US News Roundup: Train derails in Nevada; U.S. targets families for deportation

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Nine-year-old who defies labels helps teach educators about queer youth

When a third-grade teacher from Texas asked her mostly 8-year-old students what they wanted to be when they grow up, one of them wrote on the white board: "drag queen." That response came from Keegan, now 9, a "gender creative" kid, in his mother's words, illustrating just one of the challenges facing educators as they accommodate the range of gender identities that students might express.

U.S. Congress-White House budget, debt limit talks sputter: congressional leaders

Negotiations on Wednesday between the Trump administration and top officials in the U.S. Congress failed to produce a deal on overall federal spending levels for the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1 and the need to raise Washington's borrowing authority, congressional leaders said. "We did not reach an agreement," said House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a statement. They added that "without interference from the president, we could come to a good agreement much more quickly."

U.S. targets families for deportation to discourage migrants

U.S. immigration authorities want to deport recently arrived families who are in the United States illegally to discourage the surging numbers of Central Americans arriving from Mexico, a government official leading the effort said on Wednesday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will target for deportation families that have received a removal order from a U.S. immigration court, said Mark Morgan, the acting director of ICE, in a call with reporters.

Senate panel OKs aid to ease migrant surge at southern border

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved $4.6 billion in largely humanitarian aid to address a surge of migrants at the southern U.S. border with Mexico, with a vote expected in the full Senate as soon as next week. The legislation does not contain money for Republican President Donald Trump's border wall construction, and Democrats said it included provisions that would keep the Trump administration from raiding the funds to be used for the wall.

Minnesota Supreme Court tosses conviction of teen who insulted classmate on Twitter

A Minnesota stalking law used to convict a high school student for insulting another teen on Twitter is overly broad and violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of free speech, the state Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday. The teenager, on Twitter, used homophobic language against a schoolmate, suggested he kill himself by drinking bleach and mocked his autism, using a checkerboard of images with the boy's face and a caption that read, "Click the Autistic Child," according to court documents.

PG&E completes safety inspection of distribution infrastructure

Electric utility PG&E Corp said on Wednesday it has completed visual inspections of about 99% of its distribution infrastructure to provide additional precautionary measures intended to reduce wildfire risk. PG&E said it has provided the results of the inspections to California Public Utilities Commission and will make the status of the repairs publicly available on its website on or before July 15.

New York jury convicts man who starved, branded women in sex cult

Keith Raniere, a New York man accused of running a cult-like group in which women were kept on starvation diets, branded with his initials and ordered to have sex with him, was found guilty of all charges against him by a New York jury on Wednesday. Raniere, 58, was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, possession of child pornography and other crimes. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison.

Train derails in Nevada, spilling vegetable oil, closing major highway

A Union Pacific freight train derailed in Nevada on Wednesday, spilling vegetable oil and prompting the closure of an interstate highway. The vegetable oil spilled out of one of the 22 derailed cars after the train went off the tracks shortly before 11 a.m. local time, the Elko County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook, citing Union Pacific Railroad officials.

New York nears passage of aggressive law to fight climate change

New York state lawmakers could pass as early as Wednesday one of the nation's most ambitious plans to slow climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. That would make it the second U.S. state to aim for a carbon-neutral economy, following an executive order signed by former California Governor Jerry Brown last year to make that state carbon neutral by 2045.

Joe Biden under fire from rivals for remarks about civility with segregationists

Former Vice President Joe Biden came under sharp criticism from some of his Democratic presidential rivals on Wednesday for remarks he made this week about his time working civilly with segregationists serving in the Senate in the 1970s. U.S. Senator Cory Booker, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, called on Biden to apologize.