US Domestic News Roundup: Lawmakers urge U.S. agency to bolster pipeline cybersecurity; Sign-ups for 2019 Obamacare insurance fall to 8.5 million people

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Nevada becomes first U.S. state with majority of women lawmakers

Nevada has become the first U.S. state with a female-majority legislature after two Las Vegas women were appointed to fill vacancies in the Assembly, another milestone in a year women won a record number of seats in the U.S. Congress. While women have held majorities in individual legislative chambers in other states, the appointment late Tuesday of Democrats Beatrice Duran and Rochelle Nguyen to the state Assembly gave Nevada a female majority across the legislature.

Judge rejects Trump curbs on asylum for domestic abuse victims

A U.S. judge on Wednesday struck down Trump administration policies aimed at restricting asylum claims by people citing gang or domestic violence in their home countries and ordered the U.S. government to bring back six deported migrants to reconsider their cases. The ruling is the latest legal setback for the White House on immigration. Last month, a judge in San Francisco ordered a halt to a policy that prevented those entering illegally from Mexico from seeking asylum.

Federal bill would regulate U.S. sports betting

The nascent U.S. legal sports betting market would be subject to federal oversight under a bill introduced in Congress on Wednesday, one that will surely face opposition from the casino industry and some states. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Democratic Senator Charles Schumer introduced the bill, which aims to protect consumers and sports integrity and would require states to seek federal approval to run a sports betting program.

Former Blackwater guard convicted of murder in Iraq shooting spree

A 35-year-old former Blackwater security guard was found guilty of first-degree murder on Wednesday for shooting a civilian at a crowded traffic circle in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in 2007, an incident that drew worldwide condemnation. Nicholas Slatten was convicted of killing Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia'y, one of 14 civilians slain when Blackwater guards opened fire in Nisur Square on Sept. 16, 2007, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement.

U.S. agency recommends opioid overdose antidote to high-risk patients

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday recommended prescribing or co-prescribing the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone, to high-risk patients. The agency's recommendation comes a day after an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) narrowly recommended prescribing the drug, along with addictive painkillers.

Judge signals skepticism in Trump team's bid to block Obamacare suit

A U.S. judge signaled skepticism on Wednesday toward a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to block a lawsuit by the state of Maryland seeking to preserve the Obamacare law in a case that also challenges Trump's appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Baltimore, Justice Department attorney Hashim Mooppan declined to disclose whether Whitaker is involved in deciding the future of the 2010 healthcare law, formally called the Affordable Care Act, after a judge in Texas last week found it unconstitutional.

Caravans: the new face of migration, with no end in sight

A 5-year-old boy rests by the roadside with his mother as thousands of fellow migrants trudge past. A woman grips her two young daughters as they flee a cloud of tear gas. A child slithers under a fence to reach U.S. soil. A man sobs in a U.S. border patrol vehicle as his dreams of a new life are dashed. These are the faces of migrants whose trek from Central America to the United States has transfixed the continent since mid-October.

Lawmakers urge U.S. agency to bolster pipeline cybersecurity

Two Democratic lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday to better protect U.S. oil and gas pipelines from cyberattacks, after a report they requested detailed a lack of federal oversight of the critical conduits. The report released on Wednesday said Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, does not have a process to update its pipeline security guidelines to reflect revisions to standards considered by experts and regulators to be the industry bible on cybersecurity.

Sign-ups for 2019 Obamacare insurance fall to 8.5 million people

The number of Americans who signed up for 2019 insurance plans created by the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, fell by about 4 percent to 8.5 million people from 2018, the U.S. government said on Wednesday. Enrollment had been running about 10 percent lower but picked up during the past week, reflecting a typical trend of last-minute shopping, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma said in a call with reporters.

Judge blocks New York from enforcing opioid surcharge on companies

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday blocked New York state from enforcing a recently enacted law that aimed to collect $600 million from drug manufacturers and distributors to defray the costs of combating the opioid addiction epidemic. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that while the concerns driving New York's decision to adopt the law were valid, the means by which the state would extract payments from the companies violated the U.S. Constitution.

(With inputs from Reuters)