Ethics missing from McCain staff on Sarah Palin

It is no secret what I think about Sarah Palin. I think she may be a nice person to some but what we saw and heard during the nine weeks of the campaign, show a woman with no problem lying about some very important things. Clearly she was not ready to be Vice-President and definitely not ready to be President if anything happened to McCain. This showed in the interviews.

What is really getting me angry about all the reports that have come out about Palin ever since is the fact that they should have come out well before the campaign lost. Where are the ethics of the people making these claims now? If they had a shred of commitment to the nation above politics, they should have stepped up and reported on all of this before it was too late. So why didn't they?

If Palin was so uninformed that she didn't know Africa was a continent, which is grade school level knowledge, didn't they think it was important for the American people to know considering the demanding role they tried to make us believe she was ready to take on? If Palin didn't know what countries comprised North America, didn't they think there would be a very serious problem with her in the second position of this nation? What were they thinking?

What about the GOP? Didn't they think they owed anything to the GOP or the people who gave their money to the GOP and the McCain campaign? Where is the outrage from any of them? Where is the outrage from the GOP? Are any of them paying attention to any of this instead of scratching their heads wondering why they lost?

They want to play games and look for a win no matter who has to pay for it! This nation almost paid dearly because they did not speak up and tell the truth about important facts the American people had a right to know and they had an obligation to tell before there was a chance she could have been the Vice President and McCain, who apparently didn't care if she was even capable of the job, had no problem selling her to the public instead of actually putting the country first instead of his campaign. He has disgraced himself and ended up dragging Palin thru a lot of hell because he should have left her in Alaska and out of the media spotlight.

Above all I feel sorry for the voters who believe in McCain and believed all the lies they heard instead of actually investing the time to find out what the truth was.

Sarah Palin fights back
Sarah Palin fights back 2:43
Gary Tuchman interviewed Sarah Palin on the sniping from McCain staffers and others in the closing days of the campaign.
click link for video

I think the media should leave Palin alone now and let her get back to work as the Governor of Alaska until the next election. This whole thing was an eye opener for the people who believed in her there too.

As for McCain's staff, anyone in politics should think twice before letting them get into that kind of position of power ever again. They didn't do the right thing. They were too busy thinking of themselves before and after when they let out all of this information after they lost and tried to find someone else to blame.kc

Barbaric treatment for Afghanistan's women leads to death

1,005 soldiers have died in Afghanistan. Does anyone know how many civilians? Does anyone know how many woman have died like this?

A death sentence for women
Ending the barbaric treatment of Afghanistan's pregnant women (and girls) is a colossal challenge that we cannot shy away from
Carol Mann guardian.co.uk, Friday November 7 2008 21.00 GMT
Roughly 75% of Afghan newborns that die do so because of lack of food, warmth, and care. Unloved little girls fare the worst. In Afghanistan as a whole, a woman dies of pregnancy-related causes every 27 minutes – and perhaps even more frequently, because many such deaths go unrecorded. Many, perhaps most, are under 16 years of age. The Taliban – blamed nowadays for just about all of Afghanistan's ills – have officially been gone from power for nearly seven years, so why are conditions still so abysmal?

Kabul and Herat boast all the trappings of globalised modernity: mobile phones abound, a tooth-eroding concoction called "Afghan Cola" is sold, the internet works (sometimes), there are ATM machines, sophisticated heroin laboratories, four-wheel drive vehicles, five-star hotels and ads for private banks. Yet so many women die like flies, in pools of blood and deep-rooted indifference.

While billions of dollars in aid have led to improvements in urban areas, where health facilities have been built and midwives trained, the overall maternal death figures have hardly changed. As one doctor told me: "A competent midwife or nurse would rather be out of work in Kabul than stuck in a remote village." But most Afghans live in remote villages, those in Badakhshan can be reached only after a day's bumpy ride on a donkey.

