New York
Judge orders restoration of Voice of America, putting hundreds of journalists back to work
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since President Donald Trump issued an executive order to shut it down.
A week ago, Lamberth said Kari Lake, who had been Trump’s choice to lead the agency, did not have the legal authority to do what she had done at Voice of America. In Tuesday’s decision, Lamberth ruled on the actions she had taken to respond to Trump’s order, essentially shelving 1,042 of VOA’s 1,147 employees.
“Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision,” Lamberth wrote.
There was no immediate comment on the decision by the agency overseeing Voice of America. Lake had denounced Lamberth’s March 7 ruling, saying it would be appealed. Since then, Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to run USAGM. That requires Senate approval, a step that was not taken with Lake.
Patsy Widakuswara, Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and a plaintiff in the lawsuit to restore it, said she is deeply grateful for the decision.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” she said.
“We know the road to restoring VOA’s operations and reputation will be long and difficult,” she said. “We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”
Voice of America has transmitted news coverage to countries around the world since its formation in World War II, often in countries with no tradition of a free press. Before Trump’s executive order, VOA had operated in 49 different languages, broadcasting to 362 million people.
Alabama
In Black pastor’s arrest, State Supreme Court rules police can demand to see identification
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Ruling in the case of a Black pastor who was arrested while watering his neighbor’s flowers, the Alabama Supreme Court said police can demand to see identification during a stop if they are dissatisfied with a person’s verbal answers.
Justices issued the 6-3 decision last week after a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit about Michael Jennings’ 2022 arrest asked the court to clarify whether officers can demand to see a person’s identification under the state’s “stop-and-identify” law. The minister was arrested when he declined to show Childersburg police identification.
Justice Will Sellers wrote that state law, “does not exclude from its purview a request for physical identification when a suspect provides an incomplete or unsatisfactory response to an officer’s demand to provide his or her name and address and an explanation of his or her action.”
In May 2022, officers questioned Jennings in his neighbor’s yard. Another neighbor had called 911 because she saw an unfamiliar car and a “young Black male” around the house. Officers who responded found Jennings watering flowers and asked what he was doing.
Jennings identified himself as “Pastor Jennings” and told officers that he lived across the street and was caring for his neighbor’s yard while they were vacationing. Officers asked to see his identification and Jennings refused, saying he hadn’t done anything wrong. The woman who called 911 also later identified Jennings as another neighbor.
Jennings was charged obstructing a government operation. The charge was later dismissed.
Jennings sued the city and the officers for false arrest. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision. U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor then asked the state Supreme Court to determine whether the state law prohibits an officer from demanding identification if the person gives an incomplete or unsatisfactory response to questions.
Matthew Cavedon, director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, said the decision is a “significant expansion of government power over people.”
The Cato Institute and the American Civil Liberties Union had written an amicus brief in the case arguing the statute does not authorize any demands for physical identification. Cavedon said the case centers on what happens if a person gives an answer that the officer doesn’t find satisfactory.
“The significance now for Alabamians is if an officer’s not satisfied with whatever answer you give, I sure hope you’ve got your driver’s license or passport on you,” he said.
New York
Mamdani administration wants to pull legal support for ex-NYC Mayor Adams in sexual assault lawsuit
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration wants to stop representing Eric Adams in a lawsuit that alleges the former mayor sexually assaulted a woman more than three decades ago, according to a court filing Tuesday.
The move comes just a few months after Mamdani took office, following a bitter campaign season last year that had the two Democrats taking turns bashing each other in often caustic and personal terms.
The suit, filed while Adams was still in office, accuses the former mayor of sexually assaulting a woman, Lorna Beach-Mathura, in 1993 when he was a police officer, alleging that he demanded a sexual favor in exchange for his help in advancing her career in the police department. Adams has vehemently denied the allegation and said he does not remember meeting her.
The Associated Press does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault in stories unless they consent to being named, as Beach-Mathura has done through her attorney.
