Texas
Paxton lawsuit ends endangered species protection for lizard
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ended endangered species protections for a Texas lizard that were introduced in 2024 after state Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the federal government over the designation.
The dunes sagebrush lizard is a roughly 2.5-inch-long reptile native to the Permian Basin has faced threats from oil and gas exploration and development in the region for decades, according to biologists. After the species was designated as endangered by the Biden administration and granted federal protections in 2024, Paxton sued, arguing the Wildlife Service did not use “the best scientific and commercial data” when it declared the lizard endangered.
The end of the dunes sagebrush lizard’s endangered classification came as part of a settlement on July 21 in a lawsuit between the federal government and Paxton’s office. The agreement vacates the 2024 classification, which will require the Wildlife Service to reassess the lizard’s status.
In a statement, Paxton applauded the wildlife service’s pending reassessment and framed the initial classification as a misstep that did not consider habitat restoration efforts.
“Texas, its people, and its industries should not have to suffer the effects of an illegal rule while the Fish and Wildlife Service further evaluates the status of the species,” Paxton said in a press release about the settlement Wednesday.
The wildlife service said that it is still committed to working with local partners to preserve the lizard’s natural habitat in a brief statement on Thursday.
Conservationists and biologists have pushed back on Paxton’s effort to rescind the lizard’s endangered status since the lawsuit was filed, arguing the Trump administration has made a concerted effort to change the status to benefit oil and gas interests. In February, the lesser prairie chicken, whose habitat is found in Texas and four other states, was similarly stripped of its endangered status in response to a court order.
“There appears to be a disturbing pattern of the Fish and Wildlife Service ignoring its mission to save struggling wildlife like dunes sagebrush lizards and lesser prairie chickens for the convenience of Texas politicians and big oil and gas polluters,” said Jason Rylander, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in a June press release about the suit prior to the settlement.
Oil and gas companies had warned for years prior to the reclassification that the restrictions on development stemming from the lizards’ endangered status would slow every step of projects in the region.
A new reassessment of the sagebrush lizard’s status is expected within two years of the settlement, the wildlife service said.
A previous effort in 2012 to place the lizard under endangered status also failed when the wildlife service considered placing the species on the endangered list. The proposal was met with disapproval from then-Texas Comptroller Susan Combs and oil and gas groups, who also expressed doubt in scientific data about the risks posed to the lizard.
Washington
Palestinian authorities ask high court to halt $656M judgment pending appeal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Palestinian authorities asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to halt for now a $656 million judgment in a long-running lawsuit filed by Americans killed or wounded in attacks in Israel.
The emergency appeal comes after a lower court reinstated the damages in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that followed more than two decades of litigation.
The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority said in court documents that paying the hefty judgment now would “destabilize critical government services Petitioners provide in the West Bank, injure innocent citizens, and jeopardize regional security.”
They asked the justices to pause payment as they appeal the reinstatement of the verdict.
The lawsuit was filed by victims of attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. Families brought their lawsuit under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law aimed at opening U.S. courts to victims of international terror attacks.
A federal court in New York tossed the original verdict on appeal and continued to rule in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority as Congress revised the law to allow suits to go forward. In 2025, the Supreme Court sided with the families and revived the lawsuits.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reinstate the verdict in March. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said at the time that the families were pleased and relieved by the decision, saying it would allow “justice to be done.”
Delaware
Social media companies sued over deaths of 4 teens as pressure, lawsuits over child safety mount
The families of four teenagers who died by suicide are suing Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube over what they describe as “years of escalating harms” from using their platforms that eventually resulted in their deaths.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Superior Court of Delaware, is the latest in a flurry of suits filed against the social media giants that alleges their platforms are addictive and dangerous.
The complaint was filed on behalf of four families from Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota and Tennessee whose children died over a 14-month period starting in July 2024 through September 2025.
The Social Media Victims Law Center is bringing the suit on behalf of the families, and its founding attorney, Matthew Bergman, said it’s “particularly salient” that the children in this case died “long after” similar suits had been filed.
“These platforms continue to kill kids, despite the platitudes of their executives,” Bergman said in an interview. “This is a clear and present danger to the health and safety of children, not just in the United States but around the world.”
