"The PTSD, the depression, the hyper vigilance no longer affected me to the same degree... I thought psychedelics could help prevent more deaths."
We Americans who will protect our flag should have a voice in where it is flown. Despite his unimpeachable record of heroism and patriotism, he was disparaged and mocked by his government and the corporate press.
Eight individuals were arrested and 15 charged in a scheme to defraud Medicare of over $50 million by running sham hospice facilities across Southern California. Federal officials described the actions as brazen efforts to commit fraud, with many billed patients not being terminally ill.
That's a $9,000 raise, essentially. Sell the car and use that cash to get a functional car. If you can sell it, get that $5,000 in your hand plus this $9,000 and buy you a $15,000 paid-for car, that's a nice car. And now you got no car payments.
The agreement allows VA attorneys to be sworn in as special federal prosecutors so they can bring guardianship or conservatorship petitions in state courts for veterans who are deemed unable to make their own medical decisions and who lack family or legal representatives.
AI will be capable of further automating tasks such as document intake, classification, and preliminary adjudication, making it more feasible than ever for VA to deliver benefits in 'minutes not months.'
Sommers was arrested Thursday in Pittsfield, where authorities say he had been living under the victim's identity at Soldier On, a facility that provides transitional housing for military veterans. According to charging documents, Sommers allegedly began impersonating a real U.S. Army veteran as early as 1994. That veteran served honorably in the Army from 1979 to 1982.
Claiming to be temporarily totally disabled and collecting disability benefits intended for injured workers while engaging in physically demanding activities like skydiving is a crime. This is an officer who knows the law and understands the standards he is sworn to uphold.
During the troop surge in Iraq, I learned to constantly scan for threats, how to distinguish the sharp crack of a gunshot pointed in my direction from one outgoing toward an enemy, and the myriad ways that explosives can be hidden on a roadside. I learned that hypervigilance can be the difference between life and death. What I didn't learn was how to turn it off. Now, I take three psychiatric medications every day, and I go to therapy every week.
Our estimate is that we've opened more than 10 million records with this law. The argument is that family members have a right to see that information, know it, and safeguard it. And eventually the public does as well, so that it can understand the enormous atrocity that has occurred.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has rectified issues with its new electronic health record system and is all set to resume software deployments in just a few months, VA Secretary Doug Collins assured lawmakers on Wednesday, despite a host of unresolved recommendations from an agency watchdog on how to streamline the project. VA is preparing to restart rollouts of its new Oracle Health EHR system on April 1, following an operational pause in April 2023 that froze go-lives at most of the agency's medical facilities.
For many veterans, returning home marks not resolution but the beginning of a quieter struggle. Despite decades of innovation in trauma-focused therapies and medication, a substantial number continue to live with psychological injuries that existing treatments only partly address. Their trauma is not merely a cluster of symptoms; it is a disruption of identity, moral coherence, and belonging. It reflects lived experience often shaped by early adversity, military culture, and the potentially socially isolating aftermath of service.
The Department of Veterans Affairs "has made tremendous advancements" in processing claims through its new digital GI Bill system, a VA official said on Wednesday, even as House lawmakers said issues with the project were symptomatic of the department's larger challenges with undertaking major IT modernization efforts. VA awarded a $453 million contract to Accenture Federal Services in March 2021 to develop and implement a new system that could enhance claims processing for its education benefits programs.
The Department of Defense, which was recently authorized to receive a new annual budget of nearly $840 billion a year and could see a substantial increase to $1.5 trillion under the current Trump administration, has consistently failed to pass an audit since audits became legally required for the military in 2018. Pentagon officials hope the military can get its books in order across the services and pass one by 2028.