Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. attorney general will not recuse himself from Mueller probe

U.S. Attorney General William Barr will not recuse himself from overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible links between U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow, a Justice Department spokeswoman said on Monday. "Following General Barr's confirmation, senior career ethics officials advised that General Barr should not recuse himself from the special counsel's investigation. Consistent with that advice, General Barr has decided not to recuse," Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. South Carolina lottery winner claims record $877 million cash prize

The anonymous sole winner of a $1.5 billion U.S. Mega Millions drawing last fall has come forward to claim the jackpot, choosing to collect a record one-time cash sum of more than $877 million, South Carolina's lottery commission said on Monday. The winning Quick Pick Mega Millions ticket for the Oct. 23 drawing was purchased at a KC Mart convenience store in Simpsonville, South Carolina, officials said. U.S. insurers seek renewal of federal 'backstop' against acts of terrorism

U.S. insurers are pushing for the extension of a federal terrorism risk insurance program, hoping to fend off a possible gap that would leave their clients scrambling for alternate coverage. The program, which expires at the end of 2020, was created by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The law was passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when insurers suffered steep losses and some stopped offering terrorism risk insurance on commercial buildings. Congress on verge of rejecting Trump's border emergency

The U.S. Congress was on the verge of issuing a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump over his declaration of an emergency at the border with Mexico, with a top Republican predicting the Senate would approve a resolution to reject it. Already approved by the House of Representatives, the resolution to terminate the declaration has sufficient support in the Senate to be passed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday. Defiant U.S. sheriffs push gun sanctuaries, imitating liberals on immigration

A rapidly growing number of counties in at least four states are declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, refusing to enforce gun-control laws that they consider to be infringements on the U.S. constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Organizers of the pro-gun sanctuaries admit they took the idea from liberals who have created immigration sanctuaries across the United States where local officials defy the Trump administration's efforts to enforce tougher immigration laws. California pension ruling skips test of constitutional protections

The California Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the elimination of a program allowing public workers to boost their pensions was constitutional, but it sidestepped the bigger issue of constitutional protections for increasingly expensive public worker pension benefits that are eating away at the state's finances. The case brought by a California firefighters union against the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) appeared to be a candidate to test the legal right of public sector workers to accrue the same level of pension benefits throughout their career. This so-called California rule has limited the ability of the state to cut retirement benefits as a way to ease pension costs. North Carolina elections board sets new dates for House election

North Carolina's elections board on Monday set dates for the redo of a congressional election it ordered after finding the results of the 2018 vote were tainted by a ballot fraud scheme. The new primary election for the state's 9th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which stretches southeast from Charlotte to north of Whiteville along the state's southern border, will take place on May 14, the bipartisan state elections board said. Ex 'Beverly Hills, 90210' star Luke Perry dead at 52 after stroke

Actor Luke Perry, who rose to superstardom on the teen-oriented 1990s U.S. television drama "Beverly Hills 90210" and then aged into a fatherly role on comic-based "Riverdale," died on Monday at the age of 52 after suffering a "massive" stroke last week, his publicist said. Publicist Arnold Robinson said Perry died in a Los Angeles area hospital surrounded by his family and close friends, including his former wife Minnie Sharp, his two children, and his fiance Wendy Madison Bauer. Justice Ginsburg keeps busy as U.S. high court's writer-in-chief

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed little evidence of slowing down on Monday, issuing rulings in two business-related cases just 11 days before her 86th birthday and two months after undergoing lung cancer surgery. The liberal justice, who was named to the court in 1993 and is now its eldest member, had missed oral arguments in several cases in January while recuperating from her Dec. 21 surgery, but returned to the bench on Feb. 19 and has been an active participant since. Like 'giant knife,' tornadoes slash eastern Alabama, killing 23

Alabama residents and rescue teams on Monday sifted through the splintered remnants of homes torn apart by a string of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, including three children, in the deadliest burst of twisters to hit the United States since 2013. The tornadoes, spawned by a late-winter "supercell" thunderstorm, ripped through Lee County on Sunday with cyclonic winds of up to 170 miles (274 km) per hour, at step four of the six-step Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale of tornado strength.