By Brendan O’Brien and Steve Gorman

CHICAGO (Reuters) -A powerful spring storm system was sweeping across the United States on Friday, menacing the country’s midsection with the threat of dangerous tornadoes, blizzards and freezing rains, forecasters said.

Tens of millions of Americans across the Great Plans, Midwest, South and East could expect to be under weather watches and warnings on Friday afternoon and evening, and into the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

The round of severe weather comes a week after thunderstorms unleashed a tornado that devastated the Mississippi town of Rolling Fork, destroying many of the community’s 400 homes and killing 26 people.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for eastern and central Iowa, northwestern Illinois, northeastern Missouri and the southwest corner of Wisconsin. It urged the 5 million people living in the region to be prepared for numerous strong tornadoes on Friday afternoon and evening.

“This is a particularly dangerous situation,” it said.

Northeastern Arkansas, Missouri’s southern boot-heel, western Kentucky and western Tennessee were also at risk for tornadoes, the weather service said.

Several Midwestern cities including Chicago were possibly in harm’s way of the severe weather, it added.

“There’s a potential for some very strong tornadoes and some tornadoes that could be on the ground for quite some time, especially in northern Arkansas and western Tennessee,” said John Feerick, senior meteorologist at private forecasting service AccuWeather.

Rich Banns, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in Maryland, said thunderstorms were possible along a 1,000-mile-long (1,600 km) front that could unleash damaging straight-line winds, as well as hail and downpours capable of triggering flash floods.

The northern, colder edge of the storm system, stretching from the High Plains to the upper Great Lakes, could bring heavy snow, combining with winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour) to create white-out conditions.

“It’s going to be a tale of two storms for a place like Wisconsin, with blizzards to the north and severe thunderstorms to the south,” Feerick said.

Somewhere in the middle, arching across parts of several states, is a swath of the northern Midwest that is expected to be besieged by intense ice storms, with freezing rain wreaking havoc on roads and power lines.

The storm system is set to intensify through Friday as the sprawling low-pressure system at its core moves farther eastward, drawing up greater moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, Feerick said.

In contrast to extremely wet, windy weather along the leading eastern edge of the enormous weather pattern, its southwestern flank will feature a very different hazard, as gusty conditions and low humidity combine to pose a heightened threat of wildfires.

“Red flag” warnings for elevated fire risks and high-wind warnings were posted from eastern New Mexico across West Texas, much of Oklahoma, southern and western Kansas and southeastern Colorado – very dry areas where winds of greater than 50 mph (80 km per hour) were expected.

In addition, dust storm warnings were in effect for portions of the Southern Plains.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Will Dunham and Jamie Freed)

By Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters) – Helping a minor cross state lines to terminate a pregnancy without her parents’ consent would become a crime punishable by up to five years in prison under a bill passed Thursday by Idaho’s Republican-dominated legislature.

The bill would also allow a man who impregnates a woman – including rapists – as well as other family members to sue abortion providers.

If signed by Republican Governor Brad Little, the legislation would be the first of its kind in the country, according to the abortion provider Planned Parenthood, which has said it would challenge the ban in court.

State Representative Barbara Ehardt, a Republican sponsor of the bill, said at a committee hearing this week that the bill “gives us the tools to go after those who would subvert a parent’s right to be able to make those decisions in conjunction with their child,” according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Idaho already bans almost all abortions, but the state borders Washington, Oregon and Montana, which allow them. Conservative states with abortion bans have wrestled with ways to keep women and girls from obtaining abortions in more liberal states, many of which have increased the availability of services in order to accommodate such travel.

Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, told States Newsroom, a nonprofit news organization that runs the Idaho Capital Sun, that it would challenge the bill if it becomes law.

“There’s no way this bill is constitutional,” Gibron said, citing protections in the U.S. constitution for interstate travel.

Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Friday.

Adults who help girls obtain surgical or medication abortions without parental consent would face a minimum of two years in prison if convicted.

