Friday, July 4, 2014
Thursday, July 3, 2014
For Our Children and Grandchildren: Ask Your Representatives to Support H.R. 4816
CLICK HERE TO ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO SUPPORT H.R. 4816
Please write to your representatives today and ask them to join their
colleagues in support of H.R. 4816, the Toxic Exposure Research and
Military Family Support Act of 2014.
Disabled veterans’ pay stays on the cutting floor
http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/07-01-2014/disabled-veterans%E2%80%99-pay-stays-cutting-floor
Some that maintain a sense of humor wear caps embossed with the words, “Dysfunctional Veteran – Leave Me Alone,” but the government won’t leave them alone; because it’s about money.
Others are fitted for prosthesis, feel their bodies deteriorate from Agent Orange, or live in a mindless prison due to what they have seen and cannot process. The government does not want to leave them alone either — because it’s about money.
One of the tasks of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is to come up with ideas to lower deficits or redirect entitlements that at least give the impression deficits are reduced. The CBO, as a think tank, spews out “budget options” — without fear of retaliation. This agency is not concerned with the difficulties their “options” create, regardless of the personal costs to forced donors. However; as a CYA, or omen, CBO does claim, “These are not recommendations – only options to inform lawmakers.”
Over 100 options are in a Nov. 14, 2013 study: “Options for Reducing the Deficit 2014 – 2023. In addition to costly changes in Social Security and Medicare there is a lesser known option suggesting a reversal of a law that had corrected a discriminatory denial of benefits for disabled veterans.
This “option” calls for the reversing of a “concurrent receipt” order that allows retired disabled veterans to receive both military retirement and Veterans Administration disability payments.
For over 120 years retired military members were the only faction of the federal government ineligible to receive their rightful concurrent receipt. Doesn’t it seem strange that FBI and CIA Agents were eligible for concurrent receipt although these are not the groups most likely placed in harm’s way? It’s about money.
In 2003, after virtually 20 years of lobbying and presenting its case to the Supreme Court the “Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees” (USDR) was able to get Congress to phase out this discriminatory ban on “concurrent receipt,” but only for retirees with disability ratings of 50 percent or higher.
READ MORE: http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/07-01-2014/disabled-veterans%E2%80%99-pay-stays-cutting-floor
Some that maintain a sense of humor wear caps embossed with the words, “Dysfunctional Veteran – Leave Me Alone,” but the government won’t leave them alone; because it’s about money.
Others are fitted for prosthesis, feel their bodies deteriorate from Agent Orange, or live in a mindless prison due to what they have seen and cannot process. The government does not want to leave them alone either — because it’s about money.
One of the tasks of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is to come up with ideas to lower deficits or redirect entitlements that at least give the impression deficits are reduced. The CBO, as a think tank, spews out “budget options” — without fear of retaliation. This agency is not concerned with the difficulties their “options” create, regardless of the personal costs to forced donors. However; as a CYA, or omen, CBO does claim, “These are not recommendations – only options to inform lawmakers.”
Over 100 options are in a Nov. 14, 2013 study: “Options for Reducing the Deficit 2014 – 2023. In addition to costly changes in Social Security and Medicare there is a lesser known option suggesting a reversal of a law that had corrected a discriminatory denial of benefits for disabled veterans.
This “option” calls for the reversing of a “concurrent receipt” order that allows retired disabled veterans to receive both military retirement and Veterans Administration disability payments.
For over 120 years retired military members were the only faction of the federal government ineligible to receive their rightful concurrent receipt. Doesn’t it seem strange that FBI and CIA Agents were eligible for concurrent receipt although these are not the groups most likely placed in harm’s way? It’s about money.
In 2003, after virtually 20 years of lobbying and presenting its case to the Supreme Court the “Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees” (USDR) was able to get Congress to phase out this discriminatory ban on “concurrent receipt,” but only for retirees with disability ratings of 50 percent or higher.
