GI Bill restored, veterans services funded in proposed Wisconsin biennial budget
by Micah Pilkington
April 04, 2011
On Friday, April 1, Governor Scott Walker met with veteran’s groups to announce that his proposed 2011-2013 Biennial budget would restore the GI bill, fully fund veteran assistance programs and ensure the solvency of the Veterans Trust Fund in the state of Wisconsin.
“Protecting Wisconsin’s most courageous citizens is of the highest priority, and restoring the Wisconsin G.I. Bill is a promise that I am proud to keep,” said Gov. Walker, who was most recently in the news in February for his controversial efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for the state’s government employees.
New funding for the Wisconsin G.I. Bill was eliminated from the state’s 2007-2009 budget under former Gov. Jim Doyle; increased state support for veterans was one of Gov. Walker’s campaign promises.
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GI Bill restored, veterans services funded
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Tuesday execution date for former recruiter in Huntsville Texas
Tuesday execution date for former recruiter
By Michael Graczyk - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 19:44:50 EDT
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A condemned inmate moved closer to being the first person to be executed with Texas’ new drug cocktail after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday refused a petition to convert his sentence to life in prison and an appeals court rejected arguments prison officials improperly made the lethal drug swap.
Cleve Foster, 47, is scheduled to die Tuesday nine for the slaying of a Sudanese woman abducted and shot after she met Foster and another man at a Fort Worth bar nine years ago.
Foster would be the third Texas prisoner executed this year, but the first to die since the state switched from using sodium thiopental to pentobarbital in its lethal three-drug mixture. The switch resulted from a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental. Texas is the nation’s busiest death penalty state.
Foster’s attorneys claim Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials didn’t follow administrative procedures properly when they announced the drug change last month. But a state district judge rejected that argument last week and the 3rd Texas Court of Appeals in Austin upheld the ruling Monday. Lawyers said they would take their challenge Tuesday to the Texas Supreme Court.
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Tuesday execution date for former recruiter
By Michael Graczyk - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 19:44:50 EDT
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A condemned inmate moved closer to being the first person to be executed with Texas’ new drug cocktail after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday refused a petition to convert his sentence to life in prison and an appeals court rejected arguments prison officials improperly made the lethal drug swap.
Cleve Foster, 47, is scheduled to die Tuesday nine for the slaying of a Sudanese woman abducted and shot after she met Foster and another man at a Fort Worth bar nine years ago.
Foster would be the third Texas prisoner executed this year, but the first to die since the state switched from using sodium thiopental to pentobarbital in its lethal three-drug mixture. The switch resulted from a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental. Texas is the nation’s busiest death penalty state.
Foster’s attorneys claim Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials didn’t follow administrative procedures properly when they announced the drug change last month. But a state district judge rejected that argument last week and the 3rd Texas Court of Appeals in Austin upheld the ruling Monday. Lawyers said they would take their challenge Tuesday to the Texas Supreme Court.
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Tuesday execution date for former recruiter
Fort Hood soldier charged with shooting, killing GI
Hood soldier charged with shooting, killing GI
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 18:32:32 EDT
KILLEEN, Texas — A Fort Hood soldier has been charged with murder in the weekend shooting death of a fellow soldier.
Michael Fitzgerald Reese, 27, remained jailed Monday on $1 million bond, according to Bell County Jail records.
Spc. Justin Sheldon Richardson, 25, was shot in the chest early Saturday morning in a restaurant parking lot a few blocks from the post, Killeen police say.
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Hood soldier charged with shooting, killing GI
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 18:32:32 EDT
KILLEEN, Texas — A Fort Hood soldier has been charged with murder in the weekend shooting death of a fellow soldier.
Michael Fitzgerald Reese, 27, remained jailed Monday on $1 million bond, according to Bell County Jail records.
Spc. Justin Sheldon Richardson, 25, was shot in the chest early Saturday morning in a restaurant parking lot a few blocks from the post, Killeen police say.
