FNF - NC - Lawsuit Mosley v Emerson Trial Court Ruling Aug 25 2025

(The Center Square) – In just 68 days, Michigan voters will decide on a proposal to ban political spending by state-regulated electric and gas utilities and companies with large government contracts.

The “Money Out of Politics” ballot initiative, which was approved in July by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, would also ban direct or indirect contributions from “people or organizations” with substantial connections to those entities.

“Michigan’s government should work for the people, not powerful corporations,” said Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, the group organizing the petition, also known as Mop Up Michigan.

DTE and Consumers Energy would be the two largest state-regulated electric and gas utilities affected by the initiative if it passes, though it also applies to all corporations with local and state government contracts of more than $250,000 annually.

It would not prevent them from making any political contributions, just ones to candidates for state or local offices within the jurisdiction of their contract.

The initiative would also expand Michigan’s campaign finance disclosure requirements for political advertising.

“After years of tireless organizing to rein in out-of-control spending in Lansing, we’re thrilled that voters will finally get a chance to make their voices heard,” said Ken Whittaker, Executive Director of Michigan United and member of the Michiganders for Money Out of Politics Executive Committee. “Now, we’re laser focused on bringing Michiganders together to resoundingly vote yes in November and stop corporations and regulated monopoly utilities from buying off our politicians.”

This comes as Michigan’s legislature voted this week to make the same changes to Michigan’s campaign finance laws.

On Tuesday, the Republican-led Michigan House voted 77-26 to adopt the same citizen-led Michiganders for Money Out of Politics initiative.

“The people of Michigan have been clear: They want money out of politics and accountability from their government,” said Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills. “I listened, and I voted to make sure powerful corporations cannot use political donations to put a thumb on the scale in Lansing.”

Under Michigan law, the legislature has 40 days to take up and pass a referendum after it is approved by the Board of State Canvassers. If they do not, it then heads to the ballot.

While House Republicans hoped to move forward with it legislatively, the Democrat-led Senate said it would not take up the initiative—instead sending it to be placed on the ballot.

“MMOP has successfully gathered more than half a million signatures and the message from Michiganders is clear: They want this on the ballot in November,” said Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids. “In that spirit, we will not be subverting the will of the voters, taking it up legislatively.”

House Republicans expressed frustration with that.

“The people didn’t just ask permission to someday vote on this,” said State Rep. David Martin, R-Genesee. “They exercised their constitutional right to put legislation directly in front of us and ask their representatives to act. The House answered them. The Senate is choosing not to.”

If the legislature passed the measure, it could be amended by just a simple legislative majority in the future. If it passes via the state ballot, any future changes would require  three-fourths support in both chambers.

The organizers behind the proposal support Senate Democrats in their decision to allow the initiative to go to the ballot, saying House Republicans had no “intention of getting money out of politics.”

“Leader Brinks gets it,” said Maura Cowley, Campaign Manager for the Michiganders for Money Out of Politics campaign. “Michiganders are fed up with out-of-control corporate political spending and are ready to change our political system this November. We thank her for respecting the will of over half a million voters who made it clear they want to vote on this measure in November.”

The initiative already faces a legal challenge before the Michigan Supreme Court from Protect MI Free Speech, which argues it restricts free speech. 

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday afternoon changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

The change, which the president said takes effect “immediately,” comes after the president toyed with the idea amid trade tensions with Canada.

Lake America, formerly Lake Ontario, is one of four Great Lakes bordering Canada, with Lake Michigan the only one surrounded by U.S. states.

On Tuesday, the president wrote on Truth Social that he was “giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.”

The Center Square previously reported that over the weekend, the U.S. imposed a 50% tariff on about $20 billion in Canadian goods amid failed trade talks.

During the announcement Thursday in the Oval Office, the president teased changing the name of either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Trump, joined by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, assured reporters that all the paperwork had been submitted to support his latest executive order.

However, names set by the Board on Geographic Names apply only to federal documents, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis of the Gulf change. They do not bind U.S. states, private mapmakers such as Google or Apple, or foreign governments, and a United Nations naming convention allows each country to keep its own name for a shared feature. That means "Lake Ontario" and "Lake America" could both appear on maps.

