Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including top American medical officials faced a tide of criticism and frustration across party lines in a Senate hearing over Covid-19 hospitalizations; The superintendent of Philadelphia schools testified that his district needs more funding for college and career readiness; The government’s indefinite detention of immigrants waiting for deportation divided the Supreme Court, and more.

National

Federal response to omicron variant draws bipartisan rebuke

Top American medical officials faced a tide of criticism and frustration across party lines Tuesday in a Senate hearing over Covid-19 hospitalizations reaching an all-time high driven by the omicron variant.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the president, testifies before a Senate committee about the federal government's response to the omicron variant on Jan. 11, 2022. (Image via Courthouse News)

Addiction and the kratom business

The second part of our series on the addictive botanical kratom reveals its toll on users even as a felon pedals high-powered kratom shots and a scientist for hire claims addiction to the substance is a myth.

Mitragyna speciosa — common name kratom — the leaves of which are used to make the supplement kratom. (Uomo vitruviano/Wikipedia via Courthouse News)

Immigrant detainees fighting for bond hearings face uphill high court battle

The government’s indefinite detention of immigrants waiting for deportation divided the Supreme Court during Tuesday’s argument session as the justices squabbled over how to apply their precedents to the case without creating chaos for the lower courts.

A migrant and her daughter have their biometric data entered at the intake area of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security holding facility in Donna, Texas. (Dario Lopez-Mills/AP)

Ghislaine Maxwell may duck perjury counts, feds say, if sex ring conviction sticks

Suggesting that a second criminal trial of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell would retraumatize victims and delay closure, prosecutors offered Monday to dismiss a pair of perjury counts that were severed from Maxwell’s superseding indictment.

Prosecutors introduced this photo of Ghislaine Maxwell massaging Jeffrey Epstein's bare foot onboard the financier's private jet as evidence during Maxwell's sex trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court. (Department of Justice via Courthouse News)

Regional

Philly kids are falling through the cracks, superintendent says, putting blame on state funding

Pennsylvania's system of letting schools draw a substantial amount of their funding through tax dollars leaves Philadelphia students unprepared for entering the workforce or secondary education, the superintendent of the state's largest school district said Tuesday.

A group of more than 100 people gathered outside of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg on Friday, November 12, 2021, to celebrate the beginning of a court case fighting the way Pennsylvania schools are funded. (Alexandra Jones/Courthouse News Service)

Seventh Circuit urged to strike down university vaccine mandate

Indiana University’s Covid-19 vaccine requirement was debated Tuesday before the Seventh Circuit, where the three-judge panel questioned if the entire matter was moot.

A dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine is prepared at Lurie Children's Hospital, Nov. 5, 2021, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Chicago students to return to classrooms as teachers union votes on new safety deal

The Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative Covid-19 safety deal with Chicago Public Schools on Monday night, with the district announcing that it plans to hold classes for the first time in a week on Wednesday.

Adan Meza, 29, a teacher at Benito Juarez High School, protests with other members of the Chicago Teachers Union and supporters outside City Hall on Jan. 5, 2022. (Ashlee Rezin /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

International

Portuguese journalist vindicated by rights court seven years after death

Seven years after his death, Europe’s top rights court sided Tuesday with famed-Portuguese journalist Emídio Rangel over critical comments about his country’s judges and prosecutors.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. (hpgruesen/Pixabay via Courthouse News)

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