Reuters US Domestic News Summary
Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.
Atheist group sues Kansas City, Missouri, over Baptist convention
An atheist group has sued Kansas City, Missouri, charging that plans to use $65,000 in tourism tax dollars to assist in an upcoming Baptist convention violates guarantees in the U.S. Constitution separating church and state. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court by American Atheists Inc against officials including Kansas City Mayor Sly James, asks a federal judge to block the city from spending taxpayer dollars to support the event.
Two still critical as Florida nightclub shooting investigated
Three men arrested after fleeing from authorities near the scene a nightclub shooting where two teenagers were killed are persons of interest in the investigation and could see further charges, authorities said on Tuesday. The shooting on Monday in the parking lot of Club Blu, where more than a dozen people also were wounded, came six weeks after 49 people were killed at an Orlando nightclub by a man who sympathized with Islamic extremists groups.
Transgender student asks Supreme Court to keep out of bathroom case
Lawyers for a transgender high school student in Virginia asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to keep out of a legal dispute about bathroom rights, an issue that has emerged as an increasingly divisive one in the United States. In court papers, lawyers for the student, Gavin Grimm, urged the Supreme Court to leave in place a lower court's order in favor of Grimm while the litigation goes on.
Powerball jackpot grows to $422 million, eighth largest ever
The U.S. Powerball jackpot grew to $422 million ahead of an 11 p.m. EDT drawing on Wednesday, making it the eighth largest in the game's history and the 11th-biggest lottery prize ever in the United States. The jackpot amount has now rolled over 22 times since it was reset to its starting sum of $40 million for a drawing back on May 11, lottery officials said.
Charleston church shooter was headed to Tennessee when captured: documents
The white man accused of killing nine black parishioners in a racist attack at a South Carolina church last year was heading to Tennessee when he was arrested, according to court records filed by prosecutors to support their federal charges. The documents relating to the upcoming federal trial for Dylann Roof, 22, provided details about the attack during a Bible study session at Charleston's historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015.
U.S. report says Tesla in fatal Autopilot crash was speeding
A driver killed in the May 7 crash of a Tesla Motors Inc car while using Autopilot driving-assist software was exceeding the speed limit, U.S. highway safety investigators said on Tuesday in a preliminary report that did not state a probable cause. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said its preliminary findings showed the Model S was traveling at 74 miles per hour (mph) in a 65-mph zone at the time it struck a semi-truck near Williston, Florida.
Crews battling California blaze face hot, dry conditions
Firefighters battling a wildfire about 40 miles (64 km) north of Los Angeles faced another day of brutal heat on Tuesday after reporting progress containing the blaze under cooler conditions overnight. About 300 miles further north in drought-hit California, another fire ravaged a hilly area near the scenic coastal town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, churning through 16,100 acres (6,500 hectares) and destroying 20 homes, authorities said.
UAW chief says Clinton told him she would renegotiate NAFTA
United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams said on Tuesday that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has assured him she would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement if she is elected president. Williams' comments come as Clinton is under pressure on international trade deals from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and supporters of her former Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.
U.S. opens door to a change in blood donation policy for gay men
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened the door on Tuesday to a change in its blood donor deferral recommendations, which currently prohibit donations from gay men for a year following their last sexual encounter in order to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In December the FDA overturned a 30-year ban on all blood donations from men who have sex with men, saying the change was based on science showing an indefinite ban was not necessary to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus.
Ex-Virginia Tech students indicted in death of 13-year-old girl
A grand jury indicted two former Virginia Tech students on Tuesday for first-degree murder in the death of a 13-year-old girl, a prosecutor said. The suspects, David Eisenhauer, 18, of Columbia, Maryland, and Natalie Keepers, 19, of Laurel, Maryland, were indicted for the January slaying of Nicole Lovell, Montgomery County prosecutor Mary Pettitt said in a statement.
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