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The conservative network Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of defaming a voting equipment company by spreading lies about President Donald Trumps 2020 election loss, according to documents filed Monday. The settlement comes after Fox News Channel paid $787.5 million to settle a similar lawsuit in 2023 and Newsmax paid what court papers describe as $40 million to settle a libel lawsuit from a different voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which also was a target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis had ruled earlier that Newsmax did indeed defame Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems by airing false information about the company and its equipment. But Davis left it to a jury to eventually decide whether that was done with malice, and, if so, how much Dominion deserved from Newsmax in damages. Newsmax and Dominion reached the settlement before the trial could take place. The settlement was disclosed by Newsmax on Monday in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It said the deal was reached Friday. A spokesperson for Dominion said the company was pleased to have settled the lawsuit. The disclosure came as Trump, who lost his 2020 reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden, vowed in a social media post Monday to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines such as those supplied by Dominion and other companies. It was unclear how the Republican president could achieve that. The same judge also handled the Dominion-Fox News case and made a similar ruling that the network repeated numerous lies by Trumps allies about his 2020 loss despite internal communications showing Fox officials knew the claims were bogus. At the time, Davis found it was CRYSTAL clear that none of the allegations was true. Internal correspondence from Newsmax officials likewise shows they knew the claims were baseless. How long are we going to play along with election fraud? Newsmax host Bob Sellers said two days after the 2020 election was called for Biden, according to internal documents revealed as part of the case. Newsmax took pride that it was not calling the election for Biden and, the internal documents show, saw a business opportunity in catering to viewers who believed Trump won. Private communications that surfaced as part of Dominions earlier defamation case against Fox News also revealed how the networks business interests intersected with decisions it made related to coverage of Trumps 2020 election claims. At Newsmax, employees repeatedly warned against false allegations from pro-Trump guests such as attorney Sidney Powell, according to documents in the lawsuit. In one text, even Newsmax owner Chris Ruddy, a Trump ally, said he found it scary that Trump was meeting with Powell. Dominion was at the heart of many of the wild claims aired by guests on Newsmax and elsewhere, who promoted a conspiracy theory involving deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to rig the machines for Biden. Though Trump has insisted his fraud claims are real, theres no evidence they were, and the lawsuits in the Fox and Newsmax cases show how some of the presidents biggest supporters knew they were false at the time. Trumps then-attorney general, William Barr, said there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits alleging fraud, some before Trump-appointed judges. Numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results, including some run by Republicans, turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error and affirmed Bidens win. After returning to office, Trump pardoned those who tried to halt the transfer of power during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and directed his Department of Justice to investigate Chris Krebs, a former Trump cybersecurity appointee who had vouched for the security and accuracy of the 2020 election. As an initial trial date approached in the Dominion case earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order attacking the law firm that litigated it and the Fox case, Susman Godfrey. The order, part of a series targeting law firms Trump has tussled with, cited Susman Godfreys work on elections and said the government would not do business with any of its clients or permit any of its staff in federal buildings. A federal judge put that action on hold, saying the framers would view it as a shocking abuse of power. Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press
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Rose Hammond pushed authorities for years to lower the 55 mph speed limit on a two-lane road that passes her assisted living community, a church, two schools, and a busy park that hosts numerous youth sports leagues. What are you waiting for, somebody to get killed? the 85-year-old chided officials in northwest Ohio, complaining that nothing was being done about the motorcycles that race by almost daily. Amid growing public pressure, Sylvania Township asked county engineers in March to analyze whether Mitchaw Road’s posted speed is too high. The surprising answer: Technically, it’s 5 mph too low. The reason dates back to studies on rural roads from the 1930s and 1940s that still play an outsized role in the way speed limits are set across the U.S.even in urban areas. Born from that research was a widely accepted concept known as the 85% rule, which suggests a roads posted speed should be tied to the 15th-fastest vehicle out of every 100 traveling it in free-flowing traffic, rounded to the nearest 5 mph increment. But after decades of closely following the rule, some stateswith a nudge from the federal governmentare seeking to modify, if not replace, it when setting guidelines for how local engineers should decide what speed limit to post. Drivers set the speed The concept assumes that a road’s safest speed is the one most vehicles travelneither too high nor too low. If drivers think the speed limit should be raised, they can simply step on the gas and vote with their feet, as an old brochure from the Institute of Transportation Engineers once put it. The problem with this approach is it creates this feedback loop, said Jenny O’Connell, director of member programs for the National Association of City Transportation Officials. People speed, and then the speed limits will be ratcheted up to match that speed. The association developed an alternative to the 85% rule known as City Limits, which aims to minimize the risk of injuries for all road users by setting the speed limit based on a formula that factors in a street’s activity