Your Friday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered another heavy blow when the House of Commons again rejected her divorce deal with the European Union, raising the prospect that new elections may be needed to break the impasse; Georgia’s Republican-controlled House sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would make it nearly impossible for women to get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy; Attorney General William Barr said he will release a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly 400-page report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election by mid-April, and more.
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National
1.) In a letter to Congress, Attorney General William Barr said Friday he will release a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly 400-page report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election by mid-April.
2.) President Donald Trump on Friday issued a new permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, replacing a 2017 permit that a federal judge in Montana blocked in November.
3.) The Army Corps of Engineers regularly violates the Freedom of Information Act when it comes to disclosing information about Clean Water Act permits, a federal judge ruled.
Regional
4.) In the face of public outcry and protests from both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights groups, Georgia’s Republican-controlled House on Friday sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would make it nearly impossible for women to get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
5.) Some say arm the teachers. Others want a gun-free zone. As America grapples with the rise in mass school shootings, one small town school board opted this year to invest in free-standing door barricades. But this decision too would not be without controversy.
6.) Graphic footage shown to jurors in the upcoming trial of a former Minnesota police officer charged with killing an Australian woman will not be played for the public and the media, a state judge ruled Friday.
International
7.) Imperiled British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered another heavy blow on Friday when the House of Commons again rejected her divorce deal with the European Union, raising the prospect that new elections may be needed to break the impasse.
8.) The logistics of the United Kingdom’s impending divorce from the European Union have proven thorny and contentious, leaving the entire process mired in uncertainty. That uncertainty, coupled with the eventual uncoupling from the EU’s customs union, has many British businesses worried about the impact of Brexit on their livelihoods.
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