A federal jury ruled that the New York Times did not libel former Alaskan Republican Gov. Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial in the latest update to the years-long lawsuit.

The jury reached its decision after deliberating for about two hours following both sides delivering their closing arguments to the Manhattan federal court civil trial. The trial was in its second week.

In a comment to Fox News Digital, NYT spokesperson Danielle Rhoades said, “We want to thank the jurors for their careful deliberations. The decision reaffirms an important tenet of American law: publishers are not liable for honest mistakes.”

SARAH PALIN TAKES WITNESS STAND IN LIBEL CASE VS. NEW YORK TIMES

Fox News Digital reached out to Palin’s legal team for comment. It is unclear yet whether she plans to appeal the decision.

Palin, who became a national figure as the 2008 Republican vice presidential pick of the late Sen. John McCain, first sued the paper in 2017 for defamation after claiming an editorial falsely linked her to the deadly 2011 mass shooting that wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., and killed six people. The editorial was published in response to the 2017 mass shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice that severely wounded Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.

The editorial was corrected the next day. Former editorial page editor James Bennet took responsibility for rushing the story and in tearful testimony last week apologized to Palin.

JUDGE SET TO DISMISS SARAH PALIN’S DEFAMATION CASE, SIDING WITH NEW YORK TIMES

This was the second time the New York Times was found not liable for defamation in this lawsuit brought by Palin. In 2022, a federal jury unanimously ruled in favor of the publication after U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff had already dismissed the case. Rakoff said at the time that since the case would inevitably be appealed, the court of appeals would benefit from knowing a jury’s decision despite his dismissal.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned this decision in 2024, finding that Rakoff’s decision to dismiss the case prior to the jury’s decision qualified the lawsuit for a retrial.

“We have no difficulty concluding that an average jury’s verdict would be affected if several jurors knew that the judge had already ruled for one of the parties on the very claims the jurors were charged with deciding,” 2nd Circuit Judge John Walker Jr. said at the time.

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Karen Read’s retrial in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe kicked off Tuesday with expected fireworks almost immediately – and they continued after Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors home for the day with a heated hearing on late discovery disclosures.

Both sides painted entirely different versions of events as they delivered their opening statements to the jury, but after the panel left for the day, Cannone called for a new hearing Friday and accused the defense of violating one of her orders on reciprocal discovery.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson opened with a challenge to the heart of the prosecution’s case: that O’Keefe died from injuries sustained when Read’s Lexus SUV allegedly struck him during a nor’easter.

“The evidence in this case will establish, above everything else, three points,” he said. “There was no collision with John O’Keefe. There was no collision. There was no collision.”

KAREN READ DEFENSE FACES ‘HIGH-WIRE’ ACT AS RETRIAL’S OPENING STATEMENTS KICK OFF, EXPERTS SAY

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan told a different story in his own opening statement, minutes earlier, saying to jurors that Read, allegedly drunk and angry, intentionally hit the gas and rammed O’Keefe with the back bumper, then left him on the ground, where he was later found with severe head injuries and hypothermia.

Both cases may hinge on whether a pair of defense experts are allowed to testify about their conclusions.

UNFAZED KAREN READ STARES DOWN LINGERING QUESTIONS ABOUT ‘DOG BITES,’ TEXTS WITH RETRIAL READY FOR KICKOFF

After jurors left, the sides argued in a heated motion hearing about whether expert testimony from the ARCCA crash-reconstruction firm should be allowed. 

Two experts from the firm testified during the first trial, disputing the prosecution’s version of events.

Brennan told the judge that prosecutors have become aware of additional conclusions from the experts – new information that his team would not have time to adequately prepare for because disclosures have not been made.

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Defense attorney Robert Alessi said it was Brennan’s team that caused delays in discovery by revising its own expert disclosures in March, with just weeks to go before Read’s retrial kicked off with jury selection on April 1.

“At a prior hearing, I found a violation of the defense’s reciprocal discovery obligations,” Cannone said. “It was clear to me, and I found that it was deliberate. This appears to me contrary to what you’ve argued, Mr. Alessi, that this is another violation of my order and of the reciprocal discovery violations. We need to figure all of this out before you’re allowed to call these witnesses.”

To accomplish that, she ordered a voir dire hearing with the ARCCA experts Friday morning. Jurors will not be present all day.

Grace Edwards, an Essex County trial attorney who has been following the case, said the end-of-day hearing left her floored.

“They still don’t have the sallyport video,” she said, referring to Read’s defense and police surveillance footage from the day her SUV was first impounded. “They played hide the video. This feels harsh.”

