Nightly Brief

Your Friday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including the Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly advancing the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, but Senator Jeff Flake said he only did so with the understanding the FBI would conduct an investigation into the sexual assault allegations embroiling Kavanaugh; four environmental groups sue Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to protect the two-state Dinosaur National Monument from increased air pollution from oil and gas drilling; the Ninth Circuit revives an ongoing spat on claims the opening guitar riff in Led Zeppelin’s rock epic “Stairway to Heaven” was lifted from another band’s song; the city of Ferguson, Missouri, asks the Eighth Circuit to toss claims that it runs a debtor’s prison for people too poor to pay traffic tickets; an Orange County, California judge rules the state’s “sanctuary” law restricting police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities violates the state constitution and cannot be enforced; describing the plight of two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar, attorney Amal Clooney issues a call for Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to intervene in the case, and more.

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National

Sen. Jeff Flake, R- Ariz., right, walks out at the end of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Friday, Aug. 28, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

1.) The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday narrowly advanced the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, but Senator Jeff Flake said he only did so with the understanding the FBI would conduct an investigation into the sexual assault allegations embroiling Kavanaugh.

2.) Four environmental groups sued Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday to protect the two-state Dinosaur National Monument from increased air pollution from oil and gas drilling.

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 22, 2017, file photo, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., pauses while meeting with reporters outside the White House in Washington following a meeting with President Donald Trump. Nunes is being criticized by his rival in the November 2018 election after a photo on social media showed Nunes next to a supporter making a hand gesture that some consider racist. Nunes' campaign did not immediately respond for a request for comment. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

3.) Nearly all of the interview transcripts connected to the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of meddling by Russia in the 2016 election will be released after lawmakers voted unanimously on Friday to disclose them.

FILE - In this July 13, 1985 file photo, Led Zeppelin bandmates, singer Robert Plant, left, and guitarist Jimmy Page, reunite to perform for the Live Aid famine relief concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. A U.S. appeals court on Friday, Sept. 28, 2018, ordered a new trial in a lawsuit accusing Led Zeppelin of copying an obscure 1960s instrumental for the intro to its classic 1971 rock anthem "Stairway to Heaven." (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

4.) The Ninth Circuit on Friday revived an ongoing spat on claims the opening guitar riff in Led Zeppelin’s rock epic “Stairway to Heaven” was lifted from another band’s song.

5.) The United States government can’t escape a lawsuit claiming it applies biased rules based on gender stereotypes to block female soldiers from serving in combat roles, a federal judge ruled from the bench Thursday.

Regional

6.) The city of Ferguson, Missouri, fought at the Eighth Circuit on Friday to toss claims that it runs a debtor’s prison for people too poor to pay traffic tickets.

FILE - In this July 14, 2018, file photo, computer mouse pads with Secure the Vote logo on them are seen on a vendor's table at a convention of state secretaries of state in Philadelphia. As alarms blare about Russian interference in U.S. elections, the Trump administration is facing criticism that it has no clear national strategy to protect the country during the upcoming midterms and beyond. Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized the administration’s response as fragmented, without enough coordination across federal agencies. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

7.) A federal judge has ordered Missouri to alter its system for changing mailing address records for the purposes of voter registration, finding that the current system violates federal law.

FILE - In this April 14, 2017, file photo, protesters hold up signs outside a courthouse in San Francisco. President Donald Trump's executive order threatening to withhold funding from "sanctuary cities" that limit cooperation with immigration authorities is unconstitutional, but a judge went too far when he blocked its enforcement nationwide, a U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday, Aug. 1. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File)

8.) California’s “sanctuary” law restricting police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities violates the state constitution and cannot be enforced against the state’s 121 charter cities, an Orange County judge ruled Thursday afternoon.

International

Protestors demonstrate by holding a symbolic fence in front of the Myanmar Embassy to petition for the release of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo in London, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018. The journalists were given a seven-year prison sentence Sept. 3, in Myanmar, jailed on charges of possessing state secrets in connection with their reporting about massacres of Rohingya Muslims.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

9.) Describing the plight of two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar, attorney Amal Clooney issued a call Friday for Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to intervene in the case.

FILE - This Wednesday, June 6, 2018 file photo Italian premier Giuseppe Conte, left, and Italian Economy Minister Giovanni Tria talk at the Lower House, ahead of a confidence vote on the government program, in Rome, Wednesday, June 6, 2018. Italy’s economy minister says that the first budget by Italy’s new government will include a basic income scheme sought by one of the main governing parties, the 5-Star Movement. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)

10.) Italy’s maverick government is at it again: After challenging the European Union this summer over refugee policies, it’s opening a new fight over public spending limits.

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