Chaplains visit Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda after Freeway Complex fire

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
Chaplain Keith Stiles, right, of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, consoles Vivian Vargas, left, after she lost her home on Aviemore Drive in Yorba Linda in the Freeway Complex fire. Stiles gave them a Bible and prayed with them.

Chaplains visit Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda after Freeway Complex fire
By Duke Helfand
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:33:32 PM

When they respond to disasters, chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team usually encounter throngs of desperate victims.

So the evangelical Christians were surprised Monday as they searched deserted, mountainous neighborhoods of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda that had been charred by the Freeway Complex fire.


The chaplains were awed by the panoramic views from Orange County's sloping suburbs, but struck by the absence of victims and eager to apply their ministerial hands.

The seven men, led by a retired police chief from North Carolina, had received just 15 requests for help since their arrival last week, their third deployment to Southern California since 2003 in response to wildfires.

A much larger contingent of chaplains received several hundred requests for help during last year's Witch fire in northern San Diego County.
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Giving Thanks In Troubled Times

Growing up in a Greek/Scottish household, we were always surrounded by family. There were five members of my immediate family, aunts, uncles and cousins all gathered around for holidays. Thanksgiving was always huge for my family. It was a wonderful day with cherished memories no matter how the rest of the year was going. Nothing else mattered that day except to spend time together with the people that mattered the most.

Four years ago when I moved to Florida, there were two less members of my family. My father passed away in 1987. Ten years ago, one of my brothers passed away at the age of 42. Uncles and aunts were gone as well as another cousin, also passed away at a young age. My husband's family had all passed away in thirteen months between 1993 and 1994. The first Thanksgiving here in Florida was hard, but friends of ours came from back home. They have a winter place in St. Petersburg. Having them here made it better for us. They repeated it the following year. Last year, it was hard because it was just the three of us. It was very lonely and my mother had passed away that February. This year will be especially hard because my brother Nick passed away last month, less than a week after he was laid off from his job. I've been out of work since January when I was let go because my job as Administrator of Christian Education was eliminated. It's been a rough year financially especially considering it seems to be costing me more and more to be a Chaplain. Between training, membership and traveling, it's been more out of my pocket than in. But there has been a trade off that you cannot put a price tag on.

When my mother was getting on in years, she tended to focus on what was wrong instead of what was right. I used to remind her that she needs to see what is good instead of only looking at what is bad in her life. It helps me get through really hard times and a very, very stressful time covering trauma on this blog. I read so many horrible stories about suffering, accidents, families falling apart, people dying and especially the people suffering from trauma that it could very well send me into a deep dark depression of my own. While I tend to think that I've just gotten to the point when I can tolerate it all better, the truth is, it never really does get easier.

A strange thing happened this year above all the other years. My faith in human kindness is fully restored because of some of the wonderful stories I've read this year. People making a difference for others by sharing their own pain. People deciding that since they know how it feels, they want to make sure others find some comfort at the very least. People who decide to rise above their own pain to do whatever they can to help total strangers. I've met them as Chaplains, as outreach workers and as average people, all trying to make things better and asking nothing in return, expecting nothing more than the feeling they get when they help someone else.

I remember being infuriated that a post I did on a Marine on YouTube tossing a puppy off a cliff managed to get more hits than a story of a veteran committing suicide because he had PTSD. That made me think that the importance some people place on the shocking mattered more than sorrowful. That all changed with an 11 year old boy named Brenden Foster.

Brenden was dying when he made a wish the beginning of November. He could have asked for anything he wanted for himself. After all, who would turn down the dying wish of a child? While Brenden could have asked for anything as leukemia was taking days of his life away, Brenden saw some homeless people and made the wish that would change the world. He wanted to feed the homeless people.

I tracked the story of this earthly angel and felt blessed just to be able to share his story. The miracle came when the comments started to roll in. One by one, people were talking about how this child changed their minds and warmed their hearts. Today by 4:00 this post has pushed my daily hit count over 1,200. That's how important this child's story is. It has gained more comments than anything else I've posted since this blog began last year.

