Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The Miami-Dade Police Department will continue to sift through what is left of the debris pile for additional remains and personal effects, officials said in a statement. U.S. appeals court lifts CDC cruise ship restrictions in win for Florida A federal appeals court late on Friday reversed course and let stand a lower court order prohibiting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from enforcing coronavirus-related cruise ship rules in Florida.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Fire department ends search of collapsed Florida condo for remains

The Miami-Dade County fire and rescue department on Friday declared an end to its search for human remains in the rubble of a Florida condominium tower that collapsed on June 24, killing at least 97 people. Authorities said one victim was still believed to be unaccounted for. The Miami-Dade Police Department will continue to sift through what is left of the debris pile for additional remains and personal effects, officials said in a statement.

U.S. appeals court lifts CDC cruise ship restrictions in win for Florida

A federal appeals court late on Friday reversed course and let stand a lower court order prohibiting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from enforcing coronavirus-related cruise ship rules in Florida. The decision is a win for Florida that had filed a lawsuit arguing the CDC curbs made it tough for the cruise industry to recover from the pandemic.

U.S. hits one of two targets in missile defense test - agency

The United States intercepted one of two targets in a missile defense test conducted over the ocean northwest of Hawaii on Saturday, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a news release. The agency said it could not confirm whether the second target had been destroyed.

Biden tests political muscle with campaign stop for Virginia governor candidate

President Joe Biden tested his political muscle in the state of Virginia on Friday in a campaign stop for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, who Biden said was running against an "acolyte" of former President Donald Trump. The off-year state race could be a sign of Democrats' strength or weakness ahead of the 2022 midterm congressional elections, as well as a test of the political strength of the president and his Republican predecessor.

U.S. administers 340.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC

The United States has administered 340,363,922 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 393,929,955 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those figures are unchanged from the previous day.

So-called smoke shade from other wildfires helps crews fight biggest U.S. blaze

Scores of wildfires raging across the Western United States' forest and scrub have belched so much smoke that it is helping an army of firefighters gain ground on the nation's biggest blaze, Oregon's Bootleg fire, by blocking sunlight, officials said on Saturday. Both the National Weather Service and officials with the Oregon Department of Forestry said smoke in the lower atmosphere coming from California wildfires has floated over the Bootleg fire, which has scorched more than 401,000 acres in Oregon about 250 miles (402 km) south of Portland.

U.S. wildfires turn full moon orange

Raging wildfires in the U.S. northwest and southwestern Canada cast an orange tint on July's full moon on Friday evening, as smoke from multiple blazes gusted toward the east.

In Washington, D.C., one view of the moon, as seen from the Washington Monument, showed a fully sized orb shifting colors and briefly turning orange. The silhouette of a Marine One helicopter flashed across the moon as it appeared to linger over federal buildings in the U.S. capital.

'Worth the wait': New York marriage bureau reopens for in-person weddings

Sae Feurtado and Richard Kissi's long wait to say "I do" finally ended on Friday, when in-person weddings resumed at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau after a 16-month shutdown. Before COVID-19, thousands of people from all over the world every year exchanged marriage vows in the two chapels housed inside the late 1920s Art Deco building in lower Manhattan.

After six worker deaths at Georgia chicken plant, U.S. issues $1 million in fines

A North Georgia chicken plant and its associated companies face $1 million in fines and scores of citations from the Biden administration over the deaths of six workers and injuries of a dozen in a nitrogen accident in January. The U.S. Labor Department and its Occupational Safety and Health Administration agency announced 59 citations and the fines against Foundation Food Group, which runs the Gainesville plant, along with two other associated companies: Messer LLC - a nitrogen gas company, and FS Group Inc, a food processing equipment maker.

U.S. will not investigate nursing home deaths in New York, two other states -letter

The U.S. Justice Department has decided not to open a civil rights investigation into nursing homes in New York and two other states regarding their COVID-19 response, dealing a blow to several Republican lawmakers who had demanded a probe. One underlying issue is whether three states with Democratic governors - New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania - inadvertently added to the coronavirus death toll in the early stages of the pandemic by allowing nursing homes to take in residents who had been hospitalized for COVID-19.