The Daily Populous

Thursday October 9th, 2025 day edition

image for Wyoming library director fired amid book dispute wins $700,000 settlement

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A former Wyoming library director who was fired amid an uproar over books with sexual content and LGBTQ+ themes that some people complained were inappropriate for youngsters and who sought their removal from youth shelves will be paid $700,000 after settling a lawsuit.

Terri Lesley was fired as the library system director in northeastern Wyoming’s Campbell County in 2023, two years into the book dispute at the library in Gillette.

Lesley sued last spring over her termination and reached the settlement with county officials Wednesday.

It’s been a rough road, but I will never regret standing up for the First Amendment,” Lesley said.

Public officials there sided with the book objectors and violated Lesley’s First Amendment rights, Lesley claimed in her federal lawsuit against Campbell County, including its commission and library board.

Only Lesley’s performance — not the dispute over the books — played a role in her dismissal, the county argued in court documents.

Halpern and her firm, Rathod Mohamedbhai in Denver, have supported fired library employees elsewhere in recent years. »

Gavin Newsom Signs Bill That Restricts Loudness Of Commercials On Streaming Services

Authored by deadline.com

Streaming services in California will have to ensure that their commercials are no louder than the shows surrounding them.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill, SB 576, that bars the services “from transmitting the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the advertisements accompany.”

The governor noted that federal law — the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act of 2010 — already prohibits TV stations and cable operators from featuring the loud commercials. »

At India’s Durga Puja festival, a Hindu goddess slays a demon: Trump

Authored by cnn.com

“That’s why we have depicted Trump as this demon, vanquished by the powerful mother Durga.”.

A pandal, or pavilion, depicted US President Donald Trump as the asur (demon), during the Hindu festival of Durga Puja this year in Murshidabad, West Bengal.

Hindu devotees perform a traditional Bengali dance in front of an idol of the goddess Durga in Kolkata, India, on October 3, 2025. »

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Authored by gamefile.news

In this Reconstruction-era Assassin’s Creed, gamers would play as a Black man who had been formerly enslaved in the South and moved west to start a new life.

The people were enthusiastic about the game but were also frustrated by its cancellation, which they perceived as Ubisoft bowing to controversy.

“Too political in a country too unstable, to make it short,” one source familiar with the game and its cancellation told Game File. »