Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Oliver North steps down as NRA president amid dispute over 'damaging' information

Retired U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North will step down as president of the National Rifle Association, North said on Saturday, adding he was being forced out due to his allegations that NRA leaders engaged in financial improprieties. In a letter read to the organization's annual meeting in Indianapolis by an NRA board member, North, a conservative commentator best known for his central role in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, said he had hoped to run for re-election when his term ends on Monday. Boy hurled off Minnesota mall balcony now 'alert and conscious'

The 5-year-old boy thrown off a third-floor balcony at Minnesota's Mall of America by a stranger is no longer in critical condition, said his family, who hopes he will be home by June. More than 28,000 well-wishers from around the globe donated a total amount of more than $1 million to an online fundraiser set up for Landen Hoffman, who was hospitalized after the April 12 attack in the Bloomington mall, a major tourist attraction in the state. Winter tries a comeback in U.S. Midwest with up to a foot of snow

The phenomenon known as thundersnow announced the arrival of a storm expected to dump more than a half-foot of snow on the U.S. Midwest on Saturday, more than a month into spring. Midwesterners retrieved their winter wear from storage to trudge through a possible 6 to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) of snow predicted by evening in the Chicago area and more than a foot (30 cm) in some isolated areas of Minnesota, Iowa, southern portions of Wisconsin and northern Illinois, forecasters said. 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. U.S. warrant issued for accused ringleader of North Korean embassy raid in Madrid

U.S. authorities are focused on Southern California in their manhunt for a one-time human rights activist accused of leading a violent takeover of North Korea's embassy in Spain, according to a federal arrest warrant unsealed on Friday. Adrian Hong Chang is wanted by Spain in connection with the alleged embassy raid in February, but his lawyer denounced the U.S. Justice Department for seeking his arrest and extradition based on "the highly unreliable accounts of North Korean government witnesses." 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. 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. San Diego-area synagogue shooting leaves one worshipper dead, three wounded

A gunman walked into a San Diego-area synagogue crowded with Sabbath worshippers on Saturday and opened fire with an assault-style rifle, killing one woman inside and wounding three others in a hate crime carried out on the last day of Passover, authorities said. The suspect, a 19-year-old white male whose identity was not immediately made public, fled the scene by car and was arrested a short time later when he pulled over and surrendered to police, authorities said at a news conference. Democratic presidential candidates seek union support at workers' forum

Six Democratic presidential hopefuls declared their support for American workers and a $15 federal minimum wage on Saturday as they seek the backing of labor unions in their battle to become the candidate to take on Republican President Donald Trump next year. The candidates spoke to an audience of union workers in Las Vegas, decrying low wages and corporate greed, as they woo organized labor, an important voting bloc in the Democratic Party's presidential nominating battle.