Wednesday, May 5, 2021

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American Legion - News Clips 5.5.21

Marine Corps League Yankee Detachment #255  May 05, 2021    No comments

 

Good morning, Legionnaires and veterans’ advocates, today is Wednesday, May 5, 2021, which is Cinco de Mayo, Museum Lover’s Day, National Cartoonists Day, and Revenge of the Fifth. 
 
Today in American Legion history: 
May 5, 2014: Following nationally publicized revelations that veterans died waiting for unscheduled appointments at the Phoenix VA Medical Center, American Legion National Commander Daniel M. Dellinger calls for the resignation of VA Secretary Gen. Eric Shinseki, Under Secretary for Health Care Robert Petzel and Under Secretary for Benefits Gen. Allison Hickey. 
 
May 5, 2010: The American Legion National Executive Committee selects Shelby, N.C., to be the host city of The American Legion Baseball World Series at least through 2014, potentially becoming a permanent site for the tournament. More than 100 supporters of Shelby traveled to Indianapolis to make their case over Bartlesville, Okla., which was second in the bid to serve as home of the tournament. The water tower in the North Carolina town is soon repainted, “Shelby, Home of The American Legion Baseball World Series.” Keeter Stadium is redesigned, new lights are installed, and in 2012, The American Legion announces through a Fall NEC resolution that the Shelby contract would be extended through 2019. 
 
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By NIKKI WENTLING | STARS AND STRIPES | Published: May 4, 2021 
WASHINGTON — The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is preparing to send a large collection of bills to the House floor ahead of Memorial Day weekend. 
The committee advanced 25 pieces of legislation Tuesday, including bills to improve health care services for female veterans, address veteran homelessness, enhance education benefits and boost oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs. 
“Our goal is to move many bills through the process now so that we will be ready to move some of the bills to the floor as part of the committee’s annual Memorial Day package,” said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the committee chairman. “The bills represent a strong bipartisan effort to help veterans recover from the [coronavirus] pandemic. There’s also a concerted effort to build equity and reach out to underserved veterans.” 
A few of the bills considered Tuesday were focused on female veterans. One, the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act, would eliminate copayments for female veterans when they receive their birth control through the VA — extending them the same benefit available to most women through public and private insurers. 
The bill passed through the House last year but stalled in the Senate. 
“The VA system has not evolved to equitably serve a rapidly changing population,” said Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., who introduced the bill. “It’s past time to address this inequity.” 
Another bill, the Veterans’ Camera Reporting Act, would require the VA to analyze its use of security cameras in its health care facilities and make improvements on how cameras are used to improve patient safety. The bill was introduced by Rep. David McKinley, R-W.V., who represents Clarksburg, where seven veterans were murdered at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in 2017 and 2018. 
Nursing assistant Reta Mays pleaded guilty to injecting veterans with lethal doses of insulin. It was discovered the hospital ward where she worked didn’t have cameras in patients’ rooms. The cameras in the common areas and the supply room, where the insulin was stored, were not working. 
“The cameras in the inpatient unit where she worked were not working, and it allowed her to carry out seven murders in 11 months,” Takano said. 
Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois, the ranking Republican on the committee, said the bills advanced Tuesday were bipartisan. However, he wanted the committee to consider one bill that didn’t get added to the agenda. Bost said he proposed the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, which has been discussed in previous congressional sessions and would prohibit the VA from placing veterans on a no-gun list and instead leave it to the courts. 
Under current law, the VA considers veterans who cannot manage their VA benefits and need another person to help with their finances as “mentally incompetent.” The department reports the names of those veterans to the FBI, which adds them to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System — the national database that gun merchants are required to check before selling a firearm. 
The bill would do away with that practice, and instead require the court system to determine whether veterans pose a threat to themselves or others before they’re added to the database. 
“We must assure veterans that their constitutional rights will not be at risk if they seek support they’ve earned from the VA,” Bost said. “That’s one of the top priorities for me. I hope it will be a priority for all of us soon.” 
The committee is considering more bills Wednesday. Lawmakers will hear input from the VA and veterans service organizations about 15 bills that aim to address military toxic exposure. 
 
