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Tommy Scott Photo courtesy of wdbj7.com In Bedford County, Virginia, Supervisor Tommy Scott has proposed a change to County administrative policy to restore County employee's ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights while at work.  Infringements such as these are common for lower levels of State and local governments.  They gradually crept into administrative codes that became popular during the "progressive" era of the last 100 years.  From wdbj7.com: At Monday's supervisor meeting, Tommy Scott proposed a change to county policy that would allow employees with a concealed carry permit to exercise their right while on the job. Scott...

<p>As the U.S. engages in a national debate over the militarization of the police, federal data shows that government agencies charged with largely administrative roles are spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase SWAT and military-style equipment.</p> <p>Since FY 2006, 44 traditionally administrative agencies have spent over $71 million on items like body armor, riot helmets and shields, cannon launchers and police firearms and ammunition, according to federal spending data from watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com.</p>

Bobbie Bee can no longer contain her outrage after her husband was prescribed a drug that if taken in conjunction with his current cocktail of medications potentially could have raised his serotonin levels to dangerous heights, a risk that she says - and the FDA warns — "could've been deadly." "I can't carry them all at once," Bobbie J. Bee says over the unmistakable sound of pills individually bouncing off the sides of plastic bottling tubes as she walks in from her home's kitchen and into the dining room. She lays the containers out one-by-one. "These are for nerves, anger...

Donald Trump slammed the Republican Party of Virginia via Twitter on Sunday for its plan to require that 2016 primary voters sign a statement confirming they are Republicans. Trump and others say the requirement could discourage independent and first-time voters from casting primary ballots in Virginia, where primaries are open to all registered voters. According to some experts, the voter pledge has the potential to hurt Trump in particular, because his un-orthodox candidacy has attracted voters disenchanted with traditional party politics. -snip- David I. Ramadan (R-Loudoun) said Sunday that he supports the party requirement. He responded to Trump with an...

On Friday, the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill sailed through the House by a vote of 316-113. Ninety-five Republicans split with House GOP leadership to vote against the spending bill. Another 150 Republicans supported it, while just 18 Democrats opposed the legislation. Here is the full list of the Republicans who voted against the spending bill (see the complete roll call vote here): Abraham Amash Amodei Babin Barletta Black Blackburn Blum Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Buck Byrne Clawson (FL) Crawford DeSantis DesJarlais Duncan (SC) Duncan (TN) Emmer (MN) Farenthold Fleming Forbes Fortenberry Franks (AZ) Garrett Gibbs Gohmert Goodlatte Gosar Gowdy...

The mother of an injured Army veteran of the Iraq war is selling a rare letter from President Obama to cover her son's medical and personal expenses despite the president's handwritten promise to do "everything we can over the next four years to support your family." Cherry McKimmey told Secrets, "Something good might as well come out of that. It is doing no good lying in my drawer. It means absolutely nothing to me."

In life and leadership, accountability means consequences for bad behavior. In Washington, accountability means yet another congressional meeting about another government scandal perpetrated by tax-subsidized corruptocrats who get away with murder. Literally. This week, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs held the 999,999th oversight hearing (give or take a few) on the VA’s homicidal, no-fault culture. “In the wake of the biggest scandal in VA history, in which 110 VA medical facilities maintained secret lists to hide long waits for care,” the panel notes, “the department has successfully fired just three low-level employees for manipulating wait times. Not a single...

Donald Trump made a promise and he delivered. In October, the Republican presidential candidate made a commitment to U.S. Army First Sgt. Todd Landen (Ret.) very, very personal. In front of a large crowd at a Sioux City, Iowa, event, he promised the wounded veteran and his family that he would get action to end the runaround Landen was getting from the Veterans Administration. "I am going to put pressure on the VA like you won't believe," Trump said then. "As president, I can guarantee it. As Trump I can say, 'I'll probably be able to pull it off anyway.'"...

The Denver Veterans Affairs hospital has taken tremendous fire for cost overruns of a billion dollars, but a new report shows that, had the VA engaged in better planning and real-time accountability, the facility could have looked like the new Parkland hospital in Dallas, which finished almost on time and on budget. A new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis compares reconstruction efforts at the VA hospital in Denver with the redesign of the Parkland hospital, which has quickly become one of the busiest hospitals in the country. Parkland features the second-largest burn unit and ranks in sixth...

In life and leadership, accountability means consequences for bad behavior. In Washington, accountability means yet another congressional meeting about another government scandal perpetrated by tax-subsidized corruptocrats who get away with murder. Literally. This week, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs will hold the 999,999th oversight hearing (give or take a few) on the VA's homicidal, no-fault culture. "In the wake of the biggest scandal in VA history, in which 110 VA medical facilities maintained secret lists to hide long waits for care," the panel notes, "the department has successfully fired just three low-level employees for manipulating wait times. Not a...

