Six Flags Magic Mountain quietly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-mystery-that-forced-six-flags-to-shut-down-popular-ride">shut down</a> one of its roller coasters without saying why, but a new investigation found that the coaster left riders with life-altering disabilities, at least one coma, and two deaths. 
According to CNN&#8217;s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/27/us/six-flags-rollercoaster-brain-injury-invs">review</a> of medical records, depositions, and legal filings, X2 is linked to more than a dozen serious injuries and hospitalizations since it opened in 2002. Originally named X, the ride was the world’s first “fourth-dimension” roller coaster. Its seats rotate a full 360 degrees independently of the track as the train travels at speeds of up to 76 miles per hour and plunges through a series of sudden drops.
X2, located in Valencia, California, has an average rating of 4.7 out of five stars from riders, but several negative reviews share a common complaint that the ride was enjoyable until its violent final moments. 
“Terrible, avoid this coaster,” one rider wrote. “It started off really fun until the last ‘raven drop,’ where it forces your head forward and then slams you back hard against the seat.” 
Another rider said, “The ride was fine until the last bit where it shakes you up. I felt like I was in a car wreck.” 
“I don’t know how this ride continues to operate,” another person added. “It seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
The ride officially closed on July 12, after two riders suffered brain hemorrhages in less than a week. Doctors told CNN that the injuries observed were typically seen in patients after high-speed crashes, not after riding an amusement park ride. Three neurosurgeons who treated the women wrote in an email reviewed by CNN that the injuries were “the result of a traumatic rapid acceleration-deceleration event experienced while on the X2 ride.”
One of the women, 40-year-old Pamela Guillen, required emergency skull surgery after losing consciousness on the platform. Guillen immediately began vomiting after the ride, and paramedics said they found her unresponsive with her pupils looking “sluggish.” The other woman, 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, lost consciousness shortly after exiting the coaster and remains in a coma, according to her family.
But X2’s history of incidents predates this summer. In 2022, 22-year-old Christopher Hawley died less than 10 hours after riding X2, with a neurosurgeon comparing his injuries to “shaken baby syndrome.” Hawley rode the ride with his cousin and brother, and court records stated that the three of them were flipped around like “rag dolls.” When the three exited the ride, Hawley said he felt lightheaded and then slumped to the ground. CNN reported that Six Flags had received over 70 complaints involving head and neck injuries linked to X2 from 2019 to Hawley’s death. 
State regulators shut down the ride after Hawley’s death, but days later, it reopened. According to CNN, regulators did not interview witnesses or medical experts but relied on safety data provided by Six Flags. Twelve years before Hawley&#8217;s death, 28-year-old Hilda Farias died after riding the coaster. She had a preexisting brain abnormality when she rode the coaster. Farias’s family settled in court for an undisclosed amount. 
Six Flags has defended the ride in litigation by arguing that it warns people about the coaster&#8217;s “inherent risks” and that the physical forces involved are not strong enough to cause brain injuries in a “normal” rider. But not every expert agrees.
“I personally don’t think head injury should be an expected risk from going on a roller coaster ride, and there is no reason a ride can’t be properly designed to prevent injuries like this,” Lyndia Wu, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of British Columbia who studies roller coasters’ effects on the brain, told CNN.
Six Flags has not said when, or if, X2 will reopen.

Inside Six Flags Magic Mountain Amusement Park Ahead Of Earnings Figures

Terrifying ‘Fourth-Dimension’ Roller Coaster Led To Brain Surgery, Coma, And Death

