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Law

In their papers and at Mr. Lemon's arraignment, the Government raised particular concern about the ability to timely produce the "data found in seized cellphones" because of the use of a filter team, id. at 4-5, and because technical issues with accessing the data itself. This case involves, at most, the cell phones seized incident to the arrests of the nine defendants, and data from conduct that allegedly occurred over a single day.

OAKLAND Under a haze of secrecy, a county investigation into the death of 8-year-old Sophia Mason whose malnourished body was found decomposing in a basement bathroom has dragged on for nearly three years. Now, even as hints emerge that the 2023 county-ordered probe may finally be wrapping up, child welfare and open governance experts say the delay in completing it raises new alarms about the county's commitment to keeping children safe.

In the lawsuit, FNF claims that the rule, which was promulgated under the Biden administration, is arbitrary and capricious, and that the rule will cause irreparable harm. The rule requires title firms to report specific details on all-cash home purchase transactions. These include the names, addresses, dates of birth, citizenship status and ID numbers of all people involved including minors, payment details and information about trusts and entities that are purchasing the property.

Taking out a loan can feel like stepping into unfamiliar territory. Questions pile up fast. How much can they charge me? What happens if I miss a payment? Can they call my workplace? Here's what most borrowers don't realize. Singapore's Moneylenders Act grants you significant legal protections. These aren't suggestions lenders can ignore. They're enforceable rules backed by the Ministry of Law. Every licensed money lender operating in Singapore follows them. No exceptions.

The four State Police members facing criminal charges related to the 2024 death of recruit Enrique Delgado-Garcia have been suspended with pay, the agency said. Lt. Jennifer Penton and Troopers Edwin Rodriguez, David Montanez, and Casey LaMonte were initially relieved of duty last week. The State Police held duty status hearings for each of the four members, after which they could have been retained on full duty, placed on restricted duty, suspended with pay, or suspended without pay.

In a turn that feels more like a crime thriller than a routine court date, a Staten Island restaurant worker pleaded guilty on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, to obstructing justice after federal prosecutors said he helped try to bribe a juror in the Brooklyn federal trial of heavyweight boxer Goran Gogic. The plea, entered in Brooklyn federal court, followed an FBI probe that intercepted a series of meetings and phone calls tied to an alleged payoff plan. The revelation has frozen Gogic's trial in place and tossed a new legal wrench into an already sprawling drug trafficking case.

Local News Lawyers for Your Options Medical have vowed to appeal the dismissal. A federal judge sided with state officials Tuesday, agreeing that a Massachusetts public education campaign against crisis pregnancy centers did not violate an anti-abortion organization's constitutional rights. "The issues before the Court are straightforward," U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin opined, dismissing a 2024 lawsuit brought by Your Options Medical.

The unexpected gravitas occurred in one of the thousands of habeas cases currently swamping trial courts. The Department of Homeland Security recently discovered that 8 USC § 1225(b)(1)(B)(iii)(IV) requires mandatory detention of asylum seekers, including those who were released in the country decades ago and given work permits. Hundreds of judges across the country - but not the Fifth Circuit! - have scoffed at this discovery and ordered DHS to either grant immigrants a bond hearing or release them.

House Bill 1226, titled the Maryland Illegal Online Gambling Enforcement Act, would let the Attorney General issue cease-and-desist orders to any sweepstakes operator accused of offering or promoting illegal online gambling in the state. It also requires the Attorney General to keep a public list of website URLs that have received those orders, effectively creating a blacklist that others would be expected to follow.

A US civil rights agency has sued a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products it accuses of sex discrimination over an employee networking event that excluded men, its first lawsuit over workplace diversity programs since Donald Trump took office. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, says Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast violated federal law when it hosted the event for about 250 female employees at a casino in Connecticut in September 2024.

In the second amended complaint, Guo claims that after she was the victim of identity theft, the financial institution and credit bureau defendants continued to report and attempt to collect fraudulent debts after she provided proof of the fraud. In doing such she alleges that they violated federal and California consumer protection laws by failing to properly investigate and correct her credit reports.

Nevada officials want a federal judge to send their lawsuit against KalshiEX, LLC back where it started, in state court. In an emergency motion filed Wednesday (February 18) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, the State of Nevada, acting through the Nevada Gaming Control Board, asked Chief U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon to remand the case after Kalshi removed it from state court.

A Manhattan jury is now deciding whether Randy Santos, 31, was legally insane when he allegedly bludgeoned four homeless men to death with a metal bar in Chinatown in October 2019, or whether he should be held fully responsible and face the possibility of life in prison. Closing arguments wrapped up Thursday, Feb. 19, in a case that has haunted Lower Manhattan since those predawn sidewalk killings. Santos has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorneys say he was living with untreated schizophrenia and hearing voices that ordered him to kill, setting up a high-stakes clash over his mental state on the night of the attacks.

During the troop surge in Iraq, I learned to constantly scan for threats, how to distinguish the sharp crack of a gunshot pointed in my direction from one outgoing toward an enemy, and the myriad ways that explosives can be hidden on a roadside. I learned that hypervigilance can be the difference between life and death. What I didn't learn was how to turn it off. Now, I take three psychiatric medications every day, and I go to therapy every week.

