Houston soldiers' suicides prompt scrutiny

Houston soldiers' suicides prompt scrutiny
Response team to deploy here after deaths of 2 more recruiters
By LINDSAY WISE Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 26, 2008, 2:35AM

An alarming number of suicides among Houston-based Army recruiters — including two in recent weeks — has prompted calls by a senator and veterans' advocates for closer scrutiny of high-stress recruiting duty during wartime.

Staff Sgt. Larry G. Flores Jr., 26, and Sgt. 1st Class Patrick G. Henderson, 35, are the fourth and fifth recruiters at the Houston Recruiting Battalion to kill themselves since 2001. Both men belonged to the battalion's Tyler Company, and both were combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Clearly, there's a problem," said David Rudd, a former Army psychologist and psychology chair at Texas Tech University. "Somebody needs to look and see if there's a broader national problem outside of this one battalion. Is it a problem placing these combat veterans in recruiting positions?"

Following inquiries by the Houston Chronicle on the suicides, Texas Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter Thursday to the secretary of the Army, asking for a briefing on the ongoing investigation and on the policy of returning soldiers from combat and reassigning them to a recruiting office.

"I am very concerned about this apparent trend within the Houston-based recruiting battalion, and I believe the situation requires your leadership and oversight to ensure the proper actions are taken and safeguards put in place to protect our troops," Cornyn wrote.

Also on Thursday, U.S. Recruiting Command at Fort Knox in Kentucky announced that it is "deeply concerned" and will deploy a critical response team to the battalion.

RESOURCES FOR SOLDIERS, FAMILIES

• Veterans experiencing emotional and suicidal crisis, as well as their concerned family members or friends, have immediate access to emergency counseling services 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 800-273-TALK (8255).

• For information on suicide warning signs visit www.behavioralhealth.army.mil

• The Army's Battlemind Training System is a mental health awareness and education program that helps prepare soldiers and their families for the stresses of war and assists with the detection of possible mental health issues before and after deployment. Visit www.battlemind.org .

• Soldiers in crisis should talk to their chaplain, chain of command or a fellow soldier immediately. They may also call Military OneSource at 800-342-9647 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-SUICIDE.

• Call the Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline at 800-984-8523or e-mail wsfsupport@conus.army.mil

Click post title for rest of the article.

Editor's Note,,,
I cannot under any circumstances recommend Battle Mind. This program's record is abysmal. Common sense demands they rethink this before it's too late for more. Had Battle Mind proven effective, the attempted suicide rate and successful suicide rate would have gone down instead of up.

Vandal leaves message of hate on soldier's Jeep at Dallas Baptist University

Vandal leaves message of hate on soldier's Jeep at Dallas Baptist University

11:07 AM CDT on Thursday, September 25, 2008
By JEFF BRADY / WFAA-TV staff

An Army Reserves sergeant studying at Dallas Baptist University was surprised this week to find the message "soldiers are murderers" spray painted on his Jeep Wrangler.


Viktow Whitlow, a junior, had parked his Jeep on the campus at about 2 a.m. Wednesday and returned hours later to find his vehicle's tires had been flattened, the seats slashed and "soldiers are murderers" spray painted in red across the hood.
click post title for more and for video

Researchers Investigate Impact of Stress on Police Officers' Physical and Mental Health

Researchers Investigate Impact of Stress on Police Officers' Physical and Mental Health

Release Date: September 25, 2008

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Policing is dangerous work, and the danger lurks not on the streets alone.

The pressures of law enforcement put officers at risk for high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide, University at Buffalo researchers have found through a decade of studies of police officers.

UB researchers now are carrying out one of the first large-scale investigations on how the stress of police work affects an officer's physical and mental health, funded by a $1.75 million grant from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The National Institute of Justice added $750,000 to the study to measure police officer fatigue and the impact of shift work on health and performance.

John M. Violanti, Ph.D., research associate professor in UB's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, is principal researcher of the study, called the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study.
go here for more
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/9660

Military interrogator testifies about Iraq abuses

Military interrogator testifies about Iraq abuses
By PAMELA HESS Associated Press
Sept. 25, 2008, 12:45PM

WASHINGTON — A military interrogation expert, Air Force Col. Steven Kleinman, told Congress today that prior to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, he witnessed interrogations of Iraqi detainees that he considers violations of the Geneva Conventions.

One of those interrogations was conducted by an Air Force civilian and a contractor employed by the same organization, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, which had sent a small team to Iraq in September 2003 to help a special forces task force make its interrogations of stubborn prisoners more effective.
go here for more
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/6022272.html

Nursing home employee mixed drug cocktails to quiet residents

Nursing home employee mixed drug cocktails to quiet residents, report says
By Jeff Long | Chicago Tribune reporter
12:16 PM CDT, September 25, 2008
An employee of a McHenry County nursing home at the center of an investigation into suspicious deaths mixed drug cocktails to make sure that troublesome residents "would not be bothering her during her shift," according to a state report.

