Nightly Brief

Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including Mark Judge, who was friends with Kavanaugh in high school and whom Ford says was also in the room during the alleged assault, telling the Judiciary Committee he would not testify publicly; New York’s attorney general flagging an email that raises new questions about Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census; a federal judge blocks the Education Department from dismantling an Obama-era regulation intended to protect student-loan borrowers; two nonprofits claim a Montana Republican running for Senate let slip that he had illegally coordinated with the National Rifle Association; in a rare move, federal authorities will allow pharmaceutical-grade cannabis to be imported from Canada for use in a novel research study; less than a year after the most expensive courthouse in California opened – a $556 million endeavor – work to refurbish cracking windows is already underway, and more.

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National

After more than an hour of delay over procedural questions, President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh waits to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 6, 2018, for the third day of his confirmation hearing in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

**1.) ** Mark Judge, who was friends with Kavanaugh in high school and whom Ford says was also in the room during the alleged assault, told the Judiciary Committee Tuesday he had no recollection of the incident and said he would not testify publicly.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, testifies before a House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Space Subcommittee and House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee joint hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 22, 2018. Ross says he is selling off all his vast stock holdings after news reports raised questions about the timing of some of his stock transactions and he received a sharp reprimand from the chief federal ethics officer. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

2.) New York’s attorney general flagged an email Monday night showing that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross received a memo last year contradicting his sworn testimony before Congress about why he added a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 21, 2017. Mueller’s team considers President Donald Trump a subject, not a criminal target, in the wide-ranging Russia investigation. The designation, first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by The Associated Press, has raised questions about what legal threat Trump personally faces from the special counsel and whether it has any impact on his decision to sit for an interview with prosecutors. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

3.) President Donald Trump ordered a series of documents and text messages related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe to be declassified immediately, a decision that many conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill have sought for months.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at George Mason University in Arlington, Va., on Sept. 7, 2017. The Education Department is abandoning the Obama administration's practice of fully wiping out the student loans of those who had been defrauded by for-profit colleges and will start granting some students only partial loan relief. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

In this Sept. 13, 2018, photo, a container ship sails past the city skyline of Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong province. The Trump administration announced Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, that it will impose tariffs on $200 billion more in Chinese goods starting next week, escalating a trade war between the world's two biggest economies and potentially raising prices on goods ranging from handbags to bicycle tires. (Chinatopix via AP)

Regional

In this July 25, 2018, photo, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale speaks during the America First Policies event at MetraPark's Montana Pavilion in Billings, Mont. (Bethany Baker/The Billings Gazette via AP, file)

6.) Urging the Federal Election Commission to take action, two nonprofits said Monday that a Montana Republican running for Senate let slip that he had illegally coordinated with the National Rifle Association.

FILE - In this April 20, 2015 file photo, a Canadian flag with a cannabis leaf flies on Parliament Hill during a 4/20 protest in Ottawa, Ontario. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

7.) In a rare move, federal authorities will allow pharmaceutical-grade cannabis to be imported from Canada for use in a novel research study for treating tremors in adults, the University of California, San Diego, announced Tuesday.

8.) The University of Wisconsin’s chancellor testified in a federal bench trial in Oakland Monday her school may eliminate athletic scholarships or dismantle its athletic programs entirely if a federal judge does away with the NCAA’s caps on compensation to student athletes.

Paperwork and voting stickers sit out for voters of the Georgia primary election Tuesday, July 24, 2018 at the Chattanooga Valley Church of the Nazarene in Flintstone, Georgia. (Erin O. Smith/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)

9.) A federal judge ruled Monday night that Georgia can use its electronic voting machines for the upcoming November election, but warned that state officials should be prepared to switch to a more secure system by 2020.

Windows at the new San Diego County Superior Courthouse. (Chris Marshall/CNS)

International

In Sarajevo, museums that examine Srebrenica and the atrocities that took place during the Bosnian war attract many visitors. Signs for two such museums are seen in a square in Sarajevo. (CAIN BURDEAU, Courthouse News Service)

11.) Twenty-three years after war ended in the former Yugoslavia, thousands of war crimes and criminals still have not been investigated by prosecutors or brought before judges, and experts expect many suspects will never face trial.

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