US Domestic News Roundup: Trump-Roberts clash; Mattis gets expanded powers for U.S.border troops

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Hundreds searching for remains of California wildfire victims

Hundreds of volunteers and police officers spent the Thanksgiving holiday combing through the wreckage of California's deadliest wildfire, searching for the remains of victims killed in the blaze as rains looked set to complicate their work. The Camp Fire killed at least 83 people and 563 are still unaccounted for in and around Paradise, a community of nearly 27,000 people that was largely incinerated when the flames swept through two weeks ago, according to authorities.

Stray bullet kills Milwaukee teen who decried gun violence: reports

A 13-year-old Milwaukee girl who won an award for an essay deploring gun violence in the city has been killed by a stray bullet while inside her home, police and local media said. Sandra Parks received a third-place plaque for an entry she wrote in 2016 for a Milwaukee writing competition, in which she lamented that "little children are victims of senseless gun violence" in the Midwest city, and that she witnessed "chaos almost every day."

Oldest surviving U.S. veteran of Pearl Harbor dies in California: media

The oldest surviving U.S. veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack that plunged the United States into World War Two died in California on Wednesday, domestic media reported. Ray Chavez, 106, died in his sleep early on Wednesday in a hospice in Poway, a community north of San Diego, his daughter Kathleen Chavez told the San Diego Union Tribune.

U.S. Border Patrol agent acquitted in Mexican teen's killing

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter on Wednesday in the shooting death of a Mexican teenager through a border fence, marking another defeat for federal prosecutors in the second trial over the 2012 killing. Lonnie Swartz, 43, was acquitted by a federal jury in Tucson after two days of deliberations in the death of 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.

White House gives Mattis expanded powers for U.S. troops on border

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that he had been granted authority to allow troops on the Mexican border greater powers to help protect border officials, and would await direction from the Department of Homeland Security. Reuters reported on Monday that the White House was likely to give troops authority to protect Customs and Border Protection agents stationed along the U.S. border with Mexico if they come under threat from migrants seeking to cross into the United States.

Fatal shooting in downtown Denver gang-related: prosecutor

A gun battle on a downtown Denver street this week that left one person dead and four wounded stemmed from an exchange of gunfire between two rival gang members, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. Shortly after 4 p.m. on Monday, gunfire erupted in Denver's LoDo section, about two blocks from Coors Field, home of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies.

Romaine is on the menu at some New York delis despite E.coli warning

Romaine lettuce still had a place at the salad bars of some cafes and delicatessens in New York City on Wednesday despite a blanket warning to Americans from U.S. public health officials that none of the lettuce was safe to eat because it might be contaminated by E.coli. The warning, precipitated by an E.coli outbreak in 11 states and Canada, was issued on Tuesday. Some shops said that romaine was still being sold because officials had not specified the source of potentially contaminated romaine, such as a farm or company.

CDC says U.S. abortion rate plunged in decade ending 2015

A U.S. government agency said on Wednesday that abortion rates among American women of all ages fell to a decade low in 2015, which both opponents and supporters of abortion rights attributed in part to individual states' efforts to restrict women's access to the procedure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that statistics for 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, show the abortion rate was 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. That is down 26 per cent from 2006 when the study began and the rate was 15.9 abortions per 1,000 women.

Trump clashes with conservative U.S. chief justice over judiciary

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts defended the independence of the federal judiciary on Wednesday a day after President Donald Trump called a judge who ruled against his policy barring asylum for certain immigrants an "Obama judge," but Trump rejected the rebuke, chided Roberts and launched a new round of attacks. The remarks by Roberts represented his first public response to Trump over the Republican president's persistent criticism of the federal courts. Opponents of Trump have called his criticism of judges an attack on the rule of law in the United States.

American missionary killed by tribe on remote Indian island

An American self-styled adventurer and Christian missionary has been killed and buried by a tribe of hunter-gatherers on a remote island in the Indian Ocean where he had gone to proselytize, local law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. John Allen Chau, 26, was slain on North Sentinel Island, which is home to what is considered the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world and typically out of bounds to visitors, said Dependra Pathak, the director general of police in Andaman and Nicobar.

(With inputs from Reuters)