Brain Injury

hospital

Lawsuit

Rollercoaster

Six flags

A former Miss North Carolina beauty queen is suing the Miss USA Pageant for defamation after she was stripped of her title over old social media posts.
Brittany Boltinhouse said the organization targeted her unfairly because she is a Trump-supporting conservative Christian. 
The lawsuit does not claim that Miss USA doesn’t have the right to take away her crown. Instead, Boltinhouse is accusing the organization of “maliciously coordinating to publish a false public narrative portraying Brittany Boltinhouse as a racist, homophobe, transphobe, and intolerable bigot to be shunned from public life.&#8221;
The beauty pageant contestant is suing for loss of income, reputational harm, and emotional distress. 
“Brittany Boltinhouse was not merely stripped of a title. She was publicly branded with a scarlet letter, accused of some of the most despicable accusations that can be lodged against another person in modern society,” Boltinhouse’s attorney Patrick M. Mincey <a href="https://people.com/dethroned-miss-north-carolina-usa-sues-pageant-for-defamation-12061990">said</a> in a statement obtained by People.
Another attorney for Boltinhouse added, “While defendants enjoy a certain level of discretion to crown and remove titleholders, they cannot remove a titleholder for political reasons and then defame that titleholder to the public to hide their true motivations.”
The beauty pageant contestant’s title was stripped after old social posts from 2017 and 2019 resurfaced. The posts included racial slurs, which Boltinhouse has since apologized for. Her attorneys describe the posts as “the self-evident, colloquial use of the popular slang term.”
The lawsuit also states that other social posts &#8220;revealed she was a staunch supporter of President Trump, the assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and an open skeptic of President Biden’s &#8216;Transgender Day of Visibility.&#8217;”
&#8220;Defendants hid from the public the real reason they dethroned Brittany: she is a conservative Christian,&#8221; the lawsuit states.
The Miss USA organization announced that Boltinhouse was being stripped of her Miss North Carolina USA 2026 title in an Instagram statement shared on August 5.
Thom Brodeur, chairman and CEO of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, said in a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbrYgANGQyw/?img_index=1">statement</a> the decision was made due to “conduct over an extended period of time.&#8221; Brodeur did not specify the conduct, but did state that the organization “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia nor language that strips any person of their dignity.”
&#8220;I believe I was stripped of my title because of my political stance and my belief system as a conservative Christian woman,” Boltinhouse said in an August 7 <a href="https://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusive-video-brittany-boltinhouse-miss-north-carolina-usa-sits-down-with-cj/">interview</a> with the Carolina Journal.

Miss North Carolina

Dethroned Beauty Queen Says She Was Targeted As Conservative Christian

Dethroned Beauty Queen Sues Miss USA, Claims She Was Targeted As Conservative Christian

Beauty Pageant

Beauty Queen

conservative

Defamation

Discrimination

Miss USA

Immigrant grocery store owners are suing democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his plan to open government-run supermarkets, arguing the mayor&#8217;s move will run them out of business.
The Multicultural Business Coalition (MBC), which is comprised of immigrant-run businesses, filed two lawsuits Monday, including one representing &#8220;hundreds&#8221; of grocers who are &#8220;members of groups historically discriminated against,&#8221; <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/08/24/business/immigrant-grocers-sue-mamdani-compare-nyc-plan-for-government-owned-supermarkets-to-walmart/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The New York Post. The city plans to open the first of five supermarkets next year.
MBC’s president Ken Roldan called the city&#8217;s plan &#8220;a direct assault on minority business by a mayor who claims to be a champion of disenfranchised poor and working-class New Yorkers.&#8221;
On Monday, Mamdani defended the proposal, saying he is &#8220;fully confident in both the legality and the importance of our initiative,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/big-apple-targeted-lawsuit-over-mamdanis-government-grocery-store-plans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Fox Business.
The second lawsuit alleges that the taxpayer-funded stores raise similar concerns surrounding the previous plans to open Walmarts in the Big Apple, which never came to fruition, the outlet reported. Opponents of Walmart&#8217;s New York City expansion argued that the store would similarly put small storefronts out of business.
The immigrant grocers also alleged that the city &#8220;failed to study the discriminatory effects&#8221; of the planned stores on family-owned bodegas and supermarkets run by Hispanics, Arabs, and Asians, according to The New York Post. The lawsuit asks that the city be forced to conduct such a study.
“My grandfather opened up one of the first bodegas in the late 1960s when East Harlem was burning, and the A&amp;Ps and Waldbaums were leaving,” MBC Chairman Frank Garcia said. “He established the first Latino Grocery Association to protect the rights of immigrant store owners. I am proud to be following up in his tradition because what Mayor Mamdani is doing is disgracing his memory.”
Jairo Guzman, president of the NY State Mexican Chamber of Commerce, called the immigrant-run bodegas &#8220;New York City&#8217;s great mosaic,&#8221; and said that &#8220;Mayor Mamdani needs to withdraw his disastrous plan and work with us to find different ways to bolster and sustain what so many (New York City) immigrants have created.&#8221;
“The Puerto Ricans were the bodega pioneers and they were followed by the Dominicans, the Arabs, the Koreans, the Chinese, and finally, my Mexican business members,” Guzman said.
Mamdani has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/economists-lose-their-minds-over-mamdani-supermarkets-literally-how-you-destroy-an-economy">pledged</a> that the offerings at the government-run grocery stores will be marked 30% lower than private retailers. Economists have warned that the plan would lead to supply-chain breakdowns and bare shelves.
“This is LITERALLY how you destroy an economy,” venture capitalist Shaun Maguire recently warned, adding, “This is the story of the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. Now coming to NYC!”

