Reuters US Domestic News Summary

DeSantis came in a distant second to former President Donald Trump in Monday's Iowa caucuses, the first Republican presidential nominating contest. Severe US cold snap prompts peak power and natural gas demand Freezing temperatures in several U.S. regions triggered peak power demand in parts of the country on Wednesday, after homes and businesses consumed a record amount of natural gas for heating and power generation.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden, through aide, apologizes to Republican Hutchinson over DNC comment

President Joe Biden had a top aide call former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to apologize on Wednesday for criticism from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) of Hutchinson's failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination, the White House said. When Hutchinson pulled out of the Republican race on Tuesday, DNC national press secretary Sarafina Chitika issued a mocking statement.

A day in Trump's world: morning in courtroom, evening on campaign trail

Donald Trump's schedule on Wednesday summed up the unprecedented nature of this year's election: spend the day in court fighting a defamation case and the evening rallying supporters in his bid to become the next U.S. president. That is how the former president, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination and the world's most famous defendant, has chosen to divide his time this week as he pursues his political comeback.

Trump is warned he may be ejected from Carroll trial

A federal judge warned Donald Trump on Wednesday he could be kicked out of writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation trial if he kept making disparaging comments that the jury could hear.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan's threat came after a lawyer for Carroll said Trump was talking loudly with his lawyers during testimony by Carroll, who said the president lied by denying in 2019 that he had raped her decades earlier.

Struggling DeSantis sets sights on South Carolina, bypassing New Hampshire

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is all but abandoning New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary next week and instead is relocating staff and focusing on South Carolina, where he hopes to pressure rival Nikki Haley in her home state. The decision highlights the extent to which the DeSantis campaign is scrambling to reset after its big bet on winning Iowa failed to pay off. DeSantis came in a distant second to former President Donald Trump in Monday's Iowa caucuses, the first Republican presidential nominating contest.

Severe US cold snap prompts peak power and natural gas demand

Freezing temperatures in several U.S. regions triggered peak power demand in parts of the country on Wednesday, after homes and businesses consumed a record amount of natural gas for heating and power generation. The severe winter storm dumped snow across a broad part of the country this week, shutting a Gulf Coast refinery in Texas, triggering malfunctions at others, and halving North Dakota's oil production.

California governor quashes bill to ban tackle football for kids

California Governor Gavin Newsom killed a bill that would have banned tackle football for kids under 12, as his veto threat led the sponsor of the bill to withdraw it from consideration on Wednesday. California would have been the first state in the U.S. to ban tackle football for kids, according to the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters, though legislators in several other states have introduced similar, unsuccessful bills out of concern that blows to the head in contact sports can cause brain injuries.

Judge denies motion to dismiss charges against ex-Marine in Jordan Neely NY subway killing

A former U.S. Marine sergeant, who was charged with manslaughter for killing Jordan Neely, a homeless man, on the New York City subway, must face trial after a judge decided on Wednesday against his motion to dismiss the indictment. Judge Maxwell Wiley rejected Penny's motion to dismiss the charges at a hearing on Wednesday. Penny, who wore a dark green suit and gray tie and did not speak in the hearing, is due back in court on March 20.

As Trump's rise sparks isolationist worries among US allies, Americans focus on home turf

As Donald Trump strengthens his lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, some U.S. allies are worried about an American turn toward isolationism, a shift that would reflect an electorate largely focused on domestic issues. That was shown in polling in Iowa where Trump scored an overwhelming victory on Monday, with foreign policy the top issue for just one in 10 participants in the state's caucus, according to a poll by Edison Research.

Iowa sues TikTok alleging parents misled about inappropriate content

Iowa's attorney general on Wednesday sued TikTok, accusing the video-based social media platform of misleading parents about their children's access to inappropriate content on the company's app. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird in a lawsuit filed in a state court in Polk County accused TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance of lying about the prevalence on its platform of content including drugs, nudity, alcohol and profanity.

Minority children in US get poorer healthcare, analysis finds

The quality of healthcare for minority children in the United States is universally worse than it is for white children, even after accounting for insurance coverage, an analysis of dozens of recent studies found. The pattern was similar across all medical specialties, including newborn care, emergency medicine, primary care, surgery, hospital care, endocrinology, mental health care, care for developmental disabilities, and palliative care, researchers said.