Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. senators offer bill to prepare for the next pandemic

U.S. senators offered a bipartisan $3 billion plan on Thursday to prepare for the next global health crisis, putting a premium on fighting disease outbreaks and pandemics like COVID-19. In a departure from partisan divisions over the novel coronavirus, Senator Jim Risch, Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Democratic committee members Chris Murphy and Ben Cardin introduced the bill, with high hopes that much of it would eventually become law. Trump's executive order targets political bias at Twitter and Facebook: draft

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to order a review of a law that has long protected Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet's Google from being responsible for the material posted by their users, according to a draft executive order and a source familiar with the situation. News of the order comes after Trump threatened to shut down websites he accused of stifling conservative voices following a dispute with Twitter after the company decided to tag Trump's tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud in mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact-check the posts. At least 200,000 New Yorkers to return to work in phase one of city's reopening: mayor

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday outlined what the first phase of a gradual reopening will look like in the most populous U.S. city, and said he expected between 200,000 and 400,000 people to head back to work during that phase. De Blasio said he expected the first phase of reopening to be announced in the first or second week of June and it would include four business sectors: construction, manufacturing, wholesale suppliers and non-essential retail. California regulator approves PG&E's Chapter 11 reorganization plan

Power regulator California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved PG&E Corp's Chapter 11 reorganization plan, the San Francisco-based utility company said on Thursday. Boston Marathon cancelled because of COVID-19

The Boston Marathon, originally scheduled to be held in April and then postponed until September because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has now been cancelled for the first time in its history, organisers said on Thursday. The race, held annually since 1897, is the world's most prestigious marathon and generally draws over 30,000 runners from all over the world. NSA warns of ongoing Russian hacking campaign against U.S. systems

The U.S. National Security Agency on Thursday warned government partners and private companies about a Russian hacking operation that uses a special intrusion technique to target operating systems often used by industrial firms to manage computer infrastructure. “This is a vulnerability that is being actively exploited, that’s why we’re bringing this notification out,” said Doug Cress, chief of the cybersecurity collaboration center and directorate at NSA. “We really want… the broader cybersecurity community to take this seriously.” 'Deficit of hope': Minneapolis police chief apologizes to family of dead black man

The chief of the Minneapolis police on Thursday apologized to the family of an unarmed black man who died this week after a white officer pinned him down with a knee to the neck, a fatal encounter that has triggered two nights of violent protests. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said his department had contributed to a "deficit of hope" across the Minnesota city even before the death of 46-year-old George Floyd on Monday. House Democrats demand probes of police killings of black Americans

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Thursday asked the Justice Department to investigate systemic police misconduct following a spate of high-profile police killings of African Americans. The killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died when a white officer pinned him down with a knee to the neck, and Breonna Taylor, shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment, raise questions as to whether police were engaged in a "pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct," House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and the other Democratic members told Attorney General William Barr in a letter. Chris Rock, Rosie Perez appear with New York Gov. Cuomo, urge mask wearing

Comedian Chris Rock and actress Rosie Perez made a surprise appearance at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's daily news conference to underscore his message that the public should wear masks to help curb the coronavirus pandemic. The celebrities, both of whom grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said they would take part in public service campaigns urging New Yorkers to take the pandemic seriously, wear masks and take other steps to prevent the spread of the sometimes fatal virus. Exclusive: As Trump ramps up attacks, Republicans less confident than Democrats in voting by mail, poll finds

Republicans are much more skeptical than Democrats their ballots will count if cast by mail and less confident they will be able to vote in November's election if their state switches to all-mail voting, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday. In a sign of the deep partisan divisions around voting by mail sparked by Republican President Donald Trump's relentless criticism of the practice, the poll found nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans support efforts to expand mail balloting options.