4 Year old son of police officer dies after shooting himself

Calif. 4-year-old dies after home shooting

Friday, November 7, 2008


11:36 PST Shasta Lake, CA (AP) --

Authorities say the 4-year-old boy of a Redding police officer has died after an apparent accidental shooting.

Dave Compomizzo, a captain at the Shasta County sheriff's office, told The Associated Press that investigators believe the child got a hold of a handgun in his parent's bedroom.
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Search suspended for children washed away in car

Search for car swept away with two boys inside in Green River will not resume today
AUBURN — Police believe they have found a car in the Green River that was swept away with two children inside this morning, but the search was suspended because of the strong current.

By Nancy Bartley and Sonia Krishnan

Seattle Times staff reporters


AUBURN — Police believe they have found a car in the Green River that was swept away with two children inside this morning, but the search has been suspended for the day because of the strong current.

After evaluating the water conditions, the King County Sheriff's Office's dive team decided a short time ago that the search will not resume today. It wasn't immediately known when divers would be able to go back into the water.

Authorities had said earlier the current is so swift that it pulled a regulator out of a rescue diver's mouth.
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Obama's victory inspires homeless painter

Obama's victory inspires homeless painter
By Kainaz Amaria, Times Staff Photographer
In print: Friday, November 7, 2008

Daryle Burch, front, looks into the distance from the front of the barbershop belonging to Abdur-Rahim “Max” Abdullah, left. Abdullah’s son, Waleed McFarland, center, also works there. Max commissioned Burch to paint the Obama mural.

It began when Daryle Burch took a break from painting a business on E Martin Luther King Boulevard. He saw a Barack Obama campaign flier and noticed Obama's skin tone matched a nearby convenience store. Inspiration met opportunity. In 30 minutes he was done. He had painted Obama's face on the store's side wall. The impressed owner asked for another Obama on the front. Then barber Abdur-Rahim "Max" Abdullah, whose shop is nearby, commissioned a mural for his building. He wanted Obama getting a hair cut
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http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article893528.ece

Ex-Marine with mental problems gets probation for identity theft

Ex-Marine with mental problems gets probation for identity theft
TAMPA -- Steven Lee Fickey doesn't hear the voices inside his head anymore, he said today in court.

The former Marine lance corporal takes anti-psychotic medication to stop them. Another prescription has helped curb his seizures, described by his defense attorney as a catalyst for his criminal behavior.

Fickey, 30, pleaded guilty in August to fraud and stealing the identifies of other Marines.

Prosecutors said he used the names of current and former Marines to open accounts with the Army and Air Force Exchange Services and purchase more than $100,000 in electronics, china and filet mignon.

Fickey faced 12 to 18 months in prison. As of today, he'd already spent about 14 months in custody, defense attorney Rochelle Reback said.

"I feel like he has been adequately punished by being incarcerated for that period of time, and I feel that probation would be sufficient," U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara said.

He also ordered that Fickey pay more than $76,000 in restitution.
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http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/11/ex-marine-with.html

How is it possible less people voted in Alaska this year?

How could this be possible? There are more people registered to vote in Alaska this year and their own Governor was on the ticket for the highest office in the nation. This makes no sense at all.

Observers sense 'something fishy' in Alaska vote
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday November 7, 2008


The 2008 presidential race is over, but several Senate races still remain undecided. Georgia is headed for a runoff, Minnesota for a recount -- and in Alaska things just keep getting stranger.

"It looks like senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens and Congressman-currently-under-investigation Don Young will both hold onto their seats," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow noted on Thursday. "That said, there's a case to be made that there's something fishy going on up there."

Even though the polls this year have generally been pretty accurate, they were way off in Alaska. Stevens was running between 7% and 22% behind his Democratic challenger in the polls, but now he is narrowly ahead in the vote count

At the same time, total voter turnout appears to be about 11% lower in Alaska this year than in 2004 -- despite over 20,000 new registrations, heavy turnout in the primaries, record early voting, long lines at the polls on Election Day, and the state's own governor being on the ballot, all of which had led to an expectation of record participation.

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http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Nate_Silver_Lawyers_
should_review_Alaska_1107.html

Search on for car swept down Green River with kids inside

Search on for car swept down Green River with kids inside
By KOMO Staff AUBURN, Wash. -- Police and firefighters are searching the Green River for a vehicle that may have been swept away with a teenager and 2-year-old child inside.

Auburn police Sgt. Scott Near said a woman called 911 just before 9 a.m. and said she lost control and ended up in the river in the 29800 block of Green River road.

The woman told police that as water began to fill the car, she got out to call for help and the vehicle was swept away with a 14 year old and 2-year-old child still inside.

She tried to get the kids out of the car but was unable to do so, Near said. "She's pretty distraught and shaken up."

Near said rescuers are looking for the silver Volkswagen Bug, but so far they have not found the car.
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http://www.komonews.com/news/34091864.html

linked from CNN

Alaska Brig. General's death ruled suicide

General’s death in July ruled a suicide

Investigators say they can find no motive
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 7, 2008 12:42:20 EST

The July 27 death of Brig. Gen. Thomas Tinsley by self-inflicted gunshot wound seems likely to remain shrouded in mystery.

A three-month Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry, which concluded in early November, determined that Tinsley intentionally shot himself once in the chest with a large-caliber handgun, but investigators were unable to turn up a motive.

Investigators found no suicide note, history of mental illness or evidence of financial or criminal trouble that might lead someone to take his own life.

“Often with a suicide, you have a pretty good idea” of motive, said an Air Force official familiar with the case. “This investigation did not yield that. ... There wasn’t anything definite that provided the ‘why.’ ”

Tinsley was commander of the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, when he was found dead in the basement of his home on base.

An autopsy and toxicology report found alcohol in Tinsley’s blood, according to an Air Force official, but investigators were not able to determine whether the alcohol was a contributing factor to his death. The Air Force declined to release the specific blood-alcohol content.

No other substances were found in Tinsley’s body, according to a press release from Pacific Air Forces.

Investigators determined the cause of death was one gunshot wound to the chest with Tinsley’s personal weapon — a Smith & Wesson Model 500 .50-caliber revolver, which the manufacturer touts as the world’s most powerful revolver. The five-chamber weapon, found with Tinsley’s body, contained one spent shell casing and four empty chambers.

The new wing commander, Col. Tom Bergeson, held commanders’ calls on base Nov. 6 to explain the investigation’s findings to his airmen.

Tinsley, who served 24 years, was seen as one of the rising stars of the Air Force. The F-22 pilot was promoted below the zone multiple times, had served for 22 months as then-Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley’s handpicked executive officer, and had a plum assignment as commander of the 3rd Wing.

Those who knew him well would not have been surprised to see him become a three- or four-star general.

But despite that dazzling success, Tinsley also was known as an airman’s general — devoted to the well-being of those who served under him. Affection for Tinsley extended to the most junior ranks at Elmendorf, said Airman 1st Class Richard Hernandez, who worked on Tinsley’s staff.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/airforce_tinsley_suicide_110608/

Local veterans of earlier wars know what those Iraq and Afghanistan vets are in for

Local Vets of Earlier Wars Say They Know What the New Iraq and ...
OC Weekly - Santa Ana,CA,USA


By NICK SCHOU
Published on November 05, 2008 at 11:57am
The Scars You Can't See
New cases of PTSD are flooding the VA system. Local veterans of earlier wars know what those Iraq and Afghanistan vets are in for.



The Persian Gulf War only lasted a few weeks in winter 1991, but for Tom Fortney, it didn’t end until Feb. 22, 2001, when he checked himself into the Long Beach Veterans Affairs Hospital’s psychiatric-evaluation-and-treatment center. A few days earlier, Fortney, a forward observer with the U.S. Marine Corps who saw combat during Operation Desert Storm, was parking his car at work when another driver looked at him the wrong way.

“You got a problem, buddy?” the man then asked.

It was raining hard outside; Fortney had to wind down the window and lower the volume of the war ballad blasting from the car stereo to make himself heard.

“Yeah,” he responded. “I do have a problem. But it is in my head and has nothing to do with you.”

He parked and sat quietly, while the man exited his car and pounded on Fortney’s window. He calmly opened the door and informed the man that if he left quickly, Fortney wouldn’t kill him. “I was going to reach for his left eye with my right hand and pull out his eye, push my thumb into his socket and pull him to the ground, and he would have been dead,” he recalls. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Just as Fortney’s thumb and forefinger brushed the man’s eyelashes, he spotted a co-worker walking toward them. He also noticed that the rain that moments earlier had been pouring down had suddenly stopped, and there was no wind. “I put my finger in his chest and said I’d give him until the count of three to get out of there,” he says. “I literally saw him shrink, and his eyes watered up. He said, ‘I can see you got some issues or something,’ and he put his hands up and started walking away.”

Fortney remembers screaming a basic-training battle cry for “a good minute” before jumping in his car. The rain had started up again. He went home and opened a bottle of whiskey. Then he started running around his neighborhood in the rain. His wife found him and convinced him to come back inside. He called a few friends from the Orange County Veterans Center; they came to his house and sat down with him.

“My body shut down, and I started bawling,” Fortney remembers. “I didn’t want to be a killer, but I had never left the battlefield; there was no deprogramming. I was clearly off the deep end. If I wasn’t married, I would have been the psycho vet out in the forest.”

* * *

After years of psychiatric counseling and group therapy, Fortney, now 40, has come to terms with a condition he expects will never go away: posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He is just one of thousands of veterans in Southern California who have been diagnosed with the disorder. Known as “trench fatigue” in World War I, “shell shock” in World War II and later as “Vietnam syndrome,” PTSD mostly afflicts combat veterans, but it has also been diagnosed in victims of violent crime, rape, accidents, even natural disasters. Symptoms include sleeplessness, nightmares, hypervigilance, depression and rage.

With the United States currently at war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, PTSD is on the rise. According to a 2005 Veterans Affairs (VA) study, 20 percent of recent combat troops suffer from severe depression and PTSD. Some veterans, like Fortney, are able to keep their symptoms under control. Others aren’t so lucky: As of March 2008, 145 Iraq war veterans had committed suicide.

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GAO report on VA and what needs to be done

Department of Veterans Affairs
The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) mission reflects the nation's commitment to care for veterans, their families, and their survivors.

About a quarter of the nation's population, approximately 74.5 million people, are potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members, or survivors of veterans.

VA is responsible for providing federal benefits to eligible veterans and their families and operates nationwide programs for health care, financial assistance, and burial benefits.

The health care delivery system operated by VA is the largest in the nation and provides a broad range of services, including services uniquely related to veterans' health or special needs.

VA also provides disability compensation to veterans who are disabled by injury or disease incurred or aggravated during military service as well as pensions for certain wartime veterans with disabilities.
VA faces a range of key management challenges in the areas of disability benefits, health care delivery, property management, and information technology.

VA's eligibility criteria for disability compensation do not fully incorporate a modern understanding of how technology and the labor market affect disabled veterans' ability to work. In addition, VA continues to face long-standing problems with large pending disability claims inventories, lengthy processing times, concerns about decision accuracy and consistency, and replacing an aging benefits processing system it relies on to accurately process benefits to more than 3.5 million veterans. Further, both VA and the Department of Defense (DOD) face challenges in meeting the health care and disability evaluation needs of servicemembers returning from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as veterans of those military operations.

VA has faced difficulties in managing its resources to be consistent with a substantial increase in its patient workload, has allowed internal control weaknesses and inadequate oversight to limit its ability to maximize revenue from third-party insurers, and has challenges recruiting and retaining health care professionals to provide care to its veteran population. In addition, VA lacks policies and procedures designed to provide adequate controls over funds used for the procurement of goods and services.

Compounding VA's challenge to manage its resources is its vast inventory of underutilized and vacant space.

VA faces challenges in controlling its IT equipment and managing its IT resources.
http://www.gao.gov/transition_2009/agency/vad/

linked from Veterans For Common Sense

PTSD:When the front lines of combat are at home

When the troops come home the families have to fight for them. If we don't, they don't get taken care of. Odd coming from the same country that managed to send millions to wars on foreign lands claiming how much it was necessary for the sake of this nation. You would think that when they came home with wounded bodies or minds, this same nation would be ready to take care of them as much as they prepared to send them into combat. You would also be very, very wrong.

The suffering of the men and women serving this nation is not new. What this generation is going thru is the same as other generations before them. The difference is people across this nation have mobilized to deploy on the front lines of this nation to have our veterans taken care of. Quiet heroes arise daily, educated, trained and ready for battle to save the lives of the ones that did come home from combat.

Rev. Mosby is one of the warriors for the warriors battling for lives that do not need to be lost.

The Rev. C. Diane Mosby talks about her son’s struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder Thursday at the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program summit at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center. (Rosanne Weber/staff)

Summit hopes to reach veterans
News Virginian - Waynesboro,VA,USA

By Jimmy LaRoue

Published: November 6, 2008

FISHERSVILLE — “If this is what I’m coming home to – forget it,” Steven Moore said.

He and his godmother, Angita Szelesta, were in the emergency room at a Veterans Administration Medical Center, where she had taken him to get treated for a drug overdose.

Moore had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury following his one-year of military service in Iraq.

They waited for more than six hours, and in that time, the medical center lost Moore’s records, Szelesta recalled.

They left.

Moore had earned a Purple Heart at age 18 following a roadside bomb attack, and when he returned home, he wasn’t the same.

“Steven says he wishes this was one medal he never received,” Szelesta said.

Szelesta spoke also about her own son, Stan Crowder, and his combat experiences. His problems were similar to Moore’s, following a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, but was able to return to combat.

Szelesta, along with a number of speakers, are taking part in the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program Summit at the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, which continues today. The conference is designed to increase awareness of combat stress-related issues and brain trauma injuries that affect military members – both active duty and retired – as well as their families.

Rick Sizemore, director of the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, said the goal is that no matter where a combat veteran goes, that he or she can find the needed help.

“That’s the purpose of the Virginia Wounded Warrior network ... to connect all those various services so that there’s no wrong door for a veteran,” Sizemore said.

The Rev. C. Diane Mosby, of Glen Allen, said her son, Geoffrey Mosby, Jr., served for a more than a year in Iraq. Far from the well-adjusted son she knew prior to his joining the Virginia Army National Guard, when he returned in February 2005 as a decorated soldier, her family noticed that he started having increased nightmares and became more reclusive.

“We began to notice a deep dark, darkness in his eyes,” Mosby said. “It was as if he had separated body and spirit.”
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