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Hood soldier charged with shooting, killing GI
Soldier dies from chest gunshot wound at Fort Hood
Soldier dies from chest gunshot wound
Circumstances under investigation
Updated: Monday, 04 Apr 2011, 12:07 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 04 Apr 2011, 12:07 PM CDT
FORT HOOD, Texas (KXAN) - Fort Hood officials have released the name of a soldier who died from a gunshot wound to the chest April 2.
Specialist Justin S. Richardson, 25, whose home is Bronx, N.Y., died at Carl R. Darnall Medical Center , Fort Hood.
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Soldier dies from chest gunshot wound
Circumstances under investigation
Updated: Monday, 04 Apr 2011, 12:07 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 04 Apr 2011, 12:07 PM CDT
FORT HOOD, Texas (KXAN) - Fort Hood officials have released the name of a soldier who died from a gunshot wound to the chest April 2.
Specialist Justin S. Richardson, 25, whose home is Bronx, N.Y., died at Carl R. Darnall Medical Center , Fort Hood.
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Soldier dies from chest gunshot wound
SWAT finds, arrests soldier who allegedly shot at wife
SWAT finds, arrests soldier who allegedly shot at wife
STACIA GLENN - Staff writer
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies on Sunday were looking for a soldier who shot at his wife during an argument and left his 2-year-old daughter alone for hours after he escaped the apartment while SWAT was called to respond.
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SWAT finds, arrests soldier who allegedly shot at wife
STACIA GLENN - Staff writer
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies on Sunday were looking for a soldier who shot at his wife during an argument and left his 2-year-old daughter alone for hours after he escaped the apartment while SWAT was called to respond.
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SWAT finds, arrests soldier who allegedly shot at wife
Fort Drum soldier shot at self-storage facility
NY Police Search for Soldier Involved in Shooting at Self-Storage Facility
Police are still looking for a man involved in a shooting Sunday at a self-storage facility in Watertown, N.Y.
The man has been identified as 25-year-old Leonard R. Whitefield. Police want to question him about a shooting at ABC Self-Storage on Water Street where an unnamed soldier from Fort Drum was shot in the leg.
The shooting occurred Sunday around 11 a.m. and involved two men and a woman, all three soldiers from Fort Drum, an army base located near the facility.
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NY Police Search for Soldier Involved in Shooting
Police are still looking for a man involved in a shooting Sunday at a self-storage facility in Watertown, N.Y.
The man has been identified as 25-year-old Leonard R. Whitefield. Police want to question him about a shooting at ABC Self-Storage on Water Street where an unnamed soldier from Fort Drum was shot in the leg.
The shooting occurred Sunday around 11 a.m. and involved two men and a woman, all three soldiers from Fort Drum, an army base located near the facility.
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NY Police Search for Soldier Involved in Shooting
Veterans "jail-diversion programs" among 50 Florida Bills in Tallahassee
Veterans Are the Focus Of 50 Bills This Session
By KATIE SANDERS
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 11:03 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 11:03 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE | As a retired Army Reserve brigadier general, Judge T. Patt Maney looks out for veterans who show up in his courtroom convicted of crimes at home after a tour of war.
Lawbreakers should get a sentence appropriate for their misdeeds, he said. But certain veterans deserve special evaluation.
Maney, 62, is the namesake of SB 138, which allows counties to develop jail-diversion programs for veterans charged with certain crimes as a result of traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder or substance use stemming from military combat. Serving in Afghanistan in 2005, Maney suffered a traumatic brain injury, the signature affliction of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The idea is one of about 50 bills introduced between the House and Senate this session to benefit veterans and their families. The bills influence veterans' college admissions and tuition, property taxes, state parks admissions, driver's license fees and hunting grounds, among other things.
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Veterans Are the Focus Of 50 Bills This Session
By KATIE SANDERS
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 11:03 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, April 4, 2011 at 11:03 p.m.
TALLAHASSEE | As a retired Army Reserve brigadier general, Judge T. Patt Maney looks out for veterans who show up in his courtroom convicted of crimes at home after a tour of war.
Lawbreakers should get a sentence appropriate for their misdeeds, he said. But certain veterans deserve special evaluation.
