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I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. This week we celebrated our veterans. We have two veterans joining us this week on the show, Tom Finn, uh, commander of Stanford American Legion Post 3. And Tom Patterson, uh, senior vice chair of American Legion Post 3 and Stanford, thank you both for being with us. Thank you for having us. So nice to see you again. We've talked to you, uh, many times in the past. Uh, let me ask you each and, and Tom Patterson, I'll start with you. What does Veterans Day mean to you? Veterans Day, what it means to me is honoring those who serve. Our men and women who are once wore the uniform and we must not forget the ones who came before us and Veterans Day also mean a day of service for the country honoring those in uniform and to me it touches my heart when someone comes up to me and says to me thank you for your service. I'm honored to say thank you for your support because if it wasn't for the ones that support us back home we would not. Have we would not be the people we are to be thankful for for our service. Tom Finn, you walked in the, uh, the Stanford uh parade this week. Uh what does Veterans Day mean to you? Veterans Day to me. Is a chance for me to spread the love of all the people that served before us and to carry their legacy forward and to remind everybody that the work is still out there that needs to be done so we never forget we never want to forget as long as time and time are still here we're gonna carry those memories forward and we're gonna we're gonna promote the America Americanism uh why why we need to, uh. To do the things we we do and do you, do you think our veterans, uh, Tom Finn are celebrated enough? No, never. And I'm not saying that to look for accolades, uh, for any of us, you know, we all served proudly. And, um, not a day should go by when we forget the sacrifice. That has been given by these veterans in order for us to maintain the freedoms that we have, um. We're here for you guys and we've always, we always got to be here for our veterans because without that 1%, life is different for all of us and freedom is not free. There there was a time, uh, Tom Patterson in this country when, uh, all this country knew, uh, was war. Uh, if you think about, you know, through the 1900s, World War 12, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan on and on into the, the 2000s, um, what was your tour like? My tour was I joined the army during Desert Storm, the Gulf War. I didn't see combat but I was ready to go at that time and um my tour of duty was um. I was a mechanic. I was kind of a technician, fixed equipment. I was overseas in Hawaii, you know, um, young, young kid, 21 years old, 20 years old, away from home, um, but I did see some traumatic things that happened during my time. There was soldiers who died. And training incidents there was actually a female soldier in my unit, not my unit, but the unit across from me, she was hung by someone and you know. When you go into the military, you come back as a different person perhaps whether in peace, war, whatever, you know I was in during a wartime we were next to go in line, but we were had a change of administration and the mission changed at that time but um. You know, it was, it was a it was a tough time, but coming back home, transitioning. You know, um, Veterans need help veterans need a lot of care and a lot of services and. I've also learned how to work together as a team, the brotherhood and the sisterhood where we can bounce off each other and help each other, so the best one to basically help a veteran is another veteran because we understand each other and Tom, I'm sure for you and many other uh veterans in the very beginning, you know, of course the military says, well, look, you can, you can travel the world on on our dime. Um, you can go get, get your degree. I mean there are some benefits. You are, uh, instrumental in helping some of our veterans in the area just learn about things that they didn't even know about. Tell us about that. Well, to caveat on what we were talking about earlier, um. Peace is always the first objective. A war should always be the last resort, and, uh, we, every soldier believes in that, you know, um, Tom talked about tragedies of uh of, of war. But personally being in the military for 31 years and 9 months, um, when you let your defensive down you become vulnerable and people will come after you. That's the reality of the world we live in. I would love to see de-escalation across the board, but as soon as you let your guard down, bad things happen. So yeah, uh we need to stay strong. We need to be uh be out there in the world on the world stage leading from the front. The USA has always been looked up, looked at as that leader as somebody that's traveled and trained and, um, participated in in wars with other nations. Other countries do look for our leadership and depend on our leadership and our and everything we bring to the world stage. Uh, Tom, we've seen some sad incidents where, where veterans have come back to the states, um, homeless, uh, living in poverty. Do you think enough is being done for our veterans? No, I think more should be done, and I'm so glad you asked that question myself and Tom, we see veterans come almost on a weekly basis with some kind of um need or crisis. We also volunteer at the Stanford Veterans Resource Center in Stanford. Under, um, Director Carmen Hughes, thank you for our Mayor Caroline Simmons for helping us see the mission and the vision that the two Toms came up with helping with along with other veterans. Now we have a center where we could help veterans with the resources and services, not just American Legion where Legion does lead the way in my my opinion when it comes to um. Guys, thank you. I'm sorry we're running out of time but thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Well, next, Governor Lamont officially launches his reelection campaign.

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Governor Lamont will be relaunching his reelection campaign with a new campaign video and stops across the state. The first stop is at Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport. Other stops include Waterbury and New Haven. Joining Lamont in the 2026 race for governor is fellow Democrat and state Representative Josh Elliott, as well as Republican state senator Ryan Fazio. At the state capitol now, a sweeping plan to build more homes gets approval. It limits parking requirements and makes it easier to convert commercial properties to apartments. If you don't do this, then other states are going to continue to eat our lunch as far as growth happens. Many of these significant and consequential proposals had no public hearing, had no negotiation with the minority party in the legislature. Governor Lamont says, quote, this comprehensive proposal takes strong steps toward addressing this crisis and will help Connecticut reach these goals. Lawmakers also voted this week to set aside half a billion dollars to counter cuts from the Trump administration. The longest ever government shutdown ended this week lasting 43 days. The House passed a short-term funding bill and President Trump signed it. What does this mean for you? Well, more services will become available again, starting with the return of furloughed federal employees. They're set to get back pay. Some experts predict an economic rebound. As for those on Obamacare, the reopening could mean their costs more than double. Democrats caved on what was said to be the whole reason for this. As for air travel, it's unclear when flight schedules will return to normal. More air traffic controllers will head back to the job. And those who rely on SNAP benefits will soon see the program get back to normal. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says they hope to get most people their SNAP benefits by the end of the week and at the very latest on Monday. A busy week. That's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

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On this week's Power & Politics, News 12's Mark Sudol is joined by Rep. Jim Himes, who weighs in on the tentative agreement that lawmakers in Washington D.C. reached to end the weeks-long shutdown of the federal government. Himes also weighs in on the large military presence in the Caribbean, President Donald Trump's idea of nuclear testing, and recent arrests by Immigration Customs and Enforcement among other topics.

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