Florida
Judge seeks settlement in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ civil rights lawsuit
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida wants civil rights attorneys and lawyers for the U.S. and for Florida to meet next month to hammer out a settlement in a lawsuit over whether detainees at an immigration center in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are getting adequate access to legal representatives.
During a Monday status hearing, U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell set a conference for Dec. 16-17 in her Fort Myers courtroom.
“I think we’re closer on a lot of issues than we were before,” Polster Chappell said. “And I would think that the parties can come to the table and reasonably come to some agreements that aren’t going to be overly burdensome on the defendants but also will allow the plaintiffs to have the rights that they deserve.”
Attorneys representing detainees at the facility are seeking a preliminary injunction to make it easier for their clients to meet and communicate with them. The detention center was built last summer at a remote airstrip in the Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Eunice Cho, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Monday that detainees’ attorneys must make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours. She pointed out that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys have made an appointment to see them and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees are unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.
Nicholas J.P. Meros, an attorney for the state, said most of the concerns initially raised by the detainees and their attorneys have been addressed and that previous delays were due to trying to construct a facility for thousands of detainees in a remote area with little infrastructure.
The lawsuit is one of three federal cases. In an environmental lawsuit, a federal appellate court panel in September allowed the center to continue operating by putting on hold a lower court’s preliminary injunction ordering it to wind down by the end of October.
A third lawsuit claims immigration is a federal issue and that Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility.
President Donald Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations. While the facility was built and operated by the state and its private contractors, federal officials have approved reimbursing Florida for $608 million.
Florida
August trial set in case challenging Miami land transfer for Trump presidential library
A trial has been set for August 2026 in a lawsuit seeking to block the transfer of a parcel of prime Miami real estate to be used for President Donald Trump’s presidential library.
The decision Monday by Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz in Miami will further delay Miami Dade College’s plans to formally transfer the sizable plot of land to the state of Florida, which intends to gift it to the foundation for the planned library.
Miami activist Marvin Dunn, a retired professor and chronicler of local Black history, filed the lawsuit arguing that the college board violated Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law by not providing sufficient notice for its special meeting on Sept. 23, when it voted to give up the nearly 3-acre (1.2-hectare) property.
Last month, Ruiz sided with Dunn and granted a temporary injunction that bars the transfer of the property, at least for now.
Attorneys for the college had asked the judge to stay the trial proceedings pending an appellate court’s review. Instead, Ruiz scheduled the trial to begin Aug. 3, though she acknowledged that could change, depending on how the appeals court proceeds.
The property is a developer’s dream and is valued at more than $67 million, according to a 2025 assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser. One real estate expert wagered that the parcel — one of the last undeveloped lots on an iconic stretch of palm tree-lined Biscayne Boulevard — could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.
Texas
Lawsuit halts state’s $3 billion dementia fund
The state’s new $3 billion dementia research fund has been blocked temporarily by a trio of voters who claim voting machines used in this month’s election are faulty.
The plaintiffs — Shannon Huggins, Lars Kuslich and Jose Silvester — filed the action Nov. 13 in Travis County against the Texas Secretary of State’s office. In it, they claim that some voting machines were not certified by federal law and that the election results should be scrapped and a new election be ordered.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick championed the fund during the legislative session and listed it as a priority for lawmakers. On Wednesday, he slammed the plaintiffs for singling out Proposition 14, which was the funding of the research effort.
“Surprisingly, none of the other propositions were challenged in court under this pretense,” Patrick said in a statement. “This attack on DPRIT is disgusting and is a disservice to the roughly 500,000 Texans who suffer from some form of dementia, and their families who suffer along with them.”
The plaintiffs, who are representing themselves without an attorney, do not say why they are only protesting the results that overwhelmingly approved the funding of the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT) and not the other 16 propositions Texans considered on the same ballot. But, they note the large amount of taxpayer money involved. “As Texas taxpayers, Contestants suffer a distinct injury from the $3 billion diversion of general revenue triggered by proposition 14’s passage from illegal votes,” the lawsuit states.
