Reuters US Domestic News Summary

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen on Friday sided with a group of states suing to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, arguing that it was illegally created by former President Barack Obama in 2012. U.S. surgeon general defends CDC mask change, blames tech companies for COVID deaths U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stood by federal guidance that those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer needed to wear masks, while blaming social media companies for fueling vaccine misinformation.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Facebook says it should not be blamed for U.S. failing to meet vaccine goals

Facebook on Saturday defended itself against U.S. President Joe Biden's assertion that the social media platform is "killing people" by allowing misinformation about coronavirus vaccines to proliferate, saying the facts tell a different story. "The data shows that 85% of Facebook users in the US have been or want to be vaccinated against COVID-19," Facebook said in a corporate blog post by Guy Rosen, a company vice president. "President Biden’s goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed."

U.S. administers 337.74 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC

The United States has administered 337,740,358 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Sunday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are up from the 337,239,448 doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Saturday.

Three Texas state Democrats who fled to Washington test positive for COVID

Three members of a delegation of Democratic Texas state lawmakers who fled to Washington D.C. to block passage of a restrictive new Republican-sponsored voting law tested positive for COVID-19, the Texas State House Democratic Caucus said on Saturday. The three Texas House Democratic lawmakers had been vaccinated against the coronavirus, but tested positive over the last 24 hours, according to a caucus statement.

U.S. appeals court blocks ruling that would have suspended CDC cruise ship rules

A U.S. appeals court late Saturday in a 2-1 ruling put on hold a lower-court decision that said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could not enforce its coronavirus cruise ship rules in the state. Last month, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday in siding with Republican-led Florida found the state was "highly likely" to show the CDC exceeded its authority in adopting rules governing the resumption of cruise ship sailing.

Baseball fans scramble after shooting outside Washington Nationals stadium

Some fans and players scrambled for cover at a professional baseball game in Washington on Saturday night as the sound of gunfire filled the stadium, and police later said several people had been shot outside. It was not clear to fans initially if the shooting was inside the complex. Videos of the incident shared on social media showed some fans crowding into the third-base dugout.

Oregon wildfire blazes ahead against army of firefighters

Fed by bone dry timbers, a massive wildfire dubbed the Bootleg blaze raged across an Oregon forest, advancing five miles (8 km) a day against an army of firefighters as it scorched another 39,000 acres (15,783 hectares) on Saturday. Driven by 30-mph wind gusts, by midafternoon it had burned more than 280,000 acres since starting on July 6 - consuming a forested area larger than New York City.

Biden promises to appeal immigration ruling, urges Congress to act

President Joe Biden on Saturday vowed to preserve a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the United States as children, promising to appeal a judge's "deeply disappointing" ruling invalidating it and urging Congress to provide them a path to citizenship. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen on Friday ruled in favor of a group of states led by Republican-governed Texas that sued to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Hanen concluded that Democratic former President Barack Obama exceeded his powers when he created DACA in 2012 by executive action, bypassing Congress.

U.S. tech companies disappointed with DACA ruling, urge Congress to act

Some U.S. tech companies expressed disappointment with a ruling by a federal judge that blocked new applications to a program that protects immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from deportation. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen on Friday sided with a group of states suing to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, arguing that it was illegally created by former President Barack Obama in 2012.

U.S. surgeon general defends CDC mask change, blames tech companies for COVID deaths

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stood by federal guidance that those fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer needed to wear masks, while blaming social media companies for fueling vaccine misinformation. Murthy told CNN's "State of the Union" that allowing vaccinated individuals to forgo masks also gives communities the flexibility to revert to mask mandates based on new infections and vaccination rates, as Los Angeles https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mask-mandate-returns-los-angeles-coronavirus-cases-rise-2021-07-15 has done.

U.S. senators drop tax enforcement from bipartisan infrastructure bill -Portman

U.S. lawmakers trying to salvage a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill have dropped a provision to beef up tax enforcement, Republican Senator Rob Portman said on Sunday, setting aside a significant revenue-raising measure. The provision, aimed at increasing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collections, will instead likely be added to a separate budget "reconciliation" bill being pushed by Democrats as a vehicle for passing trillions of dollars more in spending and tax increases, Portman said on CNN's State of the Union program.