Man shot and killed at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport, authorities say
By Steve Almasy
CNN
updated 5:07 PM EDT, Thu May 2, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Police say man was confronted by agent from Homeland Security
NEW: Agent shot at man, who tried to shoot himself
NEW: Autopsy will determine cause of death, police say
McDonald's employee tells CNN affiliate she heard two shots, began to run
(CNN) -- A man was shot and killed Thursday in a pre-screening area at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, authorities said.
Police told reporters that the man had just come through the doors in Terminal B when he fired at least one shot into the ceiling.
A Homeland Security Investigations agent was working in an office near the scene, came out and told the man to drop his weapon. The agent fired once at the suspect, who appeared to try to shoot himself at the same time.
An autopsy will determine whose bullet killed the man, who has not been identified, police said.
CNN affiliate KHOU reported the man walked into the terminal with a military-style, semiautomatic rifle and fired two shots into the ceiling.
The station interviewed a woman who works at a McDonald's in the terminal.
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Thursday, May 2, 2013
Pentagon: OK to talk about faith Hallelujah!
Pentagon: OK to talk about faith, but not to push beliefs on others
By Chris Carroll
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 2, 2013
WASHINGTON — It’s OK to evangelize. But it’s not OK to proselytize.
That’s what the Pentagon said Thursday, attempting to clarify its position on religious speech in uniform as controversy swirled up around press reports over possible prosecutions of troops for sharing their faith.
What it comes down to, officials said, is that discussing matters of faith and religious practice with a willing audience is allowed, but pushing religious beliefs on those who don’t want to hear it is a form of harassment forbidden under Defense Department policies.
“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization),” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a written statement.
Officials said there was no plan to step up disciplinary action to weed out unacceptable religious speech.
read more here
By Chris Carroll
Stars and Stripes
Published: May 2, 2013
WASHINGTON — It’s OK to evangelize. But it’s not OK to proselytize.
That’s what the Pentagon said Thursday, attempting to clarify its position on religious speech in uniform as controversy swirled up around press reports over possible prosecutions of troops for sharing their faith.
What it comes down to, officials said, is that discussing matters of faith and religious practice with a willing audience is allowed, but pushing religious beliefs on those who don’t want to hear it is a form of harassment forbidden under Defense Department policies.
“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization),” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a written statement.
Officials said there was no plan to step up disciplinary action to weed out unacceptable religious speech.
read more here
Young vets with PTSD receive more CT scans
Young vets with PTSD receive more CT scans
May 2, 2013
Psychology and Psychiatry
Computed tomography scans are significantly more commonly used in young veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to young veterans without PTSD, according to research published in the May issue of Radiology. (HealthDay)—Computed tomography (CT) scans are significantly more commonly used in young veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to young veterans without PTSD, according to research published in the May issue of Radiology.
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May 2, 2013
Psychology and Psychiatry
Computed tomography scans are significantly more commonly used in young veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to young veterans without PTSD, according to research published in the May issue of Radiology. (HealthDay)—Computed tomography (CT) scans are significantly more commonly used in young veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to young veterans without PTSD, according to research published in the May issue of Radiology.
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“Thank a vet” during the month of May!
Veterans Village Las Vegas gets ‘covered’ by THDF
“Thank a vet” during the month of May!
Posted on May 1, 2013
by veteransvillagelv
Memorial Day is May 27 and we have a couple of great events coming up later this month to thank and honor our veterans for all that they’ve done for our country (more details to come).
With this spirit in mind we are asking you to ‘thank a vet’ throughout the month of May by sharing photos or by simply saying ‘thank you.’
Here’s how you can thank a vet through our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Please post or tweet us…
A photo of a veteran friend/family member
A photo with a veteran who is close to your heart
Are you a veteran? Please share a photo of yourself!
Feel free to write a brief message of thanks in your post! We also invite you to share your love for our veteran residents through our Vegas Loves Veterans campaign until May 27.
Many thanks to all of our veterans for your service!
-Arnold
Just to get you started thinking, here's a reminder. I cry every time I watch this!
PTSD and a hamster in every think tank
One day while driving back from a memorial service, my check engine light went on. Not being able to afford any repair bills, I freaked out. It was a long ride so I checked the time thinking I could just pull into KIA and get it checked out. It was too late and I was told I would have to bring it in in the next morning. My husband got up and took it in. A while later he called to say they had to do a diagnostic check because they couldn't see anything wrong. There just didn't seem to be any reason for the issue. A half hour later, he came home with this stuffed hamster. He handed it to me laughing and told me it was to remind me of how to not do something really stupid again because it cost us $90 bucks to discover I hadn't put the gas cap on tight enough.The little gadget in my gas tank was always there but I didn't know it.
