UTAH

Group repping TikTok, Meta and X sues over limits on app use for minors

SALT LAKE CITY – A trade group that represents TikTok and other major tech companies sued Utah on Dec. 18 over its first-in-the-nation laws requiring children and teens to obtain parental consent to use social media apps.

Two laws signed in March by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox will prohibit minors from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. unless authorized by a parent – and require age verification to open and maintain a social media account in the state.

The restrictions are designed to protect children from targeted advertisements and addictive features that could negatively impact their mental health. Both laws take effect March 1.

The NetChoice trade group argues in its federal lawsuit that although Utah’s regulations are well-intentioned, they are unconstitutional because they restrict access to public content, compromise data security and undermine parental rights.

The trade association includes many of the world’s leading social media companies, including TikTok, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc., Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, and X, formerly known as Twitter.

Cox predicted there would be lawsuits challenging both bills but said he wasn’t worried because there is a growing body of research that demonstrates how social media use can negatively impact the mental health outcomes of children.

Utah’s state laws impose steep fines for social media companies that do not comply with the age-verification rule, which NetChoice says may lead companies to collect an excess of personal information from users that could end up threatening their online safety. The state regulations prohibit companies from using any design or feature that causes a child to become addicted to their app.

The lawsuit also challenges the state-imposed social media curfew, arguing that it could negatively impact children by cutting them off from the news, study tools and communications with their peers.

WYOMING

Woman who set fire to abortion clinic ordered to pay hefty fine

A 22-year-old woman who set fire to Wellspring Health Access in Casper in 2022 – Wyoming’s only remaining abortion provider – was ordered on Dec. 26 to pay almost $300,000 in restitution.

Lorna Green must pay $298,170.95 in restitution, a federal order shows. About 80% will be paid to Nationwide General Insurance Company, the clinic’s insurance provider. The remainder will be distributed to Julie Burkhart, the president of Wellspring Health Access, and to the building’s owner.

The restitution, which was the full amount requested by federal prosecutors, appears to cover about the total cost of the damage, the federal order shows.

Green was also sentenced to five years in prison on the federal arson charge in September. The five-year sentence was the mandatory minimum while the maximum sentence is 20 years.

She “eagerly looks forward to a productive and peaceful life,” after serving her sentence, Ryan Semerad, Green’s attorney, said in emailed statement on Dec. 27.

On May 25, 2022, Green tried to burn down Wellspring Health Access, which was weeks away from opening at the time.

“Green stated she did not like abortion and was having nightmares which she attributed to her anxiety about the abortion clinic, so she decided to burn the building,” the federal complaint states.

Pierce Brosnan accused of trespassing in Yellowstone thermal area

CHEYENNE – Pierce Brosnan, whose fictitious movie character James Bond has been in hot water plenty of times, is now facing heat in real life, charged with stepping out of bounds in a thermal area during a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park.

Brosnan walked in an off-limits area at Mammoth Terraces, in the northern part of Yellowstone near the Wyoming-Montana line, on Nov. 1, according to two federal citations issued on Dec. 27.

Brosnan, 70, is scheduled for a mandatory court appearance on Jan. 23 in the courtroom of the world’s oldest national park.

Yellowstone officials declined to comment. Brosnan was in the park on a personal visit and not for film work, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Wyoming said.

Mammoth Terraces is a scenic spot of mineral-encrusted hot springs bubbling from a hillside. They’re just some of the park’s hundreds of thermal features, which range from spouting geysers to gurgling mud pots, with water at or near the boiling point.

Going out-of-bounds in such areas can be dangerous: Some of the millions of people who visit Yellowstone each year get badly burned by ignoring warnings not to stray off the trail.

Getting caught can bring legal peril too, with jail time, hefty fines and bans from the park handed down to trespassers regularly.

In addition to his four James Bond films, Brosnan starred in the 1980s TV series “Remington Steele” and is known for starring roles in the films “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “The Thomas Crown Affair.”

NEBRASKA

Court reverses ex-lawmaker’s conviction of lying to feds

LOS ANGELES – An appellate court on Dec. 26 reversed a 2022 federal conviction against former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, ruling that he should not have been tried in Los Angeles.

Fortenberry was convicted in March 2022 on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign from a foreign billionaire at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser. He resigned his seat days later following pressure from congressional leaders and Nebraska’s GOP governor.

In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote that the trial venue of Los Angeles was improper because Fortenberry made the false statements during interviews with federal agents at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, and in his lawyer’s office in Washington.

A federal jury in Los Angeles found the nine-term Republican guilty of concealing information and two counts of making false statements to authorities. He vowed to appeal from the courthouse steps.

Fortenberry and his wife, Celeste Fortenberry, praised the court’s decision.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, noted that the appellate court left a path open for future proceedings against Fortenberry.

Fortenberry was charged after denying to the FBI that he was aware he had received illicit funds from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent.

NEW MEXICO

Wells Fargo workers at Albuquerque branch vote to unionize

Employees at a Wells Fargo bank in New Mexico have voted to unionize, the first time that workers at a major U.S. bank have attempted to organize in the modern era.

The vote comes after a series of extraordinary gains for unions in the U.S., with organized labor sealing huge contracts in industries that have historically had strong labor representation, and inroads in those that have not.

Bankers and tellers at the Wells Fargo branch in Albuquerque will join the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United, the Committee for Better Banks said in a prepared statement on Dec. 20.

The workers say they are understaffed, underpaid, and mismanaged.

The bank employees join others in a push to unionize in places that have not had a strong presence of organized labor.

Workers at more than 200 U.S. Starbucks locations walked off the job in November in what organizers said was the largest strike yet in the 2-year-old effort to unionize the company’s stores.

Starbucks, which opposes the union effort, has also tried to shift the conversation on that issue. In December, the company announced it was committed to bargaining with its unionized workers and reaching labor agreements in 2024.