Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Worried by the "sequestration" blade set to fall on defense budgets in January, Republicans are sounding alarms with special hearings, a flurry of press releases and bills that offer at least interim solutions. But will Republicans also reconsider their "anti-tax hike" pledge to the powerful lobbyist Grover Norquist? A rising chorus of critics, including some prominent Republicans, argue they must, and soon, if Congress is to avoid a devastating hit to military readiness and America's defense industry. Republicans so far...
The Department of Veterans Affairs is processing more than a million disability compensation claims a year, for veterans of every age and era, whether they served in wartime or during periods of relative calm. But that has not been enough to keep the claims backlog from rising through current wars and the expansion of compensation eligibility to more medical conditions, particularly for veterans who served in Vietnam. Claims today are more complex, involving nine to 11 medical issues apiece, on average, versus an average of...
The Department of Veterans Affairs is processing more than a million disability compensation claims a year, for veterans of every age and era, whether they served in wartime or during periods of relative calm. But that has not been enough to keep the claims backlog from rising through current wars and the expansion of compensation eligibility to more medical conditions, particularly for veterans who served in Vietnam. Claims today are more complex, involving nine to 11 medical issues apiece, on average, versus an average of...
If endorsed by the White House and enacted by Congress, a new blueprint for modernizing military compensation after 11 years of war would reshape many traditional service pays to strive for more efficiency. The 11th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, after two years of study, has produced some wide-ranging recommendations, from replacing combat zone tax exclusions and overhauling weekend drill pay to reforming reserve retirement and slicing by half a reduction in survivor benefits that widows see when they accept VA... Full story
If endorsed by the White House and enacted by Congress, a new blueprint for modernizing military compensation after 11 years of war would reshape many traditional service pays to strive for more efficiency. The 11th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, after two years of study, has produced some wide-ranging recommendations, from replacing combat zone tax exclusions and overhauling weekend drill pay to reforming reserve retirement and slicing by half a reduction in survivor benefits that widows see when they accept VA... Full story
As congressional inaction on the debt crisis deepens the threat of indiscriminate ax wielding on defense programs by next January, advocates for base grocery stores hope to emboss a "hands off" sign on military commissaries and their $1.3 billion annual appropriation. In particular, they want Congress to ignore a "dangerously flawed" cost-saving option presented last year by the Congressional Budget Office, to merge the commissary system and the three military exchange services into a single base resale operation. The CBO... Full story
As congressional inaction on the debt crisis deepens the threat of indiscriminate ax wielding on defense programs by next January, advocates for base grocery stores hope to emboss a "hands off" sign on military commissaries and their $1.3 billion annual appropriation. In particular, they want Congress to ignore a "dangerously flawed" cost-saving option presented last year by the Congressional Budget Office, to merge the commissary system and the three military exchange services into a single base resale operation. The CBO... Full story
Legal experts and military family advocates saw their advice ignored anew this year as the House again has passed a controversial bill from Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, aimed at protecting service members from losing custody of their children because of military deployments. Among the bill's critics this year is Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The vote last week was 390-to-2 for legislation that the Senate is almost certain to kill, as senators again heed the legal warnings and shrug off, at least on this issue, some of the... Full story
Legal experts and military family advocates saw their advice ignored anew this year as the House again has passed a controversial bill from Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, aimed at protecting service members from losing custody of their children because of military deployments. Among the bill's critics this year is Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The vote last week was 390-to-2 for legislation that the Senate is almost certain to kill, as senators again heed the legal warnings and shrug off, at least on this issue, some of the... Full story
The Senate Armed Services Committee has agreed with its House counterpart to block the Obama administration's plan to phase in new and some significantly higher TRICARE enrollment fees and deductibles for military retirees and their families. But the Senate panel has signaled that the administration can use existing authority to raise beneficiary co-pays on brand name prescription drugs filled through retail pharmacies or the TRICARE mail order program. The absence of any new Senate prohibition, combined with the House...
The Senate Armed Services Committee has agreed with its House counterpart to block the Obama administration's plan to phase in new and some significantly higher TRICARE enrollment fees and deductibles for military retirees and their families. But the Senate panel has signaled that the administration can use existing authority to raise beneficiary co-pays on brand name prescription drugs filled through retail pharmacies or the TRICARE mail order program. The absence of any new Senate prohibition, combined with the House...
Even as the war in Afghanistan is featured less often on evening newscasts or front pages of our newspapers, Americans still involved in the fight continue to die there, deepening the pool of Memorial Day remembrances with new heroes and fresh heartbreak. To glimpse what's still being sacrificed on Afghan soil, Courtney Knox, the 24-year-old widow of Army Sgt. JaBraun Knox, of Auburn, Ind., agreed to tell us about her husband and how he died May 18 at a forward operating base near Asadabad, Afghanistan. The first thing to... Full story
Even as the war in Afghanistan is featured less often on evening newscasts or front pages of our newspapers, Americans still involved in the fight continue to die there, deepening the pool of Memorial Day remembrances with new heroes and fresh heartbreak. To glimpse what's still being sacrificed on Afghan soil, Courtney Knox, the 24-year-old widow of Army Sgt. JaBraun Knox, of Auburn, Ind., agreed to tell us about her husband and how he died May 18 at a forward operating base near Asadabad, Afghanistan. The first thing to...
