign of his money woes. He said his financial picture is actually improving after a credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after the company lost one of its major advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers.
“We’re fine,” he said.
Lindell faced a setback last month when a federal judge affirmed a $5 million arbitration award in favor of a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and tipped the outcome to Joe Biden. Lindell acknowledged in January that Fox News stopped running MyPillow commercials amid a billing dispute.
Lindell confirmed Wednesday that MyPillow owes around $217,000 to Delaware-based First Industrial LP for rent for the facility in Shakopee. He said MyPillow no longer needed the space and removed its remaining property from the warehouse last June before subleasing the space to another company through December.
Another company was going to start subleasing the space in January but backed out and “left us all stranded,” he said. MyPillow offered to find another tenant, he said, but the landlord just wanted to take back control of the warehouse instead. The $217,000 is for unpaid rent for January and February, he said. He also said MyPillow continues to lease space elsewhere.
The Star Tribune reported that a Scott County judge on Tuesday said she would approve the warehouse owner’s request to formally evict MyPillow, which did not contest the landlord’s request.
“MyPillow has more or less vacated but we’d like to do this by the book,” attorney Sara Filo, representing First Industrial, said during a hearing Tuesday, the newspaper reported. “At this point there’s a representation that no further payment is going to be made under this lease, so we’d like to go ahead with finding a new tenant.”
Lindell, who continues to propagate former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, in part by rigged voting machine systems, still faces defamation lawsuits by two voting machine companies. Lawyers who were originally defending him in those cases quit over unpaid bills.
West Virginia
2 high school wrestling team members charged with sexual assault
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Two West Virginia minors are facing sexual assault and other charges following an alleged incident at a hotel involving members of a high school wrestling team, authorities say.
Raleigh County Sheriff James Canaday said the perpetrators are each facing two counts of second-degree sexual assault, unlawful restraint and conspiracy to commit a felony, according to a post on his office’s Facebook page. He said juvenile petitions were filed Tuesday regarding the charges, which stem from an ongoing investigation into an incident earlier this year in a hotel room in Raleigh County. The students attended Greenbrier West High School.
Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield told The Associated Press on Wednesday that there are two victims, both of whom are minors, hence the two counts for each of the three charges. He said the crime is best characterized “as a completely avoidable situation that went so far beyond appropriateness” that it became violently criminal.
“This is a situation that I believe was intentional, that I believe was done with a lack of impulse control and that I believe needs to be punished,” Hatfield said.
He said at this early stage in the case, his office needs more information before deciding its desired course for pursuing punishment. Prosecutors will conduct their own investigation in addition to the sheriff’s department investigation. He said he knows what they did, now he needs to know why and whether it had ever happened before and to other students.
“I need to determine whether or not this was a single incident in the micro, or whether or not this was some kind of prevailing issue that’s going on,” he said.
No further information can be released at this time because the case involves children, officials said.
According to the West Virginia code, second-degree sexual assault is a felony punishable by a maximum of 25 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. A person is guilty of second-degree sexual assault when he or she has forced someone into non-consensual sexual intercourse or performed sexual intercourse or sexual intrusion on “another person who is physically helpless.”
If the case progresses, a determination will be made by the court as to whether or not the juveniles should be tried as adults.
Both Raleigh County and Greenbrier County, which borders Virginia, are located in the southern portion of the state.
The Associated Press left messages on the Greenbrier County district office line Wednesday and emailed Greenbrier Board of Education President Jeanie Wyatt requesting comment.
Just last week, the Greenbrier County School Board met in a special session to accept the retirement of Superintendent Jeffrey Bryant and the resignation of Greenbrier West Principal Adam Young, The Register-Herald reported.
The board met the same week news reports revealed a racist incident at Greenbrier West High School in which a Black female student was called the n-word in graffiti on a classroom wall.
Bryant’s last day as superintendent is scheduled to be Friday, the last day of spring break.