This miserable situation has been attributed to various causes, mainly lack of infrastructure and local economic conditions. But cultural questions must also be addressed, because gender discrimination is the most important cause of maternal mortality. In Afghan society, discrimination begins at birth. One obvious reason is that a boy is destined to support his parents and much of his family all his life, and therefore represents a long-term investment, whereas a girl will be given over to her husband's family as soon as possible. Feeding a girl is seen as effectively looking after someone else's property.

I heard a dreadful story of a breech birth which a traditional midwife did not know how to handle. In the end, she wrenched the baby's body out, severing it from its head, which remained inside the mother's womb. It took six days to get the woman to a hospital in Jalalabad though it was not very far from where she lived. She somehow survived, with major health complications, including permanent fistula, which will condemn her to a life of exclusion from her family and unrelieved misery.
go here for more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/07/afghanistan-gender

linked from
http://icasualties.org/oef/

Iraq vet avoids jail for officer attack

Iraq vet avoids jail for officer attack
An exemplary soldier described as a credit to his country has avoided jail and been given one last chance to stay in the Army after pleading guilty to shoving a policeman through a glass door.

Private Tristan Gardner, of the 3rd Battalion Mercian Regiment (Staffords), was told at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday : “If anyone else had walked through the door today, they would have gone straight to prison, no doubt about it.”

Lieutenant Kris Koniarski came to court to plead for leniency on behalf of Gardner, who would have been booted out the Army if given a suspended or custodial sentence. In an “extremely unusual” move, the soldier, of Mills Road, All Saints, Wolverhampton, was fined £1,100.

Despite having previous convictions for assault and battery, the court heard how Gardner was an “invaluable” soldier. While in Iraq last year on Operation Telic 9, the 24-year-old dragged injured people to safety following an explosion that killed several Royal Marines.
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http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/11/08/iraq-vet-avoids-jail-for-officer-attack/

Linked from ICasualties.org

US troops in Iraq losing savings

US troops in Iraq losing savings
US combat troops in Iraq battle to defend savings

US Lieutenant Colonel Mark Grabski has been busy on the computer over the past few weeks -- not to follow the history-making presidential election but to check on his dwindling savings.

"I had a list of icons, my favourites, the funds that are working with Thrift savings programme. Every single day, their rates were just collapsing," said the officer posted at Camp Speicher, north of the Iraqi capital.

"Virtually, I've lost right now tens of thousand of dollars," said the 31-year-old who is in charge of criminal inspections of the base.

Grabski said a third of his salary goes into Thrift, an additional pension scheme for US civil servants and soldiers. "I've lost 30 percent of my savings in this programme due to the financial crisis."

Army pensions are meant to pay out 50 percent of the salary of soldiers with 20 years of service and 75 percent for 30 years, but many rely on the Thrift programme to further secure their retirement.

Vets living on Canadian streets like leaving someone behind on battlefield

Vets living on Canadian streets like leaving 'someone bleeding on the battlefield
The Canadian Press

The weathered, beret-wearing veteran is a constant image on Remembrance Day.

Proud elderly men and women, their chests adorned with long rows of medals, will gather at cenotaphs across the country this Nov. 11 to pay tribute to their fallen comrades and soak up the adulation of a grateful public.

Few Canadians will give a thought to the veterans who are filling lines at soup kitchens and crowding beds at homeless shelters - those who ended their military service so psychologically scarred that it was impossible to fit back into life at home.

Their marriages have broken down, they have fallen into cycles of substance abuse and addiction.

Now they are on the street.

Although other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have programs and special shelters for homeless veterans, advocates such as retired colonel Patrick Stogran say Canada has ignored the problem.

Warriors come back from combat without the proper support, he says.
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PTSD On Trial:Doctors' testimony differs in Cortez murder trial

I'm not sure what to make out of this. Is it possible Ricardo Cortez does have PTSD? Absolutely. There is also the chance after reading this report that he could be faking. The only people who would know for sure are his family members and friends. They would know what he was like before going and what he was like when he came home.

While we need to get out as much information as possible about PTSD so the people suffering with it understand, the information can also be used to fake a wound. Keep an open mind when you read this because we really don't have a complete understanding of all that is involved in this case. kc

Doctors' testimony differs in Cortez murder trial

David Young

An out-of-body experience that felt like a commando raid in Iraq.