Under current law, constitutional amendments can’t go into effect if their election results are challenged in court. House Bill 16, which passed the Legislature in September, changes that but it doesn’t become law until Dec. 4. Because HB 16 isn’t in effect yet, DPRIT’s funding mechanism is halted.
State officials in recent years have bemoaned the tactic of using lawsuits to halt constitutional amendments from going into effect despite voter approval. In 2023, right-wing activists filed multiple lawsuits to block constitutional amendments in the days after the election, also based on claims — considered false at that time — that cast doubt on the state’s voting equipment.
In the most recent lawsuit, two of the three plaintiffs — Huggins and Kuslich — have filed previous challenges about voting machines in other elections.
Patrick called the plaintiffs’ efforts lawsuit abuse. “This frivolous lawsuit has prevented the DPRIT constitutional amendment from taking effect, despite Proposition 14’s passage with nearly 70% of the vote!” Patrick said.
He also urged the legal system to take expedient action to allow DPRIT to become law.
The Texas Tribune reached out to the plaintiffs for additional comment but they did not immediately respond.
By establishing this research fund, Texas hopes to attract physicians, researchers, and experts in the field of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related disorders in this state, to Texas. The institute would research all brain diseases and be governed by a board of physicians and scientists with expertise in brain research. Grants could be awarded for projects addressing the causes, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of patients, as well as creating new medicines and new facilities to help treat them.
The initial $3 billion that voters approved would come from the state’s surplus or rainy day fund.
Texas is growing older faster than the rest of the nation. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that 459,000 Texans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, about 12% of the state’s population over the age of 65. Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, accounts for about 80% of cases, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. While a 2023 study shows that the eastern and southeastern United States have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s, Texas is one of three states that has the highest estimated number of older residents who are at risk of Alzheimer’s.
California
Court order prevents LA coroner from releasing details of teen’s body found in singer d4vd’s Tesla
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police have blocked the county coroner’s office from releasing details about the death of a teen girl whose body was found in the trunk of a car registered to the singer d4vd, the medical examiner’s office said Monday.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found dead on Sept. 8 in an impounded Tesla in Los Angeles just after her 15th birthday. Several news outlets reported the car belonged to d4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, 20.
The medical examiner’s office said in a statement that it has received a “court order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), to place a security hold” on Rivas Hernandez’s case. The order issued on Friday demands that “no records or details associated with the case, including the cause and manner of death and Medical Examiner report, can be released or posted on the website until further notice,” the statement said.
The order came several days after multiple Los Angeles TV stations reported police consider the Houston-born alt-pop singer a suspect, citing anonymous sources. The LA Police Department has not confirmed that and d4vd’s lawyer Blair Berk did not respond to request for comment on Monday.
LAPD Capt. Mike Bland said the security hold was not sought to undermine transparency, but to maintain the integrity of the police investigation, which is ongoing by detectives with the Robbery Homicide Division.
“It was done so that our investigators get the information before the media and the public,” Bland said.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said such security holds are “virtually unheard of in other counties” in California.
“We are dedicated to serving our community with full transparency; however, the law precludes us from doing so while the court order remains in this case,” Ukpo said.
Rivas Hernandez’s body “was found severely decomposed,” the medical examiner’s office said in a September statement, and she had likely been “deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found.”
Rivas Hernandez was last seen in April 2024 in Lake Elsinore where she was raised, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
D4vd gained popularity among Gen Z for his blend of indie rock, R&B, and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.
D4vd had been on tour for his first full-length album, “Withered,” released in April. The last two North American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was a subsequent European tour that was to have begun in Norway on Oct. 1.
Judge seeks settlement in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ civil rights lawsuit
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida wants civil rights attorneys and lawyers for the U.S. and for Florida to meet next month to hammer out a settlement in a lawsuit over whether detainees at an immigration center in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are getting adequate access to legal representatives.