A disabled veteran has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider anew whether states violate federal law when they allow divorce courts to count a veteran's disability compensation in calculating spousal support. The petition also invites the justices to consider an issue that states are more sharply divided over: Whether federal law bars state courts from considering VA disability benefits communal property to be divided in divorce like other marital assets. In dissolving the near 20-year marriage of Peter James Barclay, an...
A disabled veteran has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider anew whether states violate federal law when they allow divorce courts to count a veteran's disability compensation in calculating spousal support. The petition also invites the justices to consider an issue that states are more sharply divided over: Whether federal law bars state courts from considering VA disability benefits communal property to be divided in divorce like other marital assets. In dissolving the near 20-year marriage of Peter James Barclay, an...
The House Armed Services Committee has voted to raise drug co-payments for TRICARE beneficiaries who have brand-name prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies or through the TRICARE mail order program. The committee also voted to help control Department of Defense drug costs by requiring beneficiaries who are eligible for TRICARE for Life, most of them elderly, to reorder all maintenance drugs through the TRICARE mail order plan for at least a year, after which they could opt out. The committee's defense bill also would cap... Full story
The House Armed Services Committee has voted to raise drug co-payments for TRICARE beneficiaries who have brand-name prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies or through the TRICARE mail order program. The committee also voted to help control Department of Defense drug costs by requiring beneficiaries who are eligible for TRICARE for Life, most of them elderly, to reorder all maintenance drugs through the TRICARE mail order plan for at least a year, after which they could opt out. The committee's defense bill also would cap... Full story
President Obama's high-profile signing Friday of an executive order to protect Post-9/11 GI Bill users from predatory practices of for-profit schools is viewed by veterans' service organizations as a big step, but also a first step, toward curbing abuses within the U.S. education industry. Before grabbing his signing pen, the president warned an audience of soldiers and service families at Fort Stewart, Ga., of "bad actors out there" who aggressively market substandard education plans to veterans and service members who have...
President Obama's high-profile signing Friday of an executive order to protect Post-9/11 GI Bill users from predatory practices of for-profit schools is viewed by veterans' service organizations as a big step, but also a first step, toward curbing abuses within the U.S. education industry. Before grabbing his signing pen, the president warned an audience of soldiers and service families at Fort Stewart, Ga., of "bad actors out there" who aggressively market substandard education plans to veterans and service members who have...
So far, several hundred military members who lost homes to illegal foreclosure actions by big banks and mortgage servicers have received settlements of $116,785 apiece for economic loss and emotional distress. They also have been paid any equity lost plus interest. The number of hefty payments to military members and recently-separated veterans likely will swell to several thousand, predicts Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Department of Justice. Since last May, Perez and his division of...
So far, several hundred military members who lost homes to illegal foreclosure actions by big banks and mortgage servicers have received settlements of $116,785 apiece for economic loss and emotional distress. They also have been paid any equity lost plus interest. The number of hefty payments to military members and recently-separated veterans likely will swell to several thousand, predicts Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Department of Justice. Since last May, Perez and his division of...
Despite enormous stress on military families from repeated wartime deployments and long periods living apart, service marriages are showing a level of resilience that social scientists can't yet explain. Military divorce rates have climbed only gradually in recent years and, according to a report in the Journal of Family Issues this month, have not exceeded the rate of broken marriages reported among civilian peers. Competitive wartime pay, extra allowances for being married in service and family support programs could be...
Despite enormous stress on military families from repeated wartime deployments and long periods living apart, service marriages are showing a level of resilience that social scientists can't yet explain. Military divorce rates have climbed only gradually in recent years and, according to a report in the Journal of Family Issues this month, have not exceeded the rate of broken marriages reported among civilian peers. Competitive wartime pay, extra allowances for being married in service and family support programs could be... Full story
Older retirees such as Air Force Master Sgt. Floyd Sears, 81, stand shoulder to shoulder with younger generations of retirees in opposing any of the higher fees being proposed for hard earned TRICARE benefits. But Sears also agrees with many retirees of his own generation that there's something especially wrong with the Obama administration's plan to impose a first-ever enrollment fee on 900,000 retirees age 65 and older and their surviving spouses. The oldest among them entered service in World War II or during the Korean...
Older retirees such as Air Force Master Sgt. Floyd Sears, 81, stand shoulder to shoulder with younger generations of retirees in opposing any of the higher fees being proposed for hard earned TRICARE benefits. But Sears also agrees with many retirees of his own generation that there's something especially wrong with the Obama administration's plan to impose a first-ever enrollment fee on 900,000 retirees age 65 and older and their surviving spouses. The oldest among them entered service in World War II or during the Korean...
