Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Alleged Cornell gang rape prompts calls to revise New York sexual assault laws

Some New York lawmakers are urging a revamp of the state's sexual assault statutes to make it easier to prosecute cases involving intoxicated victims, following renewed outrage over an alleged 2024 gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house.

The Tompkins County district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, said this week that his office initially declined to pursue charges against the students accused of ​raping the woman partly due to the constraints of current New York law.

Supreme Court to weigh Trump's mandatory immigration detention policy

The US Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to hear a dispute over a policy by President Donald Trump's administration that subjects millions of immigrants who entered the United States illegally to mandatory detention during their ​deportation proceedings. In this latest legal battle over Trump's hardline immigration agenda to reach the top US judicial body, the justices face an issue that has divided lower courts as numerous lawsuits by migrants and advocacy groups challenging the ‌policy have played out. The ​policy is one of a number of measures his administration has taken in its pursuit of Trump's goal of mass deportation.

Florida Attorney General sues Pfizer and CEO over COVID-19 vaccine claims

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Pfizer and its CEO, Albert Bourla, accusing the drugmaker of misleading consumers about the safety and effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine. Here are more details:

US alleges California man smuggled export-controlled servers to China

A California man was arrested on federal charges alleging he smuggled to China more than $300 million worth of export-controlled computer servers containing US-manufactured graphics processing units commonly used for AI applications, the US Justice Department said on Thursday. DETAILS AND QUOTES:

Lyft will pay $272.5 million to settle California driver wage theft claims

Lyft has agreed to pay $272.5 million to settle claims by the state of California and three of its largest cities that the company mislabeled drivers as independent contractors rather than its employees to save money. Lyft, Uber and other app-based services that rely on "gig workers" have been fighting worker misclassification claims for more than a decade

Super PAC backed by hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin spends $5 million ‌to aid Florida Republican

A super PAC backed by billionaire Ken Griffin has spent nearly $5 million on Florida's US Senate race to bolster Republican candidate Ashley Moody, a sign that major donors and party leaders are scrambling to defend seats once considered safe as President Donald Trump's popularity wanes. Across the US, Republicans running for the Senate and House are facing voter backlash, according to party officials and strategists, as Trump's approval rating slides and Democrats gain ground in races once viewed as long shots in November's midterm congressional elections.

Trump Medicare drug pricing model may apply to only four companies after exemptions

A Trump administration rule to cut hospital drug prices for Medicare patients may apply to as few as four drugmakers after exempting companies that signed separate "most favored nation" pricing agreements with the administration, according to the finalized rule. According to the rule published on Wednesday evening, Medicare's regulator plans to waive the requirement manufacturers that have signed separate deals with the White House participate in the price-setting model, called GLOBE.

US Postal Service to take extra steps to ensure ballot deliveries

The US Postal Service said Thursday it will take a series of extraordinary measures to ensure the delivery of millions of ballots for next month's 2026 congressional elections, including extending hours at some retail branches. USPS said in a memo seen by Reuters that retail branches may extend hours starting Oct. 4 through the Nov. 3 election to handle ballots and establish a "Ballot Postmark Only" line at retail counters or a drive-through Ballot Mail option. USPS also will conduct expedited handling, extra deliveries,

US judge denies request ‌to find Lindsay Clancy not guilty after mistrial

A Massachusetts judge who oversaw Lindsay Clancy's murder trial rejected a request on Thursday by her lawyers to declare her not guilty of murder, saying prosecutors presented sufficient evidence for a jury to find her responsible for killing her three young children in 2023. Clancy's lawyers had urged Judge William Sullivan in Plymouth to conclude that prosecutors had failed to prove she could be held criminally responsible for her children's deaths despite suffering from what they said was mental illness. Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4 after the jury deadlocked.

