Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Senator McSally, an Air Force veteran, says she was raped by a superior officer

U.S. Senator Martha McSally, the first female combat pilot in the U.S. Air Force, said on Wednesday she had been raped by a superior officer but did not report it because she blamed herself and did not trust the system. "The perpetrators abuse their position of power in profound ways, and in one case I was preyed upon and then raped by a superior officer," McSally, an Arizona Republican, said during a Senate hearing on sexual assault in the military. Prosecutors reach deal with ex-U.S. congressman from Illinois

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday agreed to drop felony fraud and theft charges against former U.S. Representative Aaron Schock if he repaid about $68,000 owed to his campaign committees and more than $42,000 in tax liabilities. Schock resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in 2015 after questions emerged about lavish spending to redecorate his Washington office in the style of the television series "Downton Abbey". R. Kelly arrested for unpaid child support after interview denying sex charges

R&B singer R. Kelly was arrested for a second time in recent weeks on Wednesday - this time for failure to pay child support - hours after lashing out in a television interview against charges that he had sexually assaulted teenage girls. Kelly was taken into custody in Chicago for owing more than $161,000 in child support to his three children with ex-wife Andrea Kelly. U.S. chef Mario Batali cuts ties with restaurants after abuse accusations

Celebrity chef and former television star Mario Batali sold his stakes in his U.S. restaurants on Wednesday, after accusations of sexual harassment caused him to be fired from a television cooking show and prompted a police investigation. Batali has sold his shares in the 16-restaurant operation, including Babbo and Del Posto in New York, to former partners Tanya Bastianich Manuali and her brother, Joe Bastianich, he said. Democrats bar Fox News from moderating debates after reported Trump ties

The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday said it will not allow Fox News to host any of its candidates' political debates through 2020, citing a report this week about the conservative channel's ties to U.S. President Donald Trump. "Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates," DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement provided to Reuters. Arizona monastery, motel turned into migrant shelters

A motel and a monastery are among pop-up shelters that have opened in the last six months in Arizona to house a rising number of migrants from Central America entering the United States to seek asylum. In January, Catholic Community Services (CCS) turned to the American Red Cross for cots and blankets to equip the former Benedictine monastery in Tucson, Arizona, as a shelter, said CCS Director of Operations Teresa Cavendish. Exclusive: For migrant youths claiming abuse, U.S. protection can be elusive

Growing up in eastern Honduras, Jose said his father would get drunk and beat him with a horse whip and the flat side of a machete. He said he watched his father, a coffee farmer whose crops succumbed to plague, hit his mother on the head with a pistol, sending her to the hospital for three days. At 17, Jose said, he hired a coyote to ferry him to the United States, seeking to escape his home life and violent feuding among his relatives, as well as seek better opportunities for himself and his siblings. He was picked up by border agents, then released pending deportation proceedings. Disability rights advocates win ruling over lack of NYC subway elevators

New York City's transit authority violated federal disability law when it replaced a subway station's stairs without installing an elevator, a federal judge has ruled, a decision that could require new elevators in future station renovations. The ruling, issued on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan, came as part of a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) filed in 2016 by disability rights groups, joined last year by the Justice Department. U.S. faces 'crisis' at southern border, Nielsen says

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday defended the government's position that the country faces a dire crisis due to migration at the U.S.-Mexico border in the face of fiery questioning from Democrats in Congress. Testifying before Congress for the first time since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in January, Nielsen defended President Donald Trump's decision to declare a national emergency to unlock funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. She also repeated previous calls for Congress to lift limits on how long families can be kept in immigration detention. Responding to unsafe military housing, U.S. armed forces unveil tenant bill of rights

The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines unveiled a proposed tenant bill of rights on Wednesday that would hand more power to military families facing housing hazards and place enhanced scrutiny on private landlords drawing billions in fees from their military partnerships. The measure, jointly released by the services in advance of Senate hearings scheduled for Thursday morning, could usher in a major overhaul of the military’s two-decade old housing privatization program. Among other steps, it will require the military to renegotiate contracts – worth billions of dollars – with the real estate companies and bondholders who back the deals, Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer said in an interview.