NYC Mayor Mamdani Holds News Conference On Municipal Grocery Store Announcement

Immigrants Sue Mamdani Over ‘Disastrous’ Government-Owned Grocery Store Plan

grocery prices

grocery stores

Immigrants

Mayor Zohran Mamdani

New York City

A federal jury on Thursday ordered The New York Times to pay a former University of Alabama men’s basketball player <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/business/media/new-york-times-defamation-lawsuit-alabama.html">$9.25</a> million in damages for falsely reporting that he was at the scene of a murder in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 
The Times falsely claimed in March 2023 that Kai Spears was in former Alabama basketball star Brandon Miller&#8217;s vehicle at the scene of a January 2023 shooting that killed 23-year-old Jamea Harris. 
Spears was not in the vehicle. 
&#8220;We&#8217;re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake,&#8221; Times spokesman Charlie Stadtander <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/20/ny-times-loses-defamation-suit-brought-by-college-basketball-player/">said</a>. &#8220;We thank the jury for its service, but believe the verdict and award of damages are contrary to law and not supported by the evidence. We are reviewing our legal options.&#8221;
The Times later added an editor&#8217;s note acknowledging that the original article had &#8220;erroneously identified&#8221; Spears as the passenger based on information from a person familiar with the case. The newspaper noted that Alabama&#8217;s athletic director and Spears&#8217; father had denied that Spears was present after the article was initially published.
Spears sued the Times in 2023, accusing the newspaper of libel and “false light” invasion of privacy. He argued that the article caused him emotional distress and has permanently linked his name to the murder. On the witness stand, Spears said a day after the article was published, he had been heckled at a game. 
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1162649" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1162649" class="size-large wp-image-1162649" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2141646543-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2141646543-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2141646543-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2141646543-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2141646543.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Kai Spears of the Alabama Crimson Tide dribbles the ball during a practice session at State Farm Stadium on April 05, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)</div>
The eight-person federal jury in Alabama awarded Spears $9.25 million in damages Thursday following a nine-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Spears&#8217;s attorneys had asked jurors to award him $15 million.
When misinformation about public figures is published, plaintiffs must prove &#8220;actual malice,&#8221; meaning the misinformation was knowingly included, or the defendant acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Even though Spears was a college basketball player, the court said he was a private figure. Because the court said Spears was a private figure, he only needed to show the claim was false and negligently published.
The Times argued that the article was not defamatory because it had not reported that Spears had been involved in the fatal shooting.
The verdict marked the New York Times’s first loss in a U.S. defamation lawsuit over one of its articles in 50 years, according to the newspaper. 
During the trial, Times sportswriter Billy Witz, who wrote the 2023 article, apologized to Spears from the witness stand. Witz had relied on a confidential source for the erroneous information identifying Spears as the person in Miller&#8217;s vehicle.
Witz said he trusted his source, who told him the passenger was &#8220;a white guy on the basketball team.&#8221;
Attorneys for The Times argued that the report was an honest error rather than defamation and said Witz had made significant efforts to verify his reporting.
&#8220;There was a mistake, an honest mistake,&#8221; said Michael Bell, a lawyer representing The Times.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