Brennan had previously asked Cannone to exclude the ARCCA team, and Edwards predicted that whatever new testimony ARCCA is expected to bring could be problematic for the commonwealth.

“She barely allowed this to begin with. She can’t be happy about this,” said Paul Mauro, a former NYPD inspector who has been following the case. “Very bad news for the defense.”

KAREN READ DEFENSE FACES ‘HIGH-WIRE’ ACT AS RETRIAL’S OPENING STATEMENTS KICK OFF, EXPERTS SAY

Read appeared to disagree, smiling when she met reporters outside on courthouse steps.

“I feel great,” she said. “Today went well. We prepped hard, and I’m just proud of my team.”

When asked why Jackson didn’t start his opening statement like fellow defense counsel David Yannetti did last year, telling jurors she had been “framed,” she replied, “We don’t like reruns.”

First to take the stand was Commonwealth’s witness Timothy Nuttall, a paramedic who checked O’Keefe when an ambulance arrived at the scene around 6 a.m on Jan. 29, 2022. 

He testified that while first responders were attempting to give O’Keefe CPR, Read said, “I hit him. I hit him. I hit him.”

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But on cross-examination, Jackson was quick to call Nuttall’s memory into question, noting that during Read’s first trial last year, he testified that Read said the phrase only twice. 

He also confronted Nuttall with his own testimony about what O’Keefe was wearing – which turned out to be wrong when he testified about it last year. Then he replayed dashcam video of paramedics on the scene, asking him to walk through it and pointing out where his testimony did not line up with what was on the screen.

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Nuttall appeared uncomfortable at times, as Jackson questioned his memory, his prior testimony, and his timeline of events repeatedly. But he insisted that he heard Read say “I hit him,” repeatedly.

The second witness was Kerry Roberts, a friend of O’Keefe’s whose son was the same age as his adopted nephew. Although she grew up with the victim, she said they became closer after he adopted his sister’s orphaned children following a family tragedy.

Roberts was one of the people Read called on the morning of O’Keefe’s death.

She said she was driving Read and Jennifer McCabe as they looked for him that morning. After first searching his house and coming up empty, they went to the Albert home – where McCabe and other friends and acquaintances had gone for an after-party the night before.

KAREN READ AND JOHN O’KEEFE: INSIDE EVOLUTION OF BOSTON MURDER MYSTERY SINCE JULY MISTRIAL

“As we approached the house, Karen from the back seat is now screaming, ‘There he is! There he is! Let me the F out of this car,’ kicking the back door to get out,” Roberts testified.

Visibility was poor, she said, and she couldn’t see O’Keefe until Read went up to a body-sized “mound” on the front lawn.

Judge Cannone sent jurors home for the day after that testimony. Roberts is expected to return to the stand Wednesday morning.

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The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks after taking more than two weeks to seat a jury.

Read could face a maximum of life in prison if convicted of the top charge, second-degree murder.

“Home Improvement” star Richard Karn is happy with his weight loss but doesn’t want it to become the whole focus of his life.

Karn, who has partnered with the DIY lawn care company, DoMyOwn, lost 30 pounds last year with his wife, and the couple are still following their diet “as much as we can.”

“When something’s that strict, it can’t, for me, become a whole lifestyle,” he told Fox News Digital. “I mean, you have to go, ‘Well, you know what? I really would enjoy this piece of cake, or I would like a slice of pizza.’” 

He continued, “So it’s like everything within moderation, obviously. I mean Oscar Wilde said anything worth doing is worth doing to excess. But I think that can get a lot of people in trouble. It becomes manic in a sense, but you do feel better. Your doctor is happier, and your clothes fit better when you do pay attention to certain things.”

‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STAR SHED 30 POUNDS AFTER STRICT DIET ‘REALIGNED’ BODY

The 69-year-old’s diet focused on “staying to smaller amounts of food that you realize you don’t really need more than four or five ounces of meat, and then vegetables, and drinking water.”

But he warned, “You can get in trouble with drinking too much water.”

“That flushes out some of the salts and things in your system, so when you take things too far, you just have to pay attention, kind of like with your yard.” 

The former “Family Feud” host has also been incorporating Pilates into his fitness routine.

‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STAR RICHARD KARN SHOWS OFF SLIMMED-DOWN PHYSIQUE SINCE ‘90S HEYDAY

“Pilates helps me a lot with golf, because you need to turn,” he said. “You need to be able to have your hip flexors and your knees and everything working, and that helps me with golf. And that’s one of the things that keeps me going as far as keeping in a routine. Routines are important, but you have to find the nucleus of why you’re creating and keeping that routine.”

