Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The Democratic-led House passed the bill on Saturday in a special session called by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to prevent dwindling Postal Service funding and planned service cuts from interfering with delivery of mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Police arrest 14 after Portland rocked by clashes between demonstrators

Portland police said they arrested 14 people overnight after officers were hit by rocks, bottles and paint balls, following violent clashes between rival groups of demonstrators that roiled the city's downtown area earlier in the day. Police said they declared a riot just before midnight on Saturday after a group of about 250 people, many of them wearing black and carrying shields, helmets and gas masks, tried to march on a government building that has often been the scene of violence during nearly three months of nightly protests. U.S. House takes on Postal reforms seen as threat to mail-in ballots

The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Saturday on providing the cash-strapped Postal Service with $25 billion and block policies that have stirred concerns about mail-in balloting ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The Democratic-led chamber is widely expected to pass the bill, dubbed the "Delivering for America Act," at a rare Saturday session called by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the congressional August recess. But it is unlikely to be taken up in the Republican-controlled Senate. Firefighters, military planes, troops arrive in California to fight massive blazes

Crews from across the U.S. West, military planes and National Guard troops poured into California on Sunday to join the fight against two dozen major wildfires burning across the state, as officials warned of more dry lightning storms approaching. The worst of the blazes, including the second and third largest wildfires in recorded California history, were burning in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, where more than 200,000 people have been told to flee their homes. Trump's sister says, in secret recordings, he has 'no principles' and is cruel

U.S. President Donald Trump's sister, a retired federal judge, called him a liar with "no principles" in audio recordings made public this weekend, the latest attack on the president's character in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election. Maryanne Trump Barry, 83, also criticized the Republican president for "phoniness" and "cruelty" in interviews that were secretly recorded by her niece Mary Trump during a series of conversations in 2018 and 2019, according to The Washington Post, which obtained the recordings from her. Top U.S. security official says he cannot send law enforcement to polling sites

U.S. President Donald Trump's top homeland security official said on Sunday that his department does not have the authority to send law enforcement to polling sites during the November election despite Trump's suggestion that federal officers could be deployed to guard against election fraud. "That’s not what we do at the Department of Homeland Security," Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said on CNN'S "State of the Union." "We have express authorities authorized by Congress and this is not one of them," he added. Federal judge issues stay in Trump challenge of mail balloting in Pennsylvania

A federal judge on Sunday ordered a stay in President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign’s lawsuit seeking to ban drop boxes and other changes to Pennsylvania’s mail-balloting procedures. The Nov. 3 election promises to be the nation’s largest test of voting by mail and the two major parties are locked in numerous lawsuits that will shape how millions of Americans vote this autumn. U.S. CDC reports 175,651 deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday said the number of deaths due to the new coronavirus had risen by 1,006 to 175,651 and reported 5,643,812 cases, an increase of 45,265 cases from its previous count. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on Aug. 22 versus its previous report a day earlier. Trump hails FDA's authorization of plasma treatment for coronavirus, after slamming agency

President Donald Trump on Sunday hailed FDA authorization of a coronavirus treatment that uses blood plasma from recovered patients, a day after accusing the agency of impeding the rollout of vaccines and therapeutics for political reasons. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announcement of its "emergency use authorization" of the treatment came on the eve of the Republican National Convention, where Trump will be nominated to lead his party for four more years. Republicans, Democrats trade blame for stalled U.S. coronavirus aid legislation

Top Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for stalled talks on coronavirus aid legislation on Sunday, a day after the House of Representatives approved $25 billion in new funds for the U.S. Postal Service, a bill that Republicans declared dead. The Democratic-led House passed the bill on Saturday in a special session called by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to prevent dwindling Postal Service funding and planned service cuts from interfering with delivery of mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election. Thousands evacuate as dueling storms take aim at U.S. Gulf Coast

Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura tore through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, forcing thousands of coastal residents in Louisiana and Cuba to evacuate and flooding roads in Haiti's capital, with damage across the region expected to worsen this week. Marco, which strengthened into a hurricane on Sunday with sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), is forecast to make landfall along the Louisiana coast on Monday.