New York Times building – NYC

NYT Ordered To Pay Millions To College Athlete In Defamation Judgement

Alabama Men's Basketball

New York Times

A group of parents is suing the Palo Alto Unified School District and Brent Kline, principal of Palo Alto High School, in federal court, alleging the school&#8217;s &#8220;Social Justice Pathway&#8221; turned a class field trip to a Santa Clara mosque into taxpayer-funded religious indoctrination.
The <a href="https://padailypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/1-27.pdf">suit</a>, filed August 7 in the Northern District of California, centers on a fall 2025 visit to the Muslim Community Association mosque in Santa Clara. According to the complaint, students were encouraged to don Islamic religious attire, given Qurans to take home, and observed a midday prayer service.
Ten individual plaintiffs and an advocacy group, Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools — San Francisco Bay Area, brought the case. Eight are Jewish; the Hindu and Zoroastrian plaintiffs live in neighboring communities and do not have children enrolled at Palo Alto. The complaint alleges that the mosque is the only house of worship the program visits, and alleges its website has promoted both the school visits and local religious conversions.
&#8220;[T]he District failed to maintain religious neutrality, failed to ensure equal treatment among faiths, failed to protect student privacy, and failed to vet, supervise, and monitor religiously divisive outside speakers during the school-sponsored event,&#8221; the filing claims.
The Pathway is a <a href="https://www.paly.net/learning/programs-pathways/social-justice-pathway">three-year course track</a> open to Palo Alto High students beginning sophomore year. The complaint alleges that during the mosque visit, students were exposed to Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whom the filing describes as a &#8220;controversial outside speaker with publicly documented hostile statements concerning Jews.&#8221; Billoo, the suit says, &#8220;was allowed unfettered access to students to advocate personal religious and political views without balancing perspective or adequate supervision.&#8221;
Billoo <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/palo-alto-high-mosque-trip-lawsuit-22389399.php">told</a> the San Francisco Chronicle the suit was &#8220;misguided,&#8221; saying students who observed prayer were taught about Islamic religious practices and that participation was voluntary. &#8220;One of the most important ways we combat hate is to learn about each other,&#8221; she said, adding that she believed the plaintiffs were trying to intimidate districts out of that work.
The filing states that &#8220;students were photographed during the visit by the Islamic institution hosting the event in a manner that promoted participation in Islamic customs,&#8221; and that &#8220;identifiable student images taken inside the mosque while students wore religious attire later were publicly posted for promotional and/or community-facing purposes.&#8221; Parents, the suit alleges, were never given meaningful informed consent for the photography or its publication, nor were they given a meaningful opt-out.
Superintendent Jason Glass told the Chronicle the district learned through news coverage and has not been served. Glass said he had read the complaint but that the district could not verify its allegations, adding that any instruction touching religion must be academic rather than devotional. He said the district is reviewing its practices.
The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and seek declaratory relief, an injunction barring the district from sponsoring similar activities, an order requiring defendants to remove the student images to the extent they can, nominal damages, and attorneys&#8217; fees.

Eid al-Fitr Prayer in Silicon Valley of California

Parents Sue School District Over Mosque Field Trip, Claim Religious Indoctrination

California

Mosques

Palo Alto

school district

CBS News chief correspondent Matt Gutman is facing sexual harassment allegations in a lawsuit filed by a former ABC News colleague, who claims he made inappropriate sexual remarks on two assignments during his time at that network.
Former ABC News field producer Samira Said named Gutman, ABC News and parent company The Walt Disney Co. as defendants in the <a href="https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/gutman-suit.pdf">suit</a> filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Said, who worked in ABC&#8217;s Los Angeles bureau from May 2021 until March 2025, alleges discrimination, hostile work environment harassment, retaliation, failure to accommodate her medical conditions and wrongful termination.
Said alleges she was &#8220;placed on a male-only team including on-air correspondent Matt Gutman&#8221; and two other male crew members. &#8220;While the team waited in a public queue during the assignment, Gutman initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent&#8217;s appearance and reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on her physical attributes,&#8221; the complaint states. The other crew members allegedly joined in and tried to draw Said into the conversation; she declined and said the discussion was inappropriate, according to the filing.
In a second alleged incident, Said and Gutman disagreed during a press day for a film release about whether the team should leave the site. &#8220;In front of multiple coworkers, Gutman responded by making a sexualized insinuation that Said must have an after-hours date in the city and that this is why she did not want to relocate,&#8221; the suit says. The remark, &#8220;made audibly to others, demeaned Said and reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype,&#8221; her attorneys wrote.
CBS News did not immediately respond to the Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment. Representatives for ABC News and Disney also did not respond. The allegations have not been tested in court, and Gutman has not publicly responded to them.
Said was assigned in May 2022 to cover the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, while still experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and was required to interview child survivors, the suit alleges. She reported severe psychological symptoms afterward and asked her supervisor for a short leave, which was declined, according to the filing.
She was granted medical leave from August 2022 through January 2023, the suit says, though her bureau chief allegedly continued sending her assignment requests. Her psychiatrist cleared her to return in January 2023 subject to accommodations, but the complaint alleges ABC denied them and HR gave her an ultimatum: return without accommodations or not at all.
Said also alleges she was struck by heavy equipment while covering severe weather in 2025, causing a bone contusion. She reported it, but a Disney physician determined the injury did not require leave, according to the suit. ABC fired her in March 2025, shortly after.
She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys&#8217; fees.
Gutman joined CBS News on Jan. 5 after 17 years at ABC News, where he was chief national correspondent. CBS Evening News averaged 4.1 million viewers during the week of July 27 while he filled in for vacationing anchor Tony Dokoupil — the show&#8217;s best week in 17 weeks and the first above 4 million since late March, per Nielsen data first <a href="https://www.status.news/p/cbs-evening-news-ratings-tony-dokoupil-matt-gutman">reported</a> by Status. A CBS spokesperson attributed the bump to a heavier news week across all broadcasts.
Gutman was the first major on-air hire by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who took over the division in October 2025 and installed Dokoupil at Evening News shortly afterward.

