By BEN FINLEY

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Government-run medical centers serving the nation’s veterans have reported an increase in severe staffing shortages, with many hospitals having trouble filling jobs for doctors, nurses and psychologists, according to an independent watchdog for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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Tuesday’s report from the VA’s Office of Inspector General is based on surveys from late March and early April that were taken at 139 Veterans Health Administration facilities. Severe staffing shortages are not necessarily an indication of vacancies but refer to particular occupations that are difficult to fill.

The surveys were taken just weeks after it was reported in early March that the VA had planned to cut 80,000 jobs — out of 484,000 — through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. The VA later reduced the figure to nearly 30,000 jobs to be cut by this fiscal year’s end on Sept. 30.

President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that the surveys are unreliable because they do not reflect actual vacancies, which VA officials said were in line with historical averages. But Democratic lawmakers warned that veterans won’t get the health care they need as VA positions become harder to fill.

The surveys reflected a 50% increase in the reporting of severe staffing shortages for specific jobs, both for clinical occupations that include doctors and psychologists and for non-clinical jobs that include police and custodial workers.

Nearly all of the facilities — 94% — reported a shortage for medical officer occupations that include doctors, while 79% reported shortages for nurses. The report noted that severe shortages for medical officers and nurses have been identified every year in the report since 2014.

Pete Kasperowicz, the VA’s press secretary, stressed in an email that the report is not based on vacancies and is therefore “not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages.”

“The report simply lists occupations facilities feel are difficult for which to recruit and retain, so the results are completely subjective, not standardized and unreliable,” Kasperowicz wrote.

He said that vacancy rates for doctors and nurses are 14% and 10%, respectively, which he said are lower than most other health care systems and in line with “normal VA historical averages.”

But Jacqueline Simon, policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees, said the surveys reflect the Trump administration’s profound hostility toward the federal workforce and what she said are its plans to ultimately privatize the VA.

“This is a deliberate effort to incapacitate and to undermine veterans’ support for and approval of the care they receive in VA hospitals and clinics,” Simon said. “They’ll have to wait much longer for appointments. There won’t be specialists available. They’ll have no choice but to go to the private sector.”

Simon also noted the VA’s announcement last week that it was terminating collective bargaining agreements for most VA bargaining-unit employees, which could further hurt recruitment.

The VA said in a news release that the move will “make it easier for VA leaders to promote high-performing employees, hold poor performers accountable, and improve benefits and services to America’s Veterans.”

But U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said in a news release Tuesday that the Trump administration has made it harder for public servants to do their jobs “and ultimately harder for veterans to get the care they’ve earned.”

“We also know from recent jobs reports that applications to work at the VA are plummeting,” said Warner, a Democrat who represents the veteran-dense state of Virginia. “How do skyrocketing staffing shortages and declining applicant pools make it more ‘efficient’ for veterans to access the care and services they deserve? The answer is: they don’t.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York resident has admitted he tried to smuggle protected turtles worth more than $1 million from the United States to Hong Kong by shipping them in boxes labeled “plastic animal toys.”

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Wei Qiang Lin, a Chinese national who lives in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to attempting to export more than 220 parcels containing around 850 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The turtles, with an estimated market value of $1.4 million, were intercepted by law enforcement at a border inspection, prosecutors said. Officers saw them bound and taped inside knotted socks within the shipping boxes.

Eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles feature colorful markings and are a “prized feature” in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong, prosecutors said. The reptiles are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Lin also shipped 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes, prosecutors said. He faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced Dec. 23.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — Andrew Cuomo is demanding that his opponent in New York City’s mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani, vacate his rent stabilized apartment, while pushing a longshot proposal that would bar other middle-class renters from accessing much of the city’s housing.

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“I am calling on you to move out immediately,” Cuomo wrote in a widely-viewed social media post this weekend, casting Mamdani as “a very rich person” occupying an apartment that could otherwise be used by a homeless family.

The line of attack drew tens of millions of views online and revived a long-standing debate about who should have access to New York’s highly sought-after rent stabilized units, which make up roughly 40% of the city’s rental stock and are currently open to people of all incomes.

It also illustrated the rhetorical lengths that Cuomo is willing to go to as he mounts an independent bid for mayor against Mamdani, a democratic socialist who defeated him handily in the Democratic primary on a platform that centered on affordability and freezing rent on stabilized units.

Mamdani, who earns $143,000 annually as a state legislator, has said he pays $2,300 per month for a one-bedroom apartment in Queens that he shares with his wife — a living situation that Cuomo called “disgusting.”

