Top Eight

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight CNS stories for today including the European Union’s second-highest court sided with Apple in a $15 tax billion case; Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 13 points in the swing state of Pennsylvania; George Floyd’s family sued Minneapolis and the four former police officers charged in his death, and more.

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National

1.) Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, leads President Donald Trump by 13 points among registered Pennsylvania voters, a new poll shows, but many aren’t so confident Biden will carry the swing state.

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks as reporters sit socially distant during a campaign event, Tuesday, July 14, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

2.) President Trump announced significant changes Wednesday to a longstanding law that forces the government to pump the brakes on projects at risk of hurting the environment.

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2009, file photo, logging equipment cuts down a tree near Reserve, N.M. A federal judge has halted tree-cutting activities on all five national forests in New Mexico and one in Arizona until federal agencies can get a better handle on how to monitor the population of the threatened Mexican spotted owl. The order issued earlier Sept. 2019, out of the U.S. District Court in Tucson covers 18,750 square miles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

3.) Less than a week after the Supreme Court’s resounding rejection of absolute immunity claims, President Trump on Wednesday revealed his path forward in the probe of his tax returns for a New York criminal investigation.

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2020, file photo Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., leaves the Harvey Weinstein rape trial, in New York. The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, July 9, that Vance can obtain President Donald Trump's tax returns for a criminal investigation, but sent a second request by Congress for the records back to lower courts. Here are some key questions and answers stemming from the decision. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

4.) Intervening against the execution of federal death-row inmates for the second time in 48 hours, a Washington judge granted an injunction Wednesday to a man who claims to be suffering from dementia.

In this 1998 photo, Wesley Ira Purkey, center, is escorted by police officers in Kansas City, Kan., after he was arrested in connection with the death of 80-year-old Mary Ruth Bales. Purkey was also convicted of kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old girl and is scheduled to be executed on July 15, 2020, in Terre Haute, Ind. (Jim Barcus/The Kansas City Star via AP)

Regional

5.) George Floyd’s family sued Minneapolis and the four former police officers charged in his death Wednesday, claiming they violated Floyd’s constitutional rights during his arrest and the city knowingly harbored a police culture rife with racism and excessive force.

From left: Former Minneapolis police officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office via AP)

6.) The French delicacy foie gras got a second life in California after a federal judge ruled the dish can be imported from out of state despite the Golden State’s ban.

FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2016, file photo, foie gras producer Robin Arribit force-feeds a duck with corn in La Bastide Clairence, southwestern France. Foie gras is back on the menu in California after a judge ruled the rich dish can't be prevented from being brought in from out of state. California's ban on the delicacy, the fattened liver of a duck or goose, was challenged by out-of-state producers. An appeals court upheld the ban, but on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, a judge ruled for the plaintiffs, including farmers in Canada and New York. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, File)

International

7.) The European Union’s second-highest court sided with Apple in a $15 billion case on Wednesday, holding that Ireland did not give the tech giant an illegal tax break.

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 25, 2015, file photo, people wait in front of an Apple store in Munich, before the worldwide launch of the iPhone 6s. A European Union high court on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 ruled in favor of technology giant Apple and Ireland in its dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros, 15 billion US dollars in back taxes. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

8. )In a major win for President Donald Trump, the United Kingdom is banning Chinese technology giant Huawei from its 5G network and sending a strong signal that Britain sees its future tied ever more closely to Washington, its old transatlantic ally.

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 1, 2020 file photo, a man wearing a face mask to protect against the new coronavirus looks at his smartphone as he walks past a Huawei store in Beijing. The British government is reportedly poised to backtrack on plans to give Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei a limited role in the U.K.‘s new high-speed mobile phone network, a decision with broad implications for relations between the two countries. Britain’s decision to re-examine the question, the results of which will be announced Tuesday, July 14 came after the U.S. threatened to sever an intelligence-sharing arrangement because of concerns Huawei equipment could allow the Beijing government to infiltrate U.K. networks. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, file)

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