In a statement, Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, said the former mayor "remains confident that the facts will ultimately prevail."
The motion from the city's corporation counsel to withdraw from the civil case argues that Adams is not entitled to city-funded legal support because he was "not acting within the scope of his City employment" at the time of the alleged assault.
A spokesperson for Mamdani said Tuesday that the move was "made independently by the Corporation Counsel, as is required by law" and that the mayor "did not direct the Corporation Counsel to undertake this review, nor did he instruct the Corporation Counsel to reach a particular determination."
"Of course, Mayor Mamdani has full faith and confidence in the Corporation Counsel's independent judgment and in his ability to reach the appropriate and just legal conclusions," said the spokesperson, Dora Pekec.
Nevertheless, there has been no love lost between Mamdani and Adams.
Adams — who bowed out of last year's Democratic primary following a federal corruption case that was ultimately dismissed after an extraordinary intervention from the Trump administration — ran for reelection as an independent, casting Mamdani as an out-of-touch liberal child of privilege.
Mamdani, meanwhile, sought to frame Adams as a corrupt leader whose warm relationship with the Trump administration compromised his ability to serve the city.
Adams eventually withdrew from the race altogether, endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's candidacy, but he amped up his attacks against Mamdani in a bid to halt the young progressive's political rise. At one point, Adams appeared to suggest without explanation that a terror attack could become more likely in the city if Mamdani was elected.
"New York can't be Europe, folks," Adams said at a campaign event where he endorsed Cuomo. "I don't know what is wrong with people. You see what's playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism," he continued, citing examples of recent terror attacks in Europe and Africa.
Mamdani went on to soundly defeat Cuomo in the city's mayoral election in November, becoming the city's first Muslim mayor and its youngest leader in generations. In the months since, Adams has continued to jab at his successor in social media posts.
In addition to the request to withdraw from Adams' case, the city's law department recently said it will no longer pay for legal representation for two close allies of Adams in separate matters.
The case against Adams was brought under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that extended the time limit to bring sexual assault lawsuits. The woman first entered a claim in November 2023, just before the law's expiration, and months later filed a detailed lawsuit against Adams.
At the time of the filings, the city's corporation counsel described the allegations as "ludicrous" and said it expected "full vindication in court."
New York
Transit officials sue Trump administration to restore subway project funding
NEW YORK (AP) — The transit agency in charge of New York City’s subway system sued the Trump administration Tuesday, accusing it of breach of contract for withholding almost $60 million in federal funding that was supposed to help build new stations in Manhattan.
The suit from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the latest in a series of legal battles between the federal government and officials in New York and New Jersey over funding for transportation infrastructure projects in the region — including a reconstruction project for New York’s Penn Station, a new rail tunnel between the two states and New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion fee on drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan.
The latest litigation, filed in the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, said that since the government last year announced it was suspending funding for a project to the extend the Second Avenue subway line, the U.S. Department of Transportation has withheld over $58.6 million — “with more to become due soon.”
The project is supposed to cost $7.7 billion, with the federal government paying around $3.4 billion of that, the suit says. Without the federal funds, the state agency has had to divert money from elsewhere, but if the suspension continues, the work will eventually come to “a screeching halt,” the suit argues.
New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul argued the situation has the “entire project at risk.”
“Once again, New York has been forced to sue the Trump Administration to stop them from erratically shutting off billions of dollars in previously committed infrastructure funding,” she said in a statement.
In response to the lawsuit, the federal DOT said it is “committed to ensuring hardworking taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly. We are considering all legal avenues.”
The Republican administration announced in October a hold on $18 billion in funding for the subway extension as well as the new tunnel beneath the Hudson River, citing a government shutdown and the administration’s concern that funding was being unconstitutionally spent based on diversity, equity and inclusion principles.
A federal judge in February ordered the administration to restore funding to the tunnel.
The first section of the long-planned Second Avenue line opened in 2017 with new stations on the Upper East Side. The new project would add three stops to extend the line into East Harlem.