During a Monday status hearing, U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell set a conference for Dec. 16-17 in her Fort Myers courtroom.
“I think we’re closer on a lot of issues than we were before,” Polster Chappell said. “And I would think that the parties can come to the table and reasonably come to some agreements that aren’t going to be overly burdensome on the defendants but also will allow the plaintiffs to have the rights that they deserve.”
Attorneys representing detainees at the facility are seeking a preliminary injunction to make it easier for their clients to meet and communicate with them. The detention center was built last summer at a remote airstrip in the Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Eunice Cho, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Monday that detainees’ attorneys must make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours. She pointed out that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys have made an appointment to see them and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees are unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.
Nicholas J.P. Meros, an attorney for the state, said most of the concerns initially raised by the detainees and their attorneys have been addressed and that previous delays were due to trying to construct a facility for thousands of detainees in a remote area with little infrastructure.
The lawsuit is one of three federal cases. In an environmental lawsuit, a federal appellate court panel in September allowed the center to continue operating by putting on hold a lower court’s preliminary injunction ordering it to wind down by the end of October.
A third lawsuit claims immigration is a federal issue and that Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility.
President Donald Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations. While the facility was built and operated by the state and its private contractors, federal officials have approved reimbursing Florida for $608 million.
Florida
August trial set in case challenging Miami land transfer for Trump presidential library
A trial has been set for August 2026 in a lawsuit seeking to block the transfer of a parcel of prime Miami real estate to be used for President Donald Trump’s presidential library.
The decision Monday by Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz in Miami will further delay Miami Dade College’s plans to formally transfer the sizable plot of land to the state of Florida, which intends to gift it to the foundation for the planned library.
Miami activist Marvin Dunn, a retired professor and chronicler of local Black history, filed the lawsuit arguing that the college board violated Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law by not providing sufficient notice for its special meeting on Sept. 23, when it voted to give up the nearly 3-acre (1.2-hectare) property.
Last month, Ruiz sided with Dunn and granted a temporary injunction that bars the transfer of the property, at least for now.
Attorneys for the college had asked the judge to stay the trial proceedings pending an appellate court’s review. Instead, Ruiz scheduled the trial to begin Aug. 3, though she acknowledged that could change, depending on how the appeals court proceeds.
The property is a developer’s dream and is valued at more than $67 million, according to a 2025 assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser. One real estate expert wagered that the parcel — one of the last undeveloped lots on an iconic stretch of palm tree-lined Biscayne Boulevard — could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.
Texas
Lawsuit halts state’s $3 billion dementia fund
The state’s new $3 billion dementia research fund has been blocked temporarily by a trio of voters who claim voting machines used in this month’s election are faulty.
The plaintiffs — Shannon Huggins, Lars Kuslich and Jose Silvester — filed the action Nov. 13 in Travis County against the Texas Secretary of State’s office. In it, they claim that some voting machines were not certified by federal law and that the election results should be scrapped and a new election be ordered.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick championed the fund during the legislative session and listed it as a priority for lawmakers. On Wednesday, he slammed the plaintiffs for singling out Proposition 14, which was the funding of the research effort.
“Surprisingly, none of the other propositions were challenged in court under this pretense,” Patrick said in a statement. “This attack on DPRIT is disgusting and is a disservice to the roughly 500,000 Texans who suffer from some form of dementia, and their families who suffer along with them.”
The plaintiffs, who are representing themselves without an attorney, do not say why they are only protesting the results that overwhelmingly approved the funding of the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT) and not the other 16 propositions Texans considered on the same ballot. But, they note the large amount of taxpayer money involved. “As Texas taxpayers, Contestants suffer a distinct injury from the $3 billion diversion of general revenue triggered by proposition 14’s passage from illegal votes,” the lawsuit states.