New York
TikTok is under investigation by the FTC over data practices, could face a lawsuit
NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is investigating TikTok over its data and security practices, a probe that could lead to a settlement or a lawsuit against the company, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The investigation is the latest battle in Washington for the social media company, which is already fighting against a federal bill that could ban the platform in the U.S. if it doesn’t break ties with its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
In its investigation, the FTC has been looking into whether TikTok violated a portion of federal law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices by denying that individuals in China had access to U.S. user data, said the person, who is not authorized to discuss the investigation.
The agency also is scrutinizing the company over potential violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parents’ consent before collecting personal information of children under 13.
FTC spokesperson Nicole Drayton and TikTok declined to comment on the investigation, which was first reported by Politico.
The agency is nearing the conclusion of its investigation and could settle with TikTok in the coming weeks. But there’s not a deadline for an agreement, the person said.
If the FTC moves forward with a lawsuit instead, it would have to refer the case to the Justice Department, which would have 45 days to decide whether it wants to file a case on the FTC’s behalf, make changes or send it back to the agency to pursue on its own.
The news comes nearly two years after Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the committee, urged FTC chair Lina Khan to investigate TikTok, citing a report from Buzzfeed News that said ByteDance employees in China have repeatedly accessed data on U.S. TikTok users.
In late 2022, ByteDance said it fired four employees who accessed data on journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down leaks of confidential materials about the company.
Legislation that could determine TikTok’s fate in the U.S. was approved in the House this month. But the bill has already run into roadblocks in the Senate, where there is little unanimity on how to best approach concerns over the social platform.
Lawmakers and intelligence officials have said they worry the platform could be used by the Chinese government to access U.S. user data or influence Americans through its popular algorithm. To date, the U.S. government hasn’t provided public evidence that this has happened.
Kansas
Man cuffed but not charged after Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally shooting sues congressman over online post
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A man who was briefly handcuffed in the chaos that followed a deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally is suing a Tennessee congressman who falsely accused him in social media posts of being one of the shooters and an immigrant in the country illegally.
Denton Loudermill Jr., of Olathe, Kansas, filed the federal lawsuit this week against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, alleging that the remarks were “highly offensive, derogatory in the extreme, and defamatory.”
Burchett, a Republican, is serving his third term representing a district in east Tennessee. His spokeswoman, Rachel Partlow, said the office doesn’t comment on pending or active litigation.
The Feb. 14 shooting outside the historic Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, killed a well-known DJ and injured more than 20 others, many of them children. Loudermill, who is not among those charged, is seeking more than $75,000 in damages.
The suit says that when gunfire erupted, Loudermill froze, standing in the middle of the chaos so long that police had put up crime scene tape when he finally walked away.
As he tried to go under the tape to leave, officers stopped him and told him he was moving “too slow.” They handcuffed him and put him on a curb, where people began taking pictures and posting them on social media, the suit says.
Loudermill ultimately was led away from the area and told he was free to go.
The suit says that Loudermill, who was born and raised in the U.S., was never detained, cited or arrested in the shooting. The suit stresses that he had no involvement and didn’t know any of the teens or young adults who argued before gunfire erupted.
But the next day, a picture of Loudermill was posted on Burchett’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter. Above the picture were the words: “One of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters has been identified as an illegal Alien.”
A follow-up post on Feb. 18 blamed incorrect news reports for the “illegal alien” identification. But the post, which was included in the lawsuit, still described the cuffed man seated on the curb as “one of the shooters.”
The suit alleges the “false assertions” were reposted and widely circulated to more than 1 million people worldwide.
The suit describes Loudermill as a car wash employee — not a public figure — and a “contributing member of his African-American family, a family with deep and long roots in his Kansas community.”
The suit says he received death threats and experienced periods of “anxiety, agitation, and sleep disruption.”
MyPillow, owned by election denier Mike Lindell, faces eviction from warehouse
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A court plans to order the eviction of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used, but company founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell said Wednesday that it’s just a formality because the landlord wants to take the property back.