level and the likelihood of conflicts, such as collisions. The report points out the 85% rule is based on dated research and that these historic roads are a far cry from the vibrant streets and arterials that typify city streets today. Amid a recent spike in road deaths across the country, the Federal Highway Administration sent a subtle but important message to states that the 85% rule isn’t actually a rule at all and was carrying too much weight in determining local speed limits. In its first update since 2009 to a manual that establishes national guidelines for traffic signs, the agency clarified that communities should also consider such things as how the road is used, the risk to pedestrians, and the frequency of crashes. Leah Shahum, who directs the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit advocating for street safety, said she wishes the manual had gone further in downplaying the 85% rule but acknowledges the change has already impacted the way some states set speed limits. Others, however, are still clinging to the simplicity and familiarity of the long-standing approach, she said. The 85th percentile should not be the Holy Grail or the Bible, and yet over and over again, it is accepted as that, Shahum said. Rethinking the need for speed Under its 20 Is Plenty campaign, the Wisconsin capital of Madison has been changing signs across the city this summer, lowering the speed limit from 25 mph to 20 mph on local residential streets. When Seattle took a similar step in a pilot program seven years ago, not only did it see a noticeable decline in serious injury crashes but also a 7% drop in the 85th percentile speed, according to the Vision Zero Network. California embraces the 85% rule even more than most states as its basis for setting speed limits. But legislators have loosened the restrictions on local governments a bit in recent years, allowing them to depart from the guidelines if they can cite a proven safety need. Advocates for pedestrians and bicyclists say the change helps, but it is not enough. We still have a long way to go in California in terms of putting value on all road users, said Kendra Ramsey, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition. Theres still a very heavy mindset that automobiles are the primary method of travel and they should be given priority and reverence. But Jay Beeber, executive director for policy at the National Motorists Association, an advocacy organization for drivers, said following the 85% rule is usually the safest way to minimize the variation in speed between drivers who abide by the posted limit and those who far exceed it. It doesn’t really matter what number you put on a sign, Beeber said. The average driver drives the nature of the roadway. It would be patently unfair for a government to build a road to encourage people to drive 45 mph, put a 30 mph speed limit on it, and then ticket everyone for doing what they built the road to do. 80 is the new 55 Fears about oil prices prompted Congress in the 1970s to set a 55 mph national maximum speed limit, which it later relaxed to 65 mph before repealing the law in 1995 and handing the authority to states. Since then, speed limits have kept climbing, with North Dakota this summer becoming the ninth state to allow drivers to go 80 mph on some stretches of highway. There’s even a 40-mile segment in Texas between Austin and San Antonio where 85 mph is allowed. Although high-speed freeways outside major population centers aren’t the focus of most efforts to ease the 85% rule, a 2019 study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safetya research arm funded by auto insurersillustrates the risks. Every 5 mph increase to a state’s maximum speed limit increases the chance of fatalities by 8.5% on interstate highways and 2.8% on other roads, the study found. Maybe back when you were driving a Model T, you had a real feel for how fast you were going. But in modern vehicles, you don’t have a sense of what 80 mph is. You’re in a cocoon, said Chuck Farmer, the institute’s vice president for research, who conducted the study. A town’s attempt at change If elected officials in Sylvania Township, Ohio, got their way, Mitchaw Road’s posted speed limit would be cut dramaticallyfrom 55 mph to 40 mph or lower. Te county’s finding that the 85% rule actually calls for raising it to 60 mph surprised the town’s leaders, but not the engineers who ran the study. If we dont make decisions based on data, its very difficult to make good decisions, Lucas County Engineer Mike Pniewski said. For now, the speed limit will remain as it is. That’s because Ohio law sets maximum speeds for 15 different types of roadways, regardless of what the 85% rule suggests. And Ohio’s guidelines are evolving. The state now gives more consideration to roadway context and allows cities to reduce speed limits based on the lower standard of the 50th percentile speed when there’s a large presence of pedestrians and bicyclists. Authorities there recently hired a consultant to consider additional modifications based on what other states are doing. States have very slowly started to move away from the 85th percentile as being kind of the gold standard for decision-making, said Michelle May, who manages Ohio’s highway safety program. People are traveling and living differently than they did 40 years ago, and we want to put safety more at the focus. It’s unclear whether any of these changes will ultimately impact the posted speed on Mitchaw Road. After years of futile calls and emails to state, county, and township officials, Hammond says she isn’t holding her breath. I just get so discouraged, she said. By Jeff McMurray, Associated Press
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British motorists can now lease a Tesla electric vehicle for just over half of what they would have paid a year ago, The Times reported on Monday, citing industry sources. Tesla has been forced to offer discounts of up to 40% to car leasing companies to shift more units, the report said. The discounts are also due to the lack of storage space for Tesla vehicles in the UK, the report said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Tesla’s July sales in the UK fell about 60% to 987 units in July, according to the latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). British new car registrations overall fell about 5% year-on-year in July, according to the SMMT. Battery electric vehicles are now projected to account for 23.8% of new registrations in 2025, slightly up from SMMT’s previous forecast of 23.5%. Gnaneshwar Rajan, Reuters
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