The Department of Veterans Affairs network of health systems faces "crises in leadership and culture" in addition to other systematic problems, according to an independent assessment released Friday. The flaws rampant in VA hospitals demand a "system-wide reworking" of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The independent review was mandated by the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act signed into law by President Obama in 2014 following revelations about secret waitlists at VA hospitals that led to dozens of veteran deaths. The report sheds light on the "systemic, critical problems" currently facing the VA's integrated health care system. "The assessments...provided evidence...

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs will not try to recoup more than $400,000 from two senior VA executives who manipulated the hiring system to get their jobs of choice and received hundreds of thousands in extra money to relocate. The agency has remained silent on questions about its decision to demote and transfer but not fire executives Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, and whether it would collect repayment of those relocation benefits. The original statement from the VA announcing the decision said the women had the right to appeal their reassignments. But Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., who chairs...

Matthew was wounded during a suicide car bombing in Iraq, near the Syrian border, on Oct. 15, 2004. He was the sole survivor of the attack. Two members of his Army Psychological Operations team, a U.S. Marine accompanying them, and an Iraqi translator were killed. He suffered massive injuries, including a depressed skull fracture, several strokes and brain trauma from the explosion and impacts. He also had a fractured vertebrae in his neck, his jaw was broken in two places with severe tissue damage to the right side of his face, a fractured sternum, clavicles, and right arm, inhalation damage...

President Barack Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs has banned employees at its facility in Salem, Virginia, from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans.It started as a broader ban that included Christmas trees. Federal law recognizes Christmas as an official federal holiday (5 U.S.C. § 6103) and provides federal employees with a paid day off to celebrate the Christian belief in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.Every year, a White House Christmas Tree and a Capitol Christmas Tree grace those two respective buildings in Washington D.C., and a National Christmas Tree is also officially lighted outdoors for the public to enjoy during that time...

Remember when then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced in May 2014 that bonuses would be canceled in light of the systemic fraud involving wait lists at numerous VA facilities? What Shinseki failed to mention was that the cancellation only impacted a small number of VA officials. USA Today reports that the Veterans Administration paid out more than $142 million in bonuses for 2014, despite the fact that veterans are waiting longer than ever for care: The Department of Veterans Affairs doled out more than $142 million in bonuses to executives and employees for performance in 2014 even as scandals over...

Appearing on Fox's Special Report, Julie Pace opined that Hillary Clinton's poo pooing of the problems at the VA will haunt her through the 2016 election: "The Hillary Clinton comment, sometimes when you do this job you hear a candidate say something and you just know that that is something that is going to trail her through Election Day next year if she is the eventual Democratic nominee." https://youtu.be/7ULpWZBUhzoI think she's right and that this is a powerful issue. Clinton committed a huge gaffe and it opened a door into the real Hillary Clinton. Last month Clinton haughtily dismissed the...

The Department of Veterans Affairs VA shelled out more than $142 million in performance bonuses in 2014, the same year that the VA's healthcare scandal exploded and revealed the VA was systematically denying veterans access to health care. The average individual payout was over $900 for the thousands of employees. A total of 156,000 VA workers qualified for bonuses as a result of being rated them "fully successful" or higher at carrying out their responsibilities last year, including officials at delay-prone hospitals. But those ratings were later found to be inflated, as the vast majority of workers were getting rated...

MADISON, Wisconsin — As the nation celebrates its veterans and pays tribute to their sacrifices, it’s important to remember the promise made to America’s protectors has too often been broken. The headlines over the past few years in particular have screamed of neglect, ill-treatment and other abuses of too many veterans. That broken faith was no more apparent than in Wisconsin, at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center. While federal lawmakers have conducted a series of investigations into widespread over-prescription of opiates that led to the death of a 35-year-old Marine veteran at the facility and have pledged changes to...

A whopping 20 percent of Republican primary voters are military veterans. No wonder GOP presidential candidates are making the scandal-plagued Veterans Affairs Department a campaign issue. And the man frequently tagged as lacking substance - Donald Trump - just came out with the best reform plan so far. Under Trump's plan, vets of all ages who are eligible for VA care could get treated at any civilian doctor's office or hospital that takes Medicare. No bureaucratic hoops, pre-approvals or wait lists....Competitors criticize Trump for not estimating the cost. But the facts suggest his plan will be low-cost, because nearly half...

Michael Bloomberg lost a lot of money in the two Virginia elections in 2015 last night. Bloomberg's surrogate disarmist organization spent about 2.2 million dollars trying to buy a Virginia state Senate seat, and a Virginia House of Delegates seat.Bloomberg reportedly spent $2.2 million in the two elections.  He spent $700,000 in the Senate race.  From townhall.com: A day earlier, Everytown said it would spend $700,000 on ads for Democrat Dan Gecker, who is battling Republican Glen Sturtevant to represent part of Richmond and the surrounding suburbs in the Senate. That seat is being vacated by retiring Sen. John...