Detained Marine veteran moved to Salem VA hospital

UPDATE August 24, 2012
Va. judge orders release of detained veteran

Detained Marine veteran moved to Salem VA hospital
By: KRISTEN GREEN
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: August 21, 2012
HOPEWELL, Va.

Brandon J. Raub, the 26-year-old Marine Corps veteran who was detained involuntarily last week after federal and local officials questioned him about his Facebook posts, was being moved to the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Tuesday, his attorney said.

John W. Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville-based civil liberties organization, filed an emergency motion in Hopewell General District Court to keep Raub at John Randolph Medical Center. Special Justice Walter Douglas Stokes, who on Monday ordered Raub held for up to 30 additional days, denied the motion Tuesday afternoon, Whitehead said.

Stokes said in the hearing Monday that Raub would get better care in a VA hospital and that the Hopewell center where he had been held since Thursday was only appropriate for a temporary placement, said Raub's mother, Cathleen Thomas.

Whitehead said hospital officials indicated that Raub could not be kept in a closer VA hospital, such as the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, without voluntarily committing himself.

An Aug. 13 post said, "Sharpen up my axe; I'm here to sever heads." Raub also accused the government of perpetrating a "great amount of evil." "The day of reckoning is almost at hand," an Aug. 5 post on his Facebook page said. His attorney said many of the things he wrote on his page were song lyrics.

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Former Marine detained by FBI

Indiana Guard chief promoted religion. So What?

Indiana Guard chief promoted religion. So What?
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
August 22, 2012

Indiana Guard chief promoted religion? Well that is what the title said anyway. This is a lot more complicated than this simple title suggested. While Mikey Weinstein has been doing a lot of good when it comes to everyone in the military being able to decide their own faith and has been against forcing anyone, he has been wrong on several issues that do not cross the line. He was against The Cross at Camp Pendleton saying that atheists were harmed by it. If they don't believe in anything then how does this actually harm them? It isn't as if they were forced to go and kneel in front of it. Weinstein has never really explained that one. He was right when it came to soldiers being forced to go to a religious concert at Fort Eustis.

I doubt he can explain how Indiana Guard Major General Umbarger's support of a religious group especially when evidence supports the power of spiritual healing when soldiers have PTSD and military suicides have gone up. Umbarger was talking about a group trying to help.

Centurion’s Watch Founder, Doug Hedrick, Speaks Directly to You
Major Doug Hedrick, Founder of Centurion’s Watch, and the Board of Directors of Centruion’s Watch, are passionate and dedicated to strengthening military marriages across America, including yours! Doug would like to personally invite you and your spouse to attend an upcoming “Fortified” Military Marriage Conference, and to ask you to consider partnering with us, your local church, and local businesses to bring a conference to an area near you. We want your marriage to be healthy and strong, and we need your help to reach other military couples who need to discover the principles, tools, support, and encouragement they need to enjoy the marriage relationship that they desire and God intended.

As Florida State Coordinator of Point Man International Ministries we help veterans and their families from all walks and all faiths. I am a Christian but fully acknowledge that all Christian denominations do not agree on doctrine. All of the people I help are helped the same way. With the love and compassion of Christ no matter what they claim their own faith is. I do not hit them over the head with the Bible any more than I try to covert them to my own faith. I am Greek Orthodox for Heaven's sake. Do you really think I could covert anyone? We come from all branches of faith and we like it that way. We aim to heal the soul of veterans and their families, not get butts in the pews.

There are times when I have to worry about crossing the line even when I am talking Christians because their faith preaches something I don't agree with. It isn't up to me to tell them they are wrong in what they believe. It us up to me to use what they believe to help them to heal.

It is the same when I talk to a person with no faith at all. I talk to them as a person spiritually since that part of the of the whole veteran is at the core of PTSD. It is a spiritual wound and requires treatment of the mind, body and spirit.

If no one was forced to support Centurion's Watch, or listen to Umbarger's speech, then there should be no problem with this.

