US News Roundup: Trump jokes about impeachment probe at annual turkey pardon; Senators seeking China ban for federal pension plan dispute critics

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Trump jokes about impeachment probe at annual turkey pardon

President Donald Trump on Tuesday used the high power of his office to pardon "Butter," a 47 pound (21 kg) turkey, during a U.S. tradition at the White House where he also cracked jokes about Democrats' investigation into whether he should be impeached. Both Butter and his alternate "Bread" escaped the fate of becoming the main course of a Thanksgiving feast and were sent to a special reserve in Virginia.

U.S. prosecutors open criminal probe of opioid makers, distributors

Federal prosecutors are investigating six pharmaceutical companies for potential criminal charges in connection with shipping big quantities of opioid painkillers that contributed to a healthcare crisis, according to regulatory filings. Five companies have received subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York as part of the investigation: drugmakers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd , Mallinckrodt Plc, Johnson & Johnson and Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc, and distributor McKesson Corp, regulatory filings showed.

U.S. House Judiciary Committee to hold first impeachment hearing December 4

The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee will hold its first hearing in the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Dec. 4, with legal experts as witnesses, a Democratic aide said. The aide declined comment on whether the Judiciary Committee expected it would have a report on the Intelligence Committee-led investigation into the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine before the hearing.

Pennsylvania revamps child sex abuse laws

Pennsylvania's governor on Tuesday signed legislation to eliminate the filing deadline for child sexual abuse prosecutions, giving victims more time to file lawsuits for damages, after major abuse scandals in recent years. Other parts of the three-bill package make public schools and the government subject for the first time to civil lawsuits by sexual abuse victims, increase penalties on "mandated reporters" who fail to report abuse to the police, and specify that non-disclosure agreements cannot prevent a victim from talking to the police.

U.S. judge partly vacates convictions of opioid maker Insys' founder, execs

A federal judge on Tuesday partially overturned the convictions of Insys Therapeutics Inc's founder and three former executives accused of bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid, but declined to disturb the remainder of the jury's verdict. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston ruled the evidence prosecutors presented at trial did not support finding that John Kapoor and the others intended for doctors to prescribe the drug, Subsys, to patients who did not need it.

Trump administration wants order for McGahn testimony put on hold

Justice Department lawyers asked a U.S. judge on Tuesday to put on hold a ruling requiring former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify to lawmakers as part of the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday rejected the Trump administration's claim of broad immunity protecting current and former senior White House officials from being compelled to testify before Congress, saying no one is above the law.

Senators seeking China ban for federal pension plan dispute critics

The U.S. lawmakers behind a bill to stop a large federal retirement pension plan from investing in a fund that includes China-listed shares said the pension plan's administrators are being misleading about what their bill entails. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) said last week the bipartisan legislation would, if passed, deprive participants in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) it manages of a significant opportunity for better returns. The plan is similar to a private 401(k) and has around $600 billion in assets.

White House budget office attorney resigned in part over Ukraine aid hold: official

An attorney for the White House's budget office resigned in part because of concerns over the hold on U.S. military aid to Ukraine, an official for the office said according to a transcript of his deposition released on Tuesday. Mark Sandy, a career official at the Office of Management and Budget, which ordered the hold on security assistance to Ukraine, told congressional investigators during the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry that a person in the office's legal division resigned in part over issues with the hold.

U.S. starves 2020 census of funding, threatens undercount: NY lawsuit

A new lawsuit in New York accuses the Trump administration of starving the U.S. Census Bureau of funding needed to avert an undercount of racial and ethnic minorities in the 2020 census, and deprive them of crucial federal funds and political representation. The Brooklyn-based nonprofit Center for Popular Democracy Action and the city of Newburgh, New York accused the government on Tuesday of arbitrarily, capriciously and irrationally slashing resources to count blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, the homeless and other members of "hard-to-count" communities.

Net support for impeachment grew steadily during U.S. congressional hearings, poll shows

Public support for impeaching President Donald Trump has tracked steadily higher over the past few weeks while a U.S. House of Representatives committee held a series of televised impeachment hearings, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday. The latest poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, found that 47% of adults in the United States felt Trump "should be impeached," while 40% said he should not.