Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Republican Bevin concedes Kentucky governor's race

Matt Bevin, the Republican Kentucky governor backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, conceded defeat on Tuesday in a tight race against Democrat Andy Beshear. Beshear, whose father, Steve, was the state's last Democratic governor, scored a narrow victory on Nov. 5 despite an election-eve rally headlined by Trump, who remains popular among Republicans.

U.S. Justice Kavanaugh to make first major public speech since controversy

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has kept a low profile since sexual misconduct accusations almost derailed his appointment 13 months ago, will make his first major public appearance since his Senate confirmation when he addresses a friendly audience of conservative lawyers on Thursday evening. Kavanaugh, appointed by Republican President Donald Trump to a lifetime position on the highest U.S. judicial body, will address the annual meeting of the Federalist Society. One of the organization's leaders, Leonard Leo, has served as an adviser to Trump on judicial nominations.

Trump asks U.S. Supreme Court to prevent release of his tax returns

President Donald Trump on Thursday asked the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse a lower court ruling that directed his longtime accounting firm to hand over eight years of his tax returns to New York prosecutors. Trump appealed a Nov. 4 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that prosecutors can enforce a subpoena demanding his personal and corporate tax returns from 2011 to 2018 from accounting firm Mazars LLP.

On 16th birthday, California student walks into high school and opens fire, killing two

A California high school student pulled a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun from his backpack and fired on fellow students as classes began on Thursday, killing two and wounding three others. He saved the last bullet for himself. It was his 16th birthday.

'I think I got shot': California students huddled terrified in barricaded classrooms

The students inside a barricaded choir classroom were huddled in the dark minutes after shots rang out at Saugus High School in Southern California on Thursday, when one them said: "I think I got shot." Katie Holt, a fine arts teacher, had pushed the piano in the music room against the classroom door, two students in the room told Reuters afterward, and grabbed a fire extinguisher, presumably to use as a weapon.

Pelosi says Trump has admitted to bribery as impeachment probe intensifies

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday President Donald Trump already has admitted to bribery in the Ukraine scandal at the heart of a Democratic-led inquiry, accusing him of an impeachable offense under the U.S. Constitution. "The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That's bribery," Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, told a news conference the day after the first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry she announced in September.

South Carolina teenager sentenced to life in prison for school shooting

A county judge on Thursday sentenced a South Carolina teenager to life imprisonment for killing his father in 2016 before driving to an elementary school and fatally shooting a 6-year-old boy. Prosecutors had sought life in prison for Jesse Osborne, 17, who was 14 at the time of the 2016 attack on Townville Elementary School some 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Greenville.

Witnesses in the Trump impeachment inquiry

Witnesses have testified behind closed doors and in public in the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into whether Republican President Donald Trump abused the power of his office when he sought foreign interference against a political rival. Following are witnesses scheduled for public testimony:

Ways Trump’s tax returns could come to light

U.S. President Donald Trump broke with a decades-long tradition of U.S. presidential candidates by not releasing his tax returns during his campaign, prompting state and congressional investigators to seek the returns through other means. On Thursday, Trump filed a petition urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling by a federal appeals court in Manhattan allowing his longtime accounting firm, Mazars LLP, to hand eight years of his returns over to New York prosecutors.

Executors of Jeffrey Epstein's estate propose victim compensation fund

The executors of the estate of Jeffrey Epstein said on Thursday they had asked a judge to approve the creation of a proposed fund to compensate women the financier was accused of having sexually abused. The executors, Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, said in a statement that the fund would create a "voluntary, confidential, non-adversarial alternative to litigation."