Lindell denied in an interview with The Associated Press that the eviction was another sign of his money woes. He said his financial picture is actually improving after a credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after the company lost one of its major advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers.
“We’re fine,” he said.
Lindell faced a setback last month when a federal judge affirmed a $5 million arbitration award in favor of a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and tipped the outcome to Joe Biden. Lindell acknowledged in January that Fox News stopped running MyPillow commercials amid a billing dispute.
Lindell confirmed Wednesday that MyPillow owes around $217,000 to Delaware-based First Industrial LP for rent for the facility in Shakopee. He said MyPillow no longer needed the space and removed its remaining property from the warehouse last June before subleasing the space to another company through December.
Another company was going to start subleasing the space in January but backed out and “left us all stranded,” he said. MyPillow offered to find another tenant, he said, but the landlord just wanted to take back control of the warehouse instead. The $217,000 is for unpaid rent for January and February, he said. He also said MyPillow continues to lease space elsewhere.
The Star Tribune reported that a Scott County judge on Tuesday said she would approve the warehouse owner’s request to formally evict MyPillow, which did not contest the landlord’s request.
“MyPillow has more or less vacated but we’d like to do this by the book,” attorney Sara Filo, representing First Industrial, said during a hearing Tuesday, the newspaper reported. “At this point there’s a representation that no further payment is going to be made under this lease, so we’d like to go ahead with finding a new tenant.”
Lindell, who continues to propagate former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, in part by rigged voting machine systems, still faces defamation lawsuits by two voting machine companies. Lawyers who were originally defending him in those cases quit over unpaid bills.
West Virginia
2 high school wrestling team members charged with sexual assault
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Two West Virginia minors are facing sexual assault and other charges following an alleged incident at a hotel involving members of a high school wrestling team, authorities say.
Raleigh County Sheriff James Canaday said the perpetrators are each facing two counts of second-degree sexual assault, unlawful restraint and conspiracy to commit a felony, according to a post on his office’s Facebook page. He said juvenile petitions were filed Tuesday regarding the charges, which stem from an ongoing investigation into an incident earlier this year in a hotel room in Raleigh County. The students attended Greenbrier West High School.
Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield told The Associated Press on Wednesday that there are two victims, both of whom are minors, hence the two counts for each of the three charges. He said the crime is best characterized “as a completely avoidable situation that went so far beyond appropriateness” that it became violently criminal.
“This is a situation that I believe was intentional, that I believe was done with a lack of impulse control and that I believe needs to be punished,” Hatfield said.
He said at this early stage in the case, his office needs more information before deciding its desired course for pursuing punishment. Prosecutors will conduct their own investigation in addition to the sheriff’s department investigation. He said he knows what they did, now he needs to know why and whether it had ever happened before and to other students.
“I need to determine whether or not this was a single incident in the micro, or whether or not this was some kind of prevailing issue that’s going on,” he said.
No further information can be released at this time because the case involves children, officials said.
According to the West Virginia code, second-degree sexual assault is a felony punishable by a maximum of 25 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. A person is guilty of second-degree sexual assault when he or she has forced someone into non-consensual sexual intercourse or performed sexual intercourse or sexual intrusion on “another person who is physically helpless.”
If the case progresses, a determination will be made by the court as to whether or not the juveniles should be tried as adults.
Both Raleigh County and Greenbrier County, which borders Virginia, are located in the southern portion of the state.
The Associated Press left messages on the Greenbrier County district office line Wednesday and emailed Greenbrier Board of Education President Jeanie Wyatt requesting comment.
Just last week, the Greenbrier County School Board met in a special session to accept the retirement of Superintendent Jeffrey Bryant and the resignation of Greenbrier West Principal Adam Young, The Register-Herald reported.
The board met the same week news reports revealed a racist incident at Greenbrier West High School in which a Black female student was called the n-word in graffiti on a classroom wall.
