Courts/Rulings & Lawsuits | | |
Undercover agents pushing waiver of lawyer is not coercion
Div. One of the Fourth District Court of Appeal held yesterday that a defendant’s constitutional rights were not violated by undercover agents, posing as fellow inmates, encouraging him to waive his right to an attorney during an upcoming custodial interview with police officers investigating his involvement in a murder, saying his ensuing statements that placed him at the scene of the killing were not coerced.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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In Port Hueneme, a city council member takes the police chief to small claims court
A Port Hueneme City Council member is suing the city's chief of police, accusing him of orchestrating a behind-the-scenes harassment campaign against her. City Council member Laura Hernandez filed the defamation lawsuit against Police Chief Michael Federico on July 16. It's a small claims case, so it will move quickly; the trial is scheduled for Aug. 21, and the judge should issue a verdict the same day.
Ventura County Star
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Ninth Circuit revives putative class action over concealed-carry gun regulations
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a putative class action against the City of Los Angeles by parties arrested for possessing secreted firearms who are asserting Second Amendment claims based on having been prevented from obtaining concealed-carry permits under a strict municipal policy - subsequently rescinded in light of a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision - of only issuing licenses to judges and police officers.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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Landmark ruling: California courts adopt generative AI policies
For most people, interactions with the court system are rare, but when they do occur, the consequences can be significant. Generative AI introduces both opportunities and risks into the judicial process. It can improve efficiency by drafting documents, summarizing evidence, and assisting in legal research. Yet, without regulation, it poses dangers, including confidential data leaks, inaccurate or fabricated content, and the reinforcement of systemic bias embedded in historical legal data.
Los Angeles Magazine
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Ninth Circuit revives action against officer in shooting of stick-wielding homeless man
A divided panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday partially reinstated a civil action against the City of Tustin and one of its police officers relating to the fatal shooting of a homeless man who emerged from a hedge, after being told to come out, carrying a large wooden pole that extended above his head, saying a trial judge improperly found that the shooter was entitled to qualified immunity at the pleading stage.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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California tribal casinos lose round in fight over cardroom banked games
Indian casinos pushed back Friday on a California judge’s tentative ruling that dismissed their challenge to non-tribal cardrooms offering games like blackjack. Arguments over Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lauri Damrell’s tentative ruling focused on her finding that the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act preempts the case, leading to its dismissal.
Courthouse News Service
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Federal judge refuses to dismiss case against convicted L.A. County sheriff's deputy
A federal judge on Monday rejected U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli's request to dismiss charges against a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who has already been convicted of a felony for using excessive force during a 2023 arrest, ordering him to start his prison sentence this month. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said the government's effort to overturn a jury conviction was "contrary to the public interest."
Los Angeles Times
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Judge probes drop of Fat Brands case
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to explain its decision to abruptly drop a high-profile tax fraud case against Andrew Wiederhorn, founder and chairman of Beverly Hills-based Fat Brands, which owns Fatburger and Johnny Rockets restaurants, after new reporting raised concerns about political interference.
Los Angeles Business Journal
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Appeals court tosses judge's contempt order in case over Venezuelans sent to El Salvador
A divided federal appeals court on Friday granted the Trump administration's request to set aside a district judge's decision finding probable cause that some federal officials committed criminal contempt by violating an order to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants bound for El Salvador. The 2-1 decision from a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is a massive victory for the Trump administration, which has lambasted U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for overstepping his authority when he initiated criminal contempt proceedings in April.
CBS News
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More SoCal cities join LA lawsuit against federal immigration raids
More than a dozen cities across Southern California have joined a legal effort against the Trump administration, claiming the recent immigration raids are targeting people based on race and ethnicity. Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto held a news conference Friday announcing the latest developments in a lawsuit against the Trump administration's alleged illegal immigration enforcement activities.
ABC7
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Judge questions post-sentencing dismissal request in sheriff deputy's civil rights case
The Trump-appointed U.S. attorney’s new attempts to dismiss criminal indictments in Los Angeles are drawing mixed reactions from the federal judges who must consider the unusual requests. One also has drawn the interest of a law professor and former federal judge who is warning of potential far-reaching implications if the U.S. Department of Justice succeeds in its request to dismiss a criminal civil rights case against an ex-sheriff’s deputy convicted by a jury and sentenced by a judge.
Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff
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UCLA research grants cut by Trump’s NSF must be restored
Millions of dollars in grant funding to University of California researchers suspended by the federal government’s National Science Foundation must be restored, a federal judge ordered Tuesday evening. The order from Judge Rita F. Lin comes after the Trump administration demanded Friday that the University of California at Los Angeles pay a $1 billion fine to restore federal research funding from NSF and other agencies. California Gov. Gavin Newsom had said the university wouldn’t pay.
Bloomberg Law
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Resentencing law doesn’t tie mental problems to crime
Div. Three of the Fourth District Court of Appeal yesterday reversed an order denying resentencing under a statute applicable to inmates who suffer from mental health problems attributable to military service, holding that it was error to take into account the lack of connection between the defendant’s criminal activity and his medical condition. Justice Martha K. Gooding authored the opinion which reverses a decision by Orange Superior Court Judge Lance P. Jensen. It orders a resentencing, pursuant Penal Code §1170.91, of Eric Ryan Hayde.
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
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After rejecting tenant-aid contract, LA city attorney launches audit of eviction-defense provider
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto launched an audit this week of a legal aid nonprofit that provides city-funded eviction defense and rental assistance to tenants at risk of losing their housing. The audit is centered on the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, or LAFLA, the city’s lead contractor for a program called Stay Housed L.A. Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stay Housed L.A. has received about $54 million in city funds.
LAist
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LA Councilman Curren Price pleads not guilty to new corruption charges
City Councilman Curren Price appeared in a downtown LA courtroom on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to new corruption charges filed against him. Price was first charged, in 2023, with 10 counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest. Prosecutors accused Price of voting on city contracts that benefitted a consulting business run by his wife, Del Richardson, without disclosing the relationship and receiving medical benefits for Richardson before they were married, when he was still married to another woman.
Courthouse News Service
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L.A. police reserve officer took part in home invasion, kidnapped man for ransom, prosecutors say
Prosecutors have charged a former Los Angeles police officer in a kidnapping for ransom that occurred when he was still an active reserve officer. The December incident, which authorities said involved the former officer and three other men, began with a Koreatown home invasion. Eric Halem and another man are accused of then kidnapping a man and forcing him to turn over $200,000 in cryptocurrency. Halem, 37, was arrested Thursday afternoon by members of the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division and held without bail.
Los Angeles Times
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Medical company faces felony charges for exposing workers to toxic chemicals
Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed five felony charges against Parter Medical Products Inc., its president and its manager, alleging they exposed employees to hazardous levels of ethylene oxide and then concealed the danger through falsified documents and illegal waste practices. Prosecutors allege the defendants failed to act even after learning that some workers had been exposed to unsafe levels of ethylene oxide, a colorless gas linked to cancer, reproductive harm and neurological damage.
KTLA
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LA County district attorney says street takeover participants, promoters and spectators face jail or prison time
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Monday that police and prosecutors were “absolutely laser-focused” on stopping the growing trend of street takeovers in Los Angeles. The takeovers, often associated with the looting of auto parts stores and other retail businesses that are typically closed when set upon by small mobs, have been a near-weekly occurrence in the city.
City News Service
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LA County Fire captain charged with making false disability claim
A Los Angeles County Fire Department captain was charged with making a false disability claim to insurance for an injury that allegedly did not happen while he was at work, prosecutors said on Friday. Thomas Merryman, 45, was charged with one count of felony insurance fraud, one felony count of false personation and two felony counts of forgery, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
KCAL News
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A car accident in small-town Tennessee leads to U.S. charges against a major Mexican drug operation
The investigation began years ago after two drug dealers got into a car accident in a small Tennessee town. What followed was a series of secret wiretaps, a shootout with police and the discovery of drugs hidden in a tractor trailer that would eventually lead federal investigators back to cartel leaders in Mexico. The investigation culminated with Justice Department indictments unsealed Thursday against three leaders and two high-ranking enforcers of the United Cartels, a leading rival of Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Associated Press
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DOJ dismissal of $47 million Trump donor fraud case approved
A California federal judge has allowed prosecutors to drop a $47 million fraud case against fast-food executive Andrew Wiederhorn, a Trump donor, after acting Los Angeles US Attorney Bill Essayli argued dismissal would align with new enforcement priorities. Judge R. Gary Klausner’s one-paragraph order released publicly Friday also withdraws the indictment of two of Wiederhorn’s co-defendants and to FAT Brands Inc., the fast-food franchisor he founded.
