Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden visits Pittsburgh bridge collapse, vows more U.S. investment

President Joe Biden stopped to look at a Pittsburgh bridge that collapsed just hours before he arrived for a scheduled visit to the city on Friday, dramatically underscoring the urgency of his drive to rebuild the United States' creaky infrastructure. Visibly moved, Biden gazed across a ravine over the buckled sections of the half-century-old Fern Hollow Bridge, flanked by Pennsylvania and local officials and emergency workers as he surveyed the damage.

U.S. helps fund California port project as export delays hurt food makers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Sunday it will help fund a new container yard for agricultural exports at California's Port of Oakland, as the government, ports and food companies scramble to ease costly shipping delays. The multimillion-dollar project is set to open in March, and officials said it could be replicated elsewhere.

U.S. Supreme Court nominee will meet with Republicans, top Democrat says

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, is reaching out to Republicans to assure them they will have the chance to meet with President Joe Biden's nominee to the Supreme Court, he said on Sunday. Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would conduct a confirmation hearing for Biden's eventual nominee to the top U.S. court, said he had already spoken with Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican.

Trump says he would pardon Jan. 6 rioters if he runs and wins

U.S. former President Donald Trump said on Saturday if he were to run for president and win in 2024, he would pardon people charged with criminal offenses in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 assault by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol. Trump, who has not said whether he will run for president again after his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, was speaking at a rally in Conroe, Texas.

Nine dead, including children, after a six-car crash in Las Vegas

Nine people died and six were injured after a six-car crash in north Las Vegas on Saturday when a Dodge Challenger traveling at a "high rate of speed" ran through a red light and crashed with multiple vehicles at an intersection. The driver of the Dodge Challenger was among the dead, police said, adding that "speed is a factor" in the crash that took place on Saturday afternoon.

At Avenatti fraud trial, Stormy Daniels says she speaks with the dead

Lawyer Michael Avenatti on Friday sought to undermine the credibility of porn star Stormy Daniels, the U.S. government's star witness against him at his fraud trial, by challenging her belief in paranormal activity and professed ability to speak with dead people. In five hours of cross-examining his former client, Avenatti tried to undercut the government's claim that he had embezzled nearly $300,000 from Daniels, who he represented in lawsuits against former President Donald Trump.

Biden calls on Taliban to release American hostage

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to release a U.S. civil engineer who was abducted two years ago and is believed to be the last American hostage held by the Taliban. Mark Frerichs, a 59-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Lombard, Illinois, who worked in Afghanistan for a decade on development projects. He was kidnapped a month before the February 2020 U.S. troop pullout deal was signed and was transferred to the Haqqani network , a brutal Taliban faction accused of some of the deadliest attacks of the war.

Nine hospitalized after incident in Ohio hotel

Nine people have been sent to area hospitals from a Hampton Inn in Ohio after people fell unconscious or reported burning sensations in their throats, police said on Saturday. In a series of phone calls to police in Marysville, Ohio, people at the hotel initially said that a two-year-old girl was unconscious in the pool area, then that others had passed out while still more people reported burning in their throats, said Marysville Police Chief Tony Brooks.

Major Nor'easter blankets U.S. East Coast with snow, heavy winds

The northeastern United States was walloped by a fierce winter storm on Saturday that dropped more than two feet (60 cm) of snow on some areas while packing high winds, prompting thousands of flight cancellations and leading governors in Rhode Island and other states to curtail access to the roads. Nearly 11 million people along the East Coast remained under blizzard warnings from the Nor'easter, according to the National Weather Service, including the Boston metropolitan area, which was forecast to be hit with up to 25 inches (64 cm) of snow. The storm blanketed a large swath of New England with snow.

More than 1,400 U.S. flights canceled by winter storm in Northeast

More than 1,400 U.S. flights were canceled on Sunday after the nation's northeast states were walloped a day earlier by a deadly winter storm that prompted several states to declare emergencies. The total number of flight cancellations within, into, or out of the United States was about 1,450 as of Sunday afternoon, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. Another 1,774 U.S.-related flights were delayed, the data showed.