At least 5 hurt in Phoenix office complex shooting
By Jane Lednovich
The Arizona Republic-12
News Breaking News Team
Wed Jan 30, 2013 12:03 PM
Five people are injured, three of them shot, in a shooting at an office complex in north-central Phoenix Wednesday morning, officials said.
The shooting occurred inside a building in the 7310 block of 16th Street, near Glendale Avenue, officials said. It is unknown if the shooter is in custody. People inside the building told azcentral.com that the incident appeared to be over but officers were sweeping the building.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Marine veteran slain in front of his skate shop
Marine veteran slain in front of his skate shop
AP
January 30, 2013
MALDEN, Mass. (AP) — A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and father of two has been gunned down in broad daylight in front of the Malden skateboard shop he owned.
Authorities say 39-year-old Shawn Clark of Saugus was shot multiple times just before 1 p.m. Tuesday in front of his Patriot Skateboards shop. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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AP
January 30, 2013
MALDEN, Mass. (AP) — A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and father of two has been gunned down in broad daylight in front of the Malden skateboard shop he owned.
Authorities say 39-year-old Shawn Clark of Saugus was shot multiple times just before 1 p.m. Tuesday in front of his Patriot Skateboards shop. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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List of Senators voting against helping Hurricane Sandy Survivors
UPDATE
High winds, tornado trap Georgia residents, turn over cars
By Michael Pearson. Phil Gast and Vivian Kuo
CNN
January 31, 2013
(CNN) -- Powerful winds and a tornado spawned by a 1,000-mile-long storm system pounded communities in northwest Georgia on Wednesday, overturning dozens of vehicles and trapping residents.
The tornado caused significant damage in Adairsville, Georgia.
One person died in that town and another died in Tennessee, authorities reported. At least 17 people were injured in Georgia, two critically.
The Adairsville death marks the first person killed by a U.S. tornado in 220 days, a record for most consecutive days without such a fatality, said CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen.
In the mountains of North Carolina, iReporter Matt Able said most of the roads around Appalachian State in Boone were impassible because of flooding. He sent in video of people driving down U.S. 321, which was under several inches of water.
Earlier, in Alabama, the storms blew the metal roof off a building in Sheffield, CNN affiliate WHNT said. The storm also damaged a church steeple in Rogersville, the station reported.
In Kentucky, winds blew off much of the roof of the Penrod Missionary Baptist Church and damaged several homes, CNN affiliate WFIE reported.
In Nashville, the weather service listed dozens of damage reports across the region: a funnel cloud was reported early Wednesday in Jackson County, there were dozens of reports of downed trees and power lines, and law enforcement reported damage to homes and businesses.
CNN affiliate WSMV also reported the partial collapse of an office building in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.
"I built it myself to take an event like this. And it looks like a freight train hit it," the station quoted building owner Dewey Lineberry as saying. "It's just destroyed. It laid the building down on top of cars, it put the building on top of people. It's unbelievable."
List of Senators voting against helping Hurricane Sandy Survivors
Sessions (R-AL)Boozman (R-AR)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsFlake (R-AZ)McCain (R-AZ)Rubio (R-FL)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsChambliss (R-GA)Isakson (R-GA)Grassley (R-IA)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsCrapo (R-ID)Risch (R-ID)Kirk (R-IL)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsCoats (R-IN)Moran (R-KS)Roberts (R-KS)McConnell (R-KY)Paul (R-KY)Blunt (R-MO)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsBurr (R-NC)Fischer (R-NE)Johanns (R-NE)Ayotte (R-NH)Portman (R-OH)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsCoburn (R-OK)Inhofe (R-OK)Toomey (R-PA)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsGraham (R-SC)Scott (R-SC)Thune (R-SD)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsCorker (R-TN)Cornyn (R-TX)Cruz (R-TX)Hatch (R-UT)Lee (R-UT)Johnson (R-WI)
FEMA Disaster DeclarationsBarrasso (R-WY)Enzi (R-WY)
Newtown's Police Officers Are Already Showing Signs of PTSD
Newtown's Police Officers Are Already Showing Signs of PTSD
Slate.com
By Josh Voorhees
Jan. 29, 2013
The New York Times has a rather haunting piece in today's paper based on interviews with seven Newtown police officers who were among the first responders to last month's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. The account they provide, as the Times rightly puts it, is "filled with ghastly moments and details, and a few faint instances of hope."
