NATO: 6 US troops killed in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Six American service members and at least a dozen civilians died in attacks Saturday in Afghanistan's volatile east and south, adding to a summer of escalating violence as Taliban militants push back against stepped-up operations by international and Afghan forces. NATO said four U.S. service members died in the east: One as a result of small-arms fire, another by a roadside bomb, a third during an insurgent attack and the last in an accidental explosion. Two other U.S. troops died in separate roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan. Their deaths raised to 23 the number of American troops killed so far this month in the war.
NATO 6 US troops killed in Afghanistan
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Former VA head and Georgia senator Max Cleland helps local veterans
Former VA head and Georgia senator Max Cleland helps local veterans
By Stephen Hudak, ORLANDO SENTINEL
July 9, 2010
TAVARES — Max Cleland, a former U.S. senator permanently disabled in the Vietnam War, on Friday helped troubleshoot complaints of veterans frustrated by red tape binding their medical and pension benefits.
Cleland, 67, who lost both legs and his right forearm in combat in 1968, accompanied U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D- Orlando, to forums for Central Florida veterans in Tavares and Winter Garden.
"The nation has a built-in obligation, a moral obligation, that if we send people to war…to take care of them when they come home," said Cleland, who served as Veteran Affairs administrator under President Jimmy Carter, a fellow Georgian. "Wars are not over [for soldiers] when the shooting stops."
In Tavares, veterans griped about a wide range of issues — from shoddy medical care, VA bureaucracy and proposed taxes on prosthetic limbs to their inability to find jobs or win relief from a home foreclosure.
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Max Cleland helps local veterans
By Stephen Hudak, ORLANDO SENTINEL
July 9, 2010
TAVARES — Max Cleland, a former U.S. senator permanently disabled in the Vietnam War, on Friday helped troubleshoot complaints of veterans frustrated by red tape binding their medical and pension benefits.
Cleland, 67, who lost both legs and his right forearm in combat in 1968, accompanied U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D- Orlando, to forums for Central Florida veterans in Tavares and Winter Garden.
"The nation has a built-in obligation, a moral obligation, that if we send people to war…to take care of them when they come home," said Cleland, who served as Veteran Affairs administrator under President Jimmy Carter, a fellow Georgian. "Wars are not over [for soldiers] when the shooting stops."
In Tavares, veterans griped about a wide range of issues — from shoddy medical care, VA bureaucracy and proposed taxes on prosthetic limbs to their inability to find jobs or win relief from a home foreclosure.
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Max Cleland helps local veterans
Obama: No longer will veterans have to prove what caused their illness
Unlike some people in congress, others value our veterans and know that when they need to be taken care of because they risked their lives, there is nothing to debate. It's a debt we owe to them not the other way around. It is a bill the taxpayers were prepared to pay for the day the troops were sent into combat and we know no amount of money is too much to pay for what they gave up for us. Shame on any in congress who had no problem paying to send them away but find it too expensive to take care of them back home!
Obama: More post-traumatic stress help for vets"I don't think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application," the president said. "And I've met enough veterans to know that you don't have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war."
By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer Julie Pace, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The government is taking what President Barack Obama calls "a long overdue step" to aid veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, making it easier for them receive federal benefits.
The changes that Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki will announce Monday fulfill "a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they've earned when they come home," Obama said in his weekly radio and online address Saturday.
The new rules will apply not only to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but also those who served in previous conflicts.
No longer will veterans have to prove what caused their illness. Instead, they would have to show that the conditions surrounding the time and place of their service could have contributed to their illness.
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Obama More post traumatic stress help for vets
Weekly remarks: Obama on more veterans benefits; Phil Gingrey on unaffordable federal deficits
July 10, 2010
Remarks by President Obama, as provided by the White House
Last weekend, on the Fourth of July, Michelle and I welcomed some of our extraordinary military men and women and their families to the White House.
They were just like the thousands of active duty personnel and veterans I’ve met across this country and around the globe. Proud. Strong. Determined. Men and women with the courage to answer their country’s call, and the character to serve the United States of America.
