Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Detectives said they had no leads, according to her mother Anita King. U.S. House passes abortion rights bill, outlook poor in Senate The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Friday to protect abortion services against growing Republican-backed state restrictions, including a Texas law that imposes a near-total ban on abortion, but the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. border agents briefly detain 14 Mexican soldiers in El Paso

Fourteen Mexican soldiers were detained early Saturday morning for several hours by U.S. border agents after they crossed into El Paso, Texas, from Mexico's Ciudad Juarez, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)said. "Just after midnight today CBP officers working at the Bridge of the America's international crossing in El Paso noted two Mexican military vehicles crossing the boundary and entering the U.S.," the CBP told Reuters in an emailed statement.

PG&E charged with manslaughter for sparking California wildfire

Prosecutors in Northern California on Friday charged power utility Pacific Gas & Electric with four counts of manslaughter and other felonies, alleging it failed to cut down a sickly tree that fell onto power lines and sparked a deadly wildfire. The company denied it committed a crime.

Former Minneapolis officer in George Floyd case to appeal murder conviction

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filed notice that he will appeal his conviction and sentence for the murder of George Floyd, arguing that the judge in his case abused his discretion and made multiple errors during the trial.

Chauvin, a white man convicted of killing Floyd by kneeling on the Black man's neck during a 2020 arrest, has no money to hire an attorney and is representing himself, according to court documents filed late on Thursday.

Proud Boy known as 'Milkshake' pleads not guilty to U.S. Capitol riot charges

A self-identified member of the far right Proud Boys group nicknamed "Milkshake" pleaded not guilty on Friday to assaulting police and other charges stemming from the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. Daniel Scott, 27, a Florida man who has also lived in the Seattle area, faces a total of 10 criminal charges, including civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding.

Sam intensifies to a Category 4 Hurricane - U.S. NHC

Hurricane Sam has intensified to a category 4 hurricane, with some additional strengthening expected through Saturday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Sam is located about 1,025 miles (1,655 km) east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (220 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said.

Court blocks New York City schools vaccine mandate, sets hearing for next week

A requirement for New York City school teachers and staff to get vaccinated for COVID-19 was temporarily blocked by a U.S. appeals court just days before it was to take effect, but the court on Saturday set a hearing on the matter for next week.

Mayor Bill de Blasio last month set Monday as the deadline for 148,000 staff members of the largest U.S. school system to get at least one dose of a vaccine under a mandate aimed at slowing the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

'Truth is truth': Trump dealt blow as Republican-led Arizona audit reaffirms Biden win

Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden in Arizona's most populous county, a review of results by his allies in the Republican Party has reaffirmed, capping a widely panned effort spurred by Trump's false claims of voter fraud. Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, the Republican who paved the way for the so-called "full forensic audit" of 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County, said the review's overall vote tally matched the initial results in November.

Amid attention on Petito case, Native mother seeks justice

Pepita Redhair, a 27-year-old Navajo woman who dreamt of becoming an engineer and loved skateboarding, was last seen in March 2020 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Redhair's disappearance was not reported in local media. Detectives said they had no leads, according to her mother Anita King.

U.S. House passes abortion rights bill, outlook poor in Senate

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation on Friday to protect abortion services against growing Republican-backed state restrictions, including a Texas law that imposes a near-total ban on abortion, but the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate. The Democratic-controlled House voted 218-211 largely along party lines to pass the legislation called the Women's Health Protection Act. Just one Democrat, Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, voted against the proposal.

Newly signed Texas law restricts abortion-inducing medications

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday signed a new law that restricts access to abortion-inducing medications, just weeks after the state rolled out a near-total ban on abortion procedures. The law on medications prohibits mail-order abortion-inducing drugs and says doctors in the state are only allowed to prescribe them up to seven weeks after conception. Previously that restriction was set at 10 weeks.