Missouri
Appeals court rules against waiting period for ex-lawmakers to take lobbying jobs
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A federal court on Monday ruled against a Missouri ban on lawmakers taking sometimes lucrative lobbying jobs shortly after leaving office.
The 8th District Court of Appeals panel found that the ethics law, enacted by voters through a constitutional amendment in 2018, violated the free-speech rights of former legislators-turned-lobbyists trying to sway their successors.
Supporters of the two-year ban on lobbying were attempting to stop lawmakers and Capitol employees from misusing their political influence in hopes of landing well-paying lobbying jobs.
But the appeals panel ruled that the mere possibility of corruption did not justify violating free speech.
“Just because former legislators and legislative employees have better ‘relationships (with) and access (to)’ current legislators and legislative employees than others does not mean corruption is taking place,” the judges wrote in the decision.
The cooling-off period was enacted along with a range of other ethics-related rules, including a $5 limit on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers and a change to how legislative districts are drawn. The redistricting portion was overturned in 2020.
Former Republican state Rep. Rocky Miller and a company seeking to hire him as a lobbyist sued to overturn the waiting period.
Miller’s lawyer, Cole Bradbury, in a statement said the cooling-off period “was an ill-advised attempt to hinder political advocacy.”
“The law was based on nothing more than the idea that ‘lobbying’ is bad,” Bradbury said. “But as the Court recognized today, lobbying is protected by the First Amendment.”
The ruling likely will mean the ban falls. The judges sent the case back to district court, but Bradbury said “that is largely a formality.”
An Associated Press voice message left with the executive director of the Missouri Ethics Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the law, was not immediately returned Monday.
A spokeswoman said the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which represents the commission in court, is reviewing the ruling.
Texas
Meta agrees to $1.4 billion settlement in lawsuit over facial recognition
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over claims that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state. In 2021, a judge approved a $650 million settlement with the company, formerly known as Facebook, over similar claims of users in Illinois.
“This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans’ privacy rights,” Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.
Meta said in a statement: “We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers.”
Filed in 2022, the Texas lawsuit alleged that Meta was in violation of a state law that prohibits capturing or selling a resident’s biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent.
The company announced in 2021 that it was shutting down its face-recognition system and delete the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others.
At the time, more than a third of Facebook’s daily active users had opted in to have their faces recognized by the social network’s system. Facebook introduced facial recognition more than a decade earlier but gradually made it easier to opt out of the feature as it faced scrutiny from courts and regulators.
Facebook in 2019 stopped automatically recognizing people in photos and suggesting people “tag” them, and instead of making that the default, asked users to choose if they wanted to use its facial recognition feature.
The $1.4 billion is unlikely to make a dent in Meta’s business. The Menlo Park, California-based tech made a profit of $12.37 billion in the first three months of this year, Its revenue was $36.46 billion, an increase of 27% from a year earlier. Meta is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings results on Wednesday.
Meta’s stock slipped $4.06 to $461.65 Tuesday, a decline of less than 1%.
California
Former ‘General Hospital’ actor Haley Pullos gets 5 years probation after DUI crash
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Former longtime “General Hospital” actor Haley Pullos was sentenced to five years of probation Monday after pleading guilty to felony drunken driving and serving three months in jail.
Pullos, 26, was also sentenced in a Los Angeles County court in Pasadena to 200 hours of community service. The judge ordered her to complete a nine-month alcohol treatment program and to pay more than $8,000 in restitution to the other driver in the crash that authorities said she caused when she drove the wrong way on freeway lanes in April of 2023.
Pullos began appearing on “General Hospital” as a child, playing Molly Lansing-Davis on nearly 500 episodes of the ABC soap opera from 2009 to 2023. She left the show after the collision and has not returned.
She was driving westbound on the Ventura Freeway in Pasadena when she swerved into eastbound lanes, crossed a barrier and ran into an oncoming car, authorities said. Firefighters had to pull both drivers from their mangled cars, and both were hospitalized. It’s not clear what their exact injuries were.
Pullos pleaded guilty to a felony count of driving under the influence earlier this year.
A representative for the actor did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
New Mexico
Prosecutor opposes ‘Rust’ armorer’s request for release as she seeks new trial for set shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A special prosecutor is opposing a request by a former movie armorer that she be released from prison while seeking a new trial and appeal of her involuntary manslaughter conviction in a 2021 shooting on the set of the film “Rust.”
Kari Morrissey wrote in a response brief filed Friday that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s motion for release “is premature given that the court has yet to receive completed briefing on the defendant’s motion for new trial, hear arguments on the defendant’s motion and rule on the motion in defendant’s favor.”
Lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed have argued her case should be reconsidered because prosecutors failed to share evidence that might have been exculpatory.
Gutierrez-Reed wants a judge to dismiss her conviction or convene a new trial in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Gutierrez-Reed already has an appeal pending in a higher court on the involuntary manslaughter conviction.
