Friday, January 27, 2012

Vermont proposal: Legalize pot for PTSD treatment

Vt. proposal: Legalize pot for PTSD treatment
By Wilson Ring - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jan 26, 2012 17:00:20 EST
MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Vermont lawmaker wants to amend the state’s medical marijuana law so that anyone suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder could use it to help alleviate their symptoms.

State Rep. Jim Masland said he introduced the bill earlier this month at the request of a number of his constituents who were using marijuana to alleviate stress symptoms they felt were caused by their military service.

“I understand that these unnamed individuals, at least a couple, haven’t been able to find relief any other way or at least this is the best way for relief,” Masland, D-Thetford, said Thursday. “So I would say they are quietly, surreptitiously using marijuana, but they would much rather do it legally.”

Masland said the veterans who asked him to introduce the legislation had served in the Vietnam War as well as the wars the United States has fought over the last decade.
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Apparent suicide victim found dead "had military badge" on car

Apparent suicide victim found dead in vehicle in WindanSea parking lot late this morning

The body of an unidentified man who is believed to have committed suicide was found in a red Pontiac in WindanSea Beach parking lot by locals about 11 a.m. this morning.

They reported it to police who immediately cordoned off the parking lot.

Kennedy said the victim “had a current military badge on his car,” and added the gun those who found him saw “looked lik an issued weapon.”
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Fort Hood soldier chased away by police for "wedding" in public?

Wedding banned from Tarrant County College downtown
Posted Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012

BY BUD KENNEDY
bud@star-telegram.com

We paid $185 million for our new county college on the bluff downtown.

You'd think we'd be welcome there.

No such luck for one would-be bride.

With her Army boyfriend suddenly deployed to Afghanistan, county tax office worker Rosie Enriquez Martinez wanted to use the riverfront overlook at the edge of campus Sunday for a small wedding.

But Tarrant County College police chased them away.

Instead, Rosie and Sgt. Phillip Martinez Jr. of Fort Hood exchanged vows on a windy downtown sidewalk, wondering why he can fight for American freedom in Afghanistan but not peacefully enjoy a public campus downtown.
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Man charged in crash that killed Fort Hood soldier

Man charged in crash that killed Fort Hood soldier
Thursday, January 26, 2012

BELTON, Texas (AP) — A Central Texas grand jury has indicted a San Antonio man on a count of intoxication manslaughter over a crash last summer that killed a Fort Hood soldier.

The Bell County grand jury indicted 37-year-old Philip Ray Hernandez for the crash that killed Sgt. Chad Richard Clifton.
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One lucky Marine, hit by cement truck while on motorcycle, recovering

Motorcyclist struck by truck
January 26, 2012 4:30 PM
SUZANNE ULBRICH - DAILY NEWS STAFF
A Marine riding a motorcycle and hit by a truck on Bear Creek Road Wednesday did not sustain life-threatening injuries, according to Highway Patrol officials.

Trooper Michael Davis confirmed that 58-year-old Francis Mitchell, of Swansboro, was driving a cement truck on Bear Creek Road around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, turned into a driveway and struck a motorcycle driven by Donald Baldo, 26, of Hubert.
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St. Louis to Host 1st Big Parade on Iraq War's End

St. Louis to Host 1st Big Parade on Iraq War's End

January 27, 2012
Associated Press
by Jim Salter
ST. LOUIS -- Since the Iraq War ended, there has been little fanfare for the veterans returning home. No ticker-tape parades. No massive, flag-waving public celebrations.

So, two friends from St. Louis decided to change that. They sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. On Saturday, hundreds of veterans are expected to march in downtown St. Louis in the nation's first big welcome home parade since the last troops left Iraq in December.

"It struck me that there was this debate going on as to whether there should or shouldn't be a parade," said Tom Appelbaum, one of the organizers. "Instead of waiting around for somebody somewhere to say, `Yes, let's have a parade,' we said, `Let's just do it.' "

Appelbaum, a 46-year-old lawyer, and Craig Schneider, a 41-year-old school technology coordinator, said they were puzzled by the lack of celebrations marking the war's end. But, they wondered, if St. Louis could host thousands of people for a parade after their beloved Cardinals won the World Series, why couldn't there be a party for the troops who put their lives on the line?
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PTSD veterans get review after Madigan Army Medical Center changes diagnosis

Army is reviewing Madigan's reversal of PTSD diagnoses
The Army plans to review a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatric team that reversed the PTSD diagnoses of more than a dozen soldiers, potentially weakening their case to receive a medical retirement.

