Reuters US Domestic News Summary

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday blocked a San Francisco law requiring health warnings on advertisements for soda and other sugary drinks in a win to the American beverage industry which fought the requirements in court. The 11 judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision said the city's ordinance violated commercial speech protected under the U.S. Constitution. A climate problem even California can't fix: tailpipe pollution

For three decades, California has led the fight to control tailpipe pollution, with countless policies promoting cleaner gasoline, carpooling, public transportation and its signature strategy - the electric vehicle. Californians now buy more than half of all EVs sold in the United States, and the state’s auto-pollution policies have provided a model being adopted around the world. USW union, Shell agree to raise refinery worker pay by 11 percent: sources

The United Steelworkers union (USW) and Shell Oil Co reached a tentative agreement on Thursday that sources familiar with the deal said would boost pay by 11 percent over three years for 30,000 U.S. refinery, chemical plant and pipeline workers. Workers represented by the USW will receive a 3.5 percent pay raise in each of the first two years of the deal and a 4 percent raise in the final year, the sources said. Assault reported by 'Empire' actor condemned by family as 'hate crime'

The family of television actor Jussie Smollett, who plays a gay character on the hip-hop musical drama "Empire," spoke out on Thursday to condemn the assault he reported suffering in Chicago at the hands of two men yelling racial and homophobic slurs. Chicago police said detectives have been unable to obtain cell phone records to "independently verify" a key part of Smollett's story - that he was talking with his manager by phone at the time he was accosted. Polar vortex `just sort of evaporates' and U.S. Midwest warms up

The polar vortex that locked the U.S. Midwest in sub-zero weather and led to the deaths of at least 21 people will give way to milder, snow-melting temperatures this weekend. Temperatures should reach the mid 40s to low 50s Fahrenheit through the weekend and Monday, forecasters said, after a record-breaking cold snap that stopped postal service and shuttered schools and businesses. Catholic leaders in Texas name around 300 priests accused of abuse

Roman Catholic leaders in Texas on Thursday identified around 300 priests and others accused of sexually abusing children. It was one of the largest groups of names disclosed by the church as it faces U.S. state and federal investigations into its handling of decades of allegations of sexual misconduct by priests. As court gag order looms, Trump adviser Roger Stone on media blitz

President Donald Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone made multiple media appearances in Washington on Thursday, talking freely with reporters before he was set to appear in court on Friday and likely face a gag order from a judge. Charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller with obstructing a congressional probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Stone will appear before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is widely expected to bar him from discussing the case in the press after imposing a similar gag order on Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort.