The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a business-backed appeal that could make it easier to challenge federal regulations, acting in a dispute related to California’s nation-leading standards for vehicle emissions.

The justices Friday agreed to hear an appeal filed by fuel producers who object to a waiver granted to California in 2022 by the Environmental Protection Agency during Joe Biden’s presidency. The waiver allows California to set more stringent emissions limits than the national standard.

A federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the companies lacked the right to sue because they produced no evidence they would be affected by the waiver, which directly affects vehicle manufacturers.

Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and other major automakers already are meeting the California emission standards, the Biden administration noted in court papers.

But the fuel producers told the high court that the appellate decision, if left in place, would “imperil future challenges to administrative action.”

SoftBank group ceo pledges $100b U.S. investment at event alongside trump

President-elect Donald Trump announced that SoftBank Group planned to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years during an event alongside CEO Masayoshi Son on Monday.

“I’m very, very excited,” Son, who met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, told reporters. “I would really like to celebrate the great victory of President Trump and my confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory.”

The plan includes a pledge to create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure, including investments in data centers, semiconductors and energy, according to a person familiar with the plan.

The SoftBank announcement immediately prompted the question of where the company will get the capital for its latest pledge. Today, it doesn’t have the cash on hand to deliver on Son’s pledge this time. The company had $25 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance at the end of September.

Ex-TV host gets nearly 10 years in prison in case about failed startup ozy media

Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal financial conspiracy case that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-’til-you-make-it startup culture.

In one example, another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment bankers while Watson coached him, prosecutors said.

Watson, 55, and the now-defunct company were found guilty last summer of charges including wire fraud conspiracy. He has denied the allegations and, before learning his sentence, said he was a target of “selective prosecution” as a Black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where African American executives have been disproportionately few.

Watson, who has been free on $3 million bond, faced a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison and potentially as much as 37 years.

Prosecutors accused the former cable news commentator and host of playing a leading role in a scheme to deceive Ozy investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers, touting deals and offers that were nonexistent or not finalized, and flashing other false indications of Ozy’s success.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.