Reuters US Domestic News Summary

U.S. COVID-19 cases hit two-month high, 10 states report record increases New cases of COVID-19 in the United States hit a two-month high on Friday with over 58,000 infections of the new coronavirus reported and hospitalizations in the Midwest at record levels for a fifth day in a row, according to a Reuters analysis.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Biden says 'chicanery' at polls is the only way he could lose U.S. election

Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Saturday "the only way" he could lose to President Donald Trump was through "chicanery," before clarifying that he will accept the election result. Biden encouraged potential voters at a campaign stop in the must-win battleground of Pennsylvania, telling them "make sure to vote because the only way we lose this is by the chicanery going on relative to polling places." Appeals court keeps alive for now Texas' limit on drop boxes for absentee ballots

A U.S. federal appeals court on Saturday issued a temporary stay that allows the Republican governor of Texas to continue limiting counties to a single drop-off site for absentee ballots in the Nov. 3 presidential election. Texas is a longtime Republican stronghold but this year President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden are fighting what could be a tight race to win the state's electoral votes. U.S. COVID-19 cases hit two-month high, 10 states report record increases

New cases of COVID-19 in the United States hit a two-month high on Friday with over 58,000 infections of the new coronavirus reported and hospitalizations in the Midwest at record levels for a fifth day in a row, according to a Reuters analysis. Ten of the 50 states reported record one-day rises in cases on Friday, including the Midwestern states of Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio. Wisconsin and Illinois recorded over 3,000 new cases for a second day in a row - a two-day trend not seen even during the height of the previous outbreak in the spring, according to Reuters data. Supreme Court nominee Barrett pledges fealty to law as Senate hearing looms

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett will tell senators in her high-stakes confirmation hearing this week that she will approach cases based on the law, not her personal views, as Democrats urged her to step aside on an upcoming challenge to the Obamacare law and any potential election-related disputes. A four-day Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for the conservative appellate court judge is set to begin on Monday, a key step before a final full Senate vote by the end of October on her nomination for a lifetime job on the court. Fauci says his remarks were taken out of context in Trump ad

Top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday he had not agreed to be featured in an ad by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign and that his comments were taken out of context. The ad, released last week, discusses Trump's effort to recover from the coronavirus personally, as well as his administration's work to address the pandemic. The 30-second spot uses older remarks from Fauci in a way that suggests he was praising the president. U.S. CDC reports 213,614 deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 7,694,865 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 53,363 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 577 to 213,614. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. ET on Oct. 10 versus its previous report a day earlier. https://bit.ly/36sYS1R Man shot dead at dueling Denver rallies, suspect in custody

A man was fatally shot on Saturday during dueling protests by left-wing and right-wing groups in downtown Denver, and police arrested a suspect they said was working as a private security guard. An NBC News affiliate, KUSA-TV, said on its website that the man taken arrested for the shooting was a security guard hired by the television station to provide protection to its crew. Democrat Harrison smashes Senate fundraising record with $57 million haul in South Carolina

Democrat Jaime Harrison of South Carolina raised a stunning $57 million in the third quarter of 2020 in his bid to unseat U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, his campaign said on Sunday, smashing the quarterly record for a Senate candidate. The fundraising haul by Harrison, a former chairman of the state party, blew past the previous quarterly record of $38.1 million set by former Democratic Representative Beto O'Rourke during his unsuccessful 2018 U.S. Senate bid in Texas. Trump says he is recovered from COVID-19, prepares for return to campaign trail

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had fully recovered from COVID-19 and was not an infection risk for others, freeing him to return to holding big campaign rallies during the final weeks of the race for the White House. Trump also said, without producing evidence, that he was now immune, a claim that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19. Sweltering heat, power outages greet Louisiana evacuees returning from Hurricane Delta

Storm-weary coastal Louisiana residents who fled from the path of Hurricane Delta in recent days streamed back to their homes on Sunday to face cleanup and repairs from the second hurricane to batter their state over the past six weeks. Many returned to find that Delta, dissipating substantially as it drifted farther inland on Sunday, had ripped away temporary tarpaulin roofs installed over their homes in late August after Hurricane Laura, a more powerful storm, struck with devastating force.