Trump focuses on Puerto Rico, promises visit, aid

Trump focuses on Puerto Rico, promises visit, aid

WASHINGTON

Suddenly, just about all President Donald Trump can talk about is Puerto Rico.

After not mentioning hurricane-devastated island for days, Trump on Tuesday pushed back aggressively and repeatedly against criticism that he had failed to quickly grasp the magnitude of Maria’s destruction or give the U.S. commonwealth the top-priority treatment he had bestowed on Texas, Louisiana and Florida after previous storms.

Trump announced that he would visit Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands next week. He tweeted about Puerto Rico’s needs. He talked about Puerto Rico during a meeting on tax cuts. He raised the subject at a Rose Garden news conference with the prime minister of Spain.

VA: Money for private health care may run out

WASHINGTON

Weeks after a veterans’ health initiative received $2.1 billion in emergency funding, the Trump administration says the private-sector Veterans Choice health care program may need additional money as early as December to avoid a disruption of care for hundreds of thousands of veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement Tuesday that it hoped to move quickly on a proposed long-term legislative fix that would give veterans even wider access to private doctors. The proposal, under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would seek money to keep Choice running for much of next year as VA implements wider changes.

On Capitol Hill, the House Veterans Affairs Committee was already anticipating that the emergency funding approved in August may not last the full six months, according to spokespeople for both Republican and Democratic members on the panel.

Tillerson meets Cuba envoy amid probe into ‘attacks’

WASHINGTON

The Cuban Embassy in Washington says Cuba has investigated and found no evidence to explain who or what is causing health damage to American diplomats in Havana.

The embassy says Cuba opened a “priority investigation” on orders from the top level of the Cuban government. The embassy is arguing that Cuba has never attacked diplomats and would never allow that to happen on Cuban soil.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met Tuesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington.

Collapsed school in Mexico raises code questions

MEXICO CITY

On paper at least, the Mexico City school appeared to be structurally sound and built to withstand a major earthquake. But it collapsed, killing 26 people, most of them children. And now authorities are looking into whether an apartment reportedly built on top of the two-story school was to blame.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the borough president of the southern Mexico City district where the school went down in the 7.1 magnitude quake, told a news conference Tuesday that the school appeared to have its paperwork in order, at least according to documents filed by architects and engineers who supposedly inspected the structure. She said an investigation was being launched to look for any abnormalities not revealed in those documents.

“We can’t stop just with the paperwork,” Sheinbaum said. “We are going to do a review of the building itself.”

Associated Press