Emotional Camp Mystic Hearing, Nuns Sue NY Over LGBTQ Mandate, DOJ Probes NFL Deals: AM Update 4/16
Emily Jashinsky reports on Camp Mystic's closure after a July 4, 2025 flood killed 27 people, citing Director Edward Eastland's admission of missing evacuation plans. The update covers the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne suing New York over LGBTQ mandates, fearing jail time for violating their First Amendment rights, while the DOJ probes NFL media deals that could cost fans $1,000 annually. Finally, Australian police investigate Katy Perry regarding 2010 assault allegations by Ruby Rose, highlighting a day defined by legal crises and accountability across sports, faith, and entertainment. [Automatically generated summary]
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Texas Flood Mandate Threatens Sisters00:15:04
Good morning, everyone.
I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party and the Megan Kelly Wrap Up Show on SiriusXM Channel 111.
It's Thursday, April 16th, 2026, and this is your AM update.
You failed her, did you not, Mr. Eastland?
I wish we had more information.
An emotional hearing in Texas over Camp Mystic, the site of last year's deadly flood, leaving 27 campers and counselors dead.
The sanctions for violating this law create an existential threat.
to the sisters and their apostolate.
A group of Catholic nuns taking on the state of New York over an LGBTQ law that would force them to adopt patients' pronouns, undergo sensitivity training and more at their palliative care center, or face possible jail time.
The DOJ investigates the NFL as more games move behind paywalls, forcing customers to pay even higher prices.
And Australian police investigating pop star Katy Perry over allegations that she sexually assaulted actress Ruby Rose.
All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.
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An emotional hearing wrapping up in Austin, Texas, centering on the future of Camp Mystic, a private Christian girls summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, after a catastrophic flood killed 27 campers and counselors, plus a co-owner there last summer.
The three-day evidentiary hearing stemming from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of eight-year-old Cecilia Seal Stewart, the only camper whose body has not been recovered.
Seal's family asking a judge to block the camp from rebuilding or reopening.
arguing that key physical evidence, including cabins, floodwater markings, and communication systems, must be preserved as the case moves forward.
Camp Mystic is planning to reopen in less than two months at a separate, higher-elevation campground, with more than 800 girls set to attend.
The hearing focusing on what happened in the early morning hours of July 4, 2025, when intense overnight rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to rise rapidly, sending floodwaters through the camp.
Testimony this week laying out the camp's emergency response or lack thereof.
Camp Director Edward Eastland, son of co-owner Richard Dick Eastland, disputing claims the camp lacked an evacuation plan required under state law, but telling the court he was unable to locate or produce that plan.
Eastland testifying he and other staff were signed up for emergency alert systems, but did not see warnings issued by the National Weather Service and Texas emergency officials.
Eastland also testified that staff members did not use loudspeakers to tell campers to evacuate their cabins to higher ground.
The call to evacuate not coming until about 3 a.m., well after the flooding had begun.
On Tuesday, Eastland questioned about what more he could have done to save the campers.
You failed her, did you not, Mr. Eastland?
I wish we had more information.
All the information was there for your entire family.
To see and utilize if y'all had just stayed awake and looked.
Did you want a trooper to come knock on your door and tell you to do your job?
No, sir.
What should the state have done?
Should they have showed up and said, Wake up, go save these kids?
I think it should have been a more urgent alert.
Yesterday afternoon, Judge Maya Garagamble issued a new order, keeping the property available to law enforcement for investigation, blocking the flood damaged site's use as a camp.
and ordering the structures remain unaltered, per the local Fox affiliate.
Camp Mystic currently facing five separate lawsuits, the first one tentatively set to begin May 2027.
A group of Catholic nuns who run a palliative care home in Hawthorne, New York, dedicated to caring for poor cancer patients in their final days free of charge, now suing the state of New York over its LGBTQ long-term care facility residents' Bill of Rights.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne operating Rosary Hill Home for more than a century, a 42-bed facility where they say they provide care to all patients without discrimination and regardless of race, religion, sex, or background.
The law, signed by Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul in 2023 and taking effect in 2024, prohibits long-term care facilities from discriminating based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status.
The sisters say that the mandate requires them to assign rooms based on gender identity rather than biological sex, allow access to bathrooms based on gender identity, use patients' preferred pronouns, and require staff to undergo training aligned with the state's standards.
The law also protects what it describes as a resident's right to associate with others, including, quote, consensual expressions of intimacy or sexual relations, unless restrictions are applied equally to all residents.
Failure to comply could result in fines, loss of licensing, and even jail time.
Earlier this month, the Dominican Sisters filing a federal lawsuit arguing the law violates their First Amendment rights to religious freedom and free speech, as well as equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
The state declining to comment on the pending litigation, but releasing a statement indicating it is, quote, committed to following state law, which provides nursing home residents certain rights protecting against discrimination, including, but not limited to, gender identity or expression.
We spoke with attorney L. Martin Nussbaum, who is representing the sisters.
He tells us the sisters first sought an exemption before filing suit.
We wrote a five page letter to the New York Department of Health.
We explained who the sisters were, what their Catholic values were.
We explained what the New York mandates required them to do, that that was squarely contrary to their Catholic values.
We pointed out to them that they've given a religious exemption already to the Christian scientists and requested it as required by the federal constitution, both the free speech clause and the free exercise clause.
And we heard nothing, no response.
We asked them to respond in 15 days.
