Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including former Vice President Joe Biden gave Iowa State Fair visitors a sample of the major themes he is hitting on the presidential campaign trail; Ex-FBI official Andrew McCabe filed a lawsuit claiming the agency fired him on the same night he planned to retire after he refused to swear personal allegiance to President Donald Trump; The Atlantic Ocean is predicted to see more hurricanes than normal this year, and more.

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National

Former Vice President Joe Biden participates in the second of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN Wednesday, July 31, 2019, in the Fox Theatre in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

1.) Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday gave Iowa State Fair visitors a sample of the major themes he is hitting on the presidential campaign trail, including some Trump-bashing and promises of universal health care and restoring middle-class values in an appearance before a standing room-only crowd.

Then-FBI acting director Andrew McCabe listens during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington in June 2017. (AP file photo/Alex Brandon)

2.) Andrew McCabe, who served as the FBI’s second-highest official, claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that the agency fired him on the same night he planned to retire after he refused to swear personal allegiance to President Donald Trump.

Boats lay sunk and damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Port St. Joe, Fla. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

3.) With the recent dissipation of El Nino, the Atlantic Ocean is now predicted to see more hurricanes than normal this year, according to an assessment by government meteorologists.

FILE - In this March 8, 2019 file photo, an audience member arrives at a rally for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. Democrats in the early presidential voting states of Iowa and Nevada will be able next year to skip their states’ traditional neighborhood caucus meetings and instead cast their votes over the phone, according to plans unveiled by the state parties. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

4.) Who will win the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 is anyone’s guess, but one thing seems to be shaping up clearly: Iowa caucus-goers want their candidate chiefly to stand up to President Trump.

5.) In perhaps one of the key states to President Trump’s re-election strategy, the president is facing major backlash from voters, a new poll suggests.

Regional

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. (Kristine Sowl photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

6.) Nine conservation groups sued the Trump administration in federal court, challenging a land swap between the Department of Interior and the Alaska Native King Cove Corporation that would put a road through the heart of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

File - This Jan. 17, 2017, file photo shows a Facebook logo being displayed in a start-up companies gathering at Paris' Station F, in Paris. A former employee of a Trump-affiliated data-mining firm says it used algorithms that "took fake news to the next level" using data inappropriately obtained from Facebook. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

7.) Rejecting arguments that Facebook users suffered no “concrete harm” by having their facial data mapped and stored, the Ninth Circuit advanced a $35 billion class action against the social media giant Thursday.

FILE - This Sept. 30, 2016 file photo shows a marijuana bud before harvesting at a rural area near Corvallis, Ore. Billy Williams, United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, is holding a marijuana summit to address what he calls a "massive" marijuana surplus in the state. He announced the Friday, Feb. 2, 2018 summit, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded a memo outlining how states with legalized marijuana could avoid federal scrutiny. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky, File)

8.) The Utah Supreme Court dismissed a petition brought by voters against the Utah Legislature fighting a last-minute law passed in a special session to replace a voter-approved medical marijuana initiative.

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