The report also highlights a secondary issue at play, one that is easy to lose sight of during the heated debate over gun control and safety that is now going on across the nation: Namely, the absolute hell that Newtown's police officers, many of them parents themselves, went through, and very well may continue to go through for the rest of their lives after seeing what they did on Dec. 14.
"One look, and your life was absolutely changed," Michael McGowan, one of the first officers to arrive at the school, told the paper. Another recounted how, two weeks later, he began to sob uncontrollably after driving by a roadside memorial. "I just lost it right there, I couldn't even drive," Jason Frank said. "Words can’t describe how horrible it was," said a third officer, Joe Joudy, one of the detectives who was tasked with the unenviable job of spending nearly a week collecting and inventorying every piece of evidence from the crime scene.
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Slate.com
By Josh Voorhees
Jan. 29, 2013
The New York Times has a rather haunting piece in today's paper based on interviews with seven Newtown police officers who were among the first responders to last month's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. The account they provide, as the Times rightly puts it, is "filled with ghastly moments and details, and a few faint instances of hope."
The report also highlights a secondary issue at play, one that is easy to lose sight of during the heated debate over gun control and safety that is now going on across the nation: Namely, the absolute hell that Newtown's police officers, many of them parents themselves, went through, and very well may continue to go through for the rest of their lives after seeing what they did on Dec. 14.
"One look, and your life was absolutely changed," Michael McGowan, one of the first officers to arrive at the school, told the paper. Another recounted how, two weeks later, he began to sob uncontrollably after driving by a roadside memorial. "I just lost it right there, I couldn't even drive," Jason Frank said. "Words can’t describe how horrible it was," said a third officer, Joe Joudy, one of the detectives who was tasked with the unenviable job of spending nearly a week collecting and inventorying every piece of evidence from the crime scene.
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NRA forgets no one is free from laws
When I read that the father of one of the Sandy Hook students killed was heckled by some people shouting "Second Amendment" because he asked why anyone needed an assault weapon, I was stick to my stomach. This is what keeps getting missed in the debate. They do not need them. They just want them. If the shooter at Sandy Hook did not have the ability to take his Mom's legal assault weapons to the school that day and only had regular rifles or handguns, the teachers would have had a fighting chance to stop him. He'd have to reload. One more thing getting missed in the claim that arming teachers is the way to go since they will have only handguns but murders will show up with this slaughter machine. Cops don't even have them. They have to call in SWAT. The Second Amendment does not void the first. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Standing Army
In closing, we do have a Standing Army and they need the weapons to fight our battles but even they do not agree on what civilians should and should not have.
The language of the Second Amendment, as adopted, read:This is what "regulated means.
A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.English history made two things clear to the American revolutionaries: force of arms was the only effective check on government, and standing armies threatened liberty.
Recognition of these premises meant that the force of arms necessary to check government had to be placed in the hands of citizens. The English theorists Blackstone and Harrington advocated these tenants. Because the public purpose of the right to keep arms was to check government, the right necessarily belonged to the individual and, as a matter of theory, was thought to be absolute in that it could not be abrogated by the prevailing rulers.
These views were adopted by the framers, both Federalists and Antifederalists. Neither group trusted government. Both believed the greatest danger to the new republic was tyrannical government and that the ultimate check on tyranny was an armed population. It is beyond dispute that the second amendment right was to serve the same public purpose as advocated by the English theorists. The check on all government, not simply the federal government, was the armed population, the militia. Government would not be accorded the power to create a select militia since such a body would become the government's instrument. The whole of the population would comprise the militia. As the constitutional debates prove, the framers recognized that the common public purpose of preserving freedom would be served by protecting each individual's right to arms, thus empowering the people to resist tyranny and preserve the republic. The intent was not to create a right for other (pg.1039) governments, the individual states; it was to preserve the people's right to a free state, just as it says.
regulated
Control or maintain the rate or speed of (a machine or process) so that it operates properly. Control or supervise (something, esp. a company or business activity) by means of rules and regulations.
