Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Pennsylvania high court to hear Trump challenge to thousands of votes The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would take up an appeal by President Donald Trump's campaign challenging thousands of mail-in votes cast in Philadelphia that were missing information on the return envelopes. Election officials there said recount results due to be announced on Thursday were not likely to overturn Biden's 14,000-vote victory in the state.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Explainer: What is happening with the Keystone XL oil pipeline?

TC Energy Corp says it is continuing to advance its Keystone XL (KXL) oil pipeline, the $9 billion project that would move oil from the province of Alberta to Nebraska. Most recently, a Canadian indigenous group said it would invest C$1 billion ($764.35 million) in the project, which has been in the works for 12 years. Pennsylvania high court to hear Trump challenge to thousands of votes

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would take up an appeal by President Donald Trump's campaign challenging thousands of mail-in votes cast in Philadelphia that were missing information on the return envelopes. The lower Court of Common Pleas ruled on Friday against the Trump campaign which sought to invalidate 8,329 ballots in Philadelphia, the state's biggest city, because envelopes lacked information such as printed names, the date or addresses. New York transit agency to borrow a second time from Fed program

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on Wednesday authorized borrowing up to $2.9 billion from a U.S. Federal Reserve loan program to aid its coronavirus-battered budget. The new borrowing, which follows a $450.7 million MTA loan from the Fed's Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) in August, would allow the cash-strapped agency to end its current fiscal year with a balanced budget, officials said. U.S. judge blocks expulsions of unaccompanied children under Trump's pandemic-related border rules

A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday blocked expulsions of unaccompanied children caught crossing into the United States, a setback for the outgoing Trump administration, which said the policy was aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in the District of Columbia ruled that the minors were likely to suffer irreparable harm because they could be subject to sexual abuse and other violence, as well as face the possibility of torture and death if summarily returned to their home countries. Exclusive: U.S. investigators were told to take 'no further action' on Caterpillar, ex-client of Barr

Before William Barr became President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Department of Justice, he represented Caterpillar Inc, a Fortune 100 company, in a federal criminal investigation by the department. Much was at stake for Caterpillar: Since 2018, the Internal Revenue Service has been demanding $2.3 billion in payments from the company in connection with the tax matters under criminal investigation. The company is contesting that finding. Arizona's top election official decries violent threats over election results

Arizona's top election official Katie Hobbs said on Wednesday she faced escalating threats of violence over the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election, and blamed President Donald Trump for spreading misinformation to undermine trust in the results. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in Arizona by more than 10,000 votes, according to Edison Research, one of the states he flipped away from Trump to win the White House by securing 306 Electoral College votes to the president's 232. House Democrats back Pelosi for another term as speaker

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to keep House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her job for another two years, despite the Nov. 3 elections in which the party lost seats to Republicans. The full House still must vote for speaker in early January, when Republicans will put up their own candidate for the job, but are likely to lose since they will be in the minority in the 435-seat chamber. As COVID-19 cases soar, New York City schools halt in-person classes

New York City's public school district, the largest in the United States, will halt in-person instruction starting Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced, citing soaring coronavirus infection rates there and across the country. The mayor's decision, unveiled Wednesday on Twitter, came as the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 neared a world record of a quarter-million lives lost, and as state and local officials nationwide moved to further restrict social gatherings and commercial activity to stem surging cases and hospitalizations heading into winter. Georgia, Wisconsin recounts likely will not change Trump election defeat, officials say

President Donald Trump's attempts to cling to power appeared more tenuous than ever on Wednesday as election officials in Georgia said a soon-to-be-completed recount was not likely to change President-elect Joe Biden's victory there. Georgia is one of several states where Trump's campaign is contesting election returns, so far without success. Election officials there said recount results due to be announced on Thursday were not likely to overturn Biden's 14,000-vote victory in the state. They also said the recount would not provide evidence for Trump's unsupported claims of widespread fraud. Biden says U.S. agency is blocking transition, slowing coronavirus efforts

A little-known agency that keeps the U.S. federal bureaucracy running is the biggest impediment to new efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Democratic President-elect Joe Biden said on Wednesday. "There's a whole lot of things that we just don't have available to us," Biden said, including real-time data on personal protective equipment and the distribution plan for COVID-19 vaccines.