That is how one doctor on Friday described a Greeley Iraq war veteran’s actions the night he burst into a home with a shotgun and killed his estranged wife.



Friday was the fourth day of testimony in the first-degree murder trial of Ricardo Cortez. The 25-year-old is accused of killing his estranged pregnant wife, Nikki Fix-Cortez, 21, on Sept. 16, 2007, with a shotgun because she was leaving him. Cortez also injured Fix-Cortez’s friend Sam Jantz, according to prosecutors. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.



Dr. James Waters, a psychologist in private practice in Boulder who was hired by the defense, testified that Cortez suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Waters said Cortez’s PTSD stems from a number of issues, including being molested by his father and serving as a medic for two tours of duty in Iraq, where he saw ghastly images of people dying.
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A son commits suicide when he could no longer hear his angels

A Family Fights to Break the Silence
By hearingvoicesnetworkanz

Here is an edited excerpt of the article.
Written By Chris Barton
The inquest into Shane Fisher’s death begins with a song.

“This will be a difficult day for you,” says Dr Murray Jamieson to Shane’s parents. “And I want to express my sympathy.”

At their request, says the Auckland coroner, the court will hear “a recording by the late Shane Fisher, an accomplished guitarist”.

There’s an awkward moment. The music plays in fits and starts. The registrar gets up, sits down and then gets up again. Mercifully, the track settles and Shane’s melodious acoustic guitar and voice eerily fill the courtroom.

The tribute is a poignant reminder of a life cut short. The stuttering start has resonance too - Shane’s story has waited 29 months to be heard.

For years Shane lived in a world of spirits, visions and astral travel, a world where he saw himself as a leader of angels. But on May 18, 2006, with new medication, Shane reveals he does not feel controlled by spirits, does not see visions or hear the angels commanding him, and is not having thoughts put into his head.




The medication is clearly working, but there is a tragic side effect. The loss of his auditory hallucinations, his psychotic world, is also a loss of his identity. Shane is missing his angels and is talking about self-harm as a way of rejoining them.

Two days after the final review he was to have at Te Whetu Tawera, the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) acute mental health unit which was caring for him, Shane was found dead at home.

The question at the centre of the inquest into his death is whether someone as unwell as Shane received the proper level of care. It’s a question that goes to the heart of the recovery-based ideology that guides our mental health services.

It’s a question that asks whether there are gaps in that service - whether it has the expertise and resources to deliver its goals.

Whether Shane was given the time and support he needed to get better, or whether a service under strain pushed him back into the community before he was ready. At the end of the two-day inquest, the coroner finds Shane’s death, on May 20, 2006, was self-inflicted and intentional and that no other person was directly responsible. Shane was 26.

Suicide. It’s what everyone knew when it happened, but only now, such is the legal taboo on uttering the word, can it publicly be uttered.

Normally, that would be the end of it - name, address, occupation, self-inflicted death - another statistic to add to the 500 or so who die this way each year. Our Coroners Act prohibits the publication of details of individual suicides. And no one can publish that the death was by suicide until the coroner says so.

But Shane’s case is different, largely because the family wants the inquest evidence made public. It’s an unusual circumstance disrupting the logic behind the Coroners Act: that the family and friends of anyone who commits suicide suffer enough grief without having it played out in the news media. Normally, suicide is nobody else’s business.

The Fishers disagree. They want the information to come out to highlight the plight Shane, and others like him, face under what they view as a mental health service in chaos.

Thanks to their courage, and Dr Jamieson’s lifting of the publication prohibition - in the hope some “good could come out of the death of a much-loved son” - the wall of silence of what happens in a suicide inquest is broken through…

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Non-combat death in Iraq

DoD Identifies Army Casualty
US Department of Defense (press release) - Washington,DC,USA


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Spc. Adam M. Wenger, 27, of Waterford, Mich., died Nov. 5 in Tunnis, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a non-combat incident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 76th Field Artillery, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

The incident is under investigation.

