US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. environmental enforcement activity has dropped, study shows; Texas high court questions clinics' challenge to abortion law and more

The congressional committee is attempting to determine who may have organized or coordinated the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress gathered to certify that Joe Biden defeated the incumbent Trump in the November 2020 presidential election. Texas high court questions clinics' challenge to abortion law Justices on Texas's high court on Thursday sharply questioned whether clinics can challenge a law that banned most abortions in the state because it is enforced by private individuals, just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the case to move forward.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. environmental enforcement activity has dropped, study shows

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement activities have dropped sharply since 2018, as criminal fines and civil penalties paid by polluters dropped to new lows, a Washington D.C. watchdog group said Friday in a report. EPA enforcement activity, including criminal investigations and inspections, declined by about half between the 2018 and 2021 fiscal years, compared to the average yearly totals between 2002 and 2017, according to a study by the Environmental Integrity Project.

Texas high court questions clinics' challenge to abortion law

Justices on Texas's high court on Thursday sharply questioned whether clinics can challenge a law that banned most abortions in the state because it is enforced by private individuals, just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the case to move forward. The clinics are suing over a law, known as SB8, that went into effect Sept. 1 and bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. It allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs and assists a woman in obtaining an abortion after embryo cardiac activity is detected.

Ukrainians in U.S. donate, campaign and plan how family could get out

Ukrainians in the United States are making donations, sending money to relatives and mulling how they could get family out of a war zone, as they call on President Joe Biden and the wider world to do more to thwart Russia's invasion. Around 1 million people in America are of Ukrainian descent with communities dotted around the country, including in Los Angeles, where hundreds have demonstrated against Moscow's attack.

U.S. congressional panel expands probe of Trump documents

A U.S. congressional committee investigating former President Donald Trump's removal of classified documents from the White House has expanded its probe of the Republican's handling of records, according to a letter made public on Friday. Representative Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chair of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee wrote to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) asking for more information about what she described as “what appear to be the largest scale violations of the presidential records act since its enactment."

Biden has decided on his U.S. Supreme Court choice -source

U.S. President Joe Biden has decided on his choice for the U.S. Supreme Court, a person familiar with the process said on Thursday. The person did not name the nominee and would not comment on when the announcement would be made.

Trump ally Roger Stone sues lawmakers probing Jan. 6 insurrection

Republican political operative and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone on Thursday sued members of the U.S. congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to block their attempt to acquire his phone records. The congressional committee is attempting to determine who may have organized or coordinated the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress gathered to certify that Joe Biden defeated the incumbent Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.

Amazon accused of violating U.S. labor law after union supporters' arrests

A group of Amazon.com Inc workers seeking to form a union in New York filed a charge with U.S. labor regulators on Thursday after a high-profile organizer and a pair of employees were arrested outside a company warehouse, according to documents obtained by Reuters. Amazon organizer Christian Smalls told Reuters on Wednesday he was arrested when he delivered warehouse workers food as part of the union campaign he is leading.

Three Minneapolis ex-police officers guilty of violating George Floyd's rights

Three former Minneapolis police officers were found guilty by a federal jury on Thursday of depriving George Floyd of his civil rights by failing to give aid to the handcuffed Black man pinned beneath a colleague's knee. The jury also found that the conduct of officers Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38, during the arrest on May 25, 2020, caused Floyd's death, a finding that can affect the severity of their sentence.

Alaska worries for its salmon run as climate change warms Arctic waters

With marine heat waves helping to wipe out some of Alaska’s storied salmon runs in recent years, officials have resorted to sending emergency food shipments to affected communities while scientists warn that the industry’s days of traditional harvests may be numbered. Salmon all but disappeared from the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) Yukon River run last year, as record-high temperatures led to the fish piling up dead in streams and rivers before they were able to spawn. A study published Feb. 15 in the journal Fisheries detailed more than 100 salmon die-offs at freshwater sites around Alaska.

President Biden will travel to Wisconsin on March 3

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Wisconsin on March 3, to discuss the need to create more union jobs and how an infrastructure bill he signed into law will help rebuild roads and bridges in America, the White House said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Biden hit Russia with a wave of sanctions after Moscow invaded Ukraine. The measures hurt Russia's ability to do business in major currencies along with sanctions against banks and state-owned enterprises.

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