Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden tests negative for COVID-19 after aide tests positive

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday, after an incoming White House adviser, Cedric Richmond, contracted the deadly respiratory disease, a spokeswoman for Biden said in a statement. Richmond was not in close contact with Biden as defined by the Centers for Disease Control, spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said.

U.S. FDA advisory panel sets stage for Moderna vaccine authorization

A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday overwhelmingly endorsed emergency use of Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine, virtually assuring a second option for protecting against COVID-19 for a pandemic ravaged nation. The committee voted 20-0 with one abstention that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks in people aged 18 and older, one week after the same panel backed a similar vaccine from Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE, leading to an FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) a day later.

As pandemic rages across U.S., Congress scrambles to reach relief deal

As the coronavirus pandemic roared to new record highs across the United States, it lit a fire in the U.S. Congress, where Republicans and Democrats were scrambling to pass a new round of aid after months of partisan finger-pointing and inaction. Even as they contemplated passing a third stopgap measure to give them a few more days to agree on final amounts, lawmakers from both parties said COVID-19's worsening toll meant that failure to agree was no longer an option.

Biden nominee Blinken makes first visit to State Department

President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for U.S. top diplomat, Antony Blinken, on Thursday went to the State Department for the first time since the election, taking part in meetings and briefings as he prepares to take over as Secretary of State. Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trump's secretary of state, is quarantining after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. It was not immediately clear if the two would have a virtual meeting or who Blinken met with while at the department.

West Virginia lawmakers push jail reform in response to Reuters data on inmate deaths

West Virginia lawmakers plan to introduce several pieces of jail reform legislation after a Reuters investigation revealed an outsize death rate in the state's local lockups. Reuters, examining deaths at more than 500 U.S. jails, found the death rate in West Virginia jails was the highest of any state among the facilities surveyed, and more than 50% above the national average. In all, 111 inmates died in the state's 10 regional jails from 2009 to 2019, Reuters found.

U.S. high court rejects religious school challenge to Kentucky coronavirus shutdown order

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a religious school in Kentucky that is challenging the state's decision to limit in-school instruction as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The action by the justices is a loss for Danville Christian Academy. The school said the order violated its religious rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the free exercise of religion.

U.S. whistleblower was pressed to exaggerate leftist role in urban protests, lawyer says

A former acting chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's intelligence office has told Congress that DHS leaders pressed him to overstate illegal border crossings from Mexico and overplay the role of far left groups in violence during anti-government protests last summer, his lawyer said. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, former intelligence chief Brian Murphy accused department leadership of urging him to "blame Far Left groups in an exaggerated fashion" for violence during summer protests in Portland, Oregon, according to lawyer Mark Zaid.

SEC sues California biotech company for misleading investors about COVID-19 tests

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Decision Diagnostics Corp and its chief executive for allegedly misleading investors by promising the biotechnology company could test for COVID-19 with a finger-prick of blood and provide accurate results in less than one minute. In a complaint filed on Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the SEC said Chief Executive Keith Berman made materially false statements between March and June about what he claimed was his company's blood testing kit, and its efforts to obtain Food and Drug Administration approval for its emergency use.

Second U.S. vaccine ready to ship as COVID-19 surge pushes hospitals to brink

An unrelenting U.S. coronavirus surge pushed hospitals further to their limits as the United States pressed on with its immunization rollout on Thursday and prepared to ship nearly 6 million doses of a new vaccine on the cusp of winning regulatory approval. COVID-19 hospitalizations rose to record heights for a 19th straight day, with nearly 113,000 coronavirus patients in U.S. medical facilities nationwide on Wednesday, while 3,580 more Americans perished, the most yet in a single day.

With eye on climate change, Biden filling environmental, interior posts

President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate North Carolina's top environmental regulator as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief and a Democratic congresswoman as interior secretary as he pursues policies to combat climate change and safeguard the environment. Biden intends to select Michael Regan as EPA administrator, three sources with knowledge of the discussions said on Thursday. If confirmed by the Senate, Regan would become the first Black person to run the EPA, adding to a historically diverse incoming Democratic administration.