Republican frontrunner Donald Trump released details Wednesday afternoon about the special event he is holding in Iowa on Thursday.

Instead of attending the Fox News Republican debate, Trump's campaign announced he will host a benefit for veterans organizations at the 775-seat Sheslow Auditorium at Drake University in Des Moines. His event will start at 8 p.m. CT — the same time as the prime-time debate. Tickets are free, and the campaign did not clarify how the event will raise funds for veterans groups, or which organizations are set to benefit.

Trump announced Tuesday he would not attend the Fox News debate because he thinks moderator Megyn Kelly is "biased." On Twitter Wednesday, he further elaborated on his decision, tweeting it was actually the "childishly written & taunting PR statement by Fox that made me not do the debate, more so than lightweight reporter @megynkelly." Catherine Garcia

A federal judge will allow veterans with mental illnesses who were denied Veterans Affairs benefits to file a class-action lawsuit against the military, The Associated Press reports.

This case concerns veterans of the Navy and Marine Corps who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and received less-than-honorable discharges, which prevents them from collecting VA benefits. They were unfairly discharged, they say, for minor violations related to their untreated mental illnesses, and now, they can't receive the medical care they need. Though they can apply to have their discharge designation upgraded, the Yale Law School students representing the veterans say the Navy only grants about 16 percent of these requests from veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, compared to 51 percent for the Army.

Now, a class action suit against Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer can move forward, having been certified by Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Haight Jr. Lead plaintiff Tyson Manker called this decision a "victory for the tens of thousands of military veterans suffering from service-connected PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury)." Read more at The Associated Press. Brendan Morrow

As if evacuating northern California's Camp Fire wasn't enough, more than 140 survivors staying at nearby shelters are now facing norovirus symptoms.

The massive fire has destroyed nearly 10,000 homes north of Sacramento, leaving thousands relegated to shelters in Butte County. Across four of those shelters, 140 people have experienced norovirus symptoms, and "the number of sick people is increasing every day," Butte County's Public Health Department announced Thursday.

Norovirus is "very contagious" and "causes vomiting and diarrhea," per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So shelter workers are separating the sick from the healthy with separate bathrooms, a health department spokeswoman told The Sacramento Bee. Some people staying at the shelters have opted to stay in their cars. Still, 25 people have had to go to the hospital for "medical support," and some shelter workers have gotten sick, per the health department.

The Camp Fire is slowly being extinguished, and is 45 percent contained as of Friday morning, says the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The fire is California's deadliest in history with 63 confirmed fatalities and more than 600 people still missing. Kathryn Krawczyk

Could President Trump be looking to boot Vice President Mike Pence off his re-election ticket?

Trump in recent weeks has been asking his aides and advisers if they think Pence is loyal, raising this question so often that they are getting "alarmed," The New York Times reported Friday. While Trump has not explicitly told his advisers he wants to drop Pence in 2020, they reportedly see these conversations as evidence that he may be growing "irritated" with the vice president. According to the report, Trump still hasn't gotten over the fact that Pence in 2016 distanced himself from Trump's Access Hollywood comments about groping women.

For the most part, it seems Trump's advisers tend to tell him that Pence is, in fact, loyal. But some of them suggest he should still replace Pence as his running mate in 2020, instead choosing a woman in an attempt to appeal to female voters. One name that several outside advisers have mentioned is Nikki Haley, the outgoing ambassador to the United Nations.

Still, The New York Times reports that Trump's loyalty question doesn't necessarily mean he's definitely going to drop Pence; some have suggested it's more related to the fact that he's reportedly considering replacing Chief of Staff John Kelly with Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers. White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley pushed back on this report by saying Trump "absolutely supports the vice president." Read more at The New York Times. Brendan Morrow

It looks like Mira Ricardel, the former deputy national security adviser whose firing first lady Melania Trump publicly requested, was not interested in the other job the White House had lined up for her.

After Ricardel was forced out of her White House job, the Trump administration offered Ricardel the position of ambassador to Estonia, Bloomberg reported Friday. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had previously said that Ricardel would have a "new role in the administration, per The New York Times. Bloomberg reports that Ricardel turned down that ambassador job but that President Trump is interested in keeping her to the point that she has been "presented nearly a dozen jobs from which to choose."

The first lady had taken the extraordinary step of calling for Ricardel's firing on Tuesday right after Ricardel appeared at a White House event. This was reportedly after a series of run-ins between Ricardel and the office of the first lady, including one fight over plane seating on Melania Trump's recent trip to Africa. Ricardel said in a statement Friday that "it's been an honor to serve the president as deputy national security adviser," suggesting she hopes to stay on in some capacity by adding, "I look forward to working with them in the months ahead." Read more at Bloomberg. Brendan Morrow

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is stepping down as Senate Judiciary Committee chair, paving the way for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to lead.

Grassley announced Friday that he'll leave his chairmanship to lead the Senate Finance Committee. The move likely leaves Graham, a recent ally of President Trump's, in charge of the committee, and could be why Graham met with Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker on Thursday.

The Iowa senator became Judiciary Committee chair when Republicans retook the Senate in 2015, and recently led the very public confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Still, it was Graham who took center stage in the questioning, vehemently defending Kavanaugh and slamming Democrats every step of the way.

Graham has also stepped further into the spotlight as he's gone from Trump enemy to pal. But as rumors swirled that Trump installed Whitaker because he's been critical of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, Graham met with Whitaker and later said he "has every confidence" the acting attorney general will let Mueller "complete his job." Graham has also said Whitaker shouldn't have to recuse himself from overseeing Mueller's probe.

Graham on Friday acknowledged that he'll likely be the next senator to oversee the Justice Department and outlined his goals in a tweet. Kathryn Krawczyk

CNN just won a major victory in its lawsuit against President Trump. A judge said on Friday that the White House must restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press pass.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who was appointed by Trump, said that the White House did not provide Acosta with due process when it suspended his press pass last week, per CNN. Trump had done so after a contentious exchange during a press conference, in which Acosta held on to the microphone to ask a follow-up question as an intern tried to take it away. CNN sued members of the Trump administration, arguing that the suspension violated Acosta's First and Fifth Amendment rights.

Kelly did not actually reach a conclusion in the case itself, but he granted CNN's request for a temporary restraining order that will allow Acosta to return to work at the White House. The judge did, however, say that his ruling was limited and suggested the White House could try to revoke the pass again should it provide Acosta with due process, CNN reports.

CNN celebrated the decision on Friday. "We are gratified with this result and we look forward to a full resolution in the coming days," the network said in a statement. The network is also looking to have the judge rule on whether the decision to revoke Acosta's press pass was unconstitutional, and the case could still head to trial, The Washington Post reports. The White House subsequently said that it would "temporarily reinstate" Acosta's pass and "further develop rules and processes to ensure fair and orderly press conferences in the future." Brendan Morrow