Reuters US Domestic News Summary

08/07/2016 19:50

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

South Carolina girl dies from brain-eating amoeba

An 11-year-old South Carolina girl has died after she became infected by a brain-eating amoeba in a river where she had gone swimming, an undertaker said on Saturday. The girl, Hannah Collins, of Beaufort, died on Friday night at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, said Carla Smith, director-manager of the Anderson Funeral Home in Beaufort, which is handling the funeral.

Bentley, former Congresswoman from Maryland, dies at 92

Helen Delich Bentley, a former journalist and a U.S. Republican congresswoman from Maryland who gained global attention by smashing Japanese goods to protest Tokyo's trade policies, died over the weekend at the age of 92, officials said. Bentley upset a longtime Democratic congressman to win a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 1984, a year in which Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in the presidential race helped bring several new faces from the party to Congress.

Florida governor criticizes Washington for lagging in Zika fight

Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott on Sunday accused the federal government of lagging in providing assistance to combat the spread of the Zika virus in a Miami-area neighborhood, the site of the first U.S. transmission of the virus. Scott was speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the neighborhood of Wynwood, where crews began aerial spraying on Thursday to kill virus-carrying mosquitoes. Zika can cause microcephaly, a rare but devastating birth defect.

Two dead in California skydiving accident

Two California skydivers died on Saturday when their parachutes failed to open and they landed in a vineyard, the skydiving company's owner said. The men, both in their 20s, were found about 10 a.m. near Lodi, about 40 miles south of Sacramento, said Lieutenant Randy Johnson of the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department. The men have not been identified.

Michigan man charged in grenade case may have followed al Qaeda - report

U.S. authorities have found an apparent link between a Michigan man charged with illegally purchasing an arsenal of explosives and the radical U.S.-born al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, the Detroit News reported on Saturday. Sebastian Gregerson, 29, was arrested on Sunday after federal prosecutors say he traded a handgun to an undercover agent in exchange for several grenades.

Family identified in Pennsylvania murder-suicide that left five dead

The five people who died in a murder suicide in Pennsylvania over the weekend were identified as two parents and their three children, all of whom were shot to death, a local district attorney said on Sunday. The parents in the incident that took place in Sinking Spring, some 60 miles east of the state capital Harrisburg, were identified as Mark and Megan Short. The three children were not named, the Berks County District Attorney's office said in an official Facebook post. (https://www.facebook.com/BerksDA/)

Young boy dies in accident at Kansas City water park

A young boy died on Sunday in an apparent accident on what has been dubbed the world's tallest water slide at a popular water park in Kansas City, park and police officials said. The Kansas City Police Department said in a brief statement that officers were working "an apparent accident death investigation" at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas. Further details were not immediately provided and authorities could not be reached for comment.

U.S. Coast Guard sends 97 migrants back to Cuba

The U.S. Coast Guard has repatriated 97 Cuban migrants picked up at sea, part of a surge in attempts to reach the United States from the Communist-run island, the service said on Saturday. The Cubans were sent back to the Caribbean nation since last Sunday and carried aboard three cutters, the Coast Guard said in a statement. The Cubans had been picked up in seven interdictions at sea.

Chicago police may have violated policy in fatal shooting: official

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said on Saturday that videos of the police shooting of a black man in the city last month indicate three officers may have violated the department's policies. Johnson told a news conference it was against departmental policy to fire at or into a moving car when the vehicle was the only potential use of force by a suspect, and police were taking a hard look at training and tactics following the shooting.

Four killed, three injured in Oregon motel fire: media

Four people were killed and four were injured in a fire that destroyed a motel in a coastal city in Oregon on Friday, local media said. The fire began at about 5:45 a.m. in a room at the City Center Motel in Newport, Oregon, and quickly engulfed the entire building, the Newport Police Department said in a statement.

08/07/2016 19:50