Leo Shane III | 22 hours ago 
Thousands of veterans who lost their jobs because of COVID-related challenges can now apply to be part of a new rapid retraining program designed to prepare them for new careers in high-demand specialties. 
The benefit, which is open to about 17,000 veterans, is targeted at those who have already exhausted other job-training opportunities but still find themselves without stable employment because of coronavirus closures, layoffs or health complications. 
The program was included in the last coronavirus relief package approved by Congress. The measure was signed into law on March 11, but applications to the new Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program were delayed until May 3, as Veterans Affairs officials worked to stand up the program. 
VA leaders said they coordinated with the Department of Labor on the work, which included identifying high-demand occupations across the country and establishing new guidelines for schools who wish to participate. 
VRRAP officials have identified more than 200 high-demand occupations for veterans to consider, including architecture and engineering positions, personal care and service jobs, and construction careers. 
Under the program, veterans who qualify can receive education benefits equal to the Post-9/11 GI Bill (including tuition costs and housing stipends) for up to 12 months, with the goal of learning a new skill or completing a certificate program in that time frame. 
To qualify, veterans must be between the ages of 25 and 66, have an honorable or other-than-honorable discharge, and not be eligible for any other VA education benefits or government job-training programs. 
In addition, applicants must not be receiving disability compensation for reasons that have led to their unemployability, and not receiving any unemployment benefit when they begin training. 
Several lawmakers have touted the initiative as a way to deal with the still-high unemployment levels among American veterans caused by the pandemic. 
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 5 percent of all veterans looking for work in March were unable to find stable employment, up from 2.9 percent a year earlier, before the start of the pandemic. 
More information on the program and application forms are available at the VA web site. 
 
Leo Shane III | 17 hours ago 
The head of the National Guard Bureau wants free health care coverage for every guardsman, calling it an issue of both strategic and moral importance for the military force. 
“What happens if they get sick or injured when they come off orders?” said Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the bureau, during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. “They’re doing the same job as their active or reserve counterparts, but they are treated differently. 
“One of my most pressing concerns is premium free health care for every guardsmen who serves in uniform.” 
The comments came during a congressional review of the National Guard’s spending priorities for fiscal 2022. Last year was the busiest for the Guard in the last eight decades, with more than 120,000 guardsmen deployed to overseas missions and domestic operations, including the pandemic relief effort. 
But that increased workload has also brought increased attention to the benefits available to part-time troops. 
While on federal active-duty orders for more than 30 days, guardsmen and reservists are eligible for the same medical coverage as active-duty troops. But service members activated for less than a month have fewer options, and have to pay for coverage on their own. 
The same goes for guardsmen in the weeks after their orders end, or if their activation is on state-specific orders. Hokanson said the confusing patchwork of rules leaves his troops at a disadvantage, and potentially distracted from their work. 
Establishing full-time health care for all National Guard troops nationwide could prove costly, however. 
The Guard received about $14.6 billion in appropriations last year. The Defense Department currently spends about $50 billion on the Military Health System annually for active-duty troops and family members. Adding nearly 450,000 guardsmen — nearly a third more people — and an unknown number of dependents could significantly inflate that total. 
But lawmakers said they are open to the discussion. 
“A lack of coverage or [expensive] co-pays for those with coverage has made it difficult to ensure that everyone has access to medical care,” said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., and chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel. 
“We’re going to have a panel that addresses health care … and I need to understand how TRICARE first into this. So my staff will be following up with questions.” 
Congress has also discussed several measures this year to attempt to bring education payouts in line with active-duty offerings. Hokanson said those kinds of changes are needed to help with recruiting, retention and morale. 
“The National Guard is about 20 percent of our joint force, and anything that impacts our readiness makes the total force less competitive, less capable and less lethal,” he said. 
 