Karn is maintaining his health but also shifting his focus to his new partnership with DoMyOwn, the DIY lawn care company that gives homeowners access to professional-grade products as well as advice and guidance with videos, step-by-step instructions, and seasonal advice.

The actor is the company’s new spokesperson and, for a limited time, will be on hand as a resource for lawn care advice.

“I’ve always appreciated beautiful, beautiful landscaping, gardens, things like that. I grew up in Seattle. Seattle is a big town for that, taking care of your lawn, taking care of the flowers and around your house. I think that’s important because it shows that you care, that you’re making an effort keeping that routine,” he said.

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As a landscape fan, Karn said the biggest thing people can do to keep their yard in good shape is to understand what they’re actually growing.

“Probably more than three-quarters of the people that have lawns don’t really know what kind of grass they have,” he explained. “They don’t know if they have Kentucky bluegrass or tall fescue or Zoysia or St. Augustine. I mean, these all different types for different types of places you are around the United States.”

He continued, “What’s really cool about DoMyOwn.com is that these guys, it’s a store, obviously, to buy product to help you around your yard, different pesticides, different lawn-growing things like that. But they’re also a free service for information, so you can use them without having to pay for it to say, ‘Listen, I have this problem with my lawn. I’ve got shade tree here and the lawn isn’t growing well’ or this and that. So it’s like you know what you want to do with your own yard.”

Karn’s onscreen persona of Al Borland, the reliable handyman sidekick to Tim Allen’s enthusiastic but haphazard “Tool Time” host on “Home Improvement,” led to his new role with the company.

‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STAR JONATHAN TAYLOR THOMAS SEEN PUBLICLY FOR FIRST TIME IN YEARS: WHERE THE CAST IS TODAY

“That kind of highlighted my skills as far as that’s concerned,” he said. “I mean, my dad was a builder. My grandfather was a builder. I became an actor, but I grew up around builders and knew how to do stuff. And, you know, I’m mowing my own lawn. Growing up, that was one of my chores. And now that ‘Home Improvement’ has afforded me to buy a home, I now have a yard to keep up also. So that’s kind of why I’m excited to be their spokesperson.”

“Home Improvement” remains one of the most popular and beloved sitcoms of the ’90s, and Karn looks back on it just as fondly as fans do.

“I remember laughing a lot,” he said of his co-star Allen. “It was just a joy to go to work.”

Landing the role on the sitcom was a major career shift in more ways than one.

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“Before ‘Home Improvement,’ all of my work had been in theater. I was in New York. I was in Manhattan for like 11 years, and I would do theater Broadway, off Broadway, off Broadway regional theater. And you go into these little, kind of, companies or groups of people for a few months, and then you move on. And with ‘Home Improvement,’ we had eight years. I’m 25 weeks out of the year of being together and having fun. That was really a joy.”

Karn also got to impress his builder dad with his character’s onscreen know-how.

“That was a learning experience,” he said of the different “Tool Time” set pieces. “My dad, being a builder, he just looked at me one day, and he goes, ‘My gosh, you really look like you know what you’re doing.’ And I do. I do know what I’m doing. But dads think of us as [being] 12 [years old] and we can’t pound a nail in straight. But I learned that because I now have a 33-year-old son. So, we learn and hopefully we learn from those experiences.”

His son, Cooper, wants to be an actor, and Karn is happy to guide him as much as he can, but the acting world has changed since he began his own career.

‘HOME IMPROVEMENT’ STARS TIM ALLEN, RICHARD KARN ON REUNITING FOR NEW SERIES: A ‘LIVE VERSION’ OF ‘TOOL TIME’

“The whole world of how that is processed or how you go about doing that has changed because you now can just make your own little movie. You can make your little ideas. You can have your own website or whatever, which was not something that was available to me to do when I was growing [up], unless I had my own, you know, camera, but I wasn’t that industrious,” he said. 

Karn continued, “I liked having a script, working on the script, and doing it on stage. That was my routine. That’s what I like to do. But, you know, actors today now have to navigate a lot of things. And, you put something out there, and it’s out there. Whether it’s good or bad.” 

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“So you just have to be careful,” he added. “And that’s what I keep telling him. I mean, it’s fine that you have a lot of likes, but you also have to know what to do when you get that opportunity. When I got the opportunity for ‘Home Improvement,’ I was 35. So I had a lot of things under my belt that I could pull from that I didn’t have at 25.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton are determined not to raise a royal “spare.”