19th Annual Stand Up for Heroes

CBS News Star Matt Gutman Accused Of Sexual Harassment In New Lawsuit

ABC News

CBS News

Disney

Sexual Harassment

Live cockroaches and spiders. A preserved fetal pig. A bloody Halloween mask. A funeral wreath. A book about surviving the death of one’s spouse.
These items were all sent to the home of journalists David and Ina Steiner by executives of one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms. The packages were an attempt to scare them into silence and to stop reporting on the e-commerce company’s business practices.
The Steiners sued, and after over a decade in the courts, they have won their case.
On Tuesday, eBay agreed to pay the Massachusetts couple nearly $50 million after former employees terrorized the bloggers in a 2019 harassment campaign.
Since 2012, Ina Steiner, with her husband David’s help, has hosted the newsletter eCommerce Bytes, unveiling to readers important updates about services such as Amazon and eBay.
She has been critical of many of eBay’s corporate decisions, <a href="https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2019/4/1554870735.html">reporting</a> in 2019 on issues such as former eBay CEO Devin Wenig earning 152 times more than normal employees.
In response, eBay employees reportedly became angered by the Steiners’ reporting and conspired to &#8220;intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them,&#8221; Fox News <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/ebay-pay-nearly-50m-after-ex-employees-allegedly-terrorized-couple-cockroach-fetal-pig-packages">reports</a>.
Some employees named in the lawsuit were former CEO Devin Wenig, former Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer, and former Senior Vice President Wendy Jones.
Along with sending anonymous packages with disturbing contents, employees sent pornographic magazines addressed to David Steiner to a neighbor&#8217;s home in an attempt to smear the image of the couple in their community.
The Steiners also received a host of threatening direct messages online. The lawsuit even alleged that eBay employees tried to plant a GPS tracking device on the couple’s vehicle.
In the settlement, the Steiners are slated to receive $48.7 million in compensation. This comprises $46.15 million from eBay itself, $2 million from Wenig, $500,000 from Jones, and $50,000 from Wymer.
The company will finance $6 million in donations to various nonprofits, and Wenig will pay $1 million to a charity committed to protecting First Amendment rights on Ina Steiner’s behalf.
eBay has posted a statement disavowing the actions of its former executives and employees.
“What the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible, and should never have happened,” eBay <a href="https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-statement-regarding-agreement-with-ina-and-david-steiner/">said</a> in a statement. “We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, the employees who perpetrated and pled guilty to criminal charges for the misconduct against Ina and David Steiner. We also acknowledge the unprofessional tone in internal communications demonstrated, to different degrees and number, by Mr. Wenig, Mr. Wymer, and Ms. Jones.”
“We continue to extend our deepest apologies to the Steiners,” eBay added. “This agreement is consistent with our commitment to fairly compensate the Steiners and fulfills our efforts to make things right.”
The couple <a href="https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2026/7/1785201549.html">posted</a> about their win on their eCommerce Bytes website and shared the testimony of their lawyer Chris Murphy.
&#8220;This case was always about more than obtaining financial recovery,” Murphy said in the statement. “From the beginning, our clients wanted to uncover the truth, protect journalists and publishers, hold those responsible accountable, deter future corporate misconduct, and help ensure others would never have to endure what they experienced.”
“We believe this resolution sends a clear message that corporations and their executives cannot engage in this type of misconduct without facing significant consequences,&#8221; Murphy added.
Devin Wenig has reached out to the Daily Wire and denied any knowledge of the harassment campaign.
“The harassment was deliberately done in secret and without my knowledge, as established by an independent law firm review, a federal probe, and the sworn testimony of the security employee convicted as the ‘ringleader.’” Wenig said in a statement. “This behavior is antithetical to everything I sand for and believe in.”
The Steiners are <a href="https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0JIXX8JL25WD8603EEB8JLNRDI">featured</a> in the documentary &#8220;Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal,&#8221; where they share their experiences being victims of the harassment campaign.

