Crash splits motorcycle, kills biker
By Amy L. Edwards and Bianca Prieto, Orlando Sentinel
11:30 a.m. EDT, July 8, 2010
A motorcyclist is dead this morning after crashing into the side of a car on Goldenrod Road about a mile north of State Road 408, according to Florida Highway Patrol.
Only one lane of traffic in each direction is open while troopers investigate.
The victim, an Hispanic male, was driving northbound on Goldenrod around 9 a.m. when a woman driving a Geo Prism pulled out in front of him, troopers said.
Crash splits motorcycle, kills biker
Thursday, July 8, 2010
PTSD: VCS In the New York Times
PTSD: VCS In the New York Times
Today's New York Times features Veterans for Common Sense discussing VA's new (and hopefully better) PTSD benefit regulations. VCS advocated for this science-based change starting in 2007. VCS encourages veterans with mental health conditions to seek VA care and benefits. Earlier treatment, we believe, can mitigate long-term adverse social consequences such as unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, homelesness, and suicide.
VCS thanks President Barack Obama and VA Secretary Shinseki for their leadership on this vital issue. We thank our members for your support for our advocacy. VCS advocacy hopes to ensure VA is ready, willing, and able to provide prompt and high-quality care and benefits.
However . . .
Here is very distressing news about VA's continuing failure to handle PTSD claims properly and quickly.
St. Petersburg Times reporter William Levesque tells the story of a World War II veteran who has been waiting for proper PTSD benefits from VA for more than 65 years now.
No veteran should ever fight for 65 years for a valid claim ! Times have changed since 1945. Today, veterans discharged from active duty with PTSD automatically receive a 50 percent VA disability rating. VCS plans to closely review VA's new PTSD regulations, and we plan to monitor how VA implements the new regulations.
VCS Urges You to Attend Two VCS Events
On July 27, VCS will testify before Congress about Gulf War Illness. Based on your input, we will be demanding action from VA so our veterans obtain the healthcare and benefits we need based on scientific research. Please attend and show Congress you support our Gulf War veterans.
On August 5 - 8, VCS will be attending at the Gulf War Health Fair in Dallas, Texas, sponsored by the National Gulf War Resource Center. Key speakers include VA Chief of Staff John Gingrich, Texas philanthropist Ross Perot, and Gulf War illness Researcher Robert Haley. VCS strongly urges you to attend both events. These are our rare public opportunities to raise our voices to Congress, top VA officials, top researchers, and the press.
The more voices calling for improvements in research, healthcare, and benefits, then the more VA must listen and act for our veterans.
National Security News - Military Suicides Remain a Crisis
Kelly Kennedy of Army Times reports that despite prevention efforts, the suicide rate among troops and veterans continues to rise.
The sad failure of the military to prevent soldier suicide is reflected in the tragic account of a young army veteran, as reported by Hal Bernton for the Seattle Times.
Fighting two wars with no end in sight and with repeated re-deployments undermines soldier morale. A biting op-ed piece by Bob Herbert for the New York Times puts into words the feelings many of us have about the hopeless Afghanistan war:
The difference between [the Afghanistan War] and a nightmare is that when you wake up from a nightmare it's over. This is all too tragically real.
Today's New York Times features Veterans for Common Sense discussing VA's new (and hopefully better) PTSD benefit regulations. VCS advocated for this science-based change starting in 2007. VCS encourages veterans with mental health conditions to seek VA care and benefits. Earlier treatment, we believe, can mitigate long-term adverse social consequences such as unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, homelesness, and suicide.
VCS thanks President Barack Obama and VA Secretary Shinseki for their leadership on this vital issue. We thank our members for your support for our advocacy. VCS advocacy hopes to ensure VA is ready, willing, and able to provide prompt and high-quality care and benefits.
However . . .
Here is very distressing news about VA's continuing failure to handle PTSD claims properly and quickly.
St. Petersburg Times reporter William Levesque tells the story of a World War II veteran who has been waiting for proper PTSD benefits from VA for more than 65 years now.
No veteran should ever fight for 65 years for a valid claim ! Times have changed since 1945. Today, veterans discharged from active duty with PTSD automatically receive a 50 percent VA disability rating. VCS plans to closely review VA's new PTSD regulations, and we plan to monitor how VA implements the new regulations.
