Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Missouri man arrested in slaying of student selling car through Craigslist

A Missouri man has been arrested on suspicion of shooting dead an Illinois college student looking to sell his car to the suspect during a meeting arranged through online classified website Craigslist, police said. Michael Gordon, a 24-year-old St. Louis resident, was arrested on Tuesday and was being held in a county jail on $1 million bond, Florissant Police Department spokesman Tim Fagen told a news conference late on Wednesday.

New York governor proposes Wage Board to raise minimum wage

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday he would create a so-called Wage Board, a move apparently designed to allow him to raise the minimum wage without the approval of state lawmakers. Cuomo in his January budget recommended raising the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour in New York City and $10.50 elsewhere in the state, only to see that proposal rejected by the state legislature.

Baltimore asks Justice Department to investigate police practices

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake asked the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday to investigate the city's police department for civil rights violations after the death of a black man from injuries sustained in police custody. The investigation will look into police practices such as frisks, street stops of suspects and arrests to see if they violate the U.S. Constitution, Rawlings-Blake said at a news conference.

U.S. probing Islamic State claims it was behind Texas cartoon attack

U.S. investigators were looking into claims by the Islamic State that it was behind a failed attack on a Texas exhibit of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in which two gunmen were killed, but officials said on Tuesday they doubted the militant group's direct involvement. The Syria- and Iraq-based Islamic State (IS) said on its official online radio station that "two soldiers of the caliphate" carried out the attack on Sunday in Garland, a suburb of Dallas.

Exclusive: Hess-owned oil railcars involved in North Dakota derailment

A BNSF train that derailed in central North Dakota on Wednesday was carrying railcars owned by Hess Corp, 10 of which caught fire and forced the evacuation of a nearby town, the oil producer told Reuters late Wednesday. Emergency crews worked into the night to extinguish the fire. No one was injured.

Los Angeles police chief says homeless man's slaying may not have been justified

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said on Wednesday he had not seen evidence to justify the shooting death of an unarmed man by police officers during an altercation in the Venice Beach area. Two police officers, responding late on Tuesday to emergency calls of a person "harassing customers" in an area near the neighborhood's boardwalk, attempted to detain a man who was shot during the altercation, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.

California city plans $16 minimum wage by 2019, highest in the U.S.

Emmeryville, a small city in the San Francisco Bay Area, has given initial approval to the nation's highest minimum wage by setting baseline pay at $16 an hour in 2019, with gradual increases leading up to that level. The 5-0 vote on Tuesday by the city council in Emmeryville, a community of about 10,000 residents, follows moves by several major U.S. cities to sharply raise their minimum wages.

California approves first statewide seawater desalination rules

California regulators on Wednesday adopted the first statewide rules for the permitting of seawater desalination projects that are expected to proliferate as drought-stricken communities increasingly turn to the ocean to supplement their drinking supplies. The action, which sets uniform standards for minimizing harm to marine life, was welcomed by developers of the state's two largest desalination projects as bringing much-needed certainty and clarity to the regulatory approval process.

Boston bomber's lawyers press case for prison, not death

Jurors deciding the fate of convicted Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will hear from more witnesses on Thursday picked by defense attorneys pressing their case the 21-year old should be spared execution because he was influenced by his radicalized older brother. Tsarnaev was convicted last month of joining his now-deceased brother Tamerlan in bombing the race's crowded finish line on April 15, 2013, killing 3 people and injuring 264, many of whom had limbs ripped off in the blasts.

Tornadoes, severe flooding hit Oklahoma City area, injuries reported

A series of tornadoes touched down southwest of Oklahoma City on Wednesday, injuring several residents of a trailer park, causing severe flooding and a temporary escape of bears from a wildlife park, officials said. No deaths were reported, but some residents of a trailer park were treated at local hospitals, said Dee Patty, a police spokeswoman. The Oklahoman newspaper reported 12 people injured.