READ MORE: http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/07-01-2014/disabled-veterans%E2%80%99-pay-stays-cutting-floor
Justices' water pollution ruling may deny Marine vets
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/09/supreme-court-toxic-water-marines/9968805/
WASHINGTON — Victims of contaminated water that wasn't discovered for
decades lost their effort to sue polluters at the Supreme Court on
Monday in a case that could set back thousands of former Marines and
their families with similar claims.
The justices ruled 7-2 that North Carolina's law requiring lawsuits to be brought within 10 years of the contamination is not superseded by a federal law designed to give victims a two-year opportunity to file claims after the pollution comes to light. At least four states have similar laws.
That could spell trouble not only for the Asheville, N.C., property owners seeking to recover damages from an electronics company for contamination that occurred at least 30 years ago, but for veterans who have fought for years to win damages from the Navy for deaths and illnesses caused by toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune.
The case was notable because the Obama administration opposed the residents' claims, even after President Obama signed a law in 2012 that provided health benefits to Camp Lejeune veterans and family members. The law was named after Janey Ensminger, who died in 1985 at age 9 of a rare form of leukemia.
Her Marine veteran father, Jerome Ensminger, who has led a lengthy battle on behalf of veterans and families from Camp Lejeune, criticized the government after the ruling was announced.
"I certainly don't want to hear anything from the Obama administration nor the Democratic Party about their being champions of the environment," Ensminger said. "They are only champions of the environment when the conditions are favorable to their needs."
The ruling came from Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was joined by the court's other conservatives as well as Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Dissenting were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
READ MORE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/09/supreme-court-toxic-water-marines/9968805/
The justices ruled 7-2 that North Carolina's law requiring lawsuits to be brought within 10 years of the contamination is not superseded by a federal law designed to give victims a two-year opportunity to file claims after the pollution comes to light. At least four states have similar laws.
That could spell trouble not only for the Asheville, N.C., property owners seeking to recover damages from an electronics company for contamination that occurred at least 30 years ago, but for veterans who have fought for years to win damages from the Navy for deaths and illnesses caused by toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune.
The case was notable because the Obama administration opposed the residents' claims, even after President Obama signed a law in 2012 that provided health benefits to Camp Lejeune veterans and family members. The law was named after Janey Ensminger, who died in 1985 at age 9 of a rare form of leukemia.
Her Marine veteran father, Jerome Ensminger, who has led a lengthy battle on behalf of veterans and families from Camp Lejeune, criticized the government after the ruling was announced.
"I certainly don't want to hear anything from the Obama administration nor the Democratic Party about their being champions of the environment," Ensminger said. "They are only champions of the environment when the conditions are favorable to their needs."
The ruling came from Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was joined by the court's other conservatives as well as Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Dissenting were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
READ MORE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/09/supreme-court-toxic-water-marines/9968805/
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Faces of Agent Orange
Please write to your representatives today and ask them to join their colleagues in support of H.R. 4816, the Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act of 2014.
It
takes less than a minute using the link below! Enter your zip code,
then on the following page sign with you name, address, and phone. All
the additional information is provided!
Thank you!
At least 10 C-123 veterans have died after VA denied their Agent Orange claims, groups say
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/06/at_least_10_c-123_veterans_hav.html
At least 10 veterans exposed to Agent Orange while serving aboard
aircraft contaminated by the Vietnam-era defoliant have died after being
denied care by the Department of Veterans Affairs, two veterans groups
charged Sunday.
The veterans, who served between 1972 and 1982, flew or maintained the C-123 aircraft that were used to spray Agent Orange on Southeast Asian forests during the Vietnam War. They maintain that the residue from those flights exposed them to deadly toxins – a charge the Air Force has disputed.
While the VA has said it presumes that certain illnesses among Vietnam veterans were caused by exposure to Agent Orange, the veterans groups said they don't extend the same presumption to those postwar veterans who flew in contaminated aircraft. The reason is that the agency has adopted an unscientific notion of the definition of "exposure," the groups said.
