Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News
Top eight CNS stories for today including three people were knifed to death in a terrorist attack in France; The U.S. economy grew by a record 33.1% annual rate in the third quarter; Conservationists blasted California over its continued refusal to protect the endangered snowy plover, and more.
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National
1.) The U.S. economy grew by a record 33.1% annual rate in the third quarter, but there is still a long way to go before it is fully healed from the damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.

2.) Environmentalists are gearing up for a court battle after the Trump administration booted gray wolves in the Lower 48 states from the endangered species list on Thursday.

3.) Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s lead over President Donald Trump in the crucial battleground state of North Carolina has slipped slightly to a 3-point advantage, according to a poll released Thursday.

Regional
4.) Conservationists blasted California over its continued refusal to protect the endangered snowy plover from being crushed by dune buggies and ATVs at Oceano Dunes State Park.

5.) Lobbing another hurdle at California’s $16 billion plan to tunnel underneath the West Coast’s largest estuary, environmentalists on Thursday sued to freeze public funding for the megaproject championed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

International
6.) Three people were knifed to death Thursday morning in and near a cathedral in the southern French city of Nice in what French authorities are saying was a terrorist attack.

7.) Saying the coronavirus has overwhelmed France, bringing it to the doorstep of a new wave of death, French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered France back into its second national lockdown, a major blow to Europe’s hopes for a speedy recovery from the pandemic.

8.) A Latvian child who needed open-heart surgery prevailed Thursday in a religious discrimination case against the country’s Ministry of Health, which refused to sign on off on letting him undergo the procedure in another country where he wouldn’t require a blood transfusion.

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