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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Miami’s 2 Live Crew helped redraw the legal landscape around what hip-hop could be, pushing the boundaries of free speech and taste with their provocative and sexually explicit recordings that led to landmark court decisions protecting the rights of artists.

But for decades the hip-hop legends haven’t had legal control over their iconic discography, after giving up their rights to the records in bankruptcy proceedings that followed their legal fights in the 1990s.

Now a jury verdict is paving the way for surviving members of the group, and heirs of the two who have since died, to retake five of their early albums following a yearslong copyright dispute with a record company. The company is in the process of appealing.

“We won,” 2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell, also known as Uncle Luke, said in a video posted to social media after Wednesday’s decision. “All the albums! We got them all back!”

The copyright case was brought by Lil’ Joe Records, which bought the rights to 2 Live Crew’s albums after the group’s record company filed for bankruptcy in 1995.

In 2020, the members of 2 Live Crew and the heirs notified Lil’ Joe that they were terminating its copyrights and that ownership of the albums would revert to the artists. In response, Lil’ Joe sued, arguing that it retained the copyrights under the bankruptcy agreement.

The federal jury in Florida decided in favor of 2 Live Crew and the heirs.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A settlement reached by the U.S. government and a Native American tribe in New Mexico signals the end to what has been a yearslong legal fight over claims to the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

Government attorneys in a filing Friday asked a federal appeals court to close out the litigation with Jemez Pueblo in light of a settlement being reached after more than a year of negotiation. The case began in 2012 when the pueblo asserted its claims to all of the preserve, which spans nearly 140 square miles (363 square kilometers).

The agreement signed by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in part recognizes the pueblo’s rights to occupy and use a nearly 5-square-mile (13-square-kilometer) area for traditional cultural and religious purposes. It follows a 2023 ruling by the court that acknowledged the pueblo’s title to what is known as the Banco Bonito area.

Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo and the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary, said in a statement that the nation’s lands have been central to the cultural and spiritual practices of Indigenous people for generations.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Friday it has reached a proposed settlement pact related to three lawsuits filed by shareholders on behalf of the company over the handling of prescription opioids.

According to the terms of the settlement that were disclosed in a regulatory filing, insurance carriers will pay Walmart $123 million, excluding any attorneys’ fees and expenses awarded by the court to the plaintiffs’ counsel. Walmart would also maintain certain corporate governance practices for at least five years, according to the filing.

The settlement doesn’t include any admission of liability by Walmart. It’s subject to court approval.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — The death of a Virginia man who was restrained in jail has been ruled a homicide, while the deputies involved no longer work for the local sheriff’s office, authorities said Friday.

News outlets in southeastern Virginia report that Rolin Hill, 34, died at a hospital several days after being restrained at the Virginia Beach jail in June.

Hill had been arrested on charges of trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office said in a statement at the time. The office said Hill was denied bond and booked into the facility, where he became uncooperative and combative.

Hill was restrained before he experienced a medical emergency and was taken to the hospital, the sheriff’s office said in June. Virginia Beach Sheriff Rocky Holcomb said his office was investigating but also asked the Virginia State Police to conduct an independent review,

Donna Price, a spokesperson for the Tidewater Medical Examiner’s Office, told The Virginian-Pilot on Friday that Hill died from “positional and mechanical asphyxia due to restraint with neck and torso compression.”

One of the largest solar projects in the U.S. opened in Texas on Friday, backed by what Google said is the largest solar electricity purchase it has ever made.

Google executive Ben Sloss said at the ribbon cutting, about two hours south of Dallas, that the corporation has a responsibility to bring renewable, carbon-free electricity online at the same time it opens operations that will use that power. Google expects to spend $16 billion through 2040 globally to purchase clean energy, he said.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who attended, said the solar project is a posterchild for the administration’s efforts to incentivize manufacturers and developers to locate energy projects in the U.S.

“Sometimes when you are in the middle of history, it’s hard to tell, because you are in the middle of it,” she said. “But I’m telling you right now that we are in the middle of history being made.”

SB Energy built three solar farms side by side, the “Orion Solar Belt,” in Buckholts, Texas. Combined, they will be able to provide 875 megawatts of clean energy. That is nearly the size of a typical nuclear facility. In total, Google has contracted with clean energy developers to bring more than 2,800 megawatts of new wind and solar projects to the state, which it says exceeds the amount of power required for its operations there.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20973709

US charges former Indian intelligence officer named Vikash Yadav

Charges say Yadav directed plot against Sikh separatist in US

US case is separate from case of another Sikh separatist killed in Canada

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The United States has charged a former Indian intelligence officer for allegedly directing a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist and Indian critic in New York City, with the FBI warning against such a retaliation aimed at a U.S. resident.

An indictment of Vikash Yadav was ordered to be unsealed on Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department indictment mentioned Yadav as a former officer in India's Research and Analysis Wing spy service.

Washington has alleged that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen.