When we have troubles in our own lives, it's very easy to close our eyes to the needs of someone else. (I'm guilty of that as well. There are days when I don't even want to turn on the PC. ) This year, with all I have to think about that has not been very good, Brenden's example will cause me to do the blessing this year with a restored faith in God's bounty. There is so much for me to be grateful for. While our house needs a new roof we cannot afford to replace, we still have one when so many have lost their's. While my extended family is a lot smaller, the survivors are very close emotionally. While I don't have a paycheck anymore, I have a rewarding calling that is filling more than the big paychecks I used to get back in Massachusetts. While I could look at what I can no longer buy, I am looking at what money cannot buy and that is love. Love, prayers, compassion from total strangers coming into my life to help me, offering support and friendship. What I also have to be very grateful for this year is how many other people across the nation who have taken on helping our veterans with PTSD. This is a miracle as well. I've never had so much hope in my life that things will get better for them and their families.

If you have had a bad year, open your heart and then your eyes and you will find what you are truly blessed with. It's not that hard to do. You will find what really matters in your life instead of what you want out of life. Brenden did that and if an 11 year old child can do that facing death, so can you. Brenden first came into the media spotlight three weeks before he passed away and no one will ever be the same again.



Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"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

Boy, 9, commits suicide

My heart just sunk deeply in my chest. We hear about people committing suicide at all different ages and it never really makes sense. What causes people to be faced without any hope of a better day the next day? Yet when it is such a young child, it leaves a hole in all of us. A family is left to grieve the loss and wonder why it happened, what they could have done or said. It will not comfort them that all too often, there is really nothing they could have done differently. Please pray for this family after this tragedy.

Boy, 9, commits suicide

By Camille C. Spencer and Molly Moorhead, Times staff writers
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY — Saturday was a typical evening in the Tyree household.

Jacqueline Tyree fixed cabbage, sausage and rice for dinner. Her 9-year-old son, Efrem, took his bath after dinner, then went to put on lotion while Jacqueline fixed her 7-year-old daughter's hair.

After a few moments of silence in her son's room, Jacqueline went to check on him and made a horrifying discovery:

Efrem was hanging from his closet shelf by two leather belts.

Jacqueline screamed, unlaced the belts and began CPR. A neighbor and paramedics tried to revive him, too, but it was too late.

Efrem, a fourth-grade honor roll student who earned his gold belt in karate this summer, was pronounced dead at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office has called the case a suicide. An autopsy is pending, but "preliminary results point to death by hanging," said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.
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Family parenting "expert" arrested for domestic violence

Tampa family therapist jailed

By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Write
Monday, November 24, 2008

TAMPA — Tired of your child's defiance, arguing, and disrespectful attitude?

Having problems with your child at home, in school, or out in public?

Family therapist Michael Anthony Holder poses these questions on his Web site, and offers an answer:

His "Dynamic Parenting System," an intensive series of in-home consultations designed to help parents correct their children's negative behaviors.

But Saturday night, Holder's own parenting tactics landed him in jail.

Holder, 39, was arrested on two domestic battery charges, including battery on his 15-year-old stepson, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reports.

Holder is accused of grabbing the boy by the neck during a dispute, choking him and inflicting several cuts on the boy's arms and face and a bruise on his left arm, an arrest report said
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Tampa Marines returning from Iraq today

Tampa Marines returning from Iraq today
Nov 25, 2008
November 25, 2008
Tampa Marines returning from Iraq today
TAMPA -- About 70 Marine reservists are returning home to Tampa today after seven months in Iraq.

The Marines, part of the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, fly in to Tampa International Airport and head to the Marine Reserve Training Center on Gandy Boulevard in Tampa between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., where family will be waiting to greet them.
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Student wrecks car on snowy road, disappears

Maura Murray and William Rausch were college sweethearts and had just gotten engaged.

Student wrecks car on snowy road, disappears
Story Highlights
Maura Murray told her professors there had been a death in the family

There was no death, relatives say

Car was found crashed into a tree along snowy New Hampshire roadway

A $40,000 reward is offered. Tips? Call 603-271-2663

By Rupa Mikkilineni
Nancy Grace Producer
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Every weekend for more than four years, Fred Murray has walked the road where his daughter, Maura, vanished. Family, friends and volunteers help him look in the woods and mountains near Haverhill, New Hampshire, for clues to what happened to her.

