Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Trump may face more court battles over giving citizenship data to states

U.S. President Donald Trump's order that all federal agencies provide citizenship data to the Commerce Department could open a new legal front over whether states can redraw their voting maps based on citizenship status. Trump dropped the effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census on Thursday following a recent defeat in the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead, he ordered other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration, to provide relevant data.

Louisiana to release autopsy on dead civil rights activist found in car trunk

A Louisiana medical examiner is set to release on Monday the results of the autopsy of a prominent civil rights activist and founder of an African-American history museum whose body was found in the trunk of her car in the state capital last week. The Baton Rouge Police Department found the remains of Sadie Roberts-Joseph on Friday afternoon after being tipped off by an anonymous caller.

Trump tells Democratic congresswomen to 'go back' to 'fix' countries they came from

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday told a group of mostly American-born Democratic congresswomen to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," a comment that was condemned by Democrats as racist. "So interesting to see 'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe... viciously telling the people of the United States... how our government is to be run," Trump said in a series of three comments on Twitter.

Democrat Booker unveils plan for Americans to age at home

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker was set to unveil a plan on Monday to greatly increase funding for elderly Americans needing long-term health care, and also to increase funding for people who look after them. Booker, a U.S. senator from New Jersey, was due to tell a forum in the early voting state of Iowa that he would make a dramatic investment in care for people with long-term health care needs if he was elected president.

Biden healthcare plan would curb drug prices, raise taxes on rich

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race, unveiled a healthcare plan on Monday estimated to cost $750 billion and paid for partly by higher tax rates for the wealthy and doubled tax rates on capital gains. "The Biden plan to protect and build on the Affordable Care Act" seeks to strengthen the signature healthcare plan, popularly known as Obamacare, enacted under former Democratic President Barack Obama. Biden was Obama's vice president for eight years.

Remnants of storm Barry dump more rain in the U.S. southeast

The remnants of the once mighty storm Barry, the first hurricane of the 2019 season, dumped dangerous amounts of rain as it crawled north through the United States on Monday after coming ashore west of New Orleans at the weekend. Barry, now downgraded to a tropical depression, still packed winds of up to 25 mph and could drop 5 inches or more of rain on a water-logged Louisiana, forecaster Andrew Orrison of the National Weather Service said.

U.S. judge to hear financier Jeffrey Epstein's bid to get out of jail before trial

Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier charged with sex trafficking underage girls, is expected to argue in court on Monday that he should be freed from jail and allowed to await trial under house arrest at his Manhattan mansion. Epstein, 66, was arrested on July 6 after flying into New Jersey's Teterboro Airport by private plane from Paris. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held behind bars at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a fortress-like jail in lower Manhattan that has been criticized by inmates and lawyers for harsh conditions.

Neo-Nazi faces sentencing in murder of protester in Charlottesville, Virginia

The self-professed neo-Nazi who drove his car into a crowd protesting against white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one of the demonstrators, was due in court on Monday for sentencing on his first-degree murder conviction. James Fields, 22, was expected to receive the maximum penalty of life in prison, as recommended by a Virginia state court jury that found him guilty last December of murder plus eight counts of malicious wounding and a hit-and-run offense.

U.S. launches small-scale immigration raids as families hide

U.S. authorities launched small-scale operations seeking to arrest undocumented immigrants over the weekend in an apparent start to President Donald Trump's vow to launch mass deportation round-ups across the United States. The operation, which Trump revealed on Twitter last month, then postponed before telling reporters on Friday that it would proceed, was expected to target hundreds of recently arrived families in about 10 cities who had been ordered deported by an immigration judge.

U.S. military identifies soldier killed in Afghanistan

A U.S. Army soldier killed in Afghanistan was identified on Sunday as decorated special forces company Sergeant Major James G. "Ryan" Sartor of Teague, Texas, the Department of Defense (DOD) said in a release. Sartor, 40, died Saturday from wounds from enemy small arms fire in a combat operation in the province of Faryab, in northern Afghanistan, the DOD said.