Judge orders restoration of Voice of America, putting hundreds of journalists back to work
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since President Donald Trump issued an executive order to shut it down.
A week ago, Lamberth said Kari Lake, who had been Trump’s choice to lead the agency, did not have the legal authority to do what she had done at Voice of America. In Tuesday’s decision, Lamberth ruled on the actions she had taken to respond to Trump’s order, essentially shelving 1,042 of VOA’s 1,147 employees.
“Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision,” Lamberth wrote.
There was no immediate comment on the decision by the agency overseeing Voice of America. Lake had denounced Lamberth’s March 7 ruling, saying it would be appealed. Since then, Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to run USAGM. That requires Senate approval, a step that was not taken with Lake.
Patsy Widakuswara, Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and a plaintiff in the lawsuit to restore it, said she is deeply grateful for the decision.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” she said.
“We know the road to restoring VOA’s operations and reputation will be long and difficult,” she said. “We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”
Voice of America has transmitted news coverage to countries around the world since its formation in World War II, often in countries with no tradition of a free press. Before Trump’s executive order, VOA had operated in 49 different languages, broadcasting to 362 million people.
Alabama
In Black pastor’s arrest, State Supreme Court rules police can demand to see identification
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Ruling in the case of a Black pastor who was arrested while watering his neighbor’s flowers, the Alabama Supreme Court said police can demand to see identification during a stop if they are dissatisfied with a person’s verbal answers.
Justices issued the 6-3 decision last week after a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit about Michael Jennings’ 2022 arrest asked the court to clarify whether officers can demand to see a person’s identification under the state’s “stop-and-identify” law. The minister was arrested when he declined to show Childersburg police identification.
Justice Will Sellers wrote that state law, “does not exclude from its purview a request for physical identification when a suspect provides an incomplete or unsatisfactory response to an officer’s demand to provide his or her name and address and an explanation of his or her action.”
In May 2022, officers questioned Jennings in his neighbor’s yard. Another neighbor had called 911 because she saw an unfamiliar car and a “young Black male” around the house. Officers who responded found Jennings watering flowers and asked what he was doing.
Jennings identified himself as “Pastor Jennings” and told officers that he lived across the street and was caring for his neighbor’s yard while they were vacationing. Officers asked to see his identification and Jennings refused, saying he hadn’t done anything wrong. The woman who called 911 also later identified Jennings as another neighbor.
Jennings was charged obstructing a government operation. The charge was later dismissed.
Jennings sued the city and the officers for false arrest. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision. U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor then asked the state Supreme Court to determine whether the state law prohibits an officer from demanding identification if the person gives an incomplete or unsatisfactory response to questions.
Matthew Cavedon, director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, said the decision is a “significant expansion of government power over people.”
The Cato Institute and the American Civil Liberties Union had written an amicus brief in the case arguing the statute does not authorize any demands for physical identification. Cavedon said the case centers on what happens if a person gives an answer that the officer doesn’t find satisfactory.
“The significance now for Alabamians is if an officer’s not satisfied with whatever answer you give, I sure hope you’ve got your driver’s license or passport on you,” he said.
New York
Mamdani administration wants to pull legal support for ex-NYC Mayor Adams in sexual assault lawsuit
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration wants to stop representing Eric Adams in a lawsuit that alleges the former mayor sexually assaulted a woman more than three decades ago, according to a court filing Tuesday.
The move comes just a few months after Mamdani took office, following a bitter campaign season last year that had the two Democrats taking turns bashing each other in often caustic and personal terms.
The suit, filed while Adams was still in office, accuses the former mayor of sexually assaulting a woman, Lorna Beach-Mathura, in 1993 when he was a police officer, alleging that he demanded a sexual favor in exchange for his help in advancing her career in the police department. Adams has vehemently denied the allegation and said he does not remember meeting her.
The Associated Press does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault in stories unless they consent to being named, as Beach-Mathura has done through her attorney.
