Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including Justice Brett Kavanaugh refuted claims of division on the Supreme Court; A federal judge declined to block members of the group Clean Elections USA from gathering within sight of ballot drop boxes; Wall Street rallied on reports suggesting the economy is slowing at a manageable rate and inflation is cooling, and more.

National

Kavanaugh details teamwork at odds with high court’s stats

Justice Brett Kavanaugh refuted claims of division on the Supreme Court, praising both his conservative and liberal colleagues in a speech where he likened their work to that of a sports team.

Members of the Supreme Court sit for a new group portrait following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Oct. 7, 2022. Standing beside her in the back row, from left are Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan are seated in front. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Three indicted in murder-for-hire plot targeting journalist

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges on Friday against three members of an Eastern European criminal organization said to have plotted the murder of a U.S. journalist.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announces murder-for-hire charges against three men he says belong to a gang in Eastern Europe. Garland spoke at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, though the indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Jan. 27, 2023. (Emily Zantow/Courthouse News Service)

Wall Street increasingly confident in soft landing as GDP and inflation data surprise

Notching incremental gains all week, Wall Street rallied on various economic reports suggesting the economy is slowing at a manageable rate and that inflation is cooling.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Capitol rioter who used bear spray on officer sentenced to prison

A federal judge ordered a nearly seven-year prison sentence Friday for a Capitol rioter who deployed chemical spray against law enforcement officers, one of whom died the next day after suffering two strokes.

Rioters face off with police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Regional

World’s largest sphere nearing completion in Las Vegas

The mother of all spheres being built by Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation in Las Vegas promises to be a one-of-a-kind experience for audiences with its cutting-edge technology.

The MSG Sphere in Las Vegas is set to open later this year. In the foreground is the Wynn Golf Club. (Bob Leal/Courthouse News)

Judge declines to block drop box patrolling for ‘ballot mules’

A federal judge on Friday preliminarily declined to block members of the group Clean Elections USA from gathering within sight of ballot drop boxes following complaints that armed and masked members intimidated potential voters during the 2022 election.

FILE - The warehouse at the Maricopa County Elections Department stores all the equipment and signage for all the voting precincts in Phoenix, Sept. 8, 2022. The sheriff in metropolitan Phoenix says he's stepped up security around ballot drop boxes after a series of incidents involving people keeping watch on the boxes and taking video of voters after they were apparently inspired by lies about the 2020 election. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Army Corps asks panel to let it tear down Georgia lock and dam system

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers argued before a Fourth Circuit panel Friday for the reversal of an injunction blocking the removal and replacement of the aging Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam near the Georgia-South Carolina border.

The Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam is owned and minimally maintained by the Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is located outside Augusta, Ga. on the Savannah River between Georgia and South Carolina. (Photo courtesy of US Army Corps of Engineers)

Former UCLA lecturer not competent to stand trial on threats charges

A former University of California, Los Angeles, philosophy lecturer accused of circulating an 802-page manifesto pledging mass violence will not stand trial in February after a federal judge on Friday determined him to be mentally incompetent.

Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles. (Pixabay image via Courthouse News)

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