Thursday, April 20, 2017

AGENT ORANGE TOWN HALL MEETING SCHEDULE








We update our meetings regularly on the Town Hall Meeting Calendar:
https://vva.org/AOTownHall.html



April 21, 2017
Frankfort, Kentucky
Contact: David Cowherd
270-312-0463

April 22, 2017
Greenfield, Massachusetts
Contact: MA State Council
413-772-1571
413-775-1825
Gumersindo Gomez
sgtgomez@aol.com

April 22, 2017
Faribault, Minnesota
Contact: Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402
James Mayr 608-556-0617

April 22, 2017
Appleton, Wisconsin
Contact Joe Eiting (920) 205-1565
joseph.eiting@vvawi351.org

April 23, 2017
Fargo, North Dakota
Contact: Larry Nicholson 701-412-7992
Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402

April 29, 2017
Lawrence, Indiana
Contact: Michael Hamm 317-232-3921
indyhambone@sbcglobal.net

April 29, 2017
Arvada, Colorado
Contact: Lee White                  
303-519-2252

April 29, 2017
Leavenworth, Kansas
Contact: Kenny Bowen
bowenkenny426@yahoo.com
816-294-9792

May 6, 2017
Alexandria, Minnesota
Contacts Dave Anderson 320-304-0922
Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402

May 13, 2017
Frewsburg, New York
Contact: Rev. Bob Lewis
Lin4456@msn.com

June 3, 2017
Lincoln, Rhode Island
Contact: Fran Guevremont
photobyamanda@icloud.com

June 24, 2017
Sauk Rapids, Minnesota
Contact: Bob Behrens 763-497-5900
Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402

August 19, 2017
McKinney, Texas
Contact: Don Roush
d.roush@ccvva.org
618-340-0769 (cell/text)

September 23, 2017
Chicago, Illinois
Contact: Pat O'Brien 847.403.4676
Roger McGill 773.203.3353

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Officials To Polluters: Pay Up To Clean Up Passaic River

PASSAIC COUNTY, NJ — State legislators are trying to force an Argentina-based oil company to help pay and remediate part of the river despite the company filing for bankruptcy.
The lower 8 miles of the Passaic River is contaminated with dioxin, a toxic compound that has been linked to cancer, pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, from the former Diamond Alkali Co., which operated in Newark. The company made DDT, Agent Orange and other agricultural chemicals there in the 1950s and 1960s. Dioxin and pesticides were found in sediment in the Lower Passaic River and local groundwater in the 1980s. Other companies that operated along the river also contributed to the pollution, officials said.
Legislators heard testimony from about the about the extent of the contamination at a panel discussion Tuesday. Assemblyman Kevin Rooney (D-40) said the testimony was "troubling."
Rooney is co-sponsoring a resolution urging state and federal authorities to investigate YPF S.A.'s bankruptcy filing as a possible way of getting the company out of remediation responsibility. Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-38) is the legislation's primary sponsor. A similar resolution exists in the state Senate.
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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

VA tests partnership with CVS to reduce veterans' wait times

Some ailing veterans can now use their federal health care benefits at CVS "MinuteClinics" to treat minor illnesses and injuries, under a pilot program announced Tuesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The new program, currently limited to the Phoenix area, comes three years after the VA faced allegations of chronically long wait times at its centers, including its Phoenix facility, which treats about 120,000 veterans.
The Phoenix pilot program is a test-run by VA Secretary David Shulkin who is working on a nationwide plan to reduce veterans' wait times.
Veterans would not be bound by current restrictions under the VA's Choice program, which limits outside care to those who have been waiting more than 30 days for an appointment or have to drive more than 40 miles to a facility. Instead, Phoenix VA nurses staffing the medical center's help line will be able to refer veterans to MinuteClinics for government-paid care when "clinically appropriate."
Shulkin has made clear he'd like a broader collaboration of "integrated care" nationwide between the VA and private sector in which veterans have wider access to private doctors. But, he wants the VA to handle all scheduling and "customer service" — something that veterans groups generally support but government auditors caution could prove unwieldy and expensive.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump plans to sign legislation to temporarily extend the $10 billion Choice program until its money runs out, pending the administration's plan due out by fall. That broader plan would have to be approved by Congress.
"Our number one priority is getting veterans' access to care when and where they need it," said Baligh Yehia, the VA's deputy undersecretary for health for community care. "The launch of this partnership will enable VA to provide more care for veterans in their neighborhoods."
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Friday, April 14, 2017

