PHILADELPHIA, May 30 /PRNewswire/ — Father Rick Curry, the founder of the Writers Program for Wounded Warriors, will deliver remarks at the traditional Memorial Day ceremony held at the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Front and Spruce streets.

The noon ceremony on Monday, May 31, will also feature “echo taps” by two Philadelphia Police buglers and two firing squads from the VVA Chapter 266 and the police.  Wreaths will be presented and a stirring rendition of “Danny Boy” will be sung by Michael L. Daily III.

A Jesuit since 1961, Father Curry is the founder and artistic director of the Writers Program for wounded Warriors of the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped (NTWH).  The program has provided workshops for veterans that guide participants to learn to write and perform dramatic dialogue based on their experiences.  The nationally recognized program has helped veterans with emotional healing and in coping with their disabilities.

Father Curry, who founded in 1977 the parent organization NTWH, also founded the Academy for Veterans in Georgetown this year and hopes to launch a bakery program in the DC area that would employ veterans. He is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University and has a Master’s Degree in Theater from Villanova and a doctorate in theater from New York University.

The ceremony is being conducted by the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which has oversight of the Memorial in cooperation with the Fairmount Park.

WASHINGTON, May 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Testifying before a House subcommittee today, The American Legion said that veterans’ preference in the federal job market “is being unlawfully ignored by numerous agencies.”

“The reality is that employment opportunities are not being properly publicized,” said Joe Sharpe, the Legion’s economic division director, in his written testimony. “Federal agencies, as well as federal government contractors and subcontractors, are required by law to notify the Office of Personnel Management of job opportunities.

“But more often than not, these opportunities are never made available to the public,” he said.

Sharpe testified before the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, chaired by Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.

Sharpe said that such behavior on the part of some federal agencies makes the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) a critically important program, since it investigates violations of veterans’ preference policy and corrects unlawful practices.

“The mission of VETS is to promote the economic security of America’s veterans,” Sharpe said. “The American Legion is eager to see this program grow, and especially would like to see greater expansion of entrepreneurial-based, self-employment opportunity training.”

The American Legion has recommended about $340 million for fiscal 2011 to fund five Dept. of Labor programs created to serve veterans:

• Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS): Offers employment and training services to eligible veterans through non-competitive “Jobs for Veterans” state grant programs.
• Transition/Disabled Transition Assistance Programs (TAP/DTAP): Help servicemembers who are separating from active duty with their return to the civilian world and work force. ($267M, including VETS funding)
• Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP): A competitive state-grant program for agencies and organizations that offer jobs to homeless veterans. ($50M)
• National Veterans’ Employment and Training Services Institute (NVTI): Ensures that staff for federal and state employment services are highly trained and proficient in dealing with veterans’ needs. ($6M)
• Veterans Workforce Investment Program (VWIP): Provides training and support services to veterans to lead to higher wages and long-term careers – especially those with service-connected disabilities, are recently separated from active duty, or have significant barriers to employment. ($20M)

Sharpe also recommended $61 million in funding for the Office of Personnel Management to improve compliance with veterans’ preference rights in the job market. He reminded the subcommittee that employment rights of veterans and servicemembers are covered by the Veterans’ Employment Opportunity Act of 1998 and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

The TAP and DTAP programs need to be expanded quickly, The American Legion says, to include many National Guard and reserve members whose businesses have suffered –or have been lost – while they were serving their country. While DoD estimates that 79 percent of active-duty troops attend TAP seminars, only 35 percent of reserve components do the same.

“These attendance numbers are a disservice to all transitioning servicemembers,” Sharpe said. The American Legion wants DoD to make its TAP and DTAP sessions mandatory for all servicemembers leaving active duty.

Discussing the VWIP program, Sharpe noted that current funding allows it to operate in only 15 states. “The problem is clearly a lack of adequate funding. The budget baseline needs to be increased to … train eligible veterans in all 50 states in FY 2011,” he said.

At the start of the hearing, Rep. Obey – who chairs the House Appropriations Committee – expressed frustration over congressional reluctance to fully fund programs favored by The American Legion and other veterans service organizations.

He said he favored almost all of the programs proposed by the score of testifying witnesses, but noted the combined cost would increase President Obama’s proposed FY 2011 budget by $14 billion. But in light of the massive federal deficit, Obey said, Congress is being asked to trim $3.5 billion from the president’s figure.

“Congress needs to realize that there are deficits that need to be considered other than federal budget deficits,” Obey said, “like deficits in jobs and opportunities and care.”  With that prologue, he opened the morning round of testimony.

April 24, 2010 / PHILADELPHIA / DIVERSE NEWS / – With just 37 minutes into the published story on YAHOO! there were over 33,000 replies.

