US News Report: U.S. Midwest sees surge in COVID-19 cases; Police clash with Portland protesters and press and more

Trump's announcement during a flag-festooned White House Rose Garden ceremony - with Barrett, 48, by his side and her seven children on hand - sets off a scramble by Senate Republicans to confirm her as the president has requested before Election Day in 5-1/2 weeks, when he will be seeking a second term in office.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

From big family to U.S. high court, Barrett 'used to being in group of nine'

As the parent of seven children, Amy Coney Barrett knows about working with a large group: it is an experience she will have again if confirmed as the ninth justice on the U.S. Supreme Court - and its first mother with school-age children. In a flag-bedecked White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated the 48-year-old Barrett for the seat left open by the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Husband Jesse Barrett and their seven children were on hand and visited with Trump in the Oval Office.

U.S. Midwest sees surge in COVID-19 cases as four states report record increases

Four U.S. states in the Midwest reported record one-day increases in COVID-19 cases on Saturday as infections rise nationally for a second week in a row, according to a Reuters analysis. Minnesota reported 1,418 new cases, Montana 343 new cases, South Dakota reported 579 and Wisconsin had 2,902 new cases.

Police clash with Portland protesters and press; more than 20 arrested

Police clashed with anti-racism protesters and pushed back members of the press in downtown Portland, Oregon into early Sunday morning, making more than 20 arrests. The violence followed a relatively peaceful rally by the right-wing Proud Boys group and counter protests by anti-fascist and Black Lives Matter activists on Saturday.

With classroom time reduced, U.S. college students demand tuition cuts

Full-time students at Chicago's Columbia College spend $14,000 a year for professional, hands-on training in dance, film and music that the school normally offers in studios and classrooms scattered across the city's South Loop and Near South Side. When the coronavirus pandemic led the school to move some coursework online this summer without reducing tuition, many students, including Isaiah Moore, cried foul.

From Kennedy-Nixon to Trump-Biden: 60 years of U.S. presidential debates

Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden face off on Tuesday in a televised presidential debate, part of a 60-year-old tradition marked by some of the most memorable moments of modern U.S. political history: - 1960: The first televised debate pitted Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy against Republican Vice President Richard Nixon, who was recovering from a hospital visit and had a 5 o'clock shadow, having refused makeup. The 70 million viewers focused on what they saw, not what they heard.

Kennedy won the election. Trump picks Barrett as he moves to tilt U.S. Supreme Court rightward

President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and she pledged to become a justice in the mold of the late staunch conservative Antonin Scalia, setting another milestone in Trump's rightward shift of the top U.S. judicial body. Trump's announcement during a flag-festooned White House Rose Garden ceremony - with Barrett, 48, by his side and her seven children on hand - sets off a scramble by Senate Republicans to confirm her as the president has requested before Election Day in 5-1/2 weeks, when he will be seeking a second term in office.

The missing grandparents: families mourn elder generation lost to COVID-19

Mel Solomon loved to sing. He knew the lyrics to entire Broadway musicals and shared them with his granddaughters Zoe and Madeline during their annual summer visits from Brooklyn, New York, to Kansas City, where he was a renowned architect.

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Barrett would have final say on recusal calls

Democrats are urging U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself from any election-related cases because of President Donald Trump's comments that he expects the justices to potentially decide the outcome, but there is no way to force her to do so. Although U.S. law requires justices to step aside when there is a conflict of interest or genuine question of bias, it leaves the individual justice to decide whether such a conflict exists. Aside from direct financial and personal conflicts, they rarely do so.

Democrats hammer Trump's Supreme Court pick, say she could jeopardize Obamacare

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and others in his party on Saturday blasted President Donald Trump's choice of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court, focusing in particular on the threat they said she would pose to healthcare for millions of Americans. Biden noted that even as Trump's administration is seeking to strike down Obamacare in a case the Supreme Court is due to hear on Nov. 10, Barrett has a "written track record" criticizing a pivotal 2012 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts preserving the law formally known as the Affordable Care Act.

Rochester names first female police chief in wake of racial justice protests

The mayor of Rochester, New York named the city's first female police chief on Saturday, weeks after firing the previous chief amid protests over the death of a Black man in police custody. Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, a top official at the Rochester Housing Authority who previously served as a city police officer for more than 20 years, takes over as interim head of the police department on Oct. 14, Mayor Lovely Warren said.

(With inputs from agencies.)