That is what is happening with PTSD right now. There seems to be a lot of people driving the conversation on PTSD without a clue of what has been there all the time. Just because they suddenly discovered it, doesn't mean it just showed up.
When I read what a reporter has to say about PTSD and leaves us with the impression they think PTSD is new, I usually give them a pass since it really isn't there job to know the history of PTSD. Sure it would be good if they had some basic knowledge, did some homework to know what questions to ask but they are not as troublesome as when "professionals" get it wrong.
If there is an article on PTSD, I am usually reading it even though I may decide it is not worth posting. Reading We live in the age of trauma on Salon this morning was one of those times when to my horror I was screaming OH MY GOD so loudly that I woke up neighborhood. First read about the guy I will be talking about.
Charles Barber is a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Yale Medical School and author, most recently, of "Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation." He is director of The Connection Institute for Innovative Practice, dedicated to studying the narratives of people recovering from mental illness.
Now take a look at this picture. Notice the date and what was happening in 1978.See the words, POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER?
Now read what he wrote.
Yes, PTSD is the reigning diagnosis of the day. But unlike other diagnoses in other eras, there is no clear drug and no definitive way of treating PTSD. By its very nature, the whole business is messy and complicated. But what is clear is that the long-term toll of trauma, both psychological and financial, is stunning. According to Harvard’s Linda Bilmes, “The peak year for paying disability compensation to World War I veterans was in 1969 – more than 50 years after Armistice. The largest expenditures for World War II veterans were in the mid 1980s.” Payments to Vietnam veterans have not yet reached their highest point. Trauma transpires on a near endless battlefield.Just because the "experts" he noticed had said that it was not called PTSD until the "mid 80's" that does not mean he is right. I was at the library in 1982 reading what experts had to say about PTSD. In 1984 Point Man International Ministries was helping veterans with PTSD and their families. All of this was known long before many knew about what was already being done.
The current prevalence of “PTSD” is striking, particularly because it did not exist as a diagnosis until 1980. There were, of course, earlier terms to describe the psychological aftershocks of war trauma — in the Civil War, the wonderfully evocative term “Soldier’s Heart” was used; during the World Wars, “shell shock”; in the 1950s, “gross stress reaction”; in the 1970s, “post-Vietnam syndrome.” Somewhere along the way there was also “going postal.” But it was not until 1980 that the American Psychiatric Association, largely as a result of lobbying from Vietnam veterans, codified PTSD as a formal diagnosis.
At least he got the part about Vietnam veterans pushing for it to be treated. Their efforts led to psychologist and crisis intervention teams. When today's experts fail to acknowledge what was already being done and when it was being done, it leaves a huge vapor leak almost as if there is an excuse to be making stupid mistakes now. If we pretend that PTSD is something even close to new it is like pretending none of the research ever happened.
There is a clear way of treating it and it involves the whole person. Their mind, body and spirit. Some need medications but some do not. Some of them are helped better by one approach to teaching their body how to calm down again but someone else needs to do it another way. All of them need to work on their spiritual side but again, depending on their beliefs, there needs to be a variety of avenues for them.
Giving medications alone does not help them heal. They only get numb. Until the "professionals" plug into diagnostics with true knowledge and understanding they will never be able to fix the problem. All of them need a hamster to remind them to always look for what has been there even though they just didn't see it.
Soldier gets 15 months after accidentally firing RPG into another soldier
Plea deal gets soldier 15 months after he killed comrade in ‘inexcusable’ error
May 1, 2013
ADAM ASHTON
Tacoma News Tribune
Somehow the punishment doesn’t feel like enough for the fellow soldier who took their son’s life.
What’s 15 months in jail compared to a lifetime without Neil Turner?
Leland Turner and Charlotte Cox-Turner of Tacoma are weighing that question now that they’ve returned from a court-martial in Texas where a soldier pleaded guilty to killing their son.
Spc. Francisco Perez accidentally triggered a shoulder-fired rocket launcher at Pfc. Neil Turner inside the walls of their headquarters in Afghanistan last year. The explosive pierced Turner’s chest but did not explode.
“I’ll never understand what was going through (Perez’s) brain,” Cox-Turner said in an interview with The News Tribune on Tuesday.
