Nightly Brief

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The day's top stories from Courthouse News in short takes with links.

1.) A Myth No More: Global Warming Opens Up the Northwest Passage

One week ago, as an Inuit village voted to move inland, away from a rising ocean, a cruise ship departed from Seward on a maiden voyage through the fabled Northwest Passage — both events brought to Alaska by climate change.

2.) Judge's Breakup Draws Shots at Rusty Precedent

A doctor and judge trying to break up assets after their own split divided the Illinois Supreme Court over precedent from the 1970s on unmarried couples who live together.

3.) Scientists Using Cloned Zika to Find a Vaccine

Federal researchers have cloned an epidemic strain of the Zika virus, giving biologists a way to test vaccines and strategies to stop the pandemic.

4.) Bank's Corporate Form Trumps Hezbollah Aid

A Lebanese bank may have helped Hezbollah violate international law during its 2006 war with Israel, but U.S. law shields corporations like it from liability for this conduct, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

5.) Cartoonist Slugs It Out With L.A. Times in Court

After crowd-funding $75,000 for his defamation claim against the Los Angeles Times, cartoonist Ted Rall has to persuade a judge not to throw out his lawsuit on free speech grounds.

6.) Trump Says Border Wall Will Be 35 Feet High

Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a town hall meeting Tuesday that he would not back down on his pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border, and that the wall will be 35 to 40 feet high.

7.) Bid to End Daylight Saving Time in California Fizzles

A bill to give Californians the opportunity to vote out daylight saving time and eliminate the biannual clock resetting stalled Tuesday, falling four votes short of clearing the state Senate.

8.) LA Hotel Minimum-Wage Law Survives 9th Circuit

The Ninth Circuit refused Tuesday to block a 2014 Los Angeles minimum-wage law that, among other things, requires big hotels in the city to pay workers at least $15.37 an hour.

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