US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. Justice Dept says Trump team may have moved classified papers amid probe; Biden declares emergency over Mississippi water crisis and more

"Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding for a period of 90 days," the White House said in a statement late Tuesday. Michigan sheriff sought to seize multiple voting machines, records show A sheriff in Barry County, Michigan, already under state investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal breach of a vote-counting machine, sought warrants in July to seize other machines in an effort to prove former President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, documents reviewed by Reuters showed.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. Justice Dept says Trump team may have moved classified papers amid probe

The U.S. Justice Department said it had evidence that classified documents were deliberately concealed from the FBI when it tried to retrieve them in June from former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, prompting its unprecedented search of his home. In a 54-page filing, prosecutors on Tuesday laid out their evidence of obstruction of justice, alleging publicly for the first time that Trump aides both falsely certified in June that the former president had returned all the government records he had stored in his home after leaving the White House in January 2021.

Biden declares emergency over Mississippi water crisis

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration approved an emergency declaration over a water crisis in the State of Mississippi and ordered Federal assistance late on Tuesday to supplement the state's response. "Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding for a period of 90 days," the White House said in a statement late Tuesday.

Michigan sheriff sought to seize multiple voting machines, records show

A sheriff in Barry County, Michigan, already under state investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal breach of a vote-counting machine, sought warrants in July to seize other machines in an effort to prove former President Donald Trump's claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, documents reviewed by Reuters showed. The proposed warrants sought authorization to seize vote tabulators and various election records from the offices of the Barry County and Woodland Township clerks, the documents showed. The two jurisdictions have not been previously identified as targets in the sheriff's investigation into suspicions that machines in the county were rigged to siphon votes from Trump.

Some U.S. Justice Dept staff barred from attending partisan events

Political appointees at the U.S. Justice Department will be barred from attending campaign events or fundraisers, according to new guidance issued by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday ahead of November's midterm elections. Federal employees are subject to the Hatch Act, a law limiting some political activities to keep the government free from partisan influence.

California braces for another run of extreme heat

A record-breaking heat wave is expected to hit California on Wednesday, bringing temperatures of up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46°C) in the state's inland valleys and 100 degrees along the coast over the Labor Day weekend, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. Excessive heat warnings were issued on Tuesday for much of the state, warning of the risk of heat-related illness for people exposed to prolonged outdoor heat, as well as stress to livestock.

U.S. Labor Day weekend travel volumes seen rebounding to pre-pandemic levels

The number of people traveling for the U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend is expected to rebound to pre-pandemic levels and possibly set new records in some cases, according to several travel companies. U.S. travel demand remains elevated for the final holiday weekend of summer as people are choosing to squeeze in one more trip despite higher airfares and rates, ongoing disruptions to flights and the squeeze on household budgets due to inflation, the travel companies said.

U.S. private payrolls gains slow in August - ADP

U.S. private payrolls increased by 132,000 jobs in August after rising 270,000 in July, the ADP National Employment Report showed on Wednesday. The ADP report was suspended for June and July while the company revamped the methodology for the data after a poor record predicting the private payrolls count in the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report.

U.S. life expectancy fell further in 2021 due to COVID

Life expectancy fell in the United States in 2021 to its lowest since 1996, the second year of a historic retreat due to COVID-19 deaths, provisional government data showed on Wednesday. The nearly one-year decline from 2020 to 76.1 years marked the largest two-year drop in life expectancy at birth in close to a century, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

Rights groups sue to block Indiana abortion ban

Abortion rights groups and medical providers in Indiana said they filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to stop the state's ban on the procedure from going into effect. The lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai'i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky and other groups argues the law violates Indiana's state constitution by abrogating its protections for privacy, due process and other rights.

Biden blasts MAGA Congress members, 'sickening' threats against FBI

U.S. President Joe Biden condemned violent threats against FBI agents who searched predecessor Donald Trump's home as "sickening," as he called for more police funding and an assault weapons ban in Pennsylvania. Launching his first of three visits in a week to the political battleground, Biden angrily denounced people who have lashed out at federal law enforcement officials involved in the unprecedented search of the Republican former president's Florida home on Aug. 8.