Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Judge to give verdict in Chicago police conspiracy trial

Three Chicago policemen accused of conspiring to protect white fellow police officer Jason Van Dyke after he murdered a black teenager in 2014 will learn their fates on Thursday when a judge is due to give her verdict in their trial. Van Dyke was found guilty in October of shooting Laquan McDonald, 17, in one of a series of police killings of black men and teens that has raised questions about the use of deadly force by police and sparked a series of sometimes violent street protests across the United States.

Man charged in plot to attack White House with anti-tank rocket

A 21-year-old man from Georgia has been arrested and charged over allegations he plotted to attack the White House by blowing a hole in it with an anti-tank rocket then storming the building with guns and grenades, U.S. prosecutors said on Wednesday. Hasher Jallal Taheb, of the Atlanta suburb of Cumming, was arrested in Gwinnett County on Wednesday and appeared briefly in federal court in Atlanta in a case brought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Byung Pak, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, told reporters.

Sixteen coal ash pits contaminating Texas groundwater: report

Sixteen coal ash pits in Texas are leaking contaminants including arsenic, boron, cobalt and lithium into groundwater, according to a report released on Thursday by the Environmental Integrity Project. Coal ash is the residue left after coal has been burned to generate power, and can include sludge from plant exhaust stacks. Coal ash is placed in pits or ponds next to coal power plants.

Ex-Michigan governor says he will resign university post in Nassar fallout

Michigan State University's interim president John Engler said on Wednesday he would resign following renewed criticism of how he handled the fallout from the sex abuse scandal involving sports doctor Larry Nassar. Nassar, who was a team doctor for USA Gymnastics, was sentenced to up to 300 years in prison in two different trials last winter after more than 350 women testified that he abused them. He also worked at Michigan State University (MSU).

U.S. Army vows to fix 'broken' housing at Fort Meade in wake of Reuters report

The commander of one of the largest Army bases in the United States promised residents to fix a “broken” housing system in which maintenance lapses by a private landlord left military families in homes with health and safety hazards. The garrison commander at Maryland’s Fort Meade made the remarks in meetings with residents this month in response to a Reuters report https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-military-developer in December that detailed the problems, which ranged from mold and rodent infestations to flooding, crumbling roofs and ceiling collapses. Many tenants accused the closely held civilian company that runs most housing at Fort Meade, Rhode Island's Corvias Group, of routinely failing to make repairs.

'Grifters, weaklings, felons': Christie on the Trump White House

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sees the Trump White House as a rogues' gallery of flawed people sidetracking the work of the U.S. president, according to excerpts of his forthcoming memoir posted on the news site Axios on Wednesday. President Donald Trump employs a "revolving door of deeply flawed individuals — amateurs, grifters, weaklings, convicted and unconvicted felons — who were hustled into jobs they were never suited for, sometimes seemingly without so much as a background check via Google or Wikipedia," Christie, who was a senior adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign, says in his memoir, "Let Me Finish," which is due to be released on Jan. 29.

As shutdown lingers, Pelosi pushes Trump to delay State of Union speech

With the partial U.S. government shutdown now in its 26th day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to reschedule his State of the Union address - a move that could deny him the opportunity to use the pageantry of the speech to attack Democrats in their own chamber over the impasse. With Trump's address set for Jan. 29, Pelosi wrote him a letter citing security concerns because the Secret Service, which is required to provide security for the address, has not received funding during the dispute.

U.S. watchdog faults handling of government lease for Trump D.C. hotel

An internal U.S. government watchdog on Wednesday found "serious shortcomings" in federal officials' handling of a lease by President Donald Trump's company of a historic government building in Washington now home to a Trump International Hotel. Amid intensifying scrutiny of possible conflicts of interest involving Trump's businesses, the inspector general of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) found fault with the agency's review of the lease of the Old Post Office Pavilion.

Five deaths blamed on storms that dump snow, rain on California

At least five people have died in severe rain and snowstorms that blanketed parts of California with at least five feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains this week, besides triggering flooding and mudslides, officials said. Forecasters expect the bitter weather to push eastwards into the Rockies and U.S. Midwest through the weekend, while the California Highway Patrol said rain-slicked highways led to two fatal accidents that killed four people.

Los Angeles teachers strike enters 4th day with talks set to resume

Some 30,000 striking Los Angeles teachers braced for a fourth day of picketing in the rain on Thursday as their union and America's second-largest school district headed for their first bargaining session since talks collapsed last week. In the first teachers strike to hit the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in 30 years, union members are calling for higher pay, smaller classes and the hiring of more support staff. But LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner has said the demands, if fully met, would place too great a strain on the district's budget.