Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. appeals court denies Manning's bail request, upholds contempt finding

Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning will remain in jail after a federal appeals court on Monday denied her request to be released on bail, and upheld a lower court's decision to hold Manning in civil contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury. The ruling is a blow to Manning, who has been detained since March after she declined to answer questions in connection with the government’s long-running investigation into Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. Dow locks union workers out of Houston-area plant

Dow Inc locked 226 employees out of its Houston-area chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas, on Monday afternoon after United Steelworkers union (USW) workers rejected the latest labor contract proposal, USW officials said. "Our Deer Park site will continue to operate in the safe and reliable manner our neighbors, employees and customers have come to expect of us; but it will be without the United Steelworkers after 2 p.m. on April 22nd," Dow spokeswoman Ashley Mendoza said on Monday. U.S. Supreme Court takes up major gay, transgender job discrimination cases

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether U.S. law banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sex protects gay and transgender workers, as the conservative-majority court waded into a fierce dispute involving a divisive social issue. At issue in the high-profile legal fight is whether gay and transgender people are covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex as well as race, color, national origin and religion. President Donald Trump's administration has argued that Title VII does not cover sexual orientation or gender identity. U.S. records 71 new measles cases in week as outbreak spreads

The United States recorded 71 new measles cases last week, a 13 percent increase as the country faces its second-worst outbreak of the disease in almost two decades, federal health officials said on Monday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had recorded 626 cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease in 22 states as of April 19, the highest rate of infection in five years. Kentucky Derby a magnet for human trafficking, officials warn

Human traffickers are likely to prey on vulnerable young women and children at this year's Kentucky Derby, state and local officials warned on Monday, and urged spectators to be alert to people with matching tattoos or branding marks. The Derby, the best-known horse race in the United States, takes place this year on May 4 and is expected to draw more than 150,000 people to Louisville, Kentucky. Law enforcement officials and anti-human trafficking activists told a news conference that like most major sporting events, the world-famous race would also attract predators looking for victims and buyers of sex, sometimes known as johns. Supreme Court hears dispute over Trump census citizenship question

The U.S. Supreme Court, in one of the most consequential cases of its current term, on Tuesday will hear the Trump administration's bid to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a plan opponents have called a Republican effort to scare immigrants from taking part in the population count. Lower courts have blocked the question, ruling that the administration violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution in seeking to include it on the census form. The nine Supreme Court justices will hold an extended 80-minute argument session in the administration's appeal, with a ruling due by the end of June. Boys now allowed to dance on Minnesota high school teams

An organization that oversees high school sports in Minnesota has rescinded its rule preventing boys from joining their high schools' competitive dance teams. The change announced on Friday night by the Minnesota State High School League followed a March 6 decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minnesota blocking the rule's enforcement. Wisconsin woman taught bomb-making online for Islamic State: prosecutors

A Wisconsin woman used hacked Facebook accounts to provide lessons in making bombs and poison on behalf of the Islamic State militant group, prosecutors said Monday. Waheba Issa Dais, 46, of Cudahy, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to one count of "attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization," the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Wisconsin said in a release. Leader of armed group stopping migrants at U.S.-Mexico border to face federal charges

The leader of an armed group that is stopping undocumented migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico is expected in court on Monday as federal prosecutors crack down on civilians attempting to enforce immigration policy. The FBI on Saturday arrested Larry Hopkins, leader of the United Constitutional Patriots group, whose camouflage-wearing armed members claim to have helped U.S. officials detain some 5,600 migrants in the last two months. Six dead in crash of twin-engine plane in Texas

All six people on board a twin-engine plane died when it crashed on a private ranch near an airport in Kerrville, Texas on Monday, officials said. The pilot of the Beechcraft BE58 was preparing to land at Kerrville Municipal Airport when the plane went down, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford.