Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Fake contact tracing part of 'rapidly evolving' coronavirus fraud, U.S. DOJ warns Scammers are posing as COVID-19 contact tracers as a way to steal personal information, three major U.S. government agencies said on Tuesday, describing "rapidly evolving" fraud related to the pandemic.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Former Atlanta officer charged with murder granted $500,000 bail

A Georgia judge on Tuesday said she would allow a former Atlanta police officer charged with shooting a Black man in the back to put up a $500,000 bond to get out of jail while awaiting trial for a killing that touched off days of protests. Garret Rolfe, 27, is charged with felony murder and 10 other offenses in the June 12 shooting of Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy's parking lot in south Atlanta. Fake contact tracing part of 'rapidly evolving' coronavirus fraud, U.S. DOJ warns

Scammers are posing as COVID-19 contact tracers as a way to steal personal information, three major U.S. government agencies said on Tuesday, describing "rapidly evolving" fraud related to the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and Federal Trade Commission warned that fake contact tracers were asking for money and trying to collect social security numbers, bank and credit card information from individuals. New York City to cut police budget, but some say it's not enough

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed with the City Council to slash the New York Police Department's spending in the 2021 fiscal year's budget, which is due to be passed on Tuesday, but some lawmakers said it fell short of a $1 billion cut they had demanded. Nearly $484 million will be cut from the NYPD's budget, while another $354 million will be transferred to other city agencies, with the mayor shifting oversight of school safety officers from the NYPD to the Department of Education, the City Council said. Bolton, Democrats urge Russia sanctions if bounty reports are true

Democrats and a leading Republican hawk on Tuesday called for U.S. President Donald Trump to consider imposing new economic sanctions on Russia if a reported Russian effort to pay the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan was confirmed. Trump has been under pressure over a New York Times report on Friday that a Russian military intelligence unit had offered bounties for U.S. and allied soldiers and later reported that he received a written briefing on the matter in February. Fauci warns new U.S. cases of COVID-19 could double to 100,000 per day

New U.S. coronavirus cases could more than double to 100,000 per day if the current surge spirals further out of control, the government's top infectious disease expert warned on Tuesday, although he was "cautiously optimistic" a vaccine would be available early next year. California, Texas and Arizona have emerged as new epicenters of the pandemic, each reporting record increases in COVID-19 cases, adding to pressure on scores of potential vaccines being rushed into trials. A picture and its story: U.S. couple waves guns at anti-racism protesters

For Reuters photographer Lawrence Bryant, the events of last Sunday in St. Louis, Missouri, will make him especially vigilant the next time he goes out to cover anti-racism protests that are sweeping the United States. In a series of dramatic pictures, Bryant captured a couple exiting their mansion carrying firearms which they waved towards the crowd, as they confronted demonstrators making their way to the mayor's home nearby to demand her resignation. Hopes fade for reform of massive U.S. criminal justice system

Despite a renewed focus on wrongful arrests and racial discrimination after the death of George Floyd, meaningful reform of the massive U.S. criminal justice system is unlikely ahead of the November election, politicians and activists say. The United States, where evidence https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-coronavirus-usa-jails points to COVID-19 tearing unchecked through some jails, has the world's largest prison population and highest incarceration rate, studies show https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All. A toxic relationship between some city police departments and their communities was highlighted by the May death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police office pressed his neck into the pavement. U.S. Supreme Court endorses taxpayer funds for religious schools

The U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the separation of church and state in a major ruling on Tuesday by endorsing Montana tax credits that helped pay for students to attend religious schools, a decision paving the way for more public funding of faith-based institutions. The 5-4 decision, with the conservative justices in the majority and the liberal justices dissenting, was a boost to conservative Christian activists who have fought for years to make state taxpayer funds available for children to attend religious schools in the form of contentious voucher programs. Judge temporarily halts release of tell-all book by Donald Trump's niece

A New York judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked Donald Trump's niece from publishing a tell-all book that offers an unflattering portrait of the U.S. president and his family. Justice Hal Greenwald of the state supreme court in Poughkeepsie, New York, issued a temporary restraining order against Mary Trump and her publisher Simon & Schuster at the request of Robert Trump, the president's brother. Mississippi governor signs bill removing state flag with Confederate emblem

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves on Tuesday signed a bill into law replacing the current state flag that includes a Confederate emblem, a gesture triggered by support across the United States to dismantle symbols of slavery and racism. The removal of the flag, a long-simmering source of controversy in one of the breakaway Southern states that fought in the 1860's American Civil War, follows the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed while in police custody in Minnesota.

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