Arkansas
Lawsuit claims group rejected woman’s land purchase due to Jewish ancestry, Black husband
A real estate broker says an organization denied her the opportunity to purchase land in an Arkansas development because of her Jewish ancestry, and because she has a Black husband and biracial children, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.
The lawsuit, filed in Arkansas on behalf of Michelle Walker, names Return to the Land, a development whose owners have said they must personally confirm that applicants are white before they are accepted, its Ozarks chapter and five officers. It says Return to the Land founders are “explicitly attempting to establish an all-white community.”
The lawsuit also calls Return to the Land a white nationalist organization and says it’s in violation of federal and state fair housing and civil rights acts.
“Its founders believe that white people are genetically superior to other races, advance the view that Jewish people are engaged in a plot to eliminate the white race, and advocate for segregated white communities for the purpose of creating a separate all-white nation state that will help avoid ‘white genocide,’” the lawsuit said.
For decades, Blacks and other minorities were restricted from buying or renting homes in some neighborhoods or areas due to racial covenants built into mortgages and leases. Prospective homebuyers also faced redlining in which mortgages and loans were denied based on race.
Walker, a real estate broker who lives in St. Louis, applied to buy land last year in the town of Ravenden, Arkansas, due to its below-market price. Ravenden is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock and just south of the state line with Missouri.
She was asked questions during the application process about her ancestry, religion and her family, according to the lawsuit.
Walker is white and belongs to a Christian church. Her Jewish ancestry is on her mother’s side.
She is represented in the lawsuit by the Relman Colfax law firm, the Legal Defense Fund, and Legal Aid of Arkansas.
Return to the Land did not respond to an email Wednesday from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
On its website, Return to the Land promotes itself as a private membership association “for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry.” In addition to the its Ozarks Regional Chapter which covers parts of Arkansas, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma, Return to the Land says it has chapters around the United States.
After reports that Return to the Land was eyeing the Springfield, Missouri-area for a whites-only community, Springfield’s city council said in a Facebook post last July that there was no place in the city “or anywhere, for such a divisive and discriminatory vision.”
Pennsylvania’s state House in April passed — by a ultra-slim vote of 101-100 — a bill to block the creation of whites-only housing communities. House Bill 2103 followed Return to the Land’s believed intention to expand to Pennsylvania and other states.
The legislation now is before the Pennsylvania Senate.
California
Owner of ‘Peanuts’ music sues 3 companies and U.S. government alleging illegal use of its tunes
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of the music of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and other “Peanuts” television specials filed four lawsuits Wednesday against defendants including the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging they illegally used the jazzy ditties of pianist Vince Guaraldi in social media posts and a video game.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions filed the suits in federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The defendants also include a video game company, an auction house and a belt-maker.
One lawsuit argues the Interior Department did not have permission to use Guaraldi’s arrangement of “O Tannenbaum” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in a digital holiday card posted to social media.
The department said in an email to The Associated Press that it does not comment on litigation.
Another lawsuit alleges Heritage Auctions illegally used “Linus and Lucy” — the beloved non-Christmas song the kids dance to in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” that has become the de facto “Peanuts” theme — in posts on Facebook and Instagram promoting an auction of collectibles. Similar claims of social media misuse come in another suit against Buckle-Down Inc., a belt company that makes “Peanuts” themed products.
Christina Rees, a representative of Heritage Auctions, said in an email, “At this time, Heritage has not been served with or reviewed the complaint. If and when we receive it, we will review the allegations and respond as appropriate.”
Email messages seeking comments from the other defendants were not immediately answered.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions of Burlingame, California, was founded by and is named for the producer who collaborated with “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz and director Bill Melendez to create the TV specials based on Schulz’s comic strip, starting with 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Mendelson, who died in 2019, hired the jazz pianist Guaraldi to provide the mellow, often melancholy music, including “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Linus and Lucy.”
The company decided to take the sweeping action after what they said was becoming an intolerable digital glut of unfair use of the music.