Many comments were relating the law to racism, discrimination and civil rights violations. Only problem with this is that the word civil applies to citizens.
Dictionary.com defines ‘civil’ as:
1.
of, pertaining to, or consisting of citizens: civil life; civil society.
2.
of the commonwealth or state: civil affairs.
3.
of citizens in their ordinary capacity, or of the ordinary life and affairs of citizens, as distinguished from military and ecclesiastical life and affairs.
4.
of the citizen as an individual: civil liberty.
5.
befitting a citizen: a civil duty. etc.

So, are the Arizona citizens going to have to worry about this law?
-Gary Muniz

Temporary Closures Significantly Cut Post-9/11 GI Bill Pending Inventory

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced that the Education Call Center, closed on Thursdays and Fridays over the past two months, is again operating five days a week.

“I am pleased by the progress these call center employees made in significantly cutting our pending inventory of education claims,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “As a result of their efforts, 30,000 additional student Veterans received their checks, bought books, paid the rent, and stayed in school.”

By temporarily reassigning call center employees on Thursdays and Fridays to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims, VA was able to complete a significant number of education claims from mid-December through mid-February. VA’s goal was always to return call center employees to their permanent duties.

The decision to supplement claims processing staff by the call center employees was a key factor in meeting VA’s aggressive processing goal of Post-9/11 GI Bill claims. As of mid-February 2010, VA’s capacity to process Post-9/11 GI bill claims jumped from an average of 2,000 a day in August 2009 to 7,000 a day.

Since inception of this historic new program, VA has issued nearly $1.9 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments and opened the door to higher education to 209,490 people.

As of Feb. 12, VA received spring semester Post-9/11 GI Bill enrollments from approximately 180,000 student Veterans and already paid nearly 90 percent of them. All Post-9/11 GI Bill participants whose spring enrollments were received by Jan. 18 have been paid.

Because VA is now processing spring enrollments timely, advance payments are no longer available at VA regional offices or through the online advance payment Web site.

In December when the decision was made to redirect phone agents to claims processing, the number of pending claims was almost 80,000 and timeliness measures were extremely high. The inventory of education claims was driving call volume at the call center to an all time high of 1.26 million call attempts during November.

That is why in mid-December 2009 VA temporarily reassigned employees at the VA Education Call Center on Thursdays and Fridays, the lowest call volume days, to help process education benefit claims.

Since that time, the call center demand dropped by 42 percent as student Veterans received their payments. The call center received 769,637 call attempts on Monday thru Wednesday during the first two weeks in December 2009. By comparison, the call center received 446,328 call attempts on Monday thru Wednesday through the first two weeks in February 2010.

Information about the Post-9/11 GI Bill, as well as VA’s other educational benefit programs, is available at VA’s Web site, www.gibill.va.gov, or by calling 1-888-GIBILL-1 (or 1-888-442-4551).

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Calling the decision of the Sussex Square Homeowners’ Association Board in Va. to withdraw legal action against a WWII hero, “a great decision,” the leader of The American Legion congratulated all parties involved.

“This is a victory for reason and I applaud the board for making the correct decision to permit this American hero to honor Old Glory in such a fitting way, every day, on his property,” said National Commander Clarence E. Hill. “I also commend Legionnaires and all Americans across the country who flooded Col. Barfoot, the association and The American Legion with letters, emails, phone calls and messages of support and tribute.”

Because of the controversy involving the 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” Mckeon (R-CA) and Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) introduced a resolution, H. Res. 952, allowing Congressional Medal of Honor recipients to properly display the United States flag on their property at all times.

“I thank the law firm of Marchant, Honey & Baldwin for their pro-bono efforts in resolving this issue. There is always room for discussion and solutions to be achieved within the system,” Hill added. “In this case, the homeowners’ association recognized the remarkable sacrifice and devotion of this true hero and acted wisely within the boundaries of their authority to do the right thing. We understand and appreciate the important role homeowners’ associations play in local communities. The American Legion encourages all homeowners to continue to properly display Old Glory.”

With a current membership of 2.5-million wartime veterans, The American Legion was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of a strong national security, veterans affairs, Americanism, and youth programs. Legionnaires work for the betterment of their communities through more than 14,000 posts across the nation.

Contacts: Washington – Marty Callaghan or Craig Roberts, (202) 263-2982; Indianapolis – Joe March, (317) 630-1253. A high resolution photograph of Cmdr. Hill is available at www.legion.org.

