Monday, April 30, 2012

Bridging the Gap benefit for veterans

Fundraiser helps vets adjust to post-war life




	Keith Laseter, left, of Bridging the Gap in Georgia, a group that helps returning soldiers find emotional help and job security, with Jack Cashin of Chukkar Farm and Polo Club. Jonathan Copsey. (click for larger version)

April 30, 2012

MILTON, Ga. — When soldiers go off to fight, they are treated to a fanfare of patriotic fervor. But what happens when they come back?

Keith Laseter, a Gulf War veteran, said real problems can develop that mar the soldier's return to normalcy, and his life is a case-in-point.

When he returned from the war, the Moultrie, Ga., native fell into the trap of substance abuse, abusing alcohol and pain killers.

"After the war, I came back to the United States and felt even more isolated," he said. "I felt the people in my own country could not understand what their soldiers went through during a war. I felt no one cared."

Despite having a successful business in the 1990s, his abuse of drugs led him to multiple arrests, prison time and, eventually, homelessness. He finally went to rehab and has since been clean and sober. He also had a mission in life, to help fellow veterans in the same situation.

"There was no place for me to find help," he said. "I want to make sure others seeking help can find it."

His concern is that, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, those returning soldiers will become just like he was – lost and emotionally scarred, with no one to turn to.

"It's easy to support a veteran who's lost a leg or an arm," Laseter said, "but what about the emotional scars? The scars you can't see?"

To help those who have fought for their country, Laseter began Bridging the Gap of Georgia, a nonprofit that tries to help soldiers find their place in society again.

Laseter said there are more than 8,000 veterans in Georgia, many of whom have problems adjusting to life once they come home from the war zone. Some are injured. Others suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and, unable to communicate their troubles, act out with violent behavior or turn to substance abuse – alcohol and drugs. That downward spiral only destroys their homes and their lives, often resulting in homelessness and jail time just like him.

"People look at you like you're a criminal," he said. "We need to stop this kind of stuff."

Through mentoring, counseling and providing a place to live, Bridging the Gap hopes to not only help returning soldiers readjust to life out of the line of fire, but also make themselves useful by getting jobs.

"When you feel abandoned and useless, you give up," he said. "We try to give these guys their self worth back. But it takes a community to do that. Veteran homelessness is something that we should not tolerate as a nation. This is not a government problem, it's a community issue. It is our obligation as a society to come together and knit our communities back together."

Saluting our Heroes

To help with Bridging the Gap of Georgia's message, the organization will have a fundraiser, "Salute to our Heroes," May 27 at Chukkar Farm Polo Club – just in time for Memorial Day.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for our business and community leaders to come together to show love, appreciation and support to our veterans who have sacrificed so much for us," he said.

Jack Cashin, owner of Chukkar Farms and himself a veteran of World War II, said he wanted to do what he could for Laseter and his group.

"Helping soldiers or military people who are socially impaired, I can understand that," Cashin said. "What [Bridging the Gap of Georgia] is doing is unique and focused on a social disorder. They deserve some help."

Beginning at 2 p.m., attendees will be treated to a polo match, an awards ceremony to honor veterans, a dinner prepared by Chef Joshua Hill and Chef Lisa Burkey, owners of A Gourmet Sin Catering, a silent auction, a "Tour of Love" concert by internationally known singer-songwriter Sister Otis and special guest speakers such as local and national politicians.

For more information or to buy tickets, go to www.btg-foundation.org.

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Veterans and Brain Disease

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: April 25, 2012

He was a 27-year-old former Marine, struggling to adjust to civilian life after two tours in Iraq. Once an A student, he now found himself unable to remember conversations, dates and routine bits of daily life. He became irritable, snapped at his children and withdrew from his family. He and his wife began divorce proceedings.

Damon Winter/The New York Times

This young man took to alcohol, and a drunken car crash cost him his driver’s license. The Department of Veterans Affairs diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder, or P.T.S.D. When his parents hadn’t heard from him in two days, they asked the police to check on him. The officers found his body; he had hanged himself with a belt.

That story is devastatingly common, but the autopsy of this young man’s brain may have been historic. It revealed something startling that may shed light on the epidemic of suicides and other troubles experienced by veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His brain had been physically changed by a disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E. That’s a degenerative condition best-known for affecting boxers,football players and other athletes who endure repeated blows to the head.

In people with C.T.E., an abnormal form of a protein accumulates and eventually destroys cells throughout the brain, including the frontal and temporal lobes. Those are areas that regulate impulse control, judgment, multitasking, memory and emotions.

That Marine was the first Iraq veteran found to have C.T.E., but experts have since autopsied a dozen or more other veterans’ brains and have repeatedly found C.T.E. The findings raise a critical question: Could blasts from bombs or grenades have a catastrophic impact similar to those of repeated concussions in sports, and could the rash of suicides among young veterans be a result?

