Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The decisions come just before the court flips to GOP control on Jan. 1, when there will be five Republican justices and two Democrats. U.S. House committee set to discuss Trump tax returns on Tuesday A U.S. House of Representatives committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss former President Donald Trump's tax returns, which it obtained late last month after a long court fight, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

South Carolina lawyer accused of killing family indicted for tax evasion

A South Carolina attorney charged in the June 2021 murders of his wife and youngest son was indicted on Friday on nine counts of tax evasion as part of a scheme to defraud his family's century-old legal firm and its clients. Alex Murdaugh, 54, the scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty, is accused of willful attempt to evade state taxes on millions of dollars in income between 2011 and 2019. He is currently in jail awaiting his murder trial next month.

U.S. Justice Department moves to eliminate cocaine sentencing disparity

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed federal prosecutors on Friday to end disparities in the way they charge offenses involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The change, outlined in a pair of internal memos released by the Justice Department on Friday, is a major win for criminal justice reform advocates, who point out that the current sentencing regime has led to the disproportionate incarceration of Black Americans since the policy was adopted nearly 40 years ago.

Biden admin says U.S. wrongly revoked Oppenheimer's security clearance in 1954

The Biden administration on Friday reversed a 1954 decision by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to revoke the security clearance of Robert Oppenheimer, known as the "father of the atomic bomb" for his work on the Manhattan Project. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a written order that the since-dissolved AEC acted out of political motives when it revoked Oppenheimer's security clearance nearly 70 years ago. Oppenheimer died in 1967.

U.S. House Jan. 6 committee preparing to vote on recommending least 3 criminal charges against Trump -report

The U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack is preparing to vote on urging the Justice Department to pursue at least three criminal charges against former president Donald Trump, including insurrection, Politico reported on Friday, citing two unidentified people familiar with the matter.

Top U.S. Democratic campaign groups move to return Bankman-Fried donations

The Democratic Party's three top campaign groups are preparing to return over $1.1 million they have received from imprisoned cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, they said on Friday. In a statement, the Democratic National Committee said it was setting aside $815,000 in funds received from Bankman-Fried in light of "potential campaign finance violations" made by the billionaire.

Pelosi backs adding TikTok government device ban to funding bill

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports adding legislation passed by the Senate this week, which would bar federal government employees from using Chinese-owned TikTok on government-owned devices, to a government funding bill. A spokesman for Pelosi said she supports including the TikTok provision in legislation to fund the government that the House of Representatives is set to take up next week.

No evidence of space aliens so far in the Pentagon's UFO deep-dive

The Pentagon's new push to investigate reports of UFOs has so far not yielded any evidence to suggest that aliens have visited Earth or crash-landed here, senior military leaders said on Friday. However, the Pentagon's effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects -- whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater -- led to hundreds of new reports that are now being investigated, they say.

North Carolina high court rejects voter-identification law, electoral map

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday knocked down a 2018 voter-identification law it said discriminated against Black voters and ordered a state Senate map be redrawn due to Republican partisan gerrymandering. Both were 4-3 decisions along party lines, with all the court's Democratic justices voting in the majority and all Republican justices dissenting. The decisions come just before the court flips to GOP control on Jan. 1, when there will be five Republican justices and two Democrats.

U.S. House committee set to discuss Trump tax returns on Tuesday

A U.S. House of Representatives committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss former President Donald Trump's tax returns, which it obtained late last month after a long court fight, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee's closed-door meeting will come just two weeks before Republicans are set to assume the majority in the House, which they narrowly won in November's midterm elections.

Opposition to U.S. school vaccine mandates rose during pandemic -survey

Opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates that became increasingly political during the pandemic appears to have spilled over to inoculations long required for school children in the United States, with many more adults now against them, according to a new survey. Nearly three in 10 adults (28%) said parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their children for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey. That was up from 16% in a 2019 Pew Research Center poll conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, KFF researchers said.