US Domestic News Roundup: Trump loses bid to delay hush money trial until US Supreme Court review; Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders push companies to cut cost of asthma inhalers, prescription drugs and more

The Republican presidential candidate, appearing with several law enforcement officers, described in detail several criminal cases involving suspects in the country illegally and warned that violence and chaos would consume America if he did not win the Nov. 5 election. Biden administration awards $20 billion for clean energy investment in low-income communities Vice President Kamala Harris and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Michael Regan on Thursday announced eight organizations that will oversee the spending of $20 billion in grants to fund tens of thousands of clean energy and transportation projects in disadvantaged communities across the United States.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Trump loses bid to delay hush money trial until US Supreme Court review

A New York judge on Wednesday denied Donald Trump's bid to delay his April 15 trial on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star until the U.S. Supreme Court reviews claim to presidential immunity in a separate criminal case. The Court is scheduled to hear the former U.S. President's arguments that he is immune from federal prosecution for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democratic President Joe Biden on April 25.

Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders push companies to cut cost of asthma inhalers, prescription drugs

President Joe Biden hosted a White House event with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to tout their fight against high prescription drug prices and push companies to cut the cost of inhalers for asthma sufferers. Biden said prescription drugs made by the same pharmaceutical company cost at least two to three times more in the U.S. than it does in developed countries such as Canada, Italy and France. He did not name the company.

Second channel opens around collapsed Baltimore bridge, but not for shipping

Recovery teams opened a second channel enabling smaller vessels to navigate the Port of Baltimore on Tuesday but most commercial shipping remains blocked by the collapsed bridge and stranded container ship that brought the structure down a week ago. A team including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state of Maryland announced crews had cleared a channel with a depth of 14 feet (4.3 meters), similar to the 11-foot channel opened on the opposite side of the wreckage on Monday.

US employment boom leaves factory workers behind

Dan Ariens laid off workers, cut shifts, and halted nearly all hiring last summer after sales slumped at his company, best known for making bright orange snow blowers and lawnmowers sold around the world. Headcount fell 20% to 1,600 people, and he doesn't see business improving until 2025. The experience of the Ariens Company, a fourth-generation family-owned firm in Brillion, Wisconsin, shows the stark contrast between U.S. factory employment - essentially flat-lining for more than a year - and the four-year boom in the wider job market.

Jared Kushner's planned Albania resort stokes fear and hope in coastal town

Through binoculars, ornithologist Jon Vorpsi spies flamingos and pelicans that pause along their migration routes on a hook of protected land on Albania's southern coast. Vorpsi fears the sight may soon end if Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner proceeds with plans to build a tourist resort in the area near the town of Vlora, loved by locals for its quiet pine forests, olive trees and walking trails, and where cows saunter along the deserted windswept beaches.

US Senate to consider nomination of NTSB chair for new term

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold an April 10 hearing on the nomination of Jennifer Homendy to serve a new term as chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. Homendy, who was renominated by President Joe Biden last month, was the on-scene board member for last week's Baltimore bridge collapse and the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency prompted by a door panel blowout.

US pushes back on judge over Trump claim that classified records he kept were personal

The U.S. prosecutor leading the case against Donald Trump for retaining classified documents after leaving office pushed back on a federal judge after she signaled she may accept the former president's claim that the records were his personal property. U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith said in a court filing late on Tuesday that his office would appeal any decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that would instruct jurors in the case to consider what he called Trump's "fundamentally flawed legal premise."

Trump campaign, RNC triple fundraising in March to $65.6 million

The election campaign of former U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee said on Wednesday they raised over $65.6 million in March, more than three times the amount raised in February. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

Trump calls migrants 'animals,' intensifying focus on illegal immigration

Donald Trump called immigrants illegally in the United States "animals" and "not human" in a speech in Michigan on Tuesday, resorting to the degrading rhetoric he has employed time and again on the campaign trail. The Republican presidential candidate, appearing with several law enforcement officers, described in detail several criminal cases involving suspects in the country illegally and warned that violence and chaos would consume America if he did not win the Nov. 5 election.

Biden administration awards $20 billion for clean energy investment in low-income communities

Vice President Kamala Harris and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Michael Regan on Thursday announced eight organizations that will oversee the spending of $20 billion in grants to fund tens of thousands of clean energy and transportation projects in disadvantaged communities across the United States. The $20 billion, made available through the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) created in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, will largely be invested in projects ranging from home energy retrofitting programs to off-grid renewable energy in communities that have not had access to green financing.

(With inputs from agencies.)