$346 million for contracts set aside for veterans and minorities went to fraud?

McPherson Contractors owner pleads guilty in $346M fraud scheme

Topeka Capital Journal
By Tim Hrenchir
Posted Jun 3, 2019

The owner of Topeka-based McPherson Contractors pleaded guilty Monday to a federal crime linked to a scheme in which prosecutors said construction firms defrauded the government by receiving $346 million for contracts set aside for veterans and minorities.

Matthew C. McPherson, 43, is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and major program fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.

The release indicated McPherson admitted in his plea that he took part between September 2009 and March 2018 in a conspiracy to obtain contracts set aside by the federal government to be awarded specifically to small businesses owned and controlled by military veterans, service-disabled veterans and certified minors.

McPherson, who is none of those, owned a construction company that was not entitled to compete for those contracts, the release said. The type of scheme involved is often called “Rent-A-Vet” or “Rent-A-Minority” fraud.

Authorities said McPherson and his co-conspirators — Matthew Torgeson, former president of Topeka’s Torgeson Electric Co., and Kansas City-area businessman Patrick Michael Dingle — controlled and operated Zieson Construction Co. That firm was formed in 2009 with Stephon Ziegler, an African American disabled veteran, as the nominal owner.
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10 months after test at Leavenworth VA hospital, veteran told it was cancer?

Veteran diagnosed with cancer 10 months after test at Leavenworth VA hospital

The Topeka Capital-Journal
By KATIE MOORE
Published: March 11, 2019

The inspection also found radiologists didn’t receive training on new diagnostic codes or software that generates notifications.

LEAVENWORTH, Va. (Tribune News Service) — An inspection at the Leavenworth VA Medical Center found that a patient with a possible malignancy result was notified by a physician 288 days after the test was completed.

Ten months after the initial CT scan, the patient was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer with the possibility of metastatic disease. The patient died in the summer of 2017, according to the Office of the Inspector General's report.

The inspection was initiated after an individual made an allegation in November 2017 about delays in a lung cancer diagnosis and the reporting of an abnormal radiology test. The complainant also said a provider falsely documented the patient initially wasn't willing to have the test conducted. The OIG substantiated the claims, finding that the patient never refused the test or intervention.

Three subsequent allegations were unsubstantiated.
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Topeka VA Employee found dead in office

Employee found dead inside Topeka VA Medical Center office
Topeka Capital Journal
Katie Moore
August 14, 2018

A Veterans Affairs employee died Tuesday morning inside an administrative office at Topeka’s Colmery O’Neil VA Medical Center.

Joe Burks, spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, said the employee died of an apparent suicide.

“Today we suffered a great loss and our hearts are broken,” Burks said in a statement.

Officials are still working to understand the circumstances.
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When Veterans Are In Crisis, Fight for Their Lives!

We need to stop taking "no" for an answer, especially when we're asking for help to save someone's life. When a veteran reaches the point where they are in crisis and ask for help, do not walk away from the VA! Tell them to either find a bed there or send you some place else.

I actually heard someone say that veterans do not call 911 or show up at an emergency room for civilian care because they do not want to get stuck with the bill. DEAL WITH IT! 

We did! In the 90's they didn't have a bed for my husband but I told them we were not leaving until they found a place for him. They saved his life and we got stuck with the bill because our private insurance wouldn't pay for something the VA doctor said was tied to Vietnam. When we couldn't afford to pay, they took our tax refund for years. Six years later, when his claim was finally approved, we got most of the money back.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't easy. But giving up on him getting the help he needed was not an option. Why it is still happening is beyond excuses from Congress but it is what it is for now until they are forced to fix the problems with the VA. Still don't blame the VA for everything because when you'll deal with the same thing in civilian hospitals. You just have better chances with them since there are a lot more beds in their hospitals.

