US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. Gulf Coast oil firms brace for second strong hurricane in a month;Search for survivors is on as wildfires torch millions of acres in U.S. West and more

Since early this week, state officials have been attempting to debunk misinformation on social media that has blamed both left-wing and right-wing groups for the fires that have killed at least six people in Oregon this week.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. CDC reports 192,388 deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 6,427,058 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 46,045 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 1,035 to 192,388. The CDC's tally (https://bit.ly/2GDSzxr) of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, was of 4 p.m. EDT Sept. 11 versus its previous report a day earlier.

U.S. Gulf Coast oil firms brace for second strong hurricane in a month

Energy producers and communities along the U.S. Gulf Coast organized evacuations of residents and offshore workers on Sunday as they prepared for the second hurricane strike in less than a month. Tropical Storm Sally strengthened as it crept up the warm waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, carrying winds that could reach 100 mile per hour (160 kph) ahead of landfall on Tuesday, forecasters said.

Search for survivors is on as wildfires torch millions of acres in U.S. West

Crews were to resume searching for the dead on Sunday among blackened ruins left by massive wildfires raging in three western U.S. states, where millions of acres have burned in weeks and "mass fatality" incidents are feared in Oregon. A blitz of wildfires across Oregon, California and Washington have destroyed thousands of homes and a half dozen small towns this summer, scorching a landscape the size of New Jersey and killing at least 26 people since early August.

Colorado seeks to block USPS voting mailer it says is misleading

Colorado on Saturday sued the U.S. Postal Service and its postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, seeking to prevent the mailing of official notices to all Colorado residents that the state says contain false and misleading statements about voting in the November election. The USPS notices, which encourage residents who plan to vote by mail to request ballots early and send them in advance of the Nov. 3 election, runs counter to how mail-in voting is conducted in Colorado and could confuse and disenfranchise voters, the state argues in a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Texas prosecutors drop assault claim against Arkema, chemical executive

Texas prosecutors agreed to drop assault charges against chemical maker Arkema SA and one of its executives over injuries suffered by workers during a fire triggered by a 2017 hurricane. Assault charges against the French chemical company and logistics executive Michael Keough "cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt," prosecutors wrote in a motion filed in a Harris County District Court on Friday.

'It's exhausting': American families stumble through first weeks of virtual school

Meredith Kablick sat next to her five-year-old son Peter at home in Cheverly, Maryland, as he logged on to a Zoom video call for his first week of kindergarten at a French immersion school. Like thousands of parents in the United States this week, the registrar assistant was supervising her child's virtual schooling while working full-time. As with many schools from coast to coast, classes in the Washington, D.C., suburb reopened online to avoid the risk of COVID-19 infection.

Oregon wildfire melts trucks, leaves warlike destruction in wake

Matt Manson stared at the burned-out corpse of his pick-up truck on Friday, which sat on a blackened driveway in front of a smoldering pile of rubble that once was his house. Like other residents of the small agricultural town of Phoenix, Oregon, he was in shock as he returned to his neighborhood and saw how fast the Alameda Drive wildfire had engulfed his home and upended his life.

Facebook removes posts linking Oregon wildfires to activist groups

Facebook has started removing false claims that the deadly wildfires in Oregon were started by various left-wing and right-wing groups, a spokesman for the social media company said on Saturday, after the rumors left state officials inundated with queries for information. Since early this week, state officials have been attempting to debunk misinformation on social media that has blamed both left-wing and right-wing groups for the fires that have killed at least six people in Oregon this week.

Two L.A. County deputies shot in ambush, sheriff's department says

Two deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) were shot in the city of Compton late on Saturday night, the L.A. county sheriff's department tweeted https://bit.ly/3iu5GPR. "One male deputy and one female deputy were ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle," the tweet read.

Paulette becomes hurricane as it moves towards Bermuda, NHC Says

Storm Paulette strengthened into a hurricane late on Saturday as it continued to move towards Bermuda, the U.S National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. "Tropical-storm-force winds that make outside preparations difficult or dangerous are expected to reach Bermuda Sunday afternoon or evening," said the NHC's latest bulletin.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)