"VA continues to deny all claims from post-Vietnam C-123 veterans, while at the same time deceptively assuring Congress that claims are considered 'on a case-by-case basis,'" the Vietnam Veterans of America and the C-123 Veterans Association said in a joint statement. "In fact, VA does not tell Congress that all C-123 claims are refused following a year or two delay."
This argument is playing out in a more restrained way before the Institute of Medicine, which recently took testimony on the question of whether C-123 veterans were exposed to dangerously high levels of toxins from contaminated aircraft. On one side was a VA consultant named A.L. Young, who has long argued that any exposure to Agent Orange residues by C-123 crews was "negligible." On the other was a C-123 veteran and an array of scientists including Rutgers professor and microbiology researcher Peter Kahn.
"What the government has been doing," he told the panel earlier in June, is "putting up the façade of scientific objectivity in order to avoid action. I regard it as a failure of political courage and moral courage."
READ MORE: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/06/at_least_10_c-123_veterans_hav.html
The veterans, who served between 1972 and 1982, flew or maintained the C-123 aircraft that were used to spray Agent Orange on Southeast Asian forests during the Vietnam War. They maintain that the residue from those flights exposed them to deadly toxins – a charge the Air Force has disputed.
While the VA has said it presumes that certain illnesses among Vietnam veterans were caused by exposure to Agent Orange, the veterans groups said they don't extend the same presumption to those postwar veterans who flew in contaminated aircraft. The reason is that the agency has adopted an unscientific notion of the definition of "exposure," the groups said.
"VA continues to deny all claims from post-Vietnam C-123 veterans, while at the same time deceptively assuring Congress that claims are considered 'on a case-by-case basis,'" the Vietnam Veterans of America and the C-123 Veterans Association said in a joint statement. "In fact, VA does not tell Congress that all C-123 claims are refused following a year or two delay."
This argument is playing out in a more restrained way before the Institute of Medicine, which recently took testimony on the question of whether C-123 veterans were exposed to dangerously high levels of toxins from contaminated aircraft. On one side was a VA consultant named A.L. Young, who has long argued that any exposure to Agent Orange residues by C-123 crews was "negligible." On the other was a C-123 veteran and an array of scientists including Rutgers professor and microbiology researcher Peter Kahn.
"What the government has been doing," he told the panel earlier in June, is "putting up the façade of scientific objectivity in order to avoid action. I regard it as a failure of political courage and moral courage."
READ MORE: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/06/at_least_10_c-123_veterans_hav.html
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
HOW DID HATFIELD CONSULTANTS GET INVOLVED IN AGENT ORANGE/DIOXIN IN VIET NAM?
http://vfp-vn.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-did-hatfield-consultants-get-involved-in-agent-orange-dioxin-?xg_source=activity
In the late 1980’s in British Columbia, Canada it was determined by government authorities that Kraft pulp mill waste-water effluents contained dangerously high levels of dioxin stemming from the use of chlorine in their bleaching process. Dioxin was found in marine/freshwater sediments and biological organisms inhabiting waterways associated with these pulp mills. Health Canada, as a result of potential health hazards, closed vast areas of the marine environment to fishing and human consumption of biological tissues contaminated with dioxin.
Hatfield Consultants (Hatfield) was initially contracted by the pulp mills in 1989 to monitor the levels of dioxin contamination in marine and freshwater environments supporting these industries as major changes were mandated by the Canadian government to terminate the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent. Alternate bleaching chemicals were implemented … such as chlorine dioxide. Hatfield has continued to monitor specific mills from that date to the present.
In the early 1990’s, the two principals of Hatfield (Mr. Chris Hatfield and Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk) received support from the Canadian government to open a Hatfield office in Bangkok, Thailand. An initiating project was selected wherein sampling of a select area in Viet Nam was targeted. With Hatfield’s experience in dioxin research in Canada, it was a natural transition to address the Agent Orange/dioxin issue in Viet Nam.
