US News Roundup: America's political question of guns; Rain, flooding in southeast US and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Survival camps cater to new fear: America's political unrest

Aiming an AR-15 rifle across a Colorado valley dotted with antelope and cattle, Drew Miller explains how members of his new survival ranch would ride out an apocalypse. The former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer said his latest Fortitude Ranch community, under construction below mountain forests, will shelter Americans fleeing anything from a bioengineered pandemic to an attack on the electricity grid.

As busy holiday travel week begins, southeast U.S. to see heavy rain, flooding

Heavy rain and flooding are expected in the southeast United States on Monday, as millions of Americans embark on holiday travel two days before Christmas. A powerful storm was moving from the deep South toward the Atlantic coast on Sunday night and was forecast to drop as much as six inches of rain on parts of Georgia and South Carolina through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

U.S. government says verdict in Bayer's Roundup case should be reversed

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer AG liable in the case of a California man who blamed its Roundup weed killer for his cancer. The government said in a friend of the court brief filed on Friday that glyphosate, the weed killer's active ingredient, is not a carcinogen and as a result a warning on the label was not required as California state law demands.

'Bull's-eye' landing caps Boeing's faulty astronaut capsule test mission

Boeing Co's Starliner astronaut spacecraft made a "bull's-eye" landing in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, a successful ending to a crewless test mission that two days earlier failed to reach the orbit needed to dock with the International Space Station. The 7:58 a.m. ET (1258 GMT) landing at the White Sands desert capped a turbulent 48 hours for Boeing's botched milestone test of an astronaut capsule that is designed to help NASA regain its human spaceflight capabilities.

Home shopping network QVC founder Joseph Segel dies at 88

Joseph Segel, the founder of home shopping television channel QVC, died on Saturday at the age of 88, the company's parent said on Sunday. Qurate Retail Group called Segel the "quintessential entrepreneur" in a statement announcing his death.

Thirty-five people injured in 63-vehicle pileup on Virginia highway

Thirty-five people were hurt in a 63-vehicle, chain-reaction crash on a foggy and icy stretch of a Virginia highway early on Sunday, state police said. All westbound lanes of Interstate 64 in York County, Virginia, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Richmond, remained closed Sunday afternoon as authorities worked at the scene of the pileup, which began shortly before 8 a.m. EST, the Virginia State Police said on Twitter.

Party to honor Chicago shooting victim ends with 13 wounded: police

Thirteen people were wounded in a shooting at a party on Chicago's south side intended to honor the victim of an earlier shooting, police said. Police took two people into custody for questioning on Sunday, and one of them was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

Democrat Bloomberg opens campaign offices in three battleground states

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul who is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. president, on Saturday opened campaign offices in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, three battleground states crucial in next year's election. The campaign of the former New York mayor said in a statement that it was also funding digital advertisements against Republican President Donald Trump and would be registering voters in the three swing states.