Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Pope denies prior knowledge of now expelled U.S. cardinal McCarrick's sexual misconduct

Pope Francis has denied he knew about sexual misconduct by former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick before the start of Church investigations that found him guilty. McCarrick, once one of the most powerful men in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, was expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood in February after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults.

Supreme Court avoids abortion question, upholds fetal burial measure

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday sent a mixed message on abortion, refusing to consider reinstating Indiana's ban on abortions performed because of fetal disability or the sex or race of the fetus while upholding the state's requirement that fetal remains be buried or cremated after the procedure is done. Both provisions were part of a Republican-backed 2016 law signed by Vice President Mike Pence when he was Indiana's governor. The action by the justices comes at a time when numerous Republican-governed states including Alabama are approving restrictive abortion laws that the Supreme Court may be called upon to rule on in the future.

'Money to share' - MacKenzie Bezos pledges half her Amazon fortune to charity

MacKenzie Bezos, the former wife of Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, pledged on Tuesday to give half of her $36 billion fortune to charity, following a movement founded by billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. Bezos, whose former husband is the world's richest man, was one of 19 people on Tuesday to join the "Giving Pledge," a campaign announced in 2010 by Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Buffett and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates. It calls for the super-rich to give away more than half their fortunes during their lifetimes or in their wills.

Emails show Trump EPA overruled career staff on Wisconsin air pollution

Politically appointed U.S. environmental officials last year overruled concerns of career scientists about air pollution in a Wisconsin county where U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a factory to be built by Foxconn Technology Co, newly released internal emails show. Trump has been a supporter of the Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn building a flat screen factory in Racine County Wisconsin, a project the company said could create up to 13,000 jobs. He announced the project at a ceremony in 2017 and has claimed it is proof of his ability to revive U.S. manufacturing. Former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, a Republican, helped secure about $4 billion in tax breaks for the project.

U.S. presidential hopeful Harris to unveil plan to protect abortion rights

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will unveil a new plan to protect abortion rights on Tuesday, joining fellow White House hopefuls pushing back against Republican-backed state laws that restrict a woman's right to end a pregnancy. The U.S. senator from California says that if elected president, she will force states with a history of hostility toward Roe v. Wade - the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a woman's right to an abortion - to first obtain approval from the U.S. Justice Department before a law restricting abortion could take effect.

Missouri may become only U.S. state with no legal abortion provider

Missouri is poised this week to become the only U.S. state without access to legal abortions as public health officials may refuse to renew the license of the last clinic in Missouri to perform the procedure, Planned Parenthood said on Tuesday. The state's Department of Health and Senior Services director Randall Williams told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that the state will make a decision by Friday on whether to renew the license of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, the only clinic in the state that performs abortions.

J&J's greed helped fuel U.S. opioid crisis, Oklahoma claims at trial

Johnson & Johnson's greed led the drugmaker to use deceptive marketing to create an oversupply of painkillers that fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic, the state of Oklahoma alleged at the start of the first trial to result from lawsuits over the drug crisis. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, who filed the multibillion-dollar case, argued in a state court in the city of Norman that J&J should be forced to pay for helping cause the "worst manmade public health crisis in our state's history."

Avenatti pleads not guilty to extorting Nike, ripping off Stormy Daniels

Lawyer Michael Avenatti pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he extorted Nike Inc, just hours after entering a not-guilty plea to defrauding porn star Stormy Daniels, the client who propelled him to fame as an outspoken adversary of U.S. President Donald Trump. "I am now facing the fight of my life against the ultimate Goliath, the Trump administration," Avenatti, 48, told reporters after leaving the courthouse, reiterating previous assertions that he is being targeted for political reasons. "I am confident that when a jury of my peers passes judgment on my conduct, justice will be done and I will be fully exonerated."

Tornado hits city of Dayton, more storms expected in south, central U.S.

A tornado slammed into the U.S. city of Dayton, Ohio on Monday as severe storms were forecast to pound the area overnight, officials and media reports said. At least two other tornadoes touched down near the city, including one near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, just east of Dayton, media reports said.

Biden education plan would boost U.S. teacher pay, ban assault weapons

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, on Tuesday released an education plan aimed at boosting teacher pay and reducing the funding gap between wealthy and low-income public schools. Biden also said he would seek to make schools safer by pressing Congress to enact a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, a proposal almost certainly to be opposed by Republicans and gun-lobby groups.