A three-judge panel on the Fourth Circuit overturned the lower court's ruling in its judgment on the case, arguing that the military has a "rational basis" for maintaining medical standards within the US army. The judges wrote in the ruling: "In this case, the military has articulated its need to have fit service members who can fulfill its military mission without complications from medical conditions that could compromise deployment functions, contribute to conflicts with foreign nations during deployment, and add costs over those generally necessary to maintain fit service members."

Although social media companies are in many ways villains that have not done nearly enough to protect children on their platforms, they nonetheless should not be held liable based on claims that they are creating addictive and harmful online environments. Last week, a trial began in Los Angeles Superior Court in a lawsuit brought by a woman, referred to in documents as Kaley G.M., against tech giants YouTube and Instagram. (TikTok previously settled with her).

Nevada gaming regulators have taken their fight with Kalshi to court, filing a civil enforcement lawsuit just hours after a federal appeals panel declined to pause the dispute. The move came Tuesday, shortly after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the company's emergency request for an administrative stay. The Nevada Gaming Control Board said it lodged its complaint in the First Judicial District Court in Carson City on February 17. Through the filing, regulators are asking a judge for "a declaration and injunction to stop Kalshi from offering unlicensed wagering in violation of Nevada law."

Eric Immesberger posed as a hit man in undercover operations to gather evidence against people attempting to hire one. He is a former agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who spent 21 years investigating violent crime, including firearms trafficking, organized criminal crews, and murder-for-hire plots. Movies and TV often portray murder for hire as a clean, professional transaction.

We cannot say that the court, after weighing the considerable aggravating and mitigating factors here, abused its discretion as a matter of law in determining that extraordinary circumstances exist that should prevent removal to family court, wrote Associate Court of Appeals Judge Shirley Troutman in the majority opinion, which was supported by Associate Judges Michael Garcia, Madeline Singas and Anthony Cannataro.

Until now, children have only been entitled to compensation for lost earnings pay missed out on by not being able to work for the years they are expected to live. But the court, ruling on the case of a child who sustained a brain injury at birth in 2015, found that compensation should take into account the full working life she would have had if she had not been harmed at birth.

On the afternoon of April 15, 1994, Donald Ewing and Doniel Quinn were in an idling car in Kansas City, Kansas, when a man dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun, killing them both. Ruby Mitchell saw the shooting from her house and told police that the killer looked like her niece's boyfriend, Lamont. Lamont was reportedly out of town, but Detective Roger Golubski's investigation quickly zeroed in on someone with a similar name: Lamonte McIntyre, who was seventeen.

The single biggest need I see is for firms to focus on nurturing, valuing and hiring meaningful trial talent. There is a growing generational divide in the profession. When I came of age as a litigator, my mentors were seasoned trial lawyers who had come through the ranks trying dozens of cases a year. The industry has changed and those opportunities have dwindled.

Sometimes, you don't have to make every argument in the alternative. For example, the prosecutors in Littlejohn v. State of Texas had a number of avenues to challenge a competency evaluation request from the defendant's counsel. The defense sought to check the defendant's mental competence after learning that the court clerk observed the defendant masturbating during testimony at the punishment phase of his trial. We've all heard some wanky testimony before, but this takes it to another level.

Mr Justice Chamberlain said on Tuesday that the Met's decision "serves a legitimate aim, maintaining and enhancing public trust in policing, and is proportionate". The Met announced in December that membership of the Freemasons or similar organisations would be added to its declarable associations policy. This means officers and staff were required to declare membership "past or present" of any organisation that is "hierarchical, has confidential membership and requires members to support and protect each other".

Feb. 15 PETTY THEFT: 9:25 a.m. at Ivy Park at Los Gatos on Blossom Hill Road. A naked male was walking around an assisted living facility with a bag wrapped around him. He took an umbrella and threatened to hit a worker with it when confronted. Feb. 14 VEHICLE CODE VIOLATION: 12:31 p.m. at Los Gatos Boulevard and Lark Avenue.

Massachusetts gambling regulators are sending a marketing case involving BetMGM straight to a formal hearing after learning that tens of thousands of promotional emails went out to people whose ages could not be verified, including minors and individuals on exclusion lists.

The rich have made an art of avoiding taxes and making sure their wealth passes down effortlessly to the next generation. But the tricks they use - to expedite payouts to heirs and avoid handing money to the government - can also work for people with far more modest estates. "It's a strategic game of chess played over decades," says Mark Bosler, an estate planning attorney in Troy, Michigan, and legal adviser to Real Estate Bees.

Two California investors are taking Crypto.com to federal court in Miami, Florida, accusing the company of running what they describe as a nationwide sports betting business under the cover of financial trading. The proposed class action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, names North American Derivatives Exchange Inc., which operates as Crypto.com, along with Foris DAX Inc. The lawsuit claims users across the country have lost hundreds of millions of dollars through the platform's sports event contracts.