Ohio
Court orders state’s restrictions on kids’ use of social media restored
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s law requiring children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps must be restored, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
The decision comes as a blow to NetChoice, which has won court victories against identical digital identification laws in other states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and Georgia. The trade group representing TikTok,
Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies said the Ohio decision went against “clear national consensus” and that it intended to keep fighting.
“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” said Paul Taske, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.
Netchoice brought suit against Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.
The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel disagreed. In a 2-1 decision, it found that the law was not unconstitutional and sent it back to a lower court to have a block on the law’s enforcement vacated.
“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote in the lead opinion. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”
Judge Alice Batchelder concurred, writing that “a statute is not vague just because it has a wide berth.”
Known as the Social Media Parental Notification Act, the Ohio law was part of an $86.1 billion state budget bill that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in July 2023.
The administration pushed the measure as a way to protect children’s mental health, with then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, now a U.S. senator, saying at the time that social media was “intentionally addictive” and harmful to kids.
The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.
Republican Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson called Thursday’s ruling “a win for Ohio families.”
“The court agreed that parents –- not social media companies –- should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.”
Texas
Organization sues Trump administration to stop border wall
An economic development organization for the city of Presidio and Presidio County filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, saying the federal government’s plans to install border barriers and other technology along the Rio Grande will cause communities to flood in the Big Bend area.
Democracy Forward, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Presidio Municipal Development District, which advocates for the city’s economic development and is governed by a board appointed by the city of Presidio.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement that the Trump administration’s border wall plans in the Big Bend region — made up of Presidio, Jeff Davis and Brewster counties — is reckless and disregards the harm border barriers will do to the community.
“Construction on the federal flood-control works in Presidio could compromise their integrity and leave the region vulnerable to deadly flash floods capable of destroying infrastructure, homes, farmland, and agriculture,” Perryman said. “That means real harm to real people in the area. Democracy Forward is honored to hold the government accountable as it recklessly pushes forward with its unlawful border wall construction.”
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said in a statement that the Trump administration is still in the planning stages of where to erect border barriers and where to install technology in the Big Bend region.
In the lawsuit, Democracy Forward claims the Trump administration did not seek permission from the Secretary of the Army to build any border barriers along the Presidio Flood Control Project — a levee system and boundary line built and managed by the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
The claim says that building 30-foot steel bollards embedded in a concrete base on top of the earthen slope of the existing levee can lead to dangerous floods. The current earthen levees have helped protect the region from dangerous floods in 1978 and in 2008, when parts of Presidio flooded. Altering the current levees can cause more harm, the lawsuit says.
The Trump administration has said it wants to close any gaps along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, including in the Big Bend region, an isolated expanse surrounded by rugged canyons and mountains that have served as natural barriers, deterring people from crossing the border illegally.
Big Bend is the largest Border Patrol sector, covering 77 Texas counties and 517 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency recorded 3,096 migrant encounters in the sector in fiscal year 2025, or 1.3% of the 237,538 apprehensions recorded across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
That is a 74% drop compared to the two previous fiscal years. And in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the sector has logged 1,236 encounters, a 42.5% drop compared to the first seven months of the previous year.
Still, the Trump administration has described the region as “an area of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States and smuggle illicit drugs.”
There is bipartisan opposition to the Trump administration’s border barrier efforts in Big Bend, which includes Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. The Trump administration has said it is installing sensors and vehicle barriers in the parks, and has also sent letters to private landowners along the Rio Grande seeking permission to survey their land or potentially lose it to eminent domain.
South Dakota
Man whose life sentence was commuted by Noem now implicated in his niece’s death
Two men, including one whose life sentence was commuted by then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, have been charged in the death of a 14-year-old girl whose body was found in a rural area five days after she went missing in March.
McKenna Wendel was reported missing March 13 and last seen alive in her hometown of Sioux Falls early on March 14. Her body was found outside Brookings, an hour’s drive north of Sioux Falls, on March 19.
Wendel’s uncle, Mark Milk, 51, also of Sioux Falls, now faces five counts related to her death. Milk was almost three decades into a life term on a manslaughter conviction when Noem commuted his sentence in 2023.
Wendel was raised by her grandparents, loved animals and had a “vibrant personality and a zest for life,” according to her obituary. She and her grandparents were Rosebud Sioux Tribe members and attended powwows often.
“She loved the singing and the beautiful sounds of the drums,” her obituary read.
