Top Eight

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight CNS stories for today including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign and set the stage for former Vice President Joe Biden to secure the Democratic nomination; Democrats called for another massive aid package in response to the Covid-19 pandemic; New York City reported that the deadly virus has hit Latino and black populations hardest, and more.

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National

1.) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday, marking his second runner-up finish in the race to lead a major political party he otherwise does not represent and setting the stage for former Vice President Joe Biden to secure the nomination.

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., walks to his car after speaking to reporters on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, in Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

2.) Congressional Democrats called for another massive aid package Wednesday in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, pitching $500 billion in aid to small businesses, hospitals and municipal governments.

FILE - In this March 12, 2020, file photo Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., walks together as they head to a lunch with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

3.) U.S. markets starting the day on a mildly positive note took heart Wednesday afternoon in the demise of Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

A man wearing a mask walks by the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Share prices are volatile after a brutal sell-off that gave the U.S. stock market its worst loss in more than three decades. Markets in Europe lost early gains and were trading lower on Tuesday (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Regional

4.) Confirming with data what anecdotal evidence has long suggested, New York City reported Wednesday that the deadly Covid-19 virus has hit Latino and black populations hardest.

In this Friday, April 3, 2020, photo, a woman walks by local stores during the coronavirus pandemic in New York. Small business owners hoping for quick help from the government’s emergency $349 billion lending program were still waiting Tuesday, April 7, 2020, amid reports of computer problems at the Small Business Administration.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

5.) A federal judge has upheld a ban on women going topless at one of the East Coast’s most popular beach destinations, rejecting arguments from five women that a local ordinance is sexist.

Women participate in Go Topless Day, organized by the Free the Nipple Campaign at Hampton Beach, N.H., on Aug. 26, 2017. The Supreme Court in New Hampshire will hear arguments on Feb. 1, 2018 in the case of three women who are challenging a Laconia ordinance that bans them from going topless. (Ioanna Raptis/Portsmouth Herald via AP, FIle)

International

6.) Coming to the aid of the Polish judiciary, Europe’s Court of Justice ordered the shutdown of an inquisitory panel of nationalist politicians who have been culling Poland’s established judges and recasting the judicial branch in their mold.

On Oct. 8, 2018, government opponents with signs reading "Constitution" protest an overhaul of the justice system and the forced early retirement of Supreme Court judges aged 65 and above, before the court's building in Warsaw, Poland. The European Union's top court ordered Poland on Oct. 19, 2018, to immediately suspend the politically charged legal change. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

7.) Security forces have been dispatched across El Salvador to enforce the most stringent coronavirus restrictions in Latin America.

A locked-down street in rural El Salvador, overseen by the Virgin Mary. (Miguel Patricio/Courthouse News.)

8.) The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday called on global leaders to “quarantine politicizing Covid” in a passionate and personal retort to President Donald Trump’s allegations the agency was unduly influenced by China and botched the initial response to the coronavirus outbreak.

FILE - In this Monday, March 9, 2020 file photo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization speaks during a news conference on updates regarding on the novel coronavirus COVID-19, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. After the new coronavirus erupted in China, the World Health Organization sprang into action: It declared an international health emergency, rushed a team to the epicenter in Wuhan and urged other countries to get ready and drum up funding for the response. Many analysts have praised the initial response by the world’s go-to agency on health matters. But now, governments have started to brush aside, ignore and criticize WHO recommendations on issues of public policy, like whether cross-border travel should be restricted or whether the public should wear masks. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, file)

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