Tammy Duckworth: Service in Washington would be an honor

Duckworth: Service in Washington would be an honor
Chicago Tribune - United States
CHICAGO - Illinois' Veterans Affairs director said Friday she'd be honored to serve in the U.S. Senate if Gov. Rod Blagojevich taps her to fill Barack Obama's seat.

Tammy Duckworth also said she'd also be honored to take a post in President-elect Obama's administration. If he asks. And he hasn't.

Duckworth, 40, hasn't heard from either the governor or Obama, and said she was surprised several months ago when Blagojevich mentioned her as a contender.

A Purple Heart recipient, Duckworth lost both legs in a 2004 helicopter crash while serving as an Illinois Army National Guard pilot in Iraq. The Democrat ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006 before being named to her current post.

The state has created $70 million in new veterans programs, including low-interest home loans, brain injury screening and a 24-hour hot line to help vets with battle-related stress. And Illinois gives employers a $600 tax credit for hiring veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I would be honored to be able to do that on a national level," Duckworth said after speaking at a conference in Chicago on legal and medical issues facing veterans.
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Elusive threats boost PTSD risk in Afghanistan

Elusive threats boost PTSD risk in Afghanistan
Updated Sat. Nov. 8 2008 10:23 AM ET

Stefania Moretti, CTV.ca News

Canadian troops fighting in Afghanistan are up against two dangerous adversaries. The first, the elusive enemy; the second, the less-tangible threat of mental breakdown.

Indeed, new studies suggest soldiers deployed to Afghanistan are more likely to suffer from mental illness because of the high degree of uncertainty that characterizes the NATO-led mission.



Traditionally, wars have been fought on the front lines of the battlefield with an identifiable enemy in uniform. But in Afghanistan, the enemy is "elusive," said one mental health expert. Threat can come from anywhere.

Afghanistan has been described as a 360-degree war with virtually no safe zone.

Suicide bombers dressed in civilian garb, improvised explosive devices strewn across the treacherous "Highway of Death" connecting Kabul and Kandahar and entire communities surrounded by deadly land mines means soldiers face around-the-clock danger.

As a result, Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are likely at higher risk of developing post-traumatic disorder than their comrades serving in other missions, Dr. Alain Brunet, of the Douglas Research Centre and McGill University, recently told CTV.ca in a telephone interview from Montreal.

British troops sent to Afghanistan last year were nine times more likely to suffer from PTSD, according to that country's Ministry of Defence in a study released this month. Most British troops are stationed in Helmand province -- a less volatile region than Canadians stationed in the Taliban hotbed of Kandahar province.

As many as 28 per cent of troops come back from armed combat with one or more mental health issues, according to data complied by the head of the Canadian military's deployment health section last year. Of those:

seventeen per cent exhibited signs of high-risk drinking
five per cent showed symptoms of PTSD
five per cent had signs of serious depression
Since the mission in Afghanistan began in 2002, the number of Veterans Affairs members with a PTSD condition has more than tripled, up from roughly 1,800 to 6,500, according to a Veterans Affairs briefing note obtained by The Canadian Press in March. Veterans Affairs expect the numbers will continue to climb with troops scheduled to stay until at least 2011.
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Remains found in Deltona Florida may be homeless veteran

Authorities think remains are those of homeless man
Willoughby Mariano Sentinel Staff Writer
November 8, 2008
VOLUSIA COUNTY - Volusia deputies tentatively identified human remains found in the Deltona area as those of a homeless man with health problems, officials said Friday. Carl Lynn Cappabianca, 58, left his DeLand home earlier this year after becoming estranged from his wife. He suffered from diabetes and other medical conditions, deputies said.

A ring bearing the U.S. Marines insignia was among items found at the scene, so investigators contacted authorities at the county's Veterans Services Division, who helped identify the remains.

go here for the rest
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-homeless-remains-110808,0,6260640.story

Miracle landing from 5,500 feet by pilot suddenly blinded by stroke

Pilot lands safely after going blind in mid-air
British aviator reveals 'terrifying' ordeal after suffering stroke at 5,500 feet
updated 7:54 a.m. ET, Sat., Nov. 8, 2008
LONDON - A British pilot who was suddenly blinded by a stroke during a solo flight was talked safely down by a military pilot, the Royal Air Force said Friday.

