US Domestic News Roundup: Plane crashes into Florida mobile home, killing pilot, two others; Biden can't beat the MAGA meme machine online, kingmaker Clyburn says and more

Republican candidate Donald Trump’s supporters have built a “MAGA wall” online of memes and social media noise that is overwhelming news about Biden’s economic and policy wins, making it impossible to get Democrats’ message across, Clyburn said in a recent interview in his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina. Trump prosecutor Willis admits relationship with colleague, denies tainting case The Georgia prosecutor trying former President Donald Trump for seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat acknowledged on Friday having a personal relationship with another lawyer on the criminal case but denied it tainted the prosecution.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Plane crashes into Florida mobile home, killing pilot, two others

A pilot and two people on the ground were killed after a small plane crashed into and demolished a mobile home in Clearwater, Florida, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Friday. A Beechcraft Bonanza V35B, a six-seat single engine aircraft, slammed into a large mobile home park on the east side of the city at about 7:10 p.m. local time on Thursday, causing a fire with smoke billowing from the scene. Clearwater is a city of about 117,000 people on the Gulf Coast about 24 miles (40 km) west of Tampa.

Biden can't beat the MAGA meme machine online, kingmaker Clyburn says

President Joe Biden's reelection bid won't be won by million-dollar ad buys or social media sound bites, says U.S. Representative James Clyburn, the man who was key to Biden's 2020 win. Republican candidate Donald Trump's supporters have built a "MAGA wall" online of memes and social media noise that is overwhelming news about Biden's economic and policy wins, making it impossible to get Democrats' message across, Clyburn said in a recent interview in his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.

Trump prosecutor Willis admits relationship with colleague, denies tainting case

The Georgia prosecutor trying former President Donald Trump for seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat acknowledged on Friday having a personal relationship with another lawyer on the criminal case but denied it tainted the prosecution. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in a court filing said claims that threatened to upend her office's historic prosecution had "no merit."

Trump looms over Texas border rally targeting illegal immigration

Protesters who trekked in a vehicle convoy to Texas this week, including some flying pro-Donald Trump banners alongside American and Texas flags, are expected to rally against illegal immigration near the U.S.-Mexico border on Saturday. Dozens of cars gathered outside a Christian children's ranch in the remote town of Quemado on Friday night, some adorned with Trump paraphernalia and other conservative messages.

Stronger storm expected to hit California with potentially deadly floods

A second, more powerful atmospheric river storm was headed for Southern California this weekend, threatening to unleash life-threatening floods and landslides, forecasters warned on Friday, even as much of the state was drying out from an earlier deluge. Gradually intensifying rain was expected to begin dousing California on Saturday, with the most intense downpours soaking a 300-mile (480-km) stretch of coast on Sunday and Monday as the storm spreads from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara south through Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

US judge formally postpones Trump's 2020 election subversion trial

A U.S. judge on Friday formally postponed former President Donald Trump's trial on federal charges that he sought to overturn the 2020 election results, which was scheduled to begin next month. The delay, which was widely expected, stems from an appeal by Trump on claims that he is immune from prosecution for official actions taken while he was president. The case in federal court in Washington has been paused since December while Trump pursues the appeal.

US unveils charges, seizures linked to Iranian oil network

The United States on Friday announced terrorism and sanctions-evasion charges and seizures linked to a billion-dollar oil trafficking network that it says finances Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other militant groups. The cases are in response to a series of aggressive actions by Iran over several years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. In August 2022, for example, the U.S. charged an IRGC member with plotting to murder John Bolton, who served as U.S. national security adviser under former President Donald Trump.

A negligent parent or an unforeseeable crime? Trial nears end for Michigan school shooter's mother

Prosecutors told a jury that the mother of a Michigan boy who shot dead four classmates in 2021 should be found guilty of manslaughter, arguing on Friday that she and her husband were negligent in buying their son a handgun after he had shown signs of mental distress. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, has testified that she was not responsible for buying or storing the gun used in the murders by her son, Ethan. Her trial is believed to be the first to attempt to find a parent of a school shooter also to be criminally responsible for the deaths of their child's victims.

US Supreme Court won't halt West Point from considering race in admissions

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to block the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the prestigious Army school, from considering race as a factor in admissions decisions while a legal battle over the practice proceeds in lower courts. The justices denied a request from Students for Fair Admissions, a group founded by affirmative action opponent Edward Blum, after lower courts refused to halt the practice. The group was behind a successful Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious collegiate admissions policies in cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

South Carolina primary tests Biden support with Black voters

U.S. President Joe Biden's re-election bid goes before voters for the first time on Saturday, when Democrats hold their inaugural 2024 primary in South Carolina. Biden, 81, an unpopular incumbent who faces little competition for his party's nomination in the run-up to the Nov. 5 U.S. election, is hoping for an overwhelming victory with the heavily Black electorate in South Carolina to quiet doubts about his age and concerns about high consumer costs and security along the U.S.-Mexican border.