Bloomberg Law
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Film production accountant indicted in multi-million-dollar fraud case
A San Fernando Valley film production accountant has been indicted on federal charges accusing him of embezzling over $1.9 million from independent film productions, using the stolen funds to finance an extravagant lifestyle that included stays at Las Vegas hotels and payments to adult film actresses, the Justice Department announced Friday. Joshua Mandel, 46, of Woodland Hills, was charged by a federal grand jury with six counts of wire fraud.
KTLA
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LA County judge denounces ICE arrest outside downtown courthouse
The presiding judge of the LA County Superior Court denounced Immigration and Customs Enforcement after agents arrested a man after his hearing in downtown. "I am deeply disturbed by such actions," Presiding Judge Sergio C. Tapia II said in a statement. "These intimidating and unnecessary displays undermine public trust in the justice system, deter people from seeking justice, and send a dangerous message to immigrant communities that they are not safe to fully and freely participate in the legal process."
KCAL News
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Ventura County DA and Public Defender: Updating rights after latest immigration ruling
In an effort to keep our community informed of the latest immigration-related court rulings, we wanted Ventura County residents to know that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently upheld the temporary restraining order put into place last month prohibiting federal agents from conducting stops or arrests based solely on race, language spoken, occupation, or being present at certain locations.
Ventura County Star
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Ex-Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do is ordered to pay $878,230.80 in restitution over corruption scheme
Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do was ordered Monday to pay $878,230.80 in restitution for his involvement in a bribery scheme that saw millions in taxpayer dollars diverted from feeding needy seniors, leading authorities to label him a “Robin Hood in reverse.” Federal prosecutors had asked the judge to order Do to pay back the roughly $878,000 amount, while Orange County was seeking the return of millions more.
LAist
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President’s homelessness order lands at sensitive moment for SF
The federal government has waded into the national homelessness-policy debate at just the moment that San Francisco’s leaders are reorienting their own approach to the longstanding crisis. President Donald Trump issued on July 24 an executive order that seeks to reduce street homelessness by making it easier to get unhoused people with drug or mental-health problems into treatment.
San Francisco Examiner
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Council takes up voting rights case again
The City Council on Tuesday took up a nine-year-old voting rights lawsuit filed by Latino plaintiffs that could drag on for several more years. The closed session item was added to Tuesday's agenda days after a Superior Court Judge issued an order charting a path for the legal battle that has been winding its way through the courts since June 2016. The item also was taken up after the Los Angeles Times reported that the law firm representing the City - Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher - had submitted an $1.8-million invoice to the City of Los Angeles for two weeks of work in May.
Santa Monica Lookout
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Last suspect wanted in 2008 killing of LA sheriff's deputy back in US after being captured in Mexico
The final suspect wanted in the 2008 shooting death of an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy in Cypress Park was among more than two dozen fugitives returned to the United States from Mexico, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday. Roberto Salazar, 38, is the last of six people who were charged in the roughly 5:40 a.m. Aug. 2, 2008, killing of 27-year-old Deputy Juan Abel Escalante, who was gunned down while leaving his parents' home in the 3400 block of Thorpe Avenue in Cypress Park.
City News Service
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SoCal police officer accused of on-duty sexual assaults
A Menifee police officer has been arrested on suspicion of committing sexual assault while on duty, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. The Menifee Police Department received a complaint alleging sexual assault by one of its officers, spurring a preliminary investigation that pointed to 32-year-old Officer Juan Pesina. Pesina allegedly committed sexual assault during an on-duty investigation. There were other on-duty assaults, as well as alleged off-duty incidents, in 2023 and 2024, according to investigators.