Maura Murray, a 21-year-old nursing student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, disappeared on a cold and snowy night in February 2004. She was last known to be driving from Massachusetts through New Hampshire. It is still unclear where she was heading in her black 1996 Saturn.

The car was found abandoned, its front end crashed against a tree. It apparently had skidded off a road at a sharp curve.

Shortly after the accident, a passing bus driver stopped and asked Murray if she needed help. She said no.

Ten minutes later, police arrived. Inside the crumpled Saturn, they found some of Murray's belongings -- school books, running gear, snack foods and alcohol -- police won't say what kind.

But Murray was gone, along with her car keys and a backpack she always carried.

There was nothing to hint she'd be motivated to run away, according to her fiancé, William Rausch, and her father, Fred Murray.
Watch why this cold case is a true mystery »

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/25/grace.coldcase.murray/index.html

VA and Louisiana State University join forces

Recent VA News Releases

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



VA and Louisiana State University
Announce Site Selections for New Orleans Medical Center Projects

WASHINGTON (Nov. 25, 2008) - In a public event held today in New
Orleans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the State of
Louisiana jointly announced the selection of adjacent downtown sites for
construction of their replacement medical center projects. The two
projects, called the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Louisiana
State University Academic Medical Center, restore greatly needed health
care capability lost in New Orleans during flooding after Hurricane
Katrina in late August 2005.

"Restoring a full capability medical center for our veterans in New
Orleans and southeastern Louisiana is one of the Secretary's highest
priorities," said Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon H.
Mansfield. "Site selection is a key milestone in the project delivery
process."

"VA selected the downtown site because it offers the best solution for
our veterans, today and into the future," Mansfield added. "The site,
located within a robust medical district with affiliate health care
teaching universities, promotes long term operational synergy and
efficiency. The selected site aligns with the City of New Orleans and
State of Louisiana Hurricane Katrina recovery and redevelopment plans."

An agreement between VA and the City of New Orleans obligates the city
to acquire the land for the new facility, prepare the site for
construction and turn over the site to VA within one year.

"I understand this site selection creates near term impact on the
directly affected and surrounding neighborhoods," Mansfield continued.

"We have been working cooperatively with federal, state, city and
neighborhood partners to develop a robust package of treatment measures
to mitigate the negative impacts and invest in new local opportunities."


"Constructing this state-of-the-art medical complex near downtown New
Orleans follows through on the Administration's commitment to fully
support recovery efforts," he said.

The announcement follows a nearly one-year process of extensive study of
site alternatives, including analysis of the potential impacts on the
environment and historically significant structures.

"Today is of great significance for the City of New Orleans and for the
veterans of the Gulf Coast. The announcement by my colleagues at the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs brings to closure a collaborative
and inclusive process involving Federal, state and local government, as
well as stakeholders who determined the location of the new veterans
hospital," said retired Maj. Gen. Douglas O'Dell, federal coordinator
for Gulf Coast rebuilding.

"The hospital is a key component of the city's vision of a revitalized
downtown area and a world class medical campus," O'Dell added.

"Further, this decision advances the goal President Bush and Secretary
Peake established of better access to quality health care for the needs
of current and future veterans,"

Dr. John Lombardi, LSU System President, said that building these
hospitals in close proximity to each other assures the future of top
quality health care, research, and medical education not only for the
New Orleans area but for the entire state for many years to come. "This
is a major milestone in constructing these joint academic medical
centers that are destined to be models of health care reform for the
nation in creating thousands of jobs while delivering cost-efficient
medical treatment and disease management," he said.

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who hosted today's news conference where
the announcement was made, said, "The new VA hospital in downtown New
Orleans will provide needed medical care for veterans throughout the
region and will serve as a key economic driver for our future. Along
with the new LSU hospital, it will serve as the centerpiece of our
biomedical district, generating thousands of jobs and enabling our city
to compete with communities that are known for their medical services
and research."

More information on the VA and LSU medical center projects is available
at http://www.valsumedcenters.com

Post-Combat Coping Methods Vary, Troops Say

Post-Combat Coping Methods Vary, Troops Say
By AmericasNewsTodayCom


By AmericasNewsToday.Org staff




Methods of coping with combat and its after effects vary as greatly as the effects themselves, six warriors participating in a conference panel in Washington said.

