Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Foxconn vows to build Wisconsin plant after talk with Trump

Foxconn Technology said on Friday it will build a factory in Wisconsin after the company's chairman spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump, following a Reuters report earlier this week that the Taiwanese company was reconsidering its plans. Reuters reported that Foxconn was reconsidering making liquid crystal display panels at a planned $10 billion Wisconsin campus and intended to hire mostly engineers and researchers there. But after conversations between Trump and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, the company said it would move "forward with our planned construction of a Gen 6 fab facility," which is a type of plant that produces displays. U.S. high court temporarily blocks Louisiana abortion restrictions

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily prevented a Louisiana law imposing strict regulations on abortion clinics from taking effect in a case that presents a key test on the contentious issue following last year's retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, a pivotal supporter of abortion rights. A one-page order issued by Justice Samuel Alito said that "the justices need time to review" the various court filings before making a decision on the emergency application filed by Shreveport-based abortion provider Hope Medical Group for Women to block the law. Virginia governor apologizes for racist photo but resists growing calls to quit

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam apologized on Friday for a photograph in his 1984 medical school yearbook showing him and another person in racist garb at a party, but said he would serve out his term even as pressure piled on from fellow Democrats for him to step down. Northam indicated in a statement from his office he was one of the people shown in the photo, which depicted one person in blackface standing next to another in a Ku Klux Klan costume. 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. U.S. judge throws out Maryland bid to protect Obamacare law

A U.S. judge on Friday threw out the state of Maryland's bid to protect the healthcare law known as Obamacare in a ruling that also sidestepped a decision on whether President Donald Trump's appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general was lawful. In a win for the Republican president, Baltimore-based U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander said Maryland had failed to show that the Trump administration is likely to terminate enforcement of the 2010 law, officially called the Affordable Care Act. In Chicago's epic freeze, some homeless feel more comfortable outdoors

Blanca Rodriguez, a 52-year-old homeless woman, spent a night at one of the warming centers Chicago set up ahead of the Arctic-like weather that froze a large swath of the United States this week. But then Rodriguez, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, went back to the homeless encampment on the North Side of Chicago where she had been staying the past couple of months, complaining the shelter took away her medications for high blood pressure and "a bad kidney". In U.S. Midwest, 22F 'feels like spring' after days of brutal cold

Bone-chilling cold that paralyzed a chunk of the United States this week and killed at least 18 people eased on Friday as an errant Arctic air mass retreated ahead of a warmer-than-normal weekend in areas of the Midwest and Northeast. In Chicago, where the mercury dipped as low as minus 22 Fahrenheit (minus 30 Celsius) this week, temperatures of 22F (minus 5.5C) by Friday afternoon felt balmy for some in the nation's third-largest city. As polar vortex retreats, California readies for storm

As the U.S. Midwest and East Coast thawed out from days of bitter, deadly cold, Californians on Friday battened down the hatches ahead of a fierce winter storm carrying heavy rains and high winds that could touch off urban flooding and mudslides. Though the sun was out in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon and temperatures hovered in the low 60s Fahrenheit, the National Weather Service said rain would begin to fall later in the evening and continue without let-up through Saturday night. 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. U.S. judge mulls gag order on talkative Trump adviser Stone

A U.S. judge said on Friday she is considering imposing a gag order on President Donald Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone, who since being charged a week ago has repeatedly criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the ongoing Russia probe. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said during a hearing in Washington she is considering a gag order for both Stone and the prosecution, citing a number of "extrajudicial statements by the defendant" and noting that "this is a criminal proceeding and not a public relations campaign."