Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top CNS stories for today including former Vice President Joe Biden made his first campaign swing through Iowa announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination last week; Attorney General William Barr refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee for testimony on his handling of the Mueller report, setting up a legal showdown between the Department of Justice and committee Democrats; The European Court of Justice ruled that cheese labels featuring images of the literary character Don Quixote de La Mancha may illegally evoke the protected designation for manchego, and more.
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National
1.) After announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination last week, former Vice President Joe Biden made his first campaign swing through Iowa – whether it was to become reacquainted, or newly acquainted, with voters who will attend the first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses in February.
2.) Attorney General William Barr refused to appear Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee for testimony on his handling of the Mueller report, setting up a legal showdown with Democrats that Speaker Nancy Pelosi heightened further by saying that Barr lied to Congress in other testimony.
3.) The 2018 election was the most diverse midterm in U.S. history, bolstered by both high overall turnout and more Asian and Hispanic voters showing up to the polls, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data.
4.) In a bid to stop President Donald Trump from pulling out of the landmark climate deal reached four years ago in Paris, Democrats voted overwhelmingly Thursday for a bill that Senate Republicans promise to torpedo.
Regional
5.) Texas brewery workers are used to tamping down temper tantrums. Their taproom patrons, buzzing off seasonal brews, often take offense when told they cannot buy beer to take home. Reforms bubbling in the Texas Legislature are poised to rectify this perceived injustice.
6.) As several Florida cities try to take the plastic drinking straws out of residents’ frozen cocktails, state lawmakers have other ideas.
International
7.) Fighting to revive claims by a Glasgow woman who was raped on vacation in Sri Lanka, a lawyer told the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on Wednesday that the rapist’s job at the hotel leaves a travel company liable.
8.) Cheese labels featuring images of the literary character Don Quixote de La Mancha may illegally evoke the protected designation for manchego, the European Court of Justice ruled Thursday.
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