US News Roundup: Hurricane Dorian lashes Bahamas; Actor Kevin Hart injured in Los Angeles car accident


Reuters | Washington DC | Updated: 03-09-2019 05:30 IST | Created: 03-09-2019 05:24 IST
US News Roundup: Hurricane Dorian lashes Bahamas; Actor Kevin Hart injured in Los Angeles car accident
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Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Facing criticism over deportations, U.S. to look again at some deferral requests

The Trump administration, facing criticism over deportations from lawmakers and civil rights groups, said on Monday it would reopen consideration of some deferral requests for compelling circumstances such as medical conditions. In August, the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) said it was "no longer entertaining" such requests from people outside the U.S. military, but on Monday said it would reopen and complete cases that were pending on Aug. 7, the day the new policy took effect.

At least eight dead from fire that sank California dive boat with dozens on board: sheriff

Four bodies were recovered on Monday from a predawn fire that sank a scuba diving boat off a Southern California island and four other bodies were discovered on the ocean floor near the vessel, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. The boat had nearly 40 people on board when the fire erupted, Brown said.

Toddler hit in Texas shooting still wants to 'run around and play,' mother tells governor

A 17-month old toddler shot during a deadly gun rampage in West Texas suffered serious injuries to her mouth, lips and tongue, but still wants to "run around and play," the girl's mother told Texas Governor Greg Abbott in a text message on Sunday. Anderson Davis was among the 22 people wounded in a shooting on Saturday that claimed seven victims' lives, as well as that of the gunman.

Floridians evacuate and grumble as Hurricane Dorian slowly nears

At a retirement community in central Florida, elderly residents waited for a bus on Monday to take them to a shelter as one of the most monstrous Atlantic hurricanes on record crawled toward the state. Mary McNiff, 92, sat in her wheelchair waiting to board at the Good Samaritan Society in Kissimmee, near Orlando, one of more than a million people under evacuation orders along the U.S. East Coast on the Labor Day holiday.

Texas gunman fired from job before massacre; victim IDs emerge: media

The man who killed seven people and wounded 22 others in a rolling rampage across West Texas on Saturday was fired from his trucking job hours before the massacre, media and officials reported. Details about the Labor Day weekend shooting and the names of some of the victims were emerging online and from officials on Sunday and early Monday. Police continued to comb through 15 different crime scenes in neighboring Midland and Odessa, Texas.

Trump says background checks would not have prevented recent gun violence

As the United States grappled with yet another mass shooting event on Sunday, President Donald Trump said that background checks on gun purchasers would not have prevented recent gun violence in the country. A gunman near Odessa, Texas, killed seven and wounded 21 more after fleeing a traffic stop on Saturday. His motives remain unclear.

Hurricane Dorian lashes Bahamas, a million evacuated along U.S. east coast

Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamian islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama early on Monday, peeling off roofs, toppling cars and snapping power lines as rising floodwater threatened to engulf houses. The second-strongest Atlantic storm on record was forecast to pound the archipelago through the day, then move toward the east U.S. coast - where authorities ordered more than a million people evacuated in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia.

Actor Kevin Hart injured in Los Angeles car accident

Actor Kevin Hart suffered major injuries in a car accident in Los Angeles early on Sunday morning, the California Highway Patrol said. Hart, 40, was being driven in a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda shortly after midnight on Mulholland Highway when the driver lost control of the car and it tumbled down an embankment, CHP said in a statement.

Some Florida boat residents to ride out Dorian, hoping for the best

Ned and Lisa Keahey were well aware that the second-most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record was heading for them, having watched the weather radar on Sunday at a Florida marina from the boat they have called home for the past 20 years. Even so, the couple had no intention of evacuating their sailboat as the monster Category 5 storm churned westward with maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (295 kph).

White House to propose expedited death penalty for perpetrators of mass shootings

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has drafted legislation that would speed the death penalty for people who have committed mass murder, a White House official said on Monday. Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, told reporters on Air Force 2 that the measure would be part of a package of gun legislation that the White House intends to propose to Congress.

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

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