VCS Urges You to Attend Two VCS Events
On July 27, VCS will testify before Congress about Gulf War Illness. Based on your input, we will be demanding action from VA so our veterans obtain the healthcare and benefits we need based on scientific research. Please attend and show Congress you support our Gulf War veterans.
On August 5 - 8, VCS will be attending at the Gulf War Health Fair in Dallas, Texas, sponsored by the National Gulf War Resource Center. Key speakers include VA Chief of Staff John Gingrich, Texas philanthropist Ross Perot, and Gulf War illness Researcher Robert Haley. VCS strongly urges you to attend both events. These are our rare public opportunities to raise our voices to Congress, top VA officials, top researchers, and the press.
The more voices calling for improvements in research, healthcare, and benefits, then the more VA must listen and act for our veterans.
National Security News - Military Suicides Remain a Crisis
Kelly Kennedy of Army Times reports that despite prevention efforts, the suicide rate among troops and veterans continues to rise.
The sad failure of the military to prevent soldier suicide is reflected in the tragic account of a young army veteran, as reported by Hal Bernton for the Seattle Times.
Fighting two wars with no end in sight and with repeated re-deployments undermines soldier morale. A biting op-ed piece by Bob Herbert for the New York Times puts into words the feelings many of us have about the hopeless Afghanistan war:
The difference between [the Afghanistan War] and a nightmare is that when you wake up from a nightmare it's over. This is all too tragically real.
Former Louisiana Army National Guardsman accused of threats
Former National Guardsman accused of threats
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jul 8, 2010 8:38:08 EDT
BATON ROUGE, La. — A former soldier accused of threatening the president and governor denied threatening them but said he's angry that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs won't pay for his counseling and prescriptions.
After a hearing Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Christine Noland said 26-year-old Abram Kane Williams, who was arrested early this month, must remain in federal custody.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Menner Jr. said case workers and others told an FBI agent that Williams repeatedly threatened President Barack Obama, Gov. Bobby Jindal and U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.
The Advocate reports that Williams, a former member of the Louisiana Army National Guard, testified that the VA concluded his problems are not service-related. But he said they began after his return from Iraq.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/07/ap_guardsman_threats_070810/
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jul 8, 2010 8:38:08 EDT
BATON ROUGE, La. — A former soldier accused of threatening the president and governor denied threatening them but said he's angry that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs won't pay for his counseling and prescriptions.
After a hearing Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Christine Noland said 26-year-old Abram Kane Williams, who was arrested early this month, must remain in federal custody.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Menner Jr. said case workers and others told an FBI agent that Williams repeatedly threatened President Barack Obama, Gov. Bobby Jindal and U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.
The Advocate reports that Williams, a former member of the Louisiana Army National Guard, testified that the VA concluded his problems are not service-related. But he said they began after his return from Iraq.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/07/ap_guardsman_threats_070810/
Deputies: Stalker out on a bail kills victim
Deputies: Stalker out on a bail kills victim
LEADVILLE - Police say a man out on bail from a stalking arrest killed the woman he was stalking and then himself Wednesday night.
Yvonne Flores, a 58-year-old woman from Leadville, was coming home from the store when Anthony Medina, also 58 years old and from Leadville, met her in her driveway and apparently shot her two times and then shot himself, said the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Medina was arrested for stalking Flores on June 22 and was out on bail.
read more here
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=142775&catid=339
LEADVILLE - Police say a man out on bail from a stalking arrest killed the woman he was stalking and then himself Wednesday night.
Yvonne Flores, a 58-year-old woman from Leadville, was coming home from the store when Anthony Medina, also 58 years old and from Leadville, met her in her driveway and apparently shot her two times and then shot himself, said the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Medina was arrested for stalking Flores on June 22 and was out on bail.
read more here
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=142775&catid=339
DAV Chapter 16 Orlando Installation of Officers
Tonight is the DAV Chapter 16 installation of officers. I am the Chapter's Auxiliary Chaplain and will be delivering the invocation. These are not just the words I will say tonight, but the words I try my best to live by.