The four teens who died by suicide each experienced harms including social media addiction, severe sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation after years of using the social platforms, the complaint states. Livi Castro died at age 13, Riv Kelleher at 14, Nathaniel Chambers at age 17 and Dawson Holden at 18.
The complaint alleges the social media companies knew they were causing harm to young users. Representatives for Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project, said in a statement that parents, activists and whistleblowers have come forward and met with lawmakers for years and “while Congress has dragged its feet, more children have died.”
Federal legislation of social media has moved at a glacial pace. The Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act — which had the support of parents’ groups and children’s advocacy organizations — exactly two years before this lawsuit was filed. The House of Representatives never voted on that version of the legislation, and the House and Senate are currently disagreeing on key provisions they think should be included.
“Livi, Nathaniel, Dawson, and Riv’s stories are proof that Big Tech companies continue to lie about the safety of their products, choosing instead to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into false advertising, deceptive paid partnerships with trusted education programs and political lobbying,” Haworth’s statement continued.
Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap are facing numerous state and federal lawsuits over harms to minors. Meta is on trial in Tennessee this week for a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general claiming that the company deliberately designed its platforms, notably Instagram, to make them addictive to young people, and did not warn them of its dangers. And in August, Meta is heading to trial in federal court in Oakland, California to face four of dozens of states that sued the company in 2023. That lawsuit says the company is contributing to the youth mental health crisis by designing addictive features and violated federal law by collecting data on kids under 13 without parental consent.
Not all lawsuits are successful, and many are settled out of court. Last week, a Florida teenager dropped his case against Meta that was set to go to trial in state court in Los Angeles, without receiving any payment from the company. Meta had argued that the teen only used his Instagram and Facebook for just minutes a day, on average, and created most accounts only after hiring a lawyer in his case.
Still, the mounting court cases can get expensive, even for a company like Meta Platforms. Earlier this week Meta said it had $2.4 billion in legal expenses in the second quarter, which contributed to a relatively unusual 14% profit decline.
Arizona
Burglary charge could send man linked to Navajo elder’s disappearance back to prison
PHOENIX (AP) — The last person known to have seen Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay alive has been accused of burglary in an unrelated incident, raising questions about whether he will be sent back to federal prison in Begay’s disappearance.
Preston Tolth is the only person ever charged and convicted in connection with the 2021 disappearance of Begay, a weaver and grandmother of nine from a remote community on the Navajo Nation who has never been found. He acknowledged stealing her truck, beating her and leaving her on the side of the road.
Her case has become emblematic of the heartache felt across Indian Country when loved ones go missing or are killed. Begay’s photo appears at marches. Her name is regularly invoked at rallies calling attention to the crisis.
Phoenix police arrested Tolth, 27, on Tuesday after getting a call about a home break-in. Officers found him about a block away, wearing clothing that matched the description of the suspect and carrying a pocket knife, according to court records.
Tolth was released from federal prison in June, five years to the day Begay vanished and two years earlier than his sentence was scheduled to end. The Bureau of Prisons cited a federal statue that counts time served after the commission of a crime but before sentencing, including on unrelated charges, in releasing him early.
Tolth was sent to a transitional housing facility in Phoenix. Under the terms of his plea agreement in federal court, he was not to commit any additional crimes while on supervised release. He also was barred from possessing dangerous weapons.
He faces a single charge of burglary in Maricopa County. Court records did not have an attorney listed for him, and his public defender in the federal case did not respond to an emailed request for comment Thursday.
Esther Winne, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, said the office is aware of his arrest.
“There is a process for handling violations,” Winne said in an email Tuesday, declining further comment.
Gerald Foxworth, an employee at Phoenix Oasis where Tolth was staying, said Tolth returned to the facility drunk on July 4 in violation of program rules. Tolth left on his own after refusing to be transported to a medical center, Foxworth said, and the facility informed Tolth’s probation officer.
The U.S. Marshals Service had an active warrant out for Tolth’s arrest when he was picked up by Phoenix police.
Begay’s family said they were unaware Tolth left transitional housing. His arrest is the latest frustration in a case they say has offered little in the way of justice or closure. The eldest of Begay’s three children, Gerald Begay, said he is relieved no one was harmed in the break-in.
“(Federal officials) made the decision to release this person. Now he’s out here hurting people,” Begay said. “This could have ended far worse.”
