Nightly Brief

Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including a federal judge ruling an Interior Department decision to bar bison roaming Yellowstone National Park from protection under the Endangered Species Act was arbitrary and unscientific; another federal judge ordering North Carolina election officials to reinstate primary elections for judicial candidates seeking statewide office this year; the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announces it will wipe out thousands of marijuana convictions going back decades, opening up new job and housing opportunities to those arrested for cannabis-related offenses; a new study finds environmental changes created by climate change cause polar bears to expend more energy to catch less prey, and more.

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National

**1.) ** The few thousand remaining bison roaming Yellowstone National Park may have a shot at protection under the Endangered Species Act after a federal judge ruled an Interior Department decision to bar them from protection was arbitrary and unscientific.

**2.) ** The Trump administration’s newly announced rollback of clean-water regulations sparked an immediate protest Thursday by eight states.

**3.) ** Federal authorities approved a regulation Tuesday that they say will expand coral-habitat preserves in the Atlantic Ocean while also protecting fishing interests.

Regional

**4.) ** A federal judge Wednesday ordered North Carolina election officials to reinstate primary elections for judicial candidates seeking statewide office this year.

**5.) ** The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office will wipe out thousands of marijuana convictions going back decades, opening up new job and housing opportunities to those arrested for cannabis-related offenses, the city’s top prosecutor announced Wednesday.

6.) The New Hampshire Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday from three women who were  arrested for going bare-chested at the beach.

7.)  Led by a former mayor of Santa Fe, a class action claims New Mexico is creating second-class citizens by denying driver’s licenses and identification cards to state residents under an unconstitutional, “two-tiered” law.

Science

8.)  Environmental changes created by climate change cause polar bears to expend more energy to catch less prey, according to a harrowing new study that underscores their plight.