Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including the Biden administration announced the purchase of 100 million additional single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines; The House passed the latest economic relief package; Business restrictions could soon be loosened in California’s largest counties, and more.

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National

1.) The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the purchase of 100 million additional single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines, a move that would ensure the full vaccination of every adult in the U.S.

This Sept. 2020, photo provided by Johnson & Johnson shows a clinician preparing to administer the investigational Janssen Covid-19 vaccine. (Johnson & Johnson via AP)

2.) The House passed the American Rescue Plan on Wednesday afternoon in a 220-211 vote, clearing the way for $1,400 direct payments to many Americans in addition to billions of dollars for testing, tracing and other initiatives to combat Covid-19.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., flanked by Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., left, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., holds a news conference ahead of the vote on the Democrat's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

3.) Judge Merrick Garland was confirmed as U.S. attorney general by the Senate on Wednesday, clearing the last hurdle of his nomination process in a 70-30 vote.

Judge Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's pick to be attorney general, answers questions from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., as he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

4.) People previously infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 may need just one dose of a vaccine to gain immunity to the disease, according to a letter from researchers published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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)

Regional

5.) With California approaching a key Covid-19 vaccine milestone, Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that business restrictions could be loosened as early as this weekend in the state’s largest counties.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his State of the State address from Dodger Stadium Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

6.) Alaska is the first state in the nation that will vaccinate anyone over the age of 16 who lives or works there, Governor Mike Dunleavy has announced.

Registered Pharmacist Ken Ramey with CVS, prepares to give a COVID-19 vaccine, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, at the Isles of Vero Beach assisted and independent senior living community in Vero Beach, Fla. A federal government study last fall found that an average of one death occurred among every five assisted living facility residents with COVID-19 in states that offered data. That compares with one death among every 40 people with the virus in the general population. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

7.) A Des Moines Register reporter arrested and criminally charged while she was covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Iowa last May was found not guilty by a six-member jury Wednesday after about two hours of deliberation.

Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri testifies during her trial after being arrested while reporting on a protest last summer, Tuesday, March 9, 2021, at the Drake University Legal Clinic, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Kelsey Kremer/The Des Moines Register via AP)

International

8.) The European Union’s high court held on Wednesday that EU law doesn’t preclude Ireland from requiring foreign lawyers to work with local counsel.

Cows grazing in Tubbercurry, County Sligo, Ireland. (Barbara Leonard photo, special to Courthouse News)

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