How will Trump and Biden handle veterans issues? Here’s what they told us.

  

In anticipation of the upcoming presidential election, Military Times partnered with a dozen veterans organizations earlier this year to ask the major party candidates about their views on key issues facing the veterans community.

 

Each campaign was presented the same set of questions and agreed to provide video responses to the veterans groups. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s campaign instead provided his answers in a series of written responses. Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign provided videos addressing the questions.

All of those responses are included below, with a transcript of each Biden video for easier comparison with the Trump campaign’s submissions.

The result is a comprehensive look at each candidate’s plans for veterans mental health care, education and employment policy, community care programs and pandemic support efforts for veterans.

The questions are arranged by topic and you can jump down to a specific section using the navigation buttons.

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Trump again asks Supreme Court to block subpoena for tax records

 

President Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a subpoena for his tax returns, bringing the matter to the nation's highest court for a second time.

The Supreme Court previously ruled the president was not entitled to the kind of immunity from the subpoena that he sought. In the prior ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the 7-2 majority opinion, concluded that "no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding."

Roberts returned the case to a lower court to allow Trump to "raise further arguments as appropriate," such as claims about the subpoenas' burden on his official duties.

 

This time the president is arguing the subpoena "crosses the line," is "overbroad and lacking a good faith basis."

"The Court unanimously remanded this case to the district court so 'the President may raise further arguments as appropriate.' Those arguments include the two the President raised in a second amended complaint: the Mazars subpoena is an overbroad 'fishing expedition' and was issued 'in bad faith' to harass him," the Trump filing states.

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U.S. Supreme Court allows Trump to wind down census early

  

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to wind down population counting for the 2020 U.S. census earlier than originally planned in a blow to civil rights groups concerned about an undercount particularly of racial minorities. 

The justices put on hold a lower court ruling that had ordered that the decennial population count be continued until Oct. 31. The Census Bureau on Aug. 3 announced that it would wind down data collection by Sept. 30, a month earlier than originally scheduled.

The Supreme Court’s order was a loss for municipalities including Los Angeles, the counties that include Houston and Seattle and civil rights groups including the National Urban League that sued seeking to get the later deadline reinstated.

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Barrett unscathed by tough Democratic confirmation probing

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett batted back Democrats’ skeptical questions on abortion, health care and a possible disputed election in a lively Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, insisting she would bring no personal agenda to the court but would decide cases “as they come.”

The 48-year-old appellate court judge declared her conservative views with often colloquial language, but refused many specifics. She declined to say whether she would recuse herself from any election-related cases involving President Donald Trump, who nominated her to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and is pressing to have her confirmed before the the Nov. 3 election.

 

“Judges can’t just wake up one day and say I have an agenda — I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion — and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” Barrett told the Senate Judiciary Committee during its second day of hearings.

“It’s not the law of Amy,” she said. “It’s the law of the American people.”

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Trump returns to the trail claiming coronavirus victory and playing campaign defense

 WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's ambitious return to the campaign trail this week comes as questions linger on two fronts: about the health of the candidate — and about the health of his campaign.

His string of scheduled swing state rallies is drawing renewed scrutiny of both the details of the president's recovery from the coronavirus and the safety of those attending the events. The push is also notable for what it represents in the campaign's homestretch: investment of valuable presidential and surrogate time in many states his advisers had assumed would be solidly in his column by this stage of the race.

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But while the campaign takes the position that the candidate who does the most rallies is likely to claim victory and as Trump itches to get out of the White House, quickly resuming events where social distancing measures aren't enforced risks sending the message to voters that he is putting his own personal interest over public safety.

Despite the outbreak among Trump's staff and allies, the campaign hasn't made any significant changes to its coronavirus safety protocol at rallies. The mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, has said he is worried that Trump's rally there this week could become another "superspreader event," and public health officials in Minnesota said nine people who were at a Trump rally there last month contracted the coronavirus, including two who were taken to hospitals.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-returns-trail-claiming-coronavirus-victory-playing-campaign-defense-n1242987

Charleston attorney looking at 11 other deaths at Clarksburg VA Medical Center

 

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — An attorney for the families of veterans who were murdered at the Clarksburg VA Medical Center said Monday 11 additional deaths are being reviewed for possible connections to convicted murderer Reta Mays.

Charleston attorney Tony O’Dell said during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline” some of the deaths date back as far as 2015.

“We have 11 other cases that an untoward event happened at the hospital, we don’t have the smoking gun glucose readings, but these people looked like they were going to be discharged. They were definitely doing better and had been moved out of ICU to the step-down floor,” O’Dell said.

Mays, 46, of Harrison County, a former nursing assistant at the hospital, pleaded guilty in July in connection with seven deaths. She faces consecutive life terms for the murders and another 20 years for a count of assault with attempt to murder. A sentencing hearing hasn’t yet been set. A status hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 30. She killed them by giving them insulin they didn’t need. She hasn’t yet said why. 

O’Dell said he’s still waiting for the Veterans Administration to provide him “complete and full sets” of medical records for the families of the additional veterans.

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'Like we're going into quarantine': Americans plan to stockpile food this fall over fears of COVID-19 surge, election unrest

 

Leslyn Hall says she and her husband plan to stock up on groceries later this month. At the back of her mind are concerns about disruptions in supplies if there’s another COVID-19 surge, as well as potential unrest surrounding the Nov. 3 presidential election.

