Regional stories on veterans’ health, education and other benefits and issues today from Big Spring, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Salem, Oregon, Manatee, Florida, Rome, Georgia, Buffalo, New York, Cape May, New Jersey, Martinsburg, West Virginia, San Francisco, California, and Helena, Montana.
The U.S. Navy Veterans Association says it spends millions to send care packages to America’s fighting troops overseas, and as proof, the group has posted to its website thank-you letters from soldiers and sailors like Gina Pronzati. “Everyone in the unit who received a package from you wants to thank you so much,” reads the letter on navyvets.org from Pronzati, who served with a U.S. Navy K-9 unit in Afghanistan.
The State Department and American embassies around the world are bracing for what officials fear could be the massive, unauthorized release of secret diplomatic cables in which U.S. diplomats harshly evaluate foreign leaders and reveal the inner-workings of American foreign policy.
After nearly a decade of working overtly and covertly for the US government across the globe, the infamous mercenary firm Blackwater is apparently for sale. The company made the announcement in a brief statement Monday followed by an even briefer statement from the company’s owner, Erik Prince. “Performance doesn’t matter in Washington, just politics,” Prince said.
On his radio show yesterday, Fox News host Glenn Beck drove home one of his favorite themes, declaring that progressives have “done everything they can to erase history,” and he was “working feverishly to restore it.” But like his false belief that Fox News was the only network to air Israeli Defense Forces video of the Gaza flotilla raid, Beck’s belief that history is being abandoned in America by everyone but himself is an assertion without concern for the facts.
Long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas was right to apologize for a stupid remark she made about Israeli Jews leaving Palestine, but another ugly part of this incident was how her “mainstream” colleagues quickly turned on this 89-year-old icon.
The Gaza blockade has nothing to do with Israel “defending itself.” Apologists for the brutal siege of Gaza base their defense largely on a single, spectacularly dishonest argument: that Israel is only trying to keep arms out of Gaza — arms that Hamas might use against Israeli civilians.
It’s among the most sensitive subjects for troops stressed out from war while trying to get on with their lives, their families and their careers: whether to tell anyone what’s going on inside.
Now, a unique band of brothers has come together to tell those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that it’s more than OK to tell. The group consists of 35 Medal of Honor recipients – men from America’s past wars who have the credibility to tell those fighting its current wars that help is there for the taking and to take it.
If it was supervised, if it was overseen, if it was regulated by the federal government, Cheney with his marvellous bureaucratic talent moved in and essentially replaced the people who were in the positions that were central to this regulation, this oversight, with people who were either lobbyists for the industry being regulated or executives from that industry.
The subtitle of the BP oil spill is the Price of the Pelican. We will never fully know the cost of this spill to wildlife and wetlands, because it will continue its slow-motion rampage long after the lawyers have settled. Rowan Gould, the acting director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said the spill “in all likelihood will affect fish and wildlife resources in the Gulf and across the North American continent for years, if not decades to come.’’
“Where can you find the highest quality health care in the U.S. ? There isn’t one single answer, but believe it or not, many studies and independent experts point to the Veterans Health Administration as among the best.” So begins a June 2, 2010, article on MarketWatch, the Dow Jones online daily financial news report. The article quotes Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director of Rand Health, a division of the Rand Corp., in Santa Monica , Calif. , who co-authored a comparative study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2004 that found the VA outperformed its community health-care counterparts by 20 percentage points in preventive care. It also performed significantly better on chronic disease care and in overall quality.
Older veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) appear more likely to develop dementia over a seven-year period than those without PTSD, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Regional stories on veterans’ health, education and other benefits and issues today from Brunswick, Florida, Sacramento, California, Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Texas, Fishers, Indiana, Syracuse, New York, Roanoke, Virginia, Tucson, Arizona, Castro Valley, California, and Springfield, Missouri.
There are basically two views of the American people. In one, we’re the patriots ready to do whatever it takes for our country. If a crisis requires sacrifices, we won’t flinch when our leaders summon us to make them. We’re the people FDR asked not only to fight and die for freedom, but also to pay higher taxes on profits, “to forgo higher wages” and “spending money for things that we want… which are not absolutely essential.” We rise to the challenge and ask what we can do for our country.
Israel has become a “strategic liability” for the U.S., suggests Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Cordesman adds the attack on the Turkish ship to a series of “major strategic blunders,” by Israel. [Cordesman and CSIS are impeccably “hyper-centrist,” so this is a good sign – JFP.