US Judge blocks housing grant cuts while anti-DEI challenge proceeds

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from canceling nearly $56 million in housing ‌counseling grants, preserving the funding while a legal challenge to the cuts moves forward. In an order issued late on Wednesday, US District Judge Jia Cobb suspended the September 30 deadline that would ordinarily cause the funds to lapse and revert to the Treasury, writing that she was "not presently in a position to grant or deny" the groups' request for broader relief but was also hesitant to allow the date to pass if doing so would cause the plaintiffs to permanently lose access to the funding.

Christa Pike getting "life-saving medical care" after surviving Tennessee execution

Christa Pike was critically ill and receiving "life-saving medical care" in a Nashville hospital on Thursday hours after she survived two attempts by Tennessee to execute her with lethal injections, her lawyers said, renewing scrutiny of capital punishment in the US. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in the 1990s after being convicted of a murder she carried out as a teenager. Her botched execution on Wednesday at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, the second this year in Tennessee, highlights the difficulties US states face in carrying out lethal injections and finding suitable alternative methods of capital punishment.

Parole granted to ex-officer convicted of Black man's 2018 murder in Dallas

Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was granted parole on Thursday after serving seven years of a 10-year prison sentence for the 2018 shooting death of a Black man while he was eating ice cream in his apartment, according to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. Guyger, who is white, was sentenced in 2019. A Texas jury found her guilty of murder for shooting her neighbor, Botham Jean, after she mistakenly walked into his apartment thinking it was her own.

US judge finds law criminalizing noncitizen voting unconstitutional

A US judge dismissed a federal case on Thursday that accused a Jamaican national of illegally voting, finding the law criminalizing noncitizen voting was unconstitutional and delivering a blow to ⁠the Trump administration's campaign against alleged election fraud. The ​ruling by Miami-based US District Judge David Leibowitz applies only to the case of Florida resident Chelsea Cox, who was charged in October 2025 with illegally voting in the 2020 election. It is ⁠not binding for judges in other cases.

Trump says he regrets nominating Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch, Barrett and Kavanaugh

US President Donald Trump said he regretted nominating three Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh — who have opposed him in recent rulings, according to a Time Magazine interview. The Republican president was asked about his recent comments regarding the three conservative justices in the interview, which was conducted on Monday.

Water wars come to the ballot box in Arizona

On Phoenix campaign signs, Arizona-wide TV ads and in debates for key US House races, one issue has bubbled to the top of politics in this drought-hit state: Water. Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat seeking reelection in the November 3 midterm polls, says, “Arizona’s water is for Arizonans” in a TV commercial claiming she fought the federal government this year for the state's fair share of the drought-stricken Colorado River.

US judge denies request to find Lindsay Clancy ⁠not guilty after mistrial

A Massachusetts judge who oversaw Lindsay Clancy's murder trial rejected a request on Thursday by her lawyers to declare her not guilty of murder, saying prosecutors presented sufficient evidence for a jury to find her responsible for killing her three young children in 2023. Clancy's lawyers had urged Judge William Sullivan in Plymouth to conclude that prosecutors had failed to prove she could be held criminally responsible for her children's deaths despite suffering from what they said was mental illness. Sullivan declared a mistrial on September 4 after the jury deadlocked.

Immigration judge rules US can deport president of Wisconsin's largest mosque

An immigration judge ruled that the US government can deport Palestinian American Salah Sarsour, who is the president of Wisconsin's largest mosque and a US permanent resident, under a Cold War-era law. Sarsour, who grew up in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was ​detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in late March and released in mid-June after a federal judge said he had raised a substantial free speech retaliation claim that would render his detention unlawful.

Trump's $500 Obamacare 'rebate' checks land in prime political battlegrounds

President Donald Trump's administration is sending $500 payments to nearly 1 million Americans this week, in a move that strategists say could potentially influence races that may determine whether his Republicans maintain control of Congress in the November midterm elections. The White House says the payments are a refund for what it describes as excessive fees charged to people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Factbox-US states take steps to curb ⁠diesel and gasoline prices

US states are taking a range of steps to curb diesel and gasoline prices that have soared in recent months due to supply disruptions stemming from the US war with Iran, Ukrainian strikes on Russia's refineries, and dwindling global inventories. Diesel hit a record of $6.53 a gallon a week ago, according to AAA data.

