Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, North Carolina, could potentially become a key witness against five other members of the group, including former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, who are due to stand trial beginning in December on charges including seditious conspiracy. U.S. House panel probing Jan. 6, 2021, attack to hold hearing Oct. 13 The U.S. House of Representatives select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol will conduct its next hearing on Oct. 13, the panel said in a statement on Thursday.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Jurors begin deliberations in Alex Jones Sandy Hook defamation trial

A Connecticut jury began deliberating Thursday in a trial to decide how much conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his company must pay families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting for falsely claiming the massacre was a hoax. The deliberations come after three weeks of trial in Waterbury, Connecticut, not far from where a gunman killed 20 small children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. Jurors were sent home after an hour of deliberations Thursday and will resume them on Friday.

U.S. judge temporarily blocks parts of New York's new gun law

A federal judge in New York on Thursday temporarily blocked parts of the state's new gun law to allow the Gun Owners of America, an advocacy group, to pursue a lawsuit challenging the legislation. The order marks one of the most prominent victories by gun-owners' rights groups in challenging gun restrictions around the United States since June's landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that said for the first time that Americans have a constitutional right to carry weapons in public.

Proud Boys member pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy for U.S. Capitol attack

A member of the far-right Proud Boys pleaded guilty on Thursday to a charge of seditious conspiracy over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, making him the first member of the group to do so. Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, North Carolina, could potentially become a key witness against five other members of the group, including former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, who are due to stand trial beginning in December on charges including seditious conspiracy.

U.S. House panel probing Jan. 6, 2021, attack to hold hearing Oct. 13

The U.S. House of Representatives select committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol will conduct its next hearing on Oct. 13, the panel said in a statement on Thursday. The committee conducted eight hearings over six weeks in June and July, disclosing the findings of its more than yearlong probe of events surrounding the deadly assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters after weeks of false claims by him that he had won the 2020 election.

Republican Ben Sasse suggests he is ready to leave U.S. Senate

Republican Senator Ben Sasse from Nebraska suggested in a statement and social media post on Thursday that he was likely to leave the U.S. Senate in the near future and join the University of Florida as its president. Sasse, 50, a former president of Midland University, was one of seven Republican Senators who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump on charges related to inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

OPEC+ move reignites Americans' top worry ahead of November midterms

A production cut by the OPEC+ oil cartel is reigniting U.S. voters' No. 1 fear - high inflation - and handing a potential boost to Republican candidates less than five weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. President Joe Biden's White House has condemned the announced cut to production targets by the Saudi Arabia-led cartel, which sent energy prices higher after they had eased from summer highs.

Man arrested in Las Vegas Strip stabbings, two dead

Police arrested a man suspected of stabbing multiple people on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday, killing two and wounding at least six in an unprovoked attack, local authorities said. The victims included tourists and local residents, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said at an afternoon news conference.

'Zombie killer' ax part of U.S. Capitol rioters' planning, FBI agent says

"Zombie Killer" tomahawk axes were among the weapons that Donald Trump supporters recommended bringing to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, an FBI agent testified on Thursday at the trial of five members of the far-right Oath Keepers. FBI agent Michael Palian read from what he described as a planning document prepared by Thomas Caldwell, one of the five on trial for charges including seditious conspiracy for their alleged role in planning the attack, which was intended to overturn then-President Trump's election defeat.

Biden overhauls U.S. policy on marijuana, pardons prior federal offenses

President Joe Biden took steps to overhaul U.S. policy on marijuana on Thursday by pardoning thousands of people with federal offenses for simple marijuana possession and initiating a review of how the drug is classified. Biden said thousands of people with prior federal convictions could be denied employment, housing or educational opportunities and his executive action would relieve such "collateral" consequences.

Man who pleaded guilty in Michigan governor kidnap plot sentenced to 4 years

A man who pleaded guilty to participating in an elaborate plot to kidnap Michigan's governor was sentenced to four years in prison after he served as a key witness in the trial of two co-conspirators as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Kaleb Franks, 28, struck a plea agreement and provided key testimony in the second trial of two men who were eventually convicted of kidnapping conspiracy and other charges in plotting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. Franks was also fined $2,500.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)