Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Environmental groups appeal Illinois order allowing Dakota pipeline expansion

Environmental groups are appealing a decision made last month by Illinois regulators to allow the expansion of the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL), according to documents filed with the state on Friday. The Illinois Commerce Commission last month voted to approve an application to roughly double the capacity of Energy Transfer LP's 557,000 barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline after legal pushback by environmental groups delayed the vote by about a year. Christmas tree arrives at NYC's Rockefeller Center, bringing holiday cheer

New York City received a much-need boost on Saturday with the arrival of a giant Christmas tree that marks the unofficial start of the 2020 holiday season. The 75-foot (23-meter) tall Norway spruce arrived at Rockefeller Center in the early morning hours accompanied by a police escort along the 185-mile (298-km) route from Oneonta, New York. As legal blitz flounders, Trump protesters back false election claims

Tens of thousands of President Donald Trump's supporters marched through downtown Washington on Saturday to back his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud as he pushes ahead with long-shot legal challenges to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory. A week after his Democratic rival clinched the election, Trump's lawsuits have made little headway in the courts while Biden has received congratulatory calls from world leaders and forged ahead with work on forming his Cabinet. As U.S. pandemic intensifies, North Dakota becomes 35th state to require masks

North Dakota has become the 35th U.S. state to require face coverings be worn in public, as governors across the country grapple with a surge in coronavirus infections that threatens to swamp their health care systems. North Dakota joined 38 other states this month in reporting record daily jumps in new cases, 17 others with record deaths and 25 others with a record number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals, according to a Reuters tally. Prosecutors ask Barr to rescind memo on U.S. vote counting irregularities - Washington Post

U.S. prosecutors are asking Attorney General William Barr to rescind a memo issued earlier this week that instructed them to publicly investigate "substantial" allegations of vote counting irregularities, saying they have not seen the unusual activity, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The 16 assistant U.S. attorneys specially assigned to monitor the presidential election this month also said Barr's Monday memorandum had thrust prosecutors into partisan politics and that the policy change was not based in fact, according to the Post, which saw a copy of the letter. Before Biden inauguration, 70,000 more could die from COVID-19 in the U.S.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make controlling the coronavirus a top priority and is likely to push for mask wearing mandates and more fiscal stimulus to keep businesses and workers afloat. But in the two months until inauguration day on Jan. 20, skyrocketing infections could add more than 8 million more cases and 70,000 deaths, representing a potential 80% increase in infections and a 29% rise in deaths, according to Reuters calculations. CDC reports 243,580 deaths from coronavirus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 10,690,665 cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of 181,801 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 1,364 to 243,580. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19 as of 4 p.m. ET on Nov. 13, compared with its previous report released a day earlier. https://bit.ly/3f2c7IQ U.S. states race to buy ultra cold vaccine freezers, fueling supply worries

U.S. states, cities, and hospitals are scrambling to buy ultra-cold freezers that can safely store Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, ignoring advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to hold off. The push reveals a lack of infrastructure to support a super cold vaccine campaign, including equipment to store millions of doses of Pfizer's vaccine at temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94°F), significantly below the standard for vaccines of 2-8 degrees Celsius (36-46°F). Trump appears to acknowledge for first time that Biden could succeed him

President Donald Trump insisted on Friday he would never put the United States into a coronavirus lockdown but said "time will tell" if another administration takes office in January and does so, the closest he has come to acknowledging that President-elect Joe Biden could succeed him. In his first public remarks since Biden last Saturday was widely projected the winner, Trump said he expects a coronavirus vaccine to be available for the entire population as soon as April, amid a crush of new infections that has pushed daily case counts to record highs. U.S. judge again blocks Wyoming oil drilling over agency climate analysis

A federal court judge on Friday for the second time in two years blocked drilling on more than 300,000 acres in Wyoming because the government failed to adequately consider its impact on climate change. According to court papers, Judge Ralph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered that the environmental analyses for 282 oil and gas leases be sent back to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for additional study.