US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. considering range of options for ConocoPhillips' Willow drilling project; Four U.S. border agency employees could face discipline over treatment of Haitian migrants and more

The release of the document has been highly anticipated by the oil and gas industry and environmental groups since last year, when a federal judge in Alaska reversed the Trump administration's approval of the massive project and said federal agencies must reconsider their environmental analysis. U.S. agency to open probe into fatal Florida Tesla crash The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday it will open a special investigation into a Florida crash on Wednesday that killed a 66-year-old Tesla driver and a 67-year-old passenger.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. considering range of options for ConocoPhillips' Willow drilling project

The Biden administration on Friday unveiled an environmental analysis for ConocoPhillips' planned $6 billion Willow oil and gas project in Alaska and outlined several options for the development, including not building it at all. The release of the document has been highly anticipated by the oil and gas industry and environmental groups since last year, when a federal judge in Alaska reversed the Trump administration's approval of the massive project and said federal agencies must reconsider their environmental analysis.

U.S. agency to open probe into fatal Florida Tesla crash

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday it will open a special investigation into a Florida crash on Wednesday that killed a 66-year-old Tesla driver and a 67-year-old passenger. A 2015 Tesla rear-ended a parked tractor-trailer in the Gainesville area at a rest area off Interstate 75, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Both people in the Tesla, who were from Lompoc, California, were pronounced dead at the scene. A patrol spokesman said it was unclear if Autopilot was in use.

Four U.S. border agency employees could face discipline over treatment of Haitian migrants

Four employees from U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have been referred for disciplinary review over their treatment of Haitian migrants who they sought to push back across the Rio Grande using horses last September, CBP officials said on Friday as the agency released a more than 500-page report on a widely filmed and photographed incident. CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said at a press conference the disciplinary process related to the Sept. 19 incident was ongoing and did not identify the employees.

Invasion of giant African land snails puts Florida on offensive

Hundreds of giant African land snails have turned up on Florida's Gulf Coast, officials said on Friday, threatening to destroy a vast array of plants and trees, and posing the risk of transmitting a rare type of meningitis to humans. The snail, native to East Africa, is one of the most damaging in the world, eating at least 500 different types of plants, tree bark, and even paint and stucco on houses, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's website said.

Man arrested over alleged threat to Colorado's top election official

Colorado state police arrested a man accused of threatening the state's top election official, court records showed on Friday, the first such detention since authorities began strengthening laws on election-related threats last year. Kirk Wertz, 52, was arrested on Wednesday night and placed in Denver's jail, the records show. He faces a felony charge of "retaliation" against an elected official.

At CIA headquarters, Biden lauds U.S. intelligence for Putin warnings

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday thanked staff at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency for warning the world about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to invade Ukraine, and hailed what he called the "quiet bravery" of America's spies. Marking the CIA's 75th anniversary, Biden said he had been involved with the agency for 52 of those years, first as a junior senator on a 1975 committee set up to investigate mind control experiments and other abuses by the agency.

Biden signs executive order on abortion, declares Supreme Court 'out of control'

U.S. President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court decision overturning the right to an abortion was an exercise in "raw political power" and signed an executive order on Friday to ease access to services to terminate pregnancies. Biden, a Democrat, has been under pressure from his own party to take action after the landmark decision last month to overturn Roe v Wade, which upended roughly 50 years of protections for women's reproductive rights.

Gun groups challenge California ban on firearms marketing to kids

The publisher of a youth shooting magazine and several gun-rights groups filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging a recently enacted California law banning the marketing of guns to minors by manufacturers and others in the firearms industry. In a lawsuit https://tmsnrt.rs/3nR28M2 filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the publisher Junior Shooters and groups including the Second Amendment Foundation argued that the law violated their free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

'Sopranos' actor Tony Sirico dies at age 79

Actor Tony Sirico, who played the lovable but murderous gangster Paulie Walnuts on the HBO series "The Sopranos" and was frequently cast in Woody Allen films, died on Friday at age 79, his family said. Sirico played a major role in the HBO drama that started in 1999 and became an influential hit early in the era of prestige television.

U.S. warns airlines it may issue regulations barring child seating fees

The U.S. Transportation Department on Friday notice warned airlines it may issue regulations prohibiting them from charging extra fees to allow young children to sit next to accompanying family members. The agency, citing a 2016 law that required it to review U.S. airline family seating policies, issued a notice urging airlines to ensure children age 13 or younger are seated next to an accompanying adult with no additional charge to the maximum extent practicable, and said it could take regulatory action later this year after it reviews airline policies.