Paxton lawsuit ends endangered species protection for lizard
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ended endangered species protections for a Texas lizard that were introduced in 2024 after state Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the federal government over the designation.
The dunes sagebrush lizard is a roughly 2.5-inch-long reptile native to the Permian Basin has faced threats from oil and gas exploration and development in the region for decades, according to biologists. After the species was designated as endangered by the Biden administration and granted federal protections in 2024, Paxton sued, arguing the Wildlife Service did not use “the best scientific and commercial data” when it declared the lizard endangered.
The end of the dunes sagebrush lizard’s endangered classification came as part of a settlement on July 21 in a lawsuit between the federal government and Paxton’s office. The agreement vacates the 2024 classification, which will require the Wildlife Service to reassess the lizard’s status.
In a statement, Paxton applauded the wildlife service’s pending reassessment and framed the initial classification as a misstep that did not consider habitat restoration efforts.
“Texas, its people, and its industries should not have to suffer the effects of an illegal rule while the Fish and Wildlife Service further evaluates the status of the species,” Paxton said in a press release about the settlement Wednesday.
The wildlife service said that it is still committed to working with local partners to preserve the lizard’s natural habitat in a brief statement on Thursday.
Conservationists and biologists have pushed back on Paxton’s effort to rescind the lizard’s endangered status since the lawsuit was filed, arguing the Trump administration has made a concerted effort to change the status to benefit oil and gas interests. In February, the lesser prairie chicken, whose habitat is found in Texas and four other states, was similarly stripped of its endangered status in response to a court order.
“There appears to be a disturbing pattern of the Fish and Wildlife Service ignoring its mission to save struggling wildlife like dunes sagebrush lizards and lesser prairie chickens for the convenience of Texas politicians and big oil and gas polluters,” said Jason Rylander, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in a June press release about the suit prior to the settlement.
Oil and gas companies had warned for years prior to the reclassification that the restrictions on development stemming from the lizards’ endangered status would slow every step of projects in the region.
A new reassessment of the sagebrush lizard’s status is expected within two years of the settlement, the wildlife service said.
A previous effort in 2012 to place the lizard under endangered status also failed when the wildlife service considered placing the species on the endangered list. The proposal was met with disapproval from then-Texas Comptroller Susan Combs and oil and gas groups, who also expressed doubt in scientific data about the risks posed to the lizard.
Washington
Palestinian authorities ask high court to halt $656M judgment pending appeal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Palestinian authorities asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to halt for now a $656 million judgment in a long-running lawsuit filed by Americans killed or wounded in attacks in Israel.
The emergency appeal comes after a lower court reinstated the damages in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that followed more than two decades of litigation.
The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority said in court documents that paying the hefty judgment now would “destabilize critical government services Petitioners provide in the West Bank, injure innocent citizens, and jeopardize regional security.”
They asked the justices to pause payment as they appeal the reinstatement of the verdict.
The lawsuit was filed by victims of attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. Families brought their lawsuit under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law aimed at opening U.S. courts to victims of international terror attacks.
A federal court in New York tossed the original verdict on appeal and continued to rule in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority as Congress revised the law to allow suits to go forward. In 2025, the Supreme Court sided with the families and revived the lawsuits.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reinstate the verdict in March. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said at the time that the families were pleased and relieved by the decision, saying it would allow “justice to be done.”
Delaware
Social media companies sued over deaths of 4 teens as pressure, lawsuits over child safety mount
The families of four teenagers who died by suicide are suing Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube over what they describe as “years of escalating harms” from using their platforms that eventually resulted in their deaths.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Superior Court of Delaware, is the latest in a flurry of suits filed against the social media giants that alleges their platforms are addictive and dangerous.
The complaint was filed on behalf of four families from Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota and Tennessee whose children died over a 14-month period starting in July 2024 through September 2025.
The Social Media Victims Law Center is bringing the suit on behalf of the families, and its founding attorney, Matthew Bergman, said it’s “particularly salient” that the children in this case died “long after” similar suits had been filed.
“These platforms continue to kill kids, despite the platitudes of their executives,” Bergman said in an interview. “This is a clear and present danger to the health and safety of children, not just in the United States but around the world.”