The bill also sets up a mechanism by which family members of the fetus can sue providers for up to $20,000 for performing an abortion. The bill initially excluded cases where the pregnancy was the result of rape, but was later amended to remove that language.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

By Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters) – Helping a minor cross state lines to terminate a pregnancy without her parents’ consent would become a crime punishable by up to five years in prison under a bill passed Thursday by Idaho’s Republican-dominated legislature.

The bill would also allow a man who impregnates a woman – including rapists – as well as other family members to sue abortion providers.

If signed by Republican Governor Brad Little, the legislation would be the first of its kind in the country, according to the abortion provider Planned Parenthood, which has said it would challenge the ban in court.

State Representative Barbara Ehardt, a Republican sponsor of the bill, said at a committee hearing this week that the bill “gives us the tools to go after those who would subvert a parent’s right to be able to make those decisions in conjunction with their child,” according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Idaho already bans almost all abortions, but the state borders Washington, Oregon and Montana, which allow them. Conservative states with abortion bans have wrestled with ways to keep women and girls from obtaining abortions in more liberal states, many of which have increased the availability of services in order to accommodate such travel.

Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, told States Newsroom, a nonprofit news organization that runs the Idaho Capital Sun, that it would challenge the bill if it becomes law.

“There’s no way this bill is constitutional,” Gibron said, citing protections in the U.S. constitution for interstate travel.

Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Friday.

Adults who help girls obtain surgical or medication abortions without parental consent would face a minimum of two years in prison if convicted.

The bill also sets up a mechanism by which family members of the fetus can sue providers for up to $20,000 for performing an abortion. The bill initially excluded cases where the pregnancy was the result of rape, but was later amended to remove that language.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -Dave Halls, first assistant director on Western “Rust, was sentenced on Friday for the on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, marking the first conviction for the 2021 fatality which shook Hollywood.

A New Mexico judge approved the set manager’s plea deal with prosecutors for a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death on a movie set outside Santa Fe.

The conviction marked a step forward for state prosecutors plagued by legal setbacks since they filed charges in January against actor Alec Baldwin and others who handled the gun that killed Hutchins.

District court judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced Halls to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class.

Hutchins was killed when Baldwin fired a live round from a revolver while rehearsing. As first assistant director, prosecutors said Halls was responsible for set safety on “Rust.”

“Halls did not check every round in the gun to confirm it was a dummy round and not a live round,” state prosecutor Kari Morrissey told the virtual plea hearing.

Halls, an industry-veteran with over 80 credits including “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Crow: Salvation,” was the only member of the “Rust” cast and crew to enter a plea bargain. Prosecutors said he approached them and was cooperative.

It remains unclear whether he will testify on behalf of the prosecution in a May preliminary hearing where Marlowe Sommer will decide whether there is probable cause to try Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

Baldwin pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter. The actor said he relied on weapons experts – Gutierrez-Reed and Halls – to ensure the firearm was safe to use.

Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for firearm safety and training, will also plead not guilty, according to her lawyer.

‘COLD GUN’

The case is remarkable in that there is little or no precedent for a Hollywood actor to face criminal charges for an on-set shooting.

Investigators have been unable to discover who brought live rounds on set, an act strictly forbidden by the industry.

“Never in anyone’s wildest dreams never, never in anyone’s imagination, did anyone think that there could possibly be a live round in the firearm,” said Lisa Torraco, Halls’ lawyer.

She said Halls was suffering from “survivor’s guilt” after he only checked the gun for blank rounds, which make an explosive sound and muzzle flash, and dummy rounds – the two types of rounds used on film sets.

The chain of events leading to Hutchins’ death remains unclear, though Gutierrez-Reed has said she loaded the live round that killed Hutchins, believing it to be a dummy.

A 2021 police report said Halls announced the weapon was a “cold gun” – an industry term meaning it did not contain rounds with an explosive charge – before handing it to Baldwin.

Halls testified to New Mexico’s worker safety bureau in December that it was Gutierrez-Reed who said “cold gun” and gave the revolver to Baldwin. The armorer told the bureau she never used that term and it was Halls who passed the weapon to Baldwin.

