"The Senator" 3,500 year old tree falls due to fire

UPDATE-Woman charged with burning 'The Senator' says she did it 'to use illegal drugs'


UPDATE
Investigator: Fire that destroyed 'The Senator' was not arson
Investigator has not determined the cause of the fire
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(Off topic)

This is one of the first sites we saw when we first moved to Florida. The massive tree was stunning. Looking at news footage, it is the only tree burning in the forest and looks like someone must have done this despicable act.

Tree Known As The Senator Falls Due To Fire

3,500-Year-Old Tree Oldest Of Its Kind

LONGWOOD, Fla. -- A fire that was burning on the inside of a historic tree known as The Senator has caused it to topple.

The fire was burning on the inside and on top of the 125-foot tall tree. The fire weakened it so much that it collapsed a little after 8 a.m. Monday.

The tree is located in Big Tree Park in Longwood.

The Pond Bald Cypress is the oldest tree of its kind in the world. It is estimated at 3,500-years-old.

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Suspect in homeless slayings has homeless Dad

Friend's death haunted suspect in homeless slayings
Jan. 15, 2012 Updated: 11:54 p.m.
Suspect Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, 23, lonely and depressed after discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps, had lost his best friend, who also served in the military, family says.

By GREG HARDESTY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

YORBA LINDA – Early last week, Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo showed his father a newspaper story about a suspected serial killer targeting homeless men in the area.

His father, Refugio, lost his home in 2008 and lives out of the cab of a big rig parked in Fullerton.

The elder Ocampo, who once lived under a freeway overpass, turned to his son.

"Don't worry, mijo," he said. "I'll be fine."

Three days later, on Friday, the younger Ocampo was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the vicious stabbing deaths of four homeless men between Dec. 20 and Jan. 13, terrorizing several communities and putting transients on high alert.

With murder charges expected to be filed against Ocampo, 23, on Tuesday, his parents, siblings and friends said in interviews Sunday that the former Marine showed signs of being troubled since being discharged from the military in June 2010, but that they can't fathom him carrying out the bloody slayings.

"It doesn't make any sense to me at all," said Refugio Ocampo, 50.

Although he never saw combat, Ocampo's main job was to provide security and inspect wounded patients – fellow armed service members, civilians, enemy combatants – and also to bag up bodies of fallen Americans, said Cpl. Bonnie Tisdale, who supervised Ocampo for two years.

"These things change a person," Tisdale said. "Nothing can prepare you for war. If you have any type of mental issues going in, the military just basically heightens those issues – it makes them worse."

Tisdale said Ocampo was disciplined a couple of times for minor violations during his deployment, but that she saw no obvious signs he was troubled.

"He showed up for work on time, and was a funny guy," Tisdale said. "He seemed like an ordinary Marine."

Sgt. Michael Stil served with Ocampo.

"He never talked bad about anybody and wouldn't judge anyone," said Stil, 23. "Everybody down here (at Miramar Base, in San Diego) is shocked. We didn't expect this.

"It's just very shocking. We're all like, 'No way – that's not him.'"
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Fourth victim of serial killer was Vietnam veteran

Early Retirement Could Be Bad Deal for Troops

Early Retirement Could Be Bad Deal for Troops

January 16, 2012
Military.com
by Michael Hoffman

Servicemembers who accept a 15-year retirement incentive approved by Congress this month stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of their retirement payments, according to early estimates.

This realization, combined with poor national economic factors that are expected to compel many servicemembers to stay in uniform, could make it even tougher for service officials to entice troops to leave on their own to meet the services' goals of reduced end strength.

Earlier this month, the chiefs of the military services received approval to reinstitute Temporary Early Retirement Authority -- better known as "15-year retirement" -- that allows officers and NCOs to retire up to five years before the traditional 20-year service mark at a reduced pay rate.

The services have not yet announced if they will offer early retirements, but defense analysts expect the services to try to use the incentive to pare down their forces, especially in the Army and Marine Corps, the two branches likely to suffer the deepest reductions.

