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unhappycamper
unhappycamper's Journal
unhappycamper's Journal
May 9, 2013
In the U.S., a recovery for the rich
by Erica Alini on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 5:00pm
Officially, the Great Recession in the United States ended in June 2009. For the following 2½ years, though, the recovery has only blessed the rich. For the rest of America, it felt like the recession kept on going.
That’s according to research based on the latest available data on the wealth of U.S. households. At the height of the financial crisis, the economy spared few American families, rich or poor. But once it started growing again, relief came unevenly. Only households in the top seven per cent of the income ladder saw their net worth—assets minus debt—grow between the second half of 2009 and the end of 2011, the recent Pew Research Center analysis shows. For the bottom 93 per cent, wealth continued to decline, shrinking by four per cent—more worrisome evidence, say economists, of rising inequality in the U.S.
Blame goes to the opposite trajectories of financial assets and real estate. Rising stock prices and soaring gains in bonds gave a quick lift to America’s top earners, for whom wealth is mostly concentrated in financial holdings. For most people, however, their homes are their most valuable assets and the housing market kept sliding through 2011. With bond prices at record highs and stocks up 34 per cent in December 2011 from June 2009, America’s eight million richest households saw their mean net worth grow to $3.3 million from $2.6 million. For the other 111 million households, mean net worth fell by $6,000 to an average of $136,426, as home prices declined five per cent in the first 30 months of the recovery.
Today, the average American family is likely better off than the Pew analysis shows. Home prices in the past year have started to recoup ground lost in the crash. The housing revival is starting to lift incomes, too, as construction jobs bring much-needed relief to some of the states with the highest unemployment rates. Jobless claims hit a six-week low in mid-April, said the U.S. Department of Labor last week. Still, with stock prices also on the rise, breaking their 2007 record this year, the wealth gap in America is no doubt alive and well.
In the U.S., a recovery for the rich
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/05/08/a-recovery-for-the-rich/In the U.S., a recovery for the rich
by Erica Alini on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 5:00pm
Officially, the Great Recession in the United States ended in June 2009. For the following 2½ years, though, the recovery has only blessed the rich. For the rest of America, it felt like the recession kept on going.
That’s according to research based on the latest available data on the wealth of U.S. households. At the height of the financial crisis, the economy spared few American families, rich or poor. But once it started growing again, relief came unevenly. Only households in the top seven per cent of the income ladder saw their net worth—assets minus debt—grow between the second half of 2009 and the end of 2011, the recent Pew Research Center analysis shows. For the bottom 93 per cent, wealth continued to decline, shrinking by four per cent—more worrisome evidence, say economists, of rising inequality in the U.S.
Blame goes to the opposite trajectories of financial assets and real estate. Rising stock prices and soaring gains in bonds gave a quick lift to America’s top earners, for whom wealth is mostly concentrated in financial holdings. For most people, however, their homes are their most valuable assets and the housing market kept sliding through 2011. With bond prices at record highs and stocks up 34 per cent in December 2011 from June 2009, America’s eight million richest households saw their mean net worth grow to $3.3 million from $2.6 million. For the other 111 million households, mean net worth fell by $6,000 to an average of $136,426, as home prices declined five per cent in the first 30 months of the recovery.
Today, the average American family is likely better off than the Pew analysis shows. Home prices in the past year have started to recoup ground lost in the crash. The housing revival is starting to lift incomes, too, as construction jobs bring much-needed relief to some of the states with the highest unemployment rates. Jobless claims hit a six-week low in mid-April, said the U.S. Department of Labor last week. Still, with stock prices also on the rise, breaking their 2007 record this year, the wealth gap in America is no doubt alive and well.
May 9, 2013
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA - And then there was one
By Tom Engelhardt
May 8, '13
~snip~
After the rise and fall of the Assyrians and the Romans, the Persians, the Chinese, the Mongols, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the English, the Germans, and the Japanese, some process seemed over. The United States was dominant in a previously unimaginable way - except in Hollywood films where villains cackled about their evil plans to dominate the world.