Lake Ontario also raises an obstacle the Gulf did not. Board policy requires that proposals to name features crossing the U.S.-Canada border be coordinated with Canada's naming authority under a 1989 agreement on the treatment of shared geographic names, according to the Congressional Research Service. There is no equivalent agreement with Mexico. Lake Ontario, bordered by New York to the south and the Canadian province of Ontario to the north, is such a feature. That means a unilateral U.S. renaming could bypass the coordination the agreement calls for.

The lake's name long predates the dispute, though its exact meaning is uncertain. The word "Ontario" comes from an Iroquoian language. Natural Resources Canada traces it to the Iroquois "kanadario," meaning "sparkling water," while other sources render it from Wyandot as "beautiful lake." Its official Canadian name is set by the province of Ontario, not the federal government in Ottawa, according to the Canadian Geographical Names Database.

A federal renaming would likely be inexpensive, at least on paper. When the U.S. House moved last year to codify the Gulf of America name, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that updating federal documents and maps would cost less than $500,000. But CBO's work on other renaming efforts shows costs depend on how far an agency takes it.

The Center Square reached out to Natural Resources of Canada, but it declined to comment, citing that it does not "fall within Natural Resources Canada's area of responsibility," adding that the Province of Ontario is "responsible for this matter."

(The Center Square) – Data centers continue to become less popular in Wisconsin.

A new Marquette Poll shows that 78% of registered voters believe the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits, up from 76% in a July poll and 55% in October 2025.

“Majorities of Republicans, independents, and Democrats all say the costs outweigh the benefits of data centers. Opposition has increased among independents and Democrats since July, with only a slight decline in opposition among Republicans,” the poll said.

The survey was conducted Aug. 12-20, interviewing 891 Wisconsin registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Registered voters also supported a one-year ban on data center construction with 67% in favor and 33% opposed.

Democrats registered highest on the one-year ban, with 83% in support while 53% of Republicans supporting the move.

Opposition to data centers in Wisconsin matches national opinions with 68% believing that communities should be able to limit data centers if they strain local resources while 22% believe that communities should accept those trade-offs for the benefits of economic growth and the country’s technology future in a recently released The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll.

Those results came from a survey conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from Aug. 12-16.

(The Center Square) – U.S. fertilizer producer CF Industries and a pair of Japanese industrial conglomerates began construction Wednesday on a low-carbon ammonia plant in Modeste, Louisiana, which could provide domestic supplies of fertilizer for American farmers and power electric grids in Asia.

The Blue Point complex, near Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish, is designed to produce 1.4 million tons of ammonia annually, potentially making it the largest plant of its kind in the world. The facility is engineered to permanently sequester 98% of total CO₂ emissions underground.

Ammonia, used primarily as a component in nitrogen fertilizer, is emerging as a clean-burning fuel for heavy industry and power generation. Japanese partners JERA and Mitsui & Co. will ship their share of Blue Point’s ammonia production overseas to displace coal and lower emissions in Asian power plants.

The ammonia produced at Blue Point will be allocated according to ownership levels, with CF Industries set to receive 40% and JERA 35%, while Mitsui has a 25% ownership stake. Beyond the core $3.7 billion joint investment at the Bluepoint complex, CF Industries plans to independently spend another $550 million over four years to further increase in fertilizer production.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Adam Telle, U.S. Representative Julia Letlow, and state government and local officials in Louisiana.

“We are proud to break ground on the Blue Point One joint venture, a transformative project that brings together American energy resources, world-class engineering and partnerships, and trusted global allies,” said CF Industries President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Bohn. “Most importantly, this facility will serve people, growing access to the reliable, domestic nitrogen supply American farmers need to feed the world, expanding our nation's export capacity through shipping American-made energy to global markets and creating jobs in Louisiana.”

Irtiza Sayyed, CEO of JERA Global Energy Solutions, said the energy transition must be supported by “practical projects” and strong partnerships across the value chain. “Today’s groundbreaking marks an important milestone for Blue Point One and brings us one step closer to establishing a reliable low-carbon ammonia value chain,” Sayyed said.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry certified JERA and Mitsui for subsidies that offset differences in the costs of conventional fossil fuels and low-carbon alternatives as part of hydrogen price-gap subsidy program. JERA plans to blend the ammonia with coal at its Hekinan Thermal Power Station, while Mitsui has secured supply agreements with regional utilities and manufacturers, including Hokkaido Electric Power and Tosoh Corporation.

Mitsui & Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Kenichi Hori said the project “advances a low-carbon ammonia value chain that contributes to supply chain resilience in the U.S., Japan, and beyond.”