Standing Army
Convinced that preparedness deterred war, nationalists wanted a standing Navy to match the standing Army. But the United States still had no navy in 1793 when trouble loomed on two fronts. First, the French Revolution exploded into a world war, putting neutral American commerce at risk. Second, with the Europeans preoccupied, the Barbary state pirates, whom the European powers had earlier bottled up in the Mediterranean Sea, were now sending their ships into the Atlantic to prey on American shipping. In response to this dual crisis, Congress passed a Naval Act on March 27, 1794 authorizing the construction of six frigates; each frigate was to have a Marine detachment of one officer and approximately fifty enlisted men. Those six frigates had a tangled history, but a reasonable argument can be made that the 1794 Naval Act marked the real birth date of an American Navy.
Finally, as the Quasi-War with France approached in 1798, Congress passed a spate of military preparedness legislation. Among other things, it dramatically increased the naval forces. Until then the Secretary of War handled both land and naval affairs. To ease the secretary’s burgeoning administrative burden, Congress cleaved the Secretary of War’s responsibilities in half by creating a separate Department of Navy. Then on July 11, 1798 Congress passed a law organizing the Navy’s Marines as a Corps of Marines, thus marking the real birth of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Conclusion
The Constitution initially threw those who embraced Radical Whig ideology into the deepest, most profound depths of despair. They feared that the United States would soon have “a military king, with a standing army devoted to his will,” which he would use to suppress civil liberties.[3]Exercising its explicit authority and ample power, the new Constitutional government overrode Radical Whig fears to create a regular standing Army (that is, a permanent army that existed in both war and peace), a regular standing Navy, and a regular standing Marine Corps. But as it has turned out, for more than two centuries and counting, it created neither tyranny nor a despotic government.
In closing, we do have a Standing Army and they need the weapons to fight our battles but even they do not agree on what civilians should and should not have.
In interviews with various media outlets McChrystal drew no hard distinctions between the AR-15 and M4, both of which fire a .223 caliber round.This was taken from this article
"We've got to take a serious look -- I understand everyone's desire to have whatever [weapon] they want -- but we've got to protect our children, we've got to protect our police, we've got to protect our population," McChrystal said during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe earlier this month. "Serious action is necessary. Sometimes we talk about very limited actions on the edges and I just don't think that's enough."
Green Beret Group Lobbies Against Gun Control
Jan 29, 2013
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
More than 1,100 former and current Army Special Forces troops -- Green Berets -- have reportedly put their names to a letter condemning any efforts to restrict gun ownership following the massacre of 20 students and six staff at Sandy Hill Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The 2,900-word letter has been distributed to media outlets and posted on Professionalsoldiers.com, which is operated by retired Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Jeff Hinton. Because of the sensitive nature of their military careers the names of those signing the letter are not being released.
Hinton -- who has routinely exposed phony Green Berets and others on his website -- said he has confirmed that everyone who put his name to the letter is a current or former Special Forces soldier. Military.com could not validate all 1,100 names by press time.
VA won't say how many veterans die waiting for disability benefits
VA won't say how many veterans die waiting for disability benefits
By Yvonne Wenger
The Baltimore Sun
January 29, 2013
How many veterans die annually while they wait for the embattled U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to approve their claim for disability benefits? The answer: The VA won’t say.
In half a dozen calls and emails, The Baltimore Sun asked the VA over a period of about two weeks for information about its backlog to process disability claims for American veterans — and the consequences of the delays on servicemen and servicewomen.
The Sun’s report showed the Baltimore office, which handles claims for all of Maryland’s 450,000 veterans, is the worst performing in the country. The local office was the slowest and had the highest error rate in the U.S., according to latest information available.
The VA has made strides in improving transparency and access to information with an interactive online database of processing times and error rates called ASPIRE. The agency also created an online portal called eBenefits for veterans to learn the latest status on their claims, although many find it confusing and the information it provides not timely.
The ASPIRE Dashboard was integral in producing the Sun investigation. But it couldn’t answer all the questions, most notably, the number of veterans who die before the agency approves or denies their claim.