As a start, the US was an empire of global capital. With the fall of Soviet-style communism (and the transformation of a communist regime in China into a crew of authoritarian "capitalist roaders"
, there was no other model for how to do anything, economically speaking. There was Washington's way - and that of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (both controlled by Washington) - or there was the highway, and the Soviet Union had already made it all too clear where that led: to obsolescence and ruin.
In addition, the US had unprecedented military power. By the time the Soviet Union began to totter, America's leaders had for nearly a decade been consciously using "the arms race" to spend its opponent into an early grave. And here was the curious thing after centuries of arms races: when there was no one left to race, the US continued an arms race of one.
In the years that followed, it would outpace all other countries or combinations of countries in military spending by staggering amounts. It housed the world's most powerful weapons makers, was technologically light years ahead of any other state, and was continuing to develop future weaponry for 2020, 2040, 2060, even as it established a near monopoly on the global arms trade (and so, control over who would be well-armed and who wouldn't).
DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA - And then there was one
http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-080513.htmlDISPATCHES FROM AMERICA - And then there was one
By Tom Engelhardt
May 8, '13
~snip~
After the rise and fall of the Assyrians and the Romans, the Persians, the Chinese, the Mongols, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the English, the Germans, and the Japanese, some process seemed over. The United States was dominant in a previously unimaginable way - except in Hollywood films where villains cackled about their evil plans to dominate the world.
As a start, the US was an empire of global capital. With the fall of Soviet-style communism (and the transformation of a communist regime in China into a crew of authoritarian "capitalist roaders"
, there was no other model for how to do anything, economically speaking. There was Washington's way - and that of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (both controlled by Washington) - or there was the highway, and the Soviet Union had already made it all too clear where that led: to obsolescence and ruin.
In addition, the US had unprecedented military power. By the time the Soviet Union began to totter, America's leaders had for nearly a decade been consciously using "the arms race" to spend its opponent into an early grave. And here was the curious thing after centuries of arms races: when there was no one left to race, the US continued an arms race of one.
In the years that followed, it would outpace all other countries or combinations of countries in military spending by staggering amounts. It housed the world's most powerful weapons makers, was technologically light years ahead of any other state, and was continuing to develop future weaponry for 2020, 2040, 2060, even as it established a near monopoly on the global arms trade (and so, control over who would be well-armed and who wouldn't).
May 9, 2013
KARZAI'S CIA BUNDLES - The hand that scolds also bribes
By Thalif Deen
May 9, '13
KARZAI'S CIA BUNDLES
The hand that scolds also bribes
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK - When a Southeast Asian country was riddled with corruption in a bygone era, there were rumors that government officials routinely offered receipts every time they accepted a bribe. Last week, Hamid Karzai, the embattled president of Afghanistan, admitted that he was no better: providing receipts to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which secretly bribed him with "bags of cash dropped off regularly at the presidential palace".
The New York Times revealed that Karzai was on the CIA payroll, receiving millions of dollars in regular payments for the last decade. The Afghan president told reporters the CIA money was "an easy source of petty cash" and part of a "slush fund" to pay off warlords and buy their loyalties in a country battling a violent insurgency.
"This is cash," Karzai was quoted as saying, "It is the choice of the US government." He was not allowed to disclose the amounts of the CIA payments, he said.
While the United States preaches "good governance" to developing countries at the United Nations, says one African diplomat, "it has been doing the reverse in its own political backyard".
unhappycamper comment: Not to be outdone, MI6 has also been delivering bags of cash to Karzai --> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10038988/MI6-handing-bundles-of-cash-to-Hamid-Karzai.html
KARZAI'S CIA BUNDLES - The hand that scolds also bribes
http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-02-090513.htmlKARZAI'S CIA BUNDLES - The hand that scolds also bribes
By Thalif Deen
May 9, '13
KARZAI'S CIA BUNDLES
The hand that scolds also bribes
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK - When a Southeast Asian country was riddled with corruption in a bygone era, there were rumors that government officials routinely offered receipts every time they accepted a bribe. Last week, Hamid Karzai, the embattled president of Afghanistan, admitted that he was no better: providing receipts to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which secretly bribed him with "bags of cash dropped off regularly at the presidential palace".