Welcome members, friends and honored guests. We gather here this night to celebrate the future, as much as we honor the past. Each one of us committed to our veterans and to the troops serving in harms way in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is fitting this night that we consider the words of Christ from John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Our veterans were not only willing to lay down their lives for the sake of their friends they served side by side with, but for their families and friends back home. For their neighbors and communities and for all generations coming after them, living in the freedom and security provided by those willing to die to insure it.
On the Lincoln Memorial we read the ending to President Lincoln's second inaugural address.
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
These words are cherished by the DAV and the Auxiliary as we strive to fulfill the promise to bind the wounds of the disabled by war and to assure the care of those who have borne the battle. To care for the widows and orphans left behind by fallen. Since the Revolutionary war many have been called to defend this nation. George Washington said that "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." and this the DAV fought for because we believe there is no greater love than to serve this nation.
On this day as we enter into another year of working to insure the promise of care for the disabled veterans, let us be renewed in spirit as well. When we face a struggle too hard for us to fight, may God send us others to stand by our side. When we tire, may God renew our strength. May God bless us with holding our veterans in our hearts so that we never stop fighting for them, never stop learning and adapting to the needs of different generations and never forget those who had a love so great they were willing to die for it.
VA to Issue Science-Based PTSD Regulations
This woman is not a friend of veterans and has been wrong on PTSD for so long that we really need to wonder why on earth anyone asks her anything at all.
Common sense proves her wrong. Look at it this way. Would you join the military thinking that if there is a war, all you have to do is risk your life to end up with a check from the VA every month? If you survive at all? Hell no. If you are granted 100% disability from the VA you are making less money than if you were able to work. Aside from the turmoil you go through with PTSD, the ravages on your personal life with everyone you know, nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, panic attacks, short term memory loss plus a long list of others, you also have to face being on medication that comes with their own set of problems.
This is what it breaks down to.
Would you want to go through combat to end up with $192.50 a week with a 50% disability rating? How about $668.25 for 100%? If you end up with 100% you have to be suffering a lot and watch your life fall apart. Some may say that kind of money a week is good but they forget that a lot of people make more than that, especially trades people, and the VA doesn't pay overtime or give merit raises. Take a heavy equipment operator in a state where it snows. They make most of their yearly income plowing snow for days on end and they make overtime. Take them off their jobs because of medications they have to be on and there goes that money, plus the difference they would have made just on a regular paycheck alone.
But we're not talking about 100% disability rating for the most part because the percentages awarded at usually 50% or lower. Would you risk your life and end up with PTSD to make less than you could make at your local grocery store?
This ruling does not make it easier to live with PTSD but only takes out having to prove which time your life was on the line ended up being the straw that broke your life.
When work finally started to happen on PTSD, veterans were sent to the VA because they had the best programs and resources. Veterans had to file a claim just to be able to have PTSD covered so they wouldn't have to pay for it.
Private health insurance companies refused to cover the treatments because the diagnosis was connected to military service. Once this happened, mental health care coverage would not cover anything to do with PTSD. If the veteran still had an income, they had to pay for their care without a disability rating from the VA. So they filed claims. A service connected disability rating assured them of being taken care of. Medications and therapy were taken care of.
This will also encourage a combat veteran to seek help in healing PTSD. That is what the goal is supposed to be. Isn't it? We want them to recover from what happened to them while they were risking their lives. Right? We want them to seek help as soon as they show signs of PTSD so they get better. Right? Isn't that the part that is missing from all this debate?
Look at all the different programs going on across the country. Are they trying them to heal? Yoga? Martial Arts? Group therapy? Reaching out on their computers to find support and help to heal? If given a choice between recovering their lives or getting a check worth less than $200 a week, the would take healing any day. The goal has not been reached because too many have had their claims denied, which is like a knife in their backs after being told by a VA psychologist their condition is related to their service in combat but the claim has been denied over paperwork issues.
Do we want to stop them from ending up homeless? This helps in that area because when you have a veteran with PTSD and they cannot work, with no income at all, they can't pay to keep that roof over their heads. We talk a lot about homeless veterans but we hardly ever mention the "couch homeless" sleeping on the couch in a friend's home because they have nowhere else to go. Families have kicked them out of the house they used to live in, usually because they just didn't understand what was going on. When the VA is denying their claim, the family ends up doubting the suffering of the veteran. After all, the American public has been conditioned to believe the VA takes care of veterans injured in combat. They don't want to believe any veteran is being turned away.
Bing search Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and you get 5,190,000 results. Bing PTSD and you find 1,840,000 results. Google Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and you find 2,400,000. For PTSD the result is 1,110,000. These results are there for a reason. People want to learn so they understand but above that, they want to heal.
Encouraging them to seek help leads them to healing. Making them fight to prove a claim, adding more stress to their lives, discourages them allowing mild cases of PTSD to get progressively worse to the point where when they are finally helped, they are only stabilized instead of healed.
PTSD still has to be proven but this is a step in the right direction.
“I can’t imagine anyone more worthy of public largess than a veteran,” said Dr. Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy group, who has written on P.T.S.D. “But as a clinician, it is destructive to give someone total and permanent disability when they are in fact capable of working, even if it is not at full capacity. A job is the most therapeutic thing there is.”
Common sense proves her wrong. Look at it this way. Would you join the military thinking that if there is a war, all you have to do is risk your life to end up with a check from the VA every month? If you survive at all? Hell no. If you are granted 100% disability from the VA you are making less money than if you were able to work. Aside from the turmoil you go through with PTSD, the ravages on your personal life with everyone you know, nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, panic attacks, short term memory loss plus a long list of others, you also have to face being on medication that comes with their own set of problems.
This is what it breaks down to.
Dependent Status
Veteran Alone (Per Month)
30% $376
40% $541
50% $770
60% $974
70% $1,228
80% $1,427
90% $1,604
100% $2,673
go here for more
Dependent Status
Would you want to go through combat to end up with $192.50 a week with a 50% disability rating? How about $668.25 for 100%? If you end up with 100% you have to be suffering a lot and watch your life fall apart. Some may say that kind of money a week is good but they forget that a lot of people make more than that, especially trades people, and the VA doesn't pay overtime or give merit raises. Take a heavy equipment operator in a state where it snows. They make most of their yearly income plowing snow for days on end and they make overtime. Take them off their jobs because of medications they have to be on and there goes that money, plus the difference they would have made just on a regular paycheck alone.
But we're not talking about 100% disability rating for the most part because the percentages awarded at usually 50% or lower. Would you risk your life and end up with PTSD to make less than you could make at your local grocery store?
This ruling does not make it easier to live with PTSD but only takes out having to prove which time your life was on the line ended up being the straw that broke your life.
When work finally started to happen on PTSD, veterans were sent to the VA because they had the best programs and resources. Veterans had to file a claim just to be able to have PTSD covered so they wouldn't have to pay for it.
But Rick Weidman, executive director for policy and government affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America, said most veterans applied for disability not for the monthly checks but because they wanted access to free health care.
“I know guys who are rated 100 percent disabled who keep coming back for treatment not because they are worried about losing their compensation, but because they want their life back,” Mr. Weidman said.
Private health insurance companies refused to cover the treatments because the diagnosis was connected to military service. Once this happened, mental health care coverage would not cover anything to do with PTSD. If the veteran still had an income, they had to pay for their care without a disability rating from the VA. So they filed claims. A service connected disability rating assured them of being taken care of. Medications and therapy were taken care of.
More than two million service members have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001, and by some estimates 20 percent or more of them will develop P.T.S.D.
More than 150,000 cases of P.T.S.D. have been diagnosed by the veterans health system among veterans of the two wars, while thousands more have received diagnoses from private doctors, said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group.
But Mr. Sullivan said records showed that the veterans department had approved P.T.S.D. disability claims for only 78,000 veterans. That suggests, he said, that many veterans with the disorder are having their compensation claims rejected by claims processors. “Those statistics show a very serious problem in how V.A. handles P.T.S.D. claims,” Mr. Sullivan said.
This will also encourage a combat veteran to seek help in healing PTSD. That is what the goal is supposed to be. Isn't it? We want them to recover from what happened to them while they were risking their lives. Right? We want them to seek help as soon as they show signs of PTSD so they get better. Right? Isn't that the part that is missing from all this debate?
Look at all the different programs going on across the country. Are they trying them to heal? Yoga? Martial Arts? Group therapy? Reaching out on their computers to find support and help to heal? If given a choice between recovering their lives or getting a check worth less than $200 a week, the would take healing any day. The goal has not been reached because too many have had their claims denied, which is like a knife in their backs after being told by a VA psychologist their condition is related to their service in combat but the claim has been denied over paperwork issues.
