Reuters US Domestic News Summary

If the probes show that the those police departments engaged in patterns or practices of discrimination or use of excessive force, the government could seek a consent decree to enforce reforms. Biden taps privacy advocate for U.S. FTC President Joe Biden will nominate Alvaro Bedoya, a privacy advocate and Georgetown University law professor, to serve on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the White House said on Monday.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Advocates see 'chaos' if U.S. Supreme Court guts abortion rights

Abortion rights advocates on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide - a 1973 landmark imperiled in the legal fight over Mississippi's attempt to ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy. "The fallout would be swift and certain. As abortion bans are enforced - or the threat of enforcement looms - large swaths of the South and Midwest would likely be without access to legal abortion," said lawyers for Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi.

Biden nominates Democrats to lead U.S. commodities regulator

The White House announced Monday that President Joe Biden had nominated Rostin Behnam as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Kristin Johnson to serve as a commissioner at the agency. Behnam is serving as acting chair of the derivatives regulator, which he has been leading since Biden was sworn in in January. Benham has been a CFTC commissioner since 2017, and previously served as senior counsel to Senator Debbie Stabenow, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Prince Andrew rejects sexual abuse accuser's 'potentially unlawful' lawsuit -lawyer

A U.S.-based lawyer for Britain's Prince Andrew on Monday forcefully rejected claims in a civil lawsuit by a woman who accused the prince of sexually assaulting her when she was 17, and challenged whether the case could even be brought. At a hearing in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the prince's lawyer Andrew Brettler also said the plaintiff Virginia Giuffre appeared to have in 2009 signed away her right to sue Queen Elizabeth's second son in resolving a separate lawsuit.

Biden pushes for investments to confront climate crisis on California stop of western U.S. trip

President Joe Biden on Monday renewed his push for significant investments to combat climate change as he visited California during a three-state western U.S. tour and took an aerial tour of areas hit by one of the country's worst fire seasons. The trip is aimed at highlighting the devastation caused by a warming planet, pushing for more resources to tackle the issue and touting the environmental initiatives that are part of the infrastructure bills his administration is pushing.

Dangerous flooding expected along U.S. Gulf Coast as Nicholas approaches

The Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana was bracing on Monday for the arrival of Tropical Storm Nicholas, which was expected to batter the region with an intense storm surge and rains that could cause widespread and life-threatening flooding.

The storm, carrying winds of 65 mph (104 kph), was headed northward at 12 mph about 70 miles (115 km) south of Port O'Connor, Texas, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a bulletin on Monday afternoon.

Biden to campaign with California governor on eve of Republican-backed recall election

President Joe Biden traveled to California on Monday to campaign with Governor Gavin Newsom on the eve of a Republican-backed recall race that Democrats have cast as an attempted power grab by acolytes of former President Donald Trump. Biden planned to make an evening appearance with the embattled first-term governor in the port city of Long Beach near Los Angeles, marking Newsom's final rally before a special election on Tuesday that will test the power of Trump's appeal in a deeply Democratic state.

U.S. Senate to stage voting rights reform bill vote-Schumer

A newly-crafted election reform bill will be put to a vote in the U.S. Senate as soon as next week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday, despite strong opposition among Republicans who could block the measure. In remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer said that over the just-ended summer recess, a revised bill was put together that he said would protect Americans' "freedom to vote" and end partisan creation of congressional districts and that moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin was talking to Republicans about it.

U.S. government increases oversight of police-reform monitors

The U.S. Justice Department, in the midst of investigating policing practices in three major cities, will toughen oversight of federal monitors who supervise implementation of police reforms mandated in civil consent decrees, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Monday. The department's civil rights division is pursuing high-profile investigations into possible police abuses in Minneapolis https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-launch-probe-minneapolis-police-after-george-floyd-murder-report-2021-04-21, Louisville https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-launch-review-louisville-kentucky-police-abc-news-2021-04-26 and Phoenix https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-justice-department-launches-probe-into-policing-practices-arizona-2021-08-05. If the probes show that the those police departments engaged in patterns or practices of discrimination or use of excessive force, the government could seek a consent decree to enforce reforms.

Biden taps privacy advocate for U.S. FTC

President Joe Biden will nominate Alvaro Bedoya, a privacy advocate and Georgetown University law professor, to serve on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the White House said on Monday. "It is the honor of my life to be nominated to serve on the FTC. When my family landed at JFK in 1987 with 4 suitcases and a grad student stipend, this was not what we expected," tweeted Bedoya on Monday afternoon. "Vamos," he added, which is Spanish for "let's go."

Blinken defends Afghan withdrawal at testy U.S. congressional hearing

Secretary of State Antony Blinken beat back criticism of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan on Monday at a contentious congressional hearing where at least two Republicans called on him to resign. In five hours of often testy exchanges with lawmakers, Blinken defended President Joe Biden's decision to pull out and pushed back on accusations that the State Department should have done more to help Americans and at-risk Afghans to be evacuated, blaming the previous administration for lacking a plan.