Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including the Supreme Court gave the Biden administration a green light to move forward with a study of how much greenhouse gases cost the American public; The family of a 13-year-old Black boy shot in the back by a Chicago cop sued the city; British prosecutors charged actor Kevin Spacey with the sexual assault of three men, and more.

National

Red states trying to block pollution cost study lose at high court

The Supreme Court gave the Biden administration a green light Thursday to move forward with its financial study of how much greenhouse gases cost the American public.

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

One nominee left in lurch at Senate committee vote on judicial picks

The Senate Judiciary Committee moved four judicial nominees one step closer to confirmation on Thursday, but tied over an 11th Circuit contender whose legal work for the Southern Poverty Law Center has inflamed Republicans.

Nancy Abudu testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 27, 2022. The panel tied on May 26 over whether to move Abudu's nomination forward, with Republicans criticizing her work with the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Screenshot via Courthouse News)

Exposure leaves its mark on for high court justices weighing death penalty

Justice Stephen Breyer is marking his last few weeks at the Supreme Court pushing for his colleagues to take up a constitutional challenge of the death penalty. Like some of his predecessors, the Clinton appointee’s view on capital punishment has changed over time, a trend experts say comes from exposure to flaws in the country’s system of capital punishment.

The now-defunct execution chamber at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va. (Virginia Department of Corrections via AP)

Heard retakes stand to end testimony in Depp defamation case

In no uncertain terms, actress Amber Heard made clear Thursday that she will not be silenced – even after a wrenching six-week trial in which her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, sued her for defamation because she identified herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse.

Actor Amber Heard appears in a courtroom in the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Va., on Thursday, May 26, 2022. (Michael Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP)

Trumps remain on the hook for fraud depositions

Donald Trump, eldest daughter Ivanka and eldest son Don Jr. can’t get out of depositions in the New York attorney general’s probe of the former president and his family’s business dealings, an appellate panel ruled Thursday.

Donald Trump poses with his children, from left, Eric, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, at the opening of the Trump SoHo New York on April 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Regional

Chicago hit with federal lawsuit from family of Black teen shot in back by cop

In the late hours of May 18, a Chicago cop shot a 13-year-old Black boy in the back. He survived, but according to a federal lawsuit his mother filed against the city on Thursday, his family is unsure he will ever walk again.

Crime scene tape is left at a gas station on Chicago’s North Cicero Avenue on May 19, 2022, the day after police shot a 13-year-old carjacking suspect. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Family of transit worker slain in mass shooting files suit

Amid a national reckoning with yet another horrific mass shooting, the family of a transportation worker in the San Jose, California, area who was one of nine people killed by a disaffected co-worker, filed a wrongful death suit Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

Lars Kepler "Kep" Lane and family. (Photo courtesy Lane family)

International

Kevin Spacey charged in UK on 4 new counts of sexual assault

Kevin Spacey’s incremental win in a New York civil case on Thursday morning was spoiled by mid-hearing news that British prosecutors had charged the “American Beauty” actor with the sexual assault of three men.

Actor Kevin Spacey leaving the Manhattan federal courthouse on Thursday, May 22, 2022, the same morning that British prosecutors announced that they had charged the 62-year old actor with four criminal counts of sexual assault. (Josh Russell/ Courthouse News Service)

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