Peacock (streaming service)

Texas put Ker'Sean Ramey, 41, to death by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the Huntsville Unit, a week after co-defendant LeJames Norman was executed for the same crime. Both men were convicted in the 2005 fatal shootings of Samuel Roberts, Tiffani Peacock, and Celso Lopez during an attempted robbery at the victims' home in Edna, Texas, southwest of Houston. Prosecutors said Ramey and Norman believed there was cocaine in the house, found none, and killed the three occupants. Norman testified against Ramey, who was tried first by a jury with no Black jurors.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Ramey's final appeal hours before the execution; his attorneys had raised claims of racial discrimination in jury selection and ineffective trial counsel, which courts rejected. In a final statement, Ramey apologized to his children and expressed gratitude to fellow inmates. Ramey is the sixth person executed in Texas this year, with three more scheduled in coming months. Nationally, 28 executions have now been carried out in 2026, with Florida leading the total.

Maryland's Tax Court has voided the state's first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax, ruling it violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act along with the First Amendment and the Constitution's commerce and due process clauses. The court ordered state officials to refund tax money already collected from Apple, Google and Peacock TV.

Enacted in 2021, the law taxed digital ad revenue at rates from 2.5% to 10% based on companies' global gross revenue, and was projected to raise roughly $250 million a year to help fund a major K-12 education initiative. Meta, Amazon and other tech firms challenged the law across multiple venues, and a federal appeals court previously struck down a provision barring companies from disclosing the tax to customers. Maryland's top Democratic legislative leaders said they disagree with the ruling and expect litigation to continue. The decision is being closely watched by other states weighing similar digital ad taxes.