Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including President Biden asked the Supreme Court to put his student loan forgiveness program into action; A Texas maker of software and milling machines that allow people to build their own firearms dropped its challenge to two California laws; British teachers became the latest public sector workforce to vote on a nationwide strike, and more.

National

Biden urges Supreme Court to clear hurdles for student debt forgiveness plan

President Joe Biden asked the Supreme Court on Friday to put his student loan forgiveness program into action by overruling an injunction from the Eighth Circuit.

President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt relief at Delaware State University in Dover on Oct. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Attorney general appoints special counsel for Trump probes

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday named a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Jack Smith, then the Department of Justice's chief of the Public Integrity Section, poses for photo at the department’s headquarters in Washington on Aug. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

After binging last week, markets slow down to digest retail sales, earnings

Following one of the best rallies in years, Wall Street this week moderated its bearish reaction to disappointing corporate earnings reports and ebullience over more data showing inflation is being tamed.

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

Tempers flare at close of airline antitrust trial

Lawyers for American Airlines and JetBlue Airways delivered a spirited and at times vitriolic attack on the Justice Department on Friday to close out a trial aimed at shutting down their joint venture in Boston and New York.

Passenger flights land and take off at Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington on Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Regional

Drought is disrupting Mississippi River supply chain

Parts of the Mississippi watershed have seen record-low water levels this year. What comes next for the biggest waterway in the U.S. is anyone’s guess.

A barge maneuvers its way down the normally wide Mississippi River where it has been reduced to a narrow trickle at Tiptonville, Tennessee, on Oct. 20, 2022. (Jeff Roberson/AP)

Maker of ‘Ghost Gunner’ machines drops challenge to California gun laws

A Texas maker of software and milling machines that allow people to build their own firearms, including AK-47 assault rifles, dropped its challenge to two recent California laws that criminalize the use of its equipment to make so-called ghost guns and make lawsuits to fight the state's gun laws potentially more costly.

Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed holds a 3D-printed gun called the Liberator at his shop in Austin, Texas, in 2018. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

International

Wave of government worker strikes sweeps UK

British teachers have become the latest public sector workforce to vote on a nationwide strike, in a wave of government worker protests that is gripping the country and grinding key public services to a halt.

A woman rides a bike in London on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Dutchman guilty of manslaughter for deadly bar fight in Spanish holiday hotspot

Judges in the Netherlands found Friday there was only enough evidence to convict one man of manslaughter for a deadly drunken brawl on a Spanish island, while seven other suspects were found guilty on lesser charges.

People sit on the beach in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in May 2020. (Isaac Buj/Europa Press via AP)

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