Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Volunteering her kids for possible inclusion in Moderna’s trial was a tougher call. Power companies urge Biden to implement policies to cut emissions 80% by 2030 A group of U.S. electricity companies wrote to President Joe Biden this week saying it will work with his administration and Congress to design a broad set of policies to reach a near-term goal of slashing the sector's carbon emissions by 2030.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Hundreds protest Chicago police killing of 13-year-old boy

Hundreds marched through the streets of Chicago on Friday to protest the police shooting of Adam Toledo, a day after the city released a graphic video of a police officer shooting and killing the 13-year-old Latino boy in an alley two weeks ago. Demonstrators chanted "Hands up, don't shoot!" and "No justice, no peace!" while hoisting signs with messages such as "Justice for Adam Toledo" and "Stop Racist Police Terror!" in a march that remained peaceful as night fell.

U.S. administers 205.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines

The United States has administered 205,871,913 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 264,499,715 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday. Those figures are up from the 202,282,923 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by April 16 out of 258,502,815 doses delivered.

After criticism, Biden says he will raise U.S. cap on refugee admissions

President Joe Biden said on Saturday he will raise the cap on the number of refugees admitted this year to the United States, a day after he drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers for agreeing to keep the historically low figure in place. Biden signed an order on Friday extending a 15,000 refugee admissions cap issued by his predecessor Donald Trump through the end of September. In signing the order, Biden shelved a plan announced in February to increase the cap to 62,500.

Conservative U.S. House Republicans to form 'America First' caucus

Conservative House of Representatives Republicans plan to form an "America First" caucus to promote the policies of ex-President Donald Trump and said on Friday the group would soon release a policy platform. The platform promotes "a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions" and advocates for infrastructure with aesthetic value that "befits the progeny of European architecture," Punchbowl News reported on Friday.

U.S. parents begin to ask: Should my child get a COVID-19 shot?

Tristen Sweeten, a 34-year-old nurse in Utah, hopes her three children will receive Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine through its pediatric clinical trial. The sooner the better, she said, for their safety and the greater goal of ending the pandemic. Angie Ankoma, a 45-year-old Black mother of four who works in philanthropy in Rhode Island, believes trials must include diverse populations and participated in one for a COVID-19 vaccine herself. Volunteering her kids for possible inclusion in Moderna’s trial was a tougher call.

Power companies urge Biden to implement policies to cut emissions 80% by 2030

A group of U.S. electricity companies wrote to President Joe Biden this week saying it will work with his administration and Congress to design a broad set of policies to reach a near-term goal of slashing the sector's carbon emissions by 2030. Washington should implement policies, including a clean energy standard, or CES, to ensure the electricity industry cuts carbon emissions 80% below 2005 levels by 2030, the group of 13 power interests, including generators Exelon Corp, PSEG and Talen Energy Corp, said in a letter to Biden.

U.S. Sikh group demands probe of possible hate bias in deadly Indianapolis FedEx rampage

Half of the eight workers shot to death at an Indianapolis FedEx facility by a former employee before he killed himself belonged to the Sikh religious community, leading an advocacy group to urge a probe of possible racial or ethnic hatred as a factor. Law enforcement officials said Friday they have yet to determine what motivated the gunman, 19-year-old Brandon Hole, who was white, to carry out Thursday night's rampage, at a FedEx operations center near Indianapolis International Airport.

Oscars show reinvented as a movie -- with masks, longer speeches

The Oscars ceremony next week will have the look and feel of a movie, giving winners more time for speeches, while coronavirus masks will play a major role, producers of the show said on Saturday. The coronavirus pandemic and a trio of new producers have led to a reinvention of the traditional show where the world's highest movie honors are handed out before a seated theater audience of more than 4,000 A-list stars and industry executives.

U.S. preliminary plan on Afghanistan is to remove at least some contractors -Pentagon

The Pentagon said on Friday the preliminary plan on Afghanistan is for at least some contractors to be removed during the United States' military withdrawal from the country. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan starting May 1 to end America's longest war, rejecting calls for them to stay to ensure a peaceful resolution to that nation's grinding internal conflict.

J&J scientists refute idea that COVID-19 vaccine's design linked to clots

Scientists at Johnson & Johnson on Friday refuted an assertion in a major medical journal that the design of their COVID-19 vaccine, which is similar AstraZeneca's, may explain why both have been linked to very rare brain blood clots in some vaccine recipients. The United States earlier this week paused distribution of the J&J vaccine to investigate six cases of a rare brain blood clot known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), accompanied by a low blood platelet count, in U.S. women under age 50, out of about 7 million people who got the shot.