Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Keechant Sewell, the New York City police commissioner, called officer Wilbert Mora, 27, "3 times a hero" as she announced his death in a Twitter post. U.S. Labor Dept withdrawing COVID vaccine rule for large employers The Department of Labor said on Tuesday it will withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine-and-testing requirement for large U.S. employers after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the rule, ending a controversial bid to increase vaccination rates.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Alec Baldwin seeks dismissal of civil suit over fatal 'Rust' shooting

Attorneys for Alec Baldwin and other producers of the movie "Rust" are asking a court to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by a script supervisor who was on the set when the actor fatally shot a cinematographer. In a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the attorneys said the claim by Mamie Mitchell should be thrown out because there was no evidence that Baldwin or any of the producers intended harm. Baldwin was the lead actor and a producer of the independent film, a Western.

Second New York City officer dies days after shooting in Harlem

A second police officer who was shot Friday in New York City while responding to a domestic violence call has died, the city's police commissioner said on Twitter on Tuesday. Keechant Sewell, the New York City police commissioner, called officer Wilbert Mora, 27, "3 times a hero" as she announced his death in a Twitter post.

U.S. Labor Dept withdrawing COVID vaccine rule for large employers

The Department of Labor said on Tuesday it will withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine-and-testing requirement for large U.S. employers after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the rule, ending a controversial bid to increase vaccination rates. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said in the federal register that while it was withdrawing the emergency temporary standard, the rule would remain as a proposal for a permanent requirement.

San Francisco city officials vow to crack down on anti-Asian-American hate crime

San Francisco city leaders pledged to step up policing in Asian-American communities on Tuesday after statistics showed that 60 hate crimes were committed against Asians in the city during 2021, up from only nine the year before. San Francisco is the latest major U.S. city to have marked a sharp upswing in hate crimes against Asian Americans in the past year. New York City police said in December that 129 such incidents had been reported in 2021, compared with 28 in 2020.

New York state mask mandate back in effect as judge grants stay in appeal

An appeals court judge on Tuesday granted a stay in an appeal over mask mandates in New York, keeping the rule in effect during the legal process, New York Attorney General Letitia James said. A day earlier, a judge had struck down the state's mask mandate, one week before it was due to expire. The state attorney general had filed a motion to stay the ruling in an attempt to put it on hold while the state filed a formal appeal.

Analysis-'Aggressively conservative' Supreme Court plunges into U.S. culture wars

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a case that could doom university policies considering race as a factor in student admissions is the latest sign of the conservative majority's eagerness to put its stamp on America's most divisive issues. The court already was due to issue rulings by the end of June in cases giving the justices a chance to curtail abortion rights and widen gun rights - major goals of U.S. conservatives. The case targeting the student admissions practices of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, taken up https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-hear-challenge-race-conscious-college-admissions-2022-01-24 by the court on Monday, gives the conservative justices a chance to cripple affirmative action policies long despised by the American right, with a ruling expected next year.

SAT college admissions exam, no longer required by many schools, to go digital

U.S. high school students will use laptops rather than pencils and paper to take the SAT college admissions exam beginning in 2024, in a move to digitize the standardized test whose use has declined during the pandemic and as many universities no longer require it for admission. Students who take the new digitized SAT - once a stress-inducing rite of passage for nearly all college-bound Americans - will have two instead of three hours to answer questions and will face shorter reading passages, College Board said in a statement on Tuesday. Test-takers may also use a calculator for the math portion to the exam.

U.S. House Speaker Pelosi seeks re-election

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday she will run for a 19th term in office, without saying whether she would seek to remain in her Democratic leadership role. The 81-year-old California lawmaker was the first woman to serve as speaker and had been expected to step down, particularly as her party braces for a possible loss of its majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Neil Young to Spotify: Either remove my music or Joe Rogan podcast

Neil Young has threatened to pull his music from the Spotify streaming service in protest of its relationship with podcaster Joe Rogan, who the prolific singer-songwriter accuses of spreading misinformation about COVID-19, according to media reports on Tuesday. Young, who survived polio as a child, briefly posted a letter on his website addressed to his manager and his record label, Warner Music Group, demanding that Spotify no longer carry his music. The letter was later deleted.

Dominion sees no chance of settling suits against pro-Trump lawyers Giuliani, Powell

Dominion Voting Systems Corp has told a court there is "no realistic possibility" that the voting machine manufacturer will reach settlements in its billion-dollar defamation lawsuits against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, lawyers who worked for former President Donald Trump. Dominion and another voting software firm, Smartmatic, have brought several lawsuits against people who spread conspiracy theories related to their voting machines after the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

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