Declarations

“Tesla has yet to produce anything even remotely approaching a fully self-driving car.”

— Briggs Matsko said regarding a proposed class action against Tesla Inc. in which he is a named plaintiff. The suit alleges the electric car company misled the public by falsely advertising its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features. Reuters reported that the complaint accuses Tesla and Elon Musk of having since 2016 deceptively advertised the technology as fully functioning or “just around the corner” despite knowing that the technology did not work or was nonexistent.

“New Hope’s faith-guided services don’t coerce anyone and do nothing to interfere with other adoption providers who have different beliefs about family and the best interests of children.”

— Attorney Roger Brooks of the Alliance Defending Freedom said in a press release after a federal judge ruled New York state could not require his client, New Hope Family Services, to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples. New Hope, in Syracuse, says it cannot provide adoption services to same-sex or unmarried couples because of religious beliefs. New Hope says it takes no government funding and has placed more than 1,000 children with adoptive families since 1965.

“There’s just not much crop out there. … A lot of cotton burned up, and a lot of it never even made it up to begin with.”

— Brad Heffington, a cotton farmer in Littlefield, Texas, said of the drought plaguing the state’s High Plains cotton and cottonseed producing region that normally accounts for 66% of the state’s total yield and more than a third of the nation’s total crop. It’s estimated that cotton production in the High Plains will be down by $2 billion this year.

“The Golden Ray was grounded near environmentally sensitive areas that serve as a unique habitat for a variety of species, including, but not limited to, shrimp, fish, migratory birds, crabs, and food sources for all marine life, including, but not limited to, fiddler crabs.”

— Two federal lawsuits filed in Georgia by fishermen, shrimpers, and business owners dependent on coastal tourism state that pollutants released by the capsize of the Golden Ray and the harm caused by the subsequent salvage operation have damaged the area’s sensitive marine ecosystem — and the plaintiffs’ livelihoods. The South Korean-owned cargo ship capsized off the Georgia coast in 2019 with more than 4,200 automobiles in its cargo decks.

“Our lawyer argued that if OSU had gotten away with what they were trying to do here, with getting this motion thrown out on the statute of limitations, then they would have paved the way and given a playbook for all these other universities to do the same thing that they’ve done, and I’m glad that this court saw through it and didn’t let it happen.”

— Stated lead plaintiff Steve Snyder-Hill after a Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling revived unsettled lawsuits against Ohio State University over decades-old sexual abuse by the late team doctor Richard Strauss.

“As wildfire emergencies have continued to threaten Siskiyou County, I am taking action to protect residents’ insurance coverage and give them peace of mind.”

— California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement after ordering insurers to preserve residential insurance coverage following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s emergency declaration as the Mill Fire threatened Siskiyou County homeowners. The order issued in early September came one month after Lara took similar action to protect Siskiyou County residents affected by the McKinney and China 2 fires.