Supreme Court puts off ruling on Census count that excludes illegal immigrants Follow Us
Question of the Day In this Nov. 5, 2020, photo, The Supreme Court is seen in Washington. The Supreme Court has dismissed as premature a challenge to President Donald Trump’s plan to exclude people living in the country illegally from the population count used . more > By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Friday, December 18, 2020
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that it’s too early to decide whether President Trump can exclude illegal immigrants from the census count he will send to Congress to decide how House seats are divided up among the states over the next decade.
Analysts and military insiders say Gen. Milley, who assumed his current post in September 2019, has routinely demonstrated the savvy and instincts needed to navigate issues ranging from racial justice in the ranks, a contentious and emotionally charged election cycle that threatened to ensnare the armed forces, and private disagreements between the Pentagon and White House over President Trump’s decision to pull thousands of troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters.
He’s not above sending barely coded messages when defending the neutrality and professionalism of the military forces he represents.
At last month’s opening of the new Museum of the U.S. Army, with the presidential election still in the balance and President Trump’s just-named acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller sitting nearby, Gen. Milley pointedly noted the U.S. armed forces are “unique among militaries.”
Pentagon says transition meetings will resume after holidays; Biden team demands immediate restart Follow Us
Question of the Day By Ben Wolfgang and David Sherfinski - The Washington Times - Friday, December 18, 2020
Top Pentagon officials on Friday pushed back on reports that the Defense Department had fully halted meetings with President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s transition team, stressing that work will continue after a mutually agreed-upon break for the holidays.
But Mr. Biden’s team said shortly afterward that there was no such agreement and that the meetings should resume immediately.
In a statement, acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller said that some Friday meetings had been postponed as the Pentagon focuses heavily on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to distribute vaccines across the country. He seemed to deny an Axios report published earlier Friday that
“Heading into 2021, consumers do not foresee the economy nor the labor market gaining strength,” said Lynn Franco, senior director of Economic Indicators for the Conference Board. “In addition, the resurgence of COVID-19 is further increasing uncertainty and exacerbating concerns about the outlook.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the crisis is hurting “small businesses all over the country that have been basically unable to really function.
“They’re just hanging on, and they’re so critical to our economy,” Mr. Powell said on Wednesday. “Now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it would be bad to see people losing their business their life’s work in many cases, or even generations worth of work because they couldn’t last another few months, which is what it amounts to.”
Ms. Psaki said medical experts recommended that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris get vaccinated separately, citing “security and medical protocols.”
“It is the recommendation that they did it separately and that they stagger the first doses,” she said.
Ms. Psaki said Rep. Cedric Richmond’s testing positive for the virus this week did not factor into the timing for Mr. Biden’s vaccination.
Mr. Richmond, a key Biden campaign adviser, tested positive after he and Mr. Biden were at the same event in Georgia on Tuesday. Mr. Biden tested negative Thursday.
Mr. Biden’s team said the two of them were not in “close contact” as defined by federal health professionals.