Wife of veteran says Topeka VA didn’t do enough to help suicidal husband

Travis Patterson died on Jan. 27 at age 26

On Jan. 25, Travis tried to kill himself. The couple went to the Topeka VA’s mental health building. Staff said it was closed and to go the VA emergency room. Rachel said the emergency room doctor took Travis’ vital signs and told them there wasn’t much they could do that night. They were given the option to be admitted and seen in the morning or to go home and come back the next day. They opted to go home.

When Travis Patterson sought care at the Topeka VA after attempting suicide, his wife, Rachel Patterson, said they were told no one could provide immediate help. Two days later, Travis Patterson killed himself at the age of 26.

“He was driven to this because he didn’t get the help he should’ve gotten,” Rachel Patterson said.

Travis Patterson, also known as “Patt,” had been in intense pain since December, his wife said. Much of his physical pain stemmed from his time in the service. Travis was deployed three times — to Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria. In Afghanistan, his truck was blown up. In June 2016, he was discharged from the military.

He suffered from bulging disks, nerve pain and migraines, Rachel said. The pain, at times, prevented him from going to work or school, and he walked with a cane. In December, it worsened. Rachel said doctors wouldn’t prescribe a different medication.

“As a veteran, being treated like that, basically treated like you’re a criminal, it hurts your pride. It doesn’t make you feel like you’re a person and that definitely contributed,” Rachel said.

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Topeka VA Delivers Care While Searching for Psychiatrist

Care continues at the Topeka VA during difficult search for a psychiatrist
Topeka Capital Journal
Justin Wingerter
February 19, 2017

Bob Portenier, a Vietnam combat veteran and former PCT patient who raised alarms when the PTSD psychiatrist transferred in December, said he was referred to a mental health clinic and has been impressed with the care he received.

Dr. Michael Leeson, chief of behavioral services at the Colmery-O’Neil

VA Medical Center, speaks during an interview at the hospital Wednesday.

(Thad Allton/The Capital-Journal)

Eight weeks after the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would transfer its lone post-traumatic stress disorder psychiatrist at Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center to another department — worrying veterans who had come to rely on the doctor — PTSD patients and hospital administrators say treatment has largely continued unabated.

On the third floor of Building 2, three psychologists, a nurse and an administrative clerk care for minds wounded by war. Together, they make up the PTSD Clinical Team, or PCT in hospital parlance.

Before mid-December, they were joined by a psychiatrist. When the psychiatrist left to work in the hospital’s understaffed inpatient ward for severe mental health crises, veterans feared a loss of the doctor they had come to trust — the one who knew them, knew their stories and knew their conditions.

Patients with few symptoms were transferred to the primary care wing. Patients who did not require medications were transferred to the three PCT psychologists. Others chose to seek treatment outside the hospital through the VA’s choice program.
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All I Want For Christmas Is Veterans Getting What They Paid For

Veterans Paid The Price For Care Not Abandonment
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 23, 2016

Civilians enjoy freedoms provided by what Veterans paid for. Yet some want to treat veterans like civilians and dump them into the same healthcare system civilians and politicians complain about?

Did you know only about 20% of our veterans go to the VA for all their healthcare needs? Why? For starters they either have to have a service connected disability rating or they cannot afford private healthcare.

Eligibility Service in the Uniformed Services on active duty, OR Active duty for training, OR Inactive duty training, AND You were discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, AND You are at least 10% disabled by an injury or disease that was incurred in or aggravated during active duty or active duty for training, or inactive duty training Note: If you were on inactive duty for training, the disability must have resulted from injury, heart attack, or stroke.

In other words, honorable service caused the disability or injury. So no, not all veterans get VA care. The only other option is if a veteran proves they cannot afford healthcare. That part is always subject to what Congress decides to do.

That is the most disgusting thing in all of this. We cannot even take care of the smallest group of veterans in this entire country and Congress has gotten a free pass to neglect their duty since 1946! Congress is responsible for all of this and they have been since the First House Veterans Affairs Committee took their seats and have been sitting down on the job ever since, blaming Presidents and VA heads for what they failed to do. 

