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Back in the Middle of June there were calls for a special prosecutor for the VA Scandal (or scandals). In the middle of June, there were calls for a Special Prosecutor for the VA Scandal by Congressmen John Barrow, Bill Cassidy, and Rick Allen. It seems serious crimes have been comitted by people work in the VA System. Whistleblowers have been retaliated against. One article on this is: Barrow, Allen call for special prosecutor Another is: VA SCANDAL: Cassidy Demands Special Prosecutor To Probe VA Abuse There are people that really need to be behind bars or executed over this...

A 90-year-old decorated World War II veteran still fighting to correct what he says is an erroneous war record may finally be getting closer to realizing his goal. Thomas Joseph Smith, Jr., of Glenville, N.Y., who survived some of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific, said he received the shock of a lifetime when he realized military records detailing his time with the U.S. Marine Corps incorrectly indicated he went AWOL for one month during his unit’s deployment on the Marshall Islands in the early 1940s.

ACTON (CBS) – “He was steadfast. He took care of us, all of these years.” Suzanne Chase of Acton was talking about her husband, Doug, a Vietnam veteran who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2011. In 2012, she tried to move his medical care to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Bedford. “It was so difficult for him to take the ambulance ride into Boston, we wanted to be closer.” They waited about four months and never heard anything. Then Douglas Chase died in August 2012. But two weeks ago, he got a letter, from the VA in Bedford,...

The Veterans Affairs Department is apologizing to a Massachusetts woman for offering an appointment to her husband almost two years after he died. Suzanne Chase, of Acton, tells WBZ-TV her Vietnam veteran husband, Doug, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2011. …

Joe Bastardi @BigJoeBastardi · 6m I am worried this can get to cat 3 by July 4..we have it as a 2. But to put in perspective, Able, MAY 1951 was cat 3 off NC.

President Obama plans to nominate former Procter and Gamble executive Robert McDonald to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, sources confirm to Fox News.

Veterans Administration hospitals have spent at least $420 million on solar panels and windmills while vets wait months — or even lay dying — to see a doctor. In total, VA hospitals reported 23 deaths due to 76 instances of delayed care, an April 2014 VA fact sheet said. Then on June 5, Acting Veteran Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson revealed that at least 18 Phoenix patients died while waiting for treatment on a secret list kept off the books. It is not clear if that number is in addition to the 23 deaths reported earlier. During the past month, the...

More whistleblowers are coming forward from the VA, but this woman from North Carolina gives a special insight into the way that wait-list fraud propagated within the system. Paulene DeWenter makes clear that the use of secret wait lists was no spontaneously-occurring method for front-line workers to deal with overstressed resources, but a deliberate strategy employed by VA management. DeWenter tells WITN that her boss told her to use the secret wait list method, or else she would buy DeWenter a bus pass — one way out of town ... DeWenter blew the whistle after one of the patients on...

It’s like the The Never Ending Story meets the Bad News Bears: the VA implosion, the implosion of Iraq, the implosion at the border, the implosion of IRS computer hard drives (along with the EPA’s) and now, the implosion of the economy. And that’s just in the past month!…a giant sucking soundImagine how you’d feel if you were president and had to find out about all of this when you tuned into the evening news. Without so much as a heads up before another disaster strikes it’s hard to “frame the discussion” properly. Which is to say, it’s hard to...

A Veterans Affairs nurse who spent 28 years at the embattled agency's facility in Albany, N.Y., says when she came forward to report abuse including stolen drugs and mistreatment of patients, her supervisors turned on her instead of trying to fix things. Nursing manager Val Riviello, 55, was considered an outstanding employee at the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center until last November, when she reported that doctors had restrained a patient for seven hours in violation of VA rules. Now she has been banished to an office cubicle, stripped of her nursing duties and supervisory role and faces a 30-day...

Imagine how much better off America’s veterans would be if the federal government spent more time delivering actual care and less time compiling tyrannical lists. The death-inducing secret waiting lists for patients are just the tip of the iceberg. Did you know, for example, that the VA keeps a database on “disgruntled” and “disruptive” vets that results in arbitrarily restricted care?