The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury hosted the "Warrior Resilience Conference: Partnership with the Line." Combat veterans who spoke at the conference described a range of effects and needs in becoming resilient.

Army Maj. Stephen Williams was the head nurse with an outpatient unit of the 3rd Medical Command’s 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad when the base was hit with mortars July 10.

Since then, Williams has dwelled not on what he saw or did that day, but on what he couldn’t do -- save his battle partner, Army Capt. Maria Ortiz.

"I couldn’t provide assistance to my comrade who was actually lying next to me and ended up passing away," said Williams, who was seriously wounded in his leg with a severed femoral artery.

Dealing with the reality that he couldn’t help Ortiz was just one piece of a larger puzzle for Williams. He also had to face how his injuries would affect him and his family. When he returned home to convalesce, he said, his young children wouldn’t touch him, for fear they would hurt him.

"In hindsight, I didn’t know enough to say, ‘Hey, we need to talk to them more [deeply] on this," he said. "So, I think there’s something more that we could do for the families out there [to] let them come to grips with these situations."

An Army couple at the conference, the Blackledges, also know how crucial it is to have family support during the healing process and just how important it is to come to grips with what’s happened.
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Young Veteran fights against homelessness and PTSD

A young Vets fight against homelessness
WTNH - New Haven,CT,USA


Young Vet fights against
homelessness
Last Edited: Tuesday, 25 Nov 2008, 12:06 AM EST
Created On: Monday, 24 Nov 2008, 11:10 PM EST

Alan Cohn
Bridgeport (WTNH) - One young solider says his life was going well until he signed up to serve his country. After surviving the danger of war, he came back to the states and found his real battle is surviving a new reality of homelessness.

It's estimated about 300,000 service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 suffer from Post Traumatic Stress. And, a growing number of them are winding up on the street. One of them is named Joe Johnson.

It took a little more than a year. Johnson went from returning hero, greeted by Governor Jodi Rell when his National Guard Unit returned home, to down on his luck and out on the street.

"It's difficult coming back from that situation and never thinking you're going to be homeless at some point and there it happens," he said.

Johnson was a member of the Branford-based Delta Company, of the 102nd Infantry, spending a year in Afghanistan just steps from Pakistani border.

"A 107 rocket flew over my head 20 feet up in the air and exploded about 50 feet behind me," Johnson said. "That was a scary moment; the scariest moment of my life."

It was a year he had one foot on the battlefield and one foot at home.

"The phone calls were very difficult," Johnson said. "My three-year-old daughter over there, 'Daddy when are you coming home from Afghanistan? I want you home daddy.'"

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PTSD:General's story highlights combat stress

Gen. Carter Ham, to call him a hero would be putting it mildly. He's a hero to the troops not just because he's a high ranking officer, but because he is willing to speak out on having PTSD. That is a kind of courage very few in his position are willing to do.

When men like my husband came home from Vietnam, they knew something had changed inside of them but they didn't know what it was. They suffered in silence just as generations before them suffered. When PTSD was first used in 1976 with a study commissioned by the DAV, news was slowly reaching the veterans. While they fought to have it recognized as wound caused by their service, it was very difficult to talk about. The perception that there was something wrong with them kept too many from even seeking help to heal.

After 26 years of doing outreach work and 24 years of marriage, my husband finally reached the point when he was ready for me to actually use my married legal name. Up until now it was almost as if he was ashamed to be wounded. Imagine that! What gave him the comfort was not anything I did. It came from seeing reports on the news and people he knows coming out, talking about it without any shame whatsoever. Hearing the courageous words from others is what brought him peace with PTSD. Because of great care from the VA, after a long battle with them, he's living a life instead of just existing in one slowly dying inside.

General Ham does not realize what he's just done by being willing to talk about this wound and normalize it. He's normal but combat and all other trauma related events are not part of normal life. It's all a normal reaction to abnormal events. Simple as that.

