US Domestic News Roundup: Thanksgiving menu; 'El Chapo' trial; Judge voids female genital mutilation law

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Traffic jams, bitter cold on this year's Thanksgiving menu

Americans may need an extra helping of patience this Thanksgiving weekend, with the largest number of travelers in a decade expected to hit the road or board flights to celebrate with family and friends after a prosperous year for many. The weather could complicate the journey in many parts of the country, as bitter, record-breaking cold blankets much of the Northeast on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, and heavy rain in Northern California threatens to bring mudslides.

Abstain from romaine: U.S., Canada warn on E.coli in lettuce

Public health officials in the United States and Canada on Tuesday warned against eating romaine lettuce while they investigate an outbreak of E. coli that has sickened 50 people in the two countries, including 13 who were hospitalized. The alerts, issued as millions of Americans plan their Thanksgiving Day menus, covered all forms of romaine, including whole heads, hearts, bags, mixes and Caesar salad.

Exclusive: Trump weighs authorizing U.S. troops to medically screen migrants

President Donald Trump's administration is considering giving U.S. troops on the border with Mexico the authority to carry out medical screening of migrants, U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday. The proposal, which is still in draft form and circulating within the administration, would involve the military in screenings for things like illness and injury only if U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency personnel were overwhelmed and unable to do so on their own, the officials said.

Californians left homeless by wildfire brace for heavy rain

Heavy rains were due to create new problems for residents of Northern California late on Tuesday, raising the risk of mudslides in an area where people left homeless by the state's deadliest wildfire remain huddled in parking lot encampments. State and federal officials warned people to be alert to the risk of sudden flows of debris down the scorched, denuded slopes of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the Camp Fire has killed at least 79 people since breaking out on Nov. 8.

In Mississippi Senate race, a 'hanging' remark spurs Democrats

A white Republican senator's casual reference to a "public hanging" has invigorated a special election runoff in Mississippi, fueling Democratic hopes of an upset in a conservative state with an ugly history of racist violence. The U.S. Senate race between appointed Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy, a black former congressman and U.S. agriculture secretary, will test the power of the black vote and the viability of Democrats in a region where Republicans have dominated for decades.

Trump administration calls U.S. judge's asylum ruling 'absurd'

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday said it would continue to defend President Donald Trump's decision to make immigrants who enter the country illegally from Mexico ineligible for asylum, after a federal judge temporarily blocked the policy. Trump cited an overwhelmed immigration system for his recent proclamation that officials will only process asylum claims for migrants who present themselves at an official entry point along the U.S.-Mexico frontier.

Witness at 'El Chapo' trial tells of high-level corruption

A witness at the U.S. drug trafficking trial of accused Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on Tuesday testified that he paid a multimillion dollar bribe to an underling of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2005. The witness, Jesus Zambada, also said he paid millions of dollars in bribes to former Mexican government official Genaro Garcia Luna on behalf of his brother, drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who remains at large.

Interior's Zinke blames environmentalists for California wildfires

U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Tuesday that the deadliest wildfires in California's history were partly due to lawsuits from environmentalists who have sought to stop forest management practices, such as forest thinning. "Radical environmental groups that would rather burn down the entire forest than cut a single tree or thin the forest," have brought lawsuits to stop forest management, Zinke told reporters in a teleconference about the California wildfires. "Yes, I do lay it on the feet," of environmentalists, he said.

U.S. judge strikes down Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks

A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, ruling that it "unequivocally" violates women's constitutional rights. The law, considered one of the most restrictive in the country, was passed in March. It had already been put on hold by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves after the state's lone abortion clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, immediately sued.

Judge voids U.S. female genital mutilation law

A federal judge in Detroit on Tuesday declared unconstitutional a U.S. law banning female genital mutilation, and also dismissed several charges against two doctors and others in the first U.S. criminal case of its kind. U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said Congress lacked authority under the Commerce Clause to adopt the 1996 law, and that the power to outlaw female genital mutilation, or FGM, belonged to individual states.

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from agencies.)