NEWS

The estate of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the ChatGPT chatbot fueled her son's paranoid delusions and contributed to her murder. This case is part of a series of lawsuits claiming that OpenAI's chatbot acted as a "suicide coach" and lacked necessary safety measures. Read Article

Mitch Winehouse, father of late British singer Amy Winehouse on Tuesday defended his UK lawsuit against two of her friends after they sold some of her clothes at auction for around £730,000 ($970,000).

Mitch Winehouse told the High Court in London that Naomi Parry, the star's former stylist, and her friend, Catriona Gourlay, did not have the right to sell dozens of items in auctions between November 2021 and May 2023. Read Article

Terry Rozier, a Miami Heat player, has pled not guilty in federal court on Monday to charges related to an ongoing gambling investigation. During his arraignment in Brooklyn federal court, the 31-year-old point guard formally entered the plea to federal wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges. Read Article

The European Commission slapped a 120 million euro fine on Friday on Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time under its landmark Digital Services Act following a two-year investigation. At the centre of the probe is the blue checkmark, previously used to signal official accounts at no cost but now sold for 7 a month, which risks confusing users about the veracity of identities. Read Article

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Meta over a new WhatsApp policy that could restrict third-party artificial intelligence providers from using its business communication tools. European regulators are concerned that this policy, which was announced in October, may breach EU competition rules by giving Meta’s own AI chatbot a competitive advantage while blocking rivals. Read Article

Nicki Minaj is facing a huge legal setback as a Los Angeles court moves toward seizing her $20 million Hidden Hills mansion. The decision stems from an unpaid judgment owed to former security guard Thomas Weidenmuller, who suffered a devastating injury during Minaj’s concert in Germany. Read Article

As part of her legal battle with Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, Blake Lively issued subpoenas against several YouTubers, alleging that they were part of a smear campaign against her. Popcorned Planet Inc.'s attempt to quash Lively's subpoena for his communications to Wayfarer was based on journalist's privilege has been denied. Read Article

Nine MediaNews Group newspapers filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing the tech giants of violating copyright law by stealing the news publishers’ content to build and operate the large language models that power their artificial intelligence applications.

The newspapers are the Los Angeles Daily News, The San Diego Union-Tribune, San Bernardino Sun, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, The Morning Call, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot. Read Article

The Trump administration has released a plan for offshore oil and gas leasing that would open up almost all Alaska marine waters to development, along with the entire Pacific coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Alaska portion of the plan proposes 21 lease sales through 2031, five of them in Cook Inlet, two in the Beaufort Sea, two in the Chukchi Sea and the others in other marine areas. Those include a lease sale in a newly designated “High Arctic” area that lies beyond the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and where U.S. territorial rights are not yet clear. Read Article

All 20 San Mateo County cities joined a lawsuit last week claiming the state of California kept $38 million in vehicle-license fees owed them.

The lawsuit originally filed in August 2025 claims the funds shared by the county and the cities provide critical dollars for health care, public safety, and affordable housing programs. Read Article

Georgia Judge Scott McAfee has dismissed the sprawling 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump, ending the final effort to accuse the president for allegedly attempting to overturn his loss to Joe Biden. Attorney Peter Skandalakis took over the case after the initial prosecutor's removal, asked the Judge to dismiss the charges. Read Article

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., - Four people have pleaded no-contest to felony insurance fraud and assault charges for their role in staging a collision targeting a rideshare driver. Fifth individual, alleged co-conspirator, Deshawn Perater-Nickson, 26, of Adelanto, faces additional charges of false imprisonment, pimping, and pandering and is due in court January 26, 2026. Read Article

A federal judge dismissed the indictments against ex- FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. This judgment canme after attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey asked a federal judge to dismiss the charges against him because, they say, a grand jury never approved the final indictment in the case. Read Article

Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, alleges in a lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida, that content creator, Milagro Cooper participated in a targeted and coordinated social media campaign to harass, intimidate and defame Pete, in concert with rapper Tory Lanez, who was convicted of shooting and injuring Pete in a July 2020 incident. Read Article

On October 8, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 361, amending the state’s existing data broker registration statute to expand obligations for data brokers. The law takes effect January 1, 2026, with a registration deadline for data brokers set for January 31, 2026.

