Nightly Brief

Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including former Vice President Joe Biden announced his presidential bid by warning that the re-election of President Donald Trump will put American values and “our very democracy” at stake; A trio of federal judges ruled that Michigan Republicans illegally drew election maps to secure GOP victories and ordered lawmakers to redraw dozens of districts for the 2020 election; FBI and IRS agents conducted sweeping raids on Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, and more.

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National

1.) Former Vice President Joe Biden announced his presidential bid Thursday in a video posted to Twitter, warning that the re-election of President Donald Trump will put American values and “our very democracy” at stake.

2.) Accusing the NRA of campaign-finance violations ahead of its annual convention, a nonprofit founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords brought a federal complaint to compel regulatory action.

Attorneys Eric Dubelier, second from right, and Katherine Seikaly, second from left, representing Concord Management and Consulting LLC, walk out of federal court in Washington, Wednesday, May 9, 2018, after pleading not guilty on behalf of the company, which has been charged as part of a conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

3.) A company accused of funding the Russian troll farms that favored Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2016 told a federal judge Thursday that release of the special counsel’s report makes a fair trial unlikely.

Regional

FILE- In a Nov. 6, 2018 file photo voters wait in line on election day in Southfield, Mich. A three-judge panel has ruled that Michigan's congressional and legislative maps are unconstitutionally gerrymandered, ordering the state Legislature to redraw at least 34 districts for the 2020 election. The decision issued Thursday, April 25, 2019, also requires special state Senate elections to be held in 2020, instead of 2022 as scheduled. The judges say the maps drawn by Republicans in 2011 violate Democratic voters' constitutional rights.(Clarence Tabb, Jr /Detroit News via AP, File)

4.) After several weeks of deliberation, a trio of federal judges ruled Thursday that Michigan Republicans illegally drew election maps to secure GOP victories and ordered lawmakers to redraw dozens of districts for the 2020 election.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh addresses the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston on June 8, 2018. Baltimore’s acting leader has ordered an audit of a local nonprofit’s management of a $12 million youth fund after the organization was tied to the purchase and distribution of a portion of embattled Mayor Catherine Pugh’s hard-to-find illustrated books for children. The audit of Associated Black Charities’ work and a freeze of legislation that would renew its management of the taxpayer-financed fund comes as the first-term mayor is embroiled in an image-tarnishing scandal that threatens her political career. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

5.) FBI and IRS agents conducted sweeping raids Thursday morning on Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, searching both of the Democrat’s homes as well as her offices at city hall, the offices of a nonprofit with which she is associated and the office of her personal lawyer.

FILE - In this April 5, 2019, file photo, Parkland school suspect Nikolas Cruz listens during a hearing at the Broward Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The public defenders representing Cruz have made an unexpected request to withdraw from the case, saying the man will soon receive nearly a half million dollars from his late mother's life insurance policy. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool, File)

6.) Public defenders for the man accused of murdering 17 people at his former high school in Florida asked a judge to let them withdraw from his case, saying his $432,000 inheritance disqualifies him from receiving the free legal counsel.

International

Greta Thunberg sits at the House of Commons on Tuesday with former Labour leader Ed Miliband, center, and Environment Secretary Michael Gove. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

7.) Greta Thunberg is a 16-year-old autistic Swedish girl with braids, single-minded determination and an apocalyptic message who has taken Europe by storm and become the face of climate-change activism.

This 2010 photo provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows emperor penguin chicks at Antarctica's Halley Bay. A study released in 2019 found that since 2016 there were almost no births at Halley Bay, the second biggest breeding ground for emperor penguins. Numbers were booming nearby, but it didn't make up for the losses at this site. (Peter Fretwell/British Antarctic Survey via AP)

8.) Emperor penguins have ditched a longtime love nest for three consecutive years as they search for stable ground while sea levels rise and fierce winds reshape the landscape of Antarctica, according to a study published Thursday.

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