Jacksonville FL:Jags' Collier shot, has life-threatening injuries

Sep 2, 9:06 PM EDT


Jags' Collier shot, has life-threatening injuries

By MARK LONG and RON WORD
Associated Press Writers

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Richard Collier was shot and critically wounded outside an apartment building early Tuesday as he and a former teammate waited for two women they had met at a nightclub, police said.

Collier, 26, and former Jaguars defensive end Kenneth Pettway were waiting in a Cadillac Escalade when a gunman fired into the vehicle, said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson. Collier was shot several times, but it wasn't clear where he was hit.

Collier was in critical condition at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said early Tuesday. Later, spokesman Chris Turner said the hospital was no longer giving updates on Collier's condition. Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio said Collier's family had requested privacy.
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UK:Murder-suicide believed in Foster deadly fire

Police: Tycoon killed family in mansion arson
British police said Tuesday they now believe a millionaire killed his wife and daughter, pictured above, before setting fire to their mansion home and killing himself. Security cameras show a man, who police believe is Christopher Foster, rampaging through the estate's grounds, torching outbuildings and blocking the entrance. full story

Maryland sending national guard to help after Gustav

Md. Guard members to offer support for Gustav recovery
Gov. Martin O'Malley met with members of the Maryland Army National Guard deploying to Louisiana today to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.
Md. soldiers deploy to Louisiana Photos
Weakened Gustav still causes 'serious damage'
Sep 02, 2008 16:26 -0400


Updated: 15 minutes ago
Hanna lingers, and other storms enter the pipeline

CT: National Guard troops head to help after Gustav

State Troops Help After Hurricane
Sep 02, 2008 07:40 -0400

Gov. M. Jodi Rell says Connecticut is providing two National Guard planes and their crews to the Gulf Coast to help out in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.
Connecticut Sends Help To The Gulf Coast Video
Northeast Utilities Sending Power Crews South

Chicago:Archdiocese starts counseling for abuse victims

Archdiocese starts counseling for abuse victims
By Manya Brachear | Chicago Tribune reporter
1:21 PM CDT, September 2, 2008
Scorned by victims' advocates for not reaching out to victims of clergy sex abuse, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has tried to make up for lost time and lost souls. On Tuesday, the archdiocese launched a new counseling initiative for the loved ones of those abused by priests.

Beginning this week, four free sessions will be led by a licensed clinical social worker.

The sessions will include open discussion and sharing among participants and information about how the abuse affects the family, the healing process, the long-term effects of sexual abuse and rebuilding trust, communication, affection and hope.

"It is with a sense of hopefulness that we have developed this new educational program with the wish that through open dialogue this will be a beginning of positive change for these family members," said Matthew Hunnicutt, director of the archdiocese's office of assistance ministry.
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Report Amy Goodman and Photographer arrested along with others

How is this possible? They were not just arrested, they were abused.

Yesterday, police in St. Paul arrested several journalists, including Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and an AP photographer as they were covering protests of the Republican National Convention.
Amy Goodman and others were released last night, but the story is not over.
We need you to cosign our public letter demanding that press intimidation cease immediately, and that all charges be dropped. It will be delivered immediately to St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, the RNC Host Committee and the local prosecuting attorneys. We need 10,000 signatures in the next 24 hours, so please take action now:
Sign the Letter: Drop All Charges Against Journalists
In addition to these arrests, police with firearms drawn raided a meeting of the video journalists' group I-Witness and arrested independent media, bloggers and videomakers. We’re also receiving late-breaking reports of other arrests.
By signing this letter, you’re sending a powerful message: Officials must rein in aggressive and violent tactics by local law enforcement, stop the targeting of journalists and immediately drop all charges against them.
Reporting by independent journalists is vital to a functioning democracy. Americans must have access to diverse sources of information to hold their leaders accountable. Journalists must be free to do their jobs without intimidation.
Please Take Action by Signing this Letter
Don’t wait. We need a free press now more than ever. Tell your friends and take action now!
Thank you,
Josh SilverExecutive DirectorFree Presswww.freepress.net

Big election on small issues

When Obama said that we shouldn't vote on a big election for small issues, some of the people in this country were just not listening. They still want to vote on what someone does in their private life. I'm not just addressing the right who want to control what a woman does with her body, or those who want to make sure gay people cannot be afforded the equal rights the rest of us have. I'm talking about those who think Bristol Palin's pregnancy is an issue on both sides. The "right" think it's great and a fine example of deciding to keep a child, while the "left" want to point out that she's only 17 and was taught "abstinence only" along with even more who still claim that Trig is her child pointing to pictures taken of her before Trig was born and slim now that her mother says she's five months pregnant. Statments made are they "support the choice she made to have the baby" but they don't want anyone else to have the same right to decide what to do. Is it something to gossip about? Sure but it is not something to vote over. What happens in Palin's family has no bearing on your family or on mine.