Jim O'Neill asked for help after he was went blind 40 minutes into a flight from Scotland to southeastern England last week. The BBC reported that O'Neill, flying a small Cessna aircraft, lost his sight 5,500 feet in the air.

"It was terrifying," O'Neill said. "Suddenly, I couldn't see the dials in front of me."
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27600521/

Thank You Toby Keith When War Comes Home Part Two is back

I just receive word that the claim against the audio on When War Comes Home Part Two, has been removed. Glad to hear this. The video is about when the troops come home changed by what they went through. Thank you very much Tody Keith, or the person who decided to complain about the songs. Yesterday's Rain and My List are powerful songs for a video like this.

While there are many that will never know the wound of PTSD, too many will. If we know what PTSD is, then we know what signs to watch for and when they need help to heal. It is never too late to get help. My husband is living proof of that.

He came home in 1971 from Vietnam. The signs of PTSD were there, but they were mild and back then, no one really knew what it was. While I was doing outreach work with other veterans, Jack wouldn't listen. He gave the usual excuses that the VA was for "guys who had their legs blown off" and he thought if he went to he VA, he'd be taking away from them. His attitude was that since he was still able to work, there was no reason to go. He was not thinking about healing. He didn't think he deserved to be helped.

Jack finally decided to go to a veteran's center for help. That was in 1993 and they managed to convince him to go to the VA. All those years of him suffering while PTSD claimed more of him needlessly finally ended in 1999 when he began to heal with the help of the VA therapy and medications. His claim was tied up for six years because of an error on his Bronze Star Award. Once that was cleared up, the VA took great care of him.

We've been married for 24 years now and we found our own kind of normal living with PTSD instead of just coping. Jack, well, he'll never be the way he was before and he has a lot of problems but we've learned to adapt. The key was first understanding what PTSD was. Had I not known why he was acting the way he did, I would not have been able to stay married to him. The other part was my faith in God. That gave me a lot of strength to fight for him as well as forgive him.

What we went through and still go through is the reason I work so hard to provide education on PTSD as well as support. I remember the days when I had no one to talk to, feeling lost studying clinical reports and every shred of articles written on PTSD trying to understand it. There were no short cuts for wives like me back then. There are many now. Support groups and internet sites are providing a wealth of knowledge and most of them come from Vietnam veterans and their wives. No one has to fight this alone now.

Learn what the signs are and avoid making the same mistakes we did. Our experiences are all over the net. Please use the support we offer so that you don't have to go thru half of what we did. While the generations are different, PTSD is no different than it was in ancient times. The thought of older veterans and their families not understanding is just an excuse to not listen to "people old enough to be your parent" that I've heard too many times.

Use my videos and pass them on to anyone you think they will help. That's what they are there for.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

International Fellowship of Chaplains

Namguardianangel@aol.com

www.Namguardianangel.org

www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"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." - George Washington

Ohio's voter turnout was lower Tuesday than in 2004

Experts confounded: Turnout higher in Ohio in 2004
Friday, November 7, 2008 3:20 AM
By Mark Niquette

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Despite a record number of registered voters this year, intense interest in the presidential election and the historic outcome, Ohio's voter turnout was lower Tuesday than in 2004, unofficial statistics show.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is reporting 67 percent turnout, compared with 72 percent in 2004. She had been predicting 80 percent turnout this time.

The percentage could increase as provisional ballots, overseas ballots and other outstanding votes are included during the official canvass in the coming weeks.

But overall turnout still is expected to be lower than in 2004, leaving experts at a loss to explain it -- especially because the number of registered voters increased by 319,000 from four years ago.

"That's rather puzzling, given the activity level," said Paul Beck, a political-science professor at Ohio State University.

The total number of votes cast Tuesday declined in 69 of Ohio's 88 counties when compared with official totals from 2004. In Franklin County, for example, about 10,000 fewer votes were cast this year.

