Top 8 today

Top eight stories for today including a proposal to limit the tenure of Supreme Court justices faces an uphill battle; Russia cut gas flows to Europe and pulled out of the International Space Station; An Indiana federal judge blocked enforcement of a state law that bans transgender girls from playing on girls’ school sports teams, and more.

National

There’s a Supreme Court reform idea people like, if they know about it

Two in three Americans support limiting the tenure of Supreme Court justices, but the reform proposal still faces an uphill battle even as a bill sits ready for congressional action.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen behind a fence on May 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Parents fight to revive Zofran birth defect lawsuits

Hundreds of families whose children suffered birth defects after their mothers were prescribed Zofran for morning sickness urged the First Circuit on Tuesday to let them sue British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

(Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels via Courthouse News)

Marijuana decriminalization takes center stage at Senate hearing

To lock up for blazing up? That was the question among senators Tuesday as the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism considered legislation that would decriminalize weed at the federal level.

Marijuana grows at an indoor cannabis farm in Gardena, Calif., in 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

Regional

Montana rail authority leads push for new passenger service

More than 40 years have passed since travelers last rode the rails through southern Montana. Arguing that the time has come, Montanans are trying to drum up enough money and clout to revive the passenger line.

Oil trains wait in a Missoula, Mont., switching yard. (Laura Lundquist/Courthouse News)

Alex Jones appears in Texas court for damages phase of Sandy Hook defamation case

A trial to determine how much Infowars host Alex Jones must pay the parents of a child who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting kicked off Tuesday in Texas state court.

Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones rallies pro-Trump supporters outside the Maricopa County’s Office on Nov. 5, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Matt York/AP)

Vanessa Bryant cleared to tell jury officers destroyed evidence

Vanessa Bryant will be allowed to argue that LA County sheriff’s deputies destroyed evidence of photos they took and shared of her late husband and daughter’s remains at a helicopter crash site when her lawsuit goes to trial next month

FILE - In this Feb. 24 2020, file photo, fans leave the Staples Center after a public memorial for former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, in Los Angeles. Staple Center is one of the possible locations the NHL has zeroed in on to host playoff games if it can return amid the coronavirus pandemic. The league will ultimately decide on two or three locations for games, with government regulations, testing and COVID-19 frequency among the factors for the decision that should be coming within the next three to four weeks. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

Judge blocks enforcement of Indiana transgender sports ban

An Indiana federal judge on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a state law that bans transgender girls from playing on girls’ school sports teams.

Kit Malone, an advocacy strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, leads a rally at the Statehouse in Indianapolis on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in opposition to a bill that would ban transgender students from competing in girls’ sports. (Casey Smith/Report for America via AP)

International

Russia cuts gas to Europe, withdraws from International Space Station

The chasm between Russia and the West grew even wider on Tuesday after Moscow announced an unexpected large reduction in natural gas flows to the European Union and said it will withdraw from the International Space Station in two years.

Morning light shines on the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline facility in Lubmin, Germany, on July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

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