Top Eight

Your Monday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight stories for today including the U.S. death toll from Covid-19 passed 500,000; The Supreme Court refused to block a New York subpoena of former President Donald Trump’s tax records; The European Union is imposing new sanctions on Russia over the arrest and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and more.

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National

1.) As the U.S. death toll from Covid-19 passes 500,000, experts in epidemiology and public health discuss how medicine is changing in response to the pandemic — and what to expect in months ahead.

Volunteers and health care workers carry out a mass vaccination campaign at the former site of a Sears department store in a partnership with San Diego County, the city of Chula Vista and Sharp HealthCare. (Courthouse News photo/Barbara Leonard)

2.) Divisions in American society that have seemingly reached their breaking point shaped the start of a hearing Monday for Judge Merrick Garland, whom President Joe Biden has tapped to lead his Justice Department.

Judge Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's pick to be attorney general, arrives on Capitol Hill for his confirmation hearing, in Washington, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

3.) Former President Donald Trump lost another attempt to declare himself immune from criminal investigations, with the Supreme Court refusing Monday to block a New York subpoena of his tax records.

Former President Donald Trump looks out his window as his motorcade drives through West Palm Beach, Fla., on his way to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach after arriving from Washington aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Damon Higgins/The Palm Beach Post via AP)

4.) The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a dispute between Florida and Georgia over whether the Peach State’s use of water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin should be limited, leaving justices weighing the interests of Florida’s oystermen against those of Georgia’s farmers.

FILE - In this May 25, 2016, file photo, the work day begins early for oyster harvesters in the Florida panhandle's Apalachicola Bay. Because of a dwindling oyster population, a Florida agency is expected to shut down oyster harvesting in Apalachicola Bay through the end of 2025, dealing a blow to an area that historically produced 90% of the state’s oysters and 10% of the nation’s. (Taimy Alvarez/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)

Regional

5.) Facing a recall effort and threats of litigation, the San Francisco School Board is putting a controversial push to rename 44 schools on hold so it can focus on a more pressing task: getting school buildings reopened.

The San Francisco Board of Education voted to rename 44 public schools during a virtual meeting on Jan. 26, 2021. (Screenshot)

6.) An independent review into the death of an unarmed black man stopped by police in Aurora, Colorado, raises concerns and offers systemic solutions.

FILE - In this June 27, 2020, file photo, demonstrators carry a giant placard during a rally and march over the death of Elijah McClain outside the police department in Aurora, Colo. The parents of McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after officers in suburban Denver stopped him on the street last year and put him in a chokehold, sued police and medical officials Tuesday, Aug. 11. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

International

7.) The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Monday said the bloc was imposing new sanctions on Russia over the arrest and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Alexei Navalny is surrounded by journalists inside the plane prior to his flight to Moscow in the Airport Berlin Brandenburg (BER) in Schoenefeld, near Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. Leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny plans to fly home to Russia on Sunday after recovering in Germany from his poisoning in August with a nerve agent. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

8.) With China and Russia scoring political points as they ship their coronavirus vaccines around the world, the Biden administration is joining European leaders in pushing to get Western-made vaccines out to the rest of the world too.

President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens at right. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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