President Donald Trump has sidelined the inspector general who was tapped to chair a special oversight board of the $2.2 trillion economic package intended to help businesses and individuals affected by the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.

If approved, the measures under discussion would seek to ensure the military doesn't undergo a dangerous contraction, and they follow other steps to maximize the Pentagon's virus response capability.

Thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in long lines outside overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday, ignoring federal health recommendations so they could participate in a presidential primary election that tested the limits of electoral politics in the midst of a pandemic.

The White House should enlist more help from the Pentagon as it battles the spreading coronavirus pandemic that has left Americans largely homebound, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.

An additional 5,000 National Guard members have been activated since Monday in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as governors rely on federal funding for troops to help with everything from testing to building hospital-bed facilities.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is leaving her post nine months into the job after never holding a single press briefing. Grisham will be assuming a new role as chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump.

The coronavirus pandemic could delay federal funding bills, including the annual Pentagon spending and policy law, if the outbreak continues to paralyze American life into the summer months, a top House lawmaker on defense issues said Tuesday.

“[Modly] resigned on his own accord, putting the Navy and the sailors above self so that the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the Navy as an institution, can move forward,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Maryland is forming special strike teams with members of the National Guard to help fight the coronavirus in nursing homes, an effort Gov. Larry Hogan described Tuesday as the first of its kind in the nation.

“Capt. Crozier is smart and passionate,” acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said. “I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship.”

Several Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday that they want acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly fired for calling Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt stupid after he relieved the officer of command over a leaked letter about the coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship.

President Donald Trump said he had a "really wonderful, warm conversation" with Joe Biden on Monday about the coronavirus outbreak.

The shutdown will affect the majority of 7,000 Boeing employees at four facilities. They'll get 10 days paid leave, which a company spokesman described as "double the company policy," and then will be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Guidance regarding the coronavirus changes frequently as more data comes to light.

The new lasers, with models under consideration from the Air Force lab and defense contractor Raytheon, would take aim at drones that have already proven worrisome in the Persian Gulf.

You can't find it at your local market, which can't get nearly enough from its distributors, which are getting their normal supply from the manufacturers, which isn't remotely sufficient.

As the deadly virus H7N9 was spreading in China in late 2016 and early 2017 and was threatening to burst into a major outbreak, the pandemic preparedness team at the White House’s National Security Council was tracking it daily, even as President Donald Trump took office. Less than three years later, the novel coronavirus broke out. But by then, the team had been dismantled by the Trump administration.

The National Rifle Association failed to convince a federal judge that the temporary closures of California gun shops prompted by the spread of the coronavirus was unconstitutional.

Dr. David Zelinskas is one of 190 reservists from Hampton Roads and among 500 medical professionals nationwide who are headed to New York to help alleviate its outsized impact from the pandemic.

Days after the federal government advised all residents to shield their faces outside the house to curb the spread of covid-19, people from coast to coast covered themselves up like Old West bandits or would-be surgeons. But many still exhaled blithely, continuing to let their noses greet the sun.

Port restrictions and canceled flights are straining the ability to replace seafarers on board ships, further weakening global supply chains already snarled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The death, which occurred Sunday, April 5, was noted in the Navy's daily COVID-19 fact sheet, which includes an updated tally of positive coronavirus cases across the Navy and its bases, as well as new key developments.

With more than 35,000 civilian and military workers, the Army Corps of Engineers oversees deactivated nuclear power plants, sets water storage rules for reservoirs, watches over levees and locks on U.S. rivers, and manages the physical cleanup of toxic superfund sites.

Congressional leaders are jolting ahead with another coronavirus rescue package as President Donald Trump indicated that Americans will need more aid during the stark pandemic and economic shutdown.

U.S. gasoline demand has collapsed as stay-at-home orders keep drivers off the road, following the pattern seen in the hardest-hit parts of Europe. Sales at retail stations were down 46.6% from a year earlier in the week ending March 28.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday that he has recovered from the coronavirus and has started volunteering at a hospital in his Kentucky hometown.

Thousands of Wisconsin voters waited hours in long lines outside overcrowded polling stations on Tuesday, ignoring federal health recommendations so they could participate in a presidential primary election that tested the limits of electoral politics in the midst of a pandemic.

Even as the nation's strategic stockpile runs low on critical hospital supplies, federal agencies are discovering stashes of N95 respirator masks and protective body suits in darkened government labs, federal health clinics and storage spaces across the country, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

As the country hunkered down to fend off the coronavirus, Carolina McAuley expected her middle school-age kids would continue to shuffle between her house and her ex-husband's — until she got sick.

Advocates urged the Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday to immediately disburse millions of dollars included for homeless veterans in the sweeping $2 trillion stimulus bill Congress approved March 27.

The Army on Monday stopped sending recruits to initial entrance training amid the coronavirus pandemic that has restricted movement for troops worldwide and placed millions of Americans under stay-at-home orders, service officials announced.

