US News Roundup: Trump's interim homeland security pick clears Senate hurdle; U.S. Justice Ginsburg misses oral arguments with illness

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Brooklyn bishop investigating Buffalo church accused of sexually assaulting altar boy

A bishop in New York City who was picked by the Catholic Church to investigate Buffalo's diocese for its handling of child abuse allegations against clergy has himself been accused of sexually assaulting an altar boy when he was a priest four decades ago. The attorney for the accuser said in a statement on Wednesday that his client was assaulted in 1974 and 1975 when he was an parishioner and student at St. Nicholas parish in Jersey City, New Jersey by Nicholas DiMarzio, who is now bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

U.S. Senate to hold November 20 hearing on testing, deployment of self-driving cars

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold a Nov. 20 hearing on the testing and deployment of self-driving vehicles that will include top U.S. safety officials, as Congress has struggled to pass legislation on autonomous vehicles. The hearing will come one day after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) meets to determine the probable cause of a March 2018 Uber Technologies Inc self-driving vehicle crash that killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick joining race for White House: reports

Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has told supporters he will join the Democratic race and run for president, media outlets including the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Patrick, who was the state's first African-American governor and is close to former President Barack Obama, is widely respected within the Democratic party but faces a steep uphill climb if he joins the race.

U.S. proposes denying work permits to asylum seekers who enter illegally

The Trump administration proposed a regulation on Wednesday that would bar most asylum seekers from applying for a work permit if they entered the United States illegally. Immigration officers could grant exceptions on a case-by-case basis if migrants were found to have "good cause" to enter illegally.

Black student loan borrowers are defaulting at nearly twice the rate of whites: NY Fed

Student loan borrowers from mostly black neighborhoods are almost twice as likely to default on their debt as borrowers from neighborhoods that are mostly white, according to research released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Borrowers from black neighborhoods also tend to carry larger debt loads, the data showed.

Trump impeachment hearings focus on Ukraine pressure campaign in first day

The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testifying on Wednesday in the first televised hearing of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, linked the president more directly to a pressure campaign on Ukraine to conduct investigations that would benefit him politically. William Taylor was one of two career diplomats who testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee as a crucial new phase began in the impeachment inquiry that threatens Trump's presidency even as he seeks re-election in 2020.

Trump's interim homeland security pick clears Senate hurdle

The Trump administration's choice to run the Department of Homeland Security on an interim basis passed a hurdle in the Senate on Wednesday. The Senate voted 54-41 largely along party lines to confirm Chad Wolf to become DHS undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans. The confirmation will allow the administration to make Wolf acting secretary.

U.S. Supreme Court weighs Comcast appeal in Byron Allen racial bias lawsuit

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday expressed sympathy toward allowing comedian and producer Byron Allen to pursue his racial bias lawsuit accusing cable television operator Comcast Corp of discriminating against black-owned channels. Over the course of an hour of oral arguments, however, the justices struggled over whether a lower court that cleared the way for the $20 billion lawsuit against Comcast to proceed had reviewed the case under the proper legal standard.

U.S. Congress panel leader reports slow progress negotiating 2020 Pentagon budget

U.S. legislators are making slow progress negotiating the bill that will set spending policy for the Department of Defense in 2020, the head of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said on Wednesday. Democratic Representative Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters the sticking points are the "really big controversial issues that got everyone's attention."

U.S. Justice Ginsburg misses oral arguments with illness

Liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has faced various health scares over the past year, missed oral arguments in court on Wednesday due to illness. The 86-year-old has a stomach bug, a court spokeswoman said.

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