Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. In major religion case, Supreme Court weighs Maryland cross dispute

The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday takes up one of the biggest cases of its current term when it weighs whether a cross-shaped war memorial on public land in Maryland is an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion. The so-called Peace Cross, a 40-foot-tall (12 meters) concrete memorial to 49 men from Maryland's Prince George's County killed in World War One, is situated on public land at a busy road intersection in Bladensburg just outside Washington. Cohen accuses Trump over WikiLeaks, Moscow project, hush payments

Michael Cohen, the former "fixer" and personal lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, will testify on Wednesday that Trump knew ahead of time about a leak of emails that would hurt his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Cohen will also tell Congress that Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow, even as he campaigned for the presidency and publicly said he had no business interests in Russia, according to a draft of Cohen's planned testimony. Lockheed expects F-35 flying costs will take time to come down: executive

Lockheed Martin Corp expects it will take around 15 to 20 years to bring the cost per flight hour of the F-35 below fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16, the head of the F-35 program said on Wednesday. The U.S. Air Force, the largest global customer for the F-35, has launched a push to drive down the cost of flying and servicing F-35s to the same levels as current fighters without stealth capabilities. Most Americans back transgender troops: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Nearly 60 percent of Americans said transgender people should be allowed to serve in the U.S. armed forces, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted ahead of a congressional panel's review, set for Wednesday, of Trump administration curbs on transgender service. The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22 ruled in favor of letting the Trump administration enforce its policy of barring many transgender people from the military. Implementation of the policy has been delayed by legal wrangling in a lower court case that the Supreme Court did not directly address. Manhattan drivers may soon face congestion fee to pay for subway fix

Drivers entering the most congested part of Manhattan would have to pay a charge to help fund repairs to New York City's deteriorating subway system under a plan announced on Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. If the plan is adopted, New York may become the first major U.S. city to follow the lead of London, which began levying a congestion charge on vehicles driving into the city center in 2003, and a handful of other international cities. Former U.S. AG Whitaker to clarify House testimony: Nadler

Former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker agreed to meet with lawmakers to clarify his testimony, a congressional leader said on Tuesday, referring to an appearance where Whitaker was quizzed about whether President Donald Trump had sought to influence investigations. "I want to thank Mr. Whitaker for volunteering to meet with us to clarify his @HouseJudiciary testimony," Representative Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, tweeted, saying he hoped to schedule Whitaker in the "coming days." Pennsylvania teen found alive after five family members murdered

A teen whose mother and twin 9-year-old sisters were among five family members killed in their Pennsylvania home was staying at a friend's house at the time of the murders and is safe, officials said on Tuesday. Joshua Campbell, 17, was not at home when his aunt Shana Decree, 45, and her daughter Dominique Decree, 19, are alleged to have murdered five relatives in their apartment in Morrisville, about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Philadelphia, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said. Long Island train strikes truck, killing three: authorities

Three people were killed on Tuesday when a commuter train headed into New York City collided with their vehicle, local police said. The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train bound for Penn Station in Manhattan struck the truck at a little after 7:15 p.m. (0015 GMT) in Westbury, New York, the train service said on Twitter. U.S. denied tens of thousands more visas in 2018 due to travel ban: data

The U.S. State Department refused more than 37,000 visa applications in 2018 due to the Trump administration's travel ban, up from less than 1,000 the previous year when the ban had not fully taken effect, according to agency data released on Tuesday. The United States denies nearly 4 million visa applications a year for a variety of reasons, including for practicing polygamy, abducting children or simply not qualifying for the visa in question. The data released Tuesday was the first comprehensive look at the human impact of Republican President Donald Trump's ban, imposed shortly after he took office and initially blocked by federal courts. Russian River flooding in Northern California triggers evacuations

A rain-swollen river in Northern California was overflowing its banks early on Wednesday, after authorities ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents in the area and warned that any stragglers could be stranded. Authorities in Sonoma County, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of San Francisco, issued the evacuation orders on Tuesday as the Russian River threatened to flood.