New York, 20 states sue EPA to block power plant carbon rule repeal

New York's attorney general on Thursday led a coalition of 25 states and cities in a lawsuit against the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency to block its repeal of greenhouse gas emission limits for power plants. Attorney General Letitia James and states including California and Michigan filed a lawsuit against the EPA in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to challenge its repeal of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which required US power plants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by installing carbon capture technology.

Explainer-What we know about the Cornell University rape investigation

New ⁠York state prosecutors ​have reopened an investigation into the alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell University student, after the woman filed a civil lawsuit last month saying several members of a campus fraternity drugged and assaulted her. The case has prompted public outcry and raised questions about how law enforcement and the university initially responded after the woman, then 20, reported the incident to police a few weeks after it occurred.

Historic low layoffs underpin US labor market; factory gate price pressures rising

New applications for US unemployment benefits drifted close to 57-year lows last week and layoffs decreased in September, suggesting labor market stability persisted even as employers remained cautious about boosting hiring. The report from the Labor Department on Thursday joined a raft of other data, including robust consumer spending in August, in painting a rosy picture of the economy despite rising headwinds from the US-Israeli war with Iran, which has driven diesel prices to record highs. Economists said robust corporate profits growth and resilient domestic demand were shielding workers from layoffs, for now.

Democratic surge predicted to hit Republican states hardest, scrambling Senate strategy

Kentucky Democrats say they have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to flip a US Senate seat in a Republican stronghold. But a couple of things are missing: their governor and money. Kentucky is one of several states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024 where Republicans are significantly trailing the president's performance, an indication that Democrats have expanded their pathway to a majority in November's midterm elections. It's not clear, however, that ⁠the party will invest its limited resources into flipping seats once considered to be out of reach.

Massachusetts man indicted for repeated calls, texts to Stephen Miller's wife

Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged a Massachusetts man with cyberstalking Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, accusing him of repeatedly calling and texting her and sending vulgar messages to her and her parents. Federal prosecutors in Boston secured an indictment charging John Anthony Proia III, 41, with cyberstalking a former political adviser and prominent figure in the Republican Party who is married to a high-level official.

Renee Good's family sues Trump administration over fatal Minneapolis shooting

The family of Renee Good, one of two US ⁠citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January, sued the Trump administration on Thursday, saying there had been "no accountability" for her killing during deportation sweeps. Good, 37, was shot dead in her car ⁠by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7 when she and her wife joined one of the city's daily protests against masked and armed federal agents deployed to Minnesota to arrest migrants for deportation.

Judge restores court-appointed Seattle federal prosecutor fired by Trump

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to reinstate a court-appointed federal prosecutor in Seattle whom President Donald Trump fired less than an hour after his appointment. Chief Judge Stanley Bastian of the federal court in Yakima, Washington, ruled preliminarily for Roger Rogoff in a lawsuit he filed in July after his ouster as the court-appointed US attorney for the Western District of Washington.

Leading Democrat asks AI firms for data on any Chinese access to sensitive code

A Democratic lawmaker is warning that Beijing could steal AI model weights developed by OpenAI, Anthropic and other top US firms, erasing the US edge over China in the AI race and posing a risk to US national security. OpenAI and Anthropic have reported multiple instances of Chinese AI firms like Moonshot or DeepSeek "distilling" their AI models, or training their own tools from the output ‌of leading Western models. But there are few known cases of any bad actor stealing model weights, the exact parameters and code ‌that make an AI model operate.

Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survives execution attempt

Christa Pike, convicted of murdering a schoolmate three decades ago, survived Tennessee's effort to execute her by means of lethal injection late on Wednesday, prison officials said, foiling the state's first attempt to put a woman to death in two centuries. Pike's condition following the ordeal was not immediately known, and ​it was not clear what legal avenues her lawyers or the state might pursue next after she was taken for medical treatment from the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.