In a statement, Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, said the former mayor "remains confident that the facts will ultimately prevail."
The motion from the city's corporation counsel to withdraw from the civil case argues that Adams is not entitled to city-funded legal support because he was "not acting within the scope of his City employment" at the time of the alleged assault.
A spokesperson for Mamdani said Tuesday that the move was "made independently by the Corporation Counsel, as is required by law" and that the mayor "did not direct the Corporation Counsel to undertake this review, nor did he instruct the Corporation Counsel to reach a particular determination."
"Of course, Mayor Mamdani has full faith and confidence in the Corporation Counsel's independent judgment and in his ability to reach the appropriate and just legal conclusions," said the spokesperson, Dora Pekec.
Nevertheless, there has been no love lost between Mamdani and Adams.
Adams — who bowed out of last year's Democratic primary following a federal corruption case that was ultimately dismissed after an extraordinary intervention from the Trump administration — ran for reelection as an independent, casting Mamdani as an out-of-touch liberal child of privilege.
Mamdani, meanwhile, sought to frame Adams as a corrupt leader whose warm relationship with the Trump administration compromised his ability to serve the city.
Adams eventually withdrew from the race altogether, endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's candidacy, but he amped up his attacks against Mamdani in a bid to halt the young progressive's political rise. At one point, Adams appeared to suggest without explanation that a terror attack could become more likely in the city if Mamdani was elected.
"New York can't be Europe, folks," Adams said at a campaign event where he endorsed Cuomo. "I don't know what is wrong with people. You see what's playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism," he continued, citing examples of recent terror attacks in Europe and Africa.
Mamdani went on to soundly defeat Cuomo in the city's mayoral election in November, becoming the city's first Muslim mayor and its youngest leader in generations. In the months since, Adams has continued to jab at his successor in social media posts.
In addition to the request to withdraw from Adams' case, the city's law department recently said it will no longer pay for legal representation for two close allies of Adams in separate matters.
The case against Adams was brought under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that extended the time limit to bring sexual assault lawsuits. The woman first entered a claim in November 2023, just before the law's expiration, and months later filed a detailed lawsuit against Adams.
At the time of the filings, the city's corporation counsel described the allegations as "ludicrous" and said it expected "full vindication in court."
New York
Transit officials sue Trump administration to restore subway project funding
NEW YORK (AP) — The transit agency in charge of New York City’s subway system sued the Trump administration Tuesday, accusing it of breach of contract for withholding almost $60 million in federal funding that was supposed to help build new stations in Manhattan.
The suit from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the latest in a series of legal battles between the federal government and officials in New York and New Jersey over funding for transportation infrastructure projects in the region — including a reconstruction project for New York’s Penn Station, a new rail tunnel between the two states and New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion fee on drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan.
The latest litigation, filed in the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, said that since the government last year announced it was suspending funding for a project to the extend the Second Avenue subway line, the U.S. Department of Transportation has withheld over $58.6 million — “with more to become due soon.”
The project is supposed to cost $7.7 billion, with the federal government paying around $3.4 billion of that, the suit says. Without the federal funds, the state agency has had to divert money from elsewhere, but if the suspension continues, the work will eventually come to “a screeching halt,” the suit argues.
New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul argued the situation has the “entire project at risk.”
“Once again, New York has been forced to sue the Trump Administration to stop them from erratically shutting off billions of dollars in previously committed infrastructure funding,” she said in a statement.
In response to the lawsuit, the federal DOT said it is “committed to ensuring hardworking taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly. We are considering all legal avenues.”
The Republican administration announced in October a hold on $18 billion in funding for the subway extension as well as the new tunnel beneath the Hudson River, citing a government shutdown and the administration’s concern that funding was being unconstitutionally spent based on diversity, equity and inclusion principles.
A federal judge in February ordered the administration to restore funding to the tunnel.
The first section of the long-planned Second Avenue line opened in 2017 with new stations on the Upper East Side. The new project would add three stops to extend the line into East Harlem.
