US News Roundup: U.S. schools revamp curricula in response to Black Lives Matter; Joe Biden to accept Democratic presidential nomination and more

After decades in politics, Joe Biden to accept Democratic presidential nomination In the biggest speech of his nearly 50 years in public life, Joe Biden will spell out his vision for the presidency on Thursday when he accepts the Democratic nomination to challenge Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 U.S. election.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. postmaster general to face tough questioning in Senate hearing

U.S. lawmakers will aggressively question U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in his first appearance before Congress on Friday about recent cost-cutting measures that Democrats say appeared to be an attempt to boost President Donald Trump's re-election chances. Under pressure from the public and lawmakers, DeJoy on Tuesday suspended all mail service changes until after the Nov. 3 election. Critics feared they would interfere with mail-in balloting, which is expected to be much more widely used amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

After decades in politics, Joe Biden to accept Democratic presidential nomination

In the biggest speech of his nearly 50 years in public life, Joe Biden will spell out his vision for the presidency on Thursday when he accepts the Democratic nomination to challenge Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 U.S. election. Biden's speech on the fourth and last night of the Democratic National Convention will be a crowning moment in a long political career for the former U.S. senator and vice president, who fared poorly in two previous runs for the White House in 1988 and 2008.

New York City ahead of curve on COVID-19, but faces risks going into fall: experts

New York City, once an epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, has managed to contain the virus as it reopens, but faces risks of an uptick in cases in the fall, public health experts told Reuters. The city's success comes from a mix of high rates of compliance with local and federal public health guidance and also substantial immunity among the general population, a result of the severity of the outbreak in March and April, according to public health experts based in New York City.

Three arrested in Portland amid scuffles with police

About 100 people blocked traffic, vandalized an immigration building, set fires to dumpsters, and threw rocks and glass bottles at police in the Oregon city of Portland on Thursday night, police said, adding they had arrested three people. The gathering, declared unlawful by the police, followed successive nights of the police declaring a riot in parts of the northwestern city, including on Wednesday around the same Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building.

COVID-19 era highlights U.S. 'black hole' compensation fund for pandemic vaccine injuries

A U.S. government program that compensates people who say they have been harmed by an emergency vaccine has paid out on fewer than 10% of claims, raising questions whether the process should be used to address any potential side effects from a coronavirus shot, according to some lawyers who have filed such claims. The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), run by an agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has been designated to handle any issues with a COVID-19 vaccine.

Pence leads Republican counterattack after Democrats savage Trump at convention

Vice President Mike Pence on Friday launched the Republican counterattack to the scathing criticism that President Donald Trump received at the Democrats' nominating convention this week, countering that a Joe Biden presidency would crush the U.S. economy and allow civil unrest in the streets. "The Democrats are offering a vision for this country that would crush our economy and promote the kind of policies that will result in more violence in our streets," Pence told Fox News in one of a series of morning television interviews following the four-night Democratic event.

Firestorms kindled by lightning displace tens of thousands in California

Tens of thousands of displaced Californians huddled under mass evacuation orders in the midst of a heat wave and a pandemic on Friday as lightning-sparked firestorms raged across tinder-dry landscapes in and around the greater San Francisco Bay area. At least six people have died in the fires, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) reported Thursday night.

U.S. schools revamp curricula in response to Black Lives Matter

John Marshall keeps a picture of Breonna Taylor in his office at the headquarters of Kentucky's largest school district, a visual reminder, he says, of the need for curriculum changes that better honor and focus on Black stories. Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, spent her senior year of high school at Kentucky's Jefferson County Public Schools, where Marshall, the district's chief diversity officer, has been leading a system-wide revamp of teaching materials and practices.

Actress Lori Loughlin, husband face sentencing in U.S. college admissions scandal

"Full House" actress Lori Loughlin and her husband face sentencing on Friday after admitting they participated in a vast U.S. college admissions fraud scheme to secure spots for their daughters at the University of Southern California. Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, will appear virtually before a federal judge in Boston to be sentenced under plea deals that call for them to serve two months and five months in prison, respectively.

U.S. motorists drove 13% fewer miles in June than a year earlier

U.S. motorists drove 244.7 billion vehicle miles in June, 36.5 billion vehicle miles fewer than the same month a year earlier, as government lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus kept drivers home, according to a monthly report from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The biggest year-over-year declines were in the Northeast at 19.2% and the West at 13.7%.