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Pentagon, HHS Investigating Whether COVID Vaccines Contributed To Military Deaths

Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness,

The Trump administration is investigating whether COVID-19 vaccines contributed to the deaths of U.S. service members following the Biden administration's military vaccine mandate, according to testimony from an Army doctor assigned to the effort.

Army physician Theresa Long said in an Aug. 14 federal court deposition that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed her to serve as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s senior medical military adviser.

Long said she is examining 2,544 unverified reports of deaths among service members submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, following COVID vaccination.

VAERS is an early-warning surveillance system that accepts reports of health problems occurring after vaccination. A report does not establish that a vaccine caused the medical event or death.

Long, who is board certified in aerospace medicine and holds a master's degree in public health, said she hopes to complete her investigation within a year.

She also testified that she knows of 28 people who died because of COVID vaccines but said she was not permitted to provide additional information supporting that assertion.

The investigation comes as the Trump administration reexamines the military's handling of the COVID pandemic and the Biden administration's 2021 vaccine mandate.

Nearly 9,000 service members were discharged for refusing COVID vaccinations before Congress ordered the Pentagon to rescind the mandate in 2022. The Defense Department has since established a COVID-19 Reinstatement and Reconciliation Task Force to assist troops who left the military over the requirement and want to return.

"The Department continues to right the wrongs of the past and to restore confidence in, and honor to, our fighting force," the Pentagon said in announcing the task force.

Long is also reviewing military health surveillance systems and two medical databases from the pandemic period.

A 2026 Pentagon report found an increase in myocarditis and pericarditis among active-duty service members shortly after COVID vaccination, but said the increase was not sustained over one year. The report did not identify vaccine-related deaths.

The FDA has also required updated warnings for mRNA COVID vaccines concerning myocarditis and pericarditis. The agency reported a higher incidence among young men, with 27 cases per million vaccinations compared with 8 per million in the general population for the period it analyzed.

Long's previously undisclosed assignment indicates that the Trump administration's review of the Biden-era military vaccine mandate now extends beyond reinstating discharged troops to examining whether the vaccines themselves caused serious injuries or deaths among service members.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/04/2026 - 15:00

Stitches makes his pick for Mets-Giants and Red Sox-Orioles.

Eddie and Bobby finally come to blows. 

For the first time in four years, the Williams sisters are playing together at the US Open.

For the first time in four years, the Williams sisters are playing together at the US Open.

His confidence and charisma meant as much as his talent, allowing Dart to quickly become the leader of a team that had achieved so much without him.

Watch your bat.

Juan Velderrain Perez, a citizen of Mexico and resident of San Diego, appeared in federal court.

A spokesperson for the Harrison family told Page Six that the reality TV personality is currently recovering.

A spokesperson for the Harrison family told Page Six that the reality TV personality is currently recovering.

Deutsche Bank: August US Auto Sales Beat Forecasts, But Incentives Remain A Factor

U.S. auto sales came in stronger than expected in August, offering another sign that consumer demand for new vehicles remains relatively resilient despite elevated borrowing costs and broader questions about the economy.

According to Deutsche Bank’s auto team, led by Edison Yu, August sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of roughly 16.9 million vehicles. That was comfortably ahead of the bank’s 16.4 million estimate and also above the roughly 16.4 million pace recorded a year earlier.

The headline SAAR number was strong, although the underlying monthly figures were somewhat less impressive. Automakers sold approximately 1.388 million vehicles during August, slightly above July’s 1.380 million but below the roughly 1.482 million vehicles sold in August 2025.

Sales among both the Detroit Three and major Japanese automakers were modestly better than Deutsche Bank expected. But Hyundai Group was one of the biggest contributors to the upside surprise, beating the bank’s forecast by approximately 14,000 vehicles. Other brands accounted for the remainder of the beat.

The closely watched large pickup market was more mixed. Daily sales declined for most major truck models, but Ram was a notable exception. Ram sales increased by roughly 105 vehicles per day to around 1,550, with Deutsche Bank attributing much of that strength to aggressive incentive spending.

Higher sales are obviously positive for volumes, but when they are being generated through heavier discounts and incentives, the improvement doesn’t necessarily translate into equally strong profitability for manufacturers.

Inventory remains relatively controlled. Industry-wide inventories slipped to approximately 49 days of supply, compared with 50 days previously, although that remains above the 47-day level seen in 2025. Truck inventories declined by one day to 52 days of supply, while passenger-car inventories dropped by two days to just 34.

Taken together, the August numbers paint a reasonably healthy picture of the U.S. auto market. Sales are running better than expected, inventories aren’t showing signs of a major glut, and the annualized selling rate remains comfortably above 16 million vehicles.

Deutsche Bank isn’t extrapolating August’s 16.9 million pace into a dramatically stronger industry forecast, however. Yu and his team continue to expect a 16.0 million SAAR for full-year 2026, roughly consistent with forecasts from the major automakers themselves. For 2027, Deutsche Bank is forecasting only a modest improvement to 16.1 million.

