KTBB News, Weather, Talk

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t hear an appeal from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars in damage linked to climate change.

The order allows the city of Honolulu’s lawsuit against oil and gas companies to proceed. The city’s chief resilience officer, Ben Sullivan, said it’s a significant decision that will protect “taxpayers and communities from the immense costs and consequences of the climate crisis caused by the defendants’ misconduct.”

The industry has faced a series of cases alleging it deceived the public about how fossil fuels contribute to climate change. Governments in states including California, Colorado and New Jersey are seeking billions of dollars in damages from things like wildfires, rising sea levels and severe storms. The lawsuits come during a wave of legal actions in the U.S. and worldwide seeking to leverage action on climate change through the courts.

The oil and gas companies appealed to the Supreme Court after Hawaii’s highest court allowed the lawsuit to proceed. The companies include Sunoco, Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and BP, many of which are headquartered in Texas.

The companies argued emissions are a national issue that should instead be fought over in federal court, where they’ve successfully had suits tossed out.

“The stakes in this case could not be higher,” attorneys wrote in court documents. The lawsuits “present a serious threat to one of the nation’s most vital industries.”

The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said declining to hear the Honolulu case now means the companies could face more lawsuits from activists trying to “make themselves the nation’s energy regulators.”

“I hope that the Court will hear the issue someday, for the sake of constitutional accountability and the public interest,” said Adam White, a senior fellow at the institute.

The Democratic Biden administration had weighed in at the justices’ request and urged them to reject the case, saying it’s fair to keep it in state court at this point — though the administration acknowledged that the companies could eventually prevail.

The incoming Republican Trump administration is expected to take a sharply different view of environmental law and energy production.

Honolulu argued it’s made a strong case under state laws against deceptive marketing and it should be allowed to play out there. “Deceptive commercial practices fall squarely within the core interests and historic powers of the states,” attorneings wrote.

Environmental regulations, meanwhile, have not always fared well overall before the conservative-majority court. In 2022, the justices limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. In June, the court halted the agency’s air-pollution-fighting “good neighbor” rule.

Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from consideration of the appeal. He did not specify a reason, but he owns stock in companies affected by the lawsuits, according to his most recent financial disclosure.

HOUSTON (AP) – A company linked to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is now offering over $7 million to buy his Infowars platforms, more than double what it proposed when it lost to The Onion satirical news outlet in a bankruptcy auction that was later voided by a judge, a lawyer in the case said Monday.

First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements, submitted the new offer despite there being no official request to do so, Joshua Wolfshohl, an attorney for the trustee overseeing Jones’ bankruptcy, told a bankruptcy court judge at a brief hearing in Houston.

Wolfshohl said the trustee also is expecting a new offer soon from The Onion’s parent company, Chicago-based Global Tetrahedron.

The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas filed by relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Jones repeatedly called the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators a hoax staged by actors and aimed at increasing gun control.

Most of the proceeds from the sale of Infowars, as well as from many of Jones’ personal assets that are being sold, will go to the Sandy Hook families to help satisfy the defamation judgments. Some proceeds will go to Jones’ other creditors.

The future of Infowars, based in Jones’ hometown of Austin, Texas, remains up in the air after the failed auction, and it’s still not clear how the sale of its assets will proceed. Wolfshohl said the trustee, Christopher Murray, will evaluate the new offers and decide what to do next.

“I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like,” Wolfshohl said. “But I think we would come back to the court and say, ‘Judge, here’s what we’ve got. Let’s talk about a sale process, one that your honor’s comfortable with, possibly with an auction.’”

Representatives of The Onion and First American United did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez voided the auction and rejected the sale of Infowars to The Onion in December, saying the bidding process was flawed, not transparent and didn’t raise enough money for creditors. He also said there was too much confusion about The Onion’s bid and its actual value. The Onion and First United American were the only two bidders.

Global Tetrahedron had submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody. The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors.

First United American bid $3.5 million in cash and was expected to let Jones stay at Infowars. Despite the lower cash offer by The Onion, the trustee chose it as the auction winner, saying its offer would result in more money for creditors.

Jones and First United American had claimed fraud and collusion in the bidding process, but Lopez said there was no wrongdoing.

Also since the auction, the Sandy Hook families who won more than $1.4 billion in the Connecticut lawsuit and those awarded about $50 million in the Texas lawsuit have reached a deal on how to split the proceeds from the sales of Jones and Infowars’ assets. The two sides had been at odds over the issue for months.

Under the agreement, the families in the Texas suit would get at least $4 million and the Connecticut suit families would get at least $12 million. If the Connecticut suit families get more than $12 million, the families in the Texas lawsuit would get 25% of that extra amount. The deal needs to be approved by Lopez, the bankruptcy judge.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Authorities in Indianapolis have charged a 55-year-old Texas man with felony stalking of Indiana Fever star and WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark.

Michael Thomas Lewis is accused of repeated and continued harassment of the 22-year-old Clark beginning on Dec. 16, the Marion County prosecutor’s office wrote in a Saturday court filing. Jail records show Lewis is due in court on Tuesday.

Lewis posted numerous messages on Clark’s X account, according to an affidavit from a Marion County sheriff’s lieutenant.