“P.T.S.D. in a high-risk cohort like war veterans could actually be a physical disease from permanent brain damage, not a psychological disease,” said Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who examined the veteran. Dr. Omalu published an article about the 27-year-old veteran as a sentinel case in Neurosurgical Focus, a peer-reviewed medical journal.

The discovery of C.T.E. in veterans could be stunningly important. Sadly, it could also suggest that the worst is yet to come, for C.T.E. typically develops in midlife, decades after exposure. If we are seeing C.T.E. now in war veterans, we may see much more in the coming years.

So far, just this one case of a veteran with C.T.E. has been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. But at least three groups of scientists are now conducting brain autopsies on veterans, and they have found C.T.E. again and again, experts tell me. Publication of this research is in the works.

The finding of C.T.E. may help answer a puzzle. Returning Vietnam veterans did not have sharply elevated suicide rates as Iraq and Afghan veterans do today. One obvious difference is that Afghan and Iraq veterans are much more likely to have been exposed to blasts, whose shock waves send the brain crashing into the skull.

“Imagine a squishy, gelatinous material, surrounded by fluid, and then surrounded by a hard skull,” explained Robert A. Stern, a C.T.E. expert at Boston University School of Medicine. “The brain is going to move, jiggle around inside the skull. A helmet cannot do anything about that.”

Dr. Stern emphasized that the study of C.T.E. is still in its infancy. But he said that his hunch is that C.T.E. accounts for a share — he has no idea how large — of veteran suicides. C.T.E. leads to a degenerative loss of memory and thinking ability and, eventually, to dementia. There is also often a pattern of depression, impulsiveness and, all too often, suicide. There is now no treatment, or even a way of diagnosing C.T.E. other than examining the brain after death.

While the sports industry has lagged in responding to the discovery of C.T.E., and still does not adequately protect athletes from repeated concussions, the military has been far more proactive. The Defense Department has formed its own unit to autopsy brains and study whether blasts may be causing C.T.E.

Frankly, I was hesitant to write this column. Some veterans and their families are at wit’s end. If the problem in some cases is a degenerative physical ailment, currently incurable and fated to get worse, do they want to know?

I called Cheryl DeBow, a mother I wrote about recently. She sent two strong, healthy sons to Iraq. One committed suicide, and the other is struggling. DeBow said that it would actually be comforting to know that there might be an underlying physical ailment, even if it is progressive.

“You’re dealing with a ghost when it’s P.T.S.D.,” she told me a couple of days ago. “Everything changes when it’s something physical. People are more understanding. It’s a relief to the veterans and to the family. And, anyway, we want to know.
”

2:04 AM

Seven Family Members Die After SUV Plunges From Bronx Parkway

By: NY1 News

Seven members of a Bronx family spanning three generations were killed Sunday when the sports utility vehicle they were riding in flipped over a Bronx River Parkway railing and plunged about 60 feet onto non-public property of the Bronx Zoo.

Authorities say all seven occupants inside the vehicle died when it landed in the wooded area below the expressway in West Farms at 12:30 p.m.

Police say Maria Gonzalez, 45, was at the wheel of the 2004 Honda Pilot as it was traveling southbound at a high rate of speed. The SUV bounced off the roadway's median, crossed all the southbound lanes and then flew off the parkway, landing upside down in a deeply wooded portion of the southeastern part of the Bronx Zoo.

Killed in the accident were Gonzalez, her parents Jacob Nunez and Ana Julia Martinez, her sister Maria Nunez, her daughter Jocelyn Gonzalez, 10, and her nieces Niely Rosario, 7 and Marly Rosario, 5.

Gonzalez' parents had just arrived in town from the Dominican Republic for a family reunion.

As word of the accident spread, relatives and friends gathered at Gonzalez' Taylor Avenue home in Soundview to cope with the news.

Gonzalez' son said his mother was a strong woman.

"She started working at Fordham University full-time not too long ago to provide for my schooling," Jonel Gonzalez said. "She was a mother of three, a great wife. My sister went to St. Raymond's elementary and her communion was this Saturday."

A relative told NY1 that Maria Gonzalez has intended to go to church on Sunday but decided to skip services in order to pick up her family.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said authorities were investigating the cause of the crash.

"The driver in the left lane struck the barrier on the left-hand side, and in reaction to striking the barrier was either forced over or made a turn that caused the vehicle to go severely to the right and then fall over the side, into the well, you might say," Kelly said.

The overgrown brush at the crash site made it difficult for emergency crews to reach the vehicle, and one firefighter was injured during the search for victims.

All the passengers appeared to have been wearing seatbelts, according to the police commissioner.

"Sometimes you come across events that are horrific, and this was one of them," said FDNY Deputy Chief Ronald Werner.

