Reuters US Domestic News Summary

08/04/2016 19:53

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Call to reopen unsolved murder of Louisville civil rights pioneer

Louisville police said on Thursday they were reviewing a request to reopen the 51-year-old unsolved murder of the city's first female prosecutor, a civil rights pioneer who once represented boxer Muhammad Ali. The body of Alberta Jones, who was beaten unconscious, was pulled from the Ohio River on Aug. 5, 1965. No charges were filed in the case, but Lee Remington Williams, a professor at Bellarmine University in Louisville, sent a seven-page letter this week to the city's police chief asking him to reopen the investigation of the 34-year-old's death.

Black Lives Matter activist sues Baton Rouge police over arrest

A prominent activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, DeRay McKesson, on Thursday sued the chief of the Baton Rouge police department and other officials over the arrests of nearly 200 demonstrators during peaceful protests about police killings. In the federal civil rights lawsuit, which seeks class action status, McKesson and fellow protesters Kira Marrero and Gloria La Riva complained that police were unnecessarily aggressive in arresting them on July 9. The lawsuit covers arrests in the Louisiana capital between July 6 and July 11.

San Francisco gangster 'Shrimp Boy' sentenced to life in prison

San Francisco gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison after his conviction on dozens of federal charges, including ordering the murder of a Chinatown rival, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesman said. The case against Chow was connected to a criminal sweep that ended the storied political career of a California state senator with allegations of bribery and gun-running.

Iran nuclear pact opponents lobby in U.S. against Boeing, Airbus deals

As the U.S. Treasury Department decides whether to license sales of Boeing Co and Airbus commercial aircraft to Iran, opponents of last year's nuclear pact with the Islamic republic have launched a lobbying campaign against the deals. The international agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program made such sales possible by easing sanctions on Tehran, but some members of the U.S. Congress who oppose it want to block proposed sales of some 200 jetliners, worth about $50 billion at list prices, to renew Iran Air's aging fleet.

South Carolina church shooting suspect OK after jail attack

The white gunman accused of killing nine black parishioners at a Charleston, South Carolina, church last year was slightly injured in jail by another inmate early Thursday, Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said on Thursday. Dylann Roof, 22, was outside his cell and getting ready to shower at the North Charleston jail where he is detained when the assault occurred, the sheriff said.

California mayor charged in youth camp strip poker scandal

The mayor of Stockton, California, was arrested on Thursday on a felony eavesdropping charge stemming from a strip poker game he is accused of surreptitiously recording at a summer camp he hosts for disadvantaged inner-city children, prosecutors said. Mayor Anthony Ray Silva, 41, was also charged with three misdemeanor counts - contributing to the delinquency of a minor, child endangerment and furnishing alcoholic beverages to individuals under the legal drinking age of 21, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

U.S. woman killed in London was wife of Florida State professor

An American woman killed in a knife attack in London on Wednesday night was the wife of an eminent psychology professor at Florida State University (FSU), the university said in a statement on Thursday. Richard Wagner, the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology, and his wife were in London where he taught in the summer session at FSU's London Study Program, it said. Police in London have said she was in her 60s.

Texas professors ask U.S. court to ban guns in their classrooms

Three University of Texas professors asked a U.S. judge on Thursday to give them the option of barring students from bringing guns into their classroom after the state gave some students that right under a law then went into effect this week. The professors said academic freedom could be chilled under the so-called campus carry law backed by the state's Republican political leaders that allows concealed handgun license holders 21 and over to bring handguns into classrooms and other university facilities.

Court denies North Carolina motion to stay decision on voter ID law

A U.S. appeals court issued an order on Thursday denying North Carolina's motion to stay the court's decision last week striking down the state's voter ID law. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said staying its ruling now "would only undermine the integrity and efficiency of the upcoming election."

Obama, Senate Democrats urge Zika funding vote as reserves run low

President Barack Obama on Thursday said it was time for Congress to lay aside politics and to act to provide additional money to combat the Zika virus before government funding dries up. "Our experts at the CDC, the folks on the front lines have been doing their best in making due by moving funds from other areas, but now the money we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out," Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon.

08/04/2016 19:53