U.S. troops worldwide must wear masks, and sew their own if necessary, if they cannot maintain social distancing standards to protect against the coronavirus, the Pentagon announced Sunday.

The speed with which 115 million Americans receive their part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package will depend largely on people's method of filing taxes.

More than 30 lawmakers have requested that Defense Secretary Mark Esper provide more direction and support to help service members and military families financially impacted by the Pentagon’s 60-day stop movement orders.

"I want some awareness of what’s going on,” said nurse Denise Bruno, who has worked at the VA for 12 years. “The government needs to ensure we have the supplies to protect ourselves."

“It’s unfair to the families of the people on the ship because they get nervous. And it shows weakness and there’s nothing weak about us now,” Donald Trump said of the incident involving Capt. Brett Crozier. “And we’re not going to be showing weakness to anybody because that ship is incredible.”

The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt was relieved of command two days after his letter that warned sailors could die from the coronavirus outbreak aboard the aircraft carrier was leaked to the media.

As of Monday morning, the Pentagon reported 633 service members were among 1,087 total cases within the Defense Department community.

3M said blocking exports of masks will raise “significant humanitarian implications” abroad and will lead other countries to retaliate by withholding much-needed medical supplies from the U.S.

OPINION

“The military trained us to thrive in the chaos of change,” said Amanda Trimillos, a U.S. Air Force spouse. “It’s going to be okay. Everything will fall into place. We just don’t know when, where or how.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs is ending a decades-old practice of allowing veterans service representatives to review benefits decisions for accuracy before those decisions are finalized and sent to veterans.

Thousands of personnel from the Navy, Marines, Air Force, Army, and Coast Guard are now under the leadership of Adm. Craig Faller, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, for the operation.

More than 1,500 U.S. service members had tested positive for the coronavirus, marking a substantial jump over the weekend in confirmed cases among active-duty troops, the Pentagon said Monday.

Nearly 2,000 veterans and more than 500 Department of Veterans Affairs employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data released by the department Thursday.

Under the Navy guidance issued Monday, uniformed sailors may don “any face covering that is conservative in appearance, not offensive” and conforms to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Despite some problems, the Internet overall is handling unprecedented surges of demand as it helps keep a fractured world connected at a time of global catastrophe.

The premier of a Canadian province that sheltered thousands of stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks questioned the humanity of President Donald Trump on Sunday after Trump banned the export of N95 protective masks to Canada.

About 1,500 additional medical personnel began deploying Monday to New York City in response to the coronavirus pandemic that has pummeled the region, the Defense Department announced, as the federal government’s coronavirus task force warned some of the worst days of the pandemic are expected this week.

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday sharply criticized the firing of Capt. Brett Crozier, who was removed from his post as commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after speaking up in a leaked letter to his superiors about the handling of a coronavirus outbreak aboard the vessel.

President Donald Trump intends to nominate White House lawyer Brian D. Miller to serve as the inspector general overseeing the Treasury Department's implementation of the newly enacted $2 trillion coronavirus law, the White House said Friday night.

When William "Bill" Lapschies celebrated his 104th birthday with his family over chocolate cake and his favorite pizza on Wednesday, he was also celebrating a full recovery from the novel coronavirus as one of the oldest-known survivors of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Sailors will get to grow out their locks while Marines will keep their high-and-tight haircuts as military services take different approaches to grooming as they adhere to social distancing to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump promised the Department of Veterans Affairs would extend veterans’ deadlines for disability benefits and postpone any debt collections as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.

Here's a running list of military exercises and events that have been canceled or curtailed in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Despite only completing half the race, the Green Berets earned an “honorary finish” award, since they spent much of their time assisting other racers.

It's the latest sign of how the pandemic has upended higher education, wiping out rituals, structures and rules that have been in place for generations. And it's sparking debates on many campuses, with faculty votes, student petitions and campus-newspaper op-eds arguing for and against new ways to evaluate students.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that he supported acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly’s decision to fire the Navy captain who wrote a letter to his superiors about his concerns of the coronavirus pandemic aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has issued orders barring nearly all official movement for Defense Department personnel overseas and instituted new health protection measures worldwide as the Pentagon attempts to slow the spreading coronavirus, which has sickened at least 600 people in the military community.

“I am heartbroken to confirm that since Thursday we have mourned the loss of two of our First-Class cadets here on our campus, and our entire Academy community is understandably shaken,” said superintendent Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria.

When Elias Grey first fired up his 3-D printer, he didn’t foresee the immediate impact he would have in the Odessa-Midland area to help combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The trip came amid a Pentagon-mandated halt to all but essential military travel in an effort to curb the growing coronavirus pandemic, which has sickened more than 700 U.S. service members worldwide.

There are now nearly 15,000 National Guard members working in every U.S. state and territory as the number of Americans infected with the coronavirus climbed to more than 153,000.

The Department of Veterans Affairs also suggested its facilities could see critical shortages of personal protective equipment for medical staff, hospital beds, ventilators and morgue space.

The delivery of ventilators and personal protection equipment was the result of a phone call Monday between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a State Department spokeswoman said.