In one, he said he had been driving by the Gainbridge Fieldhouse — one of the arenas where the Fever plays home games — three times day, and in another he said he had “one foot on a banana peel and the other on a stalking charge.” Other messages directed at Clark were sexually explicit.

The posts “actually caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened” and an implicit or explicit threat also was made “with the intent to place Caitlin Clark in reasonable fear of sexual battery,” prosecutors wrote in the Marion County Superior Court filing.

The FBI learned that the X account belonged to Lewis and that the messages were sent from IP addresses at an Indianapolis hotel and downtown public library.

Indianapolis police spoke with Lewis on Jan. 8 at his hotel room. He told officers he was in Indianapolis on vacation. When asked why he was making so many posts about Clark, Lewis replied: “Just the same reason everybody makes posts,” according to court documents.

He told police that he didn’t mean any harm and told them he fantasized about being in a relationship with Clark.

“It’s an imagination, fantasy type thing and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening,” he told police, according to the court documents.

In asking the court for a higher than standard bond, the prosecutor’s office included that Lewis traveled from his home in Texas to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in close proximity to the victim.”

The prosecutor’s office also sought a stay-away order as a specific condition if Lewis is released from jail ahead of trial. Prosecutors requested that Lewis be ordered to stay away from the Gainbridge and Hinkle fieldhouses where the Fever play home games.

The Associated Press was unable to determine Monday if he has a lawyer who can comment on his behalf.

The Associated Press named Clark the Female Athlete of the Year for 2024. After leading Iowa to last year’s national championship game, she was the top pick in the WNBA draft and went on to win rookie of the year honors in the league.

AUSTIN – Newsweek reports that Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered on Monday for the flags at the Texas Capitol and all state buildings to be raised to full-staff on January 20 in honor of Inauguration Day.

Newsweek reached out to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and the Biden administration for comment Monday morning via email.

Biden ordered the United States flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days following former President Jimmy Carter’s death on December 29. Because U.S. flag code requires flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days from the death of a sitting or former president, the flags would remain lowered when Trump was sworn in for a second term on January 20.

The U.S. flag is flown at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol on January 12. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (L) has ordered flags to be flown at full-staff on President-elect Donald Trump’s (R) Inauguration Day.

Abbott’s press release on Monday noted that the federal statute declares that the flag “should be displayed ‘especially on…Inauguration Day, January 20.'”

“Texas continues to mourn with our fellow Americans across the country over the passing of former President Jimmy Carter,” Abbott said. “While we honor the service of a former President, we must also celebrate the service of an incoming President and the bright future ahead for the United States of America.”

Earlier this month, Trump complained on Truth Social about the flags being at half-staff “for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President.”

“Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it,” Trump posted. “Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

However, the sitting president made the proclamation to lower a flag, so Trump cannot do anything until he is fully sworn into office.

Other States’ Plans

Currently, all other states are honoring Biden’s ruling.

“No such orders have been issued at this time,” Ohio Governor Mark DeWine’s press secretary told Newsweek.

Newsweek reached out to the press offices of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming’s governors via phone call for comment.

Newsweek emailed the communications teams for Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota’s governors for comment.
What People Are Saying

Texas Governor Abbott, in a press release: “President Carter’s steadfast leadership left a lasting legacy that will be felt for generations to come, which together as a nation we honor by displaying flags at half-staff for 30 days. On January 20, our great nation will celebrate our democratic tradition of transferring power to a new President by inaugurating the 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

“As we unite our country and usher in this new era of leadership, I ordered all flags to be raised to full-staff at the Texas Capitol and all state buildings for the inauguration of President Trump.”

President-elect Donald Trump, on Truth Social: “The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half-mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves. Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess.”

What’s Next

Flags are meant to be flown at half-staff to honor Carter until Tuesday, January 28, meaning they will be lowered during Trump’s inauguration and through the first week of Trump’s second term.

Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States on January 20.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News says that the number of million-dollar homes sold in Texas from November 2023 to October 2024 was the second highest on record, according to a new study. Released by Texas Realtors, the 2024 Texas Sales of Million-Dollar Homes Report found that Texas buyers snagged 12,888 million-dollar homes worth over $21 billion last year, a 10% increase over the previous year. While only 4% of all homes sold in Texas were $1 million or more, those properties represented 15.7% of all residential sales dollar volume statewide, up from 14.3%. “The high end of the Texas real estate market continues to evolve,” Texas Realtors Chairman Christy Gessler said in a news release. “As prices rise, more homes cross the million-dollar threshold. Some are highly valued for their size or amenities, but with many, the key factor is location.”

The report says that nearly 90% of the million-dollar homes sold in Texas last year were in one of the four largest metropolitan areas. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area had 39% of the luxury homes — 4,992 worth a combined $8.5 billion. The region saw the highest growth in million-dollar home sales at 14%. The Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land area had 26% of the home sales, rising 10% from the prior year. The Austin-Round Rock area had 19% and saw little change from the previous period. The San Antonio-New Braunfels area had the fourth-highest percentage of the state’s million-dollar homes with 5.1%, an increase of 4% from the previous year. The 656 properties were worth a combined $957 million.