Under the charge of involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors must prove Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin were not only negligent in their handling of the firearm but showed intentional disregard for Hutchins’ safety.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson, Leslie Adler and Aurora Ellis)

By Steve Holland

ROLLING ROCK, Mississippi (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday toured scenes of devastation in a Mississippi town after storms last week killed 26 people and destroyed homes and property in Mississippi and Alabama.

As Biden and first lady Jill Biden drove through Rolling Fork, they saw the damage left by a powerful tornado that reduced many of the community’s 400 houses to unrecognizable debris.

“The thing that really always amazes me about all the tornadoes is that you have one house standing, one house from here to the wall, totally destroyed. But for the grace of God,” Biden said.

The Bidens planned to survey recovery efforts and meet first responders, state and local officials and people affected by the recent storms, the White House said.

Rolling Fork, a town of around 1,900 in western Mississippi, was hit the hardest, with tree trunks snapped like twigs and cars tossed aside like toys. The town’s water tower lay twisted on the ground.

“We anticipated some bad weather but all of a sudden it turned into something chaotic,” Mississippi emergency official Clayton French told the Bidens.

The Bidens were briefed outside an undamaged elementary school.

Mississippi officials set up three emergency shelters, including at the National Guard Armory in Rolling Fork. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Deanne Criswell has visited the area and accompanied Biden on Friday.

Biden plans to announce that the federal government will cover for 30 days the full cost of Mississippi’s emergency measures in response to last week’s storm, a White House official said.

Those measures may include removing debris, operating shelters and paying overtime to first responders, the official said.

The Bidens were making the trip to “reaffirm their commitment to supporting the people of Mississippi as long as it takes,” the official said.

FEMA will open disaster recovery centers in four of the state’s counties on Monday, the official added.

Twenty-five people were killed in Mississippi and one in Alabama as a result of the powerful storm.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Josie Kao)

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday struck down a Minnesota law requiring a person to be at least 21 before obtaining a permit to carry a handgun in public, finding it violated the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The order by U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez in St. Paul is the latest in a series of legal defeats for state gun control measures following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide.

The state’s 21-year age minimum, enacted as part of a 2003 gun control law, had been challenged in a 2021 lawsuit by three gun rights groups – Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, Firearms Policy Coalition and Second Amendment Foundation – and three individuals.

“This is a resounding victory for 18- to 20-year-old adults who wish to exercise their Constitutional right to bear arms,” Bryan Strawser, chair of Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said in a statement.

The office of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, and the state’s Department of Public Safety, which is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit that the age minimum violated the Second Amendment because 18- to 20-year-olds were permitted to possess guns at the time of the United States’ founding.

Their case was bolstered last June when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. The court also found that any limits on gun rights must be in line with the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation.

Menendez wrote that she had “reservations” about the historical analysis demanded by the Supreme Court, noting that “judges are not historians.”

Nonetheless, she concluded that there were no historical laws comparable to Minnesota’s, and that Bruen required her to strike the law down.

She noted that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a 21-year age minimum for handgun purchases in Florida, based on 19th-century laws, but said those laws only concerned gun sales, not the right to carry guns.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)

By Steve Holland

ROLLING ROCK, Mississippi (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday toured scenes of devastation in a Mississippi town after storms last week killed 26 people and destroyed homes and property in Mississippi and Alabama.

As Biden and first lady Jill Biden drove through Rolling Fork, they saw the damage left by a powerful tornado that reduced many of the community’s 400 houses to unrecognizable debris.

“The thing that really always amazes me about all the tornadoes is that you have one house standing, one house from here to the wall, totally destroyed. But for the grace of God,” Biden said.

The Bidens planned to survey recovery efforts and meet first responders, state and local officials and people affected by the recent storms, the White House said.

Rolling Fork, a town of around 1,900 in western Mississippi, was hit the hardest, with tree trunks snapped like twigs and cars tossed aside like toys. The town’s water tower lay twisted on the ground.

“We anticipated some bad weather but all of a sudden it turned into something chaotic,” Mississippi emergency official Clayton French told the Bidens.

The Bidens were briefed outside an undamaged elementary school.

