June 4, 2022

Former Rep. John Lesch apologizes to St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson after legal settlement – Twin Cities

A four-year legal defamation case between St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson and former St. Paul lawmaker has been settled out of court. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but John Lesch, a former state representative, has written Olson a letter of apology and shared it with St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s office.

Olson will receive an undisclosed amount of money from Lesch as well.

“I appreciate the closure the letter brings,” said Olson on Friday. “Receiving an apology is the right result.”

The lawsuit centered around allegedly disparaging remarks that Lesch made about Olson in January 2018, in a wide-ranging letter to then newly-elected St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter listing reasons why Olson would be a bad choice for city attorney.

Lesch, who had previously served in the city attorney’s office and alongside Olson in the Minnesota National Guard, called into question her reputation within the MN Guard’s Judge Advocate General corps. He also asked the mayor for Olson’s disciplinary history within the Guard.

Carter ignored Lesch’s advice and, a few weeks later, Olson sued Lesch for defamation. She argued that he had gone too far in both contacting her employer and raising unsubstantiated claims about

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June 4, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Former Eagles RB Jay Ajayi finally gets settlement from insurance policy; report

Nearly four years after suffering an ACL injury that pretty much ended his career, former Eagles running back Jay Ajayi finally got his insurance payout.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport on Tuesday morning reported that Ajayi “received a settlement for his $5 million loss-of-value insurance policy.”

Rapoport back in 2018, in the wake of Ajayi’s ACL tear that ended his 2018 season early, ajayi-had-insurance-policy-to-protect-from-injury-0ap3000000972694″reported that Ajayi had purchased a loss-of-value insurance policy as he entered the final year of his rookie contract. That ended up being a wise move.

Ajayi, who had long had knee issues, tore his ACL in October of 2018, not that long after he helped the Eagles win their first-ever Super Bowl championship to cap the 2017 season.

While Ajayi rehabbed and played again in the NFL, he was never the same. In 2019, he played in just three games for the Eagles but had just 30 yards on 10 carries; he had nothing left.

While it’s unclear how much of that $5 million policy Ajayi received in the settlement, it’s worth noting that Ajayi never signed the big second contract so many NFL players yearn to get.

Ajayi was a fifth-round pick and his

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June 4, 2022 by INSURANCE

Amber Heard will appeal verdict in Johnny Depp case, lawyer says
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A day after a jury found that Amber Heard defamed her ex-husband Johnny Depp and awarded him $15 million in damages, Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft told multiple morning shows that the actress intends to appeal the verdict.

“Oh, absolutely,” Bredehoft responded on Thursday heard-s-attorney-speaks-out-verdict-is-a-significant-setback-141295685920″when NBC’s “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie asked if Heard wanted to appeal. “And she has some excellent grounds for it.”

On Wednesday, a seven-person jury in Fairfax County ruled largely in Depp’s favor, agreeing with the actor that Heard harmed his reputation when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed (which did not name Depp) that said she became a public figure representing domestic abuse, two years after she had filed for divorce and a restraining order. In addition, the jury found that Depp, through his lawyer Adam Waldman, defamed Heard in one of three statements that called her accusations a hoax and awarded her $2 million.

Bredehoft said that Heard was “heartbroken” after the verdict. “One of the first things she said is, ‘I am so sorry to all those women out there,’ ” the lawyer said, adding that the verdict sends “a horrible message.”

“It’s a setback, a

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June 4, 2022 by LAW

Pennsylvania’s highest court could give cities the go-ahead to craft their own gun laws · Spotlight PA

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters.

HARRISBURG — While Pennsylvania voters might look to the General Assembly to take action on new gun laws after the massacre of nearly 20 children in Texas, the judiciary will likely determine the direction of the commonwealth’s firearms policies in the coming months.

Three distinct suits are being appealed to the state’s highest court, all arguing that cities and municipalities in Pennsylvania should be allowed to pass their own gun laws.

The suits — which involve the state’s two largest cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — seek to either loosen or overturn a nearly three-decade-old precedent that gives the legislature the sole authority to regulate gun ownership throughout the state.

Advocates for and against stricter gun policies in Pennsylvania say court action could have broad consequences. In one of the cases involving Philadelphia, the state Supreme Court is being asked to strike down as unconstitutional a 1995 law that preempts local jurisdictions from enacting stricter gun regulations — which could in turn force the legislature to rewrite it.

“Ours is a

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June 4, 2022 by LEGAL
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