As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.

Charges claim that Dr. Jonathan Yates deprived a 42-year-old Army veteran at the VA Medical Center in Beckley of his constitutional right to bodily integrity during a February 2019 examination. The patient became incapacitated when Yates cracked his neck in a locked examination room, an FBI agent said.

Over the weekend, the department reported deaths in the Bronx, N.Y.; Shreveport, La.; Fargo, N.D.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; San Francisco; Minneapolis; Detroit; Washington, D.C.; and Nashville. The VA reported two new deaths in Indianapolis, two in Brooklyn and five in New Orleans.

Four U.S. military-affiliated individuals worldwide, including a member of the National Guard, have died of complications related to the coronavirus, according to the Pentagon’s latest data released Tuesday.

Roughly 17,250 National Guard troops are deployed across the country and granting them federal status gives them the same benefits as active-duty service members during their deployments to help subdue the virus outbreak that has killed more than 4,450 Americans.

The ousted inspector general of the intelligence community says he is "disappointed and saddened" that President Donald Trump fired him, but he also encouraged other inspectors general to continue to speak out when they are aware of wrongdoing.

Army Capt. Douglas Linn Hickok was preparing to activate as a physician assistant with the New Jersey National Guard in response to the coronavirus pandemic when the 57-year-old became sick with the virus. He entered a Pennsylvania hospital on March 21 and died Saturday.

The mother keeps throwing New York City dinner parties, and the father worries their kids might contract COVID-19. What's a divorced couple to do in the age of social distancing?

Tank crews, military police or bridge builders in the Marines who saw their jobs eliminated in the new 10-year plan to restructure the force will not be kicked out of the service right away, the commandant said Wednesday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs would get $19.6 billion to help respond to the coronavirus pandemic under a sweeping $2 trillion measure the Senate passed Wednesday night.

Army Capt. Douglas Linn Hickok, a member of the New Jersey National Guard, is the first service member to die from the virus.

An Iraqi immigrant who ran a Phoenix driving school and was arrested two months ago on charges of participating in the killings of two police officers in Iraq nearly 15 years ago should remain jailed until his extradition case is over, federal prosecutors said.

As people struggle with loss of income, school closures and child-care issues, and with the anxiety of how long the pandemic could last, nonprofits that cater to veterans and service members are reaching out to see how they can help ease these stresses.

Military health insurance is just out of reach for the National Guard troops activated on federal status to help combat the coronavirus pandemic because their deployment orders do not extend long enough for them to receive medical coverage, according to five senators and the National Guard Association.

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday.

Having already written off $3.7 billion on the Air Force tanker program over the past six years, Boeing said Thursday that it must now pay for a complete redesign of the remote vision system used to operate the plane’s refueling boom.

Analysis

President Donald Trump is confronting the most dangerous crisis a U.S. leader has faced this century as the coronavirus spreads and a once-vibrant economy falters. As the turmoil deepens, the choices he makes in the critical weeks ahead will shape his reelection prospects, his legacy and the character of the nation.

Countless doctors and nurses around the world are choosing to move to hotels, tents, garages and other temporary housing to protect their loved ones as they risk exposing themselves to a virus that has claimed tens of thousands of lives

Three out of four U.S. hospitals surveyed already are treating patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, according to a federal report that finds hospitals expect to be overwhelmed as cases rocket toward their projected peak.

The risk coronavirus poses to people with underlying medical conditions has added a new level of stress for caregivers helping their veteran loved ones.

The beach is one of the most dangerous places to be these days, as the novel coronavirus marches silently on. "I wouldn't go in the water if you paid me $1 million right now," said atmospheric chemist Kim Prather.

As the coronavirus pandemic worsens and the country turns increasingly to the military for help, America’s armed services are struggling to get new recruits as families and communities hunker down.

All 332,000 soldiers in the Army National Guard for the first time are using one personnel system — a modern digital pay and human resources platform that last week replaced 54 separate paper-based programs, service officials said Thursday.

The U.S. surgeon general offered some of the starkest warnings yet Sunday as he braced Americans for the worsening fallout from the new coronavirus, warning “this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly.”

California’s governor announced Monday the state would loan 500 ventilators to the national stockpile for use by New York and other states experiencing a crush of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.

The president also offered some of his most extensive comments to date to the families of those killed by the virus, urging the nation to pray for them and "ask God to comfort them in their hour of grief."

Following advice from the U.S. Department of Defense amid a nationwide shortage of protective face masks for personnel on the front lines of the coronavirus fight, the Maryland National Guard is advising its members to begin making their own cloth masks.

The number of requests made by cities to the Army Corps of Engineers for field hospitals skyrocketed this week to 750 from 114, as states brace for an expected wave of coronavirus cases in the next three weeks, the chief engineer of the Army Corps of Engineers said Friday.

State and federal officials are finalizing details of the role Nevada's National Guard will play in the statewide response to the coronavirus, but they're emphasizing the mission won't include enforcing martial law.