US News Roundup: Puerto Rico open for tourists, Louisiana restriction and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. returns $505 million to victims of giant payday lending scheme

U.S. authorities said on Thursday they were mailing more than $505 million of refund checks to nearly 1.18 million people who were victimized in a massive payday lending scheme run by former race car driver and convicted racketeer Scott Tucker. The payout announced by the Federal Trade Commission, which is working with the Department of Justice, stemmed from a $1.27 billion civil judgment that the FTC won in September 2016 against Tucker, who ran AMG Services Inc, and some of his companies.

Hillary Clinton jokes about email in 'Murphy Brown' return to TV

Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance on the revival of the television comedy "Murphy Brown" on Thursday, joking about her experience with emails in an episode that took jabs at President Donald Trump and the media. The show that became a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars in 1992 returned to the air for the first time in 20 years with star Candice Bergen again playing the pioneering journalist.

U.S. court upholds Louisiana restriction on abortion clinics

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a Louisiana provision that requires doctors who perform abortions in the state to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. In a 2-1 ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the judges said the Louisiana provision was different than one in Texas that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 because it would not put an undue burden on women.

Exclusive: Puerto Rico open for tourists despite 'mixed-bag' recovery - governor

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello flew to New York this week on a mission: persuade potential tourists that the hurricane-ravaged island was ready for their return. But Puerto Rico's recovery from last year's Hurricane Maria has been a "mixed bag," Rossello told Reuters on Thursday, acknowledging that the bankrupt U.S. territory while improving, is far from out of the woods.

In #MeToo era, Ford lauded on left and right as honest and brave

Christine Blasey Ford began her testimony in front of a Senate committee by saying she was "terrified," and at times she looked it. But by the time she finished detailing her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, Ford was being widely praised as credible and brave.

Waterways rise in South Carolina, residents told to leave

Authorities urged thousands of people to leave their homes around the city of Georgetown, South Carolina as water dumped by long-departed Hurricane Florence surged down rivers and threatened to bring devastating floods. Water levels were still rising early on Tuesday, said emergency services there, more than a week after the storm first made landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast and killed 46 people mostly in North Carolina.

Outside attorney walks difficult line at Senate's Kavanaugh hearing

Rachel Mitchell had a difficult mission as the lawyer hired by Republican senators to question the woman accusing U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault: test her memory but treat her respectfully. At a dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, Mitchell walked that fine line with accuser Christine Blasey Ford, but produced only mixed results and conceded the difficulty of the challenge before her.

U.S. Supreme Court denies last-minute Texas death row appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal on Thursday and cleared the path for Texas to execute a man convicted of kidnapping a woman and choking her to death while driving. Lawyers for the inmate, Daniel Acker, 46, argued he did not murder Marquetta George, his girlfriend. They said she died after jumping out of a moving vehicle and that he was convicted due to faulty forensic evidence.

Senate panel heads to vote on Trump's top court pick Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Supreme Court hung in the balance on Friday after a jarring and emotional hearing into sexual misconduct allegations against him that gripped the country and reflected the nation's larger political divide. The Senate Judiciary Committee, with 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, is set to meet at 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT), giving its members little time to review Thursday's extraordinary testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students. Kavanaugh denied the accusations.

Kavanaugh's fellow Yalies transfixed by Senate hearing

In a crowded lounge at Yale Law School, cheers erupted when the middle-aged woman on the TV screen told a Senate panel that she had no doubt that Brett Kavanaugh, the Yale graduate nominated to the Supreme Court, had sexually assaulted her when they were teens. Like millions of Americans who tuned into the hearings, the young lawyers-in-training gathered on the New Haven campus hung on every word of the testimony, keenly aware of what the spectacle that was unfolding in Washington would mean for the political direction of the country for years to come.