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Army is reviewing the actions of a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatric team that reversed the diagnoses of more than a dozen soldiers previously found to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

All these soldiers have been under consideration for medical retirement, which offers considerably more financial benefits than alternative forms of discharge.

Some have complained that doctors at the hospital, south of Tacoma on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, unfairly stripped them of the PTSD diagnoses, which would help qualify them for a medical retirement, and instead tagged them as malingerers.

In an unusual intervention, the office of the Army Surgeon General has arranged for the soldiers to fly to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where they are scheduled to be examined by another team of Army doctors.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., confirmed details of the review to The Seattle Times.
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Salt Lake Veterans Affairs enlists vets for huge medical research project

Salt Lake Veterans Affairs enlists vets for huge medical research project

BY KRISTEN MOULTON
The Salt Lake Tribune
6 million vets get ongoing care through VA, and a national program aims to get 1 million to help create a huge database of continually updated records.

First published Jan 26 2012
Becky Kemp Carpenter’s dad, a Vietnam War veteran, died two years ago of ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. So when she heard about the Million Veteran Program to help medical research, she — a third-generation veteran — didn’t hesitate to sign up.

"I come from a strong history of service," said Carpenter, who was one of 35 veterans enrolled Thursday during the program’s formal kickoff at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

"By doing a simple blood test and answering questions, we can help not just future vets but people who are around now," said Carpenter, a West Valley City resident who served in the Air Force in the 1990s. "There is so much more we can continue to do to serve our country."

Begun last year in Boston, the Million Veteran Program has so far enlisted more than 20,000 veterans to donate their DNA and release their VA medical records to researchers. The VA in Salt Lake City is one of 40 hospitals participating so far and has enrolled more than 300 veterans since fall; the program hopes to have 50 participating hospitals by summer.
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2nd Fort Bliss Soldier Dies After Shooting Outside Central Nightclub

BREAKING: 2nd Soldier Dies After Shooting Outside Central Nightclub
POSTED: 3:38 pm MST January 26, 2012

EL PASO, Texas -- A Fort Bliss soldier who was shot in the head outside a Central El Paso nightclub has died from his injures, police said.

The shooting occurred shortly after 2:09 a.m. Jan. 15 outside Fussion Nightclub at 4304 Dyer Street.

Preston Brown died at University Medical Center on Monday. Damien Bailey died the night of the shooting. The third victim, Tyrone Head was shot in the upper chest and transported to William Beaumont Army Medical Center. He was released after he received medical treatment. All three soldiers were 21years old.
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Suspect held in shooting death of Fort Bliss soldier

Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier allegedly fired at neighbor's home

JBLM soldier allegedly fired at romantic rival's neighbor's home
JEREMY PAWLOSKI
Staff writer
Published January 27, 2012


Tenino police arrested a solider at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for allegedly shooting up a Rainier home on New Year’s Day to get revenge for an affair.

Police think Eric David Kollar meant to target a romantic rival’s home but instead fired eight shots from a .45-caliber Glock into a home adjacent to where the man lived. The man had an affair with Kollar’s wife while Kollar was in Iraq, police said.

Kollar, 25, was most recently assigned to group support for the 1st Special Forces Group and has served at least one tour in Iraq, court papers state. He was arrested without incident Wednesday on suspicion of one count of drive-by shooting.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Naval Hospital becomes training ground for program improvement

Naval Hospital becomes training ground for program improvement
January 25, 2012 10:40 AM
HOPE HODGE - DAILY NEWS STAFF
In October 2010, Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital was the worst in the Navy at returning findings for service members sidelined by wounds, injury or illness in a timely manner. A little more than a year later, officials from distant Marine Corps bases and even other services pay visits to the hospital to learn how to improve their own programs.

All it took, Lt. j.g. Lisa Cook said, was a number of sleepless nights and a different way of seeing things.