Doctors at the Philadelphia Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office are sitting around with nothing to do, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans continue to wait for medical appointments. “Urgent! Need work for In-house Physicians,” wrote the Office’s assistant veterans service center manager Ameen Khabir in the subject line of a June 19 email to colleagues, which he placed on “High” importance. The Regional Office is responsible for processing compensation, benefits, employment and insurance claims. More than 276,000 veteran benefit claims across the country are still backlogged, having been waiting for more than 125 days....

CNN: Whistleblower: VA Changed Records To Make Dead Patients Appear To Be Alive (June 24, 2014)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — A disabled veteran and father is living out of his car, because he said the Memphis VA will not help him. Lonnie Whitfield was living with a friend, but ran out of options when that person decided to move. The VA sent WREG a statement explaining the programs they have in place to help people like Whitfield. They have vouchers for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and VA Supportive Housing Program, or HUD-VASH as it is called. However, they only had 380 vouchers for the Memphis and Jackson areas, and said they are currently...

Records of dead veterans were changed to hide how many people died while awaiting care at Phoenix VA hospital, whistle-blower tells CNN. Records of dead veterans were changed or physically altered, some even in recent weeks, to hide how many people died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA hospital, a whistle-blower told CNN in stunning revelations that point to a new coverup in the ongoing VA scandal. "Deceased" notes on files were removed to make statistics look better, so veterans would not be counted as having died while waiting for care, Pauline DeWenter said.

".........The green office isn’t merely a desk and telephone tucked away in the dark corner of a nondescript government building. It’s a substantial undertaking, with all the luxury, bells and whistles of a bureaucracy that means business. Eric K. Shinseki, who resigned as secretary in the wake of the VA scandal of the sin of omission, traveled the country to boast of the green initiative. In one instance, he traveled to Massachusetts to flick the switch at a half-million-dollar windmill project at the Massachusetts National Cemetery. “Nationally,” he said, “VA continues to expand its investment in renewable sources of energy...

Every month for the past seven years, Joe Morris, a Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, has been receiving a disability check from the VAs. Two months ago came the bizarre phone call that changed everything. "My mom called me up and said ‘Hey, you're dead.' I said ‘No, I'm not,'" Morris said. The VA sent his parents a condolence letter.

Hard-working Virginians deserve access to affordable health care. This may be Virginia's last chance to expand Medicaid. Contact Gov. McAuliffe today and urge him to veto the state budget! Gov. McAuliffe has a tough decision to make before this Sunday at midnight: whether to sign or veto the state budget. Why? Because state legislators sent the governor a budget that does not include expanding Medicaid for hard-working Virginians who earn up to $16,000 a year. These 400,000 Virginians are our friends, neighbors, family. Many are age 50-64, struggling in jobs without health benefits. They are counting on state lawmakers to...

Yesterday Equality Virginia was honored to receive a proclamation from Governor Terry McAuliffe that recognizes June 2014 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride month. The proclamation noted that the Commonwealth celebrates its diverse LGBT community, is dedicated to fostering acceptance and preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and that LGBT Virginians contribute to a stronger Commonwealth. We couldn't agree more; and will continue to work towards that ideal. The support we have received from the Governor has been invaluable. He understands that fairness and inclusion are important to Virginia's families and to the commonwealth as a...

The Department of Veteran Affairs is drawing online criticism for tweeting about the world’s oceans on Monday. The VA tweeted about how the world’s oceans are under threat from over-fishing, pollution and even climate change. Veterans Affairs @DeptVetAffairs Our ocean is under threat. Join people all over the world and make a difference. #OurOcean2014 http://thndr.it/1tP7rrQ 9:02 AM - 16 Jun 2014 The tweet linked to a press release from the State Department that let people tweet out their own support for a number of ocean-related issues, such as avoiding shark-fin soup and only consuming seafood caught in a sustainable manner....