While there are still some commanders in the military today dismissing PTSD, calling it anything other than what it is, still exist and injure their troops, General Ham has shown what true care and leadership is. Plan on seeing a lot more veterans coming forward seeking help because of General Ham.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.com coming soon!
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"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

Then-Col. Gary Patton salutes during a service for Staff Sgt. Thomas Vitagliano, Pfc. George Geer and Pfc. Jesus Fonseca. The men died Jan. 17, 2005, in Ramadi.
By Joe Raedle, Getty Images

General's story highlights combat stress
USA Today - USA

By Tom Vanden Brook

Gen. Carter Ham was among the best of the best — tough, smart and strong — an elite soldier in a battle-hardened Army. At the Pentagon, his star was rising.

In Iraq, he was in command in the north during the early part of the war, when the insurgency became more aggressive. Shortly before he was to return home, on Dec. 21, 2004, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mess hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul and killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. troops. Ham arrived at the scene 20 minutes later to find the devastation.

When Ham returned from Mosul to Fort Lewis, Wash., in February 2005, something in the affable officer was missing. Loud noises startled him. Sleep didn't come easily.

"When he came back, all of him didn't come back. … Pieces of him the way he used to be were perhaps left back there," says his wife, Christi. "I didn't get the whole guy I'd sent away."

Today, Ham, 56, is one of only 12 four-star generals in the Army. He commands all U.S. soldiers in Europe. The stress of his combat service could have derailed his career, but Ham says he realized that he needed help transitioning from life on the battlefields of Iraq to the halls of power at the Pentagon. So he sought screening for post-traumatic stress and got counseling from a chaplain. That helped him "get realigned," he says.

"You need somebody to assure you that it's not abnormal," Ham says. "It's not abnormal to have difficulty sleeping. It's not abnormal to be jumpy at loud sounds. It's not abnormal to find yourself with mood swings at seemingly trivial matters. More than anything else, just to be able to say that out loud."

The willingness of Ham, one of the military's top officers, to speak candidly with USA TODAY for the first time about post-traumatic stress represents a tectonic shift for a military system in which seeking such help has long been seen as a sign of weakness.

It's also a recognition of the seriousness of combat stress, which can often worsen to become post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Sgt 1st Class Miguel A. Wilson died while trying to save another soldier

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


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

Sgt 1st Class Miguel A. Wilson, 36, of Bonham, Texas, died Nov. 21 in Abu Sayf, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a rescue attempt of another soldier while their unit was conducting a dismounted reconnaissance mission. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

The incident remains under investigation.

http://icasualties.org/oif/

IIT student died after doing 'whippets'

IIT student died after doing 'whippets'

New details in IIT student's death
November 24, 2008 at 12:10 PM Comments (0)
The 19-year-old Illinois Institute of Technology student who was found dead in his fraternity house Saturday died of asphyxia from inhaling nitrous oxide from a whipped cream container, authorities said today.

The body of Benjamin Collen, a sophomore biomedical engineering major from Lincolnwood, was discovered Saturday night in a storage room in the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity house on campus.

Small cylinders containing nitrous oxide from whipped cream containers, known casually as "whippets," were found near Collen's body, said Mitra Kalelkar, Cook County deputy chief medical examiner.

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Wounded told "It's not a combat wound."

With so many in congress also being lawyers, it boggles the mind how they can write these rules without understanding what the language they choose actually means and how it will be interpreted.

This is not the first time they did something because it sounded good at the time only to but our veterans through torture. In the 90's they managed to come up with a rule to allow the VA to collect for any treatments they did for "non-service connected" medical needs. That sounded good but what this rule allowed was for veterans with a claim tied up or on appeal to be charged for even conditions caused by their service. A PTSD veteran with a claim tied up is charged for his treatment and tests until the claim is approved. A veteran with Agent Orange poisoning is charged for his treatments until he can prove it happened because of his/her service. The list goes on and on because the congress did not understand the way the VA works. Any claim that is not approved as "service connected" is not service connected until they give the claim their stamp of approval. The veteran is charged until they prove it because no one paid attention.

Now our new veterans are being wounded in rollovers and accidents, but they are told that was not combat related. Excuse me! If it happened in Iraq or Afghanistan, were they there on vacation? These are military campaigns for Heaven's sake! A roadside bomb blows up and a soldier ends up with TBI from the blast and it's pretty much up in the air if the DOD regards it as "combat" wound.