AGENT ORANGE TOWN HALL MEETING SCHEDULE






We update our meetings regularly on the Town Hall Meeting Calendar:
https://vva.org/AOTownHall.html


April 21, 2017
Frankfort, Kentucky
Contact: David Cowherd
270-312-0463

April 22, 2017
Greenfield, Massachusetts
Contact: MA State Council
413-772-1571
413-775-1825
sgtgomez@aol.com

April 22, 2017
Faribault, Minnesota
Contact: Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402
James Mayr 608-556-0617

April 22, 2017
Appleton, Wisconsin
Contact Joe Eiting (920) 205-1565
joseph.eiting@vvawi351.org

April 23, 2017
Fargo, North Dakota
Contact: Larry Nicholson 701-412-7992
Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402

April 29, 2017
Lawrence, Indiana
Contact: Michael Hamm 317-232-3921
indyhambone@sbcglobal.net

April 29, 2017
Arvada, Colorado
Contact: Lee White                  
303-519-2252

April 29, 2017
Leavenworth, Kansas
Contact: Kenny Bowen
bowenkenny426@yahoo.com
816-294-9792

May 6, 2017
Alexandria, Minnesota
Contacts Dave Anderson 320-304-0922
Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402

May 13, 2017
Frewsburg, New York
Contact: Rev. Bob Lewis
Lin4456@msn.com

June 3, 2017
Lincoln, Rhode Island
Contact: Fran Guevremont
photobyamanda@icloud.com

August 19, 2017
McKinney, Texas
Contact: Don Roush,
d.roush@ccvva.org
618-340-0769 (cell/text)

September 23, 2017
Chicago, Illinois
Contact: Pat O'Brien 847.403.4676
Roger McGill 773.203.3353
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Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Bordallo seeks GAO review of Agent Orange on Guam

Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo has asked the Government Accountability Office to review all documentation regarding the use of Agent Orange and other dioxin-based herbicides on Guam.
The Department of Defense has said Agent Orange was never present or transited through Guam, but veterans who were stationed on Guam during the Vietnam War, like Leroy Foster, have said they were forced to spray Agent Orange in military facilities and defense properties on Guam.
Foster, 68, now resides in Florida and said he now suffers from 33 diseases, including five different cancers as a result of spraying the herbicide that was widely used by the United States to kill vegetation during the Vietnam War.
In a letter to the GAO sent Friday, Bordallo asked that the agency review all documentation related to the handling and transport of Agent Orange to hold DoD accountable and address this situation based off the findings.
“We need updated information in order to make the right recommendations,” Bordallo stated in a press release.
The GAO is an independent watchdog agency that serves as a legislative check on the executive branch. Because of its access to sensitive records not made available to private organizations, the GAO is uniquely capable of reviewing DoD’s assertion, Bordallo noted.
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New History of DARPA Reveals Wacky, Terrifying Schemes

The story of science in the service of war could start just about anywhere in human history, from Persia with Alexander the Great to Egypt with Napoleon. In her book about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. government’s defense science agency, Sharon Weinberger selects as her starting point Nagasaki and the point of view of a 6-year-old boy waking up in a city of rubble and seared flesh after the second, and (so far) last, atomic bomb ever used on Earth.
In Vietnam in 1950, the U.S. Embassy in Saigon didn’t have a single officer who spoke Vietnamese. What they lacked in cultural understanding, though, the Americans made up for with science. By 1961, the U.S. was moving closer to war, as the scientists’ psy-ops schemes weren’t working to deter the Viet Cong. One plan was to play on local superstitions. (In the Philippines, an American adman-turned-CIA-officer had persuaded the anti-communist government to capture a rebel, drain his blood and leave two puncture holes in his neck, to play on villagers’ fear of vampires.) DARPA men also proposed herding pro-U.S. peasants into “strategic hamlets.”
Social engineering took second place to designing new hardware and weapons. For Vietnam, DARPA men dreamed up a fuel-efficient “airborne Volkswagen,” land mines disguised as rocks, thermobaric weapons and hormone-based plant killers to defoliate communist hideouts. The chemical defoliant Agent Orange was one of the agency’s Vietnam legacies.
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Friday, April 7, 2017

"Frankly, We don't care how you pay for it!"