The New York Times revealed that Karzai was on the CIA payroll, receiving millions of dollars in regular payments for the last decade. The Afghan president told reporters the CIA money was "an easy source of petty cash" and part of a "slush fund" to pay off warlords and buy their loyalties in a country battling a violent insurgency.
"This is cash," Karzai was quoted as saying, "It is the choice of the US government." He was not allowed to disclose the amounts of the CIA payments, he said.
While the United States preaches "good governance" to developing countries at the United Nations, says one African diplomat, "it has been doing the reverse in its own political backyard".
unhappycamper comment: Not to be outdone, MI6 has also been delivering bags of cash to Karzai --> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10038988/MI6-handing-bundles-of-cash-to-Hamid-Karzai.html
May 8, 2013
Navy Can’t Calculate Littoral Combat Ship’s Operating Costs, Says GAO Draft
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on May 07, 2013 at 5:25 PM
CAPITOL HILL: The Navy is 90 percent sure its current estimated cost to operate and maintain the controversial Littoral Combat Ship is off target, according to a draft Government Accountability Office report obtained by BreakingDefense.
According to the anonymous authors – whose diagnosis, we should emphasize, is not yet the official and fully vetted conclusion of the GAO, which won’t publish the final report until September – the Navy may go into a critical decision in 2015 about whether to contract for up to 28 more Littoral Combat Ships without enough understanding of the long-term costs, the evolving concepts to sustain the vessels, or even whether they have enough bandwidth to exchange maintenance data with support facilities ashore. As a result of this uncertainty, the GAO draft says the Navy’s own analysts have “only about 10 percent confidence” in the current estimate that it will cost $50.4 billion to “operate and support” a total of 55 LCSs over their 25-year service lives. While such long-term “life cycle costs” are notoriously hard to estimate accurately decades out, a normal program would have at least 50 percent confidence in its figures at this stage.
That’s a big question mark over a big part of the future fleet. While not as well-armed or well-protected as the Navy’s workhorse Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers, the smaller, faster, and less costly Littoral Combat Ships play a crucial role in the Navy’s plans, replacing a host of aging frigates, minesweepers, and other smaller craft. Those vessels are what Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) referred to dismissively as “support ships” in a hearing he chaired this morning of the House Appropriations Committee’s panel on defense. The Navy is buying too many such low-end ships, he argued. “Support is one thing,” Frelinghuysen said, but with the Chinese military getting larger and more aggressive, he argued, the US needs “ships that are prepared for combat.”
~snip~
The problem is that the Littoral Combat Ship is so different from anything else in service that the Navy is still working out both combat tactics and day-to-day maintenance. The first of the class, LCS-1 Freedom, just arrived on its maiden overseas deployment to Singapore with seawater leaking into its lubricant fluid, the latest of a host of problems. Given the ship’s small size and crew, it relies heavily on shore facilities to perform repairs that larger ships would handle themselves at sea.
Navy Can’t Calculate Littoral Combat Ship’s Operating Costs, Says GAO Draft
http://breakingdefense.com/2013/05/07/navy-cant-calculate-littoral-combat-ships-operating-costs-says-gao-draft/Navy Can’t Calculate Littoral Combat Ship’s Operating Costs, Says GAO Draft
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on May 07, 2013 at 5:25 PM
CAPITOL HILL: The Navy is 90 percent sure its current estimated cost to operate and maintain the controversial Littoral Combat Ship is off target, according to a draft Government Accountability Office report obtained by BreakingDefense.