Bryant’s last day as superintendent is scheduled to be Friday, the last day of spring break.
New York
TikTok is under investigation by the FTC over data practices, could face a lawsuit
NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is investigating TikTok over its data and security practices, a probe that could lead to a settlement or a lawsuit against the company, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The investigation is the latest battle in Washington for the social media company, which is already fighting against a federal bill that could ban the platform in the U.S. if it doesn’t break ties with its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
In its investigation, the FTC has been looking into whether TikTok violated a portion of federal law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices by denying that individuals in China had access to U.S. user data, said the person, who is not authorized to discuss the investigation.
The agency also is scrutinizing the company over potential violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parents’ consent before collecting personal information of children under 13.
FTC spokesperson Nicole Drayton and TikTok declined to comment on the investigation, which was first reported by Politico.
The agency is nearing the conclusion of its investigation and could settle with TikTok in the coming weeks. But there’s not a deadline for an agreement, the person said.
If the FTC moves forward with a lawsuit instead, it would have to refer the case to the Justice Department, which would have 45 days to decide whether it wants to file a case on the FTC’s behalf, make changes or send it back to the agency to pursue on its own.
The news comes nearly two years after Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the committee, urged FTC chair Lina Khan to investigate TikTok, citing a report from Buzzfeed News that said ByteDance employees in China have repeatedly accessed data on U.S. TikTok users.
In late 2022, ByteDance said it fired four employees who accessed data on journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down leaks of confidential materials about the company.
Legislation that could determine TikTok’s fate in the U.S. was approved in the House this month. But the bill has already run into roadblocks in the Senate, where there is little unanimity on how to best approach concerns over the social platform.
Lawmakers and intelligence officials have said they worry the platform could be used by the Chinese government to access U.S. user data or influence Americans through its popular algorithm. To date, the U.S. government hasn’t provided public evidence that this has happened.
Kansas
Man cuffed but not charged after Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally shooting sues congressman over online post
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A man who was briefly handcuffed in the chaos that followed a deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally is suing a Tennessee congressman who falsely accused him in social media posts of being one of the shooters and an immigrant in the country illegally.
Denton Loudermill Jr., of Olathe, Kansas, filed the federal lawsuit this week against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, alleging that the remarks were “highly offensive, derogatory in the extreme, and defamatory.”
Burchett, a Republican, is serving his third term representing a district in east Tennessee. His spokeswoman, Rachel Partlow, said the office doesn’t comment on pending or active litigation.
The Feb. 14 shooting outside the historic Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, killed a well-known DJ and injured more than 20 others, many of them children. Loudermill, who is not among those charged, is seeking more than $75,000 in damages.
The suit says that when gunfire erupted, Loudermill froze, standing in the middle of the chaos so long that police had put up crime scene tape when he finally walked away.
As he tried to go under the tape to leave, officers stopped him and told him he was moving “too slow.” They handcuffed him and put him on a curb, where people began taking pictures and posting them on social media, the suit says.
Loudermill ultimately was led away from the area and told he was free to go.
The suit says that Loudermill, who was born and raised in the U.S., was never detained, cited or arrested in the shooting. The suit stresses that he had no involvement and didn’t know any of the teens or young adults who argued before gunfire erupted.
But the next day, a picture of Loudermill was posted on Burchett’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter. Above the picture were the words: “One of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters has been identified as an illegal Alien.”
A follow-up post on Feb. 18 blamed incorrect news reports for the “illegal alien” identification. But the post, which was included in the lawsuit, still described the cuffed man seated on the curb as “one of the shooters.”
The suit alleges the “false assertions” were reposted and widely circulated to more than 1 million people worldwide.
The suit describes Loudermill as a car wash employee — not a public figure — and a “contributing member of his African-American family, a family with deep and long roots in his Kansas community.”
The suit says he received death threats and experienced periods of “anxiety, agitation, and sleep disruption.”