By contrast, Cuomo, a multimillionaire who previously served as the state’s governor, spends roughly $8,000 monthly on an apartment in Midtown Manhattan that he moved to last year from Westchester County, a wealthy suburb.

In recent weeks, the 67-year-old Cuomo has adopted a more aggressive social media presence, earning both praise and mockery for his use of millennial internet-speak and repeated references to his opponent’s “privilege.” Mamdani’s mother is a successful independent filmmaker and his father is a Columbia University professor.

On Monday, Cuomo went a step further, releasing a formal proposal, which he dubbed “Zohran’s Law,” barring landlords from leasing vacant rent stabilized units to “wealthy tenants,” defined as those who would pay less than 30% of their income toward the existing rent.

FILE – New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a press conference outside the Jacob K. Javits federal building Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, file)

The rent regulation program, which caps how much landlords can raise rent each year on roughly 1 million apartments, does not currently include any income restrictions — something opponents have long pushed to change.

While the average rent stabilized household makes $60,000 annually, it is not uncommon for middle- or higher-income New Yorkers to live in the units, which sometimes rent for several thousand dollars per month.

But Cuomo’s idea drew swift skepticism from some housing experts, who noted the cap would, by definition, mean all new tenants of rent stabilized units would give up a substantial portion of their income.

“The idea that we should only have people living in apartments they can’t afford seems to be setting people up for failure,” said Ellen Davidson, a housing attorney at The Legal Aid Society. “It’s not a proposal from somebody who knows anything about the housing market or New York City.”

The Real Estate Board of New York, a landlord group whose members overwhelmingly backed Cuomo in the primary, did not respond to an inquiry about whether they supported the proposal. But in an email, the group’s president, James Whelan, said that the “benefits of rent regulation are not well targeted” and that some form of means testing should be considered.

Under state law, hikes on rent-stabilized units are decided by an appointed board, rather than landlords.

“Rent stabilization has never been means tested because it’s not an affordable housing program, it’s a program about neighborhood stability,” said Davidson, the housing attorney, adding that the proposal would likely present a “bureaucratic nightmare.”

A spokesperson for Cuomo’s campaign, Rich Azzopardi, said in a text message that “the ultra wealthy and privileged should not be taking advantage of a program meant to aide working New Yorkers,” adding that the income threshold standards would fall under the same system that governs the city’s other programs for low-income housing.

Mamdani’s spokesperson, Dora Pekec, said the proposal proved that Cuomo was both desperate and out of touch.

“While Cuomo cares only for the well-being of his Republican donors, Zohran believes city government’s job is to guarantee a life of dignity, not determine who is worth one,” she added.

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — National Guard troops repeatedly rehearsed their role in an operation at a Los Angeles park intended as a show of force against undocumented people and those protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, a deputy commanding general testified Tuesday.

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Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, who commanded Guard troops in Los Angeles, was testifying at a trial to determine whether the Trump administration violated federal law when it deployed the soldiers and U.S. Marines to Southern California this summer.

Sherman said the deployment of federal agents on horseback and on foot to MacArthur Park in the heart of a neighborhood with a large immigrant population was initially planned for Father’s Day, June 15. But the operation was moved to July 7 after he raised concerns the park could be crowded, he said.

“We assessed that there could be a large amount of people in the park (on Father’s Day), which could quickly overwhelm Border Patrol,” Sherman testified.

FILE – Federal agents stage at MacArthur Park, July 7, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Sherman said the decision to shift the timing of the operation came after discussion among the National Guard, the U.S. Northern Command, the Border Patrol, Department of Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth and Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

The Guard troops were deployed to protect the perimeter and were instructed only to exit their vehicles if there was a direct threat to federal agents, he said.

All troops remained in their vehicles during the brief but mighty show of force. Sherman said the operation took just 20 minutes because it had been rehearsed multiple times. The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t said if anyone was arrested.

Sherman testified during the second day of a three-day trial on whether President Donald Trump’s deployment of armed forces to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids this summer violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. The law generally prohibits a president from using the military to police domestic affairs. All but about 300 Guard troops have since left Los Angeles.

FILE – Federal agents stage at MacArthur Park, July 7, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Sherman testified that he also raised concerns that military vehicles would park along Wilshire Boulevard, which traverses the park, instead of staying in the park’s perimeter.

After he raised his concerns, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector chief in charge of the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, questioned his loyalty, Sherman told the court Monday.

On July 7, federal agents, many of them in tactical gear, walked and rode their horses around the park, which was nearly empty since word had spread of a potential raid.

LA Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom called it a political stunt and spectacle meant to intimidate the city’s immigrant communities.