Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Portland mayor to leave home targeted by protesters Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he planned to move out of his apartment after repeated protests outside his building demanding he resign over his handling of months of anti-racism protests in the Oregon city, according to a report.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. court: Mass surveillance program exposed by Snowden was illegal

Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful - and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth. In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans' telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional. No bounce in support for Trump as Americans see pandemic, not crime, as top issue: Reuters/Ipsos poll

President Donald Trump's attempt to make civil unrest a central theme of his re-election campaign has yet to boost his political standing, as most Americans do not see crime as a major problem confronting the nation and a majority remain sympathetic to anti-racism protests, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. The Aug. 31-Sept. 1 national opinion poll showed that 40% of registered voters support Trump, a Republican, compared with 47% who said they will vote for his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Biden's lead is largely unchanged over the past three weeks during which both parties held conventions to nominate their candidates Trump and Biden for the presidency. New Yorkers pant with relief through masks as gyms reopen

A special strain of New Yorker showed up at Chelsea Piers Fitness on Wednesday morning, the first time gyms have been allowed to open since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the city in March. Broad-shouldered giants insisted through mandatory face masks that, despite nearly 200 pounds of visual evidence to the contrary, they had withered away over five months. Women with sleeked-back ponytails and pronounced abs, tired of months of quiet apartment workouts respectful of downstairs neighbors, let heavy barbells crash to the ground. Amid plans to quit, U.S. will not pay what it owes WHO this year

The United States said on Wednesday that it will not pay some $80 million it currently owes to the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) and will instead redirect the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York. The United States plans to leave WHO on July 6, 2021, after President Donald Trump accused it of becoming a puppet for China during the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO rejected Trump's assertions. Exclusive: Bipartisan campaign aims to reassure U.S. voters as Trump questions election integrity

At least a dozen groups are planning a large-scale, bipartisan public relations campaign to counter any attempt by President Donald Trump to cast doubt on the integrity of the November election or dispute the result should he lose, people involved in the effort told Reuters. One organization, the National Task Force on Election Crises, is contacting leading politicians from both major parties, military figures, star athletes, faith leaders and business executives, asking them to reassure voters about the integrity of the election result if chaos ensues after the Nov. 3 contest. Praise for Wisconsin shooter shared widely on Facebook despite ban

Social media posts praising Wisconsin shooter Kyle Rittenhouse were being widely shared on Wednesday, a week after Facebook and Twitter said such content violated policies and would be taken off their platforms. On the third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 17-year-old Rittenhouse shot three protesters, two fatally, with an assault rifle. He has been charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree homicide for the deaths of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, and one count of attempted homicide. Rittenhouse's lawyer has said he plans to argue self-defense. Biden looks to turn campaign focus to pandemic as Trump dwells on protests

Democratic nominee Joe Biden looked to shift the focus of the U.S. presidential race back to the coronavirus and President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic during a Wednesday campaign event on safely reopening the country’s schools. The health crisis, in which more than 184,000 Americans have died, has been overshadowed in recent days by civil unrest in Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a white policeman shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back last week, triggering protests. Portland mayor to leave home targeted by protesters

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he planned to move out of his apartment after repeated protests outside his building demanding he resign over his handling of months of anti-racism protests in the Oregon city, according to a report. In a Tuesday email, Wheeler told residents of the building in downtown Portland it would be best for their safety if he found a new home, The Oregonian newspaper reported on its website. Los Angeles county allows schools to reopen for students with special needs

Los Angeles County will allow schools to reopen to serve small groups of students with special needs and those for whom English is a second language, the latest move to loosen coronavirus-related restrictions in the hard-hit region. The county also said on Wednesday it would allow hair salons and barber shops to open at 25% capacity. Pandemic-related guidelines in the most populous California county had been briefly stricter than those in most other parts of the state after cases spiked in the summer. U.S. CDC tells states to prep for COVID-19 vaccine distribution as soon as late October

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked state public health officials to prepare to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine to high-risk groups as soon as late October, documents published by the agency showed on Wednesday. The timing of a vaccine has taken on political importance as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks re-election in November, after committing billions of federal dollars to develop a vaccine to prevent COVID-19, which has killed more than 180,000 Americans.