US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. mulling pausing federal gas tax as option to cut prices, energy secretary says; Apple workers at Maryland store vote to unionize, a first for the U.S. and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. U.S. mulling pausing federal gas tax as option to cut prices, energy secretary says U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Sunday that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden was evaluating a pause on federal gas tax as one of the options to bring down prices. Apple workers at Maryland store vote to unionize, a first for the U.S. Apple Inc workers in Maryland voted on Saturday to join a union, becoming the first retail employees of the tech giant to unionize in the United States.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. mulling pausing federal gas tax as option to cut prices, energy secretary says

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Sunday that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden was evaluating a pause on the federal gas tax as one of the options to bring down prices.

Apple workers at Maryland store vote to unionize, a first for the U.S.

Apple Inc workers in Maryland voted on Saturday to join a union, becoming the first retail employees of the tech giant to unionize in the United States. More than 100 workers in Towson near Baltimore "have overwhelmingly voted to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers," the union said on its website.

Yellowstone National Park to partly reopen after rare closure forced by floods

Yellowstone National Park will partly reopen on Wednesday after record flooding and rockslides following a burst of heavy rains that led the park to be closed for the first time in 34 years. The entire park, spanning parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, was closed to visitors, including those with lodging and camping reservations, from last Monday, as officials inspected the damage to roads, bridges and other facilities.

Biden falls after flubbing bike dismount, but is uninjured

U.S. President Joe Biden took a spill from his bike on Saturday as he stopped to greet supporters during a weekend trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He appeared to be uninjured after standing up immediately. "I'm good," Biden, 79, said after the tumble, which occurred in front of reporters. "I got my foot caught up," he said.

No deal to end gun violence, U.S. Republican lawmaker says

Lawmakers remain far apart on the most important gun safety issues now under debate in Congress, a Republican senator said Sunday, casting doubts on hopes that the United States could pass the first federal gun legislation in decades. "The issue that we have here is that we don’t have a bill," Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee told Fox News Sunday.

Parades, street festivals and speeches mark Juneteenth across U.S

With street parties, the trumpets and drums of marching bands, speeches and a few political rallies, people across the United States marked Juneteenth this weekend, a jubilee commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of Black Americans. Events started on Friday and continued through Sunday featuring concerts at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, freedom walks in Galveston, Texas, and jazz music in New York City's Harlem neighborhood.

Some shoppers balk at retailers peddling new 'Juneteenth' merchandise

Clothing retailer Kohl's is offering gray, green and red "Juneteenth 1865" tank tops and t-shirts for juniors and boys for $23.99. JCPenney.com hopes to lure shoppers with dozens of wall hangings featuring abstract graphic designs and silhouettes of Black women, priced at $60 to $160 apiece. In the first big push to commercialize Juneteenth, commemorated by Black people for generations as the day in 1865 when a Union general informed a group of enslaved people in Texas that they were free, a handful of major retailers are rolling out merchandise.

U.S. rolls out COVID vaccine for tots

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday recommended COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months, allowing a nationwide rollout to start next week. The CDC's move came after a panel of advisers to the institution voted earlier on Saturday to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for those children.

Texas Republicans declare Biden election illegitimate, despite evidence

Republicans in Texas formally rejected President Joe Biden's election in 2020 as illegitimate and voted in a state-wide convention that wrapped up this weekend on a party platform that calls homosexuality an "abnormal lifestyle choice." The party's embrace of unfounded electoral fraud allegations in a bedrock Republican state came as a bipartisan congressional committee seeks to definitively and publicly debunk the false idea that Biden did not win the election.

Jan. 6 panel to implicate Trump in fake elector plot, Schiff says

The U.S. House panel investigating the January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol will present evidence this week that former President Donald Trump was involved in a failed bid to submit slates of fake electors to overturn the 2020 election, a key lawmaker said on Sunday. "We will show evidence of the president's involvement in this scheme," Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, a member of the House of Representatives Select Committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union."

(With inputs from agencies.)