Group: Indiana Guard chief promoted religion
By Chris Sikich and Michael Boren
Indianapolis Star
Posted : Tuesday Aug 21, 2012

The head of the Indiana National Guard says he made a video promoting an evangelical Christian group because it helps soldiers who struggle with their marriages after coming home from war.

But a military watchdog group says Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, the Guard’s adjutant general, violated military rules and the First Amendment by promoting a religious group in the 33-second video while in uniform.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, based in Albuquerque, N.M., sent a letter to the National Guard Bureau on Thursday asking that Umbarger be investigated and punished. Former Air Force attorney Mikey Weinstein founded the group, which seeks to guarantee religious freedom in the military.

The issue, Weinstein said, is that Umbarger’s message promotes one religious group over others. In the military, Weinstein says, such a show of support from a two-star general is intimidating.

“He should be removed immediately,” Weinstein told The Indianapolis Star on Monday, “and, from our perspective, court-martialed.”

Umbarger made the video in September 2011 on behalf of Centurion’s Watch, a Christian group based in Indianapolis that offers marriage counseling to military families. It was posted on the nonprofit’s website.
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Yep, that's all he did. No one was forced to do anything.

Veterans hiring program surpasses 100,000 a year ahead of time

Veterans hiring program surpasses 100,000 goal
Army Times
By Karen Jowers
Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Aug 22, 2012

The Joining Forces initiative has exceeded its goal of hiring 100,000 veterans and military spouses — more than a year ahead of expectations.

More than 2,000 companies have participated in the initiative, hiring 125,000 veterans and military spouses, said a White House official in a conference call with reporters.

First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to make an official announcement at Naval Station Mayport, Fla. Wednesday. Last August, Joining Forces challenged the private sector to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2013.
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Wis. State Senator Connects Her Politics To Her Past

Wis. State Senator Connects Her Politics To Her Past
By DAVID GREENE
Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012

As the presidential election nears, Morning Edition is visiting swing counties in swing states for our series First and Main. We're listening to voters where they live — to understand what's shaping their thinking this election year. This week, we're spending time in Winnebago County, Wis., where we spoke with two women — one Democrat, one Republican — who embody their state's Midwestern charm and spirit of self-reliance.

First, we hear from the Democrat.

Last year, Jessica King became a Wisconsin state senator, swept into office in a wave of special recall votes. It was part of the larger political drama that saw Wisconsin's governor avoid his own recall.

King, 37, made history. In part of her district, she's the first Democrat to serve as state senator since the 1930s.

Her secret to representing a Republican area?

"I'm realistic. I represent approximately 160,000 people, and you have to ask yourself, 'When's the last time you remember 160,000 people agreeing on anything?' Probably never," she says. "If I can get people to agree with me 7 out of 10 times, I'm probably doing a good job.

"Now for those three times that maybe people think, 'Well, my priorities line up differently than the senator's' — well, as long as I do what every fifth-grade math teacher told me to do, which is 'show my work' — show my work, explain it — people then at least respect me."

When we met in a coffee shop in downtown Oshkosh, Wis., the youngest woman in Wisconsin's state Senate was wearing a business suit and was on the go, stealing bits of a muffin that was her breakfast.

King's story began with a tough childhood.

"My father really suffered from today what we call, you know, post-traumatic stress disorder," King says. "My mother actually suffered from schizophrenia."

Her dad's PTSD dates to when he served on a destroyer in the Pacific before the Vietnam War.
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Wounded St. John the Baptist Parish deputies are recovering

Wounded St. John the Baptist Parish deputies are recovering, sheriff says
Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2012
By Lori Lyons
The Times-Picayune

The two St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's deputies wounded in last week's deadly shootings are continuing to improve, Sheriff Mike Tregre said Tuesday, while one of the suspects has been released from the hospital and jailed. Deputies Michael Scott Boyington and Jason Triche remain hospitalized for injuries suffered in two early morning shootings Thursday in which two deputies were killed.

Tregre said Boyington, who is at University Hospital in New Orleans, underwent surgery Tuesday morning and is continuing to improve. Triche is undergoing treatment at River Parishes Hospital in LaPlace.
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2 sheriff's deputies dead, 2 wounded in La. shootout