US Domestic News Roundup: Kavanaugh hearing, Harvard admissions bias case

Survivors feel both hope and fear after Kavanaugh hearing, advocates say

For sexual assault survivors, Christine Blasey Ford emerged as a new hero on Thursday, triggering a surge in calls to a national rape hotline as she told senators that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were teenagers. But even as many saw her nervous yet assured testimony as a landmark moment for the #MeToo movement, the skepticism, indifference and even scorn she faced, both from Republican senators and online critics, was disturbing to victims and their advocates.

F-35 fighter jet crashes in South Carolina, pilot ejects

A U.S. military F-35B fighter jet crashed near the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina on Friday, for reasons that are under investigation, local law officials and the U.S. military said. The pilot, the only person aboard the craft, ejected safely and was being checked for injuries, said a Pentagon spokesman, adding that there were no other injuries.

Harvard admissions bias case can proceed to trial: U.S. judge

A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian-American applicants to go to trial, a closely watched case that could influence the use of race in college admissions decisions. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston rejected dueling motions by Harvard and a nonprofit group suing the Ivy League university to rule in their favor ahead of a non-jury trial set to begin on Oct. 15.

California governor signs gun control bills into law

California Governor Jerry Brown signed several gun control bills into law on Friday, including one measure that raises the minimum age for buying rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21. The new laws come seven months after a gunman opened fire with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 14 students and three adults, the second-deadliest mass shooting at a public school in U.S. history.

U.S. judge strikes down Kentucky abortion restriction

A federal judge on Friday struck down a Kentucky law requiring abortion providers to sign advance agreements with hospitals and ambulance services for emergency patient care, in a ruling that keeps the state from revoking the license of its only remaining abortion clinic. U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers in Louisville sided with the EMW Women's Surgical Center and Planned Parenthood in challenging a law that threatened to make Kentucky the first U.S. state without a single legal abortion provider.

Under pressure, Trump orders FBI Kavanaugh probe, causing week delay

President Donald Trump, under intense pressure from moderates in his own party over his Supreme Court nominee, on Friday ordered an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh at the request of Senate Republicans, a move that will delay the contentious confirmation process by a week. The key player in a day of dramatic and unexpected developments was Senator Jeff Flake, a moderate Republican retiring from the Senate in January who provided the decisive vote to approve Kavanaugh's nomination in the Judiciary Committee and send the matter to the full Senate.

'How We Mourned' memorializes Las Vegas mass shooting

The teddy bears belonged in a child's bedroom, the votive candles in a local church. Instead, they were among the thousands of items left by the grieving near the site of the largest mass shooting in modern American history. They are now part of "How We Mourned," a somber exhibit at the Clark County Museum that helps mark the first anniversary of the Oct. 1, 2017 shooting spree that killed 58 people and wounded over 800 at an outdoor festival on the Las Vegas Strip.

Trump heads on five-state rally blitz amid Supreme Court chaos

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday kicks off a week of rallies in five friendly places around the country, seeking to shore up support ahead of congressional elections even as the fate of his pick to fill a Supreme Court vacancy remains unclear. Republicans are at risk of losing control of Congress in the Nov. 6 elections, which could impede Trump's goals to clamp down on immigration, cut taxes, approve new bilateral trade deals, and invest in infrastructure.

Texas governor says 'bathroom bill' no longer on his agenda

Texas' Republican governor said on Friday that legislation limiting transgender people's access to bathrooms in public schools and government buildings is no longer a priority, signaling a slight change in his stance on a measure seen by critics as discriminatory. Governor Greg Abbott, who is running for re-election, made a "bathroom bill" one of his priority items in a legislative special session last year. But the measure died in the session after business leaders and civil rights groups fought back, saying it advanced bigotry, would tarnish the state's image and damage its economy.

Prosecutors to seek the death penalty for accused New York bike path attacker

U.S. prosecutors on Friday said they would seek the death penalty for Sayfullo Saipov, the man accused of killing eight people by driving a truck into a New York City bike path last October. Saipov, a 30-year-old Uzbek national, was arrested immediately after police said he plowed a truck down a bike lane in lower Manhattan. The militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest assault on New York City since Sept. 11, 2001.

(With inputs from Reuters)