US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. watchdog agency says coronavirus whistleblower should be reinstated; Acting U.S. spy chief overhauls agency in defiance of congressional concerns and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. watchdog agency says coronavirus whistleblower should be reinstated

A U.S. government watchdog agency has recommended the temporary reinstatement of a whistleblower who says he was removed as director of a government research office because he raised concerns about coronavirus preparedness, his lawyers said on Friday. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) made a "threshold determination" that the Trump administration unlawfully sidelined disease expert Rick Bright because he "made protected disclosures in the best interest of the American public," Bright's lawyers said in the statement.

Coronavirus inflicts huge U.S. job losses as pandemic breaches White House walls

The U.S. government reported more catastrophic economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis on Friday as the pandemic pierced the very walls of the White House and California gave the green light for its factories to restart after a seven-week lockdown. A day after the White House confirmed that President Donald Trump's personal valet had tested positive for the virus, Trump told reporters that Katie Miller, press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, had also been infected. She is married to senior Trump aide and immigration policy hard-liner Stephen Miller and travels frequently with Pence.

Protesters decry delay in arrests of two white men in shooting of black Georgia jogger

Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of a Georgia courthouse on Friday to decry the killing of an unarmed black man in February and the delay in charging two white men in a shooting captured on video that was released earlier this week. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) arrested a former police officer, Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, on Thursday and charged with them with aggravated assault and murder in the Feb. 23 killing of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, in the coastal Georgia town of Brunswick.

Special Report: For cops who kill, special Supreme Court protection

Sick with pneumonia, agitated and confused, Johnny Leija refused to return to his hospital room. Moments later, with three police officers pinning him on the floor, Leija was dead at age 34.

NCAA president: Sports won't return until campuses reopen

College sports will not resume until all students are back on campus, NCAA president Mark Emmert said Friday. Speaking on the NCAA's Twitter feed regarding the start of college athletics amid the coronavirus pandemic, Emmert dismissed any notion of sports restarting before classrooms reopen. U.S.

CDC reports 1,248,040 coronavirus cases, 75,477 deaths

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 1,248,040 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 28,974 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,180 to 75,477. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. ET on May 7, compared with its count https://bit.ly/2WfXuu1 a day earlier.

FDA commissioner in self-quarantine after exposure to person with COVID-19

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday. Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test and was tested negative himself for the novel coronavirus, FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said in an emailed statement.

As Trump returns to the road, some Democrats want to bust Biden out of his basement

While President Donald Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona this week, his Democratic opponent for the White House, Joe Biden, campaigned from his basement as he has done throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Those optics have some Democrats increasingly concerned.

Tijuana coronavirus death rate soars after hospital outbreaks

The number of deaths from the coronavirus in Mexico's best-known border city, Tijuana, has soared and the COVID-19 mortality rate is twice the national average, the health ministry says, after medical staff quickly fell ill as the outbreak rampaged through hospital wards. A floor at one of the city's main public hospitals has been left empty because so many workers are sick there are not enough left to care for patients, the hospital director said, despite people with COVID-19 symptoms lining up outside to get in for treatment.

Acting U.S. spy chief overhauls agency in defiance of congressional concerns

Defying congressional oversight concerns, U.S. President Donald Trump's acting director of national intelligence on Friday unveiled organizational changes to his agency. Richard Grenell, who is expected to be replaced in coming months by Trump's full-time nominee, said the changes were the result of a lengthy review and would make more efficient use of funds and enhance intelligence support for the Pentagon.