Injured veterans engaged in new combat
Dixon Family
Marine Cpl. James Dixon in Iraq.
In a little-noticed regulation change, the Pentagon's definition of combat-related disabilities is narrowed, costing some wounded veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits.
By David Zucchino
5:56 PM PST, November 24, 2008
Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq -- by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries.


In each case, the Pentagon ruled that their disabilities were not combat-related.

In a little-noticed regulation change in March, the military's definition of combat-related disabilities was narrowed, costing some injured veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits -- and triggering outrage from veterans' advocacy groups.

The Pentagon said the change was consistent with Congress' intent when it passed a "wounded warrior" law in January. Narrowing the combat-related definition was necessary to preserve the "special distinction for those who incur disabilities while participating in the risk of combat, in contrast with those injured otherwise," William J. Carr, deputy undersecretary of Defense, wrote in a letter to the 1.3-million-member Disabled American Veterans.


The group, which has called the policy revision a "shocking level of disrespect for those who stood in harm's way," is lobbying to have the change rescinded.
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Crowd gathers to turn scrawlings of hate into messages of hope

"This is a place where intolerance is not tolerated," Malmberg said.

Crowd gathers to turn scrawlings of hate into messages of hope
About 200 join to show support of Newton temple
By John S. Forrester
Globe Correspondent / November 24, 2008
NEWTON - Responding to swastikas spray-painted outside two places of worship last week, about 200 people gathered outside Temple Shalom in Newton yesterday to condemn the incidents and spread a message of hope and tolerance.

A swastika was found on a sign outside Temple Shalom on Nov. 15 as members arrived for a bar mitzvah and a bat mitzvah, rites of adulthood for a boy and girl. Another swastika was found Wednesday on a curb outside of Eliot Church, a United Church of Christ affiliate.

"We've wiped away the hateful symbol, but it is our presence here as one community that enables us to say no to hate," said Rabbi Eric Gurvis of Temple Shalom, as he began yesterday's rally.

Gurvis thanked the Newton Police Department, residents, and community leaders for their support after the vandalism.

"I know that out of something very bad, we're going to make something good," said Newton Mayor David Cohen. Addressing residents' potential safety concerns, Cohen urged the crowd not to be afraid and "to be whoever you are."

"We have to reaffirm our commitment to diversity," he said.

Reverend Richard Malmberg of the Second Church in Newton, former chairman of the Newton Interfaith Clergy Association, highlighted his church's more than 50-year relationship with Temple Shalom and denounced the painting of the swastika on the sign as a "cowardly and vulgar act of vandalism."

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Firefighter Severely Burned in ’06 Dies in Staten Island Blaze

Mary DiBiase Blaich for The New York Times
Lt. Robert J. Ryan in an undated family photo.


Firefighter Severely Burned in ’06 Dies in Staten Island Blaze
By MICHAEL WILSON

The fire burned so hot that it melted a smoke detector, dripping molten plastic through Lt. Robert J. Ryan’s fire jacket and across his neck and shoulders. It was the kind of injury that could have tempted others to leave the Fire Department, but he chose to stay, spending a year recuperating, and returning to work in 2007 with twisted pink scars above his shirt collar.

His determination to return cost him his life. Lieutenant Ryan, 46, coming off the first engine to arrive at a house fire in the New Brighton section of Staten Island on Sunday morning, was killed when the attic ceiling collapsed on him, knocking off his helmet and air mask, the Fire Department said.

“Unconscious, he was carried out of the building by his fellow firefighters who were standing right around him when the accident occurred,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference at Richmond University Medical Center, where Lieutenant Ryan was pronounced dead. “Firefighters and E.M.S. personnel on the scene tried to revive him, but they were, I am sad to say, unsuccessful.”

Lieutenant Ryan is the first member of the department to die while fighting a fire since Jan. 3, when Lt. John H. Martinson was killed in a blaze in a 14th-floor apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
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Fast-moving fire kills three children in Cincinnati

Fast-moving fire kills three children
Published: Nov. 24, 2008 at 12:14 PM

CINCINNATI, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Cincinnati firefighters say they were too late to save three children who died early Monday in a house fire.

The children, all under the age of 10, died in a predawn fire that broke out in a home on State Avenue just blocks from the fire station that received the alarm.