It happened during Republican and Democrat administrations. It is a less than honorable way to treat them. Politicians just hoped we wouldn't notice. People pushing to privatize veterans care hoped we wouldn't notice and would just settle for them washing their hands after they sold out our veterans. Pushing to send veterans into private healthcare providers is not only disgraceful, it is downright FUBAR.

I was reading about what is going on in Topeka with the loss of the loss of their psychiatrist. In the article I read this and it summed up why I do not play well with others.

Melissa Jarboe, founder of the Military Veteran Project, is a strong supporter of the choice program. She believes PTSD sufferers will be able to find quality psychiatric care outside the VA in Topeka.

There is a reason veterans do not want to go into private mental healthcare. Combat trauma is a lot different from any other type of PTSD and any "expert" being interviewed should know that. Private psychiatric providers to not understand combat but VA doctors do since they have the proper training, in other words, they are specialists.

Veterans are rightfully upset over this.

The change sent shockwaves of anxiety through area veterans communities, as PTSD sufferers feared the worst. One veteran of the Vietnam War said he and others reacted with stress and anger at the news.

In the 90's we were told that the VA was the best place for my husband after he had tried private mental healthcare. They were right back then and they are still right. 

Topeka VA will temporarily drop outpatient PTSD care
Topeka Capital Journal
Justin Wingerter
December 21, 2016

Life is better now, he says. But for how long? His Topeka VA psychiatrists have provided stability, a lifeline, since the 1990s. Wednesday morning, he was told to begin looking elsewhere, beyond the VA’s walls, for treatment.

Anxious and afraid, Bob Portenier doesn’t know what to do next. His post-traumatic stress disorder will flare up on Jan. 30, the anniversary of the Tet Offensive, as it always does.

But this time his psychiatrist — the one who has helped him and other veterans through many bad days and nights — won’t be around.

“It’s a bad situation,” Portenier said. “We’re getting kicked to the curb.”

After Monday, the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center’s post-traumatic stress disorder team will temporarily be without a mental health care provider, said Joseph Burks, spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, because the provider at the PTSD clinic has taken another position.

“In the meantime, our nursing staff in the clinic are working hard to determine if some of our veteran patients can be seen in primary care,” Burks said.

Those who cannot be treated in the primary care section of the hospital will be referred to the VA’s choice program.

Under the program, veterans can receive care from private providers rather than wait for VA care.

Portenier is a combat veteran, a Marine who served in Vietnam between 1967 and 1969. After that came the PTSD. Then came the alcohol, the drugs, the crime and the homelessness.
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Anyone pushing for veterans to get private care has given up on even trying to make sure they receive proper care. The same care they paid for by putting their lives in danger. They should not be treated like civilians by civilians! 

Iditarod Adventure Helps Topeka Veteran Heal PTSD

Topeka veteran competes in Iditarod, uses adventure to deal with PTSD
KCTV News
By Laura McCallister,
Multimedia Producer
By Carolyn Long, Anchor
Mar 06, 2015

TOPEKA, KS (KCTV)
The Iditarod begins Saturday and this year a Topeka man will compete in the "last great race on Earth."

Steve Watkins, 38 enjoys adventure and a good adrenaline rush.

"There's nothing like a strong, compelling physical challenge," he said.

It's what led him to the Armed Forces in 1999.

“I never thought I'd serve in a war, much less two wars,” he said.

But a traumatic brain injury sidelined him, that and post-traumatic stress disorder that he describes as recurring guilt.

"I feel guilty because so many of my friend and classmates from West Point died and I feel guilty that they did and that I didn't and I understand that doesn't satisfy logic, but it's how I feel," Watkins said.

When conventional therapies didn't help, Watkins turned to adventure and starting training for the Iditarod.

