Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top eight CNS stories for today including federal agents in Portland are barred for two more weeks from assaulting and arresting journalists for doing their jobs; New claims for unemployment benefits fell below 1 million for the first time since March; New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit to dissolve the National Rifle Association, and more.
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National
1.) Turning the tables on those who have protested federal involvement in recent civil protests, the acting director of the Department of Homeland Security told Senate lawmakers on Thursday that municipal interference put lives in jeopardy.
2.) Six months into the Covid-19 pandemic and with three times the number of Americans dead from the novel respiratory virus than were killed in the Vietnam War, House Democrats slammed the Trump administration on Thursday for the lack of a cohesive 50-state strategy to end the crisis and repair a hemorrhaging economy.
3.) New claims for unemployment benefits fell below 1 million for the first time since March, the Labor Department said Thursday in its weekly report.
4.) Employing the same move that helped shutter the Trump Foundation, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit Thursday to dissolve the National Rifle Association.
5.) Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projected Thursday that the 2020 hurricane season will see 19 to 25 named storms, including up to six major hurricanes bringing winds of more than 110 mph.
Regional
6.) Federal agents in Portland are barred for two more weeks from assaulting and arresting journalists for doing their jobs — an order a federal judge said was necessary based on the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement that its agents would stay in the city until the government sees improvement in what it called the “dynamic and volatile” situation there.
7.) Adding another wrinkle to an unparalleled election, California elections officials hope to turn empty sports arenas and private businesses into polling sites come November.
International
8.) The frequency of severe droughts across central Europe, such as the two-year spell that struck the region in 2018, is projected to climb by the end of the century if political leaders don’t drastically curb greenhouse gas emissions, researchers in Germany said in a study released Thursday.
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