Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. California man who spent 39 years in prison gets $21 million for wrongful conviction

A California man who was wrongfully convicted for killing an ex-girlfriend and her son four decades ago has reached a $21 million settlement with the city of Simi Valley, officials said. Craig Coley, 71, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 1978 murder of his former partner, Rhonda Wicht, and her 4-year-old son, Donald, at their apartment. As 2020 candidates turn left, some Democrats worry about the center

Liberal Democratic presidential contenders' rush to embrace the left's most ambitious proposals has some Democrats worried there could be a price to pay when they try to defeat President Donald Trump next year. Party activists have been energized as Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and other candidates endorsed plans to provide Medicare coverage to every American, some form of tuition-free college, a national $15 minimum wage and the so-called “Green New Deal” advocated by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Alabama newspaper at center of KKK outrage gets black female editor

A small town Alabama newspaper that drew condemnation for an editorial this month calling for the Ku Klux Klan to "ride again" has named an African-American woman as its new editor and publisher, the paper said in a statement. Elecia R. Dexter on Friday took the reins of the weekly Democrat-Reporter in Linden, Alabama, from Goodloe Sutton, 79, the longtime owner of the paper who wrote the incendiary editorial that brought sharp rebukes from elected officials in the state and the public. Two bodies recovered after Amazon cargo plane crashes into Texas bay

Two bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of an Amazon Prime Air cargo plane that nosedived into a bay outside Houston on Saturday, and a search was ongoing for a third victim, authorities said. All three people aboard the Boeing 767 cargo jetliner operated by Atlas Air Worldwide died in the crash as it approached Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Atlas and Boeing Co said in statements on Sunday. Oscars not so white? Academy Awards winners see big shift

A black superhero action flick. A film about an indigenous maid in Mexico. A portrayal of a gay, immigrant rock star. Spike Lee's first Oscar. The 2019 Oscars were a win for films telling stories from a range of racial and cultural perspectives, marking a major shift three years after the movie industry's top awards show was slammed for overlooking work by nonwhite artists. Democrats pursue subpoenas on Trump separations of immigrant families

In what is likely to be their first public use of subpoena power since taking over the U.S. House of Representatives in January, Democrats were set to vote on Tuesday on subpoenaing documents on the Trump administration's migrant family separation policy. If approved, the subpoenas by the House Oversight Committee would show Democrats beginning to invoke the investigative clout they obtained when voters in November handed them majority control of the House and took it away from Republicans. U.S.-born scholar of Japanese literature Donald Keene dies at 96

Donald Keene, a scholar of Japanese literature who became the first foreigner to receive the country's highest cultural award, died of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital on Sunday. Keene, 96, was known for introducing Japan's culture in the United States and around the world through his scholarship and translations of classical and modern Japanese literature. Trading places: Unauthorized immigrant arrested after seeking detained son’s release

The U.S. immigration agents who arrested Armando outside his Ohio home last fall would have had little trouble finding him: He had provided his address and fingerprints weeks earlier in a bid to get his 15-year old son out of government custody. The boy, Bryan, was apprehended in July after fleeing political violence in Nicaragua and crossing the southern border illegally. Armando, who is living in the U.S. illegally, wrestled with the risk of coming forward, especially as he had been deported before. Singer R. Kelly due back in court Monday on sexual assault charges

Grammy-winning R&B star R. Kelly was due to appear again in a Chicago court on Monday where a judge will likely be assigned to his trial on charges that he sexually assaulted three teenage girls and a woman, a sheriff's spokesman said. Kelly, who has faced years of sexual abuse allegations, turned himself in to authorities on Friday after he was charged and was ordered held on a $1 million bond at a bail hearing on Saturday. Singer R. Kelly due in court Saturday on sexual assault charges

Grammy-winning R&B singer R. Kelly, who for years has faced allegations that he abused women and underage girls, was due in court in Chicago on Saturday to hear charges that he sexually assaulted four people, including three teenagers. The 52-year-old, whose real name is Robert Kelly, was charged with a 10-count indictment on Friday, nearly two months after the Lifetime television network aired a six-hour documentary series "Surviving R. Kelly" in which multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct and abuse.