Under current law, constitutional amendments can’t go into effect if their election results are challenged in court. House Bill 16, which passed the Legislature in September, changes that but it doesn’t become law until Dec. 4. Because HB 16 isn’t in effect yet, DPRIT’s funding mechanism is halted.
State officials in recent years have bemoaned the tactic of using lawsuits to halt constitutional amendments from going into effect despite voter approval. In 2023, right-wing activists filed multiple lawsuits to block constitutional amendments in the days after the election, also based on claims — considered false at that time — that cast doubt on the state’s voting equipment.
In the most recent lawsuit, two of the three plaintiffs — Huggins and Kuslich — have filed previous challenges about voting machines in other elections.
Patrick called the plaintiffs’ efforts lawsuit abuse. “This frivolous lawsuit has prevented the DPRIT constitutional amendment from taking effect, despite Proposition 14’s passage with nearly 70% of the vote!” Patrick said.
He also urged the legal system to take expedient action to allow DPRIT to become law.
The Texas Tribune reached out to the plaintiffs for additional comment but they did not immediately respond.
By establishing this research fund, Texas hopes to attract physicians, researchers, and experts in the field of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related disorders in this state, to Texas. The institute would research all brain diseases and be governed by a board of physicians and scientists with expertise in brain research. Grants could be awarded for projects addressing the causes, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of patients, as well as creating new medicines and new facilities to help treat them.
The initial $3 billion that voters approved would come from the state’s surplus or rainy day fund.
Texas is growing older faster than the rest of the nation. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that 459,000 Texans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, about 12% of the state’s population over the age of 65. Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, accounts for about 80% of cases, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. While a 2023 study shows that the eastern and southeastern United States have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s, Texas is one of three states that has the highest estimated number of older residents who are at risk of Alzheimer’s.
California
Court order prevents LA coroner from releasing details of teen’s body found in singer d4vd’s Tesla
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police have blocked the county coroner’s office from releasing details about the death of a teen girl whose body was found in the trunk of a car registered to the singer d4vd, the medical examiner’s office said Monday.
Celeste Rivas Hernandez was found dead on Sept. 8 in an impounded Tesla in Los Angeles just after her 15th birthday. Several news outlets reported the car belonged to d4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, 20.
The medical examiner’s office said in a statement that it has received a “court order, initiated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), to place a security hold” on Rivas Hernandez’s case. The order issued on Friday demands that “no records or details associated with the case, including the cause and manner of death and Medical Examiner report, can be released or posted on the website until further notice,” the statement said.
The order came several days after multiple Los Angeles TV stations reported police consider the Houston-born alt-pop singer a suspect, citing anonymous sources. The LA Police Department has not confirmed that and d4vd’s lawyer Blair Berk did not respond to request for comment on Monday.
LAPD Capt. Mike Bland said the security hold was not sought to undermine transparency, but to maintain the integrity of the police investigation, which is ongoing by detectives with the Robbery Homicide Division.
“It was done so that our investigators get the information before the media and the public,” Bland said.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said such security holds are “virtually unheard of in other counties” in California.
“We are dedicated to serving our community with full transparency; however, the law precludes us from doing so while the court order remains in this case,” Ukpo said.
Rivas Hernandez’s body “was found severely decomposed,” the medical examiner’s office said in a September statement, and she had likely been “deceased inside the vehicle for an extended period of time before being found.”
Rivas Hernandez was last seen in April 2024 in Lake Elsinore where she was raised, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
D4vd gained popularity among Gen Z for his blend of indie rock, R&B, and lo-fi pop. He went viral on TikTok in 2022 with the hit “Romantic Homicide,” which peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.
He then signed with Darkroom and Interscope Records and released his debut EP “Petals to Thorns” and a follow-up, “The Lost Petals,” in 2023.
D4vd had been on tour for his first full-length album, “Withered,” released in April. The last two North American shows, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with a scheduled performance at LA’s Grammy Museum, were canceled, as was a subsequent European tour that was to have begun in Norway on Oct. 1.