The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association
Apr 6, 2017 — The DAMA sub-committee met on 4-5-2017 to hear testimony on
HR 299 The Blue Water Navy Bill of 2017. Here is a summary of the testimony.
Commander John Wells made it very clear as to the deception the VA promulgates and where the responsibilities lie.

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Thursday, April 6, 2017

House panel will look into dispute over Agent Orange benefits for Navy veterans

WASHINGTON
A key House of Representatives subcommittee will probe Wednesday whether thousands of Vietnam War sailors who say they were exposed to Agent Orange can qualify for federal benefits -- as the list of congressional supporters continues to grow significantly.
McClatchy detailed last month how veterans’ advocates have been frustrated for years in their bid for help. The Department of Veterans Affairs denies the benefits, saying there’s not enough evidence to prove widespread Agent Orange exposure for Navy veterans who served on large ships like aircraft carriers in the South China Sea.
The proposed legislation, which now is co-sponsored by 252 of the House’s 435 members, would grant disability-benefits coverage for potentially tens of thousands of sailors who have certain cancers and diseases associated with exposure to the chemical dioxin, a dangerous ingredient used in the Agent Orange herbicide during the Vietnam War.
The bill, defeated in years past in Congress because of the estimated $1 billion cost over 10 years, is at a crucial political juncture, with a new president and VA secretary and President Donald Trump’s push to spend more federal money at the VA.
John Wells, an attorney and retired Navy commander who has been working on behalf of the affected sailors for nearly a decade, said he expects Wednesday’s congressional hearing may bring up questions of the cost and he will present some ideas to members of the subcommittee on how to pay for the benefits.
The money, he said, “has been the showstopper on this bill since the get-go.”
ead more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article142616249.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article142616249.html#storylink=cpy
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Wednesday, April 5, 2017

How Agent Orange Turned This American Small Town Into a Toxic Waste-Ridden Deathtrap

Times Beach, Missouri, was originally a weekend getaway town. Until April 2, 1985—when it ceased to be a town at all.
That’s when the town's former residents voted it out of corporate existence. Only one elderly couple still lived there at the time, according to a report published in The New York Times. Three years previously, the town had been home to 2,242 residents, who were all suddenly evacuated when it was revealed that their dirt roads had all been sprayed down with a mixture containing dioxin—a toxin present in Agent Orange.
“Disincorporation of Times Beach is a sad but necessary step in allowing local citizens, the state and the Federal Government to complete the job in that area,” Missouri Governor John Ashcroft said at the time.
It was yet another sad chapter in a dramatic story that began in December 1982, when men in white suits and respirators showed up on people’s lawns in the small town, writes Jon Hamilton for NPR.
Dioxin had been found throughout the town. The chemical is known to be extremely toxic, according to the World Health Organization. It causes birth defects and reproductive issues, as well as immune issues and, you guessed it, cancer. As William Powell writes in St. Louis Magazine, there's still debate about just how much dioxin was in the road spray, but the dangerous chemical was certainly present. 
Marilyn Leistner, the last mayor of Times Beach, says the message people received was, “If you live in the community, you need to get out. If you’re outside of the community, don’t go back. And don’t take nothing with you.”
Because of a massive flood that showed up not long after the government agents, many people were already staying elsewhere. Some didn't go back, while others returned only to leave again. The controversy over what to do pitted townsfolk against one another, writes Powell.
“The first time I went to the site, I went by myself, and it was heart-wrenching,” Gary Pendergrass, who was in charge of cleaning up the town, told Hamilton. “Walking around the streets, walking into houses, many of them were like people had just simply stood up, walked out and never came back,” he said. “Plates on the tables, Christmas trees, Christmas decorations outside, and just street after street of that.”
The massive clean-up operation he directed demolished those houses and buried them, and removed dioxin from 265,000 tons of soil. The whole thing cost more than $100 million, Hamilton reports. 
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