Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Charlottesville neo-Nazi sentenced to life, judge says 'too great a risk' to release

A federal judge imposed a life sentence on the self-described neo-Nazi who killed Heather Heyer by crashing his car into a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a white supremacist rally, saying release would be "too great a risk." The 22-year-old neo-Nazi, James Fields of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He had sought a lesser sentence, apologizing after the court viewed video of him plowing his car into a crowd after the Aug. 12, 2017, "Unite the Right" rally, also injuring 30 people.

Judge orders U.S. into mediation on border patrol treatment of migrant children

A U.S. federal judge on Friday ordered the government into mediation to resolve serious concerns about the treatment of migrant children at crowded U.S. border patrol facilities in Texas. The judge in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles overseeing a decades-old legal settlement governing the treatment of detained migrant children had been asked by the children's attorneys to issue an emergency order to send public health experts and doctors to the border patrol facilities in the El Paso and Rio Grande sectors.

Biden tries to limit the damage from debate blow

In an effort to steady his presidential campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden engaged in some furious damage control on Friday, a day after rival candidate Kamala Harris hurt him in the most dramatic clash so far of the 2020 election campaign. Addressing an African-American advocacy group in Chicago, Biden defended his record, saying he had a "lifetime commitment to civil rights".

Trump administration declares emergency in violence-plagued rural Alaska

U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Friday declared a public-safety emergency in rural Alaska and pledged $10.5 million in federal funds to combat some of the nation's worst rates of sexual assault, child abuse and other violent crimes. Barr's announcement followed a visit to Alaska last month, where the country's top law enforcement official was told about extraordinary high rates of rape and domestic violence and a lack of police officers.

Apprehensions on Mexico border to drop 25% this month, U.S. says

Far fewer migrants are trying to enter the United States in June due to increased efforts by the Mexican government to stem the flow of people heading north from Central America, the top U.S. border security official said on Friday. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said he anticipated that the apprehension of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border could fall by as much as 25% from May's record levels. Some of the migrants are trying to enter the United States illegally while others are seeking asylum.

Democrat Harris clarifies: she won't ban private health insurance

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was forced to clarify her position on private health insurance again on Friday, an unwelcome distraction from a standout debate performance that her campaign said drew a surge of financial contributions. Harris and U.S. Senate colleague Bernie Sanders were the only two candidates to raise their hands during Thursday night's second Democratic debate when asked, "Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?"

Teens behind octogenarian Gravel's long-shot 2020 campaign tweet from debate sidelines

After former Senator Mike Gravel failed to make the Democratic debate stage this week, the two teens running the 89-year-old's long-shot U.S. presidential campaign used their spot on the sidelines trying to attract new supporters through social media. David Oks and Henry Williams, both 18, spent Wednesday firing tweets from their seats in the debate's Miami audience, attacking the candidates speaking on stage.

U.S. corn plantings top expectations despite floods; prices sink

U.S. farmers planted more corn than expected despite heavy rains and flooding that market watchers had said kept farmers out of the fields for much of the spring, the U.S. government said on Friday. Soybean acreage came in below forecasts, however. Analysts had expected the data to show farmers had boosted their soybean acres due to the corn planting delays - and many cast skepticism on the Agriculture Department's report. Soybeans can be planted later in the year than corn.

'Enough is enough': Lady Gaga fires up Stonewall anniversary rally

Lady Gaga electrified thousands of revelers who gathered in New York on Friday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LGBTQ rights movement, exhorting the crowd to honor the past by using its "power" to extend and defend a half-century of progress. The rally, part of a series of World Pride events in New York this week, commemorated the so-called Stonewall uprising of June 28, 1969.

Supreme Court to hear Trump bid to ditch 'Dreamers' immigration program

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether President Donald Trump acted lawfully when he moved to end a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children, a key element of his hardline immigration policies. The nine justices took up the Trump administration's appeals of lower court rulings in California, New York and the District of Columbia that blocked as unlawful his 2017 plan to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program implemented in 2012 by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.