US Domestic News Roundup: Starbucks, NY probe into illegal sick leave policy; 2020 Democratic hopefuls, omitted from debate and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Starbucks settles New York probe into illegal sick leave policy

Starbucks Corp agreed on Thursday to pay restitution and accept greater oversight to settle a multi-year probe finding that it had illegally required New York City employees to find substitutes when they needed to use sick leave. The settlement with Starbucks, which has changed its sick leave policy, was announced by New York Attorney General Letitia James, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and the city's consumer affairs commissioner, Lorelei Salas.

Omitted from debate stage, 2020 Democratic hopefuls seek limelight elsewhere

Miles from where seven Democratic presidential hopefuls will take the debate stage on Thursday night in Los Angeles, Julian Castro on Wednesday walked the city's Skid Row, the largest encampment of homeless people in the United States Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary, is among a handful of presidential candidates trying to find ways to stay in the conversation, after failing to meet the polling and donor requirements needed to qualify for Thursday night's televised event.

Southwest can be sued for bumping passenger who spoke Arabic: U.S. judge

A federal judge on Thursday rejected Southwest Airlines Co's bid to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit by an American of Iraqi descent who was removed from a 2016 flight after another passenger heard him speak in Arabic and feared he might be a terrorist. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu in Oakland, California, said Khairuldeen Makhzoomi could try to show that "Islamophobia," comes amid a "sensitive political climate," was a factor behind his removal, and that Southwest's claim he was removed because he appeared to make threats was pretextual.

U.S. renews waiver on COSCO's Dalian tanker unit hit by Iran sanctions

The Trump administration on Thursday renewed a waiver for companies to wind down transactions with the Dalian unit of a Chinese tanker company on which it had imposed sanctions in September for allegedly transporting Iranian oil. The waiver, good until Feb. 4, 2020, allows activities and transactions "ordinarily incident and necessary to the maintenance or wind-down of transactions" including offloading of non-Iranian crude oil involving COSCO's Dalian Shipping Tanker Co, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a release.

U.S. Congress approves massive funding bills to avert government shutdowns

The U.S. Senate, rushing to meet a looming deadline, approved and sent to President Donald Trump a $1.4 trillion package of fiscal 2020 spending bills that would end prospects of government shutdowns at week's end when temporary funding expires. By strong bipartisan margins and with White House backing, the Senate passed the two gigantic funding bills for government programs through Sept. 30.

U.S. government study finds racial bias in facial recognition tools

Many facial recognition systems misidentify people of color more often than white people, according to a U.S. government study released on Thursday that is likely to heighten increasing skepticism of technology widely used by law enforcement agencies. The study from the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that, when conducting a particular type of database searching known as "one-to-one" matching, many facial recognition algorithms falsely identified African-American and Asian faces 10 to 100 times more than Caucasian faces.

Less than half of all Americans want Trump ousted post-impeachment: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Less than half of all Americans say President Donald Trump should be removed from office following his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Thursday, presenting a challenge for Democrats who will seek his ouster in a U.S. Senate trial. The national online survey https://tmsnrt.rs/2EEmWPW, conducted in the hours after the House voted along party lines on Wednesday to charge Trump with abusing his office and obstructing Congress, found that the rare and highly contentious act by lawmakers has done little to change minds in a divided country.

Split-screen America: Alternate realities on display as House votes to impeach Trump

Americans got a striking split-screen view on Wednesday of just how divided their politics have become. As the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump on a charge of abusing his power over his dealings with Ukraine, the president strode fist-pumping onto the stage of a campaign rally in Michigan and declared he had done nothing wrong. "It doesn't really feel like we're being impeached," he said.

U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 54, hospitalizations to 2,506

U.S. health officials said on Thursday two more deaths occurred since last week from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total toll to 54. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also reported 97 more hospitalized cases from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories, as of Dec. 17. The number of people hospitalized now stands at 2,506.

U.S. Democrats seek high-profile trial for Trump in Senate

U.S. Democrats on Thursday pressed the Republican-controlled Senate to call Donald Trump's top lieutenants to testify in its trial of the impeached president, as they sought to focus attention on the trial ahead of the 2020 presidential election. A day after the U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not yet formally hand off impeachment to the Senate until she got a sense of how Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell would manage the trial.