Turner, 21, was the oldest of four brothers and a Lincoln High School graduate. He was serving on his first combat deployment with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division out of Fort Bliss, Texas.
Perez’s carelessness appeared so blatant that an Army judge at Fort Bliss wanted to sentence him Friday to 31 months in jail – near the high end of the maximum penalty for negligent homicide under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Perez, however, had a plea agreement that capped his sentence at 15 months.
read more here
May 1, 2013
ADAM ASHTON
Tacoma News Tribune
Somehow the punishment doesn’t feel like enough for the fellow soldier who took their son’s life.
What’s 15 months in jail compared to a lifetime without Neil Turner?
Leland Turner and Charlotte Cox-Turner of Tacoma are weighing that question now that they’ve returned from a court-martial in Texas where a soldier pleaded guilty to killing their son.
Spc. Francisco Perez accidentally triggered a shoulder-fired rocket launcher at Pfc. Neil Turner inside the walls of their headquarters in Afghanistan last year. The explosive pierced Turner’s chest but did not explode.
“I’ll never understand what was going through (Perez’s) brain,” Cox-Turner said in an interview with The News Tribune on Tuesday.
Turner, 21, was the oldest of four brothers and a Lincoln High School graduate. He was serving on his first combat deployment with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division out of Fort Bliss, Texas.
Perez’s carelessness appeared so blatant that an Army judge at Fort Bliss wanted to sentence him Friday to 31 months in jail – near the high end of the maximum penalty for negligent homicide under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Perez, however, had a plea agreement that capped his sentence at 15 months.
read more here
Mental health issues for soldiers, police up 47% since 2008 in Canada
Mental health issues for soldiers, police up 47% since 2008
Over 16,000 veterans, soldiers and RCMP officers on disability for mental health conditions
By Kathleen Harris
CBC News Posted: May 1, 2013
The number of soldiers and RCMP officers suffering from mental health injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder has skyrocketed over the last six years, driven in part by the gruelling decade-long combat mission in Afghanistan.
Data provided to CBC News Network's Power & Politics from Veterans Affairs Canada shows the number of veterans, soldiers and federal police officers receiving disability benefits for mental health conditions has swelled to 16,206 at last count, from just over 11,050 in 2008. That marks an increase of 47 per cent.
Second World War and Korean War vets with mental health problems is the only group that saw their caseload decline, and that is due to an aging population. There are now 1,932 “traditional” veterans of that era with PTSD and other mental disorders, down from 3,036 six years ago.
read more here
Over 16,000 veterans, soldiers and RCMP officers on disability for mental health conditions
By Kathleen Harris
CBC News Posted: May 1, 2013
The number of soldiers and RCMP officers suffering from mental health injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder has skyrocketed over the last six years, driven in part by the gruelling decade-long combat mission in Afghanistan.
Data provided to CBC News Network's Power & Politics from Veterans Affairs Canada shows the number of veterans, soldiers and federal police officers receiving disability benefits for mental health conditions has swelled to 16,206 at last count, from just over 11,050 in 2008. That marks an increase of 47 per cent.
Second World War and Korean War vets with mental health problems is the only group that saw their caseload decline, and that is due to an aging population. There are now 1,932 “traditional” veterans of that era with PTSD and other mental disorders, down from 3,036 six years ago.
read more here
Former Chief of Police going back to work after resigning over PTSD
Randy Scott has a new job after resigning as Chief of Police because of PTSD and I think it is a wonderful thing. Goes to show how much attitudes have changed. Just because they have PTSD that does not mean they are broken.
As I listened to the reporters talking about this, they seemed to think that PTSD is new, but it isn't. They seem to think that just because Scott has PTSD caused by his job, he cannot do the same job, but they fail to understand military men and women do it all the time. They go back into combat with PTSD. The same job that caused it in the first place. If they get the proper help, they heal. If they are healing and are able to stay on their jobs, then they heal better. If they are allowed to be able to go on serving others, they are much happier. Few citizens can understand this because few citizens are willing to risk their lives for someone else.
As I listened to the reporters talking about this, they seemed to think that PTSD is new, but it isn't. They seem to think that just because Scott has PTSD caused by his job, he cannot do the same job, but they fail to understand military men and women do it all the time. They go back into combat with PTSD. The same job that caused it in the first place. If they get the proper help, they heal. If they are healing and are able to stay on their jobs, then they heal better. If they are allowed to be able to go on serving others, they are much happier. Few citizens can understand this because few citizens are willing to risk their lives for someone else.
