Nightly Brief

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including Attorney General William Barr defended his representation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report before the Senate Judiciary Committee; A document recently uncovered by Courthouse News points to the Ku Klux Klan as the culprit in a 1960 bombing that killed a black housewife in Georgia; A former inspector general testified before Congress that leadership vacancies at the Department of Homeland Security have exacerbated fractures within the agency, 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.) Attorney General William Barr defended his representation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report Wednesday, telling lawmakers that despite Mueller’s concerns Barr failed to capture the substance of the report, it was the news media that distorted his initial summary.

2.) Striking a blow at an administration whose scorn for “email crimes” helped its rise to power, a federal judge ordered the disclosure of emails from the now-shuttered commission created by President Donald Trump to root out supposed voter fraud.

3.) For decades, rumors swirled around who was behind the 1960 bombing that killed a black housewife in Ringgold, Georgia. A document recently uncovered by Courthouse News points to the Ku Klux Klan.

4.) Laying bare a morale problem at the agency he used to oversee, former Inspector General John Roth testified Wednesday before Congress that leadership vacancies at the Department of Homeland Security have exacerbated fractures within the agency.

5.) A federal judge ruled that a treasured Camille Pissarro painting stolen from a Jewish family by Nazis at the onset of World War II can stay in a Spanish museum, finding the museum had no evidence the work was looted when it acquired it in 1992.

Science

6.) While scientists have known that rising temperatures and the effects of climate change date back to the very early 20th century, researchers revealed Wednesday the fingerprint of climate change on drought and the long-term effect on global water supplies can be traced to 1900.

7.) A hunch paid off for two Arizona State University cosmochemists, who became the first to find water in dust samples from an asteroid – providing evidence that similar asteroids striking a young Earth could have delivered up to half its ocean water.

8.) A chance encounter in 2013 between a professor and a small cube of uranium kickstarted a new look into the scientific goals of WWII-era Germany and the progress of the German nuclear program.

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit