Two tour Iraq vet charged after Andover VFW fracas

Local Iraq vet charged after Andover VFW fracas
By Keith Eddings
Staff Writer
Gloucester Daily Times
July 18, 2012

A former National Guard medic and Gloucester resident who served two tours in Iraq spent his wedding night in jail.

The veteran spent the weekend in lockup after being accused of assaulting three men — including one at least 65 years old — in a downstairs bar at a Veterans of Foreign Wars banquet hall in North Andover.

Philip Brooks, 32, a former North Andover resident now living in Gloucester, was arrested Saturday in an area hotel and charged with two counts of assault and battery and one count of assault and battery of a person over 65 with a dangerous weapon, North Andover Police Lt. Charles Gray said.
read more here

Iraq veteran accused of attacking VFW members

Rocky mountain high or Sensible Colorado?

I have very religious friends saying there should not be medical marijuana for anything. They add to this thought that people will abuse it, never once considering that people will abuse everything but everything is not illegal. They forget that pot has helped a lot of people with illnesses just as they have forgotten that cocaine used to be used by doctors to ease pain. Saying it will be abused does not erase the help it delivers.

Vietnam veterans used it to help their combat PTSD because when they came home, there was nothing for them and narrow minded people called them "pot heads" simply because the few media reports about Vietnam veterans involved arrests. No one was talking about them they way today's veterans are talked about. Had it not been for Vietnam veterans, what is being done to address PTSD today wouldn't have happened.

PTSD research, all PTSD programs and treatments, crisis intervention and trauma specialists along with most mental health experts started because of them pushing for all of it.

So now we over 40 years of veterans doing their own research using pot to calm down and treat side effects of medications they are on but other people would prefer to just label them instead of learning the facts. If they stopped to read the side effects of the medications our veterans are given, they would understand the need for a less harmful drug.

I support medical marijuana because it helps more and harms less.

Stress test
by Jeff Koch
In Colorado, folks can acquire marijuana to treat their chronic illnesses, as long as those illnesses qualify as "an appropriately diagnosed, debilitating medical condition," as defined by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The approved list includes muscle spasms, chronic pain and even severe nausea, but what's more interesting is what's not included. And that you can easily see in a much longer list, covering more than a dozen conditions the department has received petitions to add, but rejected. Among them: asthma, diabetes, Hepatitis C and post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, with its second PTSD petition in as many years, Sensible Colorado, a marijuana advocacy group based in Denver, hopes to do a little list revision. "The state health department is still examining the petition," says Brian Vicente, the organization's executive director.

It's an interesting situation, because since its inception in 2000, the Colorado medical marijuana law has never OK'd anything but the original maladies. Contrast that with states like New Mexico, which put PTSD on its list of approved ailments at the behest of its veterans; California's already lenient law — which was written to allow doctors to prescribe MMJ at their discretion for what the California Department of Public Health calls "any other chronic or persistent medical symptom"; and Arizona, which has already done exactly what Sensible Colorado is trying to do.
read more here

Legislation aimed at helping vets moves to full House

Legislation aimed at helping vets moves to full House
Posted: Jul 16, 2012

Three bills aimed at helping America's veterans have moved to the full House of Representatives.

House Resolutions 4057, 5747 and 5948 all unanimously passed the House Committee on Veteran's Affairs July 11.

HR 4079, The Safe Housing for Homeless Veterans Act, introduced by Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., was included in HR 4057. That bill is known ad the Military Family Home Protection Act.

"I was so happy that I could use my engineering background to help our veterans," McKinley said. "After touring homeless shelters in the 1st District of West Virginia, and seeing the conditions, with my own eyes, we began to investigate whether this was an isolated case or part of a bigger problem."

McKinley said his amendment, and the larger bill, will ensure homeless veterans have access to safe shelters.

In addition, McKinley's amendment would require any organization that seeks funding from the Veterans Administration for services for homeless veterans to document that their buildings meet or exceed all Life Safety Codes. HR 4079 also requires the VA to report the safety conditions of homeless shelters in its annual report to Congress.

"As a nation, it should be unacceptable for us to allow homeless veterans to be housed in potentially unsafe conditions," McKinley said. "In defense of our country, these men and women were put in harm's way – they should not be in doubt about their own safety now that they are home again. These homeless veterans experiencing difficulties should be able to trust that they will be safe each night."

Not only are veterans at risk of losing their homes, many also face financial hardship.

HR 5948, The Veterans Fiduciary Reform Act of 2012, was introduced by Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, who has been investigating fraud within the VA's Fiduciary Program.
read more here

$2.5 million in Texas Lottery proceeds to benefit veterans

$2.5 million in Texas Lottery proceeds to benefit veterans
Posted Monday, Jul. 16, 2012

AUSTIN -- A state agency has earmarked $2.5 million in lottery proceeds for groups seeking to help Texas veterans and their families.

The Texas Veterans Commission announced the available grants Monday. Organizations have an Aug. 7 deadline to apply.
read more here

Iraq veteran and family heading into homelessness

We can read about numbers but we don't really know the veterans or the families behind the numbers. Here's one of them. We have a choice here. We can just get really sad reading about another homeless veteran in a few months or, we can do something about it today. If you know someone that can help this family, please share this story with them.

Veteran, family in danger of becoming homeless
By Melanie Tucker

It’s one thing to hold a yard sale to get rid of some old golf clubs or a few dresses you’ve outgrown.

It’s quite another when the motivation is providing groceries for your family.

The Duke family, who resides off East Broadway Avenue in Maryville, set out some items they could do without for a sale on a recent weekend. They sold some and used the extra money for food.

The larger picture, however, is even more dire. Stuart Duke is 55 and a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served in Korea, Germany, Egypt, Honduras and Iraq. The home he bought back in 1995 before he married Beatrice is now on the auction block, set to be sold to the highest bidder on the steps of the Blount County Courthouse. The date — July 24 — is getting way too close for this family of three.

The Dukes are raising their 14-year-old granddaughter who’s been with them since the age of 3. It’s the only home she’s known.

The Dukes said they’ve received the notice of the pending sale from their lawyer, who confirmed the state-mandated legal notice was published in the Knoxville News Sentinel rather than The Daily Times, despite the fact that they live in Maryville.

Proud to serve

Stuart’s military service began in 1975, and he remained in the Army until 1992. He then entered the inactive reserves until 2000 when he became an active reservist. He stayed for 10 years, just recently getting out. His year of service in Iraq was as an active reservist. That was in 2004.
read more here