Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Kennedy Jr., part of the famed American political family, has shown some appeal among both Republicans and Democrats unenthused about another matchup between incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and former President Donald Trump, a Republican. Lawyers argue whether father of Michigan school shooter ignored warning signs James Crumbley, whose son killed four fellow students in a 2021 U.S. school shooting, criminally failed to heed warning signs about his son's instability, resulting in a foreseeable tragedy, prosecutors said in closing arguments on Wednesday at his manslaughter trial.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Trump Georgia election subversion judge dismisses some charges

The judge in Donald Trump's Georgia election subversion trial on Wednesday dismissed three criminal counts against the former U.S. president and three others against co-defendants, a court filing showed on Wednesday, while letting the overall case proceed. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee decided that allegations by state prosecutors that Trump and his co-defendants tried to get Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office were not detailed enough to sustain those six counts, according to the court filing.

Three face federal gun charges connected to Kansas City Super Bowl shooting

Three men face federal firearms charges in connection with a mass shooting at a Super Bowl victory rally in Kansas City last month, a U.S. prosecutor said on Wednesday. None of the men, charged with firearms trafficking and straw purchases of firearms, are alleged to have taken part in the Feb. 14 shooting that killed one person and wounded more than 20, U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore of the Western District of Missouri said.

US House passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok or face ban

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Wednesday that would give TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app, or face a ban, in the greatest threat to the app since the Trump administration. The bill passed 352-65 in a lopsided bipartisan vote, but it faces a more uncertain path in the Senate where some favor a different approach to regulating foreign-owned apps posing security concerns. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate will review the legislation.

Massachusetts governor seeks pardons for marijuana possession offenses

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey on Wednesday announced she was seeking to pardon hundreds of thousands of people convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession in the years before the state legalized cannabis in 2016. The Democrat's action followed President Joe Biden's earlier moves to pardon thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession offenses under federal law and in Washington, D.C., a step he urged governors to follow for state offenses.

Hunter Biden rejects House Republicans' call for public testimony

U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden rejected a request to testify to an open hearing before a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives committee conducting an impeachment probe of his father, his lawyer said on Wednesday. "Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended," his attorney Abbe Lowell wrote in a letter to the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, one of the three panels at the center of House Republicans' impeachment inquiry.

Biden looks to shore up support in Midwest after clinching Democratic nomination

U.S. President Joe Biden visited the political battleground state of Wisconsin on Wednesday after clinching the Democratic Party's nomination, and focused on hunting for votes among suburban women, Black voters and Latinos across the Midwest. Biden announced over $3 billion in infrastructure investments in disadvantaged communities across 40 states, which will be funded through the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act

RFK Jr. to pick running mate for 2024 election on March 26

Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will announce in late March a vice presidential running mate to join his independent bid for the White House, his campaign said on Wednesday. Kennedy Jr., part of the famed American political family, has shown some appeal among both Republicans and Democrats unenthused about another matchup between incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and former President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Lawyers argue whether father of Michigan school shooter ignored warning signs

James Crumbley, whose son killed four fellow students in a 2021 U.S. school shooting, criminally failed to heed warning signs about his son's instability, resulting in a foreseeable tragedy, prosecutors said in closing arguments on Wednesday at his manslaughter trial. Crumbley, 47, is being tried on four counts of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly ignoring his son's mental state and not securing the semi-automatic pistol that prosecutors say he bought as a Christmas present for his son, Ethan.

California city returns sacred tribal land to Indigenous people

The city of Berkeley, California, has agreed to hand over to Indigenous peoples a parking lot built atop a sacred tribal ground dating back more than five millennia. The 2.2-acre site is part of the first human settlement on the San Francisco Bay, according to representatives of the Ohlone people, whose ancestors established a village in the area some 5,700 years ago.

Death of beaten Oklahoma nonbinary teen ruled a suicide

Oklahoma's medical examiner on Wednesday ruled that nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict died by suicide in a death that friends and family said came one day after a beating at school that culminated a pattern of bullying due to their gender identity. The case of Benedict, 16, has drawn scrutiny from LGBTQ advocates who believe school officials may have overlooked abuse and has led to a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Education to determine if any laws were broken or whether the school district failed to respond to harassment.