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Convicted sex offender Bill Cosby on Friday settled a federal defamation lawsuit brought by seven women who said the former actor and comedian sexually assaulted them and wrongly called them liars when they went public with their charges years later.

The settlement ends a court fight that predates the 81-year-old’s conviction a year ago for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former Temple University administrator, in 2004. Cosby is currently serving a 3- to 10-year sentence for that crime, though his lawyers plan an appeal.

He was the first celebrity convicted of sexual misconduct since the rise of the #MeToo movement, which cast a harsh light on widespread patterns of sexual harassment or abuse in multiple spheres of American life and ended the careers of dozens of powerful men in American media, politics and business.

Continue reading “Bill Cosby settles defamation lawsuit brought by seven women”

Twenty U.S. states have filed a motion to block President Donald Trump’s method of funding a border wall by diverting federal funds through a national emergency declaration, the New York state attorney general said on Friday.

“This wall is unnecessary, and an abuse of power that will take away resources that could be used to help Americans across our nation,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Twitter.

The states filed a lawsuit in February after Trump declared a national emergency to help build a border wall that was a signature of his 2016 campaign for president. The motion for a preliminary injunction to block Trump’s effort that was filed late Thursday formalised that request.

Trump’s order would allow him to spend money on the wall that Congress appropriated for other purposes. Congress declined to fulfil his request for $5.7 billion to help build the wall this year.

Felicity Huffman arrived at the federal court in Boston on Wednesday, where she and fellow actress Lori Loughlin will appear to face charges tied to what prosecutors call the largest college admissions scam uncovered in U.S. history.

Camera crews crowded the courthouse in anticipation of the arrival of the stars and 13 other wealthy parents accused of engaging in schemes that involved cheating on college exams and paying $25 million in bribes to buy their children spots at well-known universities.

Prosecutors say the scheme was overseen by California college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer, who has admitted to facilitating the cheating scam and bribing coaches at schools like Yale University and University of Southern California to present the parents’ children as fake athletic recruits.

Continue reading “Felicity Huffman arrives at Boston court to face college admissions cheating charges”

Texas officials on Tuesday sued owners of a Houston area petrochemical storage facility over a fire last week, alleging violations of environmental laws and seeking damages to cover response costs for the disaster that burned for days, releasing chemicals into the air and waterways.

The county and state jointly filed suit in a county court against Mitsui & Co’s Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC). The suit seeks reimbursement for emergency responders, temporary air and water monitoring systems, and health care workers. An auditor will determine costs, officials said.

Continue reading “Texas sues fuel tank company over Houston chemical fire, aftermath”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up its attack on the Obamacare healthcare law, telling a federal appeals court it agrees with a Texas judge’s ruling that the entire law is unconstitutional and should be struck down.

The Justice Department, in a two-sentence letter to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit filed on Monday, said it backed the December ruling by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth finding the Affordable Care Act violated the U.S. Constitution because it required people to buy health insurance.

Continue reading “Trump administration pushes the fight on Obamacare, asks court to overturn law”