She was convicted by a jury in March in a trial overseen by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who later assigned the maximum 18-month penalty.
Baldwin’s trial ended July 12 when Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case based on misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defense.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
She was acquitted at trial of allegations she tampered with evidence in the “Rust” investigation.
Virginia
Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr. settle legal and personal disputes
LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Four years after Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as the head of Liberty University amid a series of personal scandals, he and the evangelical school founded by his father have announced a settlement of “all outstanding disputes on both legal and personal matters.”
In a joint statement released Friday, the university and Liberty’s Board of Trustees said it has agreed to pay Falwell an undisclosed sum in authorized retirement and severance payments and agreed on the conditions under which the school will use Jerry Falwell Sr.’s name, image and likeness.
Under the agreement, the trustees and Falwell said they “each take responsibility” for their part in the “lengthy and painful” disputes and litigation between them.
“Falwell acknowledges and apologizes for the errors in judgement and mistakes made during his time of leadership. The Board of Trustees acknowledge and apologize for the errors and mistakes made on their part as well,” the statement said.
Falwell announced his resignation in August 2020 after a provocative photo and revelations of his wife’s extramarital affair sparked criticism at the school. The photo, which Falwell posted and then deleted on social media, showed him with his pants unzipped, his stomach exposed and his arm high around the waist of his wife’s pregnant assistant. Falwell said at the time that the photo was taken at a costume party during a family vacation. Critics said the photo was evidence of hypocritical behavior from the leader of a university where students must follow a strict code of conduct.
The same month, a news outlet published an interview with a man who said he had a yearslong sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki Falwell, and that Jerry Falwell participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur. Falwell denied any participation.
Falwell’s resignation marked a fall from power for one of the country’s most visible conservative Christian leaders. His father had aspired to make Liberty University an academic and athletic leader for evangelicals. After taking over following his father’s death in 2007, Falwell succeeded in shoring up the school’s finances and increasing its enrollment.
Two months after Falwell announced his resignation, he filed a defamation lawsuit against Liberty, alleging that the school damaged his reputation in a series of public statements. Six months later, Liberty sued Falwell, alleging he crafted a “well-resourced exit strategy” from his role as president and chancellor in the form of a lucrative 2019 employment agreement while withholding damaging information about his marital scandal that was exposed the following year.
Falwell declined to comment on the settlement but told The Washington Post, “It’s an extremely happy day for everyone.”
Appeals court rules against waiting period for ex-lawmakers to take lobbying jobs
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A federal court on Monday ruled against a Missouri ban on lawmakers taking sometimes lucrative lobbying jobs shortly after leaving office.
The 8th District Court of Appeals panel found that the ethics law, enacted by voters through a constitutional amendment in 2018, violated the free-speech rights of former legislators-turned-lobbyists trying to sway their successors.
Supporters of the two-year ban on lobbying were attempting to stop lawmakers and Capitol employees from misusing their political influence in hopes of landing well-paying lobbying jobs.
But the appeals panel ruled that the mere possibility of corruption did not justify violating free speech.
“Just because former legislators and legislative employees have better ‘relationships (with) and access (to)’ current legislators and legislative employees than others does not mean corruption is taking place,” the judges wrote in the decision.
The cooling-off period was enacted along with a range of other ethics-related rules, including a $5 limit on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers and a change to how legislative districts are drawn. The redistricting portion was overturned in 2020.
Former Republican state Rep. Rocky Miller and a company seeking to hire him as a lobbyist sued to overturn the waiting period.
Miller’s lawyer, Cole Bradbury, in a statement said the cooling-off period “was an ill-advised attempt to hinder political advocacy.”
“The law was based on nothing more than the idea that ‘lobbying’ is bad,” Bradbury said. “But as the Court recognized today, lobbying is protected by the First Amendment.”
The ruling likely will mean the ban falls. The judges sent the case back to district court, but Bradbury said “that is largely a formality.”
An Associated Press voice message left with the executive director of the Missouri Ethics Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the law, was not immediately returned Monday.
A spokeswoman said the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which represents the commission in court, is reviewing the ruling.
Texas
Meta agrees to $1.4 billion settlement in lawsuit over facial recognition
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over claims that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state. In 2021, a judge approved a $650 million settlement with the company, formerly known as Facebook, over similar claims of users in Illinois.
“This historic settlement demonstrates our commitment to standing up to the world’s biggest technology companies and holding them accountable for breaking the law and violating Texans’ privacy rights,” Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.
Meta said in a statement: “We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers.”
Filed in 2022, the Texas lawsuit alleged that Meta was in violation of a state law that prohibits capturing or selling a resident’s biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent.
The company announced in 2021 that it was shutting down its face-recognition system and delete the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others.
At the time, more than a third of Facebook’s daily active users had opted in to have their faces recognized by the social network’s system. Facebook introduced facial recognition more than a decade earlier but gradually made it easier to opt out of the feature as it faced scrutiny from courts and regulators.
