Top eight today

Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

National

1.) The U.S. government can’t be held liable for the death of Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier based on a federal ranger’s negligent storage of a gun that was stolen and used to shoot her, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Tuesday.

2.) The Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the railroad in the Columbia River Gorge is not subject to local zoning rules, dealing a blow to environmental activists who sought to block a track expansion using the federal law that established the canyon as a National Scenic Area.

Regional

3.) Despite thousands of students and staff already sent home for possible exposure to Covid-19, the New Orleans school system remains committed to in-person learning.

4.) Missouri’s Republican attorney general on Tuesday continued his legal campaign against mask mandates by filing a class action against a school district in state court.

5.) Signaling a paradigm shift in state politics after a sexual harassment scandal forced the resignation of her predecessor and ushered in the first instance of a woman in New York's highest office, Governor Kathy Hochul was sworn in Tuesday wearing a white dress, the color associated with women's suffrage.

6.) A report released Tuesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office claims to have found no evidence of bribery or a quid pro quo relationship between Paxton and a campaign donor following allegations of corruption and abuse of office raised last year by a group of senior staffers.

7.) An Idaho law that required proponents of ballot initiatives to gather signatures from 6% of registered voters across all of Idaho’s 35 districts is unconstitutional and can’t be enforced, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled.

8.) An attorney for the Libertarian Party of Alabama asked an 11th Circuit panel Tuesday to overturn a federal judge’s order rejecting the party’s challenge to a law which allows some political parties to get a free copy of the state voter registration list while others are charged a fee.

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