In June, Air Products cancelled its Louisiana Clean Energy Complex, a project also planned in Ascension Parish, after determining that the projected financial returns failed to meet the company’s investment criteria. Woodside Energy in August announced that it was delaying a planned investment in ammonia facility in Beaumont, Texas, citing changes in the market for lower-carbon ammonia and a changing policy environment.

A joint venture between Occidental subsidiary 1PointFive and Enbridge will transport and permanently sequester the carbon dioxide captured at the Blue Point Complex, according to the project developers.

The Blue Point project is expected to generate approximately 3,900 construction jobs over a four-year period and 100 permanent manufacturing positions, with first production anticipated in 2029.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin collected $450 million more than estimates in taxes and fees last fiscal year, meaning the state will likely have an estimated $3 billion budget surplus.

That excess came from $231 million above estimates for individual income tax collects, $84 million in additional corporate income and franchise taxes and nearly $80 million in sales and use taxes collected in the state, according to preliminary numbers released Thursday by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

Overall, Wisconsin collected $23.1 billion in the fiscal year, a 3.4% increase from fiscal year 2025 and 2.0% more than the Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s modified collection estimate of $22.7 billion from mid-January.

“These are unaudited figures subject to final review by the State Controller's Office prior to the publication

of the Department of Administration's Annual Fiscal Report to be released Oct. 15,” the department said. “Additionally, the Legislative Audit Bureau performs an audit of the State’s Annual Comprehensive

Financial Report which is published in December of each year.”

Wisconsin collected $10.6 billion in individual income tax, $8.2 billion in sales and use taxes and $3.0 billion in corporate income and franchise taxes over the fiscal year.

(The Center Square) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of shooting into a Minnesota home was released from a jail in Texas Thursday after a federal judge refused to extradite him to Minnesota. 

ICE officer Christian Castro was in custody in Cameron County, Texas. Castro was arrested in May by the Texas Rangers after Minnesota prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest on four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. 

He is accused of firing a gun into a Minneapolis home, striking a Venezuelan national in the leg in January. 

Under Texas law, Castro had to be released after 90 days of detention, which was Thursday. 

Minnesota prosecutors sought to extradite Castro to the state, citing fears he would flee the country. However, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is waiting on the outcome of an internal state investigation before granting extradition. 

U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. said he found no evidence Abbott was acting in bad faith by waiting to review Castro's case before determining extradition, the Center Square reported. 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Abbott last week, in an effort to require the Texas governor to sign the extradition order.  

“The Court concludes that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the case is not ripe for adjudication,” the judge's order read. “Minnesota cannot premise its causes of action on the allegation that Governor Abbott may violate those authorities in the future; it must prove that a violation has already occurred.”

(The Center Square) – A slew of candidates running as democratic socialists appears to be raising alarms with a majority of American voters, according to a new poll.

The Center Square’s Voters Voice Poll found 63% of Americans are concerned with the growth of socialism or communism in American politics, while 29% are not concerned.

Of the 63% concerned, 36% say they are very concerned, while 27% say they are somewhat concerned.

Only 13% of respondents said they are not at all concerned, while 16% said they aren’t too concerned about the rise of socialism in American politics.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from Aug. 12-16 and surveyed registered voters nationally via opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The sample included 2,533 respondents, comprised of 930 Republicans, 930 Democrats, and 673 Independents. Among independent voters, 330 respondents were classified as true independents, which are individuals who do not lean toward either major party when given the choice.

Heading into the midterm elections in November, Republicans and several Democratic voices have warned against democratic socialists rising to power across the country, with the backing of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

President Donald Trump recently warned against communism as he and his administration appear to be trying to drive home the threat as the campaign season gets into full swing.

"Communism is the greatest threat to our country in its history,” the president said during a rally touting his administration’s economic policies.

During the president’s trip to visit the NATO summit in July in Turkey, Trump called communism a “disaster.”

“Communism is a disaster. It’s been proven to be for thousands of years under different names, but same thing…Whether you call them radical socialists or communists is not that much, but there’s little difference,” the president told reporters.

He continued by warning that it is difficult to “come back” from communism.

“You die in squalor, and it gets very evil and very nasty,” the president said, painting an ominous picture of communism.

It’s not only Republicans warning against socialism and communism. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., has been outspoken on several self-proclaimed democratic socialists gaining popularity within the Democratic party.

