Top Eight

Top eight CNS stories for today including a state appeals court granted an eleventh-hour stay to delay enforcement of an injunction that would have required Uber and Lyft to start classifying California drivers as employees instead of independent contractors; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a package of reforms expanding vote by mail; A federal judge rejected President Donald Trump’s second attempt to scuttle the probe of his finances in New York, and more.

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National

1.) Describing the White House’s expansive view of executive power as dangerous to democracy, a federal judge on Thursday rejected President Donald Trump’s second attempt to scuttle the probe of his finances in New York.

2.) After a monthslong saga during which a federal judge threatened to demolish a proposed deal to settle a class action over facial data harvesting, Facebook won preliminary approval of a $650 million settlement Wednesday night only after it agreed to boost the payout by $100 million.

3.) Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was indicted Thursday on federal charges that he defrauded supporters of a $25 million campaign to build a wall on the U.S. southern border.

FILE - In this May 27, 2019 file photo, former White House strategist Steve Bannon pauses prior to an interview in Paris. Bannon was arrested Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, on charges that he and three others ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme “We Build The Wall.” The charges were contained in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

Regional

4.) A state appeals court granted an eleventh-hour stay Thursday to delay enforcement of an injunction that would have required Uber and Lyft to start classifying California drivers as employees instead of independent contractors starting Friday.

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, file photo, a driver displaying Lyft and Uber stickers on his front windshield drops off a customer in downtown Los Angeles. In a big win for labor advocates, the California Supreme Court has limited the ability of businesses to classify workers as independent contractors, which could affect a range of workers in the so-called "sharing economy," such as Uber and Lyft drivers. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

5.) Over 11,000 lightning strikes in the last four days sparked nearly 400 wildfires across California, with many fires in the San Francisco Bay Area merging into megablazes that have darkened the skies over the region and sent people fleeing from their homes.

Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires jump Interstate 80 in Vacaville, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. The highway was closed in both directions shortly afterward. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of wildfires sparked by lightning strikes as a statewide heat wave continues. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

6.) With 75 five days before the 2020 presidential election, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law Thursday a package of reforms that will let New Yorkers immediately request an application to vote by mail and ensure that all absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day on Nov. 3 will be counted if received up to a week later.

A vote-by-mail ballot is shown as viewed through the handle of a sorting tray, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020, at the King County Elections headquarters in Renton, Washington, south of Seattle. Washington state has offered voting by mail since 2011. (Ted S. Warren/AP)

7.) Michigan has reached a preliminary $600 million deal with Flint residents to settle claims over the city’s water supply being contaminated with lead when the source was switched to the Flint River in a cost-cutting move approved by former Republican Governor Rick Snyder.

In this March 21, 2016, file photo, the Flint Water Plant water tower is seen in Flint, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

International

8.) A new, potentially explosive geopolitical dimension is being added to the puzzle that is the Middle East: A push by Israel, Europe, Egypt, Turkey and even the United States to drill for fossil fuels in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

In this Tuesday, July 9, 2019 photo, a helicopter flies near Turkey's drilling ship, 'Fatih' dispatched towards the eastern Mediterranean, near Cyprus. Turkish officials say the drillships Fatih and Yavuz will drill for gas, which has prompted protests from Cyprus.(Turkish Defence Ministry via AP, Pool)

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