Nearly 19,500 veterans died from October 2011 to September 2012, the federal fiscal year, while they waited for benefits, according to an article published in San Francisco’s Bay Citizen. That figure is based on the $437 million in retroactive benefits paid to the survivors of the deceased veterans, according to the report. The number of veterans who died waiting during that period is likely higher.
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By Yvonne Wenger
The Baltimore Sun
January 29, 2013
How many veterans die annually while they wait for the embattled U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to approve their claim for disability benefits? The answer: The VA won’t say.
In half a dozen calls and emails, The Baltimore Sun asked the VA over a period of about two weeks for information about its backlog to process disability claims for American veterans — and the consequences of the delays on servicemen and servicewomen.
The Sun’s report showed the Baltimore office, which handles claims for all of Maryland’s 450,000 veterans, is the worst performing in the country. The local office was the slowest and had the highest error rate in the U.S., according to latest information available.
The VA has made strides in improving transparency and access to information with an interactive online database of processing times and error rates called ASPIRE. The agency also created an online portal called eBenefits for veterans to learn the latest status on their claims, although many find it confusing and the information it provides not timely.
The ASPIRE Dashboard was integral in producing the Sun investigation. But it couldn’t answer all the questions, most notably, the number of veterans who die before the agency approves or denies their claim.
Nearly 19,500 veterans died from October 2011 to September 2012, the federal fiscal year, while they waited for benefits, according to an article published in San Francisco’s Bay Citizen. That figure is based on the $437 million in retroactive benefits paid to the survivors of the deceased veterans, according to the report. The number of veterans who died waiting during that period is likely higher.
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Florida PTSD veteran in hospital after VA tries to collect
Family says First Coast veteran's mental illness is service connected, Veterans Affairs says it is not
First Coast News
Jan 29, 2013
Ken Amaro
ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- Heather Levesque has been Jamie Levesque's wife, friend and companion for years and now she is fighting for his military benefits.
"We got a letter on January 22 that said in a month we are going to lose our benefits," she said.
Jamie Levesque receives $1,000 a month in disability income.
Veterans Affairs is threatening to withhold it for a year to reimburse Uncle Sam for what was given to Levesque in 2008.
"We will lose our home because this is the only income that Jamie has," said Heather. "He has been unemployed for approximately two years."
In 2008, Levesque was given an honorable discharge and was paid $19,000, before taxes, as a separation benefit.
"Now the military says you owe us the money," said his wife.
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First Coast News
Jan 29, 2013
Ken Amaro
"It has been very hard and currently Jamie is in the hospital because of major depression and the stresses," said Heather Levesque.
ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- Heather Levesque has been Jamie Levesque's wife, friend and companion for years and now she is fighting for his military benefits.
"We got a letter on January 22 that said in a month we are going to lose our benefits," she said.
Jamie Levesque receives $1,000 a month in disability income.
Veterans Affairs is threatening to withhold it for a year to reimburse Uncle Sam for what was given to Levesque in 2008.
"We will lose our home because this is the only income that Jamie has," said Heather. "He has been unemployed for approximately two years."
In 2008, Levesque was given an honorable discharge and was paid $19,000, before taxes, as a separation benefit.
"Now the military says you owe us the money," said his wife.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Rep. looks outside VA to fill mental care gap
Rep. looks outside VA to fill mental care gap
By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 29, 2013
WASHINGTON — Veterans who have trouble getting timely mental health care from Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics should also have access to thousands of health care providers who care for military personnel and their families, says the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
The proposal by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., borrows from the playbook of Republican Mitt Romney, who raised the idea of tapping into the military’s Tricare network of doctors during the course of the presidential campaign.
“We can double overnight the number of providers for those who are in need,” Miller said in an interview. “Eighteen veterans a day commit suicide in this country. Nobody thinks that is acceptable.”
The VA has beefed up its mental health staff over the years to try to keep up with the needs of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but a critical inspector general’s report last year found that about half of those seeking care for the first time waited about 50 days before getting a full evaluation. The VA had been reporting that the vast majority of those patients were getting care within 14 days.
Shortly before that report was released, the VA announced it would be adding 1,900 mental health professionals to its staff. VA officials said the department has made good progress on the hires, but they couldn’t provide specific numbers yet.
