A former Montana political candidate long accused by a major anti-hate group of pushing white nationalist views was commissioned into the Montana National Guard as a new infantry officer in 2020 and is still in the service.

Taylor Rose currently serves as a second lieutenant in C Company, 1st Battalion, 163rd Cavalry Regiment, based out of Great Falls, Montana. He lost his 2016 bid running as a Republican for the state's third state House district.

Before his National Guard commission, Rose, a 2011 graduate of Liberty University, frequently argued for the defense of "Western culture," leading the Southern Poverty Law Center to label him a white nationalist in 2016. He was a key member of the now-defunct Youth for Western Civilization, or YWC, a far-right college campus group that advocated for the preservation of American and European heritage and warned against cultural mixing.

The National Guard in recent years has struggled with apparent extremism in its ranks as the military reckons with understanding the scope of the issue of service members becoming radicalized.

In 2019, a local paper reported that Montana State University Army ROTC cadet Jay Harrison was under investigation for potential ties to Identity Evropa, a now-defunct organization designated by the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center as a white supremacist hate group.

Rose became active with YWC at Liberty University. While running for office, he defended his association to a local paper, saying, "YWC was a cultural group, not a racist group."

In a brief phone call Tuesday with Military.com, Rose disputed that he is a white nationalist and said he has since moved on from politics, but declined to discuss in detail what beliefs he previously had or those he holds today and suggested he would seek legal action after this story's publication. He terminated the interview when asked about his involvement with Youth for Western Civilization.

On the YWC's website, which has since been taken down, an article attributed to Rose describes that the organization wanted to "declare to the world that we will not falter nor fail in our attempt for the defense of the Western homeland."

The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to offer abortion services to veterans and dependents covered by VA health care in cases of rape, incest and danger to the life or health of the mother, officials announced Friday.

In a proposed rule sent to the Federal Register late Thursday, the VA said it will lift its ban on abortion counseling and established exceptions to its abortion restrictions at VA medical facilities and through its Civilian Health and Medical Program, known as CHAMPVA.

The change marks the first time VA physicians will be allowed to perform abortions on federal property, and they will be able to do so in states where the procedure is illegal.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough has maintained that the VA has always had the legal authority to provide abortions and counseling, saying the department is not "statutorily prohibited," and has not provided them only because they were not included in the department's medical benefits package.

The proposed rule adds the services to the benefits package to ensure that veterans will be able to obtain abortions under the stated circumstances, according to VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal.

"After Dobbs [the Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal protection of abortion rights], certain States have begun to enforce existing abortion bans and restrictions on care, and are proposing and enacting new ones, creating urgent risks to the lives and health of pregnant veterans and CHAMPVA beneficiaries in these States," Elnahal wrote in the proposed rule. "VA is taking this action because it has determined that providing access to abortion-related medical services is needed to protect the lives and health of veterans."

Abortions are banned in 11 states and sharply restricted in at least another 15.

In a statement released Friday, McDonough said that veterans should have access to health services when they need them.

"This is a patient safety decision," McDonough said. "Pregnant Veterans and VA beneficiaries deserve to have access to world-class reproductive care when they need it most."

Elnahal said the decision follows accepted standards of medical practice.

The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans dropped in August to 1.9%, the lowest in more than three years in another sign that the jobs market remains strong despite inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

The monthly BLS report on employment showed that the jobless rate for veterans who fought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the group that has seen the most volatility since COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, took a major drop from 3.4% in July to 1.9% in August, the lowest since the 1.7% recorded in April 2019.

For all veterans, the unemployment rate in August was 2.4%, down from 2.7% in July, as veterans continued to outperform civilians in the jobs market, the BLS figures showed. Overall, the national unemployment rate bumped up from an adjusted 3.5% in July to 3.7% in August -- the first monthly increase since January.

In a statement accompanying the report, BLS Commissioner William Beach said that 315,000 non-farm payroll jobs were added in August, compared to the 526,000 in July that defied the predictions of most analysts, in a possible sign that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's actions to cool the economy by raising interest rates are taking effect.

Beach said the latest statistics showed that "the labor market continued to recover from the job losses of the pandemic-induced recession. This growth brings total non-farm employment 240,000 above its February 2020 level before the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic."

In a statement, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said the bump in the national unemployment rate to 3.7% came "as more people entered the labor market looking for work."

But "as we head into Labor Day weekend, America's workers and their families have reasons to celebrate. All the jobs lost in the pandemic and more have been recovered," Walsh said.

At the White House, President Joe Biden touted "more good news" in the BLS report showing 315,000 jobs added in non-farm sectors such as manufacturing. "The great American jobs machine continues its comeback," Biden said.

"The bottom line is jobs are up, wages are up, people are back to work. And we're seeing some signs that inflation may be -- may be, I'm not overpromising -- may be beginning to ease," he added.