Investigation on campus doctor ends after Michigan State University refuses documents
Last Friday, the investigation of Michigan State University’s campus sports doctor, Larry Nassar, ended after the university refused to waive attorney-client privilege to provide thousands of documents related to the scandal, according to Michigan’s attorney general. Nassar, a former USA gymnastic national team doctor, is currently serving a decade-long sentence in prison for sexual assault and child pornography crimes. In 2019, the federal government ordered the university to make major changes and pay a $4.5 million fine after determining that the university failed to adequately respond to complaints about Nassar. According to CNN, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said “the University’s refusal to voluntarily provide [the documents] closes the last door available to finish our investigation. We’re incredibly disappointed that our work will end this way, especially for the Survivors.”
Beloved author Beverly Cleary dies at 104
Publisher HarperCollins announced that Beverly Cleary, an accomplished children’s author, died last Thursday at the age of 104. Cleary died at her home in Carmel Valley, CA where she has lived for over half a century. No cause of death was given. Cleary is known for her books “Beezus and Ramona” and “Henry Huggins,” among many others.
U.S. appellate court sides with photographer over Warhol copyright dispute
Last Friday, the U.S. appeals court sided with photographer Lynn Goldsmith in a copyright dispute with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (Warhol Foundation) over a series of marketed Warhol works based on Goldsmith’s pictures of Prince. The Court of Appeals ruled that the artwork created by Warhol before his death was not transformative and could not overcome copyright obligations to Goldsmith. The case was returned to a lower court for further proceedings. This is the end of a four-year fight initiated by a lawsuit from the Warhol Foundation. The foundation attempted to use Goldsmith’s work without asking permission nor compensation.
Rare coin sold for record of $8.4M at Vegas auction
The only known 1822 half eagle $5 coin in private hands sold at an auction in Las Vegas for $8.4 million on Thursday. The coin was confirmed by the curator of the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado that it is one of three of its kind in existence. The coin’s auction price was the highest for a U.S gold coin struck by the U.S. Mint. The most expensive U.S coin ever sold was at $10 million and is a 1794 U.S. “Flowing Hair” silver dollar said to be among the first-ever minted in the U.S.
California woman sentenced for school bomb threats.
Last Friday, a Califonia woman, Sonia Tabizada, was sentenced to one and a half years in federal prison over threats to bomb a Roman Catholic preparatory school for planning to publish same-sex wedding announcements. Tabizada pleaded guilty to obstruction of religious belief while a second felony charge of transmitting bomb threats in interstate commerce was dropped. The school, one of the oldest Catholic schools for girls in the country, announced it would begin publishing same-sex announcements in its alumni magazine, to which Tabizada left a voice message threatening to burn and bomb the facility.
