Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. House Speaker Pelosi says Attorney General Barr "has gone rogue"

U.S. Attorney General William Barr and the U.S. Justice Department have gone "rogue", U.S. House Speaker Pelosi said on Friday, days after opening an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump over allegations that the president solicited Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election. "He's gone rogue," Pelosi said in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

Chicago teachers authorize strike against third-largest U.S. public school district

Chicago teachers locked in protracted labor negotiations with the city have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their union to launch a strike against the third-largest U.S. public school district as soon as next month, the union said on Thursday. A tally of ballots showed that 94% of some 25,000 dues-paying members of the Chicago Teachers Union supported giving their leaders the discretion to call a strike starting on Oct. 7 at the earliest, the union said in a statement.

Trump administration plans to slash number of refugees for U.S. resettlement

The Trump administration said on Thursday it plans to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, the lowest number in the history of the modern refugee program. In a move immediately decried by immigrant advocates as an affront to the nation's humanitarian commitments, the administration said it had to shift focus to processing a backlog of hundreds of thousands of asylum claims, most of which are filed by migrants from Central America crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Abuse of power, not criminality, key to Trump impeachment

Democratic lawmakers have a strong case for impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump if they can prove he abused his power when he asked Ukraine's president to "look into" an American political rival, several legal experts said. Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden, an early favorite to win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, according to a summary of a Trump phone call released this week by the White House.

Trump nominates Peter Gaynor to be FEMA chief: White House

U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Peter Gaynor on Thursday to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the White House said in a statement. Gaynor, FEMA's deputy administrator, had been acting chief of the agency, which oversees the government response to disasters like hurricanes and wildfires.

Democrats appeal for more witnesses to come forward about Trump-Ukraine matter

Democrats are urging people who might have more information about President Donald Trump's effort to persuade Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden to come forward as Trump struggles to contain the fallout from the scandal. A whistleblower report, released on Thursday, said Trump not only abused his office in attempting to solicit Ukraine's interference in the 2020 U.S. election for his political benefit, but that the White House tried to "lock down" evidence about that conduct.

Republicans rally base around Trump impeachment probe in battleground Wisconsin

Terry Dittrich has been working with Donald Trump's re-election campaign on a simple strategy to win the critical battleground of Wisconsin next year: Turn out even more gun lovers, anti-abortion conservatives and illegal immigration critics than in his surprise 2016 victory in the state. The move by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to launch a formal impeachment investigation into Trump this week just made that job easier, said Dittrich, chairman of the state's Republican Party in Waukesha County.

U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 12, illnesses climb to 805

U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 805 confirmed and probable cases and 12 deaths so far from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, with the outbreak showing no signs of losing steam. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 530 cases and seven deaths due to severe lung illnesses.

New York prosecutors agree to put request for Trump tax returns on hold

New York prosecutors have agreed to put on hold their bid to enforce their subpoena seeking U.S. President Donald Trump's tax returns, according to a court filing on Thursday. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said it would not seek to enforce the subpoena until Oct. 7, or two business days after a judge rules on Trump's challenge to the subpoena, whichever comes first.

Jury rejects insanity defense, convicts Utah man in multiple murder

A Utah man, who claimed to hear voices in his head when he killed six members of his former wife's family in Texas, faces the death penalty after a Houston jury rejected his insanity defense and found him guilty of murder on Thursday, officials said. District Attorney Kim Ogg in Harris County, Texas announced the verdict against Ronald Lee Haskell, 39, and said in a statement that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the July 2014 slayings, which included four children.