Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Trump tells Americans: Go get your measles vaccination

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday urged Americans to protect themselves with the measles vaccination as the number of cases of the once-eradicated disease in the United States hit the highest levels since 2000. The growing outbreak in pockets across the country has triggered multiple public health efforts seeking to limit exposure to measles, including quarantines at two California universities. Over 1,000 migrants break out of southern Mexico detention center

More than a thousand migrants broke out of a detention center in southern Mexico on Thursday evening, authorities said, in a fresh sign of how a surge in arrivals has stretched the country's resources to the limit. More than half of the roughly 1,300 migrants later returned to the Siglo XXI facility in the border city of Tapachula in Chiapas state, but about 600 are still unaccounted for, the National Migration Institute said in a statement. Trump says U.S. paid no money to North Korea over Warmbier

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from North Korea to cover its care of the college student, who died shortly after he was returned to the United States after 17 months in a North Korean prison. Russian agent Butina begs U.S. judge for mercy, gets 18 months in prison

Admitted Russian agent Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday after the Siberia native, her voice breaking with emotion, begged a judge for mercy and expressed remorse for conspiring with a Russian official to infiltrate a gun rights group and influence U.S. conservative activists and Republicans. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a sentence that matched the prison term prosecutors requested and also agreed to have Butina, 30, deported back to Russia after she completes her incarceration. The sentence included the nine months Butina already has served in jail since her July arrest, meaning she has about nine more months behind bars. Ex-Minnesota cop denies overreacting when he shot Australian woman

A former Minnesota policeman on trial for murder on Friday denied overreacting when he fatally shot an Australian woman who approached his patrol car in a dark alley. Mohamed Noor, 33, was testifying for a second day in a Minneapolis court. He is charged with murdering 40-year-old Justine Ruszczyk Damond, whom he shot through his car window on the night of July 15, 2017 while responding to her 911 call to report a possible sexual assault. Uptick in Trump white collar prosecutions may ease lawyers' pain

An uptick in white-collar prosecutions by the Trump administration could bring relief to high-end defense lawyers, who have been searching for work after years of declining federal prosecutions. Many white-collar lawyers have been fretting about their caseloads since the Trump administration took charge of the U.S. Department of Justice, worrying that it would continue or accelerate the declining level of activity under the last years of the Obama administration. Top Kansas court rules state constitution protects abortion rights

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state's constitution protects a woman's right to an abortion and upheld an injunction blocking a state law that would have banned a common second trimester abortion procedure. The ruling would protect the right to abortion in Kansas even if the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognized a right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution. New York Archdiocese lists 120 former clergy accused of abuse

The New York Archdiocese, one of the largest in the United States, on Friday identified 120 former Roman Catholic bishops, priests and deacons who were accused of sexually abusing children. The archdiocese was the latest in the United States to publicly list the names of former clergy members accused of abuse as the church faces state and federal investigations into its handling of decades of allegations of sexual misconduct by priests. Not so fast: Trump's Alaska drilling study slammed by U.S. wildlife regulator

The Trump administration failed to adequately consider oil spills, climate change and the welfare of polar bears in its expedited study of proposed drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to comments published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week. The unusually harsh criticism from federal wildlife regulators could deal a blow to one of the most high-profile items in President Donald Trump’s energy agenda, and reflects the pitfalls of the administration’s drive to speed up big projects with quicker, shorter environmental studies. Pentagon to send more troops to Mexico border, some in contact with migrants

The Pentagon said on Friday that it expected to send about 300 additional troops to the border with Mexico including roughly 100 cooks who would hand out meals, breaking with past policy to avoid troops coming in contact with migrants. It is the latest sign of a growing U.S. military support role for President Donald Trump's politically charged immigration policies.