In October 1994, Mr. Hatfield and Dr. Dwernychuk visited Ha Noi and met with Professor Hoang Dinh Cau, Chairman of the 10-80 Committee, the government body at that time in charge of Agent Orange/dioxin research in Viet Nam. Hatfield representatives and Professor Cau developed a close working relationship and sincere friendship that fostered many successes in collaborative Agent Orange research, which continued until his death a few years ago. The early successes of Hatfield can be attributed to the hard work and dedicated efforts of other Vietnamese working closely with Professor Cau in the 10-80 Committee, including Dr. Le Cau Dai, Dr. Hoang Trong Quynh, Dr. Tran Manh Hung, and Dr. Phung Tri Dung.
READ MORE: http://vfp-vn.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-did-hatfield-consultants-get-involved-in-agent-orange-dioxin-?xg_source=activity
In the late 1980’s in British Columbia, Canada it was determined by government authorities that Kraft pulp mill waste-water effluents contained dangerously high levels of dioxin stemming from the use of chlorine in their bleaching process. Dioxin was found in marine/freshwater sediments and biological organisms inhabiting waterways associated with these pulp mills. Health Canada, as a result of potential health hazards, closed vast areas of the marine environment to fishing and human consumption of biological tissues contaminated with dioxin.
Hatfield Consultants (Hatfield) was initially contracted by the pulp mills in 1989 to monitor the levels of dioxin contamination in marine and freshwater environments supporting these industries as major changes were mandated by the Canadian government to terminate the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent. Alternate bleaching chemicals were implemented … such as chlorine dioxide. Hatfield has continued to monitor specific mills from that date to the present.
In the early 1990’s, the two principals of Hatfield (Mr. Chris Hatfield and Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk) received support from the Canadian government to open a Hatfield office in Bangkok, Thailand. An initiating project was selected wherein sampling of a select area in Viet Nam was targeted. With Hatfield’s experience in dioxin research in Canada, it was a natural transition to address the Agent Orange/dioxin issue in Viet Nam.
In October 1994, Mr. Hatfield and Dr. Dwernychuk visited Ha Noi and met with Professor Hoang Dinh Cau, Chairman of the 10-80 Committee, the government body at that time in charge of Agent Orange/dioxin research in Viet Nam. Hatfield representatives and Professor Cau developed a close working relationship and sincere friendship that fostered many successes in collaborative Agent Orange research, which continued until his death a few years ago. The early successes of Hatfield can be attributed to the hard work and dedicated efforts of other Vietnamese working closely with Professor Cau in the 10-80 Committee, including Dr. Le Cau Dai, Dr. Hoang Trong Quynh, Dr. Tran Manh Hung, and Dr. Phung Tri Dung.
READ MORE: http://vfp-vn.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-did-hatfield-consultants-get-involved-in-agent-orange-dioxin-?xg_source=activity
Parkinson's Action Network (PAN) - House Passes Defense Bill with $16 Million for Parkinson's Research
http://www.parkinsonsaction.org/news/house-passes-defense-bill-16-million-parkinsons-research
The funding level meets PAN’s request and is significant in a budget year when some other Defense research programs face recommendations for modest cuts. It is a testament to your hard work and outreach that the House continues to view Parkinson’s research at the DoD as a priority.
Our attention now turns to the Senate, which is now expected to begin work on its version of the Defense Appropriations bill on July 17. With the overall appropriations process slowed due to ongoing policy disagreements on other issues, the Defense bill may be one of the few that is passed under regular order this summer. However, passage is far from guaranteed with few voting days remaining until the end of the fiscal year in September.
With progress on FY 2015 spending bills remaining uncertain, it's so important that you take a moment to reach out to your Senators and share with them the importance of the DoD Parkinson’s research.
Urge your Senators to support $16 million for this critical program. Take action today!
READ MORE: http://www.parkinsonsaction.org/news/house-passes-defense-bill-16-million-parkinsons-research
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