Do we want to stop them from ending up homeless? This helps in that area because when you have a veteran with PTSD and they cannot work, with no income at all, they can't pay to keep that roof over their heads. We talk a lot about homeless veterans but we hardly ever mention the "couch homeless" sleeping on the couch in a friend's home because they have nowhere else to go. Families have kicked them out of the house they used to live in, usually because they just didn't understand what was going on. When the VA is denying their claim, the family ends up doubting the suffering of the veteran. After all, the American public has been conditioned to believe the VA takes care of veterans injured in combat. They don't want to believe any veteran is being turned away.
Bing search Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and you get 5,190,000 results. Bing PTSD and you find 1,840,000 results. Google Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and you find 2,400,000. For PTSD the result is 1,110,000. These results are there for a reason. People want to learn so they understand but above that, they want to heal.
Encouraging them to seek help leads them to healing. Making them fight to prove a claim, adding more stress to their lives, discourages them allowing mild cases of PTSD to get progressively worse to the point where when they are finally helped, they are only stabilized instead of healed.
PTSD still has to be proven but this is a step in the right direction.
VCS in the New York Times: VA to Issue Science Based PTSD Regulations
Written by James Dao
Wednesday, 07 July 2010 20:01
Veterans Affairs to Ease Claim Process for Disability
July 7, 2010 (New York Times) - The Federal government is preparing to issue new rules that will make it substantially easier for veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits for the illness, a change [based on scientific research] that could affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
The regulations from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which will take effect as early as Monday and cost as much as $5 billion over several years according to Congressional analysts, will essentially eliminate a requirement that veterans document specific events like bomb blasts, firefights or mortar attacks that might have caused P.T.S.D., an illness characterized by emotional numbness, irritability and flashbacks.
For decades, veterans have complained that finding such records was extremely time consuming and sometimes impossible. And in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans groups assert that the current rules discriminate against tens of thousands of service members — many of them women — who did not serve in combat roles but nevertheless suffered traumatic experiences.
Under the new rule, which applies to veterans of all wars, the department will grant compensation to those with P.T.S.D. if they can simply show that they served in a war zone and in a job consistent with the events that they say caused their conditions. They would not have to prove, for instance, that they came under fire, served in a front-line unit or saw a friend killed.
The new rule would also allow compensation for service members who had good reason to fear traumatic events, known as stressors, even if they did not actually experience them.
There are concerns that the change will open the door to a flood of fraudulent claims. But supporters of the rule say the veterans department will still review all claims and thus be able to weed out the baseless ones.
“This nation has a solemn obligation to the men and women who have honorably served this country and suffer from the emotional and often devastating hidden wounds of war,” the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric K. Shinseki, said in a statement to The New York Times. “This final regulation goes a long way to ensure that veterans receive the benefits and services they need.”
read more here
VA to Issue Science Based PTSD Regulations
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
VA not approving enough service dogs, IG says
VA not approving enough service dogs, IG says
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 7, 2010 17:19:44 EDT
A new report by the Veterans Affairs Department Inspector General says VA should be doing more for veterans whose lives could be improved with help from service dogs.
Eight years after receiving approval to help pay for dogs to assist veterans with mobility problems, seizure disorders or other disabilities, a report released Wednesday says VA has approved only eight requests.
VA officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said VA supports providing service dogs for veterans with physical and hearing issues, and does so on a case-by-case basis.
Relaxed policies that might make service dogs more widely available are under review, but rule changes take time, officials said.
“It is unacceptable not to exercise the authority given to them to improve the quality of veterans’ lives,” said Christina Roof of AmVets, a group that has been pushing the issue for years.
When service dog benefits are provided, VA does not pay for the dog nor its training, but veterinary bills, vaccinations and treatments for fleas and ticks are covered by VA. In some cases, a veteran can be reimbursed for food if a dog is on a medically ordered diet.
go here for more
VA not approving enough service dogs IG says
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 7, 2010 17:19:44 EDT
A new report by the Veterans Affairs Department Inspector General says VA should be doing more for veterans whose lives could be improved with help from service dogs.