Because of that service; because of the honor and heroism of our troops around the world; our people are safer, our nation is more secure, and we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq by the end of August, completing a drawdown of more than 90,000 troops since last January.
Still, we are a nation at war. For the better part of a decade, our men and women in ...
... uniform have endured tour after tour in distant and dangerous places. Many have risked their lives. Many have given their lives. And as a grateful nation, humbled by their service, we can never honor these American heroes or their families enough.
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Obama on more veterans benefits
Tape of Mel Gibson telling ex-girlfriend "that it would be her fault if she were raped" released
We make heroes out of people like this because they can act or direct a movie, but in real life, they prove themselves to be selfish, thinking they are above everyone else. Gibson left his family, started another one and then "allegedly" said it would be his girlfriend's fault if she were raped. What kind of a man thinks this way? Yet this man was among the many celebrities treated as if they should be held up as someone to honor? For what? Pretending he is something he isn't? He played heroes in movies, on a pretend set with a script and a director telling him what to do, how he should sound and look.
That's the problem in this country when we care more about a minority of actors than we do a minority of veterans risking their lives, unselfishly, every day for this country. Celebrities make the news but TV reporters don't really seem interested in how many were killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or stories like the one posted today on the combat veteran with 4 small kids and leukemia. They don't seem interested in how many are wounded, in Walter Reed or Bethesda or Haley in Tampa, or back home in our cities and towns trying to get their lives back. The difference is while celebrities make millions pretending, the troops are paid very little. I guess it's true what they say and money gets to talk.
That's the problem in this country when we care more about a minority of actors than we do a minority of veterans risking their lives, unselfishly, every day for this country. Celebrities make the news but TV reporters don't really seem interested in how many were killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or stories like the one posted today on the combat veteran with 4 small kids and leukemia. They don't seem interested in how many are wounded, in Walter Reed or Bethesda or Haley in Tampa, or back home in our cities and towns trying to get their lives back. The difference is while celebrities make millions pretending, the troops are paid very little. I guess it's true what they say and money gets to talk.
Tape of alleged racist rant by Gibson released
Male voice resembling actor's harangues on Grigorieva's appearance
by ANTHONY McCARTNEY
LOS ANGELES — Mel Gibson is allegedly heard using a racial epithet and calling his ex-girlfriend a "whore" in a recording released by a celebrity news website Friday.
The two-minute recording posted by RadarOnline.com includes segments in which a voice sounding distinctively like the Academy Award-winner is heard telling his then-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, that she is dressing too provocatively and that it would be her fault if she were raped. He uses the N-word at one point, and the recording is laced with his profanity.
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http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38173191/ns/today-entertainment/
Rock Hill veteran, father of 4, battling leukemia
Rock Hill veteran, father of 4, battling leukemia
Facebook page, Web site set up to help family
By Andrew Dys - adys@heraldonline.com
The license plates say veteran.
The pictures of Qatar and Kuwait and Turkey say veteran.
The guy, 36 years old, with four tiny sons, can say veteran.
But he can’t do much more.
Jeff Wyman, Air Force veteran of four deployments, has to save his strength for the chemotherapy poison that can save his life as he battles acute lymphatic leukemia.
“My daddy has cancer,” says Aaron Wyman, 6, oldest of the four sons. The son Jeff has to tell, “Be tough, you’re the man of the house,” when Jeff leaves for the hospital for days at a time.
The wife, Wendy, whom Jeff Wyman calls “incredible,” has to say things at the grocery store or doctor that this family with the youngest son just 3 months old never thought any would say.
“I have a WIC voucher,” she says of the federal Women, Infants and Children program that pays for formula and food for newborns.
Or, “I’m paying for this with food stamps,” at the checkout counter.
Or, “Here’s my Medicaid card,” when taking the boys to the doctor.
“It has been, to say the least, a very humbling experience,” said Wendy Wyman.
