Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Wisconsin Supreme Court invalidates state's COVID-19 stay-at-home order

The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a statewide coronavirus stay-at-home order on Wednesday, siding with a legal challenge from Republican lawmakers who said the state's top public health official exceeded her authority by imposing the restrictions. While lockdown orders meant to quell the pandemic have been challenged in court in several states, the decision in Wisconsin marked the first such lawsuit to succeed in a larger political debate over social distancing that has grown increasingly partisan. As people use COVID-19 as weapon, U.S. states mull criminal crackdowns

Accused criminals across the United States have started using the threat of deadly COVID-19 infection as a weapon in attacks on police, retail clerks and grocers trying to keep the nation fed during lockdown. Threats of spreading COVID-19 have occurred from coast to coast, raising questions about whether states will move to criminalize the weaponization of the novel coronavirus, the way more than half of U.S. states made undisclosed HIV exposure a crime when the AIDS crisis erupted in the 1980s. CVS Health to launch COVID-19 drive-thru test sites in five U.S. states

CVS Health Corp said on Thursday it would roll out more than 50 COVID-19 testing sites at select pharmacy drive-thru locations in five U.S. states, and expects to have up to 1,000 such locations across the country by the end of the month. The drugstore chain, which has been operating large-scale testing sites since early April, said the new locations will be across Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Trump calls Fauci remarks on risks to reopening schools, economy unacceptable

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday described as not acceptable a warning given by top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci this week about the dangers of reopening the economy and schools too quickly. "To me it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about Fauci's warnings to senators on Tuesday about the risks of reopening the schools and economy too soon. Special Report: Immigrant couple face double jeopardy in U.S. coronavirus epidemic

The Koch Foods chicken-processing plant dominates the small town of Morton, where even the sides of the roads are dotted with feathers. For more than a decade, the lives of Pedro Vasquez and Zoila Orozco have revolved around the plant. It set the stage for some of their greatest joys: They fell in love there, had a little boy and eventually saved enough money to buy a small house in town, far from their native Guatemala. Trump mobilizing U.S. military to deliver coronavirus vaccine

President Donald Trump is mobilizing the U.S. military to distribute a novel coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available and will focus first on older Americans. "You know it's a massive job to give this vaccine," Trump said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Fox Business Network. "Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year, we're going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly." Big police presence expected at Michigan protest of stay-at-home order

A demonstration protesting Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order is set to take place on Thursday in the state capital of Lansing, with fears some might carry weapons inside the Capitol building. Whitmer recently extended the state's stay-at-home order - one of the strictest in the United States - until at least May 28 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and the respiratory disease it causes, COVID-19. Whistleblower to warn Congress of 'grave risks' of rushing to reopen U.S.

A whistleblower who says he was removed as director of a government research office because he raised concerns about coronavirus preparedness will testify before a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce's health subcommittee will hear from Rick Bright, who until last month served as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, which is responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. appeals court rejects Trump bid to escape 'emoluments' lawsuit

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected President Donald Trump's effort to end a lawsuit alleging his ownership of a hotel in Washington violates anti-corruption provisions of the U.S. Constitution known as the "Emoluments Clauses." The decision by the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a victory for the Democratic attorneys general in Maryland and the District of Columbia, who alleged Trump's financial interest in the hotel violated a prohibition on the president accepting payments from foreign governments without congressional consent. Explainer: Trump keeps raising 'Obamagate.' What's that?

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of seeking to damage his presidency, repeatedly referring to it as "Obamagate" but offering no details. WHAT IS 'OBAMAGATE'?