Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Pence arrives in Nebraska as U.S. Midwest reels from historic floods

Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Nebraska on Tuesday to survey the devastation unleashed across the U.S. Midwest by floods that have killed four people and caused more than a billion dollars in damage to crops, livestock and roads. The floodwaters have inundated a large swath of farm states Iowa and Nebraska along the Missouri River, North America's longest river, prompting half of Iowa's 99 counties to declare states of emergency."Touched down in Omaha, Nebraska to survey flood damage & thank volunteers & emergency personnel," Pence said on Twitter, in a post that included photos of him meeting with the governors of both states and lawmakers. Trump gets a U.S. Supreme Court victory on immigration detention

The Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed the U.S. government's authority to detain immigrants awaiting deportation anytime - potentially even years - after they have completed prison terms for criminal convictions, handing President Donald Trump a victory as he pursues hardline immigration policies. The court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines, with its conservative justices in the majority and its liberal justices dissenting, that federal authorities could place such immigrants into indefinite detention anytime without the possibility of bail, not just immediately after they finish prison sentences. Statue of Liberty climber sentenced to community service, probation

A woman convicted of trespassing and disorderly conduct after she climbed the Statue of Liberty's stone pedestal on July 4 last year to protest U.S. immigration policy was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and five years' probation on Tuesday. Therese Patricia Okoumou arrived at her sentencing hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein in Manhattan with her whole face in clear tape, wearing a headband that said "I CARE". She removed the tape after Gorenstein said he would not proceed otherwise. Patriots owner Kraft can avoid prosecution in Florida prostitution sting: prosecutors

The owner of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots could be spared prosecution on charges of soliciting prostitution in Florida if he agrees to community service and other obligations, a spokesman for prosecutors said on Tuesday. Robert Kraft, the National Football League team owner, is receiving the same offer from the Office of the State Attorney for Palm Beach County as the other first-time misdemeanor offenders caught up in the case last month, said Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the office. Edmondson declined to say if Kraft has agreed to the offer for avoiding prosecution. Houston petrochemical fire spreads, Texas expands air monitoring

Houston officials and environmental groups raced to expand air monitoring after a raging fire at a Mitsui & Co petrochemical storage site spread on Tuesday, billowing acrid smoke that could be seen and smelled miles away. The blaze at Mitsui unit Intercontinental Terminals Co in Deer Park, Texas, has ignited or consumed 12 of 15 tanks at the site, officials said in a late Tuesday briefing. It would be another day before firefighters would know if the inferno could be contained, said an official with an energy industry group helping battle the fire. U.S. judge rebuts Trump on transgender troop limits

A federal judge on Tuesday contradicted the Trump administration's "incorrect" claim that no legal blocks remain for it to enforce a contentious policy to restrict many transgender individuals from the U.S. armed forces starting on April 12. In a three-page notice, U.S. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said an injunction that she issued against the policy in 2017 remains in place. Missouri River flooding catches small Nebraska town off guard

When Jim and Rose Downing heard forecasts last week for dangerously high water in their Nebraska hometown on the Missouri River, they were nonplussed since their house had not flooded in 100 years. Rose is the third generation of her family to reside in the brick home in the Gunnysack Flats neighborhood near downtown Peru, Nebraska, and 2 miles west of a levee that townspeople said never faltered in the past. California university says students tied to admissions scam could face expulsion

The University of Southern California said it may expel students tied to a brazen U.S. college-admissions scam after reviewing their records, which could lead the college to throw out "Full House" actress Lori Loughlin's two daughters. The school said on Monday night it has already "placed holds on the accounts of students who may be associated with the alleged admissions scheme," preventing them from registering for classes or acquiring transcripts. No re-sentencing for Chicago policeman in Laquan McDonald murder, court rules

The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request by state prosecutors to hold a new sentencing hearing for ex-Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke who was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for murdering black teenager Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke, 40, who is white, was convicted in October in the shooting death of 17-year-old McDonald in 2014 in a case that highlighted racial tensions in America's third-largest city. He is the first on-duty Chicago police officer to be convicted for the killing of a black person. West Virginia sues Catholic diocese for knowingly hiring sexual abusers of children

West Virginia officials sued the state's Roman Catholic diocese on Tuesday, accusing the church of knowingly employing priests and lay people in schools, parishes and camps who admitted to sexually assaulting children. The lawsuit alleges the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston violated consumer protection laws by failing to disclose possible unsafe conditions at schools, parishes and camps caused by the employment of people who had records of child sexual assault. It seeks unspecified financial damages.