Details about Wendel’s death remained thin as authorities who announced the charges in a Sioux City, Iowa, news conference Thursday kept close what they knew to protect their investigation.
Authorities have said an autopsy was done, but the findings have not been released. The cause and manner of Wendel’s death would not be released yet per Justice Department policy, said Leif Olson, U.S. attorney for northern Iowa.
Milk faces five counts including possession with intent to deliver cocaine that caused Wendel’s death. He is also charged with transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to court documents.
Jon Rogness, 38, of Brookings faces conspiracy and accessory charges in an alleged attempt to cover up the crimes. The counts against the men were the “most serious, readily provable” charges and all originated in Iowa, Olson said.
“This is a horrific case,” FBI special agent Gene Kowel said. “There are no cases that we investigate that are more heart-wrenching and more tragic than the ones that involve children or the death of a child.”
Court records showed no lawyers listed for Milk and Rogness, and no relatives could immediately be located through phone records and social media to speak on their behalf.
In February 2023, Noem commuted Milk’s life sentence for a manslaughter conviction in an October 1993 stabbing death. Milk, then 19, had been involved in several altercations in the city of Winner that ended with the death of Shawn Peneaux, according to records.
Milk was in jail on unrelated allegations of driving under the influence and eluding police when Wendel’s body was found. His name came up in public discussion about the case from the start. But prosecutors, who finished their investigation in late May, did not formally link him to Wendel’s death until filing charges Wednesday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a late March news conference the decision to commute Milk’s life sentence was strictly Noem’s.
“It is fairly often that you see law enforcement oppose commutations,” Jackley remarked without commenting further on Noem’s decision.
The commutation documents were sealed and even he had not seen them, he noted.
The Associated Press left a message Thursday for Noem on seeking comment through NovaRed Mining, a Canadian firm she recently joined in a “strategic advisory role.”
A Republican, Noem, 54, was South Dakota’s lone congressperson from 2011 to 2019 and governor from 2019 to 2025. She was Homeland Security secretary before being fired in March by President Donald Trump amid criticism of her handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.
Trump praised Noem’s leadership and said he was making her special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas.” The new organization of Western Hemisphere nations is focused on supporting democracy and security in the region.
Court orders state’s restrictions on kids’ use of social media restored
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s law requiring children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps must be restored, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
The decision comes as a blow to NetChoice, which has won court victories against identical digital identification laws in other states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and Georgia. The trade group representing TikTok,
Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies said the Ohio decision went against “clear national consensus” and that it intended to keep fighting.
“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” said Paul Taske, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.
Netchoice brought suit against Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.
The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel disagreed. In a 2-1 decision, it found that the law was not unconstitutional and sent it back to a lower court to have a block on the law’s enforcement vacated.
“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote in the lead opinion. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”
Judge Alice Batchelder concurred, writing that “a statute is not vague just because it has a wide berth.”
Known as the Social Media Parental Notification Act, the Ohio law was part of an $86.1 billion state budget bill that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in July 2023.
The administration pushed the measure as a way to protect children’s mental health, with then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, now a U.S. senator, saying at the time that social media was “intentionally addictive” and harmful to kids.
The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.
Republican Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson called Thursday’s ruling “a win for Ohio families.”
“The court agreed that parents –- not social media companies –- should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.”
Texas
Organization sues Trump administration to stop border wall
An economic development organization for the city of Presidio and Presidio County filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, saying the federal government’s plans to install border barriers and other technology along the Rio Grande will cause communities to flood in the Big Bend area.
Democracy Forward, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Presidio Municipal Development District, which advocates for the city’s economic development and is governed by a board appointed by the city of Presidio.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement that the Trump administration’s border wall plans in the Big Bend region — made up of Presidio, Jeff Davis and Brewster counties — is reckless and disregards the harm border barriers will do to the community.
“Construction on the federal flood-control works in Presidio could compromise their integrity and leave the region vulnerable to deadly flash floods capable of destroying infrastructure, homes, farmland, and agriculture,” Perryman said. “That means real harm to real people in the area. Democracy Forward is honored to hold the government accountable as it recklessly pushes forward with its unlawful border wall construction.”
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said in a statement that the Trump administration is still in the planning stages of where to erect border barriers and where to install technology in the Big Bend region.
