Reuters US Domestic News Summary

09/07/2016 8:57

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Cosby could face multiple accusers at June assault trial

Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial in Pennsylvania has been scheduled for June next year, and if prosecutors have their way, more than a dozen accusers will take the stand to detail what they claim is a decades-long pattern of attacks. During a hearing on Tuesday, Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill in Norristown, Pennsylvania, set Cosby's trial for June 5, 2017, setting up what will likely be months of fiercely fought legal battles over the scope of evidence allowed at trial.

Los Angeles passenger train crash injures 21

Nearly two dozen people were injured when a Metrolink commuter train carrying nearly 200 passengers crashed into a semi truck on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, fire department officials said. The collision occurred around 10:40 a.m. local time in Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. The department said 21 people were taken to area hospitals with minor injuries.

Jury chosen for trial of Bundy brothers and others for Oregon standoff

The trial of seven anti-government activists, including ranchers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, for leading an armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon was set to begin on Wednesday with jury selection, court documents show. The takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which started on Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, was the latest flare-up in a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres of public land in the West.

Minnesota man admits to abducting, killing 11-year-old in 1989

A Minnesota man admitted in court on Tuesday to the 1989 abduction and killing of an 11-year-old boy whose remains he helped police locate last week as part of a plea agreement, authorities said. Jacob Wetterling was riding his bike on a rural Minnesota road with his brother and a friend when he was abducted in October 1989. Danny Heinrich, 53, said he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and fatally shot the boy.

U.S. personnel management hack preventable, congressional probe finds

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) did not follow rudimentary cyber security recommendations that could have mitigated or even prevented major attacks that compromised sensitive data belonging to more than 22 million people, a congressional investigation being released on Wednesday has found. Two breaches at the federal agency detected in 2014 and 2015 were made worse by lax security culture and ineffective leadership, which failed to harness available tools that could have stopped or limited the intrusions, according to the report from the Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

Minor earthquake in the State of Washington rattles homes

A 3.2 magnitude earthquake struck the northwest of the State of Washington on Tuesday night, the United States Geological Survey reported, briefly shaking homes and rattling residents. The quake hit the Sudden Valley area at 11:50 p.m. local time, the USGS said.

Ohio coroner links elephant tranquilizer to series of overdose deaths

At least eight people in the Cincinnati area who died of heroin drug overdoses since mid-July had traces of a drug used to tranquilize elephants in their bodies, a coroner said Tuesday. At least five other overdose deaths since mid-July are suspected to be connected to heroin laced with carfentanil, Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco told a news conference.

Fox settles sexual harassment lawsuit for $20 million on Ailes' behalf

Fox News will pay $20 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit by former anchor Gretchen Carlson, whose allegations led to the resignation of network chief Roger Ailes in July, a source familiar with the agreement said on Tuesday. The company also settled with two other women who were part of a Fox-initiated investigation by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Wharton & Garrison, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous.

Company agrees to temporarily halt some North Dakota pipeline work

A Native American tribal chairman said his people were "disappointed" that a company agreed on Tuesday to temporarily halt construction of an oil pipeline only in some but not all parts of North Dakota where the tribe says it has sacred sites.

After violent clashes over the weekend between protesters and security officers near the construction site, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and a neighboring Native American tribe had asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday for a temporary restraining order against Dakota Access, the company building the pipeline.

U.S. lifts protection for most humpback whales

The United States lifted protection for most humpback whales around the globe on Tuesday, including some in American waters, based on evidence they have made a strong comeback since commercial whaling drove them to near extinction. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration removed humpback whales from the Endangered Species Act in nine of 14 population areas, the agency said in a statement.

09/07/2016 8:57