Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Chicago votes to choose between two black women for mayor

Chicago voters went to the polls on Tuesday to choose between two African-American women running for mayor, with the winner of the historic vote inheriting a city steeped in violent crime and wracked by fiscal woes. Lori Lightfoot, 56, the former president of independent civilian body the Chicago Police Board and a political outsider, faces Toni Preckwinkle, 72, a long-time local politician, in a runoff to become the 56th mayor of the third-largest U.S. city. U.S. Air Force again halts deliveries of Boeing KC-46 tanker aircraft

The U.S. Air Force said on Tuesday that it again stopped accepting deliveries of Boeing Co's KC-46 tanker aircraft after finding foreign object debris in the planes. Back in February, deliveries of the aircraft were halted by the U.S. Air Force because of the same issue in one of the aircraft. Deliveries resumed in March after Boeing ramped up the inspection process. North Carolina Republican Party chairman charged in bribery case

The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it had charged the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Robert "Robin" Hayes, and a major political donor in a corruption scheme that targeted a state official. According to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Hayes worked with business executive Greg Lindberg to bribe state insurance commissioner Mike Causey. Causey reported the effort to law enforcement officials and cooperated in the investigation, authorities say. Chinese woman arrested by Secret Service at Trump's Mar-a-Lago

A Chinese woman who got through security checkpoints at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida carrying a thumb drive coded with "malicious" software was arrested on Saturday for entering a restricted property and making false statements to officials, according to a court filing. Documents filed by the Secret Service on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida say that shortly after noon on Saturday, Yujing Zhang approached a Secret Service agent screening visitors to Mar-a-Lago seeking entrance to the club. U.S. disaster aid won't cover crops drowned by Midwest floods

The Black Hawk military helicopter flew over Iowa, giving a senior U.S. agriculture official and U.S. senator an eyeful of the flood damage below, where yellow corn from ruptured metal silos spilled out into the muddy water. And there's nothing the U.S. government can do about the millions of bushels of damaged crops here under current laws or disaster-aid programs, U.S. Agriculture Under Secretary Bill Northey told a Reuters reporter who joined the flight. Texas chemical plant fire kills one, injures two

A blast and fire at a chemical plant near Houston killed one person on Tuesday and injured two others, in an incident involving a highly flammable gas, officials said, less than a month after a similar fire in the region that burned for days. The fire at a plant operated by KMCO LLC in Crosby, Texas, northeast of Houston, led officials to temporarily order residents and schoolchildren within a mile of the plant to stay inside. Pittsburgh votes to restrict 'assault weapons,' challenge likely

Pittsburgh's city council on Tuesday approved restrictions on the use of some "assault weapons" and ammunition, passing bills introduced following a 2018 synagogue shooting, in a move gun-rights activists vowed to challenge. The all-Democratic council voted 6-3 to restrict the use of certain semi-automatic weapons, such as the Colt AR-15 rifle, which a lone gunman used in the October shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue which killed 11 people. Purdue's Sackler family fights 'inflammatory' Massachusetts opioid case

Members of the Sackler family behind OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP have asked a judge to toss a lawsuit by the Massachusetts attorney general that claims they helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, arguing it contains "misleading and inflammatory allegations." The wealthy family in a motion on Monday argued that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's lawsuit mischaracterized internal records to create the "false impression" they personally directed privately-held Purdue's marketing of painkillers. Former intelligence officials sue to end pre-publication review of writings

Two civil liberties groups on Tuesday sued three U.S. intelligence chiefs and the acting defense secretary, seeking to have declared unconstitutional their agencies' pre-publication reviews of former officials' writings and speeches. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute brought the lawsuit on behalf of five former intelligence and military officials. They argued the reviews as currently practiced breach the Constitution's First Amendment prohibition on government abridgement of freedom of speech. Mourners injured in stampede chaos at vigil for slain rapper

At least two people were critically injured and 10 others hurt after hundreds of fans stampeded during a vigil for slain, grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle in Los Angeles late Monday, officials and media reports said. There were initial reports of shots fired in a crowd gathered outside Hussle's clothing store in south Los Angeles, where the musician was shot and killed on Sunday, police and media reports said.