Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Attorney general balks at closed-door testimony on Mueller findings

U.S. Attorney General William Barr objects to testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in a closed session dedicated to redacted portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report, a congressional Democratic aide said on Sunday. Barr is threatening to skip his planned appearance on Thursday, the aide told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Former U.S. deputy attorney general: If Trump was not president, he would be indicted

Former top Justice Department official Sally Yates said on Sunday that if Donald Trump were not president, he would have been indicted on obstruction charges in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Yates, a career federal prosecutor who rose to acting attorney general before Trump fired her in 2017 less than two weeks into his presidency, told NBC's "Meet the Press" the Republican president was shielded by department guidelines that a sitting president should not be indicted. 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. Crane collapse kills four, injures three in Seattle

A giant construction crane operating at the site of a future Google campus collapsed from the roof of a building and toppled across a Seattle intersection on Saturday, killing four people and injuring three others, authorities and local media said. The crane collapse occurred in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood shortly after 3:30 p.m. local time, crushing five cars and damaging a sixth at the intersection of Fairview Avenue North and Mercer Street, the Seattle Fire Department said. First swastikas, then synagogue attack: U.S. no safe haven for Israeli family

For one family caught up in the California synagogue shooting, a move from Israel to the United States in search of a safer life has been a journey "from fire to fire". Israel Dahan and three of his five children were at Sabbath services at Congregation Chabad in Poway, near San Diego, on Saturday when a gunman opened fire, killing a woman and wounding three others in what local authorities deemed a hate crime. Suspect captured after seven bodies found in Tennessee

A suspect in the killings of seven people in rural Tennessee was shot and captured by police after an hours-long manhunt triggered by the discovery of the bodies in two separate homes, authorities said on Sunday. Michael Cummins, 25, was in custody after suffering non-life-threatening injuries during his arrest on Saturday night, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. U.S. measles outbreak raises questions about immunity in adults

Adults in the United States who were vaccinated against measles decades ago may need a new dose depending on when they received the shot and their exposure risk, according to public health experts battling the nation’s largest outbreak since the virus was deemed eliminated in 2000. Up to 10 percent of the 695 confirmed measles cases in the current outbreak occurred in people who received one or two doses of the vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Synagogue shooting suspect believed to have acted alone, San Diego sheriff says

A 19-year-old man accused of opening fire on Sabbath worshippers in a deadly shooting rampage at a Southern California synagogue is believed to have acted alone, without help from any organized group, authorities said on Sunday. Police say the gunman walked into the suburban San Diego synagogue late on Saturday morning, the last day of the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover, and killed one woman and wounded three other people inside, using an assault-style rifle. Democrat O'Rourke accuses Trump White House of dictating Fox News content

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke attacked the close ties between Republican President Donald Trump and Fox News on Sunday, saying the White House has "free rein, almost" over what is broadcast on the cable television network. Democrats have long accused Fox of reporting that is biased in favor of the Republican Party and Trump. The president is an avid watcher of the network, and Sean Hannity, one of its stars, is an admirer of Trump and last year spoke at one of his rallies. U.S. commander overseeing Guantanamo Bay fired: Southern Command

The U.S. admiral in charge of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba has been fired "due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command," U.S. Southern Command said in a statement on Sunday. Rear Admiral John Ring was removed from the post on Saturday, the brief statement said, without giving details about why.