Maney, 62, is the namesake of SB 138, which allows counties to develop jail-diversion programs for veterans charged with certain crimes as a result of traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder or substance use stemming from military combat. Serving in Afghanistan in 2005, Maney suffered a traumatic brain injury, the signature affliction of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The idea is one of about 50 bills introduced between the House and Senate this session to benefit veterans and their families. The bills influence veterans' college admissions and tuition, property taxes, state parks admissions, driver's license fees and hunting grounds, among other things.
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Veterans Are the Focus Of 50 Bills This Session
Monday, April 4, 2011
2 trainers dead in attack in Afghanistan are Americans
Karzai: 2 trainers dead in attack are Americans
Victims killed by man wearing an Afghan border police uniform
By Heidi Vogt And Rahim Faiez - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 11:46:30 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two Americans training security forces were killed Monday by a man in an Afghan police uniform, Afghanistan’s president said.
Hamid Karzai condemned the killing of what he described as two American trainers. There were no further details in a statement released by his office. Karzai offered his condolences to the men’s families.
“According to reports this morning, two American trainers were killed by a person with a police uniform in the capital of Faryab province. Hearing this report, President Karzai was saddened and expressed his deep condolences to the families of both trainers who were killed in the incident,” the statement said.
NATO said earlier that a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform shot dead two of its service members inside a compound in northern Afghanistan. It did not provide their nationalities. It was unclear if the attacker was an Afghan police officer who turned on his Western counterparts or an insurgent who put on a uniform to infiltrate the base. There have been cases of both in Afghanistan.
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2 trainers dead in attack are Americans
Victims killed by man wearing an Afghan border police uniform
By Heidi Vogt And Rahim Faiez - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Apr 4, 2011 11:46:30 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two Americans training security forces were killed Monday by a man in an Afghan police uniform, Afghanistan’s president said.
Hamid Karzai condemned the killing of what he described as two American trainers. There were no further details in a statement released by his office. Karzai offered his condolences to the men’s families.
“According to reports this morning, two American trainers were killed by a person with a police uniform in the capital of Faryab province. Hearing this report, President Karzai was saddened and expressed his deep condolences to the families of both trainers who were killed in the incident,” the statement said.
NATO said earlier that a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform shot dead two of its service members inside a compound in northern Afghanistan. It did not provide their nationalities. It was unclear if the attacker was an Afghan police officer who turned on his Western counterparts or an insurgent who put on a uniform to infiltrate the base. There have been cases of both in Afghanistan.
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2 trainers dead in attack are Americans
Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming
Woodbridge Wounded Marine Joshua Himan Gets Home Makeover and Homecoming
Written by
Brittany Morehouse
WOODBRIDGE, Va. (WUSA) - A wounded soldier returned home Saturday to a home makeover style welcome as hundreds of community members gathered for miles with flags and smiles.
Marine Corporal Joshua Himan, 27, was paralyzed from the waist down in September of 2009 when he was serving in Afghanistan as a machine gun operator for the marines. His Humvee hit an explosive device causing him to suffer life altering injuries.
Since then, Himan has spent 18 months of rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center while back home, a community pulled together to raise enough money to build him a home addition.
"In 58 days we constructed a 1100 sq. ft. addition," said Jacob Koch, President of Northern Virginia Fuller Center for Housing, a non-profit that helps build homes for people in need. "We added a bathroom, a family room, his bedroom and a kitchen."
The Himan family addition marks the organization's first project for the the Center's Military Builders Program. While Himan knew about the plans, he had no idea what to expect until Saturday.
read more here
Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming
Written by
Brittany Morehouse
WOODBRIDGE, Va. (WUSA) - A wounded soldier returned home Saturday to a home makeover style welcome as hundreds of community members gathered for miles with flags and smiles.
Marine Corporal Joshua Himan, 27, was paralyzed from the waist down in September of 2009 when he was serving in Afghanistan as a machine gun operator for the marines. His Humvee hit an explosive device causing him to suffer life altering injuries.
Since then, Himan has spent 18 months of rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center while back home, a community pulled together to raise enough money to build him a home addition.