“We talked about doing a big shop like we’re going into quarantine,” says Hall, 53, of Burlington, Vermont. On the list: enough basics such as milk, beans and rice to last for two to three weeks.

Hall, a consultant, points out that her local grocery stores struggle to keep their shelves fully stocked and have shortages of products like cleaning supplies, even though her state has one of the lowest COVID-19 rates in the U.S.

“Arguably speaking, we have control of things in Vermont, but you still go into the grocery store and there are shelves that are sparse,” she says.

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Black man led by mounted police while bound with a rope sues Texas city for $1 million

 

A Black man who was led by mounted police down a Texas street while bound with a rope last year is suing the city and its police department for $1 million, court documents show.

In August 2019, Donald Neely was arrested on criminal trespass charges in Galveston, just outside of Houston. Images and video of his arrest, during which two white police officers led him down the street handcuffed with a rope tied to their horses, sparked outrage.

A petition filed this week in Galveston County's district court called the officers' conduct "extreme and outrageous" and claimed that it caused Neely injury, emotional distress and mental anguish.

"Neely suffered from handcuff abrasions, suffered from the heat, and suffered from embarrassment, humiliation and fear as he was led by rope and mounted officers down the city street," the lawsuit claims.

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First monument honoring all military women to be unveiled at Arlington

 

WASHINGTON — The Women in Military Service for America Memorial, at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery, is regularly placed on lists of “hidden gems” within the nation’s capital — a perspective on the memorial that its leaders are trying to change.

“I don’t want it to be hidden,” said Phyllis Wilson, president of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation and a retired chief warrant officer.

The memorial has been closed for about seven months during the coronavirus pandemic. It reopens Oct. 18 with a new feature that Wilson hopes will draw more people inside: the first monument in the Washington area that honors all military women.

The monument, titled The Pledge, will be unveiled during a ceremony Oct. 17. In bronze, it depicts a service woman outfitted for combat, kneeling and staring face-to-face with a military working dog. The base of the monument says it honors “all women of the U.S. military, past present and future.”

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Luring Virgin Hyperloop required shared vision, West Virginia leaders say

Virgin Hyperloop said West Virginia’s pitch to be the home of a $500 million certification facility was appealing because of how much enthusiasm was shown by elected leaders.

The company announced today that it will locate a certification facility for its super high-speed travel system on nearly 800 acres of land across Tucker and Grant counties. The certification center would be a hub to lay the groundwork for research and regulation.

Hyperloop would move people and goods in pods through a vacuum tube at speeds exceeding 600 mph, enabling travel from Pittsburgh to Chicago in 41 minutes or New York City to Washington, D.C. in just 30 minutes.

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'Deeply disturbing': Feds charge six extremists in domestic terror plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, create civil war

 

LANSING, Mich. – Thirteen members of an anti-government group bent on igniting a civil war are charged in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who the group targeted in a possible commando raid on the state capitol, according to newly unsealed court records.

Authorites said Thursday that the Wolverine Watchmen group planned on storming either the capitol or Whitmer's vacation home as part of a broader mission to instigate a civil war.  The FBI and Michigan's attorney general outlined felony domestic terrorism charges against the group's organizers, who planned on hurling molotov cocktails at any police who tried to stop the kidnapping, a federal affidavit said.

Members of the group bought weapons, conducted surveillance and held training and planning meetings, but they were foiled in part because the FBI infiltrated the group with informants, according to a criminal complaint. Six were charged with federal kidnapping offenses, and at least seven others face state charges.

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New Jack Daniel's master distiller keeps up family tradition

 

In a business where family tradition tends to matter, Chris Fletcher stepped up Wednesday to follow in his grandfather's footsteps to lead production of the Jack Daniel’s whiskey brand.

The Tennessee distillery introduced Fletcher as master distiller for the flagship brand of Kentucky-based Brown-Forman Corp. Fletcher spent six years as assistant master distiller and assumes the top role following Jeff Arnett's departure after 12 years leading the distillery.

Fletcher, 39, is the grandson of former Jack Daniel's master distiller Frank Bobo, who served in the role for more than two decades until retiring in 1989. Fletcher's boyhood home was about three miles from the distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, where Jack Daniel's is produced.

Fletcher sat at his grandfather’s desk while speaking to the media Wednesday. He recalled tagging along with his grandfather at the distillery as a boy and said his grandfather “will always be my vision of a true distiller."

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Trump can't block tax subpoena: Circuit court

 

A federal appeals court in New York ruled Wednesday President Donald Trump cannot block enforcement of a subpoena for his tax returns issued by the Manhattan District Attorney's office.MORE: Trump, White House blend denials, justifications in reaction to New York Times story on his taxes

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said President Trump's arguments "amount to generic objections" and not the kind of "well-pled facts" necessary to sustain his allegations the subpoena is overbroad and issued in bad faith.

The appellate panel said the subpoena sought "run-of-the-mill" documents that would be typical for any investigation into possible financial or corporate misconduct.

The president's legal team has already signaled its intention to bring the case back to the Supreme Court, according to a letter filed with the court. The Manhattan DA's office agreed to delay enforcement of the subpoena until the Supreme Court decides whether to issue a stay.

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