Nightly Brief

Your Friday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including 15 states and Washington D.C. say they’re stepping up to sue the Trump administration over the president’s decision to scrap subsidies to health insurance companies; the White House decertifies Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal; the fires in California’s Wine Country have become the deadliest in state history, as the death toll rose to 31 on Friday morning with hundreds still missing; researchers say when Viking Leif Eriksson sailed to what is now Newfoundland in the 11th century, he had no idea the eastern Canadian island was home to indigenous people, and more.

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**1.) In National news   Fifteen states and Washington D.C. sued the Trump administration Friday over the president’s decision to scrap subsidies to health insurance companies that help cover the out-of-pocket medical costs of low-income Americans.

2.)  President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will decertify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, but will leave it to Congress to decide whether to reimpose sanctions.

3.)  Amid a war of words between North Korea and President Donald Trump, an expert told members of a House subcommittee Thursday that an electromagnetic pulse attack by North Korea – done with the high-altitude detonation of single nuclear weapon – could knock out the U.S. power grid in a way “we might never recover from.”

4.)  Congress has the right to hold a prayer at the start of each legislative day, and can reject an atheist’s request to give the invocation without violating the Establishment Clause, a federal judge ruled.

**5.) **In Regional news ** the fires in California’s Wine Country have become the deadliest in state history, as the death toll rose to 31 on Friday morning with hundreds still missing.

6.) Citing First Amendment protections, a federal judge dismissed In Touch Weekly from a lawsuit revolving around the publication of investigative reports detailing claims that reality TV star Josh Duggar sexually abused four of his sisters.

**8.) From the world of Science comes word that DNA has proven the ancient diversity of Newfoundland. Researchers say when Viking Leif Eriksson sailed to what is now Newfoundland in the 11th century, he had no idea the eastern Canadian island was home to indigenous people.