Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Man who admitted role in Kansas 'swatting' death gets 20 years

A California man was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in federal prison for making hoax calls, including a so-called "swatting" incident where Kansas police responded to a false report and fatally shot an unarmed man, prosecutors said. Tyler Barriss, 26, of Los Angeles, California, pleaded guilty last November in U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kansas, to charges stemming from the December 2017 incident as well as dozens of similar hoax calls in which no one was hurt. Judge nixes Mexican holiday for executive charged in U.S. college admissions scandal

A federal judge on Friday nixed the international family vacation plans of a former senior executive at private equity firm TPG Capital charged in connection with the U.S. college admissions scandal, saying he posed a flight risk. Bill McGlashan, who prosecutors say was among the wealthy parents who engaged in fraud and bribery schemes to help get their children into colleges, had sought to go ahead with a planned family vacation to Mexico. Prisoners not entitled to gender reassignment surgery: U.S. appeals court

A federal appeals court on Friday said Texas prison officials do not violate transgender inmates' constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by refusing to provide them with gender reassignment surgery. In a 2-1 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled against Scott Lynn Gibson, who was born male, but has lived as a female since age 15 and goes by Vanessa. Republicans push easing U.S. Senate rules to help Trump nominations

Republicans in the U.S. Senate will attempt to alter its rules next week in order to accelerate the confirmation of President Donald Trump's nominees for some judgeships and sub-Cabinet level positions in his administration. Democrats, who control 47 of the Senate's 100 seats, have slowed the confirmation of scores of such appointees. U.S. judge strikes down land swap for road through Alaska wildlife refuge

A federal judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration land trade allowing construction of a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason said in a written ruling that Ryan Zinke, then secretary of the Department of the Interior, violated federal law in 2018 by summarily reversing an Obama-era policy without justification. Guatemalan migrant girl in U.S. custody died of sepsis: autopsy report

The death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl in U.S. federal custody in December was caused by strep-induced sepsis, a Texas medical examiner's autopsy report released on Friday showed. Jakelin Caal traveled with her father to a remote stretch of U.S. border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico, where they turned themselves in to border agents on Dec. 6. They were among tens of thousands of Central American migrants who have attempted to cross the U.S. southern border in recent months in a bid to escape poverty or violence in their home countries. Georgia lawmakers pass heartbeat abortion ban, joining four other U.S. states

Georgia's Republican-controlled legislature on Friday passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States, outlawing abortion if a doctor is able to detect a heartbeat. The state's House of Representatives passed the bill with a 92-78 vote, sending it to Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who is expected to sign it into law. The state Senate previously passed the measure. Honda says 16th U.S. death confirmed in air bag rupture

Honda Motor Co said on Friday it had confirmed a 16th U.S. death has been tied to a faulty Takata air bag inflator. The Japanese automaker said that after a joint inspection Friday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration it had confirmed a faulty air bag inflator was to blame for a June 2018 death of a driver after the crash of a 2002 Honda Civic in Buckeye, Arizona. Exclusive: More than 1 million acres of U.S. cropland ravaged by floods

At least 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of U.S. farmland were flooded after the "bomb cyclone" storm left wide swaths of nine major grain producing states under water this month, satellite data analyzed by Gro Intelligence for Reuters showed. Farms from the Dakotas to Missouri and beyond have been under water for a week or more, possibly impeding planting and damaging soil. The floods, which came just weeks before planting season starts in the Midwest, will likely reduce corn, wheat and soy production this year. Trump threatens closure of U.S.-Mexico border next week to stem asylum surge

President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to close the U.S. border with Mexico next week, potentially disrupting millions of legal border crossings and billions of dollars in trade, if Mexico does not stop immigrants from reaching the United States. "There's a very good likelihood that I'll be closing the border next week, and that will be just fine with me," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.