A deadly building collapse in Brooklyn has raised concerns about New York City's oversight of construction sites. Eight people died Wednesday when a three-story building fell into an excavation pit. Officials are calling for more inspectors, as the city's Department of Buildings has a 9% vacancy rate. Contractors at the site had faced previous complaints and lawsuits. City guidelines require permits and precautions for excavation projects, but it's unclear how often the site was inspected. Experts say the investigation should examine whether design flaws or contractor errors contributed to the collapse.
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A coalition of online safety and consumer advocacy groups has sued five leading AI companies to halt further development. They allege the tech giants can't prevent their creations from causing "catastrophic" harm and allege their endangerment of public health has violated California law. The lawsuit targets Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, and SpaceXSI. It cites cyberattacks by AI systems and the companies' own warnings about potential risks. It comes at a moment of reckoning for a burgeoning industry that has generated both excitement and deep fear. The recent midterm election could result in more regulation of the technology.
Nine Kennedy family members have asked a judge to block President Trump's plan to build a 250-foot memorial arch. They argue it would cast a shadow over their relatives' gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery. On Tuesday, they filed a motion to intervene in existing lawsuits against the construction. Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan prohibited the Trump administration from breaking ground for 14 days. The Kennedy family members say the arch would permanently denigrate the gravesites. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's health and human services secretary, did not join the lawsuit.
Tennessee is seeking to block Christa Pike’s attorneys from accessing the pentobarbital used in the 50-year-old inmate’s botched execution on the grounds that it would reveal the supplier. That's according to Friday court filings, in which the state asked a judge to rescind an order allowing Pike's legal team to inspect and collect samples of the lethal drug. The state warned that if Pike's team were allowed to collect samples, it may lose access to the drug from its current supplier and would be unlikely to find an alternative source. Tennessee law prohibits the public disclosure of any individual or entity involved in procuring lethal substances or carrying out executions.
A U.S. deportation flight of at least eight Iranian nationals who were eventually bound for Iran has been abruptly canceled. That's according to a legal group involved in a pending lawsuit that's shed some light on the planned deportations. Ali Rahnama is an attorney with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund. He says at least eight Iranians were loaded onto a plane Sunday in Arizona bound for Pakistan. The Iranians were told they would then be transported to Iran. But Rahnama says the flight was then canceled without explanation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security refused to comment on the details of removal operations.
The U.S. Department of Justice has moved to dismiss its own lawsuit that aimed to stop California from processing up to 20,000 ballots it suspected were mailed to noncitizens. The federal government’s decision comes before a scheduled hearing next week where a special master was to evaluate the list’s accuracy. California officials and a federal judge have said the list is outdated and includes legitimate voters. The lawsuit was part of the Trump administration’s effort to stop alleged illegal voting.
AP
Federal judges handed the NCAA a significant victory in its struggle to implement a new five-year eligibility ruling, though the win does nothing to tamp down dozens of similar lawsuits playing out in state courts across the country. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver reversed a lower-court decision that had granted players across the country who graduated high school in 2022 a fifth year of eligibility. That lower-court ruling had against the NCAA’s new rule that granted five years of eligibility to athletes starting in the next year’s class, though many of those players still found their way onto rosters thanks to favorable rulings in state courts.
AP
FILE - The NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis is seen on March 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has met with nonprofits in Puerto Rico as officials announced a $280,000 partnership to help the U.S. territory confront emergencies. The partnership between Hispanic Federation and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York announced Friday comes as Puerto Rico struggles with chronic power outages and intermittent water shortages while it tries to rebuild from Hurricane Maria and other disasters. The nonprofit Hispanic Federation said the money would equip 10 community-run resiliency hubs across the island with increased water storage capacity; some also would receive rain-collecting systems, kitchen infrastructure and solar power with battery storage.
Four men named in a former Cornell University student’s lawsuit are joining a co-defendant’s effort to block New York’s attorney general from leading a reopened criminal investigation into the woman’s gang rape allegations. That is according to court filings on Thursday. The co-defendant’s lawyers said the men agreed to be added to a court petition that seeks Attorney General Letitia James’ removal from the case because of social media posts she made prior to her involvement in which she condemned the alleged assault and expressed support for the accuser. James’ office declined to comment.