Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Trump foe Michael Avenatti indicted for financial crimes

Michael Avenatti, the combative lawyer known for his battles with U.S. President Donald Trump, was indicted on charges of defrauding clients, including allegations that he withheld a multimillion-dollar settlement he won for a paraplegic man, prosecutors said on Thursday. The indictment came about three weeks after Avenatti, who gained national fame for representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in her litigation against Trump, was arrested in New York on separate criminal complaints filed by federal prosecutors in New York and California. New York plans to sue EPA over GE's 'incomplete' Hudson River cleanup

New York state officials plan to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for allowing General Electric Co to stop clearing the Hudson River of PCB contamination before the cleanup work was finished. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James announced the planned lawsuit on Thursday, after the EPA issued a "certificate of completion" permitting GE to stop dredging until further studies showed whether it had done enough cleanup. Pennsylvania man charged with posting online hate messages

A Pennsylvania man has been charged by federal prosecutors with posting online hate messages and threats, including a digitally created image that appeared to show himself pointing an AR-15 rifle at a congregation of Jewish men. Corbin Kauffman, 30, of Lehighton, Pennsylvania, is accused of using online aliases to post hundreds of anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-Muslim messages and images on Minds.com, a social media network, according to David Freed, the U.S. attorney in Harrisburg. U.S. military advances sprawling mission to quell housing-safety scandal

One U.S. military base has dubbed it Operation Victory Homefront. It's a mission the world's most powerful military never envisioned. To safeguard American service families living on U.S. bases around the world, the military branches have been dispatching commanders to visit nearly 300,000 housing units since February and document health and safety hazards – many of the military's own making. Son of sheriff's deputy charged with burning three Louisiana black churches

The son of a sheriff's deputy was charged with burning down three predominately black churches in southern Louisiana over the past two weeks, officials said on Thursday, saying they acted quickly out of concern he would strike again. Holden Matthews, 21, a white resident of St. Landry Parish, the county where the fires occurred, was charged with three counts of simple arson on religious buildings, each count of which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years, Louisiana Fire Marshal H. "Butch" Browning said. Chicago sues actor Jussie Smollett for police costs

The city of Chicago filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Jussie Smollett, saying the actor owes it over $130,000 for police costs incurred in the investigation of a hate crime that authorities allege was phony, according to legal documents. The lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court over two weeks after prosecutors in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office dismissed all criminal charges against the "Empire" actor. U.S. airport-security head named as No. 2 Homeland Security official

The new chief of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) named the United States' top airport-security official, David Pekoske, his acting deputy on Thursday, as President Donald Trump overhauls the leadership of the domestic-security agency. The move, by Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan, who took office on Wednesday, temporarily fills a leadership vacuum at the top of DHS, which is responsible for everything from border protection to disaster response. Oh, brother! NASA twins study shows how space changes the human body

An American astronaut experienced multiple biological changes in space but returned to normal - with some exceptions - after coming back to Earth, according to a study involving twin brothers that shed light on how space flight affects the human body. In research published on Thursday, scientists compared Scott Kelly to identical twin Mark Kelly after Scott spent 340 days in orbit on the International Space Station and Mark remained Earth-bound. Both are now retired as NASA astronauts, and Mark is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona. A new 'bomb cyclone' blizzard hits U.S. Plains and Midwest

A "bomb cyclone" blizzard, the second in a month, hit the Rockies on Wednesday and spun into the U.S. Plains and Midwest, bringing fears of more flooding in areas still recovering from last month's deluge. Warm spring temperatures on Tuesday, upwards of 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Denver, gave way to frigid 20s, heavy snow, gale-force winds and life-threatening conditions, the National Weather Service said. U.S. House Democrats blame Trump for worsening border crisis

U.S. House of Representatives Democrats are accusing Republican President Donald Trump of aggravating a crisis situation at the southern U.S. border, saying he has not used funds available to help deal with a surge of migrants and exacerbated the problem with his attempts to crack down. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that bipartisan immigration reform, which has eluded Congress and the White House for years, is still the solution. It is in fact "inevitable," Pelosi said on the sidelines of a Democratic party meeting in Leesburg, Virginia.