Palin wanted all she could get for her tiny town, wanted to separate Alaska from the rest of the US and wanted the bridge to nowhere while she was supporting Stevens, then said she didn't want it because of the backlash. She then tries to portray herself as against earmarks. This all has to do with your family and mine. She has been under investigation for getting someone fired because they wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law, a State Trooper who was serving the people of Alaska. This also has to do with your family and mine. The actions of Palin have a lot to do with us.

Palin does not know anything about the big issues facing us. The people supporting her are focused on guns, abortion and gay rights. It's their right to think that the rest of it doesn't matter like global warning, science, diplomacy, energy conservation, the economy, the infrastructure, education on and on, all big issues that do matter to their family.

We cannot get thru to the "right" when it comes to what really matters to us and I think it's time we gave up trying. We need to focus on the people in this country, 60% who do not vote. We need to make sure they get it. That they understand when they decide to not vote, they end up supporting the people who have taken this country into a direction that is destroying it. We need to make sure the students understand that what the elected do today will affect the rest of their lives. We need to make sure people understand they are responsible for elections even if they do not pay attention.

An example of this is the amount of veterans being interviewed about John McCain. How many times do we have to read they are supporting him because he is one of them? After all, how can they miss that fact when almost every time he opens his mouth he reminds them? What they do miss is his deplorable voting record on veterans. They need to make an educated decision. If even knowing the facts about McCain's record they still feel loyal to him, it's a problem nothing can open their eyes to.

We need to pay attention and focus on the big issues and make sure they know what we face. If we focus on Palin's daughter, then we will get what we deserve. Stop wasting time on the sex lives of someone else when we can't even manage to feed the hungry or house the homeless now.

This is the last time I will post about Bristol Palin. Believe me, I've seen the pictures and had to stop myself from posting about all that is in the blog world. Wow was I tempted but then I read about another veteran who committed suicide and understood that the Palin story belongs in the gossip magazines.

Now this does matter
Palin's Alaska Town Secured Big Fed $$$ 384
Washington Post: Gov. Palin Hired Lobby Firm To Secure $27 Million For Town Of 6,700

Iraq vet charged with beating death of girlfriend

San Clemente man detained in 19-year-old girlfriend's beating death
Orange County deputies found the woman unconscious in the condo the couple shared. Relatives of the alleged assailant say he is an Iraq war veteran who has mental problems.

By Paloma Esquivel and Christine Hanley,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
11:25 AM PDT, September 2, 2008

A 25-year-old Army veteran, who family members say was suffering from mental problems since returning from Iraq, was being held today on suspicion of murder in the beating death of his 19-year-old live-in girlfriend, authorities said.

John Wylie Needham was arrested after sheriff's deputies found his girlfriend unconscious and badly beaten with "obvious trauma to the face" inside the condo the couple apparently shared, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

Needham served in Iraq last year and was awarded a Purple Heart in 2007 for a combat injury, said Army spokesman Master Sgt. Keith O'Donnell. He retired for medical reasons after two years in the Army, he said.

Matt Needham, who identified himself as the brother of the man in custody, told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that his brother had not been the same since he returned home from serving in Iraq.

"He's been really mentally unstable for the past few months," Needham said. "He's been no good since he got back, I'll be honest. I mean, he's my brother, we grew up in the same crib together, I love him like no one else and it's sad to know the person who means the most to me, to completely write them off because they're crazy."click post title for more

Hope for answers in murder of Joyce McLain

In Maine, hope for answers in haunting death
EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine - This quiet mill town on the edge of Maine's northern wilderness has not been the same since it buried Joyce McLain 28 years ago.
A promising and beautiful 16-year-old, McLain went out for a jog one summer night in 1980 and never returned. Two days later, her partially clothed body was discovered in a clearing on the edge of town, badly beaten, and the killer was never found. Now, the people of East Millinocket may be on their way to getting answers. (By Tania deLuzuriaga, Boston Globe)

Veterans, who voted for you?

You can assume all you want that McCain will support the veterans in this country because "he's one of you" but when he had the chance to prove it, he voted against you. This election is too important for veterans to just ignore the facts. We've seen enough of how McCain really feels when it comes to veterans and our families. We've seen the facts and heard what he claims. The truth it, the two do not add up. Anyone can make a speech and say he cares, but when it came down to proving it, he failed.

