Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Democrats in Congress authorize subpoenas for Trump-Russia report, legal battle looms

U.S. congressional Democrats on Wednesday authorized a powerful committee chairman to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full report on Russia's role in the 2016 election, moving closer to a legal clash with President Donald Trump's administration. The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to enable its chairman, Jerrold Nadler, to subpoena the Justice Department to obtain Mueller's unredacted report and all underlying evidence as well as documents and testimony from five former Trump aides including political strategist Steve Bannon. U.S. agency drops plan to adopt international vehicle window safety standards

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday it was dropping a 2012 proposal to harmonize U.S. vehicle window safety standards with international rules. Under the Obama administration, the auto safety agency known as NHTSA proposed adopting international rules on glazing materials agreed to by a world forum in 2004. Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin warned about discussing U.S. college scam with their kids

A U.S. judge on Wednesday warned parents charged in the largest college admissions scandal in U.S. history, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, to avoid discussing the case with their children, who are potential witnesses. Prosecutors had wanted U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley in Boston to go further and prohibit the 12 wealthy parents who appeared before her from talking about the case with their children without a lawyer present. U.S. Democrats question Mar-a-Lago security after Chinese intruder

Congressional Democrats raised questions on Wednesday about security at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after a Chinese woman carrying electronic devices bluffed her way through security checks last weekend. Representative Elijah Cummings, the Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, said the Secret Service, which protects the president, will brief him and top committee Republican Jim Jordan on the incident. U.S. says Alabama state prisons 'routinely' fail to protect inmates from abuse

The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday accused Alabama's state prisons of regularly violating the constitutional rights of male inmates by failing to protect them from violence and sexual abuse. In a letter https://bit.ly/2CUDMcW to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, prosecutors and the country's top civil rights law enforcement official said they had evidence the state was violating prisoners' Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. House committee seeks Trump tax returns from IRS

The Democratic chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee asked the Internal Revenue Service for six years of President Donald Trump's personal and business tax returns on Wednesday, in a long-awaited move that is widely expected to lead to a lengthy court battle with the Trump administration. The request, in a letter from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, is viewed by Democrats in the House of Representatives as a vital first step toward oversight of Trump's income taxes and business network, which some lawmakers believe could be rife with conflicts of interest and potential tax law violations. Biden, mulling White House run, seeks to stem fallout from women's complaints

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attempted on Wednesday to tamp down a controversy over allegations of unwanted physical contact with women, releasing a video in which he pledged to be “more mindful" of respecting "personal space." The move marked the most extensive and personal effort yet by Biden to quell the furor ahead of a likely bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. An announcement is expected later this month. Bike-riding slasher wanted for several attacks across Los Angeles

Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles have appealed to the public for help in capturing a man they say has slashed the faces of at least four people, seemingly at random, as he rides through the city on a bicycle. The Los Angeles Police Department released photo and video images of the suspect, described as a Latino man between 18 and 30 with a shaved head, wearing a dark brown shirt with a white design and riding a black and green mountain bike. American kidnapped on Ugandan safari, $500,000 ransom demanded

An American woman and her driver have been kidnapped at Uganda's most popular wildlife park by gunmen demanding a ransom of $500,000, police said on Wednesday. Kimberley Sue Endecott, 35, and Ugandan driver Jean Paul were on a game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park when four gunmen ambushed their vehicle on Tuesday evening, a police statement said. U.S. states sue to undo Trump rollback of healthy school lunch rules

Several U.S. states sued the Trump administration on Wednesday to undo its recent decision that allowed fewer whole grains and more sodium in school breakfasts and lunches. The states accused the U.S. Department of Agriculture of ignoring federal dietary guidelines and scientific research on children's nutrition when it eased rules championed by former first lady Michelle Obama to make school meals healthier.