Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Montana Governor Bullock looks at U.S. Senate run, lifting Democratic hopes: source

Steve Bullock, the Democratic governor of Montana and a former 2020 presidential candidate, is seriously considering a U.S. Senate run, a decision that would give Democrats another competitive race in their bid to reclaim the chamber this November. Bullock, 53, a popular Democratic moderate and Montana governor since 2013, has insisted for months he was not going to challenge Republican Senator Steve Daines. Hip hop museum to open in its birthplace in the Bronx

Hip hop - the music, dance, art and fashion phenomenon that went from rough streets into fancy suites in five decades - is getting its own museum in its birthplace in the Bronx, New York. A small pop-up exhibit gives a preview of the Universal Hip Hop Museum's permanent home, set to open in 2023 to celebrate the culture's global history. Coronavirus death toll hits 12 in U.S., helicopter flies test kits to cruise ship

The death toll from coronavirus in the United States rose to 12 on Thursday with the latest fatality recorded in King County, Washington, and 53 new cases broke out across the country, striking for the first time in Colorado, Tennessee, Texas and San Francisco. A helicopter flew testing kits to a cruise liner idled off the coast of California and barred from docking in San Francisco after at least 35 people developed flu-like symptoms aboard the ship, which has been linked to two other confirmed cases of COVID-19. Coronavirus test kits flown to cruise ship idled off San Francisco

Coronavirus test kits were delivered at sea on Thursday to an ocean liner barred from returning to port in San Francisco after at least 35 people developed flu-like symptoms aboard the vessel, which has been linked to two other confirmed cases of COVID-19. The diagnostic sampling kits were flown by helicopter to the cruise ship Grand Princess, which California Governor Gavin Newsom has said would be kept offshore until passengers and crew who have fallen ill can be tested for possible coronavirus infection. Facebook decides to take down Trump 2020 campaign's 'census' ads

Facebook Inc on Thursday removed ads by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that asked users to fill out an "Official 2020 Congressional District Census" because the ads violate the company's policy against misinformation on the government's census. The ads, which come from the pages of the Republican president and Vice President Mike Pence, link to a survey on an official campaign website and then to a page asking for donations. Prepared yet vulnerable, a battle-tested New York confronts coronavirus

By the time the global coronavirus outbreak arrived in New York this week, the city was armed with hundreds of hospital beds, a growing stockpile of diagnostic testing kits and enough disinfectant to wipe down the entire subway system. Mayor Bill de Blasio's vaunted health department had honed its response to the potential crisis in recent years by tamping down swine flu, Ebola and other epidemics before they could paralyze the nation's financial capital and most crowded metropolis. U.S. military deploys first kits for coronavirus testing but capacity limited

U.S. military laboratories have started receiving their own testing kits to determine whether American troops have the new coronavirus, officials said, after relying on outside testing in the roughly two months since China reported the first cases. But capacity is still limited, as is the distribution of the test kits, they say. Warren ends White House bid, leaving Biden, Sanders to fight for Democratic nod

Elizabeth Warren ended her presidential campaign on Thursday after concluding she had no realistic path to the Democratic nomination, leaving behind a two-man battle between former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S Senator Bernie Sanders. Warren, a liberal senator who won plaudits for her robust policy plans and focused her campaign on fighting the corrupting influence of money on politics, had finished well behind the two front-runners on Tuesday in 14 states across the country, including her home state of Massachusetts. Biden's comeback leaves Sanders little time to expand appeal

After losing the momentum in the Democratic presidential race, Bernie Sanders has work to do - and little time to do it - to build the "multiracial, multigenerational movement" he says will propel him to victory over Republican President Donald Trump in November. In an unexpectedly strong night for Joe Biden, the former vice president won 10 of the 14 states up for grabs on Super Tuesday, confirming suspicions that Sanders was struggling to expand his base, particularly among older voters and African Americans. U.S. legislation targets online child sexual abuse; threatens encryption on Facebook, Google

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on the powerful judiciary committee on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at curbing online distribution of child sexual abuse material that technology and civil liberties groups said was an attack on strong encryption critical to billions of people. The bill by Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and Democratic member Richard Blumenthal would end the civil immunity of platforms like Facebook and Alphabet's Google for user-posted content if they do not follow a new commission's "best practices" for detecting abusive images. Security experts joined tech trade groups in condemning the bill, saying it was exploiting the scourge of child abuse to threaten encryption protecting ordinary Americans and businesses.