What does SB 361 do?

An act to amend Sections 1798.99.82, 1798.99.84, and 1798.99.86 of the Civil Code, relating to privacy. Read Article

The Supreme Court met in private on Friday with a high-profile issue on its agenda — President Donald Trump ’s birthright citizenship order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The justices could say as soon as Monday whether they will hear Trump’s appeal of lower court rulings that have uniformly struck down the citizenship restrictions. They have not taken effect anywhere in the United States. Read Article

The Department of Justice filed suit against California, saying the state is violating federal law and the rights of non-Californians by allowing undocumented immigrants who live in the state to pay the same reduced tuition rates as other in-state residents at the University of California and California State University. California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Sacramento. Read Article

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced a criminal investigation into potentially fraudulent sex abuse claims against Los Angeles County, including claims under the $4 billion settlement with Los Angeles County approved in April – the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history. This includes fraud potentially committed by claimants, lawyers, recruiters, and doctors. Read Article

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a defense by President Donald Trump's administration of the government's authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border.The metering policy is separate from the total ban on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border that Trump issued after returning to office. Read Article

In his ruling on November 13, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas, said Musk’s social media platform X and startup xAI can move forward for now with their lawsuit, in a preliminary victory for the billionaire entrepreneur in a battle over artificial intelligence dominance. Judge Pittman underlined that the order does not address the claims' merits, which will be decided later. Read Article

The Justice Department (DOJ) intervened as a plaintiff in a November 5 lawsuit by the California Republican Party and 19 registered voters in the state. The case challenges California's ballot initiative Proposition 50, which allows temporary use of new congressional district maps. The lawsuit against California's redistricting plan are because it constitutes racial gerrymandering in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Read Article

The "Social Security Emergency Inflation Relief Act" or "Social Security Emergency Inflation Relief Act" is a proposed bill by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer and Alex Padilla introduced to expand Social Security and Veterans Affairs benefits. Senate Democrats believe that it would provide an additional $200 in monthly benefits to eligible recipients for a six-month period (January through July 2026). Read Article

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that California's action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state acted improperly even though it previously defended its licensing standards. California launched its review of commercial driver's licenses it issued after Duffy raised concerns. Read Article

Tech giant Google went on the offensive, filing a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York battling what it alleges is a huge criminal organization based in China called "Lighthouse" that provides software and support to online scammers. Read Article

The "Renner Zhou controversy" involves Chinese filmmaker Yi Zhou accusing actor Jeremy Renner of sexual misconduct, harassment, and threatening to involve immigration authorities (ICE) using Direct Messaging and Whatsapp. Read Article

Potentially a major ruling in election law, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether federal law requires ballots to be not only cast by voters but also received by election officials by Election Day. As part of the list of orders from the justices’ private conference on Friday, the court took up Watson v. Republican National Committee, a challenge by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and others to a Mississippi law. Read Article

Newport News, VA - In the Abby Zwerner case, a jury awarded her $10 million in damages in her civil lawsuit against former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker. The jury found that Parker was grossly negligent in failing to act on multiple warnings that a six-year-old student had a gun on the day Zwerner was shot. Read Article

Due to the ongoing government shutdown, SNAP benefits for November will be reduced to approximately 65% of the usual maximum allotments. This change affects approximately 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP for food assistance. Recent changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have limited eligibility for immigrants. Under the new rules, only U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (with certain exceptions), Cuban and Haitian entrants, and citizens of COFA Compact of Free Association nations are eligible for SNAP benefits, while many previously eligible immigrants will lose their benefits. Read Article

In a decision issued on October 28, 2025, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in New York ruled that the authors presented plausible arguments that the text generated by ChatGPT could be considered "substantially similar" to their original, copyrighted works, which might violate their copyrights. 

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The judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program partially or in full for November. That also brings uncertainty about how things will unfold and will delay payments for many beneficiaries whose cards would normally be recharged early in the month. Read Article