Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including A lawyer insisting President Trump's the so-called travel ban was the result of a rigorous, neutral review process, not anti-Muslim animus, as he urged the Supreme Court to uphold the executive order; EPA administrator Scott Pruitt proposes a new rule which could change how scientific data is used by the agency; completing a 40-year manhunt for a serial killer and rapist who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s, officials arrest a 72-year-old former police officer they believe is the notorious East Area Rapist, linked to dozens of rapes and at least 12 homicides; a new study says physical activity can reduce a person’s chances of developing depression, and more.
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National
1.) Insisting that the so-called travel ban was the result of a rigorous, neutral review process, not anti-Muslim animus, a lawyer for the government urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to uphold the executive order.
2.) The federal government argued Wednesday before the Sixth Circuit for the enforcement of deportation orders for over 100 Iraqi nationals who were released from detention facilities earlier this year.
3.) EPA administrator Scott Pruitt proposed a new rule Tuesday which could change how scientific data is used by the agency to write public health regulations and could, in effect, remove a huge swath of peer reviewed studies on air pollution, pesticides and more from the agency’s record.
4.) Embattled Veterans Affairs nominee Dr. Ronny Jackson on Wednesday denied allegations he was involved in a drunken car wreck.
5.) Facing a court hearing on the criminal investigation of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, counsel for the Trump Organization revealed Wednesday that the company has “engaged the services of a leading e-discovery provider” to sort out privilege issues.
Regional
6.) Completing a 40-year manhunt for a serial killer and rapist who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s, officials Wednesday arrested a 72-year-old former police officer they believe is the notorious East Area Rapist, linked to dozens of rapes and at least 12 homicides.
7.) A South Texas judge’s daily court-opening phrase, “This is a redneck court,” got him censured by a state ethics watchdog, which ordered him to take racial sensitivity classes.
8.) A pair of squatters whose three dogs were shot and killed by Detroit police during the execution of a search warrant argued Wednesday in the Sixth Circuit over a federal judge’s decision to dismiss their case against the city and several of its officers.
9.) A Fresno State professor who made world headlines last week for calling the late First Lady and First Mother Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” who “raised a war criminal” before the late First Lady was cold, will keep her job, the university said.
Science
11.) Physical activity can reduce a person’s chances of developing depression, according to a study released Tuesday.
International
12.) The same day Reporters Without Borders slammed Turkey’s anti-press “witch hunt,” an Istanbul court sentenced more than a dozen celebrated reporters from the country’s oldest serious newspaper to heavy jail terms.
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