A servicemember's retirement pay is calculated similar to traditional retirement pay: A Soldier might receive 50 percent of his basic pay after serving 20 years. However, those who accept an early retirement must subtract 3.5 percent for each year of service below the 20-year mark.
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PTSD may get name change again

PTSD may get name change again
by
Chaplain Kathie

The military has been struggling with addressing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the stigma attached to it for over a decade. Now they are once again thinking of just changing the title. Combat Post Traumatic Stress Injury would accomplish separating this kind of trauma from other causes. There is a huge difference between a one time event in a person's life and the type of PTSD caused by multiple events. There is also a difference between being a "victim-survivor" and participating in the event itself. While we may be able to understand an average person suffering after a crime or accident, we find it difficult to understand how constant exposures can profoundly change a serviceman or woman.

Changing the "distress" to "injury" is also appropriate since it is caused by an outside force and does not begin with the individual. Trauma is Greek for "wound" so the term "injury" better describes what happened to cause it along with supporting the notion that as with any injury, healing follows. If they change the term to "injury" attaching it to combat, then they need to consider if they will follow through with this by awarding the Purple Heart or not. The debate on issuing a Purple Heart for PTSD and TBI has been going on for a long time since both are wounds caused by combat operations.

I have to admit that I am torn on this. In a way, it seems like a very good idea but on the flip side, it very well could make things worse for veterans coming to terms with what happened to them. The battle to get rid of the stigma has included getting them to understand that PTSD is nothing to be ashamed of. Would changing the name again harm or help? Would it really make that much of a difference?

Perhaps the best way to remove the stigma of PTSD is to begin with the way the military has been trying to prevent it and get them to stop. Training them to be "resilient" and telling them they can strengthen their minds tells them they are weak in the first place. If they end up with PTSD it is their fault because they were not mentally tough enough to take it. When they are suffering and one of their buddies is walking away fine and dandy, that is what they think of themselves. They were just not tough enough.

Half of the veterans needing help never seek it because then they believe they would have to admit there is something mentally wrong with them instead of accepting the fact they wouldn't need help if they had not been through combat and no one walks away after combat unchanged. Some are changed more deeply than others because they are able to feel things at a deeper level. Even the strongest character in a group will be changed given enough events and prolonged stressful days. Being told they could have trained their brains reenforces what they are more apt to think. It is their fault. The military needs to stop this practice first or all the name changes in the world will not work.

New name for stress disorder considered
Army wants troops more open to seeking treatment for PTSD.
By Lindsay Wise, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Monday, January 16, 2012


The president of the American Psychiatric Association says he is “very open” to a request from the Army to come up with an alternative name for post-traumatic stress disorder so troops returning from combat will feel less stigmatized and more encouraged to seek treatment.

Dr. John Oldham, who serves as senior vice president and chief of staff at the Houston-based Menninger Clinic, said he is looking into the possibility of updating the association's diagnostic manual with a new subcategory for PTSD.

The subcategory could be “combat post-traumatic stress injury” or something similar, he said.

“It would link it clearly to the impact and the injury of the combat situation and of the deployment experience, rather than what people somewhat inaccurately but often assume, which is that you got it because you weren't strong enough.”

The potential change was prompted by a request from Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, who wrote to Oldham last year, suggesting that the psychiatric association consider dropping the world “disorder” from PTSD.

“We are actually trying to work together to see what might be possible,” he said. “Everybody feels — and the general did as well — that that would be a whole lot better because soldiers are not as uneasy with the word ‘injury.' That's a war injury, a combat injury. It's not associated with the same kind of stigma and discomfort.”
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Four dead - two of them children - in SE Fresno murder-suicide

Four dead - two of them children - in SE Fresno murder-suicide
By BoNhia Lee - The Fresno Bee
Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 | 12:26 PM

2:42 p.m.: Four people are dead, including two children, in an early morning murder-suicide in southeast Fresno on Sunday, police said.

Fresno police were called to the Silver Lake Apartments on East Belmont Avenue, near Clovis Avenue, at 6:44 a.m. for a disturbance, said Capt. Dennis Bridges.

They found a man outside of an apartment bleeding from a stab wound. Then they heard a single gunshot inside the apartment.

When police entered, they found a woman in her 20s, who they believe is the stabbing victim's wife, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Their two children, an 18-month-old girl and a 3-year-old boy also died of gunshot wounds.
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A man in his 20s or 30s was found shot to death in the kitchen. Police did not reveal his relation to the family.