"In 58 days we constructed a 1100 sq. ft. addition," said Jacob Koch, President of Northern Virginia Fuller Center for Housing, a non-profit that helps build homes for people in need. "We added a bathroom, a family room, his bedroom and a kitchen."
The Himan family addition marks the organization's first project for the the Center's Military Builders Program. While Himan knew about the plans, he had no idea what to expect until Saturday.
read more here
Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming
Is Iraq the New Forgotten War?
A few years ago, we were asking the same question about Afghanistan. It is still very hard for me to understand how the general public disregards the men and women serving in combat operations. According to this report, news coverage is less than one percent of the daily news. Is it the lack of coverage or is it the lack of interest from the public? Which came first? Do we really know?
With such little interest in Iraq and Afghanistan, do they have any chance of being paid attention to back home? I doubt it.
Last night the "feel good" making a difference story on NBC was about a man restoring children's books. Good story? Sure but how about reporting on veterans coming home, suffering, healing and then helping other veterans? How about reporting on all the work being done to help all of them? When Lifetime can do a show like Coming Home following Army Wivesbut the national news cannot be bothered to cover the men and women risking their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan, cannot be bothered to report on what it is like on any of the families, or what it is like coming back home, then there is a huge problem in this country. We're great at committing them to fight our battles but then our interest dies off. We have a state of A.D.D taking over the country. When our kids have it, parents do everything possible to get them to focus on what they need to be doing. When the media refuses to get the public to pay attention, this is what we get. A nation filled with people that stopped paying attention after a couple of months.
We forgot about Afghanistan as soon as the debate began about Iraq and then Iraq was the center of everything. Then we forgot about Iraq and Afghanistan for a while until a few reports came out about Afghanistan. Now it's all Libya. We should be ashamed to lack interest but more ashamed of our media for not reminding us about what is going on.
Is Iraq the New Forgotten War?
April 04, 2011
Stars and Stripes|by Megan McCloskey
Before the sympathy, Britney Hocking sometimes gets skepticism when she shares that her older brother was killed last month in Iraq.
“I’ve actually had people ask me: ‘Do you mean Afghanistan?’ ” she said.
Some also have wondered aloud whether Sgt. Brandon Hocking’s death was a freak accident.
That a Soldier could still be killed in Iraq by an improvised explosive device surprises people. Our presence there and the potential for violence has largely faded from the American conscience.
Hocking’s death, one of the latest since the official end of combat operations in August, serves as a grim reminder of what is fast becoming a forgotten war. The United States has spent eight years of war in Iraq, with 4,443 servicemembers killed there. About 46,000 troops remain on the ground in “advise and assist” roles, and 23 servicemembers -- 11 this year -- have been killed since the mission change.
Iraq was once the dominant story on any given front page and nightly newscast. Today, attention has dropped to less than 1 percent of the daily news, according to the Pew Research Center.
read more here
Is Iraq the New Forgotten War
With such little interest in Iraq and Afghanistan, do they have any chance of being paid attention to back home? I doubt it.
Last night the "feel good" making a difference story on NBC was about a man restoring children's books. Good story? Sure but how about reporting on veterans coming home, suffering, healing and then helping other veterans? How about reporting on all the work being done to help all of them? When Lifetime can do a show like Coming Home following Army Wivesbut the national news cannot be bothered to cover the men and women risking their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan, cannot be bothered to report on what it is like on any of the families, or what it is like coming back home, then there is a huge problem in this country. We're great at committing them to fight our battles but then our interest dies off. We have a state of A.D.D taking over the country. When our kids have it, parents do everything possible to get them to focus on what they need to be doing. When the media refuses to get the public to pay attention, this is what we get. A nation filled with people that stopped paying attention after a couple of months.
We forgot about Afghanistan as soon as the debate began about Iraq and then Iraq was the center of everything. Then we forgot about Iraq and Afghanistan for a while until a few reports came out about Afghanistan. Now it's all Libya. We should be ashamed to lack interest but more ashamed of our media for not reminding us about what is going on.
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