Nightly Brief

Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including the Sixth Circuit ruling Ohio’s elections board must count provisional ballots cast in next week’s midterm election by residents who were purged from voter rolls between 2011 and 2015; the Supreme Court will hear a case next week challenging Virginia’s right to block development of a uranium mine; the man accused of killing 11 people and wounding six others during a weekend siege at a Pittsburgh synagogue pleaded not guilty to federal charges that could result in his being put to death; in a lengthy speech that at times verged on being a diatribe, President Donald Trump says that asylum seekers must stop making a “mockery” of U.S. immigration laws; supporters of a ballot measure to raise taxes on San Francisco’s biggest companies to fight homelessness say the city must take bold steps to address the crisis; a regional high court in Germany invites a Peruvian farmer to bring a damage claim from 6,600 miles away against one of Germany’s largest power companies, and more.

Sign up * for CNS Nightly Brief, a roundup of the day’s top stories delivered directly to your email Monday through Friday.*

National

1.) Ohio’s elections board must count provisional ballots cast in next week’s midterm election by residents who were purged from voter rolls between 2011 and 2015, the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday.

2.) For the group behind an anti-immigration measure on Oregon’s ballot this year, targeting sanctuary laws is just the beginning. Identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Oregonians for Immigration Reform has both a record of political success and deep ties to white nationalists.

**3.) ** In a lengthy speech that at times verged on being a diatribe, President Donald Trump said Thursday that asylum seekers must stop making a “mockery” of U.S. immigration laws and must go to ports of entry in order to make a claim.

**4.) ** Forty years ago, the largest uranium deposit in North America was discovered under the sleepy Appalachian foothills of Southern Virginia. The dispute over whether to mine it will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court next week.

**5.) ** The Justice Department on Thursday charged companies in China and Taiwan and three individuals with stealing trade secrets from a U.S. semi-conductor company.

Regional

8.) Texas’ 31st Congressional District, north of Austin, has never elected a Democrat since it was created in 2002, and the decorated Air Force veteran seeking to oust eight-term Republican Congressman John Carter, who defended his seat by a 22 percentage point margin in 2016, has a tough fight on her hands.

9.) Supporters of a ballot measure to raise taxes on San Francisco’s biggest companies to fight homelessness say the city must take bold steps to address the crisis. But opponents say it will accomplish little more than harm to the city’s booming job market.

10.) Calling it “an accident waiting to happen,” the man who built Tennessee’s electric chair told Courthouse News that modifications made to the machine may not do an effective job in Thursday night’s planned execution of a double murderer.

11.) An unusual criminal trial against a motorcycle gang began Wednesday with a federal prosecutor promising jurors they would soon watch members of the Mongol Nation committing acts of violence and hear the bikers describe and even boast about their crimes — yet no one will go to jail.

International

12.)  A regional high court in Germany has invited a Peruvian farmer to bring a damage claim from 6,600 miles away. He blames RWE, one of Germany’s largest power companies, for contributing to global warming and causing a glacier above his home in the Andes to dangerously melt.

No longer interested in emails from Courthouse News? Please click here to unsubscribe.