Nightly Brief

Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including a powerful Category 4 hurricane bearing down on the Southeastern United States has led to evacuations and widespread closures as an entire region prepares for a potential wallop; he Trump administration releases a proposal to roll back Obama-era rules designed to reduce leaks of climate-changing methane from oil and gas facilities; prosecutors in the upcoming second trial of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort push to include the testimony of a lawyer who handled Manafort’s foreign agent registration filings; the House Committee on Natural Resources vows to fight growing public calls to remove the four dams along the Snake River in Idaho; the Pew Research Center finds that even people who prefer to get their news on social media platforms are worried about fake news; the European Union’s highest court rules a Catholic hospital in Germany discriminated by ousting a doctor from a supervisory role after finding out that he had divorced and remarried, and more.

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National

1.) Millions of coastal residents in North And South Carolina spent their Tuesday morning either complying with state-issued evacuation orders or preparing to hunker down as Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm currently packing 130 mph winds, continued to bear down upon them.

2.) For the second trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, prosecutors pushed Monday to rely on the testimony of a lawyer who handled Paul Manafort’s foreign agent registration filings.

3.) The Trump administration released a proposal on Tuesday intended to roll back Obama-era rules designed to reduce leaks of climate-changing methane from oil and gas facilities.

4.) Questions about how the Environmental Protection Agency interprets that data used to set caps on sulfur dioxide pollution took center stage at the D.C. Circuit Tuesday as attorneys for environmentalist groups sought to convince the judges the agency has it all wrong.

Regional

5.) New Hampshire voters decide Tuesday who will face off in crucial races for governor as well as both seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

6.) The House Committee on Natural Resources vowed to fight growing public calls to remove the four dams along the Snake River in Idaho, after hearing testimony from those who say the dams are the “economic lifeblood” of the Pacific Northwest and claim their removal would do nothing to benefit imperiled salmon.

7.) In a decision that could change how colleges handle sexual assault and misconduct cases, the Sixth Circuit ruled that university officials must give accused students the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses.

8.) Living in one of the 20 states where it is not a hate crime to attack someone for being gay, Angel Harless had been optimistic about finding justice when federal prosecutors indicted the man who knocked her unconscious last fall in a West Virginia bar.

Science

9.) With California’s historic drought now in the rearview and the next one likely right around the corner, some of the brightest climate and water experts are clamoring for the modernization of outdated water infrastructure and other reforms.

Research & Polls

10.) While semiautomatic rifles killed fewer people in U.S. mass shootings than handguns or rifles in the last 17 years, a new study shows they bring a higher risk of injury or death in those shootings.

11.) Even people who prefer to get their news on social media platforms are worried about fake news, a Pew Research Center poll revealed Monday.

International

12.) A Catholic hospital in Germany discriminated by ousting a doctor from a supervisory role after finding out that he had divorced and remarried, the European Union’s highest court ruled Tuesday.

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