Photo Illustrations – GameStop Hostile Takeover Bid For EBay

Inside eBay’s Twisted Plot To Terrorize A Couple With Live Spiders And Cockroaches

eBay

Harassment

Journalism

Massachusetts

stalking

Washington residents who received certain promotional emails from Costco between June 2021 and July 2026 may be eligible for compensation under a proposed $14 million <a href="https://www.washingtoncommercialemailsettlement.com/">class action settlement.</a>
Under the proposed deal in Aaland v. Costco Wholesale Corp., Costco <a href="https://www.classaction.org/media/costco-settlement_1.pdf">agreed</a> to create a $14 million settlement fund while denying any wrongdoing.
“In agreeing to settle, Costco maintains that it complied with the law and does not admit any wrongdoing,” the document states.
The lawsuit claims that Costco used deceptive subject lines that created a false sense of urgency, including phrases like &#8220;Today is the last day to access Member-Only Savings&#8221; and &#8220;Hot Buys available for 5 Days Only.&#8221; 
According to the lawsuit, Costco continued offering some of the same promotions after telling customers they were about to expire, allegedly violating Washington’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA) and the state&#8217;s Consumer Protection Act, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/07/28/lifestyle/costco-customers-could-claim-500-in-class-action-settlement/">reports</a>.
Washington residents whose email addresses are in Costco&#8217;s records and who received the promotional emails between June 2021 and July 2026 may be eligible to file a claim. 
Claim forms must be submitted by August 24, 2026. Those who wish to pursue their own lawsuit rather than participate in the settlement must opt out by the same deadline, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/costco-shoppers-eligible-large-payout-multi-million-dollar-email-settlement">reports</a>.
Eligible claimants may receive up to $500 each qualifying email, though the actual payout will depend on the number of valid claims submitted and other court-approved deductions from the $14 million fund.
Costco also faces several other lawsuits over its products and business practices. A lawsuit filed earlier this month <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/07/09/business/costco-faces-class-action-lawsuit-alleging-protein-powder-was-laced-with-toxic-heavy-metals/">alleges</a> that one of Costco’s protein powders contains toxic heavy metals, while another <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/06/10/business/costco-fights-lawsuit-tied-to-5-rotisserie-chicken/">accuses</a> the company of falsely advertising its rotisserie chicken as containing “no preservatives.” 
A separate <a href="https://www.king5.com/video/news/costco-sued-over-claims-it-raised-prices/281-22d011e2-4918-4c67-abd2-357031c9fd03">lawsuit</a> alleges Costco continued charging higher prices tied to tariffs even after the tariffs were struck down.

Costco Wholesale in Folsom California

Costco Shoppers Have A Chance To Cash In Over Old Emails

advertising

Business

Costco

Washington

Johnson &amp; Johnson announced on Monday it will be paying $5.5 billion to settle 76,000 lawsuit claims that its talc baby powder caused ovarian cancer.
Lawsuits about J&amp;J’s talc-based baby powder have entrenched the company in legal battles for the past 15 years. J&amp;J has settled similar lawsuits alleging that the baby powder contained asbestos and thus caused mesothelioma, but had not previously settled the ovarian cancer claims.  
This agreement came after a federal court <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-judge-casts-doubt-69000-cases-alleging-jj-talc-caused-cancer-2026-07-22/">decision</a> on July 22 decreed that most claimants could not effectively tie the Johnson &amp; Johnson baby powder to their ovarian cancer.
“[The court confirmed] what we have maintained for years: that these claims lack scientific merit and were sustained only by unreliable expert opinions that could not survive rigorous judicial review,” Erik Haas, Johnson &amp; Johnson’s Worldwide Vice President of Litigation, <a href="https://www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/johnson-johnson-announces-a-proposed-resolution-of-ovarian-talc-litigation">said</a> in a statement. “While we are confident the Company would have ultimately prevailed with further litigation… this resolution allows the Company to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives.”
Johnson &amp; Johnson repeated in its statement that the lawsuits were “meritless” and said that “Studies show talc is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.” 
Chris Seeger, an attorney representing about 2,500 plaintiffs with talc claims, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/johnson-johnson-agrees-pay-5-5b-settle-talc-lawsuits">told</a> Fox News that he helped negotiate the settlement. He also stated that J&amp;J could actually pay $7 billion or more because the settlement does not put a cap on the total payout but rather assigns specific values to qualifying ovarian cancer claims.
&#8220;We got a fair settlement, and our clients are going to be happy with it,&#8221; Seeger <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/johnson-johnson-announces-55-billion-settlement-talc-lawsuits-2026-07-27/">said</a> in an interview with Reuters.
Johnson &amp; Johnson plans to pay $3 billion of the $5.5 billion settlement in 2027 and the remainder in 2028 or later. 95% of claimants must agree to the settlement before it can take effect.
The company previously attempted a legal strategy to have shell-company subsidiaries declare bankruptcy in order to settle these cancer cases, but that proved unsuccessful.
J&amp;J switched its baby powder recipe from talc to a cornstarch-based product in 2020.