Attorney Marc Jacobson said in a statement that Lee Mendelson Film Productions “will no longer tolerate companies using their property without a license, especially in this era of instant digital sharing.” He said “the rights of creators and the protection of iconic cultural assets must be vigorously enforced.”
Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which owns the rights to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the other characters, is not a party in any of the lawsuits.
The fourth suit alleges video game publisher GameMill Entertainment, in its 2025 “Peanuts” video game Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club, violated copyright by using new music compositions meant to invoke Guaraldi’s pieces including “Linus and Lucy” and “Skating.” The plaintiffs said no permission was sought for the music, and the copycat versions are too close to the originals not to require it.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions is seeking varying financial damages from the different defendants, including at least $300,000 from GameMill. And in every case, the plaintiff is seeking a judge’s injunction that the alleged copyright violations immediately stop and not be repeated.
Oregon
State files lawsuit seeking $10,000 from former player who transferred to Oklahoma
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The University of Oregon says one of its former football players owes it $10,000, and the school is willing to go to court to get it.
The school filed a lawsuit in Lane County Circuit Court last week against Dakoda Fields, a defensive back who spent two years with the Ducks before transferring to Oklahoma in January.
The lawsuit said Oregon and Fields agreed that Fields would pay the university $39,882 in exchange for a release of liability from his contract with the school. Under the agreement, if Fields paid the discounted amount of $29,882 on or before April 20, the school would waive the remaining $10,000.
Fields missed the deadline, so the amount due reverted to the original $39,882. The lawsuit said that despite multiple requests, Fields has failed to pay the $10,000, the balance due as of April 21.
The school is seeking $10,000, interest and reimbursement of attorney’s fees.
A message seeking comment was left for Fields at Oklahoma. Fields was among the highest-ranked high school cornerback prospects coming out of Compton, California, two years ago. He redshirted at Oregon in 2024 and appeared in three games last season.
Fields is the latest athlete who has faced or was threatened with legal action by their former school for allegedly reneging on a name, image and likeness contract.
Georgia sued Damon Wilson for $390,000 after he left for Missouri, and Cincinnati sued Brendan Sorsby for $1 million when he went to Texas Tech. Before a settlement was reached, Duke argued that Darian Mensah owed it $8 million when he left for Miami. Washington threatened Demond Williams with a breach-of-contract lawsuit when he entered the transfer portal after last season. He decided to return to Washington.
California
Judge bars certain evidence from the trial of man accused of sparking deadly Palisades Fire
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorneys for the man accused of sparking last year’s deadly Palisades Fire in and around Los Angeles can’t introduce evidence or arguments at his arson trial about alleged negligence by the fire department in responding to an earlier blaze, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later. The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7, 2025, and burned through the hillside neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu, eventually killing 12 people.
Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His lead attorney, Steve Haney, has said that Rinderknecht is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Anne Hwang ruled that depositions by members of the fire department and a state park ranger cannot be introduced at trial because she thinks the information is irrelevant to the charges against Rinderknecht and could confuse the jury.
The evidence that defense attorneys intended to use included testimony from a firefighter, fire captain and a state park ranger that the New Year’s Day 2025 blaze was visibly smoldering when first responders left the scene. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit filed by fire victims against the city.
Hwang also barred prosecutors from introducing AI-generated images of a city burning that prosecutors said Rinderknecht created a few months before the fire.
Haney said the exclusion of the ChatGPT images was important to his client because they are “very, very prejudicial” and taken out of context.
Other fire department actions can be discussed, including its initial response to and investigation of the Jan. 1 fire that burned some brush. Haney said he plans to argue that the government does not have solid evidence linking Rinderknecht to that fire, and that first responders had heard fireworks in the vicinity of where the blaze started.
An outline of prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the first fire began — appeared in an April 29 pretrial memo filed by the U.S. attorney’s office. Prosecutors will claim he was upset that he didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked.
Lawsuit claims group rejected woman’s land purchase due to Jewish ancestry, Black husband
A real estate broker says an organization denied her the opportunity to purchase land in an Arkansas development because of her Jewish ancestry, and because she has a Black husband and biracial children, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.
