Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Stuck in Washington, 2020 Democratic senators send family, Ocasio-Cortez to barnstorm Iowa

Bernie Sanders scrapped Iowa campaign appearances, Amy Klobuchar sent campaign representatives to "hot dish" dinners and Elizabeth Warren planned a remote video speech as the Democratic U.S. senators running for president got stuck in Washington for Donald Trump's impeachment trial. Sanders' campaign was the first to reschedule events, announcing on Tuesday that progressive firebrand U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known as AOC, would replace him at two rallies in the crucial early nominating state of Iowa while he serves as a juror during the Republican president's trial in the Senate.

Coal states ask Supreme Court to overturn Washington coal terminal ban

Wyoming and Montana, two coal-producing western states, on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Washington state's decision to block on environmental grounds a coal export terminal intended as an outlet to Asian markets. Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, a Republican, announced the challenge under the court's rarely used "original jurisdiction" provision that enables the justices to hear certain disputes between states before a review by lower courts.

Father fends off mountain lion that attacked his three-year-old son in California

A local sheriff's deputy has killed the mountain lion that attacked and wounded a 3-year-old child in a Southern California wilderness park before the boy's father chased the cougar off, state wildlife officials said on Tuesday. The man told authorities that he and his family of six were hiking on a trail at the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County on Monday when the cougar pounced, said Captain Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Arizona mother arrested on suspicion of killing her three children

Police arrested a young mother on Tuesday on suspicion of smothering her three young children to death, one at a time, in the family's Phoenix home, then propping their bodies on a sofa as if they were napping, authorities and court records said. Rachel Henry, 22, was booked into the Maricopa County jail on three counts of first-degree murder after admitting she had harmed the children, Phoenix Police Sergeant Mercedes Fortune said.

U.S. Supreme Court examines religious school funding in major rights case

U.S. Supreme Court justices are poised to tackle a major religious rights case on Wednesday over whether states can bar public funding of religious institutions in a dispute over a Montana tax credit program that could benefit private religious schools. The justices will hear about an hour of arguments in an appeal by three parents of students who attend a Christian school in Kalispell, Montana. They are challenging a lower court ruling that struck down the tax credit program as a violation of the state constitution's ban on government aid to religious schools and churches.

U.S. census head count launched in rural Alaska after weather delay

The U.S. Census Bureau launched on Tuesday its latest once-in-a-decade head count of Americans in one of the most remote corners of the country, a tiny Alaska Native village on the Bering Sea coast. Inclement weather delayed the ceremonial launch of the 2020 census for about five hours and cut short the festivities.

U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with 'forever chemicals': report

The contamination of U.S. drinking water with man-made "forever chemicals" is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said a report on Wednesday by an environmental watchdog group. The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.

In New York trial, prosecutors to begin making rape case against Harvey Weinstein

U.S. prosecutors will begin presenting their rape case against Harvey Weinstein on Wednesday, with the once-powerful Hollywood producer facing life in prison if convicted, in a trial that has become a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement. Lawyers will make their opening statements to a jury of seven men and five women in a Manhattan courthouse.

Democrats to make opening arguments in Trump impeachment trial

The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate will hear opening arguments in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial on Wednesday, beginning up to six days of presentations on the question of whether Trump should be removed from office. After battling into the early morning hours on Wednesday over the trial's rules, senators voted 53-47 to approve a hastily revised set of procedures put forth by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that allows up to 48 hours of opening arguments - 24 hours for each side - over six days.

Washington state man who traveled to China is first U.S. victim of coronavirus

A Washington state man who recently traveled to China has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, becoming the first confirmed U.S. case of the newly identified illness that has killed six people in China and sickened some 300 others across Asia. The patient, identified only as a man in his 30s, fell ill over the weekend after traveling to his hometown in China and was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Monday, Washington Governor Jay Inslee told reporters at a press conference in Seattle.