Free Republic

The US government has announced it will offer gender confirmation surgery for transgender veterans through its health care coverage for the first time. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) secretary Denis McDonough announced the change at a Pride event in Florida. He said it would allow veterans to go through the full process "with VA at their side". Previously hormone therapy and mental health services were covered but not surgery. Gender confirmation surgery, also known as sex reassignment surgery, covers a range of procedures which alter a person's anatomy to match their gender identity.

State worker says her car was totaled and the lawmaker, who's been in recent driving trouble, was uncaring. State Sen. Carole Migden, who rear-ended a car this month after being seen driving erratically on Interstate 80, was involved in another accident in a state vehicle 11 years ago when she ran a stop sign near the Capitol, according to the woman whose car was hit.Teresa Latham, a tax technician at the state Board of Equalization, said she still harbors bitter feelings about the accident that totaled the car she had paid off eight months earlier.She said Migden barely spoke to...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Nov. 28, 2006) -- "Adrenaline rush" doesn't describe what it's like to stand next to a tank as it fires. It's as if Thor, Norse god of thunder, got his Viking shorts in a bunch because someone makes a noise louder than him, so he grabs hold of the adrenal glands and squeezes for all he's worth. The ear-cracking, rib-crunching, earth-shaking "boom" of the M-1A1 Main Battle Tank's 120 mm main-gun round firing is nothing short of unnatural. It's the sound of a thousand trees snapping in half all at once, the smack of a semi truck...

Federal authorities contend this man was hell on wheels. Christopher Alan Krajenke allegedly plotted to kill a deputy and a man he believed was an informant, hawked drugs, went armed, tried to outrun federal agents and grabbed for a weapon after authorities crashed his car to stop him - all while he was in a wheelchair. Advertisement At a hearing in U.S. District Court on Thursday, authorities outlined a laundry list of reasons why they say Krajenke is too dangerous to go free pending trial on federal charges he was an armed drug dealer. Before hearing that list, federal Magistrate...