Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top eight stories for today including California is quickly stockpiling body bags and prepping emergency morgues to aid hospitals swamped with Covid-19 patients; New findings on Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine confirm its high efficacy rate and could lead to imminent approval for emergency use; President-elect Joe Biden traveled to Atlanta to campaign for a pair of Democratic Senate hopefuls, and more.
Sign up for the CNS Top Eight, a roundup of the day’s top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday.
National
1.) New findings on Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine released Tuesday confirm its high efficacy rate and could lead to imminent approval for emergency use.
2.) Three weeks before a pair of Georgia runoff elections decides control of the Senate, President-elect Joe Biden made a trip to Atlanta on Tuesday to campaign for Democratic hopefuls Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff at a drive-in rally.
3.) In announcing Tuesday it will give the public access to noteworthy cases via audio livestream, the federal court system will move a few rungs closer to the 21st century — at least in 13 districts.
4.) The Senate on Tuesday approved Thomas Kirsch, 51-44, to serve on the Seventh Circuit, filling a vacancy left behind by Justice Amy Coney Barrett when she was elevated to the Supreme Court in October.
Regional
5.) Reacting to a devastating number of post-Thanksgiving deaths, California Governor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday the state is quickly stockpiling body bags and prepping emergency morgues to aid hospitals swamped with Covid-19 patients.
6.) Across the Golden State, fans of sports, music and theater know and dread one thing all too well: the crush of traffic getting in and out of venue parking lots. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A’s baseball teams have a solution: gondolas going over bumper-to-bumper traffic and onto the stadium grounds.
7.) While a state election law complaint proceeds in federal court, a New York political party asked a circuit panel to block new rules requiring it to pick a presidential candidate to gain ballot access.
International
8.) Under new proposed European Union rules, tech giants like Facebook and Google could face massive fines if they repeatedly fail to take down content deemed dangerous and break fair competition practices.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.