Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding answers after a bombshell BuzzFeed News report that President Donald Trump told his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman said she will postpone her trip to Afghanistan following the Trump administration’s leak of her travel plans; The court in the heart of Silicon Valley is once more allowing journalists to see new written proceedings as soon as they arrive, and more.

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National

This combination photo shows President Donald Trump and attorney Michael Cohen. The audio recording of Trump and his then-lawyer, Cohen, captures the two men discussing hush money payments to a former Playboy model alleging an affair.(AP Photo)

1.) After a bombshell BuzzFeed News report that President Donald Trump told his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump’s business dealings in Russia, Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding answers Friday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

2.) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will postpone her trip to Afghanistan following the Trump administration’s leak of her travel plans, a spokesman for the speaker said Friday.

3.) In the new year, the cycle of press access in Santa Clara Superior turned again and the court in the heart of Silicon Valley is once more allowing journalists to see new written proceedings as soon as they arrive, behind the virtual counter, in a virtual box.

President Donald Trump talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before departing Washington for the American Farm Bureau Federation's 100th Annual Convention in New Orleans on Jan. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

4.) As President Trump begins the third year of his presidency under Democratic oversight in Congress, the Pew Research Center reported Friday that confidence in the economy is stable but the American public is losing trust in the leader of the free world.

Regional

Teachers and students rally at Los Angeles City Hall on Jan. 18, 2019, as their strike against LA Unified School District extends to a fifth day with both sides once again at the bargaining table. (Nathan Solis/CNS)

5.) The fifth day of the Los Angeles teacher strike began with bargaining talks and a union rally, capping off tumultuous week for parents, students and educators.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, right, waves during an inauguration ceremony with his wife Casey and son Mason, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019, in Tallahassee, Fla. Republicans will begin their third decade dominating the state's Capitol. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

6.) Newly inaugurated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended a county elections supervisor on Friday, as fallout from last year’s vote recount continues into 2019.

Pro-abortion protesters hold signs as anti-abortion activists rally in front of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Denver on Feb. 11, 2017. On Wednesday, May 2, 2018, two major organizations that promote birth control, including Planned Parenthood, filed lawsuits in federal court seeking to block the Trump administration from shifting national family planning policy in a conservative direction that would stress abstinence and potentially limit counseling for adolescents. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

7.) The Fifth Circuit overturned a ruling barring Texas from eliminating Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program based on a sting video made by anti-abortion activists supposedly showing clinic representatives bartering the sale of fetal tissue.

Science

8.) As the U.S. opioid epidemic peaked in 2015, so did the amount of money spent to market prescription opioid painkillers to health care providers, according to a new study.

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