The process for wounded, ill, or injured troops deemed potentially unfit for further service is supposed to take a Congress-mandated 295 days from injury to military separation or re-joining a unit. The Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital, like other Navy medical centers, is responsible for 100 of those days: the time it takes to complete a service member’s physical exam and complete medical records and findings so that the service member can continue to receive a VA rating and transition to civilian life or begin re-integration into full-time service. And with the high rate of deployment of Camp Lejeune troops, the Naval Hospital processed 1,200 of these medical boards last year, more than any other naval medical center, including larger centers such as Camp Pendleton and Portsmouth.

Cook, the department head for Patient Administration, arrived at her post a year ago to find a staggering mess. In the office were 989 patient files, each representing a Marine or sailor waiting idle on base while his or her findings were completed. The oldest file was dated 2008.

“They’re in limbo; they don’t know if they can move on with their life, or they’re just sitting around,” Cook said. “You don’t know. ‘Do we move my spouse back home while I wait for my findings; do I not?’ We had members being told ‘This process is going to take 295 days and you’re going to be out,’ and they moved their spouse away so they could just sit here and relax and get better, but a year and a half later, they still have no findings.”
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Good Samaritan killed while helping motorist on I-4

Good Samaritan killed while helping motorist on I-4
The victim has not been identified, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
By Arelis R. Hernández, Orlando Sentinel
12:26 p.m. EST, January 26, 2012

A man who was helping another motorist on the side of westbound Interstate 4 in Volusia County was fatally struck by a passing vehicle early Thursday, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The unidentified victim pulled over to help Tiffany Walters, 23, who properly parked her Landrover sport-utility vehicle on the right shoulder near Mile Marker 115 in Lake Helen after she ran out of gas, said FHP Sgt. Kim Montes.
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557,460 wait more than 125 days for VA claims

VA sees 'paperless' claims as critical to ending backlog
By TOM PHILPOTT
Special to Stars and Stripes
Published: January 26, 2012
The only way to achieve VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s goal for 2015 -- that every disability compensation claim gets processed within 125 days and with 98 percent accuracy -- is to shift to a paperless claims system. And that transformation has begun.

That was the testimony Tuesday by VA’s top claim processing official before the House veteran affairs’ subcommittee on disability assistance.

Tom Murphy, director of compensation service for the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), an agency for the Department of Veterans Affairs, acknowledged the claims backlog has grown in recent years.

Compensation and benefit claims pending at VA, as of Jan. 23, totaled 852,127 and 65 percent of them – 557,460 – had been filed by veterans more than 125 days ago, which means they are in “backlog” status.
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Big cuts coming; lower pay raises start in 2015

Big cuts coming; lower pay raises start in 2015
By Andrew Tilghman and Rick Maze - Staff writers
Posted : Thursday Jan 26, 2012 14:00:23 EST
Service members can expect standard pay raises for the next two years — most likely 1.7 percent for 2013 — but that will change starting in 2015, according to a new budget plan unveiled at the Pentagon on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta released details of the 2013 budget, the first since Congress ordered the Pentagon to slash more than $450 billion in planned spending over the next decade, with a few glimpses of what may be in store beyond 2013.

Under the plan, military pay will continue to rise in tandem with the average annual increase in private-sector wages, but starting in 2015, raises may be capped a level slightly below annual growth in civilian pay.
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Former Marine pleads to military shootings

Former Marine pleads to military shootings
By Matthew Barakat - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jan 26, 2012 12:27:11 EST
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former Marine from Virginia pleaded guilty Thursday and has agreed to serve a 25-year prison sentence on charges that he fired a series of overnight pot shots in 2010 at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and other military targets as part of what prosecutors called a campaign to strike fear throughout the region.

Prosecutors also revealed Thursday new details about Yonathan Melaku’s intended next target: Arlington National Cemetery, where he was arrested before he was able to carry out a plan to deface gravestones there.

As part of Thursday’s plea deal, Melaku, 24, of Alexandria, pleaded guilty to destruction of U.S. property, use of a firearm in an act of violence and intention to injure a veterans’ memorial, namely the cemetery. Prosecutors and Melaku’s lawyer agreed to a 25-year sentence as part of the deal, and U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said he would agree to the sentence as well. But formal sentencing was delayed until April so a pre-sentence report can be prepared and Melaku’s lawyer can request a mental-health evaluation for his client.
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