"It helps on many levels, and even more deep-seeded spiritual level. It's very cleansing and grounding," he said.

"So many veterans feel like the most significant part of their life is over and that leads to depression and suicide, and my message is that just because our great wars are over doesn't mean our lives can't be full of significance and meaning.”
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Anti-Westboro Baptist petition the most popular ever

I believe even this group has the right to say what they want but they do not have the right to hold grieving families hostage and force them to hear their hateful words or read the scumbags' signs. But having the right to hate should not come with a tax exempt.

Anti-Westboro Baptist petition the most popular ever
The White House will have to discuss the hate church after a record number sign a We The People petition
Salon.com
BY ALEX HALPERIN
DEC 27, 2012

A petition to label Westboro Baptist Church a hate group has accumulated more than 260,000 signatures, making it the most popular petition to the Obama Administration’s We the People program, Politico reported. Several other petitions urging that the church be stripped of its tax-exempt status have also accumulated tens of thousands of signatures.

Topeka, Kan.,-based Westboro Baptist Church, better known as those ”God Hates Fags” creeps, is already considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Most recently it made news for threatening to picket the funerals of the Newtown massacre victims. The hacker group Anonymous responded with attacks on the church’s online presence.
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The problem is this is not new. Nothing has been done about them after all this time and I doubt anything will be done now.

Petition to revoke Westboro hate group tax exempt


Kan. appeals court: Westboro Baptist must pay taxes on truck

The church, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps, submitted numerous Bible verses and the text of picket signs in court filings to back up their claim that the protests were religious in nature.

IRS probes Kan. church’s political activity

4 Kansas National Guardsmen save 2 Liberians

4 Kansas National Guardsmen save 2 Liberians
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 10, 2011 9:32:24 EDT
TOPEKA, Kan. — Four Kansas Army National Guard soldiers are credited with saving two Liberian soldiers who got caught in a riptide while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.

The soldiers are members of the 1st Battalion, 161st Field Artillery. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports they rescued the two Liberians on April 16 while swimming at a beach in Monrovia.

The guardsmen are Sgt. Michael Eicher, of Topeka; Sgt. Joseph Johns, of Great Bend; Sgt. Chad Kuker, of Spearville; and Sgt. Rich Miles, of Topeka.

Kuker told the Capital-Journal that the soldiers and two other Liberian soldiers formed a human chain and waded into the surf to rescue the two swimmers.

The soldiers were recognized in a ceremony led by U.S. Army General Carter F. Ham, who was visiting Monrovia at the time.
4 Kansas National Guardsmen save 2 Liberians

Standoff at VA clinic ends with bullets for cigarette trade

Gunman surrenders after Kan. VA clinic standoff

The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jul 12, 2009 15:33:53 EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. — Authorities say a gunman who entered a veteran’s administration medical center in Topeka, Kan., has surrendered after trading his ammunition for cigarettes.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported on its Web site that a SWAT team and multiple law enforcement agencies responded to a report of a gunman at Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center early Sunday afternoon.
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Gunman surrenders after Kan. VA clinic standoff

Fire breaks out at Westboro Baptist "church" garage

They call it a "church" but when you watch the video, it's a garage! Do they have a free speech right? Sure but they also have to be ready to hear what others say about them using their own free speech rights as well. They have a right to show what they are when they protest military funerals and the families have a right to have the Patriot Guard show up to keep them away from the family.

As the camera covered the firefighters putting out the fire, you can see people standing there holding up their signs of hatred. It really is a shame that their "religion" also seems to have decided they can harass a 91 year old neighbor.

Fire breaks out at 'God Hates Fags' church

by Nick Langewis

Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, known for its vocal condemnations of homosexuality, website GodHatesFags.com and picketing of gay pride parades and funerals, has sustained thousands of dollars in damage after a fire early Saturday morning. Impromptu protest followed as firefighters carried out their response.