Facebook in 2019 stopped automatically recognizing people in photos and suggesting people “tag” them, and instead of making that the default, asked users to choose if they wanted to use its facial recognition feature.
The $1.4 billion is unlikely to make a dent in Meta’s business. The Menlo Park, California-based tech made a profit of $12.37 billion in the first three months of this year, Its revenue was $36.46 billion, an increase of 27% from a year earlier. Meta is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings results on Wednesday.
Meta’s stock slipped $4.06 to $461.65 Tuesday, a decline of less than 1%.
California
Former ‘General Hospital’ actor Haley Pullos gets 5 years probation after DUI crash
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Former longtime “General Hospital” actor Haley Pullos was sentenced to five years of probation Monday after pleading guilty to felony drunken driving and serving three months in jail.
Pullos, 26, was also sentenced in a Los Angeles County court in Pasadena to 200 hours of community service. The judge ordered her to complete a nine-month alcohol treatment program and to pay more than $8,000 in restitution to the other driver in the crash that authorities said she caused when she drove the wrong way on freeway lanes in April of 2023.
Pullos began appearing on “General Hospital” as a child, playing Molly Lansing-Davis on nearly 500 episodes of the ABC soap opera from 2009 to 2023. She left the show after the collision and has not returned.
She was driving westbound on the Ventura Freeway in Pasadena when she swerved into eastbound lanes, crossed a barrier and ran into an oncoming car, authorities said. Firefighters had to pull both drivers from their mangled cars, and both were hospitalized. It’s not clear what their exact injuries were.
Pullos pleaded guilty to a felony count of driving under the influence earlier this year.
A representative for the actor did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
New Mexico
Prosecutor opposes ‘Rust’ armorer’s request for release as she seeks new trial for set shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A special prosecutor is opposing a request by a former movie armorer that she be released from prison while seeking a new trial and appeal of her involuntary manslaughter conviction in a 2021 shooting on the set of the film “Rust.”
Kari Morrissey wrote in a response brief filed Friday that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s motion for release “is premature given that the court has yet to receive completed briefing on the defendant’s motion for new trial, hear arguments on the defendant’s motion and rule on the motion in defendant’s favor.”
Lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed have argued her case should be reconsidered because prosecutors failed to share evidence that might have been exculpatory.
Gutierrez-Reed wants a judge to dismiss her conviction or convene a new trial in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Gutierrez-Reed already has an appeal pending in a higher court on the involuntary manslaughter conviction.
She was convicted by a jury in March in a trial overseen by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer, who later assigned the maximum 18-month penalty.
Baldwin’s trial ended July 12 when Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case based on misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defense.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
She was acquitted at trial of allegations she tampered with evidence in the “Rust” investigation.
Virginia
Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr. settle legal and personal disputes
LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Four years after Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as the head of Liberty University amid a series of personal scandals, he and the evangelical school founded by his father have announced a settlement of “all outstanding disputes on both legal and personal matters.”
In a joint statement released Friday, the university and Liberty’s Board of Trustees said it has agreed to pay Falwell an undisclosed sum in authorized retirement and severance payments and agreed on the conditions under which the school will use Jerry Falwell Sr.’s name, image and likeness.
Under the agreement, the trustees and Falwell said they “each take responsibility” for their part in the “lengthy and painful” disputes and litigation between them.
“Falwell acknowledges and apologizes for the errors in judgement and mistakes made during his time of leadership. The Board of Trustees acknowledge and apologize for the errors and mistakes made on their part as well,” the statement said.
Falwell announced his resignation in August 2020 after a provocative photo and revelations of his wife’s extramarital affair sparked criticism at the school. The photo, which Falwell posted and then deleted on social media, showed him with his pants unzipped, his stomach exposed and his arm high around the waist of his wife’s pregnant assistant. Falwell said at the time that the photo was taken at a costume party during a family vacation. Critics said the photo was evidence of hypocritical behavior from the leader of a university where students must follow a strict code of conduct.
The same month, a news outlet published an interview with a man who said he had a yearslong sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki Falwell, and that Jerry Falwell participated in some of the liaisons as a voyeur. Falwell denied any participation.
Falwell’s resignation marked a fall from power for one of the country’s most visible conservative Christian leaders. His father had aspired to make Liberty University an academic and athletic leader for evangelicals. After taking over following his father’s death in 2007, Falwell succeeded in shoring up the school’s finances and increasing its enrollment.
Two months after Falwell announced his resignation, he filed a defamation lawsuit against Liberty, alleging that the school damaged his reputation in a series of public statements. Six months later, Liberty sued Falwell, alleging he crafted a “well-resourced exit strategy” from his role as president and chancellor in the form of a lucrative 2019 employment agreement while withholding damaging information about his marital scandal that was exposed the following year.
Falwell declined to comment on the settlement but told The Washington Post, “It’s an extremely happy day for everyone.”
