Europe finds itself at a highly disorienting historical moment: No longer the center of world geopolitics and adrift in a world increasingly defined by a conflict between the United States and China.
by CAIN BURDEAU
The result of efforts to organize minority voting populations and years of population growth in Georgia was a win for Joe Biden, yet the work of groups seeking to engage southern voters is still not done.
by DANIEL JACKSON
In his most recent dispatch, Courthouse News’ western bureau chief visits a pristine area that also boasts a coastal enclave at the center of a battle over who has the right to access California’s iconic beaches.
by CHRIS MARSHALL
Pennsylvania officials can certify election results that currently show Democrat Joe Biden winning the state by more than 80,000 votes, a federal judge ruled Saturday, dealing President Donald Trump’s campaign another blow in its effort to invalidate the election.
AP
Column
ROBERT KAHN
A doctor who fled Russia 25 years ago to escape anti-Semitism and separatist violence doesn’t like what he sees happening in his new homeland, the United States.
Pandemic
While California added 145,000 jobs in October — the most since 1990 — the good news will likely be short-lived with coronavirus case numbers spiking and stay-at-home orders on the way.
by NICK CAHILL
by NATHAN SOLIS
Wisconsin’s governor declared another 60-day state of emergency over the state’s rampant coronavirus spread on Friday in addition to issuing a new face coverings mandate.
by JOE KELLY
by JACK RODGERS
Environment
A proposed dam in California’s Central Valley is billed as a vital agricultural resource. But conservationists say it would also flood important cultural and recreational sites for surrounding communities and destroy wildlife habitat.
by MARTIN MACIAS JR.
Thirty-four scientists’ two-month expedition to Mount Everest last year produced four new research papers examining how climate change and pollution have impacted the tallest place on Earth.
by DANIEL CONRAD
A Wisconsin federal judge decided on Friday to let environmentalists challenging a multistate power line corridor proceed with their claims against two state commissioners they claim were biased in approving the corridor in the face of conflicts of interest.
by JOE KELLY
Across the Nation
It had been set to hear the case next month, but the U.S. Supreme Court sidelined arguments Friday on the secret grand jury materials behind former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
by JACK RODGERS
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether roughly 2,000 mail-in ballots from the Pittsburgh area should be thrown out over missing information on the envelopes.
by ALEXANDRA JONES
by DANIEL CONRAD
A long overdue makeover for one of California’s busiest state courts is finally underway as officials announced Friday construction has started on a half billion-dollar courthouse in downtown Sacramento.
by NICK CAHILL
An attorney for Florida Blue, the state’s largest health insurer, asked an 11th Circuit panel Friday to uphold a ruling finding the company did not violate antitrust laws by preventing insurance brokers from selling policies for a competitor.
by KAYLA GOGGIN
The 11th Circuit on Friday struck down bans on juvenile gay conversion therapy in South Florida, finding that therapists’ free speech rights trump medical consensus about the harms associated with trying to change teenagers’ sexual orientation.
by IZZY KAPNICK
While criminal justice reform took a backseat to the pandemic in the 2020 elections, there’s consensus in statehouses across the country major changes are needed in policing and incarceration practices. A panel of experts Friday laid out their reform wish lists for 2021.
by CAMERON LANGFORD
A privately run detention center in Bakersfield, California currently barred from admitting new detainees, could resume intakes so long as it retains enough space to isolate those who are symptomatic or test positive for Covid-19, a health expert who specializes in congregate housing testified Thursday.
by MARIA DINZEO
To sue the government for billions of dollars, developers must show the U.S. Navy had a mandatory duty to prevent a contractor from falsifying soil samples as part of the $1 billion cleanup of a former shipyard turned mixed-use development, a federal judge said Thursday.
by NICHOLAS IOVINO
Most Popular
Rulings
by KELSEY JUKAM
Two Gretna, Louisiana, police officers who beat and tased an unarmed man with paranoid schizophrenia — who became unresponsive and died two days later — are not entitled to qualified immunity on excessive force claims, the Fifth Circuit ruled. The man, who was not suspected of any crime and did not struggle against the officers, called for his mother and pleaded for someone to “call the real police” as he sustained 26 blunt-force injuries.
The death of Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Adam Weeks, who was vying for a Minnesota congressional seat when he died, is “not the sort of exigent circumstance” that allows the state to refrain from holding the election for that seat, the Eighth Circuit ruled.
An appeals court in California reversed a ruling in favor of Plains Pipeline, whose pipeline ruptured at Refugio State Beach in 2015, in a dispute brought by the State Lands Commission, which claimed the company’s negligent maintenance disrupted payment of royalty income to the commission and caused damages to improvements on its land. Although designated as a public utility, the company is not exempt from liability.
The Ninth Circuit ruled that Bivins remedies are available to a bed and breakfast owner who claims a border patrol agent violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights by unlawfully using his driveway to question guests, shoving and pushing him after being asked to leave, and asking the IRS to look into his tax status.
A federal court in Kentucky ruled in favor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in a suit challenging its classification of bump stocks as machine guns following the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, finding the classification was not arbitrary or capricious.
From the Walt Girdner Studio
Hot Cases
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration over its approval of the expansion of the Lee Canyon Ski Area to include summer recreation opportunities like zip lines and a “mountain coaster,” all at the expense of the endangered Mount Charleston blue butterfly.
A Texas man claims in federal court that a collectibles website sold him a counterfeit 1986 Michael Jordan rookie card for $20,000.
A Los Angeles County judge rejected LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s arguments that an oversight panel’s subpoena of him over jail conditions during the coronavirus pandemic was vague, illegal and disruptive to his duties, and scheduled contempt proceedings to begin Jan. 21.
A walking ghost tour in Salem, Massachusetts is suing Governor Charlie Baker over his limits on group gatherings that bans outdoor walking tours with more than 12 people.
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