Nightly Brief

Your Thursday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including nineteen attorneys general asking a federal judge for a nationwide emergency restraining order to stop President Trump from ending subsidies that reduce health care costs for lower-income Americans; hundreds of protesters converged on the University of Florida campus ahead of a planned speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer; fire-ravaged California communities got much needed good news with Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order suspending some regulations to spur rebuilding efforts; the exiled former president of Ukraine lost his challenge Thursday to an asset freeze imposed by the EU government, and more.

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**1.) **In National news ** nineteen attorneys general asked a federal judge Wednesday for a nationwide emergency restraining order to stop President Trump from ending subsidies that reduce health care costs for lower-income Americans. Oral arguments are slated for Monday.

2.)  The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nominations of four federal judges on Thursday, also unanimously approving President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the National Security Division of the Justice Department.**

3.) The National Congress of American Indians agreed this week to support the efforts of Canada’s Assembly of First Nations to add an indigenous chapter in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

4.) Hundreds of protesters converged on the University of Florida campus Thursday ahead of a planned speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer, and the school is bracing itself for an outbreak of violence.

**5.) In Regional news Louisiana’s expected share of offshore oil and gas royalties, earmarked for urgently needed coastal restoration projects, has been cut in half, and President Trump wants to kill it altogether, a state official said Wednesday.

6.) Fire-ravaged California communities got much needed good news with Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order suspending some regulations to spur rebuilding efforts, and word that firefighters expect to have the most serious of the wildfires in Sonoma County fully contained by Friday. 7.) Justice Paul G. Feinman was sworn in Wednesday as the first openly gay judge on New York’s highest court, replacing the late Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, who was the first black woman to sit on the New York Court of Appeals.Former Ukrainian President Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych was prime minister when Russian President Vladimir Putin sat with him in the 2006 visit pictured above. (Photo via Kremlin.ru)

**8.) **In International news ** the exiled former president of Ukraine lost his challenge Thursday to an asset freeze imposed by the EU government while he remains wanted in his home country to face charges of high treason.