Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

'Rationals' vs. 'radicals': Anti-Trump Republicans threaten third party

Over 100 former Republican officials will sign a letter on Thursday declaring that if the Republican Party does not break with former President Donald Trump and change course, they will back the creation of a third party. The letter, headlined: "A Call For American Renewal," is an exploratory move toward forming a breakaway party, two of its organizers said. The group is dismayed by what it says is a modern Republican Party driven by its allegiance to Trump, who continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Exclusive - Waymo, Cruise seek permits to charge for self-driving car rides in San Francisco

Alphabet Inc's Waymo and rival Cruise have applied for permits needed to start charging for rides and delivery using autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, state documents reviewed by Reuters showed, setting the stage for the biggest tests yet of their technology in a dense urban environment. Neither company revealed when they intend to launch services. But they detailed contrasting deployment plans, with Waymo starting with "drivered operations" and Cruise expecting to deploy vehicles without humans behind the wheel.

Georgia prosecutor to seek death penalty in spa killings

A Georgia prosecutor said on Tuesday she would seek the death penalty for the man accused of fatally shooting eight people at Atlanta-area spas, six of them women of Asian descent, saying the suspect committed hate crimes. Robert Aaron Long, 22, was indicted on murder charges in the March 16 killings of four women in Fulton County, Georgia, as well as on aggravated assault and domestic terrorism charges, according to court documents.

Loyalty to Trump catapults Elise Stefanik into Republican stardom

U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik's first turn in the national limelight came when she mounted an impassioned defense of Donald Trump at his first impeachment trial in 2019, leading the then-president to declare that "a star is born." Stefanik's star could rise higher as Trump now pushes for her to be elected the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives, where her colleagues are set to vote on Wednesday to remove Representative Liz Cheney https://www.reuters.com/world/us/top-us-house-republican-sets-wednesday-vote-cheney-ouster-2021-05-10 from that role for rejecting his continued false claims that the 2020 presidential election was marred by widespread fraud.

Missouri, Tennessee join U.S. states cutting pandemic payments

The governors of Missouri and Tennessee are joining five other Republican-led states in ending all federally funded pandemic-related unemployment benefits this summer, saying the extra money is keeping those out of work from rejoining the labor force and making it hard for employers to fill jobs. "While these benefits provided supplementary financial assistance during the height of COVID-19, they were intended to be temporary, and their continuation has instead worsened the workforce issues we are facing," Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said in announcing the decision on Tuesday.

Ex-Pentagon chief defends response to Capitol riot, feared appearance of 'coup'

The man who led the Pentagon during former President Donald Trump's supporters' deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to defend his decisions at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, saying that sending in troops would have created the appearance of a "military coup." Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller plans to say that the military was deliberately restrained on the day of Trump's Jan. 6 rally, that turned into an assault by hundreds of his followers that left five dead including a police officer, according to a copy of his prepared remarks seen by Reuters.

Ghislaine Maxwell sex crimes trial in New York slated for November

A U.S. judge will seek to start Ghislaine Maxwell's trial on charges she procured teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse on Nov. 29, rejecting the British socialite's request to begin three weeks earlier. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan said on Tuesday the later date served the interests of justice because it would let Maxwell's four prosecutors continue without scheduling disruptions.

Georgia men plead not guilty to U.S. hate crime charges in death of Arbery

Three Georgia men pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal hate crime charges in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was gunned down last year while jogging through a suburban neighborhood. Arbery was running through a south Georgia coastal community outside the town of Brunswick in February 2020 when three men chased him down. The men later told police they thought he was a burglar and were seeking to make a citizen's arrest.

California governor announces $12 billion homeless plan

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said he was committing $12 billion toward the state's seemingly intractable homeless problem in what he said was the largest amount of money spent at one time to get individuals and families off the streets. The move comes as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, along with smaller cities and towns, grapple with mushrooming homeless populations and the spread unsanitary conditions and disease in blighted communities.

Georgia among first U.S. states to provide COVID-19 shots to kids under 16

When the state of Georgia made COVID-19 vaccinations available to children as young as 12 on Tuesday, Atlanta residents Jenny and Jeffrey Brower rushed to schedule an appointment for their twin 13-year-old girls. As Georgians, they were among the lucky ones. Providers in their state, along with those in Delaware and Arkansas, were already offering Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 15 - just a day after U.S. regulators authorized it for emergency use in that age group.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)