1.  Washington Field: Twenty-Six Charged in Nationwide Scheme to Defraud FCC’s Video Relay Service Program

Indictments were unsealed against 26 people charged with engaging in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Video Relay Service program. Arrests were made by FBI agents and Postal Inspectors in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Maryland, and were the result of a joint FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and FCC Office of Inspector General investigation into the nationwide scheme. Full Story

2.   Atlanta: Kuwaiti Company Indicted for Massive Overcharging of United States for Soldiers’ Food

Public Warehousing Company, K.S.C., a logistics company organized under the laws of the Nation of Kuwait, was indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, committing major fraud against the United States, making false statements, submitting false claims, and wire fraud. All of the charges concern multi-billion dollar contracts issued by the Department of Defense for feeding American troops in Iraq, Kuwait, and Jordan. Full Story

3.   FBI Headquarters: Seeking Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Victims’ Next of Kin

Nearly three years after the launch of the Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative, the FBI is publicly releasing updated information demonstrating the progress made so far, and requesting public assistance with a new challenge: locating victims’ next of kin in 33 cases.  Full Story

4.   Los Angeles: Athens Park Bloods Street Gang Members Charged with Narcotics Violations

Hundreds of Sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents executed arrest and search warrants in the final phase of “Operation Blood Klot.” Seventeen members and associates of the Athens Park Bloods street gang were charged for their alleged roles in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy that operated within a South Los Angeles. Full Story

5.   San Diego: Man Pleads Guilty to $25 Million Investment Fraud Scheme

Richard M. Hersch pled guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy to structure financial transactions in connection with a $25 million investment fraud scheme. The plea agreement provides for Hersch to pay at least $9.2 million in restitution to investors he defrauded. Full Story

6. New York: United States Charges 43 Members of Cocaine Trafficking Ring Read More »

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The newly instituted Post 9/11 GI Bill promises to afford thousands of recently returned U.S. military veterans the benefits of much-deserved higher education, but some students say late payments by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are putting an undue strain on their finances.

While pleased with the much-improved educational benefit, some veteran students are concerned that a delay in payments from VA may cause them to suffer deeper personal debt while struggling to cover unpaid bills. A number of student veterans have been forced to take out loans or seek extra employment to meet school expenses while they wait for overdue GI Bill benefit checks to arrive.

“The American Legion sympathizes with these overburdened students,” says Clarence E. Hill, national commander of the nation’s largest veterans’ service organization. “These veterans of our current conflicts deserve to be able to concentrate wholly on their studies and not worry about how to pay for the schooling they have earned.

“It is our hope that by working together, VA and the universities can develop a plan that will not deny an eligible veterans the opportunity to attend classes while waiting for the arrival of the VA benefits,” continued Hill. “We urge the institutions of higher learning to grant financial leniency to their student veterans while the VA works to reduce the time it takes to process educational payments. After all, it is a virtual certainty that VA will issue the checks that are owed to our eligible veterans attending college. It’s just a matter of time. Read More »

(Subject to Change)

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following is being issued by American Legion:

Saturday, Aug. 22

11:00 a.m. Veterans Job & Benefits Fair: Galt House Exhibit Hall, 2nd Floor (until 4:00 p.m.)

(Open to ALL military veterans)

8:00 a.m. Color Guard Competition: Convention Center, Hall 2D, Level 2 – Until 11:00 a.m.

1:00 p.m. American Legion Band Competition: Convention Center, Cascade Ballroom, Level 1

Both events provide great photo and sound opportunities.

National Security — Foreign Relations: Convention Center, Level 2, Rooms 210 & 211

1st Floor

9:15 a.m. U.S. Army Soldier Panel

10:00 a.m. Stephen T. Ganyard, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Plans, Programs and Operations, Political-Military Affairs

10:45 a.m. Col. Felix L. Santiago, Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

11:15 a.m. Bron R. Mogenis, Dept. of Homeland Security/FBI – Counterterrorism

Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation: Convention Center, Level 2, Room 209

8:45 a.m. Philip Longman, Author: Best Care Anywhere — Why VA Healthcare is Better Than Yours

9:15 a.m. Laura Balun, Director, voluntary Service Office, Dept. of Veterans Affairs

9:45 a.m. John Wordin, Executive Director, Ride to Recovery

10:15 a.m. Mike Dusenbury, Southern Area Director, Dept. of Veterans Affairs

10:45 a.m. Dr. Jan E. Kemp and Michelle Cartagena, VA National Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Canandaigua VAMC, Dept. of Veterans Affairs Read More »

Although the domelights.com website is down at the moment, the internet cache via google, appears to have been tampered with particularly with disclaimers, signatures and posts. I personally did a google cache search last week: there were over 14,000 results, now there is just over 6,000.

There is currently a federal lawsuit going on, started by a racially-based (Black) organization, which made national news over insults and alleged threats.
The case involves alleged racist posts, freedom of speech issues and allegations that police personnel making posts during work hours.

Note: The history of the word racist:
Word Origin & History
racist
1932 as a noun, 1938 as an adjective, from race (n.2); racism is first attested 1936 (from Fr. racisme, 1935), originally in the context of Nazi theories. But they replaced earlier words, racialism (1907) and racialist (1917), both often used at first in a British or South African context.

The owner of the site has denied being a racist and currently there is no counter suit known.

-Josh Truman