The 130-page report of an investigation by the Illinois Department of Public Health says that improper use of drugs such as morphine sulfate contributed to five suspicious deaths in 2006 at the facility in Woodstock, then called the Woodstock Residence.
click post title for more

Woman Interrupts Molesting, Beats Brother

Woman Interrupts Molesting, Beats Brother
A woman beat up her brother after she caught him sexually assaulting her 2-year-old daughter in his East Palo Alto home, police said today.
by Henry K. Lee

Joel Aguilar Guizar, 23, was allegedly attacking the child when his sister broke down a locked bedroom door about 1 p.m. Wednesday, said East Palo Alto police Detective Jeff Liu.
click link for more

Taser Use in Man’s Death Broke Rules, Police Say

Taser Use in Man’s Death Broke Rules, Police Say
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: September 25, 2008
The firing of a Taser stun gun that led a man to fall from a building ledge to his death on Wednesday in Brooklyn appeared to have violated departmental guidelines, the police said on Thursday.

The department said in a statement issued by the chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, that according to policy, a Taser should not be used when a person could fall from an elevated surface.

The lieutenant who gave the order was placed on modified assignment, the statement said, while the officer who fired the device was given administrative duties.

The statement said that the officers at the scene had called by radio for an inflatable bag as the events unfolded, but it had not yet arrived when the man, Inman Morales, 35, was struck with the device and fell.

“None of the E.S.U. officers on the scene were positioned to break his fall, nor did they devise a plan in advance to do so,” the statement said, referring to the Emergency Service Unit.

click post title for more

Brooklyn Man Dies After Police Use a Taser Gun
By TRYMAINE LEE and CHRISTINE HAUSER
An apparently emotionally disturbed man fell to his death from a building ledge after an officer shot him with a Taser stun gun, the police said.

Award honors Franci Golman Rudolph's commitment to helping others

Franci Golman Rudolph has been helping others since she was 14. Now 58, she is being honored for her charitable efforts. “I’m just a person willing to do the work,” she says.

Award honors Franci Golman Rudolph's commitment to helping others
By Elisabeth Dyer, Times staff writer In print: Friday, September 26, 2008

BEACH PARK ISLES

“How many hours do you have?" asked Franci Golman Rudolph. She is sitting at her kitchen table, clearly preferring the limelight to be on her philanthropic works rather than herself. She tells a story of a stuttering child who gained the confidence to speak through a scholarship to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Her passion is evident.

Then there's the stroke team at St. Joseph's Hospital, working with new technology that can bust a clot and reverse stroke damage.

Rudolph, 58, plays her part in these efforts and many more, serving on boards at local hospitals, museums, art programs and schools.

"We say so much more by what we do than by what we say," Rudolph said.

She likes quotes. She recites one by Robert Frost.

The world is filled with willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

Rudolph is the type to roll up her sleeves and do the work.

"Who in this community and beyond has she not touched?" asked her sister, Gail Golman Holtzman.

They told her about the Human Relations Award, given nationally and locally, that they wanted to present. This, they told her, was the first year it would be given in Tampa. They showed her a long list of past national recipients including Jimmy Carter, Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article825600.ece

Tampa Police need help in fatal hit and run on Saturday

Few leads in hit-run fatality
By Rebecca Catalanello, Times staff writer
In print: Thursday, September 25, 2008

TAMPA — Detectives want to know who killed Wendy Irene Anthony.

The 43-year-old Tampa woman was found Saturday morning, lying on the side of the road with critical injuries from a hit-and-run vehicle.

Anthony, who was hearing-impaired, died late Monday at Tampa General Hospital, increasing detectives' interest in finding the person behind the wheel of the pickup they think struck her.

A Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman said the accident happened at County Road 579 north of Sligh Avenue, just before she was found at 7:24 a.m. Saturday.

Detectives think the vehicle was a 1994 to 2001 Dodge Ram pickup of unknown color.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article826032.ece

Pinellas Park murder-suicide victims identified

September 24, 2008
Pinellas Park murder-suicide victims identified
PINELLAS PARK -- The people killed in an apparent murder-suicide were identified today as Owen Jay Lollar, 34, and Paula Dale-Lollar, 35.

Investigators believe Owen Lollar shot Paula Lollar and then himself. Their last known address was on Lynne Lake Drive S in St. Petersburg.

On Monday, a passer-by found the bodies in a pickup truck at a vacant business at 10222 MCI Drive. Police found a handgun at the scene.

Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer
http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/09/pinellas-park-1.html