Eight years after receiving approval to help pay for dogs to assist veterans with mobility problems, seizure disorders or other disabilities, a report released Wednesday says VA has approved only eight requests.
VA officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said VA supports providing service dogs for veterans with physical and hearing issues, and does so on a case-by-case basis.
Relaxed policies that might make service dogs more widely available are under review, but rule changes take time, officials said.
“It is unacceptable not to exercise the authority given to them to improve the quality of veterans’ lives,” said Christina Roof of AmVets, a group that has been pushing the issue for years.
When service dog benefits are provided, VA does not pay for the dog nor its training, but veterinary bills, vaccinations and treatments for fleas and ticks are covered by VA. In some cases, a veteran can be reimbursed for food if a dog is on a medically ordered diet.
go here for more
VA not approving enough service dogs IG says
Soldier's house burns after homecoming, 4 firefighters hurt
Soldier's house burns after homecoming
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 7, 2010 9:15:26 EDT
NATICK, Mass. — The home of an Army officer who had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan hours earlier has been destroyed by fire.
Banners saying "Welcome Home" still hung nearby the military-owned house in Natick where Chief Warrant Officer Michael Doe and his family lived as firefighters battled Tuesday's blaze.
Four firefighters were injured at the fire at the Soldier Systems Center.
go here for more
Soldiers house burns after homecoming
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 7, 2010 9:15:26 EDT
NATICK, Mass. — The home of an Army officer who had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan hours earlier has been destroyed by fire.
Banners saying "Welcome Home" still hung nearby the military-owned house in Natick where Chief Warrant Officer Michael Doe and his family lived as firefighters battled Tuesday's blaze.
Four firefighters were injured at the fire at the Soldier Systems Center.
go here for more
Soldiers house burns after homecoming
Louisiana National Guard member dies in Iraq
Louisiana National Guard member dies in Iraq
Published: Wednesday, July 07, 2010
The Department of Defense Tuesday night identified a member of the Louisiana National Guard killed in Iraq on Friday.
Sgt. Jordan E. Tuttle , 22, of West Monroe, La., died July 2 at Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident.
Finish reading here
Louisiana National Guard member dies in Iraq
Published: Wednesday, July 07, 2010
The Department of Defense Tuesday night identified a member of the Louisiana National Guard killed in Iraq on Friday.
Sgt. Jordan E. Tuttle , 22, of West Monroe, La., died July 2 at Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident.
Finish reading here
Louisiana National Guard member dies in Iraq
Kidnapped 4-Year-Old Found Safe in Missouri
UPDATE
Missouri Man Eyed in Abduction Case Dies
Updated: 10 minutes ago
Lauren Frayer
Contributor
(July 8) -- A Missouri sex offender who shot himself as police approached to question him about the kidnapping of 4-year-old Alisa Maier has died.
The man died Wednesday night at a hospital in St. Charles, Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum told The Associated Press.
The Lincoln County sheriff's department earlier told AOL News it could not confirm the report.
Alisa's 6-year-old brother, Blake, was the only witness to her abduction. He told police a man driving a dark four-door sedan pulled up in front of their house Monday night and ordered her into the car. She was found a day later wandering around a car wash parking lot in a St. Louis suburb more than 80 miles from her home. Details were reported by several news agencies.
read more here
Missouri Man Eyed in Abduction Case Dies
Miracles can happen and it looks like one just did
Kidnapped 4-Year-Old Found Safe in Missouri
Lauren Frayer
Contributor
(July 7) -- A 4-year-old Missouri girl believed to have been kidnapped while playing with her older brother in their front yard has been found wandering around a strip mall parking lot more than 80 miles from her home, and a relative said this morning that she was unharmed.
Police say they got a call just before 10 p.m. Tuesday reporting a young child wandering around the parking lot of a closed car wash in Fenton, a suburb of St. Louis. They confirmed her identity as Alisa Maier and then took her to a hospital as a precaution, according to several St. Louis-area TV stations.
Her parents traveled to the hospital overnight for a happy reunion, NBC News reported.
"They were just so happy," Alisa's grandfather Roy Harrison told NBC's "Today" show this morning. "There was a lot of smiling."
read more here
Kidnapped 4 Year Old Found Safe in Missouri
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