In the lawsuit, Democracy Forward claims the Trump administration did not seek permission from the Secretary of the Army to build any border barriers along the Presidio Flood Control Project — a levee system and boundary line built and managed by the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
The claim says that building 30-foot steel bollards embedded in a concrete base on top of the earthen slope of the existing levee can lead to dangerous floods. The current earthen levees have helped protect the region from dangerous floods in 1978 and in 2008, when parts of Presidio flooded. Altering the current levees can cause more harm, the lawsuit says.
The Trump administration has said it wants to close any gaps along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, including in the Big Bend region, an isolated expanse surrounded by rugged canyons and mountains that have served as natural barriers, deterring people from crossing the border illegally.
Big Bend is the largest Border Patrol sector, covering 77 Texas counties and 517 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency recorded 3,096 migrant encounters in the sector in fiscal year 2025, or 1.3% of the 237,538 apprehensions recorded across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
That is a 74% drop compared to the two previous fiscal years. And in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the sector has logged 1,236 encounters, a 42.5% drop compared to the first seven months of the previous year.
Still, the Trump administration has described the region as “an area of high illegal entry where illegal aliens regularly attempt to enter the United States and smuggle illicit drugs.”
There is bipartisan opposition to the Trump administration’s border barrier efforts in Big Bend, which includes Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. The Trump administration has said it is installing sensors and vehicle barriers in the parks, and has also sent letters to private landowners along the Rio Grande seeking permission to survey their land or potentially lose it to eminent domain.
South Dakota
Man whose life sentence was commuted by Noem now implicated in his niece’s death
Two men, including one whose life sentence was commuted by then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, have been charged in the death of a 14-year-old girl whose body was found in a rural area five days after she went missing in March.
McKenna Wendel was reported missing March 13 and last seen alive in her hometown of Sioux Falls early on March 14. Her body was found outside Brookings, an hour’s drive north of Sioux Falls, on March 19.
Wendel’s uncle, Mark Milk, 51, also of Sioux Falls, now faces five counts related to her death. Milk was almost three decades into a life term on a manslaughter conviction when Noem commuted his sentence in 2023.
Wendel was raised by her grandparents, loved animals and had a “vibrant personality and a zest for life,” according to her obituary. She and her grandparents were Rosebud Sioux Tribe members and attended powwows often.
“She loved the singing and the beautiful sounds of the drums,” her obituary read.
Details about Wendel’s death remained thin as authorities who announced the charges in a Sioux City, Iowa, news conference Thursday kept close what they knew to protect their investigation.
Authorities have said an autopsy was done, but the findings have not been released. The cause and manner of Wendel’s death would not be released yet per Justice Department policy, said Leif Olson, U.S. attorney for northern Iowa.
Milk faces five counts including possession with intent to deliver cocaine that caused Wendel’s death. He is also charged with transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to court documents.
Jon Rogness, 38, of Brookings faces conspiracy and accessory charges in an alleged attempt to cover up the crimes. The counts against the men were the “most serious, readily provable” charges and all originated in Iowa, Olson said.
“This is a horrific case,” FBI special agent Gene Kowel said. “There are no cases that we investigate that are more heart-wrenching and more tragic than the ones that involve children or the death of a child.”
Court records showed no lawyers listed for Milk and Rogness, and no relatives could immediately be located through phone records and social media to speak on their behalf.
In February 2023, Noem commuted Milk’s life sentence for a manslaughter conviction in an October 1993 stabbing death. Milk, then 19, had been involved in several altercations in the city of Winner that ended with the death of Shawn Peneaux, according to records.
Milk was in jail on unrelated allegations of driving under the influence and eluding police when Wendel’s body was found. His name came up in public discussion about the case from the start. But prosecutors, who finished their investigation in late May, did not formally link him to Wendel’s death until filing charges Wednesday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a late March news conference the decision to commute Milk’s life sentence was strictly Noem’s.
“It is fairly often that you see law enforcement oppose commutations,” Jackley remarked without commenting further on Noem’s decision.
The commutation documents were sealed and even he had not seen them, he noted.
The Associated Press left a message Thursday for Noem on seeking comment through NovaRed Mining, a Canadian firm she recently joined in a “strategic advisory role.”
A Republican, Noem, 54, was South Dakota’s lone congressperson from 2011 to 2019 and governor from 2019 to 2025. She was Homeland Security secretary before being fired in March by President Donald Trump amid criticism of her handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.
Trump praised Noem’s leadership and said he was making her special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas.” The new organization of Western Hemisphere nations is focused on supporting democracy and security in the region.
