Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including Earth experienced the second-warmest year on record in 2020; President-elect Joe Biden unveiled an ambitious $1.9 trillion spending plan; Europe’s highest court ruled an Italian border region can continue giving its residents a discount at the fuel pump to keep them from cruising over to Slovenia to buy cheaper fuel, and more.

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National

1.) President-elect Joe Biden unveiled an ambitious spending plan Thursday calling for $1.9 trillion in federal spending to assist struggling American families and workers while allocating significant dollars to the vaccination rollout and the reopening of shuttered schools.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrive at an event to introduce their nominees and appointees to economic policy posts at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

2.) Debtors are not entitled to immediately reunite with their impounded property once they declare bankruptcy, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The U.S. Supreme Court. (Jack Rodgers/Courthouse News)

3.) The number of Americans applying for unemployment insurance benefits surpassed 1 million last week for the first time since August, according to the Department of Labor’s weekly report.

A woman takes walk with a dog in front of the closing signs displayed in a store's window front in Niles, Ill., Wednesday, May 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Regional

4.) Ten months into the coronavirus pandemic, the spread of Covid-19 shows no signs of slowing down in Georgia, with cases and deaths reaching record highs over the past week.

Naomi Adams checks on residents after they received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Monarch Villa memory care facility Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, in Stockbridge, Ga. The center director Pat Mobley says all 26 residents of the home were scheduled to be vaccinated. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

5.) Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appeared in court Thursday morning to plead not guilty to state charges of willful neglect stemming from the contaminated-water crisis in Flint that began during his time in office.

Former Gov. Rick Snyder stays silent as barrage of media asks questions after his video arraignment on charges related to the Flint water crisis on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 outside the Genesee County Jail in downtown Flint. (Cody Scanlan | MLive.com) - Former Gov. Rick Snyder leaves Genesee County Jail Jan. 14, 2021 Cody Scanlan

International

6.) Planet Earth experienced the second-warmest year on record in 2020, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

7.) An Italian border region can continue giving its residents a discount at the fuel pump to keep them from cruising over to Slovenia to buy cheaper fuel, Europe’s highest court ruled on Thursday.

(Image by IADE-Michoko from Pixabay via Courthouse News)

8.) The European Court of Justice has now heard cases in all 24 official EU languages after taking up the case of an Irish language advocate who wants pet medicine labels to be printed in both English and Irish.

A cyclist passes a closed bar in the Temple bar area of Dublin, Ireland, in October 2020. (Peter Morrison/AP)

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