Trump rejects ‘phony’ polls, insists ‘we are winning’ ADVERTISING Trump rejects ‘phony’ polls, insists ‘we are winning’ ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — A defiant Donald Trump blamed his campaign struggles on “phony polls” from the “disgusting” media on Monday, fighting
Trump rejects ‘phony’ polls, insists ‘we are winning’
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — A defiant Donald Trump blamed his campaign struggles on “phony polls” from the “disgusting” media on Monday, fighting to energize his most loyal supporters as his path to the presidency shrinks.
With just 14 days until the election, the Republican nominee campaigned in battleground Florida as his team conceded publicly as well as privately that crucial Pennsylvania may be slipping away to Democrat Hillary Clinton. That would leave him only a razor-thin pathway to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House on Nov. 8.
Despite continued difficulties with women and minorities, Trump refuses to soften his message in the campaign’s final days to broaden his coalition. Yet he offered an optimistic front in the midst of a three-day tour through Florida as thousands began voting there in person.
“I believe we’re actually winning,” Trump declared during a round table discussion with farmers gathered next to a local pumpkin patch.
A day after suggesting the First Amendment to the Constitution may give journalists too much freedom, he insisted that the media are promoting biased polls to discourage his supporters from voting.
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Obama administration confirms double-digit premium hikes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That’s sure to stoke another “Obamacare” controversy days before a presidential election.
Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less.
Moreover, about 1 in 5 consumers will only have plans from a single insurer to pick from, after major national carriers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna scaled back their roles.
“Consumers will be faced this year with not only big premium increases but also with a declining number of insurers participating, and that will lead to a tumultuous open enrollment period,” said Larry Levitt, who tracks the health care law for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Republicans pounced on the numbers as a warning that insurance markets created by the 2010 health overhaul are teetering toward a “death spiral.” Sign-up season starts Nov. 1, about a week before national elections in which the GOP remains committed to a full repeal.
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France moving more than 6,000 migrants from makeshift camp
CALAIS, France — France began the mass evacuation Monday of the makeshift migrant camp known as “the jungle,” a mammoth project to erase the humanitarian blight on its northern border, where thousands fleeing war or poverty have lived in squalor, most hoping to sneak into Britain.
Before dawn broke, long lines of migrants waited in chilly temperatures to board buses in the port city of Calais, carrying meager belongings and timid hope that they were headed to a brighter future, despite giving up their dreams of life across the English Channel in Britain.
Closely watched by more than 1,200 police, the first of dozens of buses began transferring them to reception centers around France where they can apply for asylum. More police patrolled inside the camp, among them officers from the London police force.
Authorities were expected to begin tearing down thousands of muddy tents and fragile shelters on Tuesday as the migrants vacated them.
Migrants have flocked to the Calais region for nearly two decades, living in mini-jungles. But the sprawling camp in the sand dunes of northern France became emblematic of Europe’s migrant crisis, expanding as migrant numbers grew and quickly evolving into Europe’s largest slum, supported by aid groups, and a black eye on France’s image.
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Authorities: Bus driver didn’t brake before hitting big rig
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — Ana Car didn’t remember the sudden impact, only that she woke up among dead and injured passengers in a dark bus filled with screams of terror and agony.
The retired factory worker had spent an evening gambling at a desert casino and was sound asleep when the bus heading to Los Angeles smashed into the rear of a slow-moving tractor-trailer. The crash killed the bus driver and 12 passengers and injured 31 other people.
“I can’t believe how many died,” she said, sobbing Monday as she recovered from bumps, bruises and a sore back. “It was so horrible. These images are going to stay in my head for life.”
The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the collision, which is one of the deadliest wrecks in California history.
The truck was creeping along at 5 mph because of utility work that had gone on throughout the night along Interstate 10 near Palm Springs. That’s when the bus, moving as fast as 65 mph, slammed into it, authorities said.
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Guard seeks federal aid for soldiers told to return bonuses
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Members of Congress and veterans leaders on Monday called for federal action to absolve the debts of nearly 10,000 California soldiers who have been ordered by the Pentagon to repay enlistment bonuses a decade after they signed up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lawmakers from California expressed outrage, including Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican; and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat.
Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers said the California National Guard is working with members of Congress to introduce legislation that, if approved and signed by the president, would order the National Guard Bureau to clear the debts of soldiers who were wrongly told they were eligible for bonuses of $15,000 or more.
The total amount given out in bonuses is not clear, but $22 million has been recovered so far, The Los Angeles Times reported.
“This is how you destroy all faith in a Pentagon that is supposed to have your back,” Brian Duffy, head of the national service organization Veterans of Foreign Wars, said in an emailed statement. “Instead of seeking repayment, the Pentagon owes them a debt of thanks and an apology for insulting their honorable service to our nation.”
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In year of 3,000 shootings, a teen faces life beyond bullet
CHICAGO (AP) — He suddenly felt as if a hot wire had torn through his chest. It hurt to breathe.
Jonathan Annicks wasn’t sure he’d been shot. It was after midnight when he’d dashed outside his family’s house to retrieve a phone charger from the car. Now, slumped over in anguish, he frantically punched his brother’s number into his phone.
“You might have to take me to the hospital,” he gasped, “Come outside, please!”
He slid from the car; his legs ended up splayed across the floorboard, the top half of his body sprawled on the pavement. The driver’s side window was shattered, the passenger door flung open. In the harsh glare of a streetlight, a baseball-sized smear of blood glistened on the center console.
Jonathan had seen the gunman for just a few seconds: a hooded stranger wearing shiny earrings who bounded out of a van, stood about six feet away and uttered something like, “What’s up, homie? Run it.”
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For some low-income workers, retirement is only a dream
CHICAGO (AP) — It was a striking image. A photo of an 89-year-old man hunched over, struggling to push his cart with frozen treats. Fidencio Sanchez works long hours every day selling the treats because he couldn’t afford to retire. The photo and his story went viral and thousands of people donated more than $384,000 for his retirement.
His story is a window into a dark reality: Many low-wage workers say they can’t afford to retire.
With no money saved for retirement, home care worker Gwen Strowbridge, 71, of Deerfield, Florida, plans to stay on the job until she can’t physically work anymore.
“I can’t see it in the future. I’ll stop working if my health won’t allow me to keep working,” said Strowbridge. Now 71, she works six days per week caring for a 100-year-old woman in Florida.
Studies have found that about one-third of low wage workers like Strowbridge say they’ll never be able to afford retirement. The problem is particularly acute among minority women.
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Tom Hayden, ’60s activist and liberal statesman, dead at 76
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In one of the most dramatic personal transformations in American political history, Tom Hayden went from being a famed 1960s and 1970s student radical to a mainstream elected official and elder statesman of the country’s left. He died Sunday at age 76 following a lengthy illness.
Hayden will be forever linked to riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Vietnam War protests of the 1970s and his onetime marriage to actress Jane Fonda.
Those events, however, ultimately represented just a small slice of a life dedicated to, as he put it, trying to change the world.
Elected to the California Assembly in 1982, Hayden served 10 years, followed by eight more in the state Senate.
During that time he put his name on some 100 pieces of legislation — including laws aimed at holding down college tuition costs, preventing discrimination in hiring and modest safety controls on guns.
