Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. California couple sentenced to life in prison in severe child abuse case

A Southern California couple was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on Friday after the pair pleaded guilty to charges stemming from grim, headline-making accusations they beat, starved and shackled their 13 children in the family's home, prosecutors said. David Turpin, 57, and his wife Louise Turpin, 50, had agreed to be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison as part of an agreement with Riverside County prosecutors that saw them plead guilty in February to torture, child abuse and false imprisonment charges. Solemn service to mark 20th anniversary of Columbine High massacre

A week-long series of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre culminates on Saturday with a remembrance ceremony celebrating the lives of the 13 victims slain in the rampage. On April 20, 1999, two Columbine students, just three weeks shy of graduation, stormed the suburban Denver school armed with shotguns and semiautomatic weapons, fatally shooting 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide. Florida man arrested for threatening members of U.S. Congress

U.S. officials arrested a South Florida man on Friday for leaving racist and obscenity-laden voicemails with three Democratic members of Congress that defended U.S. President Donald Trump and directed ire at U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar. John Kless, 49, of Tamarac, Florida appeared before a magistrate judge in the Southern District of Florida, charged with making threatening communications. Bail was set at $25,000. Deadly storm knocks out power in U.S. South, threatens east coast

Severe storms that killed three people in the U.S. South moved eastward on Friday, causing widespread power outages and threatening tornadoes along the east coast from Pennsylvania to Florida, forecasters said. The storm took a hard aim at Florida and Georgia on Friday morning, knocking out power in more than 150,000 homes and businesses across those two states, according to poweroutage.us. U.S. service member dies in non-combat incident in Iraq: statement

An American service member died in a "non-combat incident" on Saturday in Ninawa Province, Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State said in a statement. The statement did not identify the service member, nor give details of the incident, and said further information would be released "as appropriate." Vulnerable House Democrats tread carefully in wake of Mueller report

Vulnerable House Democrats, mindful of President Donald Trump's continued strength among Republican voters, are using caution in how they respond to the special counsel's report, which detailed Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation into Russian efforts to help him win the White House. More than 30 Democratic representatives, many of whom are in their first term, represent districts that supported Trump in 2016. The party's chances of keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives likely hinge its ability to defend those seats. Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman pleads guilty in New York sex cult case

Seagram liquor heiress Clare Bronfman pleaded guilty on Friday to harboring an illegal immigrant and enabling credit card fraud as part of an alleged sex cult based in upstate New York. Bronfman, 40, entered her plea to the two criminal counts before U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. She is one of several people charged in connection with a secretive organization called Nxivm, which federal prosecutors have described as a racketeering organization. Trump approval drops 3 points to 2019 low after release of Mueller report: Reuters/Ipsos poll

The number of Americans who approve of President Donald Trump dropped by 3 percentage points to the lowest level of the year following the release of a special counsel report detailing Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election, according to an exclusive Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll. The poll, conducted Thursday afternoon to Friday morning, is the first national survey to measure the response from the American public after the U.S. Justice Department released Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report that recounted numerous occasions in which Trump may have interfered with the investigation. Man who mailed white powder to Trump's sons gets probation

A Massachusetts man was sentenced on Friday to five years of probation after admitting he mailed threatening letters filled with a suspicious white powder to several prominent people, including U.S. President Donald Trump's sons. Federal prosecutors in Boston had sought three years in prison for Daniel Frisiello, 25, of Beverly, Massachusetts, whose hoax letters included one in February 2018 addressed to Donald Trump Jr. Trump's then-wife, Vanessa, opened the letter and was taken to the hospital. Admitted Russian agent Butina asks U.S. court to be lenient

Maria Butina, who has admitted to working as a Russian agent to infiltrate an influential U.S. gun rights group and make inroads with conservative activists and Republicans, asked the court to sentence her to time served ahead of her April 26 sentencing, according to court documents. Butina, 30, a former graduate student at American University who publicly advocated for gun rights, pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Russia. She has remained in custody since her arrest in July 2018.