Los Angeles Times
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LA County’s failure to educate incarcerated youth is ‘systemic,’ report says
Local government agencies in charge of youth violated the educational and civil rights of students in Los Angeles County’s juvenile justice facilities for decades by punting responsibility and inaction, according to a report released Wednesday. “Who has the power? Chronicling Los Angeles County’s systemic failures to educate incarcerated youth” blames the disconnected, vast network of local and state agencies - from the board of supervisors to the local probation department to the county office of education and more - that play one role or another in managing the county’s juvenile legal system, for the disruption in the care and education of youth in one of the nation’s largest systems.
LAist
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LACo attorneys urge dismissal of probation officer’s wrongful termination suit
A lawsuit by the former Los Angeles County Probation Department chief alleging he was terminated for coming forward about staffing shortages should be dismissed because the problems he was hired to fix instead “persisted and metastasized,” county attorneys argue in court papers filed Monday. Adolfo Gonzales was fired in March 2023.
MyNewsLA
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The county bought its new headquarters for cheap. Upgrades are bringing sticker shock.
It was billed as a bargain-basement deal: L.A. County would buy the Gas Company Tower for $200 million - a third of what the downtown skyscraper cost before the pandemic sent office prices plummeting. Nine months after the sale closed, some of the supervisors say they have sticker shock. The sore point: a looming $230-million contract for “voluntary seismic upgrades” to the newly purchased tower, soon to become the county’s new headquarters.
Los Angeles Times
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From Wild West days to 2025, he safeguards L.A County Sheriff's Department history
When an explosion killed three L.A. County sheriff’s deputies last month, Mike Fratantoni thought about 1857. A horse thief named Juan Flores broke out of San Quentin State Prison, joined a posse that called itself Las Manillas - the handcuffs - and headed south toward Southern California. They robbed stores along the way and murdered a German shopkeeper in San Juan Capistrano.
Los Angeles Times
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Masked robber put L.A. family in boarded-up closet. DNA revealed he was no stranger
Lara Starr had just walked in through the door when she saw a masked man holding a gun inside her Woodland Hills home. Starr assumed this was part of a game called Water Assassins that her son, a high school senior, played with his classmates. "It wasn't totally unusual for kids to be creeping around our house with big squirt guns," she said.
Los Angeles Times
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Burglary crew suspects arrested in break-in at LA home of actor Brad Pitt
2 men believed to be part of a burglary crew that's hit several homes around Southern California were arrested last week and are suspected of taking part in the break-in earlier this summer at the Los Angeles home of actor Brad Pitt, the LAPD told NBC4 Investigates. Pitt's home in the LA community of Los Feliz was broken into June 26 while he was on a promotional tour for the film "F1." The burglars are believed to have climbed over the front fence before breaking a window and ransacking the residence.
NBC4
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LAPD officer arrested on suspicion of domestic violence after car crash in Long Beach, police say
Long Beach police say they arrested a Los Angeles Police Department officer after she became violent with a man she was dating, causing their car to crash early Monday morning. Marilyn Mayte Briseno, 28, has been an LAPD officer since August 2023, according to a national index of police employees.
Long Beach Post
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Man arrested for stealing posters, carrying weapons on UCLA’s campus
UCPD arrested a man who allegedly stole posters of prominent Black figures from Haines Hall while carrying multiple weapons, including a stun gun, on campus Saturday. Brian Royal-Rubin, 37, was charged Tuesday with felony burglary, the violation of civil rights, the possession of a weapon at a university and a hate crime enhancement Jeffrey Chobanian, the acting captain of the UCPD administrative and operations bureau, said in an emailed statement.
Daily Bruin
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Watch violent foot chase shootout that left LAPD officer wounded
A 27-year-old man was charged with attempted murder this week (July 6-12) after he allegedly shot a Los Angeles police officer in the leg during a foot chase in Exposition Park, prosecutors said. Ernesto Sepulveda faces life in prison if convicted of two counts of attempted murder after he allegedly opened fire on two officers who attempted to question him near Martin Luther King Jr. Park on July 5, according to Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman.
