Top Eight

Your Monday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight stories for today including California officials are on the verge of returning money to taxpayers and helping pay their bills thanks to overperforming tax collections and billions in federal aid; The AFL-CIO filed a complaint it says will test whether a new North American trade agreement can affirm Mexican workers’ rights to bargain for better wages; The Biden administration announced it will restore anti-discrimination protections in health care for gay and transgender patients, and more.

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National

1.) Federal officials made their first public statement Monday after a hack triggered the partial shutdown this weekend of one of the nation’s major resources of fuel from Texas to New Jersey.

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2016 file photo vehicles are seen near Colonial Pipeline in Helena, Ala. A major pipeline that transports fuels along the East Coast says it had to stop operations because it was the victim of a cyberattack. Colonial Pipeline said in a statement late Friday that it “took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems.” (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

2.) Championing a provision of former President Obama’s landmark health care law, the Biden administration announced Monday that it would restore anti-discrimination protections in health care for gay and transgender patients.

It was a festive atmosphere as the White House was lit with the colors of the rainbow in celebration of the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage on June 26, 2015. "I chose this angle from several options because I like that much of the White House staff had stayed late on a Friday night to take part in the celebration." (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza via Courthouse News)

3.) Attorneys for environmental lawyer Steven Donziger appeared to anticipate a pre-decided conviction on six contempt counts as the unusual bench trial two years in the making finally opened Monday morning.

Supporters of environmental lawyer Steven Donziger rally on Monday, May 10, 2021, outside the New York federal courthouse where Donziger is on trial in an unusual contempt-of-court case for pursuing an Ecuadorean court judgment against Chevron. (Josh Russell photo/Courthouse News)

Regional

4.) California is so flush with cash thanks to overperforming tax collections and billions in federal Covid-19 aid, state officials are on the verge of doing the unthinkable: returning money to taxpayers.

The California Capitol building. (Pixabay image via Courthouse News)

5.) An attorney for Los Angeles County told a federal judge Monday the court can’t take over the duties of local government when it comes to dealing with the local homelessness crisis simply because taxpayers don’t agree with elected officials’ policy decisions.

In this Feb. 4, 2021, file photo, Jeff Page, right, also known as General Jeff, a homelessness activist and leader in the Downtown Los Angeles Skid Row Neighborhood Council, walks with U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, middle, and Michele Martinez, special master on the issues of homelessness, after a court hearing at Downtown Women's Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

6.) Pinning the blame on global warming for a quickly diminishing snowpack and disappearing reservoir levels, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday declared drought emergencies across much of the agricultural growing regions and normally water-rich areas of the state.

Standing on dry land that would in a normal year be covered by the waters of the San Luis Reservoir, California Gov. Gavin Newsom extended his drought declaration to most counties on May 10, 2021. The restrictions remain in place despite historic storms that slammed the state to start 2023. (Screenshot via Courthouse News)

7.) New York’s public university system will require all in-person students to get a Covid-19 vaccine before the fall semester, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday.

On New York's Upper West Side, the American Museum of Natural History is home to its own subway station and, in 2021, a Covid-19 vaccination center. (Barbara Leonard/Courthouse News)

International

8.) Claiming an auto parts manufacturing firm in northern Mexico is firing workers for organizing with an independent union, the AFL-CIO filed a first-of-its-kind complaint Monday with the Biden administration it says will test whether a new North American trade agreement can affirm Mexican workers’ rights to bargain for better wages.

In this Sept. 27, 2018 file photo, robots weld the bed of a 2018 Ford F-150 truck on the assembly line at the Ford Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn, Mich. The U.S. auto industry’s coronavirus comeback plan was pretty simple: restart factories gradually and push out trucks and other vehicles for waiting buyers in states left largely untouched by the virus outbreak. Yet the return from a two-month production shutdown hasn’t gone quite according to plan. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

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