Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked with local public safety teams to drain the Piney Point reservoir, which holds about 480 million gallons, in a bid to prevent a major breach that could unleash a cascade of wastewater into the surrounding area, officials said. Michigan coronavirus cases at record, tops daily tally among U.S. states Michigan reported a record number of coronavirus cases on Monday to top the daily tally among U.S. states, about a month after easing restrictions when new cases showed a downward trend.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden to speed up eligibility for vaccine as U.S. hits milestone

President Joe Biden will announce on Tuesday that the U.S. delivered 150 million vaccines since he took office and move up by nearly two weeks a deadline to make doses widely available, according to a person familiar with the matter. Biden will direct states to widen distribution of vaccines to all eligible American adults by April 19, two weeks earlier than the May 1 deadline he announced before.

More prosecution witnesses to testify in trial of former police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck

Prosecutors in Derek Chauvin's murder trial were expected to call more expert witnesses on Tuesday to testify against the former Minneapolis police officer whose deadly arrest of George Floyd sparked global protests last year. Chauvin, who is white, has argued he followed police training when he kept his knee pushed into Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes as the handcuffed 46-year-old Black man fell limp and stopped breathing.

Tennessee asks top U.S. court to reinstate two-day waiting period for abortions

Tennessee on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate a law that required a 48-hour waiting period for abortions, pending the state's appeal. The law, which went into effect in 2015, required abortion providers to inform patients of the risks and wait at least 48 hours before proceeding, "to ensure that a consent for an abortion is truly informed consent."

California man charged with 4 counts of murder in L.A.-area office shooting

The man accused of going on a shooting rampage in a suburban Los Angeles real estate office last week, killing three adults and a child, has been formally charged with four counts of murder, prosecutors said on Monday. Arraignment of the suspect, Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, 44, who was himself wounded by gunfire before being arrested, was postponed until Tuesday due to his medical condition, according to a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office, Kimberly Edds.

California's Carlsbad Flower Fields welcome visitors with full blooms

People took pictures amid waist-high blossoms in every imaginable hue of orange, pink, yellow and purple at California's famous Flower Fields in Carlsbad as it opened to the public. The attraction was closed for most of 2020, due to pandemic-related restrictions, but plummeting coronavirus cases and California's move to the orange tier of lockdown restrictions means the fields can once again welcome a limited number of visitors.

Chicago mayor urges new police foot-chase policy after boy shot and killed

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday called for the city to create a new foot-pursuit policy after a police officer shot and killed an 13-year-old boy during a foot chase in an alley a week ago. Adam Toledo was shot in the chest by an unidentified police officer at about 2:30 a.m. local time on March 29 in Little Village, a neighborhood in the city's West Side, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) said.

Crews race to drain Florida wastewater reservoir on brink of collapse

Emergency crews labored on Monday to prevent the collapse of a wastewater reservoir's leaky containment wall near Tampa Bay, Florida, making steady progress after officials warned of an imminent threat of flooding over the weekend. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked with local public safety teams to drain the Piney Point reservoir, which holds about 480 million gallons, in a bid to prevent a major breach that could unleash a cascade of wastewater into the surrounding area, officials said.

Michigan coronavirus cases at record, tops daily tally among U.S. states

Michigan reported a record number of coronavirus cases on Monday to top the daily tally among U.S. states, about a month after easing restrictions when new cases showed a downward trend. It reported 11,082 cases on Monday, surpassing a previous daily peak of 10,140 hit on November 20 and bringing the total case load to 779,974.

'Stay out of politics,' Republican leader McConnell tells U.S. CEOs, warns of 'consequences'

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell lashed out at corporate America on Monday, warning CEOs to stay out of the debate over a new voting law in Georgia that has been criticized as restricting votes among minorities and the poor. In a sign of a growing rift in the decades-old alliance between the conservative party and U.S. corporations, McConnell said: "My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don't pick sides in these big fights."

What happens when women run the economy? We're about to find out

Women now hold many of the jobs controlling the world's largest economy - and they're trying to fix it. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and trade czar Katherine Tai hold top jobs in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and many of his economic advisers also are women, as are nearly 48% of his confirmed cabinet-level officials.