"None of what they do is going to stop us from delivering our message," said church counsel Shirley Phelps-Roper of any "cowards" that would have set the fire on purpose, also saying that it was the "most aggressive act" towards the Phelps family to date.

"There is evidence that hatred of our religion was the motivation, in part at least," states a "Civil Rights Hate Crime Complaint" written by pastor Fred Phelps Sr. to Attorney General Michael Mukasey. In a recently released YouTube presentation, Phelps also blames law enforcement, judges, and the "filthy, fag-riddled military" for what he considers an assault on his First Amendment rights.

Meanwhile, a neighbor is suspicious that the fire is a hoax meant to intimidate her into giving up her property. "They keep claiming that this property is theirs, and it is not theirs," said 91-year-old Leona McQueen. "They keep wanting to buy me, but I don't want to sell it. I don't know if whether they are trying to push me out."

"It's a ridiculous accusation," Phelps-Roper countered. "The fire was started by someone as we slept. Thankfully the lord our god (sic) keeps us in all our ways."

The cause of the fire has not been determined. No picketing signs were harmed. Video footage taken during the emergency response appears below, courtesy of The Topeka Capital-Journal.
go here for the video
http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/westboro080408.html

Complaint filed over religious event near post

Complaint filed over religious event near post

By John Milburn - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 23, 2008 21:10:48 EDT

TOPEKA, Kan. — A national group alleged Wednesday that Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., is forcing soldiers to participate in a weekly religious event, a program that has been mentioned in a federal lawsuit in Kansas.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent a letter to the Department of Defense’s inspector general, asking for an investigation into the Sunday evening event, whose name was recently changed from “Free Day Away” to “Tabernacle Baptist Church Retreat Program.” The Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lebanon, Mo., has hosted the event for soldiers from the Missouri post since 1971.

A Fort Leonard Wood spokesman said the program is voluntary, and the church’s pastor said it has taken steps to ensure that soldiers know they will hear a religious message if they attend.

But Americans United’s executive director, the Rev. Barry Lynn, said soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood must either attend the program or stay on post.

“That’s not the kind of choice that ought be to be given to soldiers,” said Lynn, who described the practice as “coercive evangelism.”
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/ap_freeday_072308/

PTSD when the shell breaks and healing begins

Anthony S. Bush / The Capital-Journal
Timothy Sanders, left, talks with Scott Ferguson, assistant service officer for Kansas Veterans of Foreign Wars, during Saturday's information fair at the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center.


Vet tells story of recovery
VA information fair in Topeka shines light on available services
By Julie K. Buzbee
Special To The Capital-Journal
Published Sunday, November 04, 2007
Timothy Sanders grew up in the aftermath of the Vietnam era, playing GI Joe in his Chicago neighborhood.

But nine years in the Army, including tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, shattered his childhood illusions and much of his adult life to date. Sanders, 32, said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and endures nightmares, flashbacks and anxiety attacks.

He was one of about 25 veterans who attended a welcome home information fair Saturday for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom troops, veterans and their families at the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center in Topeka.

When Sanders got out of the military in 2005, he didn't seek help with problems adjusting to civilian life in Missouri, where he was living. He tried to cope on his own.

"I really wasn't too well informed when I left the military about what to do," he said.

Richard Selig understands the dilemma that Sanders and other veterans go through upon their return from war. Selig is the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom program manager for the Eastern Kansas Health Care System, which sponsored the information fair.

"You're hyper-aroused, you're hyper-vigilant," Selig says of troops. "Even if you wanted to pay attention, you really couldn't. When they come back from a combat zone, a lot of them are going to want to isolate."

Sanders, who was part of the ground force invasion in Iraq, said he isolated until his PTSD became so unmanageable that he ended up as a patient in Colmery-O'Neil's stress disorder treatment program.

"One thing about PTSD is you isolate," Sanders said. "In this program, I broke out of my shell."
go here for the rest
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/110407/loc_214817980.shtml