Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling; California officials said the state will offer $2 billion to school districts willing to reopen next month; The Georgia House passed a controversial bill that imposes substantial restrictions on early and absentee voting, and more.

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National

1.) Three women are slated to serve top roles in the Department of Justice. Two of them have already faced conservative backlash.

2.) Jail and prison populations are at a particularly grave risk for Covid-19, but incarcerated people are absent from many state vaccine distribution policies, and federal authorities have stayed silent.

3.) Wall Street likes stimulus. It also dislikes minimum wages hikes. That seems to be the message as markets exploded Monday, following news that Democrats have bailed on a proposal in the next stimulus package to up the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

In this photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, traders work on the floor, Monday, March 1, 2021. Stocks are rising across the board on Wall Street as traders welcomed a move lower in long-term interest rates in the bond market. Investors were also watching Washington as a big economic stimulus bill moved to the Senate. (Courtney Crow/New York Stock Exchange via AP)

Regional

4.) In a rush to bring children back to the classroom after a year of closed campuses, California Governor Gavin Newsom and lawmakers said Monday the state will offer $2 billion to school districts willing to reopen next month.

Residents of East Los Angeles stand in line and wait in their cars to collect food donations outside James A. Garfield High School as part of the school district’s effort to support families struggling through the Covid-19 pandemic. (Courthouse News photo / Martin Macias Jr.

5.) As protesters sat in shackles outside of the Georgia State Capitol on Monday, the House passed a controversial bill that imposes substantial restrictions on early and absentee voting.

A voter drops their ballot off during early voting in Athens, Ga., in October 2020. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

6.) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday sued an electric company accused of blindsiding its customers with sky-high bills in the middle of last month’s deadly winter storm.

DeAndré Upshaw shows a $5,000 bill from Griddy on his cell phone for his 900-square-foot apartment during very cold weather in Dallas, on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. The Texas power supplier Griddy, which sells unusual plans with prices tied to the spot price of power on the Texas grid, warned its customers over the weekend that their bills would rise significantly during the storm and that they should switch providers. (Lola Gomez//The Dallas Morning News via AP)

7.) New York’s independent investigation into claims of workplace sexual harassment against Governor Andrew Cuomo is now underway, Attorney General Letitia James announced on Monday following her appointment of special counsel.

FILE — In this Feb. 22, 2021 file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference at a COVID-19 vaccination site in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool, File)

International

8.) Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty on Monday of corruption and influence peddling, making him the second French president since World War II to be convicted of a crime.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives at the courtroom Monday, March 1, 2021, in Paris. (Michel Euler/AP)

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