Although Brunner's office said the totals include 181,000 provisional ballots reported so far statewide, some counties said that's not the case. But the turnout percentage still will be lower than 2004.
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Baltimore Police Need Help:Missing Forest Park woman believed in danger

Missing Forest Park woman believed in danger
November 7, 2008
City police continue to seek a missing Forest Park mother of three children who was last seen Oct. 28 in the company of her 28-year-old boyfriend, said a Police Department spokesman. The boyfriend's name was not released. Mia Lynn Nichols, 37, of the 3900 block of W. Forest Park Ave. was last seen in her boyfriend's green Acura with tags 6EB B10 and was reported missing the next day, said Agent Donny Moses, the spokesman. "We believe she may be in danger," Moses said. Anyone with information on the woman's whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the homicide squad at 410-396-2100.

Richard Irwin
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.crimedigest070nov07,0,3880800.story

Boy, 8, arrested in Ariz. double homicide

Boy, 8, arrested in Ariz. double homicide
by Dennis Wagner - Nov. 7, 2008 02:35 PM
The Arizona Republic
An 8-year-old boy in the rural community of St. Johns may face double-murder charges in the shooting death of his father and another man at the family residence, according to Police Chief Roy Melnick.

The child is being held in juvenile custody for a hearing Friday afternoon in Apache County Justice Court. His 29-year-old father, whose name is being withheld by The Arizona Republic to avoid identifying the boy, and a boarder at their home, Tim Romans, 39, were found dead at the family residence Wednesday shortly after neighbors reported the sound of gunfire, Melnick said.
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Sad day in America when churches need security guards

It's a very sad day in America when churches need security guards with guns. Think of going to worship God in your chosen faith knowing you need someone to protect you from people who fear nothing, have faith in nothing, value nothing. Has anger and hatred so captured the minds of some people they could do such a thing? The question we should have been asking a very long time ago is why.

We have people in this country who can kill children, rape them, torture them with absolutely no remorse at all. We have people who will kill others because of the evil that has taken control over everything that is supposed to make us human.

There are no longer limits criminals even find offensive. There was a time when they thought " You don't kill a cop" or "You don't kill a kid" but those days are long gone.

As long as people decide there is no real hell, no real heaven, nothing to penetrate their own soul, this will keep happening. We need to start to wonder why this is happening when it did not happen before.

Armed guards keep watch over church services
Story Highlights
Churches nationwide turning to parishioners to join volunteer security teams

Many volunteers are retired and off-duty officers who carry concealed weapons

Congregants say the armed security presence provides peace of mind

Consultants encourage using armed guards who are trained in weapons handling
By Emanuella Grinberg
CNN

(CNN) -- Lori Davis remembers a time when the doors were always open at her church -- and not guarded.


"No one thought twice about their safety. I guess we took it for granted," said Davis.

But things have changed. In an era when terrorism threats and deadly shootings at schools and churches have made headlines, religious leaders are rethinking their security strategies. Last Saturday, a minister was fatally shot and another man wounded outside of a church in Kentucky where the men went to attend a funeral.

Such violence has houses of worship evolving from the days of walkie-talkies and video surveillance to armed guards, who keep a watchful eye over worship services and church.

"We live in a sinful world and people do crazy and irrational things," said Davis, a member of the Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Highview, like a number of other churches nationwide, has a volunteer security force consisting of at least one armed guard during any given worship service.
See where some recent deadly church shootings occurred »

"I'm much more comfortable knowing they're there if needed rather than just hoping for the best," Davis said.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/06/church.security/index.html

Mississippi students told not to say Obama's name after election

Mississippi students told not to say Obama's name
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday November 7, 2008

A controversy has erupted at a Mississippi junior high school over allegations that a bus driver and a coach threatened students with punishment for saying Barack Obama's name.