According to the anonymous authors – whose diagnosis, we should emphasize, is not yet the official and fully vetted conclusion of the GAO, which won’t publish the final report until September – the Navy may go into a critical decision in 2015 about whether to contract for up to 28 more Littoral Combat Ships without enough understanding of the long-term costs, the evolving concepts to sustain the vessels, or even whether they have enough bandwidth to exchange maintenance data with support facilities ashore. As a result of this uncertainty, the GAO draft says the Navy’s own analysts have “only about 10 percent confidence” in the current estimate that it will cost $50.4 billion to “operate and support” a total of 55 LCSs over their 25-year service lives. While such long-term “life cycle costs” are notoriously hard to estimate accurately decades out, a normal program would have at least 50 percent confidence in its figures at this stage.
That’s a big question mark over a big part of the future fleet. While not as well-armed or well-protected as the Navy’s workhorse Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers, the smaller, faster, and less costly Littoral Combat Ships play a crucial role in the Navy’s plans, replacing a host of aging frigates, minesweepers, and other smaller craft. Those vessels are what Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) referred to dismissively as “support ships” in a hearing he chaired this morning of the House Appropriations Committee’s panel on defense. The Navy is buying too many such low-end ships, he argued. “Support is one thing,” Frelinghuysen said, but with the Chinese military getting larger and more aggressive, he argued, the US needs “ships that are prepared for combat.”
~snip~
The problem is that the Littoral Combat Ship is so different from anything else in service that the Navy is still working out both combat tactics and day-to-day maintenance. The first of the class, LCS-1 Freedom, just arrived on its maiden overseas deployment to Singapore with seawater leaking into its lubricant fluid, the latest of a host of problems. Given the ship’s small size and crew, it relies heavily on shore facilities to perform repairs that larger ships would handle themselves at sea.
May 8, 2013
Army exercises like this one at the National Training Center are being cancelled due to budget cuts.
Gen. Odierno: Budget Crunch Will Render Army Unready For Syria & Hybrid War
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on May 07, 2013 at 7:02 PM
WASHINGTON: While the Army can keep troops headed for Afghanistan trained up and ready to go, the ongoing budget gridlock threatens its ability to prepare for crises around the world – from North Korea to Syria – conflicts that would require a very different kind of training than the counterinsurgency tactics the force has focused on for years. That’s the warning from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, who added that the service might even have to submit an “unfunded requirements” wish list to Congress for the first time in years.
“I worry about the unknown contingency. We’ll continue to train for our Afghan mission and some other missions we have, but for unknown contingencies, our risk goes way up,” Gen. Odierno told reporters at a Defense Writers’ Group breakfast this morning. With yesterday’s release of the Pentagon’s annual report on China, the People’s Republic is getting a lot of anxious attention, but “we also have to worry about North Korea,” said Odierno. “That’s the first priority.”
“The next priority is the Middle East, and we have to prepare to operate in Syria or against Iran or, who knows, a failed Pakistan,” said Odierno. In particular, the fall of the Assad regime looks almost inevitable, he said: “It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when,’ so what I worry about is … what happens the day after.”
Once the Army could spend 50 years focused on conventional warfare against the Soviet Union or a decade on counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, he said, “we’ve got to be prepared to operate across a broader spectrum of conflict, and that’s what makes this even more challenging.”
Gen. Odierno: Budget Crunch Will Render Army Unready For Syria & Hybrid War
http://breakingdefense.com/2013/05/07/gen-odierno-budget-crunch-will-render-army-unready-for-syria-or-anywhere-else/Army exercises like this one at the National Training Center are being cancelled due to budget cuts.
Gen. Odierno: Budget Crunch Will Render Army Unready For Syria & Hybrid War
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on May 07, 2013 at 7:02 PM
WASHINGTON: While the Army can keep troops headed for Afghanistan trained up and ready to go, the ongoing budget gridlock threatens its ability to prepare for crises around the world – from North Korea to Syria – conflicts that would require a very different kind of training than the counterinsurgency tactics the force has focused on for years. That’s the warning from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, who added that the service might even have to submit an “unfunded requirements” wish list to Congress for the first time in years.