“We both have worked all our lives, worked hard,” Jeff Wyman said. “Now we have found out that these programs are for people who get into situations just like ours.”
Jeff Wyman is the kind of guy who never asked anybody for anything.
Read more: Rock Hill veteran, father of 4, battling leukemia
Facebook page, Web site set up to help family
By Andrew Dys - adys@heraldonline.com
The license plates say veteran.
The pictures of Qatar and Kuwait and Turkey say veteran.
The guy, 36 years old, with four tiny sons, can say veteran.
But he can’t do much more.
Jeff Wyman, Air Force veteran of four deployments, has to save his strength for the chemotherapy poison that can save his life as he battles acute lymphatic leukemia.
“My daddy has cancer,” says Aaron Wyman, 6, oldest of the four sons. The son Jeff has to tell, “Be tough, you’re the man of the house,” when Jeff leaves for the hospital for days at a time.
The wife, Wendy, whom Jeff Wyman calls “incredible,” has to say things at the grocery store or doctor that this family with the youngest son just 3 months old never thought any would say.
“I have a WIC voucher,” she says of the federal Women, Infants and Children program that pays for formula and food for newborns.
Or, “I’m paying for this with food stamps,” at the checkout counter.
Or, “Here’s my Medicaid card,” when taking the boys to the doctor.
“It has been, to say the least, a very humbling experience,” said Wendy Wyman.
“We both have worked all our lives, worked hard,” Jeff Wyman said. “Now we have found out that these programs are for people who get into situations just like ours.”
Jeff Wyman is the kind of guy who never asked anybody for anything.
Read more: Rock Hill veteran, father of 4, battling leukemia
Vietnam Vet says "It's not what you lost but what you have left" at Wheelchair Games in Denver
‘It’s not what you lost’ - Local veterans find fun, camaraderie at Wheelchair Games
LINDSAY FIORI
DENVER - Last week two local veterans took part in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games and each of those veterans will return to the Racine area this weekend with eight medals between them, including several golds.
Though both veterans were excited by their winnings, they said the medals aren't the important part of the annual Olympics-style games for wheelchair-bound veterans, which took place last week in Denver with closing ceremonies wrapping up Friday night.
"It's not just a sporting event but a way to get back on track with your life," explained Gus Sorenson, a 62-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Sturtevant who took part in this year's games. "Veterans realize others are living their lives with the same conditions."
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Local veterans find fun camaraderie at Wheelchair Games
LINDSAY FIORI
"There's an old saying that it's not what you lost but what you have left," said Sorenson, who was a specialist fourth class in the U.S. Army while serving in Vietnam. "If you have a disability you can sit at home with a blanket on your lap and look out the window ... or else you can go outside and get on with your life."
Vietnam veteran Gus Sorenson, number 10, participated last week in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Denver. Sorenson, of Sturtevant, took part in bowling, shot put, table tennis, discus and quad rugby, which is shown above. CREDIT: Photo courtesy Dept. of Veterans Affairs.
DENVER - Last week two local veterans took part in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games and each of those veterans will return to the Racine area this weekend with eight medals between them, including several golds.
Though both veterans were excited by their winnings, they said the medals aren't the important part of the annual Olympics-style games for wheelchair-bound veterans, which took place last week in Denver with closing ceremonies wrapping up Friday night.
"It's not just a sporting event but a way to get back on track with your life," explained Gus Sorenson, a 62-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Sturtevant who took part in this year's games. "Veterans realize others are living their lives with the same conditions."
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Local veterans find fun camaraderie at Wheelchair Games
Missing Marine found safe
Missing Marine Located In Rutherford County
War Vet Suddenly Left Home Thursday Night
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Police in Rutherford County on Friday afternoon located a Marine Corps combat veteran who had been missing since Thursday night. Crews began their search early Friday morning for 27-year-old Chris Headrick.
Officials said he left his home along Sulphur Springs Road at about 11 p.m. Thursday.
His family apparently told police they were planning to take him to the VA Hospital in Murfreesboro. At that point, he grabbed a military-issued backpack and helmet and left in a van.
