Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including Europe is heading toward a major turning point as longtime German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s era comes to an end; Texas’ attorney general sued local officials in the state’s capital city for keeping mask mandates in place; Nearly five dozen New York lawmakers called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign, and more.

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National

1.) A House subcommittee held a hearing on Thursday afternoon regarding powers the chamber holds to discipline its members.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington. (Courthouse News photo/Jack Rodgers)

2.) A pastor who portrays himself as a success story of gay-conversion therapy cannot go to court over the ban of his account by Vimeo, the Second Circuit ruled Thursday.

Regional

3.) Launching yet another court battle over pandemic restrictions, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday sued local officials in the state’s capital city for their moves to keep mask mandates in place despite a statewide order from the governor that lifted mask rules.

Bartender Alyssa Dooley, center, talks with customers at Mo's Irish Pub, Tuesday, March 2, 2021, in Houston. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he is lifting business capacity limits and the state's mask mandate starting next week. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

4.) Capping three years of litigation in Virginia, a lawyer for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press told a federal appeals court that contemporaneous access to new court filings is essential to an informed public.

The Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Courthouse, home of the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Virginia. (Acroterion/ Wikipedia Commons via Courthouse News)

5.) Nearly five dozen New York lawmakers called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign in a joint letter demanding he hand over the office to his second-in-command for the remainder of his term.

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)

6.) Arguing a CBS interview inflated and endorsed two women’s claims that Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax sexually assaulted them, his lawyer told an appeals panel Thursday the official’s libel suit was wrongly tossed out.

Virginia Lt. Gov Justin Fairfax looks over a briefing book prior to the start of the senate session at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 7, 2019. A California woman has accused Fairfax of sexually assaulting her 15 years ago. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

International

7.) Europe is heading toward a major turning point as longtime German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s era comes to an end. State elections this weekend will provide early clues about who might replace her.

CORRECTS DAY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference with Bavarian state governor Markus Soeder and the Mayor of Berlin Michael Mueller after a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, March 3, 2021. German Chancellor Angela Merkel conferred with the governors of the country's 16 states to discuss how to move forward with coronavirus restrictions (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Pool)

8.) An adviser to the EU’s high court says the European Union as a whole can ratify a treaty aimed at combating violence against women despite individual member states refusing to do so.

A woman wearing a face mask waits at a tram station with an emergency phone in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, March 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

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