Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including Meta agreed to pay $725 million to settle claims that Facebook illegally gave third parties access to users’ private information; The upper Midwest woke to subzero temperatures and all the troubles that come with them; Last-ditch hopes for a Santa rally dissipated after Wall Street had wild swings this week, and more.

National

Meta to pay record $725 million to settle class action over Cambridge Analytica scandal

Meta Platforms, the parent of Facebook, has agreed to pay $725 million to settle claims by its users that the social-media behemoth illegally gave third parties, including political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, access to their private information.

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a 2019 event. (Meta via Courthouse News)

Santa rally sputters as pendulum-like markets settle on a loss for the week

Wall Street’s great foe for the past year, inflation, seems to have been tamed, but a new enemy has taken its place: fear of recession.

A U.S. flag flies outside the headquarters of the IRS in Lower Manhattan on Dec. 21, 2022. (Barbara Leonard/Courthouse News Service)

Final House report on Jan. 6 calls Trump’s fraud allegations ‘concocted nonsense’

House lawmakers investigating the insurrection released their final report Thursday, marking the end of a nearly 18-month probe that resulted in a historic referral for criminal prosecution of former President Donald Trump for his actions connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Jessica Biel’s ‘clean’ kids pharma biz accused of dirty tactics by rival

KinderFarms, a maker of "clean" over-the-counter drugs for children co-founded by actress Jessica Biel, lies about its artificial ingredients-free medicines being the first of their kind and copies the products of its rival, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

A sick child holds a medicine bottle and his feverish forehead. (Victoria Model/Pixabay via Courthouse News)

Regional

Burst pipes, power outages: Great Lakes region recovers as winter storm rolls on

The upper Midwest woke to subzero temperatures Friday morning, and all the troubles that come with them.

Two Chicago Transit Authority trains sit in an elevated station in Chicago's famed Loop as a winter storm continues on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Wet end to 2022 possible as atmospheric river takes aim at West Coast

As much of the United States reels from a paralyzing arctic blast, California and the West Coast is looking to the Pacific where an atmospheric river is shaping up to bring much needed rain to close out the year.

Snow at the Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada mountains (California Department of Water Resources via Courthouse News)

Trump targets NY look-back window used for civil rape claim defense

Fighting the lawsuit from a woman who says he raped her in the '90s, former President Donald Trump asked a federal judge to strike down the landmark New York law that opened the door for him to face civil liability.

Former President Donald Trump takes the stage at Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach, Fla., to speak on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Op-ed

A brief affair

A reporter must learn to remember quotes exactly, without taking notes. This is especially true on important and dangerous stories, like this one.

(Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay via Courthouse News)

Categories / Closing Arguments

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.