Mississippi officials set up three emergency shelters, including at the National Guard Armory in Rolling Fork. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Deanne Criswell has visited the area and accompanied Biden on Friday.

Biden plans to announce that the federal government will cover for 30 days the full cost of Mississippi’s emergency measures in response to last week’s storm, a White House official said.

Those measures may include removing debris, operating shelters and paying overtime to first responders, the official said.

The Bidens were making the trip to “reaffirm their commitment to supporting the people of Mississippi as long as it takes,” the official said.

FEMA will open disaster recovery centers in four of the state’s counties on Monday, the official added.

Twenty-five people were killed in Mississippi and one in Alabama as a result of the powerful storm.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Josie Kao)

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday struck down a Minnesota law requiring a person to be at least 21 before obtaining a permit to carry a handgun in public, finding it violated the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The order by U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez in St. Paul is the latest in a series of legal defeats for state gun control measures following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide.

The state’s 21-year age minimum, enacted as part of a 2003 gun control law, had been challenged in a 2021 lawsuit by three gun rights groups – Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, Firearms Policy Coalition and Second Amendment Foundation – and three individuals.

“This is a resounding victory for 18- to 20-year-old adults who wish to exercise their Constitutional right to bear arms,” Bryan Strawser, chair of Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said in a statement.

The office of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, and the state’s Department of Public Safety, which is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit that the age minimum violated the Second Amendment because 18- to 20-year-olds were permitted to possess guns at the time of the United States’ founding.

Their case was bolstered last June when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time, in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. The court also found that any limits on gun rights must be in line with the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation.

Menendez wrote that she had “reservations” about the historical analysis demanded by the Supreme Court, noting that “judges are not historians.”

Nonetheless, she concluded that there were no historical laws comparable to Minnesota’s, and that Bruen required her to strike the law down.

She noted that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a 21-year age minimum for handgun purchases in Florida, based on 19th-century laws, but said those laws only concerned gun sales, not the right to carry guns.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)

(Reuters) – The U.S. health regulator on Friday classified the recall of Getinge AB’s heart devices as its most serious type as their use may cause grave injuries or death due to risk of unexpected shutdowns.

The company said it has informed its customers about the issue and there was no material financial impact from the recall. 

An estimated 4,502 devices were recalled by the Swedish medical equipment maker’s unit, Datascope, in the country in January, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A communication loss between certain chips may result in an unexpected shutdown of the devices, which are designed to help the heart pump more blood, the agency said.

Unexpected pump shutdown and any interruption to therapy could lead to unstable blood flow, organ damage, including death, especially for critically ill people.

Datascope has reported 42 complaints about the communication failures resulting in unexpected shutdowns of the devices, distributed between March 6, 2012, and Jan. 13 of this year, the FDA said. It added there were no reports of any injuries or deaths related to the issue.

Earlier in March, the FDA had classified recall of an estimated 2,300 of these devices as most serious due to a different issue. Getinge had also recalled 4,454 units initiated back in December due to another issue.

(Reporting by Raghav Mahobe in Bengaluru)

(Reuters) – The U.S. health regulator on Friday classified the recall of Getinge AB’s heart devices as its most serious type as their use may cause grave injuries or death due to risk of unexpected shutdowns.

The company said it has informed its customers about the issue and there was no material financial impact from the recall. 

An estimated 4,502 devices were recalled by the Swedish medical equipment maker’s unit, Datascope, in the country in January, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A communication loss between certain chips may result in an unexpected shutdown of the devices, which are designed to help the heart pump more blood, the agency said.

Unexpected pump shutdown and any interruption to therapy could lead to unstable blood flow, organ damage, including death, especially for critically ill people.

Datascope has reported 42 complaints about the communication failures resulting in unexpected shutdowns of the devices, distributed between March 6, 2012, and Jan. 13 of this year, the FDA said. It added there were no reports of any injuries or deaths related to the issue.

Earlier in March, the FDA had classified recall of an estimated 2,300 of these devices as most serious due to a different issue. Getinge had also recalled 4,454 units initiated back in December due to another issue.

(Reporting by Raghav Mahobe in Bengaluru)