Reuters US Domestic News Summary

09/17/2016 19:54

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Seattle high school football team kneels for national anthem

A Seattle high school football team knelt during the playing of the national anthem before a game on Friday night, embracing a silent protest for social justice initiated last month by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Players and coaches from Garfield High School knelt in unison before their game against West Seattle High School, and some West Seattle players also knelt, according to local news reports and social media.

Colonial resumes work on U.S. gasoline line, pump prices rise

Colonial Pipeline Co said on Saturday it resumed repairing a leak on a key U.S. gasoline line on Friday afternoon, but pump prices continued to rise in the southeast as several states took emergency action to get fuel to filling stations more easily. Colonial shut its main gasoline and distillate lines that run from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast on Sept. 9 after a leak was discovered in Shelby County, Alabama. The damaged Line 1 can carry 1.2 million barrels of gasoline per day and runs from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina.

Guards at New York's Rikers Island get prison for inmate beating

Six guards at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex were sentenced on Friday to prison for the 2012 beating of an inmate that left him with fractured eye sockets and a broken nose. It was one of the highest-profile prosecutions brought against Rikers employees in recent years as city officials worked to combat the violence and corruption that have plagued Rikers for decades.

Florida man found guilty of attempted murder of George Zimmerman: reports

A Florida man was found guilty on Friday of attempted murder for shooting at George Zimmerman during a roadside confrontation with the ex-neighborhood watch captain widely known for killing unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, local media reported. Matthew Apperson, 37, who according to prosecutors has a history of mental illness, was convicted in a jury trial in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, Florida, according to accounts by the Orlando Sentinel newspaper and 24-hour Orlando television news channel News 13.

Hate drove gunman to shoot Philadelphia police: officials

A gunman who wounded two Philadelphia police officers and three civilians and killed a fourth civilian appears to have been driven by hatred for the police but had no known ties to any militant groups, officials said on Saturday. Police Commissioner Richard Ross at a news conference identified the gunman as Nicholas Glenn, 25, who had a long arrest record. Glenn began a shooting spree late on Friday and later was killed by responding officers, police said.

Two police officers in Texas shot while responding to suicide call: police

Two Fort Worth, Texas police officers were shot on Friday when they responded to a suicide call at a home on the south side of the city, police said. One of the officers was shot multiple times while the other was shot once and suffered minor injuries when the round struck his protective vest, Fort Worth Police Department Marc Povero told a news conference aired on a local NBC affiliate.

Polling places become battleground in U.S. voting rights fight

Louis Brooks, 87, has walked to cast a vote at his neighborhood polling place in Georgia's predominantly black Lincoln Park neighborhood for five decades. But not this year. Brooks says he will not vote in the presidential election for the first time he can remember after local officials moved the polling station more than 2 miles (3 km) away as part of a plan to cut the number of voting sites in Upson County.

Pipe bombing at New Jersey race probed as possible terrorism

A pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey beach town on Saturday along the route of a charity race to benefit military veterans, but no injuries were reported in what investigators were treating as a possible act of terrorism. The explosive device went off in a trash can about 30 minutes after the scheduled start of the race, which coincidentally was delayed, in Seaside Park, a resort about 80 miles (129 km) south of New York City, officials said.

Slain black youth's BB gun called 'almost identical' to real weapon

The mayor of Columbus, Ohio, said on Friday that the air pistol brandished at police by a black, 13-year-old boy as he was shot dead by a white officer this week was nearly indistinguishable from weapons carried by members of the city's police force. Mayor Andrew Ginther appeared with Police Chief Kim Jacobs for a tense community meeting of more than 200 people, most of them African-American, who were invited to ask questions of city officials at the church gathering for just over an hour.

Florida expands Zika zone in Miami Beach after five new cases

State officials in Florida on Friday tripled the active Zika transmission zone in the trendy seaside community of Miami Beach after five new cases of the mosquito-borne virus believed to cause a severe birth defect were identified in the area. The active transmission zone grew from 1.5 square miles to 4.5 square miles and consists of a large portion of the popular tourist destination, Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a statement on Friday evening.

09/17/2016 19:54