Reuters US Domestic News Summary

An army of nearly 2,200 fire-fighting personnel battling the so-called Bootleg fire, about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland, increased their containment lines to 25% of its perimeter, up from 22% a day earlier, Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman Marcus Kauffman said. Schumer tees up bipartisan infrastructure vote after Republicans urge delay U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday he would set a procedural on a bipartisan infrastructure package that is a key part of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda for Wednesday, increasing pressure on negotiators as they struggled with ways to pay for the cost of the measure.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Leon Black rejects Russian woman's claims of violent behavior, files countersuit

Leon Black, the billionaire who until recently led private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc, on Monday strongly rejected claims by a Russian model who accused him of defamation and subjecting her to sexual violence, calling her accusations "a work of fiction." Black also filed his own defamation lawsuit accusing the woman, Guzel Ganieva, of running a "blatant" scheme to extort him of at least $100 million in exchange for keeping quiet.

Schumer sets procedural vote for $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill

U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday he would set a procedural vote on a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill for Wednesday.

Florida man gets 8 months in prison in U.S. Capitol attack

A federal judge on Monday dealt an eight-month prison sentence to Paul Hodgkins for the Florida man's role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, making him the first among more than 500 people facing criminal charges in the riot to be incarcerated. Hodgkins, 38, pleaded guilty on June 2 to one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding, as Congress was in the process of formally certifying Joe Biden's election last November as U.S. president when supporters of then-President Donald Trump rampaged through the building.

Sprawling Oregon blaze expands, forcing firefighters, residents into retreat

Stoked by hot, dry winds, the largest of several dozen Western wildfires roared through more drought-parched brush and timber in southern Oregon on Monday, displacing some 2,000 residents after destroying scores of homes, officials said. An army of nearly 2,200 fire-fighting personnel battling the so-called Bootleg fire, about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland, increased their containment lines to 25% of its perimeter, up from 22% a day earlier, Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman Marcus Kauffman said.

Schumer tees up bipartisan infrastructure vote after Republicans urge delay

U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday he would set a procedural on a bipartisan infrastructure package that is a key part of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda for Wednesday, increasing pressure on negotiators as they struggled with ways to pay for the cost of the measure. Schumer said the Wednesday vote did not require Senate negotiators hammer out every provision in the bill by then and that Democratic leaders of the bipartisan group supported his approach.

Biden to nominate ex-Senate banking panel lawyer to senior Treasury post

President Joe Biden will nominate former U.S. Senate Banking Committee lawyer Graham Steele as the U.S. Treasury's top bank regulatory official, along with nominees for senior posts at the Export-Import Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the administration said on Monday. The White House said Steele, who currently directs a Stanford Graduate School of Business research initiative to promote more accountable capitalism and governance, will be nominated to serve as the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial institutions.

U.S. declined to prosecute Trump Commerce chief after watchdog findings

The U.S. Justice Department declined to prosecute the Trump administration's Commerce Department chief Wilbur Ross after the department's inspector general's office found he misrepresented the full rationale for seeking to reinstate a citizenship question in the 2020 U.S. Census in congressional testimony, according to a letter made public Monday. The July 15 letter from Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy E. Gustafson addressed to congressional leaders is a response to earlier allegations by U.S. senators that the agencies concealed the "contribution of a political redistricting strategist in the rationale for the addition of a citizenship question."

U.S. recession ended in April 2020, making it shortest on record

The U.S. recession touched off by the coronavirus lasted only two months, ending with a low point reached in April 2020 after the start of a sharp drop in economic activity in March of that year, the U.S. Business Cycle Dating Committee announced Monday. The committee, a group of macroeconomists who assign the start and end dates of U.S. business cycles, said that while the country had by no means gotten back to normal operating capacity at that point, indicators of both jobs and production "point clearly to April 2020 as the month of the trough," with a rebound beginning in May.

Rising coronavirus cases fuel resurgence fears as Biden ramps up vaccination push

Swiftly rising coronavirus cases across the United States and abroad fueled fears of a pandemic resurgence on Monday and sent shockwaves through stock markets as the highly contagious Delta variant appeared to be taking hold. Many of the new outbreaks were in parts of the country where COVID-19 vaccinations have lagged, prompting political leaders to ramp up pressure on reluctant Americans to get the inoculations.

Amazon to slow down COVID-19 testing for warehouse workers - source

Amazon.com Inc will slow down COVID-19 testing for its warehouse employees in the United States by July 30, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. The source said the testing program for employees would resume if there were any changes in public health guidance from local or national officials.