By Ayaz Gul | May 04, 2021 06:38 PM 
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The United States appears upbeat about the resumption of stalled peace talks between warring parties in Afghanistan, even as fighting escalates amid the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from the country. 
A senior U.S. official said Tuesday during a background briefing in Kabul that Washington's diplomatic efforts are continuing "to try to get the peace process" between the Afghan government and the Taliban back on track. 
"We're not giving up on the peace process," said the State Department diplomat, who requested anonymity. "We're trying to bring all pressures to bear on the Taliban to come to the table, and to come seriously. We hope and expect that that happens." 
The official spoke a day after Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. special envoy for Afghan reconciliation, visited Kabul, where he shared the latest details of his peace offensive with the Afghan leadership. Khalilzad traveled to the Afghan capital from Doha, Qatar, where he had held talks with Taliban negotiators based there. 
The peace diplomacy comes as the Taliban have unleashed fresh battlefield attacks across several Afghan provinces in response to the U.S. missing a May 1 troop withdrawal deadline in line with an agreement Washington negotiated with the insurgents a year ago. 
The Taliban offensive has overrun territory in some areas, drawing a strong response from Afghan security forces, with both sides claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties on the other. 
The fighting has been relatively more intense and widespread in southern Helmand province, the country's largest province and a major illicit opium-producing region. The Taliban control or contest most of Helmand, while the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, is largely held by Kabul. 
An Afghan military statement said Tuesday that its ground strikes and airstrikes in Helmand have killed more than 100 Taliban "terrorists" in the last 24 hours, along with at least 22 al-Qaida militants. 
A Taliban spokesman swiftly rejected the claims as propaganda and denied the presence of foreign fighters in insurgent ranks. 
Independent verification of either claim was not immediately possible, and both warring parties often issue inflated casualty tolls for the other side. 
It was not immediately clear whether U.S. air power was called in to help Afghan forces in their latest battles against the Taliban. 
The State Department official warned the Taliban to desist from trying to seize power through military means and reiterated the U.S. call for them to reduce violence. 
"While American and foreign forces are still here, they will continue to support and defend Afghan defense and security forces when they come under attack," he said. 
U.S. President Joe Biden missed the May 1 military withdrawal deadline, citing logistical reasons. He announced last month that all U.S. troops will be out of Afghanistan by September 11, starting May 1. NATO, which has around 7,000 forces in the country, vowed to do the same. 
The Taliban denounced the delay as a deal violation and threatened to end their cease-fire with foreign troops that have been in place since the two sides signed the February 2020 agreement. 
But so far, the troop drawdown has been trouble-free, except for a firing incident on Saturday that the U.S. military dismissed as insignificant. 
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had officially handed over a base in Helmand to the Afghan National Army and completed "between 2% to 6% of the entire retrograde process." 
A U.S. Central Command statement said: "Since the president's decision, the U.S. has retrograded the equivalent of approximately 60 C-17 loads of material out of Afghanistan and have turned over more than 1,300 pieces of equipment to the Defense Logistics Agency for destruction." 
The Taliban have also suspended their already troubled peace talks with Kabul representatives in response to Biden's decision. The so-called intra-Afghan negotiations, which stemmed from the U.S.-Taliban deal, started in Doha last September but have mostly been deadlocked. 
The Taliban have linked their participation in future peace talks to the release of 7,000 prisoners being held in Afghan government jails and the removal of senior insurgent leaders' names from United Nations and U.S. sanctions lists. The group said Washington pledged to meet those demands at the signing of the deal. 
The State Department official urged the Taliban to get back to the negotiating table. 
"Our agreement with them also talked about a reduction in violence. It talked about a genuine negotiation toward a political settlement, and it also has some counterterrorism requirements that are not entirely met," he said. 
Under their deal with the U.S., the Taliban pledged to sever ties with transnational terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, and prevent them from using Afghan soil to launch attacks against the U.S. and its allies. 
 
BY SOPHIE LEWIS | MAY 5, 2021 / 6:45 AM / CBS NEWS 
A huge piece of space junk is about to make an uncontrolled re-entry back into Earth's atmosphere, threatening to drop debris on a number of cities around the world in the coming days. It's leftover from China's first module for its new Tianhe space station — and no one knows where it will land.  
The 46,000-pound Chinese rocket Long March-5B recently launched the first module for the country's new space station into orbit. After the core separated from the rest of the rocket, it should have followed a predetermined flight path into the ocean. 
But now, scientists have little idea where it will land as it orbits the planet unpredictably every 90 minutes, at about 17,324 miles per hour. As it soars through the atmosphere, appearing to tumble, it is slowly losing altitude.  
Its fast speed makes its landing place nearly impossible to predict, but it is expected to make landfall in the coming days.  
"U.S. Space Command is aware of and tracking the location of the Chinese Long March 5B in space, but its exact entry point into the Earth's atmosphere cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry, which is expected around May 8," Lt. Col. Angela Webb, U.S. Space Command Public Affairs, told CBS News. 
Beginning Tuesday, the 18th Space Control Squadron, which tracks more than 27,000 man-made objects in space, is offering daily updates on the rocket body's location. Several other agencies are also tracking its movement.  
Despite much speculation, no one knows where the debris will fall. It has the potential to land in the U.S., Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, India, China or Australia.  
Most likely, it will land in the ocean, which makes up over 70% of the planet, or in an uninhabited region. However, as one of the largest spacecraft to ever re-enter uncontrollably, there is still a risk that debris will land in a metropolitan area.   
But, again, the odds are low.  
According to CBS News' William Harwood, "a large portion of the rocket will burn up in the atmosphere and the odds of anyone or any specific community getting hit by surviving debris are remote." 
But, this didn't need to happen.  
"Why the Chinese rocket is coming down uncontrolled is not at all clear," Harwood said. "U.S. rockets (and most others) routinely fire their engines to target re-entries over the southern Pacific to ensure debris can't land on populated areas."  
The China National Space Administration has faced issues with re-entry in the past. In 2018, Tiangong 1, China's defunct space station, made an uncontrolled re-entry and landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. In May of last year, another Long March-5B rocket fell into the atmosphere, ultimately landing near the west coast of Africa. 
The most significant re-entry breakup over a populated area was the shuttle Columbia, which entered in February 2003. When 200,000 pounds of spacecraft broke up over Texas, a significant amount of debris hit the ground, but there were no injuries.  
Similarly, when Skylab re-entered in 1978, debris fell over Western Australia, but no injuries were reported.  
 

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