Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top eight CNS stories for today including Joe Biden holds strong leads in a half-dozen battleground states over President Donald Trump; California air quality regulators are set to approve the nation’s first electric truck standards; Texas and other states are grappling with a spike in Covid-19 cases, and more.
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National
1.) Former Vice President Joe Biden holds strong leads in a half-dozen battleground states over President Donald Trump, according to a poll released Thursday which also shows the president is also hindering Republicans in crucial down-ballot races.
2.) A judge refused to block publication of a tell-all book from the president’s niece Mary Trump, ruling Thursday that the suit belongs in another court.
3.) Some 1.48 million Americans sought jobless benefits last week for the first time, joining the roughly 19.5 million people already getting benefits, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Regional
4.) California air quality regulators plan to approve the nation’s first electric truck standards Thursday, requiring over half the trucks sold by manufacturers in the state be zero-emission vehicles by 2035 — a rule that will impact air quality and greenhouse gas emissions beyond the Golden State’s borders.
5.) Texas’ governor announced restrictions on elective surgeries Thursday and county officials in Fort Worth ordered face masks in local businesses, as the state grapples with a spike in Covid-19 cases after months of battling the pandemic.
6.) Blown west from the Sahara in North Africa, the world’s largest desert at 3 million square miles, clouds of Sahara dust are swirling in on their yearly sojourn to the Gulf Coast.
International
7.) An EU magistrate condemned Hungary’s refugee policies Thursday, detailing a system where immigrants are made to sleep in shipping containers on the border for months before while seeking asylum.
8.) For the second time, the European Union’s highest court on Thursday rejected a complaint from France that the European Parliament improperly held a budget vote in Brussels rather than Strasbourg.
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