Reuters US Domestic News Summary

That unit, which includes conductors, brakemen and other workers, joins three other unions in rejecting a deal brokered via a board appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden. 'Toxic Twitter' activists ramp up pressure on brands after Trump account reinstated A coalition of civil rights activists on Monday were urging Twitter's advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after its owner Elon Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biggest U.S. rail union digs in on paid sick time, raising threat of strike

Workers at the largest U.S. rail union voted against a tentative contract deal reached in September, raising the possibility of a year-end strike that could cause significant damage to the U.S. economy and strand vital shipments of food and fuel. Train and engine service members of the transportation division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) narrowly voted to reject the deal. That unit, which includes conductors, brakemen and other workers, joins three other unions in rejecting a deal brokered via a board appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden.

'Toxic Twitter' activists ramp up pressure on brands after Trump account reinstated

A coalition of civil rights activists on Monday were urging Twitter's advertisers to issue statements about pulling their ads off the social media platform after its owner Elon Musk lifted the ban on tweets by former U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump's account, which Twitter had suspended after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 citing the risk of further incitement of violence, was reinstated over the weekend. Some 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from selling digital ads.

In Thanksgiving tradition, Biden pardons two chatty turkeys

U.S. President Joe Biden, wearing his trademark aviator sunglasses, pardoned two turkeys from North Carolina named Chocolate and Chip on Monday, sparing them from Thanksgiving dinner tables. In return, the pair of enormous turkeys gobbled their appreciation in the latest installment of the smile-inducing tradition at the White House to kick off the holiday season.

Two Estonian citizens arrested in $575 million cryptocurrency fraud, money laundering scheme

Two Estonian citizens were arrested in Tallinn, Estonia, on an 18-count indictment for their alleged involvement in a $575 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering conspiracy, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday. Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, both 37, allegedly defrauded hundreds of thousands of victims through a multi-faceted scheme, wherein they induced them to enter fraudulent equipment rental contracts with the defendants' cryptocurrency mining service called HashFlare, the department said in a statement.

U.S. consumers propel Thanksgiving air travel to highest level in 3 years

U.S. airlines and airports are preparing for a surge in passengers over the Thanksgiving holiday, with the number of travelers expected to hit the highest level in three years. Nearly 55 million Americans will take to the roads, skies and rails for the holiday, with air travel recovering to about 99% of the 2019 levels before the COVID-19 pandemic, travel group AAA estimates.

Trump's company kicks off defense case in criminal tax fraud trial

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's real estate company began mounting a defense on Monday in its criminal trial on charges including tax fraud after the prosecution rested its case, questioning an outside accountant who the Trump Organization contends should have caught a top executive cheating on taxes. Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office called five witnesses over three weeks including their star witness Allen Weisselberg, the company's former chief financial officer who pleaded guilty in August to charges including grand larceny and tax fraud.

'Red flag' gun laws in focus after attack at Colorado LGBTQ nightclub

The attack at a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub by a suspected gunman who was arrested last year in connection with a bomb threat has renewed questions about "red flag" laws that are used irregularly and in vastly different ways across the United States. The laws, which allow courts to issue "extreme risk protection orders" (ERPO) removing firearms from individuals considered at risk of harming themselves or others, have been touted by gun safety advocates as crucial tools to prevent mass shootings such as the weekend attack at Club Q in Colorado Springs.

U.S. Supreme Court takes up Jack Daniel's dog toy trademark rumpus

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday decided to referee a dog fight, agreeing to hear a bid by liquor brand Jack Daniel's to stop a company that sells dog toys from using designs that parody its trademarked Old No. 7 Black Label Tennessee Whiskey bottle. The justices took up an appeal by Jack Daniel's Properties Inc, owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Brown-Forman Corp, of a lower court's ruling in the trademark dispute that VIP Products LLC's "Bad Spaniels" toy is an "expressive work" covered by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment free speech protections.

SUV crashes into Boston-area Apple store, killing a man

A sports utility vehicle crashed through the front window of an Apple retail store near Boston on Monday before coming to rest at the rear of the showroom, leaving at least one person dead and 16 hospitalized, authorities and local media said. The black SUV was traveling at an undetermined speed when it plowed into the store in Hingham, Massachusetts, and struck "multiple people," Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said at a press conference.

Factbox-What's at stake in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff?

For the second time in less than two years, a U.S. Senate race in Georgia will go to a runoff, this time between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and his Donald Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker. Unlike the last time, the Dec. 6 vote will not determine whether President Joe Biden's Democrats hold control of the Senate, where they have already secured enough seats to maintain their razor-thin majority.