House Veterans committee chairman takes oversight on the road

The last stop for Tennessee Rep. Phil Roe before heading home for Thanksgiving was Little Rock, where the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs promised quick action on legislation increasing veterans' private-sector health care options. Despite concerns about cost, privatization and the influence of outside parties - such as the conservative Koch political network - Roe said Monday that the committee has come to a consensus on the Veterans Choice program and will likely advance legislation after the weeklong holiday break.

How they voted: Larimer County area congressional votes for Nov. 10-16, 2017

Along with roll call votes this week, the Senate also passed the FEMA Accountability, Modernization and Transparency Act , to ensure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's current efforts to modernize its grant management system includes applicant accessibility and transparency; the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act , to provide ... (more)

Agency: Improper Wait List Used for Vets’ Mental Health Care

The exterior of the Veterans Affairs Department hospital is shown in east Denver, Oct. 4, 2017. A watchdog arm of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that the agency's Denver-area hospital violated policy by keeping improper wait lists to track veterans' mental health care.

Three cups of coffee each day slashes risk of liver cancer

The son former NFL star Rae Carruth tried to kill: Disabled teen who was pulled from his dying mother's womb after she was gunned down turns 18... as his father enters his final year in prison for plotting her brutal murder Beekeeper who posed with 20,000 bees on her belly in viral maternity shoot suffers a stillbirth and shares heartbreaking photos of her baby in specially-made onesie PIERS MORGAN: What does Trump have in common with the detestable dictator Mugabe? They BOTH believe in elephant trophy hunting.

Report: VA clinic where vet set self on fire was remiss

A stressed Gulf War veteran who set himself on fire outside a Veterans Affairs clinic and later died went nearly a year without a mental health appointment or medication, one of several serious problems government investigators found with the clinic in a report released Thursday. The Veterans Affairs Department's inspector general found Charles Ingram III went almost a year without seeing a counselor or taking medications for his mental health problems before his death in March 2016.

The Drug Price Relief Act, defeated soundly in Ohio last week, is coming to a state near you in 2018

People in Ohio, including some residents of Steubenville, voted against a ballot initiative that would require the state to pay no more for prescription drugs than the federal Department of Veterans Affairs does. However, the man behind the ballot, Michael Weinstein, hopes to get it on several states' ballots ahead of next year's mid-term elections.

‘He wasn’t making Marines. He was breaking Marines’

In this Tuesday, Oct., 31, 2017 photo, U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph A. Felix, his wife, and his lawyers exit a courtroom after testimony at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Military prosecutors say the former Marine Corps drill instructor facing court-martial on charges including cruelty and maltreatment was "drunk on power" and targeted three Muslim recruits for abuse.

Jury deciding sentence for abusive Marine drill instructor

A Marine Corps jury on Friday is deciding whether a drill instructor should be sentenced to military prison time for choking, punching and otherwise tormenting recruits, especially Muslims, one of whom eventually hurled himself to his death down a stairwell. The eight-man jury at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, also could sentence Gunnery Sgt.

Bergdahl gets no time, a dishonorable release

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who in 2009 walked off a U.S. military outpost in eastern Afghanistan and spent the next five years in enemy captivity, was sentenced Friday to a dishonorable discharge from the Army but will avoid prison time. Bergdahl, 31, pleaded guilty in October to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and had faced a maximum life sentence.

VA: Secret waiting list delayed care for 87 veterans in 2017

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials say an unauthorized, secret waiting list for psychotherapy appointments at Omaha's VA hospital delayed care for 87 veterans this year. Letters addressed to Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse - all Republicans - blamed the unauthorized list on "training deficiencies" involving the hospital's medical support assistants, the Omaha World-Herald reported Saturday.

Markey joins other pols seeking quick probe of Bedford VA death

US Senator Edward Markey Tuesday joined the chorus of elected officials calling on the Veterans Affairs secretary to speed up the investigation into the death of a Vietnam veteran who died at the Bedford VA while a nurse's aide was allegedly playing games on her computer. Markey asked Shulkin to "rectify" the systemic problems at Bedford and other VA facilities around the country to ensure that health care workers are adequately trained and supervised.