New Hampshire AG Shuts Down Veterans Charity

Police Open Probe Into VetCare

Valley News

Rob Wolfe

August 26, 2017

The attorney general said some of Project VetCare’s leaders had diverted money to pay for a range of personal purposes, including a cruise vacation, a heating system for the executive director’s home, and loans and stipends for directors and their relatives.Robert Chambers, co-founder of Project VetCare, was among those named in the report. The investigation found that he used the organization’s fund to pay for a Toyota van and that his daughter had received a stipend payment.

Hanover — The Hanover Police Department says it has opened a criminal investigation into the veterans aid group Project VetCare stemming from a report that some of the organization’s directors took money for personal expenses.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office on Thursday announced that the Hanover-based nonprofit would close and that officials involved in the misuse of the organization’s funds had agreed to repay some of the money.

Officials at area veterans groups on Friday expressed concern that news about Project VetCare’s improprieties could hurt their own efforts.

The state’s Charitable Trusts Unit, which oversees New Hampshire charities, investigated the organization and discovered “diversion of large sums of money for the benefit of the charity’s executive director, her family, an employee and some members of the board of directors,” the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on Thursday.

State officials have passed their findings to Grafton County Attorney Lara Saffo, who said on Friday that Hanover police had begun a probe.

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Quiet Hollers Songwriter Takes On Mental Health Challenges

For Quiet Hollers, the song comes first

Lacrosse Tribune

Michale Martin

August 25, 2017

His wife has a panic disorder and Wilde suffers from depression — something alluded to in the song, “Medicine”. Meanwhile a close friend, a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, took his own life.

For a while it looked like Quiet Hollers were going to be pegged as an Americana or roots band — or maybe even an alt country band. But the latest album by the Louisville, Kentucky-based band — “Amen Breaks” — makes it clear that those kinds of “boxes” are far too small to contain the band’s creativity.

The Hollers are doing a show at the Cavalier Theater on Sept 2. The band’s latest album has elements of post-punk and indie-leaning sounds, as well as hip-hop-style drum machines, soaring synthesizers, string quartets and harmony-laden choruses. Despite the disparate styles and sounds, it’s all somehow held together by Shadwick Wilde’s thoughtful songwriting.

Wilde, the band’s primary songwriter, explained that the album was inspired by life challenges faced by friends and family. 

“It’s kind of an amalgam of things that have been in the forefront of my mind, about mental health and mental illness — these things that have touched the lives of virtually everyone I know, myself included,” Wilde said.

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Siblings Suffer After Suicide But Go Without Help to Heal

After a suicide, sibling survivors are often overlooked

NPR
Cheryl Platzman Weinstock
August 25, 2017 

"I think people don't understand how profound a loss of a sibling can be. They help shape your trajectory and sense of self." Julie Cerel, a psychologist and president of the American Association of Suicidology  

Ryan Steen (left) found himself "on edge" and isolated for years after his younger brother, Tyler, died by suicide. Courtesy of Ryan Steen

When Taylor Porco's brother, Jordan, died by suicide during his freshman year of college in February 2011, people told her to be strong for her parents, who were incapacitated by their grief. Hardly anyone seemed to notice that Porco, only 14 at the time, was suffering and suicidal.

"I was really depressed and in such extreme pain. Nothing, literally, mattered to me after he died. All I wanted was my brother back. I never loved someone as much as I loved him," she says.

Porco's experience is hardly unique. Approximately 25,000 people each year become sibling survivors of suicide, according to the support group, Sibling Survivors of Suicide Loss. Those who lose a sibling to suicide at any age can experience anger, complicated grief reactions, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and thoughts of taking their own lives.

Until recently, these survivors often fell under the radar. They were overlooked in medical research, and no one understood what they were going through or how to support them. But, according to several studies of survivors, those who lose a sibling to suicide, especially one of the same sex or close in age, have more serious mood disorders and thoughts of suicide themselves than survivors who lose a sibling for any other reason. 
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POTUS Pardons and Harvey Pounds Texas

What was POTUS getting ready for as Harvey headed to US?

1. President Trump Grants Pardon for Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio
NBC News
by PHIL HELSEL and VAUGHN HILLYARD
August 25, 2017

President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt for ignoring a judge’s order not to detain suspected undocumented immigrants, the White House said.

Trump at a campaign-style rally in Phoenix strongly suggested he would pardon Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County. Arpaio had said he would appeal his conviction on misdemeanor contempt.
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Is that what he as focused on as the monster Harvey was headed toward Texas? It looks like he had something else on his mind as well.

2. Trump Halts Pentagon Payments for Transgender SurgeryNBC Newsby ALI VITALI August 25, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday stopped funding for sex-reassignment treatment for transgender people currently in the military and barred the Pentagon from accepting any more transgender people into the services.

The president signed a memo giving new guidance to his previously-tweeted ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military, according to a senior White House official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Trump signed the memo, the details of which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, on Friday and directed the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to stop funding of sex-reassignment procedures and deny entry of transgender individuals into the military.
Openly transgender individuals will be barred until the Secretary of Defense "provides a recommendation to the contrary that I find convincing," Trump's memo reads. read more here

Hurricane Harvey Slams Texas, Risk of ‘Catastrophic Flooding’

NBC News

Saphora Smith

August 26, 2017

More than 200,000 people were without power Saturday after Hurricane Harvey smashed into Texas, bringing prolonged rainfall that was expected to cause "catastrophic flooding."

It made landfall near Corpus Christi as a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 130mph, and weakened as it moved slowly inland to become Category 1 by 6 a.m. ET.

But while the winds eased to 90mph, forecasters warned that torrential rain would be a major threat.

"It's hard to imagine just how horrific and destructive this amount of water will be," NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said.

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VA Data on Homeless Veterans Shows, All of Us Make a Difference

Leveraging data to provide insight into complex issues surrounding Veteran homelessness

VAntage Point

Department of Veterans Affairs

August 23, 2017

It’s not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best.” — W. Edwards Deming

Deming, a well-respected statistician, reminds us that identifying the what is critical in determining how to be successful. Deming is widely known for helping to develop the sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

VA has taken a similar approach in working toward its priority goal to end Veteran homelessness, gathering and reviewing data on homelessness that then inform strategies to address it. As a result, the nation saw a nearly 50 percent reduction in the number of homeless Veterans between 2010 and 2016.

For the last four years, VA and partners at the state and community levels have been using a data-driven management platform to determine and update the number of Veterans who are homeless and track those Veterans by name so that they can be served most efficiently and effectively. The platform houses data from multiple sources, including but not limited to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Point-in-Time count and the VA Homeless Registry.

This data-driven approach to ending Veteran homelessness helps all of us — national organizations like VA, community groups, and individuals in every corner of the U.S. — ensure that we’re doing our best to give every Veteran a safe, stable place to call home and the resources they need to stay there.

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