Johnson And Johnson To Pay $700m To Settle Claims It Misled Consumers

Baby Powder Cancer Saga Poised To End With Massive Payout

Cancer

Health

Johnson &amp; Johnson

Ovarian Cancer

Paramount Skydance is flirting with the idea of leaving California as the state leads an antitrust lawsuit against the media company. 
Semafor <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/07/12/2026/paramount-weighs-leaving-california-over-warner-bros-rift">reported</a> on Monday that friends and advisers close to Paramount CEO David Ellison told him to “consider shifting his business out of the state” and to move the company’s $30 billion in planned spending elsewhere.
Ellison&#8217;s advisers are reportedly urging the massive move after a lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other attorneys general seeks to stop the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. The lawsuit could cause a delay in the merger and could potentially cost Paramount hundreds of millions of dollars.
Paramount currently <a href="https://www.paramount.com/about/brands">owns</a> CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, and Paramount Pictures. In acquiring Warner Bros., the company would <a href="https://warnerbros.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Warner_Bros._Discovery">gain</a> the rights to brands such as DC Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, HBO, the Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, CNN, the Food Network, and the Oprah Winfrey Network. Ellison hopes the move can make Paramount a suitable competitor to Netflix and Disney.
“The proposed merger, the largest in Hollywood history, would combine two of Hollywood’s five major film distributors and two of the five major basic cable channel owners … inflicting substantial harm on movie theaters, basic cable distributors and, ultimately, audiences nationwide,” Bonta <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-files-lawsuit-block-110-billion-warner-brosparamount">argued</a>. “In the U.S. alone, if allowed to merge, the combined titan would control nearly one-third of theatrical motion pictures, and nearly one-third of basic cable programming.”
The Trump administration has approved the merger following Paramount&#8217;s agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump for $16 million that accused CBS of deceptively editing then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; interview.
Other major companies such as Oracle, Tesla, and Chevron have moved out of California to more “business-friendly” states such as Texas.
Paramount has a 10-year lease for 285,000 square feet at a studio in New Jersey, and it is likely that the company will move to the state if they decide to leave California.

