Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including the Trump Organization’s longtime finance chief pleaded not guilty to fraud charges; Activists asked a federal judge to block Georgia officials from enforcing parts of the state’s new election law; The Supreme Court upheld two Arizona laws found to suppress minority votes, and more.

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National

1.) Arriving to the courthouse at least eight hours before his 2:15 p.m. arraignment alongside the Trump Organization, finance chief Allen Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to long-expected fraud charges.

Ahead of the July 1. 2021, arraignment of the Trump Organization's chief financial officer, a spectator costumed as former President Donald Trump in an orange prison jumpsuit waves outside of Manhattan Supreme Court. (Nina Pullano/Courthouse News Service)

2.) In a boon to conservative state legislatures that have been adopting harsh voter restrictions in the wake of the 2020 election, the Supreme Court split 6-3 Thursday to uphold two Arizona laws found to suppress minority votes.

In Arizona, where early voting has been a way of life in some communities for a decade, voters see a manageable line to cast their ballot on Oct. 30, 2020. (Brad Poole/Courthouse News)

3.) The House of Representatives voted 221-201 to pass a $715 billion surface-transportation bill Thursday, bringing just two Republicans across party lines to vote with the chamber’s Democratic majority.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined from left by Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., chair of the Subcommittee on Environment & Climate Change, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., talks during a news conference to discuss the "INVEST in America Act," a five-year surface transportation bill, which directs federal investments in roads, bridges, transit, and rail, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

4.) President Joe Biden flew to Florida on Thursday to meet with first responders and the families of those trapped in the rubble of the Surfside condominium collapse, as he tackles the first national disaster of his young presidency.

President Joe Biden meets with first responders in Miami Beach, Fla., Thursday, July 1, 2021, who were working on the condo tower that collapsed in Surfside, Fla., last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Regional

5.) With Georgia’s new voting law going into effect and early voting in two state House runoff elections already underway, election integrity activists asked a federal judge Thursday to block officials from enforcing certain portions of the law.

Helen Thomason marks her ballot for a Senate runoff election at the Lawrenceville Road United Methodist Church in Tucker, Ga., on Jan. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)

6.) In a closely watched case for nonprofit political groups that want privacy for their supporters, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a California law that says groups seeking tax-exempt status must tell the state the names of some of their biggest donors.

The U.S. Supreme Court. (Jack Rodgers/Courthouse News)

7.) Virginia became the first Southern state to legalize marijuana on Thursday, allowing adults 21 and older to hold up to an ounce of the drug for personal enjoyment.

In this Aug. 29, 2013 file photo, farmer Breezy shows off the distinctive leaves of a marijuana plant during a tour of his plantation in Jamaica's central mountain town of Nine Mile. (David McFadden/AP)

International

8.) The European Union’s executive body had the authority to challenge arbitration payments in a dispute between a pair of beverage moguls and the Romanian government, a magistrate for the bloc’s highest court said Thursday.

Bucharest, the capital of Romania. (Mihai Surdu/Pixabay via Courthouse News)

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