“I worry about the unknown contingency. We’ll continue to train for our Afghan mission and some other missions we have, but for unknown contingencies, our risk goes way up,” Gen. Odierno told reporters at a Defense Writers’ Group breakfast this morning. With yesterday’s release of the Pentagon’s annual report on China, the People’s Republic is getting a lot of anxious attention, but “we also have to worry about North Korea,” said Odierno. “That’s the first priority.”
“The next priority is the Middle East, and we have to prepare to operate in Syria or against Iran or, who knows, a failed Pakistan,” said Odierno. In particular, the fall of the Assad regime looks almost inevitable, he said: “It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when,’ so what I worry about is … what happens the day after.”
Once the Army could spend 50 years focused on conventional warfare against the Soviet Union or a decade on counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, he said, “we’ve got to be prepared to operate across a broader spectrum of conflict, and that’s what makes this even more challenging.”
May 8, 2013
Anchorage Marine rapist walks without prison time
Published: May 7, 2013 Updated 55 minutes ago
By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS
When a 23-year-old woman accused Nicholas Howard, an Anchorage recruiter for the United States Marine Corps, of sexually assaulting her in 2011, police believed the case rested largely on DNA evidence.
At the time, the state crime lab that tests DNA had a backlog of hundreds of cases and many months.
So when the Marine Corps offered to take over the case from the Anchorage Police Department to expedite DNA processing, police agreed.
The result: DNA linked Nicholas Howard to the crime and he was court-martialed.
~snip~
It's not clear why the military chose not to give Howard jail time for an offense as serious as first-degree sexual assault.
Anchorage Marine rapist walks without prison time
http://www.adn.com/2013/05/07/2894207/marine-convicted-of-rape-walks.htmlAnchorage Marine rapist walks without prison time
Published: May 7, 2013 Updated 55 minutes ago
By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS
When a 23-year-old woman accused Nicholas Howard, an Anchorage recruiter for the United States Marine Corps, of sexually assaulting her in 2011, police believed the case rested largely on DNA evidence.
At the time, the state crime lab that tests DNA had a backlog of hundreds of cases and many months.
So when the Marine Corps offered to take over the case from the Anchorage Police Department to expedite DNA processing, police agreed.
The result: DNA linked Nicholas Howard to the crime and he was court-martialed.
~snip~
It's not clear why the military chose not to give Howard jail time for an offense as serious as first-degree sexual assault.
May 8, 2013
The decision to let Afghans finish the Kajaki Dam hydroelectric project in the country's volatile south carries risks — among them, that a huge U.S. investment may be squandered.
U.S. turns over troubled dam project to Afghanistan
By Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2013, 5:10 p.m.
KAJAKI, Afghanistan — After struggling for more than a decade to upgrade a huge hydroelectric plant in a volatile region that saw heavy American losses in fighting with the Taliban, the United States is trying a new approach: Let the Afghans take charge.
U.S. officials are handing responsibility — and up to $80 million — to President Hamid Karzai's government to finish refurbishing the Kajaki Dam and power system in the southern province of Helmand as President Obama brings home U.S. troops and cuts back Washington's nation-building experiment in Afghanistan.
No project symbolizes America's vast ambitions — or deep frustrations — in Afghanistan more than the effort to boost production from Kajaki Dam to provide electricity to the Taliban heartland, a goal military commanders long deemed essential to blunting the insurgency.
But ceding control of the mammoth development project carries clear risks. Chief among them: The Afghan government may further delay or abandon construction, turning one of the largest investments in the nearly $100-billion U.S. relief and reconstruction effort into an enduring example of failure.
More $$$ Down The Afghanistan Money Pit
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-dam-20130505,0,340368.storyThe decision to let Afghans finish the Kajaki Dam hydroelectric project in the country's volatile south carries risks — among them, that a huge U.S. investment may be squandered.
U.S. turns over troubled dam project to Afghanistan
By Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2013, 5:10 p.m.