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Missing Marine Located In Rutherford County
War Vet Suddenly Left Home Thursday Night
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Police in Rutherford County on Friday afternoon located a Marine Corps combat veteran who had been missing since Thursday night. Crews began their search early Friday morning for 27-year-old Chris Headrick.
Officials said he left his home along Sulphur Springs Road at about 11 p.m. Thursday.
His family apparently told police they were planning to take him to the VA Hospital in Murfreesboro. At that point, he grabbed a military-issued backpack and helmet and left in a van.
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Missing Marine Located In Rutherford County
Marine, Iraq Veteran, saves 4-year-old's life
Local Marine saves 4-year-old's life
Bruce Brown
A 4-year-old boy was pulled from a swimming pool at a local apartment complex, and he was not breathing.
His lips were blue.
Providence was on his side, though, as U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Robby Buckles was near enough Tuesday night to help.
"I was with a group of friends, and I had gone inside," Buckles said. "Then I heard people yelling my name, saying there was a kid by the pool who wasn't breathing.
"I performed CPR until he started breathing, and then Acadian Ambulance showed up to take him to the hospital. I've been in the Marines for five years, and had EMS training with the Red Cross for three years, so I knew what to do."
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Local Marine Saves 4 year old boy
Bruce Brown
Buckles, a squad leader of a mortar platoon with the USMC 323 Weapons Company in Baton Rouge, is a veteran of a 2007-2008 deployment to Iraq. But he didn't get the chance to save a life there.
A 4-year-old boy was pulled from a swimming pool at a local apartment complex, and he was not breathing.
His lips were blue.
Providence was on his side, though, as U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Robby Buckles was near enough Tuesday night to help.
"I was with a group of friends, and I had gone inside," Buckles said. "Then I heard people yelling my name, saying there was a kid by the pool who wasn't breathing.
"I performed CPR until he started breathing, and then Acadian Ambulance showed up to take him to the hospital. I've been in the Marines for five years, and had EMS training with the Red Cross for three years, so I knew what to do."
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Local Marine Saves 4 year old boy
Alleged bank robber took cab to bank with friends
Driver 'furious' about use of taxi by alleged bank robber
By Nok-Noi Ricker
BDN Staff
BANGOR, Maine - There was nothing unusual about the three women Ace Taxi owner-operator Yehoshua "Josh" Mizrachi picked up Tuesday morning for a ride to a downtown bank. In fact, the cab driver said the trio were regular customers, and he already had transported them once that morning.
Mizrachi wasn’t even concerned when one of the women, later identified as Matisha Pitts, 25, of Bangor, asked him to park in front of Bangor Savings Bank on State Street while she ran inside at around 9:30 a.m.
"That's not unusual," he said Wednesday morning at a local coffee shop.
He said the first sign of a problem was when "one of her friends gets out of the car and goes and looks for her [Pitts] and when Pitts returns from the bank a minute later she said, 'Let's go.'"
"My little yellow flags went up because she was preparing to leave without her friend," Mizrachi said. "She said, 'Never mind, never mind [about the friend]. Let's go.'"
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http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/148229.html
By Nok-Noi Ricker
BDN Staff
BANGOR, Maine - There was nothing unusual about the three women Ace Taxi owner-operator Yehoshua "Josh" Mizrachi picked up Tuesday morning for a ride to a downtown bank. In fact, the cab driver said the trio were regular customers, and he already had transported them once that morning.
Mizrachi wasn’t even concerned when one of the women, later identified as Matisha Pitts, 25, of Bangor, asked him to park in front of Bangor Savings Bank on State Street while she ran inside at around 9:30 a.m.
"That's not unusual," he said Wednesday morning at a local coffee shop.
He said the first sign of a problem was when "one of her friends gets out of the car and goes and looks for her [Pitts] and when Pitts returns from the bank a minute later she said, 'Let's go.'"
"My little yellow flags went up because she was preparing to leave without her friend," Mizrachi said. "She said, 'Never mind, never mind [about the friend]. Let's go.'"
