US Domestic News Roundup: Uvalde school district suspends entire police force after May shooting; Sandy Hook jurors end first day of deliberations in Alex Jones damages case and more

Public support for legalizing the drug has risen in recent years, and President Joe Biden on Thursday announced he was pardoning thousands of people who had been convicted of federal marijuana possession charges. 'Big shrimping family' in Florida left homeless by Hurricane Ian Ricky Moran, a shrimper who worked and slept on the boat he captained out of Fort Myers Beach, lost both a secure livelihood and a safe place to live when Hurricane Ian roared into southwest Florida and smashed the trawler he calls home.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Uvalde school district suspends entire police force after May shooting

The school district in Uvalde, Texas, suspended its entire police force on Friday, pending the outcome of a probe following the mass shooting in May that killed 19 students and two teachers, the district said in a statement. The district said it suspended all activities of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department "for a period of time." The police force consisted of five officers and one security guard, according to its website.

Sandy Hook jurors end first day of deliberations in Alex Jones damages case

A Connecticut jury on Friday ended its first full day of deliberations without a decision on how much conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay families of victims for falsely claiming the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2012 was a hoax. Deliberations will resume on Tuesday in Waterbury, Connecticut state court, not far from where a gunman killed 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. Jones claimed for years that the massacre was staged with actors by the government as part of a plot to seize Americans' guns.

U.S. Treasury sets new tax credit rule to expand affordable housing

The U.S. Treasury moved to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing on Friday by finalizing a new tax credit income rule that may qualify more housing projects and extending deadlines for when they must be placed in service. The finalized income-averaging rule for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit now allows a broader mix of income levels among residents of qualifying projects, by using average, rather than fixed limits for all units.

Explainer-U.S. marijuana pardons help thousands, leave others in prison

U.S. President Joe Biden's pardon for thousands of Americans convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law has a profound impact, experts and individuals say, even if it affects fewer people than similar state and local initiatives. Biden has called on governors to issue similar pardons regarding state marijuana offenses. WHO IS AFFECTED?

Factbox-Voters in five U.S. states to decide on legalizing marijuana in November midterms

Voters in five states will decide whether to legalize adult-use marijuana in November's midterm elections, as 19 other states and the District of Columbia have done. Public support for legalizing the drug has risen in recent years, and President Joe Biden on Thursday announced he was pardoning thousands of people who had been convicted of federal marijuana possession charges.

'Big shrimping family' in Florida left homeless by Hurricane Ian

Ricky Moran, a shrimper who worked and slept on the boat he captained out of Fort Myers Beach, lost both a secure livelihood and a safe place to live when Hurricane Ian roared into southwest Florida and smashed the trawler he calls home. The Category 4 storm lifted the craft from its moorings like it was a toy and left it in a twisted heap on shore along with a half dozen other battered boats, most flipped on their sides or with the hulls facing the sky. Moran now finds himself without a safe place to live or a means to make a living.

Appeals court temporarily blocks Arizona's abortion ban

An appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked Arizona from enforcing a 1901 ban on nearly all abortions in the state, overruling a trial court's decision last month to let the ban proceed. The Arizona Court of Appeals granted Planned Parenthood's request for an emergency stay of Pima County Superior Court's ruling on Sept. 23 that lifted an injunction on the ban. The appeals court said the abortion-rights advocacy group "demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success" in its challenge of that decision.

Bullet-proof glass, guards: U.S. election offices tighten security for Nov. 8 midterms

When voters in Jefferson County, Colorado, cast their ballots in the Nov. 8 midterm election, they will see security guards stationed outside the busiest polling centers. At an election office in Flagstaff, Arizona, voters will encounter bulletproof glass and need to press a buzzer to enter. In Tallahassee, Florida, election workers will count ballots in a building that has been newly toughened with walls made of the super-strong fiber Kevlar.

NYC mayor declares state of emergency amid migrant busing crisis

New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency on Friday in response to thousands of migrants bused to the city in recent months from the U.S. southern border in a political dispute over border security. The city expects to spend $1 billion to manage the influx of the migrants, Adams said in a speech at City Hall. More than 17,000 have arrived in New York since April; an average of five or six buses each day since early September, with nine buses pulling into the city on Thursday, said Adams, a Democrat, straining the city's homeless shelter system.

Oath Keepers founder spoke of 'bloody' war ahead of the U.S. Capitol attack

Prosecutors in the trial of five Oath Keepers members on Friday showed a jury fresh evidence that the right-wing militia group's founder Stewart Rhodes told his followers ahead of last year's U.S. Capitol attack there would be a "bloody" war if then-President Donald Trump failed to reverse his 2020 election loss. In numerous text messages, online postings, and speeches shown as evidence, Rhodes promoted the use of force and implored Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a 19th-century U.S. law that empowers presidents to deploy troops to quell civil unrest.