Haven't we had enough failures when it comes to those who serve? There are more and more of us everyday trying to get wounds taken care of that were caused because members of our families were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation and then ended up having to fight the government to have them taken care of. Aren't you tired of being last on the "to do list" when the people with the power to take care of veterans make their plans?

Did you also know under GOP "leadership" of Bush, the VA had less doctors and nurses working than there were after the Gulf War even though there were two active military campaigns producing more wounded veterans needing care? Did you know under Bush with McCain patting him on the back that Nicholson returned money unspent when veterans were being turned away from the VA and ended up committing suicide because of PTSD being untreated?

Did you know he was against the new GI Bill and said it was just too generous? Then he didn't even bother to show up to vote, but turned around and said he supported it.

Did you know that if you are a veteran, but did not go into combat, McCain thinks you should seek medical care some place else? In his eyes, you don't even deserve the little he's willing to support. He says it is to ease up the backlog but when it came to increasing the funding to take care of the veterans, he was against it. He's voted too many times against veterans and it's time for all of us to make sure we vote for the people who do support us instead of just the ones who support making more of us. McCain has been all for sending the men and women who serve into war, but he is the last one to take care of those he wants to send. Did you know he was already talking about sending troops into Iraq right after 9-11 when everyone else was getting ready to send troops in Afghanistan?

When it comes to the veterans of this nation, they cannot afford to support someone who has betrayed all of us, the veterans and their families. McCain seems to feel as if you owe him your votes but he never seemed to feel he owed you his.

Aug 21, VCS in the News: Senator McCain's Plan to Privatize Veterans' Healthcare

Aaron Glantz


Inter Press Service News Agency

Aug 21, 2008

August 21, 2008 - If John McCain is elected the next U.S. president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of hurt.

On the campaign trail, the Republican's presumptive nominee has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals -- in other words, an end to the kind of universal health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations.

"We need to relieve the burden on the VA from routine health care," McCain told the National Forum on Disability Issues last month. "If you have a routine health care need, take it wherever you want, whatever doctor or health care provider and get the treatment you need, while we at the VA focus our attention, our care, our love, on these grievous wounds of war."

The Republican senator argues that giving veterans a VA card that they can use at private doctors would shorten the long wait times many veterans face in seeing government doctors, who are nearly universally viewed as among the best in the world.

A recent study by the RAND Corporation found that "VA patients were more likely to receive recommended care" and "received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow up" than that delivered by other U.S. health care providers.

Virtually all veterans groups oppose McCain's plan. The Veterans of Foreign Wars' national legislative director has said the VA card would "undermine the entire system".

According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contribution than has Republican John McCain.

This may seem odd to some since McCain is a former naval officer, prisoner of war, and Vietnam War veteran.

However, Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and executive director of the non-partisan Veterans for Common Sense, says that for McCain, free market ideology is more important than providing care for former soldiers.

"Ideologues like John McCain and George Bush hate the fact that the VA exists," Sullivan told IPS, noting that the Republican candidate also wants to partially privatise social security and offer private school vouchers to students currently enrolled in public schools.

"They hate the fact that there's a functional example out there of the government providing better care at a lower cost than the private sector," Sullivan said. "The problem that the VA faces now is that the Bush administration failed to hire enough doctors and disability claims adjusters when they chose to go to war with Iraq. If these doctors had been hired, the VA would be an example of the government doing good work. Bush and McCain don't want the public to see that."

McCain has also never spelled out what he means by a "combat injury", leading many veterans worried they could be left out in the cold.

"If I'm driving a Humvee in Iraq and a roadside bomb explodes and I veer off the road and crush my arm and end up losing it and needing a prosthetic, is that a combat wound according to Sen. McCain?" asked retired Air Force Colonel Richard Klass, the president of the Council for a Livable World's VETPAC, which has endorsed Obama.

Official Pentagon policy calls such an incident a non-combat injury. Technically speaking, the only soldiers "wounded" in combat are those hit by direct enemy fire. As of Aug. 5, Department of Defence statistics showed 32,799 U.S. soldiers had been "wounded" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 10,685 had sustained "non-hostile" injuries which required a medical evacuation, while 29,881 were classified as "ill" enough to be airlifted out of the war-zone.

Veterans are also sceptical of McCain's plans because as a senator, he has repeatedly voted against fully funding veterans' health care. In 2005 and 2006, McCain voted against expanding mental health care and readjustment counseling for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, efforts to expand inpatient and outpatient treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs.