The couple’s youngest son, Prince Louis, is celebrating his seventh birthday on Wednesday. While party plans have been kept under wraps, his mother will likely bake him a cake, a tradition that, according to reports, she has maintained with her three children.

Several royal experts told Fox News Digital it’s one of the many things the couple has been adamant about ensuring Louis, as well as Prince George and Princess Charlotte, are treated like equals. They cited Prince Harry’s struggles with being the “spare,” which he documented in his explosive tell-all.

KATE MIDDLETON PUTS FOOT DOWN WITH ROYAL CHILDREN, ‘BARBARIC’ RITUAL: EXPERT

“They are both determined to avoid the traditional ‘heir and spare’ dynamic by emphasizing that Prince George is the ‘first among equals,’ so that Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are treated as his equals,” British royal expert Hilary Fordwich told Fox News Digital.

“This ensures they all feel valued and included, rather than sidelined or overshadowed,” she added.

Harry’s memoir “Spare” was published in 2023, depicting the Duke of Sussex as an unhappy royal who attempted to find his way over the years. The 40-year-old’s story is dominated by his rivalry with elder brother William, heir to the British throne, and the death of their mother, Princess Diana. 

Harry, who is tormented by his status as a “spare,” recounts a longstanding sibling rivalry that worsened after he began a relationship with American actress Meghan Markle, whom he married in 2018.

According to reports, William and Harry are not on speaking terms.

Fordwich pointed out that William and Kate have put on a united front over the years in giving their children as normal an upbringing as possible. They were determined, she said, to make sure that none of their children felt they were a “spare” within their household.

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“William and Kate accomplished this by working as a family unit, for household chores, cooking and the like,” she explained. “Previous royal generations relied heavily on nannies, whilst their parents focused on royal duties, thereby leaving little time for hands-on involvement. This resulted in their children feeling emotionally neglected.”

“Both William and Kate, untraditionally for royals, are very involved in their children’s daily lives, from school runs to bedtime routines,” she shared. 

“They’ve maintained strong family bonds, a sense of normalcy and are reducing feelings of isolation, as well as favoritism. This is in stark contrast to William and Harry’s childhood, which was plagued by their parents’ highly publicized, acrimonious divorce, as well as the frequent pressures of royal life.”

While heirs have a predestined fate, spares have no defined role and often struggle to find a meaningful purpose as they’re thrust into the spotlight, Vogue.com reported. The outlet noted that as time goes on, a spare’s importance and influence “wane along with their place in the line of succession.”

“The younger-sibling syndrome is an enduring problem,” said Robert Lacy, author of “Battle of Brothers,” as quoted by the outlet. “The system has not found a way of giving them the recognition that they need.”

But it’s different for William and Kate, Fordwich insisted.

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“Harry has frequently complained that his pain was neither comforted nor acknowledged,” she said. “William is most determined to create a close-knit, emotionally supportive family. He and Kate have always prioritized their relationship, as well as family togetherness, in the hope that they’ll be able to avoid the chaos and emotional fallout William experienced as a boy.”

“It was Kate’s stable home life that was a great part of his attraction to her,” she shared. “He appreciated how empathetic she was, her calm discipline and her ability to provide a comforting, happy home. This, they believe, will ensure their children are more resilient and family-oriented.”

Royal expert Ian Pelham Turner also told Fox News Digital that William and Kate’s children are “all treated the same” despite their royal titles. George, 11, is second in line to the British throne.

“William and Kate have taken a more modern approach [to parenting],” he said. “For example, this year they decided to be [together] on Easter Sunday rather than go to the royal service at Windsor. Louis is not left out of anything. They are a very tight-knit family in that way.”

Pelham Turner noted that William had long been aware of how deeply the “spare” role impacted his younger brother.

“William had always favored meetings with the late queen each Sunday,” he said. “She was teaching him monarchy diplomacy, leaving Harry behind.”

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The UK’s Express previously reported that the Queen Mother, William and Harry’s great-grandmother, would often exclude Harry from gatherings as a child, giving preferential treatment to the future king. The outlet claimed this treatment made Harry “envious” and prone to lashing out.

Christopher Andersen, author of “The King,” previously told Fox News Digital there’s good reason why the term continues to haunt Harry. 

“Harry was always in the shadow of his big brother, and it had a profound effect on his self-confidence — or lack thereof,” Andersen explained. 

“Within the royal family, the focus was always on William. Outside the royal family, the focus was always on William. If there was a social situation, or a ceremonial situation, or even a family get-together, Harry was shunted aside, and in many cases completely ignored… When these things happen to you beginning in infancy, obviously you’re going to build up some resentment.”

