Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. appeals court, House panel to take up net neutrality

A federal appeals court will hear arguments on Friday over whether the Trump administration acted legally when it repealed landmark net neutrality rules governing internet providers in December 2017. The panel, which has set aside 2-1/2 hours to hear the case, is made up of Judges Robert Wilkins and Patricia Millett, two appointees of Democratic former President Barack Obama, and Stephen Williams, an appointee of Republican Ronald Reagan. Defense calls 'El Chapo' a 'fall guy' in drug trial closing argument

A lawyer for accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman told jurors on Thursday his client was a scapegoat, with even a famous 2015 prison escape part of an elaborate conspiracy to set him up as a "fall guy." In his closing argument at Guzman's trial in Brooklyn federal court, defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman reiterated his claim that Guzman had been framed by drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. U.S. court finds Syria liable for journalist Colvin's killing

A U.S. judge has ruled that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government is liable for at least $302.5 million in damages for its role in the 2012 death of renowned American journalist Marie Colvin while covering the Syrian civil war for Britain's Sunday Times. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in a ruling made public on Wednesday that the Syrian government "engaged in an act of extrajudicial killing of a United States national." At least 12 dead as arctic freeze spreads into U.S. Northeast

A wave of frigid arctic air that paralyzed the U.S. Midwest and caused at least a dozen deaths swept across the Northeast on Thursday but was expected to move along by the weekend, making way for warmer weather. The prospect of a weekend break offered little comfort to those enduring icy conditions, brutal winds and temperatures as low as minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 37 Celsius) in the Midwest and 3F (-16C) on the East Coast, according to the National Weather Service. Pennsylvania governor seeks natural gas tax to raise $4.5 billion

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday proposed a tax on extracting natural gas to pay for his plan to spend $4.5 billion over the next four years to improve the state's infrastructure. The state legislature, however, has refused to approve the tax over the past couple of years. Trump's Mexico border mission may approach last year's peak size

The U.S. military is set to deploy 3,500 troops to its mission at the border with Mexico, U.S. officials said on Thursday, bringing the politically charged deployment back to near its peak level of about 5,900 in November, if only briefly. The figure was disclosed by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, who slammed senior Pentagon officials for failing to disclose that information during a hearing before his committee in Congress on the issue on Tuesday. Senate hearings to probe unsafe housing of U.S. military families

Troubled by widespread health and safety hazards uncovered by a Reuters investigation into U.S. military housing, Congress will hold hearings next month to ensure that "what we're seeing now can never happen again," said Michigan Democrat Gary Peters, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During the hearings, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 13, lawmakers will question the Department of Defense and private contractors who house thousands of U.S. military families on bases across the country, according to Senate staff familiar with the plans. U.S. charges 19 in Chinese 'birth tourism' scheme in California

Nineteen people have been charged in three "birth tourism" schemes that operated in Southern California to bring pregnant Chinese women into the United States in order to secure birthright citizenship for their children, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles said on Thursday. The 17 cases unsealed on Thursday are the first federal charges brought against operators and customers of birth tourism businesses, the Justice Department said in a statement. Largest-ever U.S. border seizure of fentanyl made in Arizona: officials

U.S. border agents have seized 254 pounds (115 kg) of fentanyl that was stashed in a truck crossing into Arizona from Mexico, marking the largest single bust of the powerful opioid ever made at an American border checkpoint, officials said on Thursday. The 26-year-old Mexican driver of a cucumber-toting tractor trailer was arrested after agents on Saturday at the border station in Nogales discovered the fentanyl in a secret compartment, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said. Increase in sexual assault at U.S. military academies: survey

Incidents of unwanted sexual contact increased by nearly 50 percent at top U.S. military academies over the past two years, according to a Pentagon survey released on Thursday, highlighting an issue that has long plagued the military. The study, part of a report released annually, said there had been 747 instances of unwanted sexual contact in 2018, compared to 507 in 2016.

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