McCain's vote also helped defeat a proposal by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow that would have made veterans' health care an entitlement programme like social security, so that medical care would not become a political football to be argued over in Congress each budget cycle.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) gave him a D+ when they scored his voting record (whereas Obama got a B+). He's voted with the interests of Disabled American Veterans only 20 percent of the time.

"If McCain would work to properly fund VA care, there would be no issue about a VA card," said Larry Scott, who edits the website VAWatchdog.org. "McCain, by wanting to give vets private care, is walking away from the VA and ignoring the problem. He is admitting that he will not properly fund the VA to the level where it can care for all qualified vets. "

Scott is sharply critical of the VA's often cumbersome and ineffective bureaucracy, but like most veterans' advocates, believes the VA system needs to be strengthened. He sees McCain's plan as a way to phase out the government's commitment to those who've served.

"For every vet who would get a VA card, that would be one less vet using the VA," he wrote in an e-mail to IPS. That "would mean, in a short period of time, a smaller budget, fewer locations...and the eventual dismantling of the best health care system in the country."

*IPS Correspondent Aaron Glantz is author of the upcoming book "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans".
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/10972

These are some of his other votes

08/02/1996 Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 3448 Y Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(76 - 22)

But he was against it first.
07/09/1996 Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 3448 N Bill Passed - Senate
(74 - 24)


Voted for the lobbiest
08/02/2007 Lobbying and Donation Regulations
S 1 N Concurrence Vote Passed - Senate
(83 - 14)

Voted against the troops getting rest between deployments which every expert said was needed for their sake.
09/19/2007 Time Between Troop Deployments
S Amdt 2909 N Amendment Rejected - Senate
(56 - 44)

Voted against this one which ended up passing except for 2 votes
12/13/2001 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002
S 1438 N Conference Reported Adopted - Senate
(96 - 2)

But he was for it before he was against it.
10/02/2001 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002
S 1438 Y Bill Passed - Senate
(99 - 0)

01/26/1996 Authorization bill FY96, Defense Department
S 1124 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(56 - 34)

12/19/1995 Authorization bill FY96, Defense Department
HR 1530 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(51 - 43)

Voted against this one too when only 13 others agreed with him.
09/22/1995 Military Construction FY96 Appropriations bill
HR 1817 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(86 - 14)

Voted against Pell Grants
10/25/2005 To Increase The Maximum Federal Pell Grant Amendment
HR 3010 N Motion Failed - Senate
(48 - 51)

05/22/2008 GI Bill and Other Domestic Provisions
S Amdt 4803 NV Amendment Adopted - Senate
(75 - 22)


Voted against this one too when only 10 others agreed with him.

04/25/2002 Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE) Act of 2001
HR 4 N Bill Passed - Senate
(88 - 11)

Voted against taking care of the poor

10/26/2005 Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Amendment
HR 3010 N Motion Failed - Senate
(54 - 43)

07/29/2005 Energy Policy Act of 2005
HR 6 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(74 - 26)

06/28/2005 Energy Policy Act of 2005
HR 6 N Bill Passed - Senate
(85 - 12)

Voted against cutting dependency on foreign oil
06/16/2005 Reduction in Dependence on Foreign Oil
HR 6 N Amendment Rejected - Senate
(47 - 53)

06/16/2005 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) Amendment
HR 6 N Amendment Adopted - Senate
(52 - 48)

06/14/2005 Environmental Effects Caused by Ethanol Amendment
HR 6 N Motion to Table Agreed - Senate
(59 - 38)

Health, before 2000 voted majority yes, but after 2000 voted majority no

05/22/2008 GI Bill and Other Domestic Provisions
S Amdt 4803 NV Amendment Adopted - Senate
(75 - 22)

01/22/2008 Defense Authorizations Bill
HR 4986 NV Bill Passed - Senate
(91 - 3)

10/01/2007 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008
HR 1585 NV Bill Passed - Senate
(92 - 3)

02/02/2006 Tax Rate Extension Amendment
HR 4297 N Motion Rejected - Senate
(44 - 53)

11/17/2005 Additional Funding For Veterans Amendment
S 2020 N Motion Rejected - Senate
(43 - 55)

10/05/2005 Health Care for Veterans Amendment
HR 2863 N Motion Failed - Senate
(48 - 51)

06/27/2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit bill
S 1 N Bill Passed - Senate
(76 - 21)

11/03/2005 Medical Assistance and Prescription Drug Amendment
S 1932 N Amendment Adopted - Senate
(54 - 45)

11/03/2005 Hurricane Health Care for Survivors Amendment
S 1932 N Motion Rejected - Senate
(48 - 51)



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