Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Much of downtown Houston and its commercial district were littered with fallen power lines and glass from shattered windows following the storm, with traffic and street lights knocked out across the city, the mayor, John Whitmire said in an interview on local television station KRIV. Complaint dismissed against Trump hush-money judge who donated to Biden The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has dismissed an ethics complaint against Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money criminal case against former U.S. President Donald Trump, a spokesperson for the judge said.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Donald Trump wants to control the Justice Department and FBI. His allies have a plan

Some of Donald Trump's allies are assembling proposals to curtail the Justice Department's independence and turn the nation's top law enforcement body into an attack dog for conservative causes, nine people involved in the effort told Reuters. If successful, the overhaul could represent one of the most consequential actions of a second Trump presidency given the Justice Department's role in protecting democratic institutions and upholding the rule of law.

Americans divided as Supreme Court weighs abortion pill access, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

Americans are divided on whether women should have to see a doctor in person before receiving abortion pills, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found, as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to reimpose that restriction on medication abortion. But broad bipartisan majorities opposed the idea of allowing states with abortion bans in place to block access to the procedure in certain emergency cases when it is needed to protect the mother's health, at issue in another case before the court.

New York City said 'no injuries' at Columbia arrests; students' medical records say otherwise

After the arrests of pro-Palestine student protesters occupying a Columbia University building last month, New York Mayor Eric Adams and senior police officials repeatedly said there were "no injuries," no "violent clashes" and minimal force used. But at least nine of the 46 protesters arrested inside the barricaded Hamilton Hall on April 30 sustained injuries beyond minor scrapes and bruises, according to medical records, photographs shared by protesters, and interviews. The documented injuries included a fractured eye socket, concussions, an ankle sprain, cuts, and injured wrists and hands from tight plastic flexicuffs.

Four deaths confirmed from severe storm that ravaged Houston

A severe storm packing hurricane-force winds pummeled Houston on Thursday, killing at least four people, blowing windows out of high-rise buildings and leaving some 800,000 homes without power as much of the city was plunged into darkness, the mayor said. Much of downtown Houston and its commercial district were littered with fallen power lines and glass from shattered windows following the storm, with traffic and street lights knocked out across the city, the mayor, John Whitmire said in an interview on local television station KRIV.

Complaint dismissed against Trump hush-money judge who donated to Biden

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has dismissed an ethics complaint against Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money criminal case against former U.S. President Donald Trump, a spokesperson for the judge said. "Justice Merchan said the complaint, from more than a year ago, was dismissed in July with a caution," spokesperson Al Baker of the state Office of Court Administration said this week in response to a Reuters inquiry.

Ex-Trump lawyer Eastman pleads not guilty in Arizona electors case

John Eastman, the first of 18 defendants accused of illegally seeking to claim Arizona's 2020 electoral votes for then-U.S. President Donald Trump to appear before a state judge, pleaded not guilty on Friday. Eastman, 64, is one of several people - including fellow former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows - accused of plotting to assemble a slate of pro-Trump electors who falsely claimed to represent the Southwestern battleground state's legitimate electoral votes.

Man who attacked Pelosi's husband with hammer gets 30 years in prison

The man who broke into former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home in 2022 and assaulted her husband with a hammer was sentenced on Friday to 30 years in prison, federal prosecutors said. In a politically motivated attack, David DePape forcibly entered Pelosi's home in San Francisco early in the morning on Oct. 28, 2022, just a week before that year's congressional elections. At the time, Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, was in Washington.

US flag is sacred, White House says, amid flap involving Supreme Court's Alito

A report about a U.S. flag flying upside-down in January 2021 outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home caused a furor in Washington, with the White House saying on Friday President Joe Biden believes the flag is sacred and a senior senator calling for Alito to step aside from two key cases. Alito told the New York Times that the flag had been placed by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, on a pole outside their house in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia after a dispute with a neighbor over a sign on the neighbor's lawn critical of Republican then-President Donald Trump.

Trump prosecutors' hard evidence bolsters Michael Cohen's testimony, experts say

Donald Trump's lawyers at his New York criminal trial have portrayed his estranged former fixer Michael Cohen as a liar and Trump-hater who acted alone to pay off a porn star, but legal experts say prosecutors have largely backed up his testimony with the accounts of others, phone logs and other hard evidence. Trump's onetime lawyer, Cohen testified for the prosecution this week that Trump directed him to pay adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet before the 2016 election about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter. He testified that Trump then approved a plan to fudge records to cover up the deal.

'Black history is American history,' Biden says as he launches fresh voter appeal

President Joe Biden launched a fresh bid to bolster support from African American voters on Friday, looking to seal up cracks in the Democratic coalition that carried him to victory over Republican Donald Trump in 2020. Biden visited the popular National Museum of African American History and Culture in downtown Washington and greeted his audience by declaring, "Black history is American history."

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