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By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 29, 2013
WASHINGTON — Veterans who have trouble getting timely mental health care from Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics should also have access to thousands of health care providers who care for military personnel and their families, says the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
The proposal by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., borrows from the playbook of Republican Mitt Romney, who raised the idea of tapping into the military’s Tricare network of doctors during the course of the presidential campaign.
“We can double overnight the number of providers for those who are in need,” Miller said in an interview. “Eighteen veterans a day commit suicide in this country. Nobody thinks that is acceptable.”
The VA has beefed up its mental health staff over the years to try to keep up with the needs of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but a critical inspector general’s report last year found that about half of those seeking care for the first time waited about 50 days before getting a full evaluation. The VA had been reporting that the vast majority of those patients were getting care within 14 days.
Shortly before that report was released, the VA announced it would be adding 1,900 mental health professionals to its staff. VA officials said the department has made good progress on the hires, but they couldn’t provide specific numbers yet.
read more here
Father of slain 6 year old Sandy Hook student heckled by gun activists
Neil Heslin, Father Of Newtown Victim, Heckled By Pro-Gun Activists
(VIDEO, PHOTOS)
Huffington Post
Posted: 01/29/2013
Neil Heslin, the father of a 6-year-old boy who was slain in the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, stoically faced down pro-gun activists last night.
More than 1,000 people attended a hearing before the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Monday to share their views on gun control, USA Today reported. Among them was Heslin, who held a large framed picture of himself and his son Jesse as he urged officials to consider strengthening gun laws in Connecticut.
But as he gave his emotional testimony, pleading with lawmakers to improve mental health options and to ban assault weapons like the one Adam Lanza used to murder his child and 25 other people, his speech was interrupted by dozens of audience members, The Connecticut Post reported.
“I still can't see why any civilian, anybody in this room in fact, needs weapons of that sort. You're not going to use them for hunting, even for home protection," Heslin said.
Pro-gun activists responded by calling out: "Second Amendment!"
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(VIDEO, PHOTOS)
Huffington Post
Posted: 01/29/2013
Neil Heslin, the father of a 6-year-old boy who was slain in the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, stoically faced down pro-gun activists last night.
More than 1,000 people attended a hearing before the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Monday to share their views on gun control, USA Today reported. Among them was Heslin, who held a large framed picture of himself and his son Jesse as he urged officials to consider strengthening gun laws in Connecticut.
But as he gave his emotional testimony, pleading with lawmakers to improve mental health options and to ban assault weapons like the one Adam Lanza used to murder his child and 25 other people, his speech was interrupted by dozens of audience members, The Connecticut Post reported.
“I still can't see why any civilian, anybody in this room in fact, needs weapons of that sort. You're not going to use them for hunting, even for home protection," Heslin said.
Pro-gun activists responded by calling out: "Second Amendment!"
read more here
Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded Bronze Star While Deployed At Sea
Camp Pendleton Marine Awarded Bronze Star While Deployed At Sea
KPBS
By Beth Ford Roth
January 28, 2013
Simmons is assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is currently deployed with the Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group.
Simmons received the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguishing Device for "heroic service" while serving in Sangin District, Afghanistan in 2011, according 15th MEU Public Affairs. Simmons served then as the first sergeant of Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), II Marine Expeditionary Force.
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KPBS
By Beth Ford Roth
January 28, 2013
Cpl. Timothy R. ChildersCamp Pendleton Marine 1st Sgt. Bradley G. Simmons was awarded the Bronze Star January 25 on the flight deck of the San Diego-based USS Rushmore during the ship's deployment at sea.
USMC
Lieutenant Col. John Wiener, commanding officer, Combat Logistics Battalion 15, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, pins the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguishing Device on 1st Sgt. Bradley G. Simmons, Sergeant Major, CLB-15, 15th MEU, during his award ceremony aboard the USS Rushmore, Jan. 25.
Simmons is assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is currently deployed with the Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group.
Simmons received the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguishing Device for "heroic service" while serving in Sangin District, Afghanistan in 2011, according 15th MEU Public Affairs. Simmons served then as the first sergeant of Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), II Marine Expeditionary Force.
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