Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. House Republican leader: still no deal on more coronavirus money for small U.S. businesses

U.S. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said on Monday there was still no deal on a funding measure that would provide more relief for small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. "We could have been done yesterday, but the Democrats continue to hold up, even though we had agreed to all the numbers," McCarthy, the minority leader for the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, told Fox News. Coronavirus relief deal for U.S. small businesses may come Monday, Trump says

U.S. Democrats and Republicans are near agreement on extra money to help small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic and could seal a deal as early as Monday, President Donald Trump said on Sunday. Trump told his daily White House briefing on the crisis that Republicans were "close" to an agreement with Democrats, and suggested there could be a resolution on Monday. Home gardening blooms around the world during coronavirus lockdowns

Jaime Calder all but gave up on gardening after moving from the fertile soils of Illinois to dusty Texas, but the coronavirus changed her mind. The magazine editor and her family of five planted collard greens, chard, onions, blackberries, watermelons and peppers this year, expanding their garden while buckling down at home during the pandemic. New York mayor says lack of coronavirus testing may delay city reopening

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that it could take weeks if not months before the country's most populous city reopens due to a lack of widespread testing, even as officials elsewhere began rolling back restrictions on daily life. De Blasio, whose city is at the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the United States, said New York needed to be conducting hundreds of thousands of tests a day and to see hospitalizations decline further before reopening the economy. Trump favors more coronavirus aid to U.S. states, but in later bill

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he favors more coronavirus relief aid for state and local governments, but that will be for a future package to be negotiated with Congress, not in the one that is being negotiated now. "We will be saving that for another time," Trump said at a White House briefing in response to a question about Democrats' request for more aid to state and local governments. U.S. coronavirus death toll rises as cases hit 750,000: Reuters tally

The U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus rose to more than 40,000 on Sunday, the highest in the world and almost double the number of deaths in the next highest country Italy, according to a Reuters tally. It took the United States 38 days after recording its first fatality on Feb. 29 to reach 10,000 deaths on April 6, but only five more days to reach 20,000 dead, according to a Reuters tally. The United States' toll increased to 40,000 from 30,000 in four days after including untested but probable COVID-19 deaths reported by New York City. Mnuchin says Congress close to deal on coronavirus bill

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that senior Republicans and Democrats in Congress are close to reaching agreement on a new coronavirus response bill. "I think we're very close to a deal today and I'm hopeful we can get that done," Mnuchin said in an interview with CNN. More U.S. protests call for lifting coronavirus restrictions as governors push back

Protests flared in U.S. states on Sunday over stay-at-home orders while governors disputed President Donald Trump's claims they have enough tests for the novel coronavirus and should quickly reopen their economies. An estimated 2,500 people rallied at the Washington state capitol in Olympia to protest Democratic Governor Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order, defying a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people. U.S. lawmakers make push to assist local newspapers, broadcasters

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers called on Sunday for expanding payroll assistance to struggling local newspapers and broadcast stations that have seen advertising revenue plummet during the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Amy Klobuchar and Republicans John Kennedy and John Boozman urged Senate leaders to revise the rules to make thousands of local newspapers, TV and radio stations eligible for assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program. Ex-Trump campaign aide Gates asks to serve sentence at home over coronavirus fears

U.S. President Donald Trump's former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates has asked to serve his remaining 45-day "intermittent" prison sentence from his home over fears of contracting the coronavirus, a court filing showed. Gates is urging a modification to his probation condition as he fears that he could carry the virus home from the prison, posing a heightened risk to his wife, who is getting treated for cancer, Thomas Green, lawyer for Gates said in a filing made on Sunday.