Los Angeles Times
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Wild L.A. pursuit: Carjackers steal 3 cars, drive big rig wrong way on freeway, then escape
Two armed thieves led authorities on a wild pursuit from Lancaster to downtown L.A. on Sunday night, authorities said, stealing three vehicles, driving a big rig in the wrong direction on the 10 Freeway - and still managing to escape. The chase began with a carjacking in Lancaster about 9:45 p.m., according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Two armed men stole a man's white F-250 Ford pickup and fired gunshots at the victim as he attempted to pursue them.
Los Angeles Times
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Inside the high-stakes clandestine poker world that led to a Hollywood Hills murder
Emil Lahaziel knew how to bluff. On Instagram, he posed behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce convertible. "Flying high," he wrote in the caption of a photograph taken on a private jet. Never mind the seven-figure debt Lahaziel owed in his native Israel, according to a financial disclosure in a divorce case, or the admission to his wife that people were looking to kill him "as a result of some of the activities he did out of the country."
Los Angeles Times
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Ammunition background checks under scrutiny in NY after ruling in California
Ammunition background checks in California have been ruled to be unconstitutional, bringing into question the legality of a similar law in New York. Similar laws are on the books in other states, including New York, leading many to wonder where they now stand in light of the ruling from what was typically regarded as the most liberal federal appellate court in the country.
North County Now
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Foreign hackers said to access sealed national security cases
A foreign adversary targeted sealed documents in espionage and other sensitive cases in a breach of the federal judiciary’s case management system, according to three people familiar with the matter. The hackers, who eyed trial courts in at least three federal circuits, accessed documents in pending, active, and past cases, one person said. Cases targeted included those involving fraud, money laundering, and agents of foreign governments, that person said.
Bloomberg Law
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What will happen to Norco prison site if it closes in 2026?
Take Riverside’s iconic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, put it on a hill above a lake and you’ll see what the Norco prison site could become in Kevin Bash’s mind. The potential the Norco city councilmember sees in the property might be realized if the state moves ahead with its plans, announced Monday, Aug. 4, to close the California Rehabilitation Center by fall 2026. At the same time, Bash worries what might happen if and when the 2,766-inmate prison shutters.
Riverside Press-Enterprise
| | Convictions/Pleas/Sentences/Parole | | |
California man pleads guilty to repeatedly shooting at police helicopter as it flew around his home after his birthday party
A California man faces up to 20 years in federal prison after he repeatedly shot at a police helicopter following his birthday party.The U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California announced on Friday, Aug. 8, that 40-year-old Justin Derek Jennings of Orange County has pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to damage, destroy, disable or wreck an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States - more than a year after he shot at an Orange County Sheriff’s Department helicopter.
People Magazine
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Judge tosses convictions in 2002 killing of NBA star Chris Paul's grandfather
A North Carolina trial judge has thrown out the convictions of four men in the 2002 death of basketball star Chris Paul's grandfather. Now, state attorneys are considering their next moves, including an appeal. Superior Court Judge Robert Broadie vacated and dismissed their convictions late last week following a January hearing in Forsyth County. Nathaniel Arnold Cauthen, Rayshawn Denard Banner, Christopher Levon Bryant and Jermal Matthew Tolliver had been found guilty in trials in 2004 or 2005 for the killing of Nathaniel Jones.
Associated Press
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AOL’s dial-up internet is finally taking its last bow
Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today’s digital standards, dial-up is still around. But AOL says it’s officially pulling the plug for its service on Sept. 30. “AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet,” AOL wrote in a brief update on its support site - noting that dial-up and associated software “optimized for older operating systems” will soon be unavailable on AOL plans.
Associated Press
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Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and agent accused of sabotaging $240M Hawaii real estate project
A Hawaii real estate investor and broker are suing Shohei Ohtani, claiming the Los Angeles Dodgers star and his agent got them fired from a $240 million luxury housing development on the Big Island’s coveted Hapuna Coast that they brought him in to endorse. According to the lawsuit filed in Hawaii Circuit Court on Friday, Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, increasingly demanded concessions from developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr. and real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto before demanding that their business partner, Kingsbarn Realty Capital, drop them from the deal.
Associated Press
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