Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist in military

Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist in military

WASHINGTON

Transgender recruits will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, the Pentagon said Monday, as President Donald Trump’s ordered ban suffered more legal setbacks.

The new policy reflects the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump’s demand earlier this year to bar transgender individuals from the military.

Three federal courts have ruled against the ban, including one Monday in Washington state.

Trump to pitch tax overhaul to Americans

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump on Wednesday will try to sell the American people on an unpopular Republican tax overhaul that his administration claims will generate a large part of $1.8 trillion in new revenue — a figure that a top Democratic lawmaker dismissed as “fake math.”

Trump’s pitch will focus on how the GOP tax reform plan will lead to a brighter future for taxpayers and their families, according to spokeswoman Lindsay Walters. House and Senate negotiators are rushing to finalize a bill and deliver the measure to Trump before Christmas.

Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have promoted the massive tax plan by promising the tax cuts will boost the economy. Their idea is that growth sparked by the legislation will let the tax cuts pay for themselves and not balloon the $20 trillion deficit.

Scientists win climate-change grants from France

PARIS

Eighteen climate scientists from the U.S. and elsewhere hit the jackpot Monday as French President Emmanuel Macron awarded them millions of euros in grants to relocate to France for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidential term.

The “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants – a nod to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan – are part of Macron’s efforts to counter Trump on the climate-change front. Macron announced a contest for the projects in June, hours after Trump declared he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

More than 5,000 people from about 100 countries expressed interest in the grants. A majority of the applicants – and 13 of the 18 winners – were U.S.-based researchers.

Permit for violent rally anniversary event denied

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

Officials in Charlottesville, Va., have denied a permit requested by an organizer of the August white nationalist protest that turned violent.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that City Manager Maurice Jones wrote Monday that the “proposed demonstration or special event will present a danger to public safety.”

Jason Kessler, a Charlottesville resident who was the primary organizer of the Aug. 12 protest, called “Unite the Right,” requested the permit last month to have a two-day rally for the event’s one-year anniversary.

In his application, Kessler described the event’s purpose as a “rally against government civil-rights abuse and failure to follow security plans for political dissidents.”

Jones wrote that “no reasonable allocation of city funds or resources can guarantee that event participants will be free of any ‘threat of violence.’”

Associated Press