Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Wyoming judge blocks ban on abortion pills -report

A Wyoming judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a law banning medication abortion in the Western state, delaying what could be the nation's first such ban while a lawsuit challenging it makes its way through the courts, the Casper Star Tribune reported. Wyoming's ban, one of numerous abortion restrictions passed by Republican lawmakers in U.S. states in the year since the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion by overturning the 50-year-old Roe vs. Wade decision, was set to go into effect July 1.

US appeals court vacates travel mask mandate ruling

A U.S. appeals court panel Thursday vacated an April 2022 ruling that had declared unlawful a government order requiring masks on airplanes and other transportation modes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Justice Department had asked 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to declare the issue moot after President Joe Biden ended the COVID-19 public health emergency in May.

3M reaches tentative $10.3 billion deal over US 'forever chemicals' claims

3M Co has reached a $10.3 billion settlement with a host of U.S. public water systems to resolve water pollution claims tied to "forever chemicals," the chemical company announced on Thursday. The company said the settlement would provide the funds over a 13-year period to cities, towns and other public water systems to test and treat contamination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

'Rust' armorer faces new charge of tampering with evidence

The armorer for the movie "Rust" transferred drugs to someone on the day the film's cinematographer was shot dead in 2021, special prosecutors said on Thursday as she faced a new charge of tampering with evidence. Prosecutors said the additional charge against Hannah Gutierrez-Reed related to the Oct. 21, 2021, transfer of "narcotics to another person with the intent to prevent the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of herself."

U.S. court strikes down Florida transgender health rule

A U.S. judge on Wednesday struck down a Florida rule and a statute that banned state Medicaid payments for transgender healthcare, marking the second defeat in two weeks for anti-transgender legislation in the state. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declared the state's practices invalid, saying they violated the constitutional right to equal protection under the 14th amendment in addition to violating the federal Medicaid statue and the Affordable Care Act's prohibition of sex discrimination.

US jobless claims hold at 20-month high, existing home sales tick up in May

The number of people filing for state unemployment benefits for the first time held steady at a 20-month high last week, remaining elevated for a third straight week in what may be an early indication of a softening labor market in the face of the Federal Reserve's aggressive credit tightening. The housing market, meanwhile, showed further signs of stabilizing last month after standing out last year as the sector most visibly upended by the Fed's rate hikes. However, selling prices for existing homes - the largest slice of the U.S. residential property market - tumbled from a year earlier by the most in more than a decade, a demonstration of the choppy nature of the recovery underway.

Father, aunt helped indicted US Representative George Santos post bail

George Santos's father and aunt were identified on Thursday as the guarantors of the indicted U.S. representative's $500,000 bail, after Santos fought unsuccessfully to keep them anonymous. Gercino dos Santos and Elma Preven agreed to guarantee Santos' bail, after the first-term New York congressman pleaded not guilty last month to 13 criminal charges including fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.

U.S. House sidelines far-right Republican impeachment vote on Biden

U.S. House Republicans turned aside an attempt by hardline conservatives to force an impeachment vote against President Joe Biden on Thursday, in the first of what could prove to be a series of impeachment efforts by members of the far right. The House of Representatives voted 219-208 along party lines to refer a privileged resolution offered by firebrand Representative Lauren Boebert to two congressional committees. Democrats had hoped to kill the measure outright.

Trump's push for new sex abuse trial is 'magical thinking,' Carroll says

Donald Trump's push for a new trial in the civil case in which a Manhattan jury last month found the former U.S. president had sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll is "magical thinking," Carroll's lawyers said on Thursday. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, on June 8 asked for a new trial after the jury awarded Carroll $5 million. Trump said the damages were excessive because the jury did not find Carroll was raped and because the alleged conduct did not cause her a diagnosed mental injury.

New York lawyers sanctioned for using fake ChatGPT cases in legal brief

A U.S. judge on Thursday imposed sanctions on two New York lawyers who submitted a legal brief that included six fictitious case citations generated by an artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan ordered lawyers Steven Schwartz, Peter LoDuca and their law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman to pay a $5,000 fine in total.