US Domestic News Roundup: America, Survival camps cater to new fear; Suspected burglars shot dead inside Texas 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.

Three suspected burglars shot dead inside Texas home

Three suspected burglars were shot dead inside a Texas home on Monday when a man who lived there fired a shotgun at the invaders and was wounded himself in a brief gun battle, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said. The wounded survivor was undergoing surgery and unlikely to face criminal charges as he had the legal right to defend his home, Gonzalez told reporters at the scene in Channelview, about 20 miles (30 km) east of Houston.

In win for Uber, Lyft, judge strikes down New York City's cruising cap

A New York state judge on Monday ruled in favor of Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc in a lawsuit against New York City, striking down a new rule limiting how much time drivers for ride-hailing services can spend cruising streets in busy areas of Manhattan without passengers. Judge Lyle Frank of the Supreme Court of State of New York in his decision called the city's cruising cap "arbitrary and capricious."

U.S. halts sending bomb-sniffing dogs to Jordan, Egypt as seven die

The U.S. State Department said on Monday it has stopped sending explosive-detecting dogs to Jordan and Egypt over concerns of deaths of deployed dogs from causes like heat stroke and poisoning. The decision came after the State Department's Office of Inspector General identified in September the deaths of two dogs sent to Jordan, the largest recipient of the dogs. A second report released last Friday put the total deaths at seven.

Leading Republican senator says impeachment witnesses not ruled out

U.S. senators on Monday sparred over the shape of an impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, with Republican leader Mitch McConnell saying he has not ruled out hearing from witnesses as Democrats have demanded. McConnell, speaking on Fox News, stopped short of agreeing to a Democratic request for the Senate to agree ahead of time to take testimony during the trial expected to begin in early 2020. He cited the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, which ended in acquittal, as a model.

U.S. senators ask for government investigation of coal tax credit program

Three U.S. Democratic senators have asked the investigative arm of Congress to evaluate a $1 billion-a-year subsidy for burning chemically treated refined coal after research has shown that some power plants using the fuel produced surging amounts of mercury and smog instead of cutting pollution. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, as well as Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, on Friday, requested the Government Accountability Office investigate the tax credit program for refined coal, according to a letter viewed by Reuters.

'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.

Forget store traffic and bag count: Gauging retail performance in an online world

Marshal Cohen has religiously visited the same stores every holiday season since 1999. But rather than snapping up bargains and favorite gifts for friends and family, the chief retail industry adviser is there to scrutinize the purchasing habits of others as online shopping upends the retail business.

Trump taps senior aide who defied impeachment subpoena for 5G post

U.S. President Donald Trump named Robert Blair to be the special representative for international telecommunications policy and work on the administration's 5G efforts under White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, the White House said in a statement on Monday. As the senior adviser to the White House chief of staff, Blair defied a subpoena from a House of Representatives committee as part of its impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly pressed Ukraine to investigate his domestic political rival, Joe Biden.

California to toughen group discounts regulations in auto insurance

The California Department of Insurance on Monday proposed to reform how insurers offer group discounts based on occupation, education, and other factors, contending some of the insurers' programs discriminate against people of low-income. The move comes on the heels of an investigation carried out by the regulator that found that beneficiaries of group discounts were residents of California in areas with higher average incomes, higher levels of education, and predominantly non-Hispanic white population.