Earlier in the month, Fetterman cited a CBS News poll that found nearly 60% of Democrats have a positive view of socialism.

“The Democratic Party is becoming the party of socialism. 58% view socialism positively. 50% view capitalism negatively. I’m a proud free market capitalist. This is lunacy,” the senator wrote on social media.

Fetterman isn’t the only Democrat calling out the party’s growing socialist arm; veteran Democratic strategist James Carville has called on the Democratic Socialists of America to drop the word “Democratic” from their name to distance the party from leftist policies.

In contrast to the CBS poll, The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll found that 49% of Democratic voters are concerned with the rise in socialism or communism, while 40% weren’t concerned at all.

The poll comes as several democratic socialist candidates across the country, including in New York, Colorado, Michigan, California, and even Florida, have received the nod from Democratic voters to advance to the November elections.

The margin of error is +/- 2.0%.

Brett Norfleet is no stranger to season-altering injuries.

Whether it’s been to his shoulder or his knee, Norfleet has yet to have a season in which he hasn’t missed time due to injury. In many ways, the time he's missed has defined his time with the Tigers. 

There’s no predicting whether or not that will happen again as Norfleet’s senior season approaches, but it won’t be something he can't handle. Norfleet, more resilient and mature than ever after so much adversity, knows what it takes to overcome an injury.

“I've taken a lot of trust in the doctors and the trainers that we have here, doing what they say, but then also doing a little bit on my own, just to really sure it up,” Norfleet told the Missourian on Aug. 2. “So yeah, I feel great.”

Fear of injuries isn’t stopping Norfleet from hitting his senior season head-on, with the hopes of staying healthy and winning as a team.

“There is a little bit of a mental block, I guess you would say,” Norfleet said. “But at the end of the day, you can't go out there and play scared. So I just try to play fast and play with no fear.”

Norfleet, an O’Fallon product, has plenty of family near the Columbia area. He’s long had a well-documented attachment to Mizzou.

“This is the place that I want to be. I live here. I got family in Jefferson City. I got family that's in Columbia,” Norfleet said. “I take a real sense of pride putting on the Mizzou jersey each day, and I just wouldn't rather be anywhere else.”

Norfleet’s love for Mizzou and ability to adhere to adversity has stood out to tight ends coach Alex Atkins, who joined the Tigers’ coaching staff Jan. 12, 2026. Atkins wasn’t there for most of Norfleet’s twists and turns, but he’s picked up on his mindset.

“He's had some adversity on personal and career-wise,” Atkins said. “I think him understanding where he wants to be and seeing it as getting realistic as he's going to the back end of his college career, that's giving him a new life.”

Norfleet has everything a team might want in a tight end. That’s made working alongside Atkins much easier.

He’s tall and quick, making him hard to stop with the ball in his hands. Norfleet is also a crisp route runner and has solid hands, which should make him a reliable option for his new quarterback, Austin Simmons, when the season starts Sept. 3.

Parts of three seasons' worth of experience in the Southeastern Conference could prime him for a productive campaign.

“He is a big target, and he's made contested catches. He's scored touchdowns. He's been in those battles. He's been an SEC tight end for a long time,” Atkins said. “So I think him seeing what it takes to be elite and seeing other guys in the league accomplish that is giving him, like, 'All right, I got the blueprint.' ”

MU coach Eli Drinkwitz, once again wants the Tigers to attempt to utilize the tight ends in more down-the-field offense. In Mizzou’s final scrimmage, Simmons connected with Norfleet twice down the field.

Even if that’s a step in the right direction, Simmons and Norfleet still have to put it together in a real game. Drinkwitz has challenged his coaching staff to make sure Norfleet’s skill set gets put on display.

“I've challenged not just Chip but also Alex that we have to do a better job of utilizing our tight ends specifically down the field. I think one of the disappointing things that we have not consistently done with Brett is utilize him further down the field,” Drinkwitz said at the start of fall camp. “I mean, the guy's 6-foot-6, and the further down the field he gets, the taller he gets in comparison to the other players. So we need to challenge ourselves to utilize the tight end as an advantage for us this year, and that's something I look forward to us trying.”

It’s no secret that Norfleet is a talented player with rare athletic traits for the position. The coaching staff and his teammates have clear confidence in him to use his size and athleticism to the best of his ability.