The lawsuit, filed in Arkansas on behalf of Michelle Walker, names Return to the Land, a development whose owners have said they must personally confirm that applicants are white before they are accepted, its Ozarks chapter and five officers. It says Return to the Land founders are “explicitly attempting to establish an all-white community.”
The lawsuit also calls Return to the Land a white nationalist organization and says it’s in violation of federal and state fair housing and civil rights acts.
“Its founders believe that white people are genetically superior to other races, advance the view that Jewish people are engaged in a plot to eliminate the white race, and advocate for segregated white communities for the purpose of creating a separate all-white nation state that will help avoid ‘white genocide,’” the lawsuit said.
For decades, Blacks and other minorities were restricted from buying or renting homes in some neighborhoods or areas due to racial covenants built into mortgages and leases. Prospective homebuyers also faced redlining in which mortgages and loans were denied based on race.
Walker, a real estate broker who lives in St. Louis, applied to buy land last year in the town of Ravenden, Arkansas, due to its below-market price. Ravenden is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock and just south of the state line with Missouri.
She was asked questions during the application process about her ancestry, religion and her family, according to the lawsuit.
Walker is white and belongs to a Christian church. Her Jewish ancestry is on her mother’s side.
She is represented in the lawsuit by the Relman Colfax law firm, the Legal Defense Fund, and Legal Aid of Arkansas.
Return to the Land did not respond to an email Wednesday from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
On its website, Return to the Land promotes itself as a private membership association “for individuals and families with traditional views and common continental ancestry.” In addition to the its Ozarks Regional Chapter which covers parts of Arkansas, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma, Return to the Land says it has chapters around the United States.
After reports that Return to the Land was eyeing the Springfield, Missouri-area for a whites-only community, Springfield’s city council said in a Facebook post last July that there was no place in the city “or anywhere, for such a divisive and discriminatory vision.”
Pennsylvania’s state House in April passed — by a ultra-slim vote of 101-100 — a bill to block the creation of whites-only housing communities. House Bill 2103 followed Return to the Land’s believed intention to expand to Pennsylvania and other states.
The legislation now is before the Pennsylvania Senate.
California
Owner of ‘Peanuts’ music sues 3 companies and U.S. government alleging illegal use of its tunes
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The owner of the music of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and other “Peanuts” television specials filed four lawsuits Wednesday against defendants including the U.S. Department of the Interior, alleging they illegally used the jazzy ditties of pianist Vince Guaraldi in social media posts and a video game.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions filed the suits in federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The defendants also include a video game company, an auction house and a belt-maker.
One lawsuit argues the Interior Department did not have permission to use Guaraldi’s arrangement of “O Tannenbaum” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in a digital holiday card posted to social media.
The department said in an email to The Associated Press that it does not comment on litigation.
Another lawsuit alleges Heritage Auctions illegally used “Linus and Lucy” — the beloved non-Christmas song the kids dance to in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” that has become the de facto “Peanuts” theme — in posts on Facebook and Instagram promoting an auction of collectibles. Similar claims of social media misuse come in another suit against Buckle-Down Inc., a belt company that makes “Peanuts” themed products.
Christina Rees, a representative of Heritage Auctions, said in an email, “At this time, Heritage has not been served with or reviewed the complaint. If and when we receive it, we will review the allegations and respond as appropriate.”
Email messages seeking comments from the other defendants were not immediately answered.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions of Burlingame, California, was founded by and is named for the producer who collaborated with “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz and director Bill Melendez to create the TV specials based on Schulz’s comic strip, starting with 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Mendelson, who died in 2019, hired the jazz pianist Guaraldi to provide the mellow, often melancholy music, including “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Linus and Lucy.”
The company decided to take the sweeping action after what they said was becoming an intolerable digital glut of unfair use of the music.
Attorney Marc Jacobson said in a statement that Lee Mendelson Film Productions “will no longer tolerate companies using their property without a license, especially in this era of instant digital sharing.” He said “the rights of creators and the protection of iconic cultural assets must be vigorously enforced.”
Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which owns the rights to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the other characters, is not a party in any of the lawsuits.
The fourth suit alleges video game publisher GameMill Entertainment, in its 2025 “Peanuts” video game Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club, violated copyright by using new music compositions meant to invoke Guaraldi’s pieces including “Linus and Lucy” and “Skating.” The plaintiffs said no permission was sought for the music, and the copycat versions are too close to the originals not to require it.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions is seeking varying financial damages from the different defendants, including at least $300,000 from GameMill. And in every case, the plaintiff is seeking a judge’s injunction that the alleged copyright violations immediately stop and not be repeated.
Oregon
State files lawsuit seeking $10,000 from former player who transferred to Oklahoma
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The University of Oregon says one of its former football players owes it $10,000, and the school is willing to go to court to get it.
The school filed a lawsuit in Lane County Circuit Court last week against Dakoda Fields, a defensive back who spent two years with the Ducks before transferring to Oklahoma in January.
The lawsuit said Oregon and Fields agreed that Fields would pay the university $39,882 in exchange for a release of liability from his contract with the school. Under the agreement, if Fields paid the discounted amount of $29,882 on or before April 20, the school would waive the remaining $10,000.
Fields missed the deadline, so the amount due reverted to the original $39,882. The lawsuit said that despite multiple requests, Fields has failed to pay the $10,000, the balance due as of April 21.
The school is seeking $10,000, interest and reimbursement of attorney’s fees.
A message seeking comment was left for Fields at Oklahoma. Fields was among the highest-ranked high school cornerback prospects coming out of Compton, California, two years ago. He redshirted at Oregon in 2024 and appeared in three games last season.
Fields is the latest athlete who has faced or was threatened with legal action by their former school for allegedly reneging on a name, image and likeness contract.
Georgia sued Damon Wilson for $390,000 after he left for Missouri, and Cincinnati sued Brendan Sorsby for $1 million when he went to Texas Tech. Before a settlement was reached, Duke argued that Darian Mensah owed it $8 million when he left for Miami. Washington threatened Demond Williams with a breach-of-contract lawsuit when he entered the transfer portal after last season. He decided to return to Washington.
California
Judge bars certain evidence from the trial of man accused of sparking deadly Palisades Fire
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Attorneys for the man accused of sparking last year’s deadly Palisades Fire in and around Los Angeles can’t introduce evidence or arguments at his arson trial about alleged negligence by the fire department in responding to an earlier blaze, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, pleaded not guilty to starting what became one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Prosecutors say Rinderknecht started a fire on Jan. 1 that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up a week later. The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7, 2025, and burned through the hillside neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu, eventually killing 12 people.
Rinderknecht’s trial is set to begin June 8. His lead attorney, Steve Haney, has said that Rinderknecht is being used as a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to fully extinguish the earlier blaze.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Anne Hwang ruled that depositions by members of the fire department and a state park ranger cannot be introduced at trial because she thinks the information is irrelevant to the charges against Rinderknecht and could confuse the jury.
The evidence that defense attorneys intended to use included testimony from a firefighter, fire captain and a state park ranger that the New Year’s Day 2025 blaze was visibly smoldering when first responders left the scene. That testimony was gathered as part of a lawsuit filed by fire victims against the city.
Hwang also barred prosecutors from introducing AI-generated images of a city burning that prosecutors said Rinderknecht created a few months before the fire.
Haney said the exclusion of the ChatGPT images was important to his client because they are “very, very prejudicial” and taken out of context.
Other fire department actions can be discussed, including its initial response to and investigation of the Jan. 1 fire that burned some brush. Haney said he plans to argue that the government does not have solid evidence linking Rinderknecht to that fire, and that first responders had heard fireworks in the vicinity of where the blaze started.
An outline of prosecutors’ strategy — with details about the defendant’s alleged state of mind on the night before the first fire began — appeared in an April 29 pretrial memo filed by the U.S. attorney’s office. Prosecutors will claim he was upset that he didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve and ranted about being angry at the world before the initial blaze was sparked.
