Local vet struck by ice cream truck: 'I'm glad it was me that got hit and not kids'
NBC 3 News Las Vegas
by Kelsey Thomas
August 14th 2018
The former prisoner of war was heading home to Veterans Village on Wednesday when police say he was hit by a drunk driver who was behind the wheel of an ice cream truck.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A disabled Vietnam veteran is recovering after he was hit on the sidewalk by an out-of-control driver.
Police say Nasario Garcia was drunk behind the wheel of an ice cream truck when he hit Steven Whitefeather.
Officers say they found empty beer bottles in a freezer in the back of the truck.
The crash happened last week on Fremont near Eastern in downtown Las Vegas. Officers say Garcia jumped a curb and hit Whitefeather, who was in a motorized wheelchair on the sidewalk.
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Employee found dead inside Topeka VA Medical Center office
Topeka Capital Journal
Katie Moore
August 14, 2018
A Veterans Affairs employee died Tuesday morning inside an administrative office at Topeka’s Colmery O’Neil VA Medical Center.
Joe Burks, spokesman for the VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System, said the employee died of an apparent suicide.
“Today we suffered a great loss and our hearts are broken,” Burks said in a statement.
Officials are still working to understand the circumstances.
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One thing to keep in mind when you watch the video. Deported veterans committing suicide, are not counted at all...anywhere.
Busted with 267 pounds of pot and a DD214 that says ‘US citizen.' Should this Marine have been deported?
Military Times
By: Tara Copp
1 hour ago
At his 2002 deportation hearing, Martinez said the judge told him he had a case and could probably win, but he’d have to go back to jail to wait for a hearing, which might take two years. Martinez' other option was to be deported.
NUEVO PROGRESO, Mexico ― Marine Corps Vietnam veteran Jose Maria Martinez is not your typical deported immigrant.
In February 2002, five years after Jose Maria Martinez was sentenced to federal prison on drug charges, he was to be released. But immigration agents said his paperwork was incorrect. Two weeks later, he was deported. (Jillian Angeline and Tara Copp/Military Times)
First, he doesn’t want your sympathy. He was busted in 1997 at a South Texas border checkpoint with 267 pounds of marijuana in his car.
“I screwed up, it was bad. It was so bad it pisses me off sometimes,” Martinez said.
He’s an ardent Trump supporter and cheers at the thought of a wall. In our in-person encounter, he made clear that reporters, save for Fox, were purveyors of “fake news.” His personal views on former President Barack Obama landed him in Facebook jail. He takes a hard line on those who are in the U.S. illegally.
To the day he was deported, he thought he was a U.S. citizen.
It was February 2002. He’d just completed five years in federal prison for the drug bust. He’d served his time. Martinez was ready to be released, start over. Instead, immigration agents walked into his holding cell in Oakdale, Louisiana.
“They said they were going to deport me,” Martinez said.
“I took the oath in San Antonio and got on a plane to San Diego,” he said. He was assigned as an infantryman and mortar man and deployed in 1967 to Vietnam with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. He and several other Marines started naturalization classes, Martinez said, but then they were pulled into operations.
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Former NFL star shows his love and respect for Veterans
Department of Veterans Affairs
Upon receiving the call a few months ago, former National Football League star running back Earnest Byner felt honored to be tapped for the role. He had been selected as a guest speaker during the annual “Parade of Athletes” at the National Veterans Golden Age Games in Albuquerque.
Byner is the founder of The Healing Dawgs, a non-profit group that is aimed at teaching, helping, and healing through humanitarian efforts in communities, with a special focus on Veterans, the homeless, and youth. He has led visits to VA medical centers in Cleveland, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., in hopes of assuring wounded Veterans that their service and the sacrifices they have made for their country are not going unnoticed.
The “Parade of Athletes” took place Sunday evening at the Kiva Auditorium at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The nearly 1,000 Veterans who are participating in the Golden Age Games—which run from Aug. 3-8 in Albuquerque and offer many sports and recreational events for Veterans age 55 and older—were on hand to hear Byner speak.
Speaking with passion and emotion, Byner urged the Veterans to keep on competing in sports “because healing comes from within when you are competing,” he said. “If you are trying to get better on a daily basis, you provide healing for the mind, body, and spirit.”
He also told the Vets: “I appreciate and honor and love you because of the freedoms you have fought for. You have given your life and limbs.”
Byner said the Veteran community and retired NFL players like himself share several potential similarities. Members of both groups could be experiencing debilitating symptoms from concussions. In addition, the Veteran population is battling alarming rates of suicide and drug and alcohol addiction, issues that are also of concern in the community of retired NFL players.
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Michigan Air Force base water may have caused cancer
By: The Associated Press
August 12, 2018
The chemical was first found in the base's water in 1977, but drinking water wells could've been contaminated for many years before the discovery, according to the report. The Air Force installed a groundwater treatment system to clean up the trichloroethylene in the 1980s after being sued by Michigan.
The Wurtsmith Air Force Base grounds in Oscoda Township, Mich., two years ago. (Garret Ellison/MLive.com via AP)
OSCODA, Mich. — A federal health agency says contaminated drinking water might have caused cancer and other chronic disease among veterans and families who lived at a former northern Michigan military base.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released last month a draft report about the Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan, MLive.com reported. The report concluded that people who consumed or had skin contact with Wurtsmith water may be at an increased risk for cancer.
Extremely high levels of benzene and trichloroethylene were documented in the former B-52 bomber base’s water before its 1993 closure.
The report is based on long-term exposure over a period of years. The findings also note that even short-term exposure to trichloroethylene for pregnant mothers during the first trimester could lead to heart birth defects in their children.
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