Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Residents told to shelter in place after Texas petrochemical plant fire

Residents of a Houston-area community were told to remain indoors and schools were closed on Thursday after a petrochemical plant fire that burned for days released high levels of volatile organic compounds into the air. The three-day blaze at Mitsui unit Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC) in Deer Park, Texas, was extinguished early on Wednesday. No injuries were reported. Trump's border wall money may come at expense of schools for military kids

The U.S. Department of Defense is proposing to pay for President Donald Trump's much-debated border wall by shifting funds away from projects that include $1.2 billion for schools, childcare centers and other facilities for military children, according to a list it has provided to lawmakers. The Pentagon gave Congress a list on Monday that included $12.8 billion of construction projects for which it said funds could be redirected. Around 10 percent of the list relates to educational establishments and includes school buildings for the children of service members in places like Germany, Japan, Kentucky and Puerto Rico. Ford adds production of electric vehicles at second North American site

Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday it is adding production of a fully electric vehicle at a second North American plant as part of its $11 billion investment plan set last year. The No. 2 U.S. automaker said it is investing about $900 million in southeast Michigan and creating 900 jobs through 2023 as part of its electric vehicle push. That includes a plan to invest more than $850 million to expand production capacity at its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant to build EVs. In early campaigning, 2020 Democrats try out tactics for taking on Trump

In the most polarized political environment in decades, Democratic voters want to know how their eventual nominee will match up against President Donald Trump in the November 2020 general election. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York appears willing to go the furthest yet, at least symbolically, in trying to prove she is ready to go toe-to-toe with the president. More flood waters rising in storm damaged U.S. Midwest

As icy, lethal flood waters fed by rains and melting snow recede in Nebraska and Iowa, leaving destroyed homes, drowned cattle and swamped farmland, Midwest states downstream were set on Thursday for a relentless surge of the Missouri River. Flooding from last week's storm has already caused nearly $1.5 billion in damage in Nebraska, killed at least four people with another missing. U.S. farmers face devastation following Midwest floods

Midwestern farmers have been gambling they could ride out the U.S.-China trade war by storing their corn and soybeans anywhere they could - in bins, plastic tubes, in barns or even outside. Now, the unthinkable has happened. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the Farm Belt across Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and several other states. Early estimates of lost crops and livestock are approaching $1 billion in Nebraska alone. With more flooding expected, damages are expected to climb much higher for the region. Harvard sued by descendant of U.S. slave photographed in 19th century

A descendant of an American slave on Wednesday sued Harvard University to gain possession of photos of her great-great-great grandfather that the school commissioned in 1850 on behalf of a professor trying to prove the inferiority of black people. The photos, depicting a black man named Renty and his daughter Delia, were taken as part of a study by Harvard Professor Louis Agassiz and are among the earliest known photos of American slaves. They are currently kept at the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnography at Harvard's Cambridge, Massachusetts campus. Justice Thomas speaks as U.S. top court confronts racial bias in jury selection

U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared poised to side with a black Mississippi death row inmate put on trial six times for a 1996 quadruple murder who accused a prosecutor of repeatedly blocking black potential jurors, though the court's only black member sounded skeptical. Justice Clarence Thomas, who had not posed a question during an oral argument in three years, asked several in the case involving Curtis Flowers, 48, who has argued that his constitutional right to a fair trial was violated. For asylum seekers in Mexico, U.S. judge asks, 'How does the court serve them?'

A U.S. judge on Wednesday questioned how the government would be able to properly attend to Central American asylum seekers forced to live in Mexico while their claims are processed, on the same day the government expanded the program to El Paso. The program is a key part of measures by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to curb the flow of mostly Central American migrants trying to enter the United States. Labrador retriever fetches top U.S. dog breed honor for record 28th year

The loyal and dependable Labrador Retriever hung on for the 28th year in a row to the title of America's most popular dog in 2018, the American Kennel Club said on Wednesday. The top 10 dog breeds in the United States in 2018 remained unchanged from last year except for the rise of the German shorthaired pointer and the decline of the Yorkshire terrier, which swapped ninth and tenth ranks, said the AKC, the world's largest purebred dog registry, based in New York City.