In other words, August was a good month, but Deutsche Bank isn’t calling it the beginning of an auto boom. The more interesting question from here may be how much manufacturers have to spend on incentives to keep sales around these levels...particularly if consumers remain squeezed by high vehicle prices and financing costs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/04/2026 - 14:40

Emily Compagno thanked viewers and colleagues during her final signoff from the daytime panel show, calling her stint an "extraordinary privilege."

Beleaguered WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced on Friday morning that she is stepping down after this season. That news prompted Enes Kanter to announce his submission to be the next WNBA commissioner. Kanter, who has thrust himself in the middle of the transgender athlete controversy linked to the league, posted a video to social media...

Jed York has one Hall of Famer on his side. Michael Irvin believes York’s prostitution arrest was blown out of proportion and downplayed the severity of the crime. “He got divorced 5-6 months ago so I’m like man, come on. Is that really a crime?” Irvin said on a recent Kick stream with social media...

Lindsay Clancy’s high-profile murder trial ended in mistrial Friday – despite her lawyer’s desperate 11th-hour bid to block the outcome.

The initial court hearing as part of Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss’ petition to stop her siblings from selling the family’s ownership shares of the Lakers has been rescheduled.  Jeanie Buss’ attorney, Adam Streisand, filed a continuation (postponement) in her petition in Los Angeles Superior Court after the hearing was initially scheduled for Nov. 5. The...

Trump Admin Asks Supreme Court To Unblock New Mail-Ballot Rules Before States Start Mailing

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 3 to allow the government to begin implementing a regulation that tightens rules around mail-in voting.

In the emergency application, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to stay U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani's Aug. 27 order that blocks the United States Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing a final rule published Aug. 26.

The rule implements Section 3 of President Donald Trump's Executive Order 14399, which assigns federal agencies a larger role in who receives a mail ballot and how those ballots are processed by the USPS.

Talwani issued a 14-day temporary restraining order that blocked the post office from implementing the parts of Section 3 that required state and local election officials to submit outbound and return mail envelopes for USPS design review, place unique tracking barcodes on those envelopes, and upload voter names, addresses, and barcode data to a new federal portal. Mailings that do not match portal data or that fall short of the envelope standards would not be accepted for delivery.

The judge said in her Aug. 27 ruling that the agency had presented no evidence of fraudulent mail-in voting that would justify the new USPS rule and that the rule itself was likely unlawful and adopted in violation of the U.S. Constitution, which gives states primary authority to administer elections.

"USPS's interest in correcting an unsubstantiated problem through likely unconstitutional means is dwarfed by the overwhelming risk of pervasive disenfranchisement of citizens who need access to mail ballots in order to vote," she said. "The balance of harms and public interest warrants a [temporary restraining order]."

New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Aug. 26 that the postal regulation issued under the executive order will "create confusion, unnecessary costs, and unacceptable risks for voters going into Election Day." She said officials would have to rush to redesign envelopes, obtain federal approval, and develop new list-transmission systems while already preparing to mail ballots.

The short-term freeze was set to expire around Sept. 10 if Talwani declined to extend it. Earlier in the day on Sept. 3, the judge held a hearing on extending the temporary restraining order. Separately, the Trump administration previously filed an appeal of the restraining order that is still pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Sauer said the nation's highest court needs to act urgently.

"Even before September 10, two States - North Carolina and Alabama - will begin sending ballots to voters, the first as soon as September 4. Once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them," he said.

The solicitor general also asked the Supreme Court for an immediate administrative stay so the rule can take effect while the justices review the briefs.

The application was directed to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who oversees emergency appeals from Massachusetts, where Talwani is based.

Jackson directed the respondents - including several states and advocacy groups - to file a reply to the application by 10 a.m. on Sept. 8.

On Aug. 24, the Supreme Court lifted an earlier injunction after finding a challenge was premature because the post office had not yet issued a final rule. The high court's ruling allowed Trump - for the time being - to implement his executive order ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

The justices didn't rule on the lawfulness of Trump's executive order, but said the states that sued weren't harmed and therefore shouldn't have received relief from the Massachusetts judge.

In the new application, Sauer said that days after the Supreme Court issued its ruling, the district court "issued an order partially barring implementation of that rule, without meaningfully addressing the rule's contents or providing any meaningful analysis to support its conclusion that the rule was unlawful."

The lower court's "continued prejudgment of the rule is baseless," and a stay should be issued immediately, because "the District Court's errors deal 'a serious setback' to the Executive's 'goals' while this litigation unfolds."

The states "cannot choose to use the federal mails to carry out their elections but then insist that their election-related mail is somehow exempt from the Postal Service's rulemaking authority," Sauer said.

The USPS rule "imposes only modest requirements on the use of the federal postal system - it does not regulate state administration of elections."

Sauer quoted the rule, which says the USPS "will not play any role in determining voter eligibility, maintaining voter rolls, or counting ballots."

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/04/2026 - 14:20

Lindsay Clancy asked a Massachusetts high court to force her trial judge to question or boot a holdout juror to avoid a triple-murder mistrial.

Fraud muckraker Nick Shirley slapped a lawsuit against the state of California Friday in a bid to stop it from implementing a law named after him that would allow immigrants to shield their addresses from public records.

On Aug. 13, the NCAA denied St. John’s reinstatement application for Sane, writing that he showed an “intent to professionalize.”