"The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the U.S. for exercising their constitutionally protected rights," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.

The indictment alleged that beginning in May 2023, Yadav, described as an employee of the Indian government at the time, worked together with others in India and abroad to direct a plot against Pannun. The indictment described Pannun as a political activist, a critic of the Indian government and an advocate for a separate homeland for Sikhs.

India has labeled Sikh separatists as "terrorists" and as threats to its security. Sikh separatists demand an independent homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of India. An insurgency in India during the 1980s and 1990s killed tens of thousands.

Yadav, 39, was still in India and the United States was expected to seek his extradition, the Washington Post reported, citing American officials.

Texas Supreme Court halts execution of Robert Roberson

Lawmakers subpoena Roberson to testify, creating unprecedented legal clash

Roberson guilt questioned by many including lawmakers, lead detective in his case

Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily halted the execution of a man scheduled to become the first person to be put to death in the United States for murder attributed to shaken baby syndrome, according to a court document.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a bipartisan group of state lawmakers who asked that the execution, scheduled to take place on Thursday evening, be delayed.

The lawmakers requested the delay after issuing an unprecedented subpoena on Wednesday for death row inmate Robert Roberson to appear before them and answer questions about his case.

Texas representatives Joe Moody and Jeff Leach, who orchestrated Roberson's subpoena and have championed his cause, praised the Texas Supreme Court decision in a written statement.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who says she worked as a hair-and-makeup stylist for Garth Brooks alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that he raped her in a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.

The woman does not use her name and goes by Jane Roe in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Brooks forcefully denied the allegations in a statement and acknowledged he tried to get a court to stop Thursday’s lawsuit from being filed.

The woman says in the lawsuit she had worked for Brooks’ wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999, and had started also working for Brooks in 2017.

WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio (AP) — Stubborn drought in Ohio and the shifting weather patterns influenced by climate change appear to be affecting North America’s largest native fruit: the pawpaw.

Avocado-sized with a taste sometimes described as a cross between a mango and banana, the pawpaw is beloved by many but rarely seen in grocery stores in the U.S. due to its short shelf life. The fruit grows in various places in the eastern half of North America, from Ontario to Florida. But in parts of Ohio, which hosts an annual festival dedicated to the fruit, and Kentucky, some growers this year are reporting earlier-than-normal harvests and bitter-tasting fruit, a possible effect of the extreme weather from the spring freezes to drought that has hit the region.

Take Valerie Libbey’s orchard in Washington Court House, about an hour’s drive from Columbus. Libbey grows 100 pawpaw trees and said she was surprised to see the fruit dropping from trees in the first week of August instead of mid-September.

“I had walked into the orchard to do my regular irrigation and the smell of the fruit just hit me,” said Libbey, who added that this year’s harvest period was much shorter than in previous years and the fruits themselves were smaller and more bitter.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Peace Corps volunteers returned to El Salvador Friday for the first time since the American force left in 2016 because of violence in the Central American country.

It was the latest sign of a thaw in U.S. relations with El Salvador, whose President Nayib Bukele was once shunned because of his harsh crackdown on street gangs.

It was also a sign of how much Bukele’s widespread arrests of suspected gang members - which also jailed a considerable number of apparently innocent young men - has reduced the country’s once-fearsome homicide rate.

The Peace Corps said the first nine volunteers would work on community economic development, education, and youth initiatives. All nine had previously worked two-year stints in other Central American countries.

“Today is not just a celebration, it’s a commitment to continue building on the decades-long partnership with the people of El Salvador,” said Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn.

More than 2,300 Peace Corps Volunteers had worked in El Salvador since 1962. The Peace Corps volunteers left after El Salvador’s gang-fueled homicide rate reached a high of 106 murders per 100,000 inhabitants on 2015. That year there were 6,658 killings in the country of 6.3 million.

Under a state of emergency originally declared in 2022 and still in effect, Bukele’s government has rounded up about 81,900 suspected gang members in sweeps that rights groups say are often arbitrary, based on a person’s appearance or where they live. The government has had to release about 7,000 people because of a lack of evidence.

Already the longest-lived of the 45 men to serve as U.S. president, Jimmy Carter is about to reach the century mark.

The 39th president, who remains under home hospice care, will turn 100 on Tuesday, Oct. 1, celebrating in the same south Georgia town where he was born in 1924.

Here are some notable markers for Carter, the nation and the world over his long life.

By all accounts, Milagra the “miracle” California condor shouldn’t be alive today.

But now at nearly 17 months old, she is one of four of the giant endangered birds who will get to stretch their wings in the wild as part of a release this weekend near the Grand Canyon.

There is no more appropriate name for a young bird that has managed to survive against all odds. Her mother died from the worst outbreak of avian flu in U.S. history soon after she laid her egg and her father nearly succumbed to the same fate while struggling to incubate the egg alone.

Milagra, which means miracle in Spanish, was rescued from her nest and hatched in captivity thanks to the care of her foster condor parents.