KAJAKI, Afghanistan — After struggling for more than a decade to upgrade a huge hydroelectric plant in a volatile region that saw heavy American losses in fighting with the Taliban, the United States is trying a new approach: Let the Afghans take charge.
U.S. officials are handing responsibility — and up to $80 million — to President Hamid Karzai's government to finish refurbishing the Kajaki Dam and power system in the southern province of Helmand as President Obama brings home U.S. troops and cuts back Washington's nation-building experiment in Afghanistan.
No project symbolizes America's vast ambitions — or deep frustrations — in Afghanistan more than the effort to boost production from Kajaki Dam to provide electricity to the Taliban heartland, a goal military commanders long deemed essential to blunting the insurgency.
But ceding control of the mammoth development project carries clear risks. Chief among them: The Afghan government may further delay or abandon construction, turning one of the largest investments in the nearly $100-billion U.S. relief and reconstruction effort into an enduring example of failure.
May 8, 2013
Britain has channelled cash into "special projects" undertaken by Karzai's officials.
MI6 'handing bundles of cash to Hamid Karzai'
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
5:39PM BST 05 May 2013
MI6 officials have acknowledged that the organisation has made direct cash payments to their Afghan counterparts periodically over the 12 years Britain has been at war in Afghanistan.
Mr Karzai declared handouts from the CIA and MI6 are an "easy source of petty cash" for his government as it attempts to seal alliances with powerful regional warlords and secure defections from the Taliban.
The CIA support is believed to have amounted to tens of millions of dollars since 2001 while Britain has channelled a smaller fraction of that amount into "special projects" undertaken by Karzai's officials.
MPs expressed concern that by simply handing over so-called "ghost money" to President Karzai and his lieutenants, British spies could not be sure that the money would not be lost to corruption.
MI6 'handing bundles of cash to Hamid Karzai'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10038988/MI6-handing-bundles-of-cash-to-Hamid-Karzai.htmlBritain has channelled cash into "special projects" undertaken by Karzai's officials.
MI6 'handing bundles of cash to Hamid Karzai'
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
5:39PM BST 05 May 2013
MI6 officials have acknowledged that the organisation has made direct cash payments to their Afghan counterparts periodically over the 12 years Britain has been at war in Afghanistan.
Mr Karzai declared handouts from the CIA and MI6 are an "easy source of petty cash" for his government as it attempts to seal alliances with powerful regional warlords and secure defections from the Taliban.
The CIA support is believed to have amounted to tens of millions of dollars since 2001 while Britain has channelled a smaller fraction of that amount into "special projects" undertaken by Karzai's officials.
MPs expressed concern that by simply handing over so-called "ghost money" to President Karzai and his lieutenants, British spies could not be sure that the money would not be lost to corruption.
May 8, 2013
http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.3923983.1345783586!/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/display_600/image.JPG
Soldiers from the Farmingdale-based 333rd Military Police Brigade take part in a deployment ceremony at Hofstra University, after which they will head to Fort Bliss, Texas, for mobilization training prior to their scheduled deployment to Afghanistan. (Aug. 23, 2012)
Study: Care for veterans at risk of suicide inadequate
Originally published: May 5, 2013 8:47 PM
Updated: May 5, 2013 9:38 PM
By MARTIN C. EVANS
Large numbers of veterans considered at risk of suicide are not getting adequate follow-up care from mental health clinicians at the nation's Veterans Affairs medical centers, according to a report by the VA inspector general.
The study said that, although the VA requires clinicians who discharge at-risk veterans from inpatient mental health facilities to schedule follow-up evaluations, almost one in three such patients nationwide do not receive adequate monitoring.
Nancy Olsen, the Northport VA Medical Center's suicide prevention coordinator, said her facility offered follow-up care to all 69 of its patients who were identified as high risk of suicide during the yearlong reporting period that ended last Sept. 30.
