US Domestic News Roundup: Sergeant Bee, immortalized in Afghanistan photo, reflects on war's legacy; Biden to visit NY, NJ to view Hurricane Ida's destruction and more

He is in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, likely to be deported to Mexico, a country he left at age 10 and where he has no friends or known relatives. Biden to visit NY, NJ to view Hurricane Ida's destruction President Joe Biden will visit New York and New Jersey on Tuesday to view the destruction wrought by last week's Hurricane Ida, which has left at least 57 dead and four missing in the eastern United States.


Reuters | Updated: 07-09-2021 18:53 IST | Created: 07-09-2021 18:31 IST
US Domestic News Roundup: Sergeant Bee, immortalized in Afghanistan photo, reflects on war's legacy; Biden to visit NY, NJ to view Hurricane Ida's destruction and more
Image Credit: Flickr

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Sergeant Bee, immortalized in Afghanistan photo, reflects on war's legacy

Today, on a leafy cul-de-sac in North Carolina, his hair is streaked with gray, and he wears his beard long. But on that day 13 years ago, as he sat tucked behind a mud wall in Afghanistan, his head was close-cropped, bare and vulnerable. Retired U.S. Marine Sgt. Billy Bee is sharing a smoke with Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic on the deck of Bee's home. The smoke hangs in the humid, still air, just as it did on May 18, 2008, when their lives were stitched together in a single moment of explosive violence and unlikely survival.

Biden to visit NY, NJ to view Hurricane Ida's destruction

President Joe Biden will visit New York and New Jersey on Tuesday to view the destruction wrought by last week's Hurricane Ida, which has left at least 57 dead and four missing in the eastern United States. Biden will travel to New York City's Queens borough and Manville, New Jersey, the White House said on Monday. He has approved disaster declarations for Louisiana, where Ida hit on Aug. 29 with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (240 kph), and for New York and New Jersey, which were deluged with rain and intense flooding that killed dozens in the Northeast.

U.S. workplaces look to college fights as return to work 'turning point' looms

A legal battle is brewing over remote work between administrators at U.S. colleges committed to in-person classes and some faculty with disabilities. Experts warn it is a precursor of what awaits employers that order staff back to the office amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Employment lawyers said higher education provides a key test of who can work remotely because it is a profession traditionally associated with in-person work.

California bill seeks to halt prison-to-ICE deportation pipeline

Leonel Sanchez thought he was about to go home to his family after serving three-and-a-half years for assault and other crimes in California, saying he felt redeemed after he started reading the Bible, attending Alcoholics Anonymous, and even fighting wildfires as a prisoner. Instead of walking free, he became one of the 1,500 foreign-born California prisoners who earn their release each year, only to be transferred to federal detention and told they may be kicked out of the country. He is in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, likely to be deported to Mexico, a country he left at age 10 and where he has no friends or known relatives.

Entergy says power restored to over half of customers who faced outage after Ida

U.S. electric company Entergy Corp said power had been restored for more than half of its customers who faced an outage after Hurricane Ida. "Just eight days after being struck by one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States, more than half of the 948,000 total customers who lost power have been restored. As of 4 p.m. today, 54%, or 511,000, had been restored", the company said late on Monday.

U.S. Congress stuck between a rock and a hard place on raising debt limit

Democrats and Republicans will start what could become a monumental game of chicken this month over raising the limit on U.S. government borrowing, as Congress attempts to avert a historic debt default. Leaders of the Democratic-led Senate and House of Representatives are expected to force votes to lift the $28.4 trillion debt limit in late September. The limit was technically breached on July 31 but is being circumvented by Treasury Department's "extraordinary" steps.

Filibuster imperils Pelosi's abortion bill in U.S. Senate - Klobuchar

The U.S. Senate's filibuster rule likely imperils a bill intended to protect abortion rights that Democrats are readying following the Supreme Court's decision not to block a strict new Texas ban, a leading Democratic senator said on Sunday. Senator Amy Klobuchar told CNN's "State of the Union" that some Senate Republicans support abortion rights but not enough to overcome the chamber's rule requiring 60 of its 100 members to agree on most legislation.

Virginia to take down Robert E. Lee statue on Wednesday

A statue of Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee that towers six stories over Richmond, Virginia, and was a centerpiece of protests over racial injustice, is coming down this week. The Commonwealth of Virginia announced on Sunday it would remove the 12-ton bronze statue on Monument Avenue on Wednesday, stashing it in a secure state-owned storage site until a decision on its future is finalized.

'The Wire' actor Michael K. Williams found dead in apartment - NYPD

Michael K. Williams, who played the character Omar Little in the TV series "The Wire," was found dead in his New York apartment on Monday, the New York Police Department said. He was 54. Lieutenant John Gimpel, an NYPD spokesman, said Williams was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment after a 2 p.m. (1800 GMT)emergency phone call to emergency operators.

LGBTQ advocacy group fires president for helping scandal-hit Cuomo

Alphonso David, the president of Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the United States, was fired on Monday after a New York Attorney General report said he had advised former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on how to handle sexual harassment allegations, the organization's board said. His dismissal was announced by the co-chairs of HRC's board, Morgan Cox and Jodie Patterson, in a statement that said that his actions in assisting Cuomo's teams had violated the campaign's mission.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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