Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including senators grilled President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit over controversial articles she wrote as an undergraduate student and the role of administrative agencies; California’s freshmen congressional delegation will bring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to the State of the Union address; New York federal prosecutors issued a subpoena for documents from President Trump’s inaugural committee that covers its finances and donors to determine if foreign agents made illegal donations to it, and more.

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National

Neomi Rao, Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, smiles as President Donald Trump announces his intention to nominate her to fill Brett Kavanaugh's seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circut, during a Diwali ceremonial lighting of the Diya in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

1.) Senators on Tuesday grilled President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit over controversial articles she wrote about date rape, feminism and other hot-button cultural issues as an undergraduate student, as well as on her views on the role of administrative agencies and the regulations they issue.

FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2017 file photo, a woman joins a rally in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, outside the Edward Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit Monday, Sept. 11, against the Trump administration over its decision to end a program that protects young immigrants from deportation who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or by parents who overstayed visas. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

2.) California’s freshmen congressional delegation whose districts have been directly affected by the Trump administration’s immigration policies will join other elected officials across the nation and bring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday.

President Donald Trump addresses the crowd after he is sworn in as the 45th U.S. president. President Barack Obama can be seen in a lower-right window. (Britain Eakin/Courthouse News Service)

3.) New York federal prosecutors issued a subpoena for documents from President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee that covers its finances and donors to determine if foreign agents made illegal donations to it.

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 28, 2017 file photo, floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey overflow from Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston, Texas. A study released on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018 says that between being tripped up by downtown and the bigger effect of massive paving and building up of the metro area to reduce drainage, development in Houston on average increased the extreme flooding risk by 21 times. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

4.) Nearly 30 years after Congress passed a law to ensure that chemical spills get reported, the federal agency tasked with studying these spills still has no reporting requirements in place. A federal judge told the agency that it has 12 more months to shape up.

Regional

Prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility of all security levels where prisoners have been without heat, hot water, electricity and proper sanitation due to an electrical failure since earlier in the week, respond to family members and protesters who turned out to call attention to the conditions, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

5.) Gruesome vignettes were shared Tuesday as a federal judge heard more than four hours of testimony about the institutional breakdown suffered by Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after a fire on Jan. 27 caused a week-long power outage.

The Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

6.) Voters in northern Minnesota will decide in a special election Tuesday whether Republicans will expand their narrow control of the state Senate as a new Democratic governor begins his first term.

7.) The full Seventh Circuit held oral arguments Tuesday to decide whether a Wisconsin school district can be held liable for not taking action against a security guard who frequently “full frontal bear hugged” and massaged students, leading to accusations he sexually abused a middle school girl.

Science

8.) Facing a global shortage of organ donors for patients in need of new kidneys, researchers in Japan announced Tuesday they’re closing in on perfecting lab-grown kidneys that could one day be used in humans.

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