~snip~
In the last three months of 2012, nine Long Island veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan died from suicide or drug overdose, said Nassau Executive Edward Mangano's office. Nationwide, about 22 veterans commit suicide
Study: Care for veterans at risk of suicide inadequate
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-care-for-veterans-at-risk-of-suicide-inadequate-1.5204029http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.3923983.1345783586!/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/display_600/image.JPG
Soldiers from the Farmingdale-based 333rd Military Police Brigade take part in a deployment ceremony at Hofstra University, after which they will head to Fort Bliss, Texas, for mobilization training prior to their scheduled deployment to Afghanistan. (Aug. 23, 2012)
Study: Care for veterans at risk of suicide inadequate
Originally published: May 5, 2013 8:47 PM
Updated: May 5, 2013 9:38 PM
By MARTIN C. EVANS
Large numbers of veterans considered at risk of suicide are not getting adequate follow-up care from mental health clinicians at the nation's Veterans Affairs medical centers, according to a report by the VA inspector general.
The study said that, although the VA requires clinicians who discharge at-risk veterans from inpatient mental health facilities to schedule follow-up evaluations, almost one in three such patients nationwide do not receive adequate monitoring.
Nancy Olsen, the Northport VA Medical Center's suicide prevention coordinator, said her facility offered follow-up care to all 69 of its patients who were identified as high risk of suicide during the yearlong reporting period that ended last Sept. 30.
~snip~
In the last three months of 2012, nine Long Island veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan died from suicide or drug overdose, said Nassau Executive Edward Mangano's office. Nationwide, about 22 veterans commit suicide
May 8, 2013
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1335969.1367817911!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/vets6n-1-web.jpg
Republican and Democratic senators are howling over the 600,000 vet backlog for veterans like Anthony Pike, pictured here.
Over 600,000 veterans caught in messy bureaucracy awaiting pending claims
By James Warren / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 7:25 AM
WASHINGTON — After two tours of duty with the Marines in Iraq, Anthony Pike returned home with hearing loss, a ringing in his ears and what he says is profound stress.
And now there's the galling, added stress he's guaranteed in filing for disability payments with the New York office of the Veterans Administration. Having endured many firefights in Iraq, the former sergeant will have to exhibit the patience of Job.
The Veterans Administration is a mess, with more than 600,000 veterans caught in the bureaucracy awaiting first-time claims adjudications. In a rare act of bipartisanship frustration, 67 senators wrote to President Obama and implored him to "take direct action and involvement in ending" the sky-high backlog.
The average wait in New York for resolving first time claims is 642 days, say the senators, which would be worst in the nation were it not for Reno, Nev., where the average is 681 days. The average time for response to first time claims now ranges between 316 and 327 days nationally, depending on whether the number of issues a claimant presents is between one and seven or eight and higher.
Over 600,000 veterans caught in messy bureaucracy awaiting pending claims
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/vets-grow-frustrated-massive-claims-backlog-article-1.1335970?localLinksEnabled=falsehttp://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1335969.1367817911!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/vets6n-1-web.jpg
Republican and Democratic senators are howling over the 600,000 vet backlog for veterans like Anthony Pike, pictured here.
Over 600,000 veterans caught in messy bureaucracy awaiting pending claims
By James Warren / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 7:25 AM
WASHINGTON — After two tours of duty with the Marines in Iraq, Anthony Pike returned home with hearing loss, a ringing in his ears and what he says is profound stress.
And now there's the galling, added stress he's guaranteed in filing for disability payments with the New York office of the Veterans Administration. Having endured many firefights in Iraq, the former sergeant will have to exhibit the patience of Job.
The Veterans Administration is a mess, with more than 600,000 veterans caught in the bureaucracy awaiting first-time claims adjudications. In a rare act of bipartisanship frustration, 67 senators wrote to President Obama and implored him to "take direct action and involvement in ending" the sky-high backlog.
The average wait in New York for resolving first time claims is 642 days, say the senators, which would be worst in the nation were it not for Reno, Nev., where the average is 681 days. The average time for response to first time claims now ranges between 316 and 327 days nationally, depending on whether the number of issues a claimant presents is between one and seven or eight and higher.
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