The four teens who died by suicide each experienced harms including social media addiction, severe sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation after years of using the social platforms, the complaint states. Livi Castro died at age 13, Riv Kelleher at 14, Nathaniel Chambers at age 17 and Dawson Holden at 18.
The complaint alleges the social media companies knew they were causing harm to young users. Representatives for Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project, said in a statement that parents, activists and whistleblowers have come forward and met with lawmakers for years and “while Congress has dragged its feet, more children have died.”
Federal legislation of social media has moved at a glacial pace. The Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act — which had the support of parents’ groups and children’s advocacy organizations — exactly two years before this lawsuit was filed. The House of Representatives never voted on that version of the legislation, and the House and Senate are currently disagreeing on key provisions they think should be included.
“Livi, Nathaniel, Dawson, and Riv’s stories are proof that Big Tech companies continue to lie about the safety of their products, choosing instead to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into false advertising, deceptive paid partnerships with trusted education programs and political lobbying,” Haworth’s statement continued.
Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap are facing numerous state and federal lawsuits over harms to minors. Meta is on trial in Tennessee this week for a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general claiming that the company deliberately designed its platforms, notably Instagram, to make them addictive to young people, and did not warn them of its dangers. And in August, Meta is heading to trial in federal court in Oakland, California to face four of dozens of states that sued the company in 2023. That lawsuit says the company is contributing to the youth mental health crisis by designing addictive features and violated federal law by collecting data on kids under 13 without parental consent.
Not all lawsuits are successful, and many are settled out of court. Last week, a Florida teenager dropped his case against Meta that was set to go to trial in state court in Los Angeles, without receiving any payment from the company. Meta had argued that the teen only used his Instagram and Facebook for just minutes a day, on average, and created most accounts only after hiring a lawyer in his case.
Still, the mounting court cases can get expensive, even for a company like Meta Platforms. Earlier this week Meta said it had $2.4 billion in legal expenses in the second quarter, which contributed to a relatively unusual 14% profit decline.
Arizona
Burglary charge could send man linked to Navajo elder’s disappearance back to prison
PHOENIX (AP) — The last person known to have seen Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay alive has been accused of burglary in an unrelated incident, raising questions about whether he will be sent back to federal prison in Begay’s disappearance.
Preston Tolth is the only person ever charged and convicted in connection with the 2021 disappearance of Begay, a weaver and grandmother of nine from a remote community on the Navajo Nation who has never been found. He acknowledged stealing her truck, beating her and leaving her on the side of the road.
Her case has become emblematic of the heartache felt across Indian Country when loved ones go missing or are killed. Begay’s photo appears at marches. Her name is regularly invoked at rallies calling attention to the crisis.
Phoenix police arrested Tolth, 27, on Tuesday after getting a call about a home break-in. Officers found him about a block away, wearing clothing that matched the description of the suspect and carrying a pocket knife, according to court records.
Tolth was released from federal prison in June, five years to the day Begay vanished and two years earlier than his sentence was scheduled to end. The Bureau of Prisons cited a federal statue that counts time served after the commission of a crime but before sentencing, including on unrelated charges, in releasing him early.
Tolth was sent to a transitional housing facility in Phoenix. Under the terms of his plea agreement in federal court, he was not to commit any additional crimes while on supervised release. He also was barred from possessing dangerous weapons.
He faces a single charge of burglary in Maricopa County. Court records did not have an attorney listed for him, and his public defender in the federal case did not respond to an emailed request for comment Thursday.
Esther Winne, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, said the office is aware of his arrest.
“There is a process for handling violations,” Winne said in an email Tuesday, declining further comment.
Gerald Foxworth, an employee at Phoenix Oasis where Tolth was staying, said Tolth returned to the facility drunk on July 4 in violation of program rules. Tolth left on his own after refusing to be transported to a medical center, Foxworth said, and the facility informed Tolth’s probation officer.
The U.S. Marshals Service had an active warrant out for Tolth’s arrest when he was picked up by Phoenix police.
Begay’s family said they were unaware Tolth left transitional housing. His arrest is the latest frustration in a case they say has offered little in the way of justice or closure. The eldest of Begay’s three children, Gerald Begay, said he is relieved no one was harmed in the break-in.
“(Federal officials) made the decision to release this person. Now he’s out here hurting people,” Begay said. “This could have ended far worse.”
