Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Michigan governor declares emergency after dams collapse

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday declared an emergency for Midland county after two dams breached and on expectations of extreme flooding. The county said two dams, Edenville and Sanford, have collapsed due to heavy rain in the past few days and residents nearby have been told to evacuate immediately. Trump threatens to cut off federal money for Michigan over mail-in voting

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday called Michigan's plan to send mail-in voting applications to all voters in the state illegal, without citing a specific law, and threatened to withhold funding to the state. "This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!" Trump wrote in a tweet. U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter crashes in Florida, pilot stable

A U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jet crashed upon landing on Tuesday night at a base in Florida and the pilot was ejected safely, the military said. "An F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 58th Fighter Sq crashed upon landing," the Eglin Air Force Base said https://bit.ly/2AD9IUW on Twitter, adding that the crash site was secured. Vaccine not only for rich, Cuomo says, and decries leadership by tweet

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that any vaccine to prevent the coronavirus should be distributed fairly without regard for wealth and called for U.S. crisis leadership based on competence and not Twitter posts. "You have to know what you are doing now - not just look like what you are doing, not just sound like what you are doing," Cuomo said without naming U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican who frequently attacks his critics on Twitter. U.S. Department of Justice warns California governor over pandemic church closings

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday warned California's governor that his COVID-19 restrictions discriminated against places of worship by preventing them from meeting while businesses and film studios are allowed to carry on working. In a three-page letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, the DOJ said the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution required churches and other houses of worship be given equal treatment under the law, even when a health emergency has been declared. Senate Democrats call for Trump administration to unveil details of TSMC plant deal

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday urged the Trump administration to answer "serious questions" about Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's plans to build a U.S.-based $12 billion plant, flagging national security concerns and potentially undisclosed subsidies. TSMC, the world's biggest contract chipmaker and supplier to U.S. tech giants such as Apple Inc, announced the project last week, in a move trumpeted by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as signaling a "renaissance in American manufacturing" fueled by President Donald Trump. Plaintiff in Roe v. Wade U.S. abortion case says she was paid to switch sides

Norma McCorvey, the woman known as "Jane Roe" in the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion, said she was lying when she switched to support the anti-abortion movement, saying she had been paid to do so. In a new documentary, made before her death in 2017 and due to be broadcast on Friday, McCorvey makes what she calls a "deathbed confession." A nurse struggled with COVID-19 trauma. He was found dead in his car

Becoming a nurse in 2018 was a dream come true for William Coddington. He loved helping people and feeling needed at his West Palm Beach, Florida hospital. The 32-year-old was on the upswing of a decade-long battle with opioid addiction and other substance abuse, according to friends and family, who said he was committed to his recovery. Johnson & Johnson to stop selling talc baby powder in U.S. and Canada

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday announced it would stop selling its talc Baby Powder in the United States and Canada, saying demand had dropped in the wake of what it called "misinformation" about the product’s safety amid a barrage of legal challenges. J&J faces more than 19,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors claiming its talc products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, a known carcinogen. Many are pending before a U.S. district judge in New Jersey. As in 1918, New York may use staggered work hours to keep subway safe

As New York City makes plans to reopen in the coming months, officials are dusting off the playbook from the 1918 flu pandemic, when businesses were ordered to begin their work days at staggered times to prevent the subway from becoming a vector of disease. The idea, then and now, is to spread riders through the day to avoid the kind of crowding health experts fear could turn the subway into a breeding ground for the novel coronavirus which has killed over 20,000 people in the city.