“Anybody who doesn’t think that Harry feels used and abused — and to some extent he undoubtedly was — isn’t paying very close attention,” Andersen added.

Andersen described how Diana intervened when she realized that the prince was being cast aside.

PRINCE HARRY’S OBSESSION WITH BEING A ‘SPARE’ IS DESTROYING HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ROYAL FAMILY: EXPERTS

“One particularly touching example occurred when the beloved Queen Mother had the brothers for tea at Clarence House and made Harry sit in a separate corner alone while she chatted with William,” Andersen explained. “William was going to be king. William was the important one. The royal family traditionally has never been known for either its sensitivity or subtlety.”

“Diana tried to change that… But frankly, Diana knew that Harry would have a tough row to hoe,” Andersen shared.

“She hoped he could find his way and not be suffocated in the looming shadow of his big brother… Then, imagine how that was amplified by Diana’s death just days before Harry’s 13th birthday.

WATCH: PRINCE WILLIAM, KATE MIDDLETON LEARN FROM PRINCESS DIANA’S MARRIAGE

“It wasn’t long before the adorable scamp was unfairly turned into a drug-using problem child. And as we know from Harry’s book, to some extent, that was engineered by the palace to make [his father] Charles and [his wife] Camilla look good.”

Royal author Robert Lacey told “Good Morning America” in 2020 that Harry’s unhappiness with being known as the royal “spare” continued to grow over the years. Lacey told the outlet it worsened when it became obvious that William and Kate were being prepped to take over the throne one day.

“The British royal system can be very cruel, and it’s particularly cruel to the spare,” said Lacey. “Harry came to realize… that he was typecast as the court jester, the No. 2.”

Harry and his wife Meghan stepped back as senior royals in 2020. They’re residing in California where they are raising their two young children.

Patty Morin, the mother of murdered Maryland woman Rachel Morin, recounted her daughter’s brutal death and delivered a searing critique of the media, failed immigration enforcement, and political leaders she says failed her family.

“She was raped. She was strangled. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t have some kind of bruise, abrasion, cut,” Morin told Fox News Digital, recounting the horrific details revealed during the trial of Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, who was recently found guilty of raping and murdering Morin in August 2023. 

The jury returned a unanimous verdict in 46 minutes after a weeklong trial that exposed the graphic details of the crime and the cross-country manhunt that followed.

For Morin, the pain of her daughter’s story became a driving force behind her call for immigration reform. 

RACHEL MORIN MURDER: JURY FINDS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT GUILTY OF KILLING JOGGER

Last week Morin joined White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at the podium to talk about her daughter’s August 2023 murder.

“As soon as I got up to the podium, everyone shut off their cameras… Nobody wanted to record it live except for Fox News,” she said. “They didn’t want the American people to know how violent these crimes are and how rampant they are.”

She criticized the mainstream media for what she perceives as a deliberate effort to downplay crimes involving migrants.

“It was very sad to see the state of our media and how they have a particular narrative that they want to play, and they want to promote whatever that narrative is, instead of just doing honest genuine journalism where you present the facts and let the American people decide themselves,” she said.

The murders of Rachel Morin, Lizbeth Medina, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Laken Riley became flashpoints in the 2024 election as the American public put faces to the spiraling migrant crisis at the southern border.

“I really do believe that these crimes and having them become talking points in the election were pivotal to President Trump winning the election,” Patty Morin said. “But also it shows the heart of the American people.”

Morin slammed former President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for not reaching out following Rachel’s horrific murder.

RACHEL MORIN’S ‘BUM’ KILLER MOOCHED OFF LOCALS BEFORE MURDERING MOM OF 5: LAWYER

“Their silence and their actions or lack of actions speak volumes to their character and the values that they hold.”

Morin called Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., flying to El Salvador last week to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia – an alleged illegal immigrant, MS-13 gang member – “despicable.”

Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon flew to El Salvador on Monday to support Garcia, who was deported from Maryland.

“They would rather champion his cause, a criminal, than the victim,” she said. “Americans and especially Marylanders are outraged. This political stunt that he’s pulled.”

“It makes me angry just talking about it because it shows that I’m of no value, my daughter is no value to them, and she was very precious to me.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Van Hollen.

Through tears, Morin spoke about how her Christian faith has sustained her through loss.

“I know that there is a God and that He’s sovereign over all things… I want to glorify God with my life and my words.”

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As she looks to the future, Morin said that she plans to rest and regroup after months of media appearances.

“I’m tired. I’m actually going to go away for a couple of weeks just to emotionally rest,” she said. “But I had to speak and tell the truth because I couldn’t allow another life to perish because I didn’t say something.”