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http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/148229.html
Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus
Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus
By Nick Sambides Jr.
BDN Staff
An ailing Grindstone man and former U.S. Marine fatally shot by law enforcement officers near a veterans hospital Thursday was remembered by friends Friday as a generous, considerate man who struggled heroically to overcome a rare form of cancer and believed strongly in his right to carry a gun.
An autopsy of James F. Popkowski, 37, on Friday determined that he died from a gunshot wound to the neck and was killed in a homicide. The term denotes that he was killed by someone else, not that his death was necessarily caused by or came during a crime, a medical examiner's office spokeswoman said.
“I wished I could write that this was all a bad dream. … I can’t, so I instead will pray for the [lieutenant’s] family. Bing was a great boy and greater man. … He grew up with my boys and he never was nothing but a great kid,” wrote Galen Hale, a friend of Popkowski’s, on a Facebook page dedicated to Popkowski.
The Maine State Attorney General’s Office is investigating whether the two officers believed to have fired their weapons, VA police Officer Thomas Park and Maine Warden Service Sgt. Ron Dunham, were justified in using deadly force.
The investigation likely will take 60 to 90 days.
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Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus
also
Togus a city within a city
Thursday’s fatal shooting, first ever for police there, shines light on public safety
By Craig Crosby
AUGUSTA -- With thousands of people coming and going and dozens of buildings spread over hundreds of acres, all on federal land, the Togus Veterans Affairs hospital complex can accurately be described as a small city within the capital city.
And like any city, the facility comes replete with its own emergency services.
"A lot of people are surprised we're here," said Joe Stangel, a captain and emergency medical technician for the Togus Fire Department.
The Togus Police Department was cast into the public eye this week when one of its officers, along with a warden from the Maine Warden Service, reportedly shot and killed an armed Marine Corps veteran during a confrontation at the edge of the woods near Togus' Eastern Avenue entrance.
It was the first shooting involving a Togus police officer in the department's history.
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Togus a city within a city
By Nick Sambides Jr.
BDN Staff
An ailing Grindstone man and former U.S. Marine fatally shot by law enforcement officers near a veterans hospital Thursday was remembered by friends Friday as a generous, considerate man who struggled heroically to overcome a rare form of cancer and believed strongly in his right to carry a gun.
An autopsy of James F. Popkowski, 37, on Friday determined that he died from a gunshot wound to the neck and was killed in a homicide. The term denotes that he was killed by someone else, not that his death was necessarily caused by or came during a crime, a medical examiner's office spokeswoman said.
“I wished I could write that this was all a bad dream. … I can’t, so I instead will pray for the [lieutenant’s] family. Bing was a great boy and greater man. … He grew up with my boys and he never was nothing but a great kid,” wrote Galen Hale, a friend of Popkowski’s, on a Facebook page dedicated to Popkowski.
The Maine State Attorney General’s Office is investigating whether the two officers believed to have fired their weapons, VA police Officer Thomas Park and Maine Warden Service Sgt. Ron Dunham, were justified in using deadly force.
The investigation likely will take 60 to 90 days.
go here for more
Friends recall life of ex-Marine killed at Togus
also
Togus a city within a city
Thursday’s fatal shooting, first ever for police there, shines light on public safety
By Craig Crosby
AUGUSTA -- With thousands of people coming and going and dozens of buildings spread over hundreds of acres, all on federal land, the Togus Veterans Affairs hospital complex can accurately be described as a small city within the capital city.
And like any city, the facility comes replete with its own emergency services.
"A lot of people are surprised we're here," said Joe Stangel, a captain and emergency medical technician for the Togus Fire Department.
The Togus Police Department was cast into the public eye this week when one of its officers, along with a warden from the Maine Warden Service, reportedly shot and killed an armed Marine Corps veteran during a confrontation at the edge of the woods near Togus' Eastern Avenue entrance.
It was the first shooting involving a Togus police officer in the department's history.
go here for more of this
Togus a city within a city
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