Top Eight

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight stories for today including the Texas House speaker rejected a bill that would have retroactively reduced energy prices that spiked during February’s winter storm; Europe’s highest court ruled French hunters should no longer be allowed to use the traditional technique for trapping wild birds with glue; The Weather Channel must face claims it continuously tracked, stored and shared users’ precise locations even when they did not have the app open, and more.

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National

1.) “The Happiest Place on Earth” will turn back on the lights starting April 30, Disneyland officials announced Wednesday, over a year after closing its gates due to the coronavirus pandemic.

2.) A federal judge ruled Wednesday the Weather Channel — which boasts one of the most popular mobile weather apps in the United States — must face claims it continuously tracked, stored and shared users’ precise locations even when they did not have the app open.

Regional

3.) The Texas Legislature’s whirlwind week of energy legislation picked up Wednesday morning when Speaker of the House Dade Phelan rebuked a bill, drafted in the Senate and backed by top Republican state officials, that would have retroactively reduced energy prices that spiked during February’s winter storm.

4.) A group of Michigan citizens deemed ineligible for positions on a redistricting commission and the state’s Republican Party argued on Wednesday that eligibility criteria designed to reduce partisanship among committee members violate their constitutional rights.

5.) A string of shootings carried out Tuesday that left eight dead in three massage parlors across metro Atlanta does not appear to be motivated by race, officials said Wednesday morning.

6.) Two people convicted of drug crimes argued before the Kentucky Supreme Court on Wednesday that they are immune from prosecution under the state’s good Samaritan law because they were discovered by police after bystanders called for emergency help.

International

7.) French hunters should no longer be allowed to use the traditional technique for trapping wild birds with glue, Europe’s highest court ruled Wednesday.

8.) Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and a scandal that forced the entire government to resign in January, voters have been undeterred in casting ballots for the Netherlands’ national election.

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