The incidents became public when outraged parents called the studios of WAPT news in Pearl, Miss. Some said their children were threatened by a bus driver with being written up and taken to the principal's office, others that their children were told by a girls' basketball coach they would be suspended.
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VA Announces Expansion Of Disability Evaluation System Pilot

Recent VA News Releases

To view and download VA news release, please visit the following
Internet address:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel




VA Announces Expansion Of Disability Evaluation System Pilot
All Military Services Now Taking Part

WASHINGTON (Nov. 7, 2008) -- Wounded service members leaving the
military will have easier, quicker access to their veterans benefits due
to the expansion of a pilot program that will offer streamlined
disability evaluations that will reach 19 military installations,
representing all military departments.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today the expansion of
the Disability Evaluation System (DES) pilot which started in the
National Capitol Region in coordination with Departments of Defense
(DoD). The pilot is a test of a new process that eliminates
duplicative, time-consuming and often confusing elements of the two
current disability processes of the departments.

"Providing Service members going through the disability process with
comprehensive information about their benefits from both departments and
delivering their VA benefits as fast as possible is our goal. This
single evaluation will help us do just that," Tom Pamperin, deputy
director of VA's Compensation and Pension Service, said. "The program
expansion will allow wounded warriors a smoother and more efficient
transition to getting services from the VA."

The initial phase of the expansion started on Oct 1, with Fort Meade,
Md. and Fort Belvoir, Va. The remaining 17 installations will begin
upon completion of site preparations and personnel orientation and
training, during an 8-month period from November 2008 to May 2009.

"The decision to expand the pilot was based upon a favorable review that
focused on whether the pilot met its timeliness, effectiveness,
transparency, and customer and stakeholder satisfaction objectives,"
said Sam Retherford, director, officer and enlisted personnel
management, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness. "This expansion extends beyond the national capital region,
so that more diverse data from other geographic areas can be evaluated,
prior to rendering a final decision on worldwide implementation."

The remaining installations to begin the program are: Army:
Fort Carson,Colo.;
Fort Drum, N.Y.;
Fort Stewart, Ga.;
Fort Richardson, Alaska;
Fort Wainwright, Alaska;
Brooke Army Medical Center, Texas; and
Fort Polk,La.

Navy:
Naval Medical Center (NMC) San Diego and
Camp Pendleton,Calif.;
NMC Bremerton, Wash.;
NMC Jacksonville, Fla.; and
Camp Lejeune,N.C.
Air Force: Vance Air Force Base, Okla.;
Nellis Air Force Base,Nev.;
MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.;
Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska.;
and Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

In November 2007 VA and DoD implemented the pilot test for disability
cases originating at the three major military treatment facilities in
the national capitol region. To date, over 700 service members have
participated in the pilot over the last ten months.

The single disability examination pilot is focused on recommendations
from the reports of the Task Force on Returning Global War on Terrorism
Heroes, the Independent Review Group, the President's Commission on Care
for America's Returning Wounded Warriors (the Dole/Shalala Commission),
and the Commission on Veterans' Disability Benefits.

Man kills ex-wife's boyfriend, self in northwest Houston

Man kills ex-wife's boyfriend, self in northwest Houston
JENNIFER LEAHY and MIKE GLENN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 7, 2008, 12:08AM
A Houston man on Thursday killed his ex-wife's boyfriend of two months, then fatally shot himself, police said.

The woman was shot in the hand.

Ildefonso Rodriguez-Saldana went to the home of Daniel Nava Eloisa in the 10300 block of Gladewood, police said.

Rodriguez-Saldana approached his ex-wife and Eloisa as they sat inside a silver Toyota parked in the driveway of the home, preparing to leave for work about 10:45 a.m., police said. He shot Eloisa several times, police said.

Eloisa died at the scene. Lilliana Del Carmen-Rodriguez was shot in the hand, likely trying to pull her 33-year-old boyfriend away from the gunfire, police said.

The estranged couple's 10-year-old son was with his father at the time of the shooting but did not witness it because he had fallen asleep in the car, said Sgt. John McGalin, with the Houston Police Department's homicide division.

Rodriguez-Saldana returned to his car after the shooting, drove around the block, and told his son to go to his mother, police said.

Rodriguez-Saldana then shot himself in the head. His car rolled several feet before striking a tree.
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