Yesterday, two Netanyahu propagandists appeared on MSNBC prior to Glenn Greenwald, painting a picture of the flotilla raid that was so grossly distorted it was unrecognizable as the incident that is being rightfully condemned around the world. Host Eliot Spitzer vigorously agreed with them, and then brought them back once again to counter Glenn after his appearance.
Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired United States Army soldier and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wilkerson is an adjunct professor at the College of William & Mary where he teaches courses on US national security. He also instructs a senior seminar in the Honors Department at the George Washington University entitled “National Security Decision Making.”
For animal lovers, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Gulf spill is the oil-drenched wildlife washing up on shore. If you’re too horrified to look at any photos, you’re in luck — BP doesn’t want you to see them. As of Friday morning, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s tally of dead animals collected in the Gulf area was 527 birds, 235 sea turtles (six to nine times the average rate), and 30 mammals, including dolphins
From The VA Secretary Highlights VA’s Homeless, Suicide Prevention Efforts On Thursday, Secretary Shinseki visited the Canandaigua, NY VA Medical Center in an effort to highlight VA’s most recent moves to combat suicide and homelessness among Veterans. In the photo, responder Christopher Maginn explains details of the suicide lifeline. Top Veterans Stories in Today’s News [...]
More than six decades after he took emergency command of the destroyer USS Farragut during the devastating Japanese sneak attack on Dec. 7, 1941, the U.S. Navy gave 88-year-old Darien resident James Benham credit for his heroic leadership in bringing the vessel to safety amidst a hail of bombs and gunfire.
Regional stories on veterans’ health, education and other benefits and issues today from Lancaster, Ohio, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Greencastle, Pennsylvania, Billings, Montana, Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Stamford, Connecticut, Portland, Maine, Enid, Oklahoma, Sheridan, Wyoming, and LeRoy, Illinois.
Who’s BP’s favorite politician ever? If you’re just going by the numbers, it’s none other than President Barack Obama, who leads BP’s lifetime campaign donation list with $77,051. That puts him just ahead of reliable oilmen such as Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, his retired colleague Sen. Ted Stevens, and George W. Bush. According to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, BP and its employees have given more than $3.4 million to federal candidates since 1990, with much of their largesse going to these 20:
* By Edward Colimore Philadelphia Inquirer * Nothing could have prepared him for what he witnessed that day. Arthur Seltzer is still processing it 66 years later and “will be until the end.” He recalls his Higgins landing craft splashing across the waves toward the Normandy beaches on D-Day, then jumping – with comrades – [...]
Regional stories on veterans’ health, education and other benefits and issues today from Homelake, Colorado, Shreveport, Louisiana, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Knoxville,Tennessee, St. Louis, Missouri, Nashville, Tennessee, Houston, Texas, Roseburg, Oregon, New Milford, Connecticut, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), chief architect of the pricey Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefit for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era, could become a new champion, for taxpayers, against what he perceives as excess spending on military pay and on a new wave of Agent Orange claims.
Regional stories on veterans’ health, education and other benefits and issues today from Brattleboro, Vermont, Emmitsburg, Maryland, San Francisco, California, Jacksonville, Florida, Cleveland, Ohio, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Fort Worth, Texas, Sacramento, California, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Buffalo, New York.
The gulf war veterans have been fighting for help with their illnesses due to their service since Operation Desert Storm, and still today with Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Southwest Asia was and still is one of the most toxic places for a service member on deployment. We have been coming home from the gulf sick, and not getting any real help from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Nine out of 10 Veterans have never been tested for HIV. That’s going to change! Every year, the U.S. marks June 27 as National HIV Testing Day. This year, VA is going one better. We’re having VA HIV Testing Week, June 27–July 3. The week will kick off a sustained effort to increase HIV testing throughout VHA, with a goal of diagnosing those Veterans with HIV and providing them with the care they need.
Regional stories on veterans’ health, education and other benefits and issues today from Springfield, Massachusetts, San Antonio, Texas, Swannanoa, North Carolina, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Williamsburg, Virginia, Scottsdale, Arizona, Union Grove, Wisconsin, Columbus, Georgia, Jackson, Mississippi, The Dalles Oregon, and Canandaigua, New York.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today that nearly 8,000 homeless veterans will get permanent housing assistance through a HUD rental assistance program that connects homeless veterans from local Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) with rental assistance vouchers provided by local public housing agencies. HUD’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) will provide local public housing agencies with $58.6 million in funding specifically targeted to assist homeless veterans in their area.
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