Trump signs bill to fund veterans’ medical care

Trump signs bill to fund veterans’ medical care

BEDMINSTER, N.J.

President Donald Trump has signed an emergency spending bill that will pump more than $2 billion into a program that allows veterans to receive private medical care at government expense.

Trump, who made improving veterans’ care a central campaign promise, signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act while at his New Jersey golf club Saturday. The bill, which addresses a budget shortfall at the Department of Veteran Affairs that threatened medical care for thousands of veterans, provides $2.1 billion to continue funding the Veterans Choice Program, which allows veterans to seek private care.

Texas Senate OKs restriction on abortion coverage

AUSTIN, Texas

The Republican-controlled Texas Senate backed a plan Saturday night to restrict insurance coverage for abortions, over the objections of opponents who expressed concern it could force some women to make heart-wrenching choices because no exceptions will be made in cases of rape and incest.

The 20-10 party-line vote for preliminary approval requires women to purchase extra insurance to cover abortions except amid medical emergencies. A final vote today will see the measure clear the chamber, meaning it’s now on a fast-track to Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.’

Ex-officer charged in murder case cites tribal membership

TULSA, Okla.

A white former Oklahoma police officer facing a fourth trial in the fatal shooting of his daughter’s black boyfriend says state prosecutors don’t have standing to try him because he’s a member of an American Indian tribe.

Citing his membership in the Muscogee Nation, ex-Tulsa Officer Shannon Kepler asked a judge Friday to dismiss the case because the 2014 shooting happened on land inside tribal territory.

The Tulsa World reports that Kepler was issued a Creek Nation citizenship identification card Thursday.

World’s oldest man, a Holocaust survivor, dies at 113

JERUSALEM

Israel Kristal, the world’s oldest man who lived through both World Wars and survived the Auschwitz concentration camp has passed away just a month short of his 114th birthday, his family said Saturday.

Oren Kristal, a grandson, said he died Friday. “He managed to accomplish a lot. Every year he lived was like a few years for somebody else,” Oren told The Associated Press.

Last year Guinness World Records awarded Kristal a certificate as the world’s oldest man at his home in Haifa, Israel.

Kristal was born to an Orthodox Jewish family near the town of Zarnow in Poland in 1903.

US fighter jet crash lands in Bahrain

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

A U.S. F-18 fighter jet suffering an engine problem crash landed Saturday at Bahrain International Airport, and its pilot ejected from the aircraft after it ran off the runway, authorities said. The pilot escaped unharmed.

The crash disrupted flights to and from the island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia that’s home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. Images on social media showed the grey fighter jet’s nose tipped into the air but largely intact after what the Navy described as an “uncontrollable” landing.

Associated Press