He just has to put it all together while staying healthy.

“It's great getting that vote of confidence,” Norfleet said. “I think he knows that whatever coach needs our offensive room to do, we're gonna do to the best of our abilities.”

Former Missouri forward Mark Mitchell's transfer to Kentucky could be in jeopardy after the Southeastern Conference reaffirmed its intra-conference transfer rules Wednesday.

A memo from commissioner Greg Sankey, which was posted by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, stated that the conference's presidents, chancellors and athletics directors reaffirmed their commitment to the 2023 rule that prohibits players in the SEC from transferring within the conference without entering the transfer portal during the official portal window.

Mitchell entered the transfer portal Friday, then transferred to Kentucky, after earning a temporary restraining order against the NCAA that granted him a fifth year of eligibility to align with the NCAA's new age-based eligibility model. The official transfer portal window closed in April.

Mitchell is believed to fall under this violating category, per a report from Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

According to the memo, the penalties for allowing a player on a roster who violates this intra-conference transfer rule include the head coach being suspended from all coaching duties during 50% of the season, a fine of 50% to the team's budget, removal of voting privileges for the school on conference decisions and any other penalties deemed appropriate.

The memo from Sankey comes a day after the SEC issued rules that prohibit its schools from rostering players that previously played in and/or signed a contract in a professional league. 

Mitchell played in the NBA Summer League this summer with the Denver Nuggets. According to a report from the Lexington Herald-Leader, an SEC spokesperson said that these rules would not affect Mitchell's eligibility, as he never signed an Exhibit 10 contract.

However, the SEC upholding its rule on intra-conference transfers significantly threatens Mitchell's chances to end up with the Wildcats. He could explore options to transfer to schools outside of the SEC, but the Big Ten and Big 12 have issued similar rules to the SEC regarding former professionals. 

Mitchell earned second-team All-SEC honors during his final year with Missouri, averaging 18.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.

(The Center Square) – Republican lawmakers, independent journalist Nick Shirley and a large crowd of activists spoke out against a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law that some said would impede the work of journalists reporting on immigration services providers.

Assembly Bill 2624, authored by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, was signed into law by the Democratic California governor late last week after it passed Aug.19 on the Assembly floor in Sacramento. The bill protects the personal identifiable information of immigrant services organization workers from being published online, in large part to protect those workers from being harassed, threatened and doxxed.

However, some ardent opponents of the bill said at the press conference on Wednesday that the bill keeps journalists from asking questions of those groups and reporting on the work those organizations do. Republican lawmakers nicknamed the bill the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” invoking the name of independent YouTube video journalist Nick Shirley.

“In America, we have a right to free speech and freedom of the press,” Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, said at the press conference outside the Capitol, where Shirley stood next to Strickland. “This bill has vague language that could raise serious First Amendment concerns and interfere with the freedom of the press and freedom of speech.”

Shirley also spoke at the press conference.

“Here in California, instead of going after the fraudsters, we are now going after those who are going to expose the fraud,” Shirley told the crowd. “There’s actually no need for this bill. They just created a protected class by calling this group, immigration support services providers, saying that I, and you, cannot expose them.”

The press conference outside the Capitol was part of a rally that continued after speakers finished talking to reporters. Later, posts on X showed videos of California Highway Patrol officers, who handle law enforcement at the Capitol, arresting a man who allegedly clashed with those attending the rally. 

The Center Square contacted the CHP's Capitol Protection Division, which declined to answer questions but said it would issue a press release soon. The release wasn't issued by publication time.

According to previous reporting by The Center Square, Democrats defended the bill as a measure that would ensure the safety of employees and volunteers at groups that provide immigration services.

“Right wing agitators are intentionally misrepresenting my legislation, AB 2624, because they believe that people who have dedicated their careers to serving their community should be silenced and forced into the shadows,” Bonta said in a video message previously sent to The Center Square. “People who work to help immigrant communities should not have to fear being doxxed for doing so.”

The state-run “Safe at Home” program that already protects the personal information for other groups of people, including domestic violence victims, reproductive care workers and those who work for gender-affirming care providers, Bonta added.

“My bill and the Safe at Home program defines this as sharing personal information with the intent to incite imminent great bodily harm or place someone in objectively reasonable fear for their personal safety,” Bonta said.

According to the bill, a court could fine the person convicted of breaking the law $4,000, possibly more.