Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. New Illinois governor eyes larger fiscal year 2020 budget hole

Illinois faces a $3.2 billion deficit in its upcoming fiscal 2020 budget that is nearly 16 percent higher than previously projected, Governor J.B. Pritzker's administration said on Friday. A five-year fiscal forecast released by former Republican Governor Bruce Rauner's administration in November showed a $2.76 billion hole in the general funds budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Arizona healthcare facility where woman was raped will remain open

An Arizona long-term healthcare facility where a severely disabled woman was raped will remain open after its owners agreed to allow the state to oversee operations, a spokesman for the governor said on Friday. Hacienda HealthCare had said on Thursday that it was no longer "sustainable" to operate its skilled nursing facility in Phoenix, where an unidentified patient in her 20s was raped, a crime that only came to light after she gave birth in December. Border Patrol overwhelmed by large groups of migrant families

U.S. Border Patrol said on Friday its resources were being stretched thin by larger and larger groups of Central American families left by smugglers in remote locations along the U.S. Mexico border. So far in fiscal year 2019, which began last October, the Border Patrol has apprehended 60 groups of 100 or more migrants, compared with 13 during the entire 2018 fiscal year and just two large groups caught in the 2017 fiscal year, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official said on a call with reporters. American Media says it acted lawfully in reporting on Amazon's Bezos

American Media Inc, the owner of the National Enquirer, said on Friday it acted lawfully in its reporting on Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com Inc, and that it would thoroughly investigate his claims of blackmail and take whatever action was necessary. Bezos on Thursday accused AMI of trying to blackmail him with the threat of publishing "intimate photos" he allegedly sent to his girlfriend unless he said in public that the supermarket tabloid's reporting on him was not politically motivated. U.S. appeals court to revisit open carrying of guns

A federal appeals court has decided to reconsider its recent decision that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to openly carry guns in self-defense. In an order on Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it will revisit whether Hawaii acted lawfully in denying the plaintiff George Young a permit to openly carry a loaded gun in public. U.S. Steel wins tax breaks from one of America's poorest cities

United States Steel Corporation founded Gary, Indiana in 1906 - naming it after co-founder Elbert Henry Gary - and the city's fortunes have been closely tied to the company ever since. When the firm started losing business to cheap Asian imports in the 1970s, waves of layoffs followed as Gary became a haven of blight, crime and lost population. First U.S. tax filings under Trump's overhaul off to slow start

The first U.S. tax filing season under the overhaul that President Donald Trump signed into law at the end of 2017 got off to a slow start in the first week, with data released on Friday showing a significant drop in returns and refunds. According to the Internal Revenue Service, the total number of returns received in the week ending Feb. 1, 16.04 million, was down 12.4 percent from the week that ended on Feb. 2, 2018. Only 13.31 million returns were processed, down 25.8 percent from the year before. The average refund of $1,865 was 8.4 percent smaller than the average refund in the period last year. U.S. must prevent air accidents involving drones, lawmaker warns

The commercial drone industry could be torpedoed if there were a serious accident involving a drone and a commercial aircraft, the chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee warned on Friday. Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat, said at a speech in Washington that regulators had to take the threat seriously. Virginia governor vows to stay; calls mount to oust lieutenant governor

Virginia's embattled governor, Ralph Northam, capped a week of political chaos ignited by racial scandals by vowing to stay in office on Friday, while the fellow Democrat in line to succeed him faced a second accusation of sexual assault. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax issued a statement denying both allegations as a "coordinated smear campaign." He said the latest accusation, that he had raped a fellow student at Duke University in 2000, was "demonstrably false" and declared he would not step down. U.S. sues Lockheed, others for alleged kickbacks on nuclear site cleanup

The United States has sued Lockheed Martin Corp, Lockheed Martin Services Inc, and Mission Support Alliance LLC, as well as a Lockheed executive for alleged false claims and kickbacks on a multibillion-dollar contract to clean up a nuclear site, the Justice Department said on Friday. The complaint alleges Lockheed paid more than $1 million to Mission Support Alliance executives in order to win a $232 million subcontract for providing management and technology support at the Hanford, Washington site from 2010 through the middle of 2016 at inflated rates.

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