Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today the first installment of an exclusive two-part series: With its prisons bursting at the seams, Texas looks for alternatives; banks can keep Facebook IPO 'lock-Up' bounties; urgency, but no easy answers, in effort to counter sea-level rise, and more.

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1.) Prisons Bursting at the Seams, Texas Looks for Alternatives

With more inmates in custody than any other state, Texas is a bellwether for national criminal justice trends. Experts credit rehabilitation programs with reducing Texas' prison population by 10,000 in recent years, and reforms percolating at the local level are expected to divert even more from the system.

2.) Redacted Mistrial Motion as Bridgegate Jury Deliberates

As a jury deliberates whether two former allies of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie conspired on a political-retribution plot, an attorney for the defense moved Thursday for a mistrial.

3.) Computer Revamp at DMV Sends Rhode Island to Court

Taking Hewlett-Packard to court, Rhode Island officials say the computing giant is six years late on revamping the Department of Motor Vehicles computer system and now wants twice as much money.

4.) Banks Can Keep Facebook IPO 'Lock-Up' Bounties

Investors cannot force major banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to relinquish $100 million from Facebook's ill-fated initial public offering four years ago, the Second Circuit ruled Thursday.

5.) Class Contests Massachusetts Voter Deadline

Two voter-turnout organizations and three self-proclaimed disenfranchised voters have brought a court challenge to a Massachusetts law that cuts of voter registration nearly three weeks before Election Day.

6.) Urgency, But No Easy Answers, in Effort to Counter Sea-Level Rise

With the ocean rising eight inches over the past century and the most recent scientific models indicating a rise of 66 more inches by 2100, the California Coastal Commission said Wednesday the time is now to protect the state's famed coastline from the effects.

7.) Murder Trial Opens for Ex-Police Officer in S.C.

The murder trial of a former North Charleston police officer who shot an unarmed black motorist eight times as he ran away from a traffic stop began Thursday morning with the prosecution saying there is no justification for the shooting.

8.) UK Court: Parliament Must Weigh In on Brexit

Britain's High Court brought government plans for leaving the European Union screeching to a halt Thursday, ruling that the prime minister can't trigger the U.K.'s exit from the bloc without approval from Parliament.

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