We gave them Three weeks before we filed, and then we proceeded with filing the lawsuit, and we've not heard a peep from them since.
Nassbaum says the state's decision to grant an exemption to Christian scientists while denying one to the sisters only strengthens their case.
We have nothing against the Christian Science, Church of Christ scientists, but for the state to give an exemption to that group means one, they recognize that there's serious moral issues around this mandate.
And that they can accommodate those religious conscientious objections by the Christian scientists.
And the fact that they would not do that for similar Catholic groups, which have even more nursing homes and long term care facilities, it's just wrong and it's contrary to the Constitution of the United States.
Nussbaum describing the legal arguments underlying the sister's case.
When the state discriminates in favor of Christian scientists and against Catholics, that would squarely violate the.
Equal Protection Clause.
This mandate also requires certain types of speech by the sisters.
They have to train their employees, including their own nuns, in gender ideology.
They have to use certain speech that's false regarding pronouns.
They can't have a compelling interest to impose this mandate on the Catholics when they don't impose it on the Christian scientists.
And most importantly, how the sisters do their ministry.
They have a sacred calling to serve the indigent who are dying of cancer.
And that's ministry for them.
It's the healing ministry of Christ.
And the government can't get in the business of dictating how nuns engage in such a ministry.
Nussbaum says the law presents catastrophic consequences for the sisters if they do not violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.
The sanctions for violating this law create an existential threat.
To the sisters and their apostolate, which is called Rosary Hill Home, the government has the choice of imposing fines up to $5,000 per violation.
They can revoke the licenses of the staff, including the nuns who work, and people would lose their ability to make a living.
And they can revoke the license of the Rosary Hill Home itself, which would stupidly shut down this ministry that's been doing this good work for 125 years.
They could even send some of the leaders of the group to prison for up to one year.
It's breathtaking.
Coming up, the DOJ probing the NFL as its multi billion dollar media machine faces widespread scrutiny over rising costs to watch the games.
And Katy Perry under investigation in Australia after actress Ruby Rose claims she was sexually assaulted by the pop star.
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FCC chair Brendan Carr weighing in on a new DOJ investigation into the NFL over concerns the league's media deals.
Maybe driving up costs for fans and limiting competition.
Here's Card Tuesday on CNBC.
I think long term, there's been a great partnership between broadcasters and Sports League.
It's helped them to grow their fan base.
And that experience has become frustrating for lots of Americans over the years.
They feel like they're paying more out of pocket, they're having to sign up for different streaming services.
There's been reports that DOJ is looking at this from an antitrust perspective.
There is a Sports Broadcasting Act, which gives NFL and others a unique antitrust exemption.
There's a question of whether they are extending beyond the scope of that antitrust exemption if they move too many games behind a paywall.
The DOJ investigation first reported last week by the Wall Street Journal.
The exact scope of the probe is currently unclear.
The legal basis of the issue is the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which allows the NFL to combine the TV rights from all 32 teams and negotiate as one seller, something most competing businesses are barred from doing under antitrust law.
That law written in an era when fans could watch games for free on broadcast television.
Today's media landscape looking much different, and its effect on NFL broadcasting raising concern among consumers, regulators, and some lawmakers.
The NFL now offering exclusive game packages to streaming giants like Amazon, Netflix, and Peacock on top of its traditional broadcast deals.
As a result, dedicated football fans now need multiple streaming subscriptions to watch all games.
Running about $1,000 per season, according to Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, all while the media corporations stand to make a fortune.
The agreements between the NFL and streamers, including Disney, Paramount, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, NFL Network, Amazon, Google, and Netflix, are expected to rake in more than $100 billion in sports rights fees under their current contracts, according to the New York Post.
The NFL pushing back on criticism, calling its distribution model, quote, The most fan and broadcaster friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry, stating that over 87% of games air for free on broadcast, quote, including 100% of games in the markets of the competing teams.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley responding in a thread on X, quote, If you need any more proof of the NFL's contempt for its fans, it can be found in its antitrust statement.
Roger Goodell and the NFL are about as popular as gum disease with fans.
They fleece fans continually as they make record profits.
Rose Accuses Perry of Assault00:02:16
Australian police now reportedly investigating pop star Katy Perry over sexual assault allegations made by actress Ruby Rose.
The Orange is the New Black actress earlier this week posting on the social media platform threads, quote, Katy Perry sexually assaulted me at Spice Market Nightclub in Melbourne.
Rose later elaborating on the alleged incident in a series of reply posts, quote, I was only in my early 20s.
I'm now 40.
It has taken almost two decades to say this publicly.
Rose alleging that in 2010, at the now closed nightclub, Perry forced her private parts onto Rose's face without consent, causing Rose to vomit.
A former manager of the club telling Rolling Stone both women who arrived and left the club together that night, quote, had way too much to drink, but he was not aware of any assault that night.
The Melbourne sexual offenses and child abuse investigation team confirming Wednesday that an investigation into a historical incident is now underway, but declining further comment.
Perry denying the allegations through a spokesperson, quote, The allegations are not only categorically false, they are dangerous, reckless lies.
Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named.
Rose has previously made a range of allegations on social media, including claims of rape by unnamed individuals and workplace misconduct tied to her time on the show Batwoman, all of which have been denied.
That'll do it for your AM update.
I'm Emily Draschinski, host of Afterparty.
Catch the Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel 111 at noon east on youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly and all podcast platforms.
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