US Domestic News Roundup: Democratic candidates Biden and Harris chafe at debate limits; Jeffrey Epstein's bid for bail suffers apparent setback

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Democratic candidates Biden and Harris chafe at debate limits

U.S. Democratic presidential rivals Joe Biden and Kamala Harris expressed frustration on Thursday with a debate format they said left them little time to explain their views and led to the combative exchanges featured in the first two debate rounds. The day after a televised debate marked by a series of attacks on her record, Harris said the brief chances to talk - each candidate in Wednesday night's debate in Detroit was limited to 60 seconds to answer a question and 30 seconds to rebut an attack - allowed no real exploration of policy.

Jeffrey Epstein's bid for bail suffers apparent setback

Financier Jeffrey Epstein's effort to win bail while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking in underage girls appeared to suffer a setback on Thursday, as the appeals court weighing his request refused to grant bail to another wealthy defendant in an unrelated case. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected a bid by Jean Boustani, an executive in the Privinvest maritime services group, for home confinement pending trial on charges he had a role in a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme.

With Puerto Rico leader set to quit, the successor still unknown

With only hours before Puerto Rico's disgraced governor was set to step down on Friday, the bankrupt U.S. territory still did not know who would succeed him. Over a week ago, Governor Ricardó Rossello bowed to 12 days of mass protests sparked by offensive chat messages and said he would resign at 5 p.m. on Friday. Robert F.

Kennedy's granddaughter dies at family compound in Massachusetts: New York Times

A 22-year-old granddaughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy died on Thursday following an apparent overdose at the family's compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, the New York Times reported. Saoirse Kennedy Hill was at the compound, the home of her grandmother, Ethel Kennedy, 91, when emergency personnel were called Thursday afternoon to the residence, and she was taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, the Times said, citing family and friends.

Lurching left in toss-up Wisconsin, a Democrat weighs her choices

Kim Mahoney listened from her reclining living room couch as Democratic presidential candidates debated economic, trade and environmental policies this week, needing only to look to her backyard to see how lofty political pledges can really play out. Once a middle-of-the-road Democratic voter, the 50-year-old paralegal lives in the last house standing in a neighborhood razed for a planned technology plant.

Singer R. Kelly makes first New York court appearance on sex trafficking charges

Singer R. Kelly is expected to plead not guilty in New York on Friday to charges that he ran a criminal scheme in which he recruited women and underage girls to have sex with him, isolating them and often controlling what they ate and when they went to the bathroom. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say that Kelly and his entourage invited women and girls backstage after concerts, kept them from friends and family and made them dependent on him financially.

Baltimore pushes back against Trump while acknowledging problems

After U.S. President Donald Trump described Maryland's largest city as "a disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess" and a "very dangerous & filthy place" last weekend, Baltimore resident Blondina Bean had mixed feelings about his tweets. Bean, whose 19-year-old son George Phillips was killed in a robbery attempt last year in Baltimore, said she was torn because she felt Trump was right about the majority-black city's high crime rate but wrong to use what she called racist language.

Change in New York State law to usher in 'tidal wave' of child sex abuse lawsuits

Thousands of child sexual abuse lawsuits are expected to flow into New York State courts in the coming weeks exposing decades-old misconduct at schools, hospitals, churches and youth clubs, according to lawyers for victims. On Aug. 14, the Child Victims Act takes effect, giving people one year to sue over allegations of sexual abuse, regardless of when they said it occurred.

Woman killed by apparent stray bullet as Texas officer fires at dog

A woman in Arlington, Texas, was killed on Thursday after apparently being hit by a stray bullet when a police officer opened fire on a dog running at him, o

Pelosi defends Baltimore, her childhood home, against Trump's attacks

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday defended Baltimore, the city where she grew up, against repeated verbal attacks by President Donald Trump, and she charged that the president's own son-in-law was a "slumlord" there. Trump has criticized an African-American congressman, Representative Elijah Cummings, and his district, which includes part of Maryland's largest city, as a "disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess" were "no human" would want to live.