Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has said that if he charges former officer Garrett Rolfe it would likely be for murder or felony murder, as he believed Brooks posed no threat and gunning him down was an unreasonable use of force.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Pilot in Kobe Bryant helicopter crash may have become disoriented in heavy fog, NTSB says

U.S. federal safety investigators said on Wednesday that the pilot of a helicopter that crashed in foothills near Los Angeles, killing basketball great Kobe Bryant and seven others, likely became disoriented in the fog. The findings came in a so-called "public docket" released by the national Transportation Safety Board as it investigates the January crash. The NTSB has not yet released it's final report. Decision pending on charges in Atlanta police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks

A Georgia prosecutor is expected to announce as early as Wednesday whether a former Atlanta police officer will face any charges in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy's parking lot last week. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has said that if he charges former officer Garrett Rolfe it would likely be for murder or felony murder, as he believed Brooks posed no threat and gunning him down was an unreasonable use of force. Ahead of Trump rally, coronavirus cases surge in Oklahoma, other states

Just days before U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa, the biggest event in the country since pandemic restrictions were imposed in March, new coronavirus cases are surging in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere. The spike in new cases on Wednesday and over the last two weeks points to a troubling trend in the United States, where cases have risen nationally after falling for more than a month. Biden says Trump is 'surrendering' to coronavirus, putting lives at risk

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump of "surrendering" to the coronavirus pandemic and failing to stay prepared for a resurgence that could put a U.S. economic recovery at risk. "American people sacrificed so much to fight this virus... we may lose some the progress we've begun to make. All because he's lost interest," Biden said. "Now he's just flat surrendering the fight." Facing Arizona surge, Navajos reimpose virus curfew

The Navajo Nation has reimposed 57-hour weekend curfews to protect citizens from a surge in coronavirus cases in neighboring Arizona after the largest Native American reservation managed to flatten its own COVID-19 curve. A month ago the coronavirus was tearing through the nation, with daily cases spiking above 170 among a population of around 174,000. That gave the Navajo Nation, which straddles parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the highest per-capita infection rate in the country if it were a state. Brother of George Floyd urges U.N. probe into U.S. racism, violence

The brother of the late George Floyd, a black man whose death under the knee of a white officer roused world protests against racial injustice, urged the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate U.S. police brutality and racial discrimination. "The way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America," Philonise Floyd told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva by video. Atlanta prosecutors hope to persuade jury to second-guess officer who shot Brooks

Prosecutors seeking to convict Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe for murder in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks must try to persuade jurors to do something they rarely do - second guess split-second police decisions. On Wednesday, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard brought 11 charges against Rolfe, with the most serious being felony murder which carries the death penalty. Supreme Court LGBT ruling gives hope to those challenging military transgender ban

Nic Talbott, a transgender man, was driving his truck in Chicago when his phone started buzzing in July 2017. With just over 50 words on Twitter, his dream to join the military seemed to have been destroyed. President Donald Trump had tweeted that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve in the military, saying the armed forces needed to focus on "decisive and overwhelming victory," overturning a landmark decision made by his predecessor Barack Obama. Trump asked China to help him win in 2020, offered 'favors to dictators,' Bolton says

In a withering behind-the-scenes portrayal, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton accused him of sweeping misdeeds that included explicitly seeking Chinese President Xi Jinping's help to win re-election. Bolton, a longtime foreign policy hawk who Trump fired in September over policy differences, also said that the U.S. president had expressed a willingness to halt criminal investigations to give "personal favors to dictators he liked," according to a book excerpt published in the New York Times. Mothers as 'trauma surgeons:' the anguish of raising black boys in America

Raising black boys in America involves "constant mental anguish," Danielle Pattillo, a special education teacher in New York City and mother to two sons, ages 14 and 22, said. Every day Pattillo told her sons they were unique, wanted, valued, and loved - "each step in their life, each plateau of their life."