Screenshot 2026-07-13 at 2.58.11 PM

Even A Media Giant May Be Ready To Leave Democrat-Run State

David Ellison

Paramount

A Colorado man says he fell four stories from a hotel window after a counselor served him psilocybin tea during a therapy session and then left him alone, according to the lawsuit he filed this week.
Jacob Ramirez claims counselor Rachel McGuire left the &#8220;therapy session&#8221; in the hotel room while he was under the influence of psilocybin, commonly known as &#8220;magic mushrooms,&#8221; before he fell from a fourth-floor window onto concrete outside a Hilton Hotel in Colorado Springs last May, as reported by the <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2026/07/10/psilocybin-therapy-lawsuit-fell-from-window/">Denver Post</a>. Ramirez miraculously survived but suffered severe head and chest injuries, racking up more than $2 million in medical bills. 
Ramirez is suing his counselor and her husband, Sheldon McGuire, along with their therapy companies, A Sparrow’s Way and Restoration Counseling. 
The lawsuit alleges medical and direct negligence, claiming McGuire was not licensed to administer psilocybin therapy and that her husband referred Ramirez to her despite that fact. 
“I think it clearly lends itself to somebody who is not used to taking these types of medications being left alone and freaking out,” Ramirez&#8217;s attorney Jared Mazzei said.
“It’s two parts,” Mazzei added. “There is whether she was even licensed, which she wasn’t — and the other part is did she even, at the very least, follow the procedures that you learn when you are obtaining your license, one of them being to actually stay with the patient the entire time, for this exact reason.”
Mazzei said that Ramirez endured blunt force trauma to his head, has no memory of the event, and experiences daily pain from his injuries. 
At the center of the chaotic legal battle is psilocybin, a psychedelic that Colorado voters chose to decriminalize in 2022 under the Natural Medicine Health Act. Under state <a href="https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/initiative%2520referendum_proposition%20122%20final%20lc%20packet.pdf">law,</a> the drug can be grown, consumed, and shared for personal use or can be utilized by healing centers for therapy. 
Colorado&#8217;s experiment is drawing interest from other states, including <a href="https://www.marijuanamoment.net/bipartisan-north-carolina-lawmakers-say-psychedelic-research-bill-can-help-military-veterans/">North Carolina</a>, where Republican state Rep. Allen Chesser and Republican state Sen. Robert Brinson are backing legislation to fund research into psychedelic substances, including psilocybin. 
Brinson, who is the lead sponsor of the Healing through Evidence-based Access to Lifesaving Care (HEAL) Act, called the bill a &#8220;real investment&#8221; into &#8220;mental health innovation, research, and access,&#8221; particularly for those who have experienced trauma.
He believes “momentum is building” for legalizing psychedelics.
“These aren’t fringe ideas,&#8221; said Chesser. &#8220;They are on the path to becoming approved medicines.”
<a href="https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/two-years-after-ballot-defeat-house-revives-psychedelics-debate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Massachusetts</a> lawmakers this week approved a five-year pilot program that would allow licensed mental health clinics to offer supervised psychedelic-assisted therapy, despite voters rejecting a broader legalization measure just two years ago. The proposal still requires Senate approval and the governor&#8217;s signature. It would help fund, facilitate, and expand research on &#8220;psychedelic-assisted therapies.&#8221;
Critics, however, are warning against the potential harms and unexpected risks that come with drug legalization. Organizations like the <a href="https://gooddrugpolicy.org/">Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions</a> and <a href="https://learnaboutsam.org/">Smart Approaches to Marijuana</a> (SAM) are among the few.
“Colorado was sold a miracle. Instead, we’re getting a warning label,” cautioned Kevin Sabet, who is president and CEO of both groups. 
“This lawsuit is a reminder that psychedelic mushrooms are not the harmless cure-all proponents promised. If states like North Carolina are considering going down this road, Colorado should serve as the cautionary tale — not the blueprint,” he added.

Mushroom Season Has Started In The Netherlands.

Bad Trip? Lawsuit Says ‘Magic Mushroom’ Therapy Ended In 4-Story Fall

Colorado

Drugs

Medical Research

Psychedelics

Filmmaker Justin Baldoni publicly addressed his legal battle with former &#8220;It Ends With Us&#8221; co-star Blake Lively for the first time Wednesday night, saying he and his wife chose to remain silent throughout the litigation until the case was resolved. 
“We have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say, because Lord knows we have,” Baldoni said in a video he posted alongside his wife, Emily. “But it just felt like every time we went to make a video like this, we wanted to speak, something was telling us not to. It just didn’t feel like the right time, and we were talking about it and feeling into it and praying about it.”
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DajZGpGx7dh/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
&nbsp;
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
&nbsp;
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DajZGpGx7dh/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Justin Baldoni (@justinbaldoni)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
Emily agreed, saying there was “so much to say” about the drama with Lively. 
“We’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things,” Emily Baldoni said. “Like, how could something like this even happen? Let alone disguised as a fight for women.&#8221;
Baldoni said he intentionally didn’t add to the conversation until the case was settled. The filmmaker also thanked all his supporters for listening to his side.
“You have given your time to fight for us, and thank you does not feel like enough,” he said. “But we’re here, in large part, because of so many of you and all of our friends and family. One thing that we’ve learned is that when God presses the reset button and everything else is stripped away, that’s when love shows up, and we feel so loved.”
The legal drama between the former co-stars started in December 2024 when Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni accusing him of sexual harassment, retaliation, and attempting to “destroy” her reputation. This came after she starred opposite Baldoni in “It Ends With Us,” a film he also directed.
Baldoni fervently denied the claims and filed a countersuit against his co-star and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds. The judge dismissed the countersuit in June 2025. The parties reached a settlement in May 2026. 
Baldoni also sued The New York Times for $250 million in a defamation claim for an article about the situation, which he says is “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions.”

Justin Baldoni Blake Lively

Justin Baldoni And Wife Finally Break Their Silence After Blake Lively Legal Battle

Menu