Officials told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the two-story home was nearly engulfed in flames when the first fire equipment arrived.
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Teenagers with history of hardship find empowerment in aiding others

Teenagers with history of hardship find empowerment in aiding others
By Cathy Zollo


Published: Monday, November 24, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, November 24, 2008 at 1:11 a.m.
Gonzalo Moody spent Sunday lugging boxes of turkey, green beans, potatoes, rolls and pies to families struggling in this economy.



Moody, 19, was among the 25 or so teenagers from the YMCA's Bowman Ranch, Transitional Living Program and Youth Shelter, taking part in the event. YMCA board members escorted the youngsters.

The deliveries are as much about helping the teenagers as helping the families who get Thanksgiving dinner, say board members. The youngsters -- some in foster care, some just getting out of it and some who need an escape from the streets -- ranged in age from 11 to 19.

They benefit from helping others and working toward a common goal alongside adults. They went in groups to a dozen front doors Sunday, dropping off the heavy boxes and wishing families a happy holiday.
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Deputies: Teen kills brother over a hat

November 23, 2008
Deputies: Teen kills brother over a hat
TAMPA -- An argument between two brothers turned physical overnight, and ended with one of them fatally stabbing the other, deputies said today.

The fight between brothers Deadreart J. Holmes, 18, and Jason Phifer, 22, started just after 1 a.m. this morning at their Tampa home at 12509 Sugar Pine Way, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reported.

Holmes stated he was going to stab his brother, then left the bedroom they shared and returned with a knife. Deputies say Holmes stabbed Phifer in the chest, in front of a third brother who is 14.

Phifer ran into his mother's room, told her his brother stabbed him and collapsed. The family called an ambulance, but it was too late.

Deputies say the fight was over a hat that Phifer had borrowed and left in someone's car.
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Christmas Charity Appeal: Andy McNab on fighting the battle that does not end

Christmas Charity Appeal: Andy McNab on fighting the battle that ...
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom


Combat Stress is one of the charities you can support in this year’s Telegraph appeal. Here, Andy McNab, who has seen brave friends devastated by the aftermath of war, explains why it is such a vital cause.

With thousands of members of the Armed Forces returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is rising dramatically.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. The ancient Greeks recorded similar symptoms in their soldiers after they returned from battle. They understood that their veterans would require support. But somehow the Greeks’ lessons were lost on us.

During the First World War, a PTSD sufferer would have been placed against a wall and shot because it was believed that this condition was brought on by weakness of character. During the Second World War, the sufferer was instead sent down the coal mines and made to wear a LMF (lack of moral fibre) armband.

Even today, PTSD suffers are stigmatised. This has to stop. Any service personnel hit by the disorder are casualties of war, just as much as soldiers hit by an enemy bullet. More service personnel who fought in the 1982 Falklands War have gone on to commit suicide than the 255 killed in action.

I know this from experience. Two of my closest friends have committed suicide as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder, and many more have suffered terribly for years. My SAS troop, 7 Troop, was never more than 12-strong, so we knew each other very well. Frank Collins and Nish Bruce were a bit older than me and they became my heroes. I operated with both of these men in South East Asia, as well as under cover in Northern Ireland. Frank eventually left the SAS, got ordained into the Anglican Church and became an Army Padre.
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Recalled 12 year old spare tired causes fatal crash

How a 12-year-old recalled tire caused a crash that killed one man, paralyzed another
Rene Stutzman | Sentinel Staff Writer
November 24, 2008


SANFORD - The tire was a Firestone ATX, the subject of one of the nation's biggest consumer-product recalls. Millions of Americans read or heard news reports about it in 2000 and 2001, warning that it was dangerous.

But for a decade this particular tire was just a spare, bolted to the underside of an aging Ford Explorer.

A lawsuit settled in October revealed how in 2005 -- long after consumers and mechanics had stopped checking -- this tire did exactly what safety officials feared: It shredded at 65 mph.

Rotated into service on the right rear hub of the 1993 sport utility vehicle, the tire flew apart on Interstate 4 near Sanford, and the Explorer went out of control.

Its driver, Michael Enriquez, a Deltona father of four on his way home from work, hit the brakes. The vehicle skidded across the median, flipped and plowed head-on into an Infiniti driven by Douglas George Gibson, 56, of Orlando.
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