Nightly Brief

Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including the Senate Judiciary Committee approving eight of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, including one who received a not qualified rating from the American Bar Association; a federal judge wants to know whether Robert Mueller wants to pursue a series of counts the jury deadlocked on during Paul Manafort’s trial last summer; President Donald Trump signs the Music Modernization Act into law, guaranteeing royalty payments to artists and songwriters for pre-1972 recordings; dozens of laws are waved in preparation for construction of 18 miles of border wall in South Texas; New Jersey sued over a plan to allow oil and gas drilling off its coast, but not Florida’s; the California Coastal Commission amicably settles a 33-year dispute over a lagoon access trail in Carlsbad; with the recent murder of one journalist and the disappearance of another overseas, press advocates are sounding the alarm and demanding the U.S. government do more to hold those who harm and jail reporters accountable, and more.

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National

Boats lay sunk and damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 in Port St. Joe, Fla. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

1.) Hundreds of thousands of Florida residents faced the long road to recovery on Thursday, one day after Hurricane Michael devastated parts of the state’s panhandle region.

Sen. Charles Grassley. (Photo via CSPAN)

2.) The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved eight of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, including one who is up for a seat on the Eighth Circuit and received a not qualified rating from the American Bar Association.

This courtroom sketch depicts Paul Manafort, fourth from right, standing with his lawyers in front of U.S. district Judge T.S. Ellis III, center rear, and the selected jury, seated left, during the jury selection of his trial at the Alexandria Federal Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Tuesday, July 31, 2018. A jury set to decide the fate of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Manafort was selected Tuesday, and opening statements in his tax evasion and bank fraud trial were expected in the afternoon. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

3.) The federal judge who presided over former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s fraud trial in Virginia wants to know when – or if – the special counsel’s team will pursue a series of counts the jury deadlocked on last summer.

Cumulus clouds over the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo by Tiago Fioreze via Wikipedia Commons)

4.) President Donald Trump signed legislation Thursday committing the United States to expand efforts to clean up nearly 8 million metric tons of litter polluting the world’s oceans.

President Donald Trump looks on as musician Kid Rock speaks during a signing ceremony for the "Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act," in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

5.) President Donald Trump on Thursday signed the Music Modernization Act into law, guaranteeing royalty payments to artists and songwriters for pre-1972 recordings, and increased compensation for works played by streaming services.

Regional

6.) A conservative nonprofit that plans to attack Massachusetts taxes in a pre-election ad campaign brought a federal complaint Wednesday to keep its donors secret.

7.) Losing or gaining a measly hour in March or November feels like a complete unraveling of the fabric of time to my body. So my heart leapt for joy, briefly, this summer when the California Legislature decided to give voters a say on whether to scrap springing forward and falling back in the Golden State.

FILE - In this June 5, 2006, file photo, Utah National Guard troops from the 116th Construction Equipment Support Company prepare to extend a wall along the U.S. border in San Luis, Ariz. The soldiers are the first National Guard unit along the border as part of Operation Jump Start. Operation Jump Start, from May 2006 to July 2008, sent 6,000 troops to the border in its first year and 3,000 the second year and was framed as a way to buy time amid an unprecedented Border Patrol hiring spree and heavy political pressure for immediate action. The Border Patrol ballooned by thousands of agents during the operation to about 20,000, roughly where it is today. (AP Photo/Khampha Bouaphanh, File)

8.) The Trump administration on Thursday waived dozens of laws in preparation for construction of 18 miles of border wall in South Texas, angering an environmental group that says the wall will spoil the habitat of numerous endangered species.

9.) New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to find out why the Trump administration denied the state’s request to be exempted from offshore oil and gas drilling while letting Florida off the hook.

10.) Fyre Festival promoter Billy McFarland was sentenced Thursday to six years in jail and $26 million in restitution for frauds that ran long after a disastrous 2017 concert in the Bahamas led to his arrest.

Andrew Lingle walks along the beach at sunrise as Hurricane Florence approaches the east coast in Atlantic Beach, N.C., Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

11.) The California Coastal Commission got a reprieve from its typically hotly contested enforcement of the Coastal Act by homeowners Wednesday when it amicably settled a 33-year dispute over a lagoon access trail in Carlsbad.

International

Activists, members of the Human Rights Association Istanbul branch, holding posters with photos of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, talk to members of the media, during a protest in his support near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. The poster reads in Turkish: ' Jamal Khashoggi, missing since October 2, 2018'. Khashoggi disappeared after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate to obtain paperwork required for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee. Turkish officials have alleged he was killed in the compound while Saudis officials said he left the building unharmed. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

12.) With the recent murder of one journalist and the disappearance of another overseas, press advocates are sounding the alarm and demanding the U.S. government do more to hold those who harm and jail reporters accountable.

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