Former CPD Chief Randy Scott hired at Richland Co. Sheriff's Dept
WISTV.com
Posted: May 01, 2013
By Jeremy Turnage
By Jack Kuenzie
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS)
Only eight days after he tearfully resigned as chief of the Columbia Police Department citing a battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, Randy Scott has resurfaced in a position at the Richland County Sheriff's Department.
"So, they call it PTSD," said Scott. "You can call it stress, but I have to call it what it is and it was something that was tearing me apart for a very long time."Scott will be known as an "Inspector" with the Sheriff's Department, and he will be paid around $40,000 a year. According to officials, that job will be equivalent to a regular deputy who answers to a captain.
This will be Scott's second time with the Sheriff's Department. He previously spent 15 years there before being hired as CPD's chief.
Sheriff Leon Lott says hiring Scott again gives the sheriff the opportunity to take advantage of Scott's experience at the Police Department.
"He's got a lot to give here," said Lott. "We're going to have him as a community liaison. He's great with the community, he's going to community meetings -- he'll be doing a lot of that. He's also going to help us develop our leadership training. I think he'll be able to take it to a different level."
read more here
Technical Certifications for Veterans to Help Transition
First Lady Unveils Certification Plan for Veteran Jobs
By Terri Moon Cronk
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 29, 2013
First Lady Michelle Obama today unveiled the new Information Technology Training and Certification Partnership to put thousands of service members to work with industry-recognized IT certifications in hand before they leave the military.
Obama, who made the announcement at the White House Forum on Military Credentialing and Licensing at the White House, said a public-private partnership will offer the certification program.
“This new partnership will provide up to 161,000 service members with the chance to gain the certifications they need for 12 different high-demand, high-paying technology careers … from IT security analysts to computer programmers to quality assurance engineers,” she noted.
The program is expected to garner more than 1.8 million jobs by 2020, with salaries of more than $81,000, a White House fact sheet indicated.
“More than 1 million service members will be hanging up their uniforms and transitioning to civilian life … on top of the hundreds of thousands of veterans and military spouses already out there looking for work,” the first lady said.
read more here
By Terri Moon Cronk
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 29, 2013
First Lady Michelle Obama today unveiled the new Information Technology Training and Certification Partnership to put thousands of service members to work with industry-recognized IT certifications in hand before they leave the military.
Obama, who made the announcement at the White House Forum on Military Credentialing and Licensing at the White House, said a public-private partnership will offer the certification program.
“This new partnership will provide up to 161,000 service members with the chance to gain the certifications they need for 12 different high-demand, high-paying technology careers … from IT security analysts to computer programmers to quality assurance engineers,” she noted.
The program is expected to garner more than 1.8 million jobs by 2020, with salaries of more than $81,000, a White House fact sheet indicated.
“More than 1 million service members will be hanging up their uniforms and transitioning to civilian life … on top of the hundreds of thousands of veterans and military spouses already out there looking for work,” the first lady said.
read more here
Killer turned himself into police after killing Pastor
Local pastor killed in Florida beating
Funeral will be held in Newport News
WAVY News
Published : Wednesday, 01 May 2013
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - A Newport News pastor was murdered during a mission trip to Florida.
Police say Apostle John Henry Bowser was beat to death with a hammer Tuesday morning. Officials arrested Terrence Wright, 24, of Atlantic Beach, Fla., after he drove the victim's car to a police station and confessed to the crime.
Police found the 76-year-old victim dead in the kitchen of his home, which is right next to the church. Wright told police he killed Bowser for money to buy crack cocaine.
Bowser founded a church in Jacksonville, along with many others across the country. His home church was The Glorious Church of The Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith in Newport News, which he founded in 1959.
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Funeral will be held in Newport News
WAVY News
Published : Wednesday, 01 May 2013
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - A Newport News pastor was murdered during a mission trip to Florida.
Police say Apostle John Henry Bowser was beat to death with a hammer Tuesday morning. Officials arrested Terrence Wright, 24, of Atlantic Beach, Fla., after he drove the victim's car to a police station and confessed to the crime.
Police found the 76-year-old victim dead in the kitchen of his home, which is right next to the church. Wright told police he killed Bowser for money to buy crack cocaine.
Bowser founded a church in Jacksonville, along with many others across the country. His home church was The Glorious Church of The Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith in Newport News, which he founded in 1959.
read more here
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