"The car was so squished that they had to actually cut it to get them out of it," said Bronx Zoo employee Lloyd Pearson. "My head is still not right because of what I saw."

"In 30 years, I've seen something like this once or twice," said EMS Deputy Chief Howard Sickles. "Everyone was taken back by it, because everybody has a relative. Everybody knows a child, everybody has a grandparent, and you can see the emotion on everybody. It's very upsetting to have happen, something like this."

Firefighters found diapers in the car and feared there may have been another victim. However, police thoroughly searched the area with dogs, helicopters and thermal imaging and found no additional bodies.

The Wildlife Conservation Society said no Bronx Zoo visitors or animals were put in harm's way.

The medical examiner's office told the Associated Press that the cause of death for the victims would be known by Monday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this tragic time."

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said in a statement that his office will get city agencies to examine the safety of the Bronx River Parkway, as another driver took a non-fatal dive onto East 180th Street from the elevated road in June.

Another car crash in 2006 in the same area of the parkway killed six people.

The southbound lanes on the Bronx River Parkway were closed for nearly three hours, but later reopened to traffic with residual delays.

Medical marijuana becomes key issue in Ore. race

By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press Published: Apr 29, 2012 at 11:53 AM PDT Last Updated: Apr 29, 2012 at 5:28 PM PDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Of the thousands of laws that Oregon's attorney general enforces or interprets, the one allowing medical marijuana has lit up the campaign for that office more than any other.

In a Democratic primary where the candidates agree on many things, their differences over marijuana stand out.

It's anyone's guess whether the pot vote will be enough to tip the scales. But no Republicans are seeking the job, so Democrats alone will choose the state's top lawyer in the May 15 primary.

Former federal prosecutor Dwight Holton has called Oregon's marijuana law a "train wreck," and he was the U.S. Attorney for Oregon when federal agents raided marijuana farms that were legal under state law.

His rival, retired Court of Appeals judge Ellen Rosenblum, has staked out a mellower view, saying she'll make marijuana enforcement a low priority.

She's hammered Holton over the issue with the help of a political action committee that wants to legalize the drug.

"Mr. Holton is out of step with his own party on this issue," said Bob Wolfe, director of Citizens for Sensible Law Enforcement. "He's trying to climb the career ladder on the backs of medical marijuana patients, and I don't find that acceptable."

Wolfe's committee was fined last week for allegedly violating initiative laws while gathering signatures for a ballot measure to legalize marijuana. He disputes the allegation.

There are 55,000 registered medical marijuana users in Oregon, and countless others who smoke weed illegally.

Holton has established himself as a tough-on-crime supporter of law enforcement, and touts endorsements from most of Oregon's sheriffs and district attorneys. He's long complained that Oregon's lax marijuana regulations make it too easy to get a card and give traffickers cover to grow marijuana that ultimately ends up on the black market.

Oregon allows medical marijuana patients to grow their own pot or to designate someone to grow it for them. Unlike many other medical marijuana states, Oregon doesn't allow dispensaries that distribute weed.

"I would welcome a conversation about how to do this better, how to meet the will of the voters better," Holton said. "But I'll gladly enforce the law."

He slams Rosenblum for telling marijuana advocates she'll make pot enforcement a low priority.

The tough talk aside, Rosenblum, like Holton, sees deficiencies in the law. She described it as "an adolescent with growing pains." Rather than a train wreck, it's "a bumpy ride," she said, and the law could use a look at improving the way patients get access to their marijuana.

She said she can't recall if she voted for the 1998 ballot measure that legalized medical marijuana, or for a 2010 initiative funded by pro-marijuana groups that would have allowed marijuana dispensaries.

"We have a lot of pioneering laws in this state. And this is one of them," Rosenblum said, citing Oregon's first-in-the-nation assisted-suicide law and a bottle-recycling program that's been replicated globally.

Holton, 46, was a federal prosecutor for 15 years, first in Brooklyn before transferring to Portland in 2004 and, later, running the U.S. Attorney's Office for Oregon on an interim basis for nearly two years. Before becoming a lawyer, he worked on presidential campaigns — Michael Dukakis' in 1988 and Bill Clinton's in 1992 — and in the Clinton White House.

Holton's father, Linwood Holton, was a Republican governor of Virginia, elected in 1969, and his brother-in-law, Tim Kaine, is a former Democratic governor of Virginia and chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Rosenblum, 61, has emphasized her Oregon roots and portrayed Holton as an outsider, pointing out that he joined the Oregon State Bar just three years ago. She joined in 1975.

She was a federal prosecutor in Eugene and Portland for nine years before she was appointed a trial-court judge in 1989. She became an Oregon Court of Appeals judge in 2005 and stepped down from the bench earlier this year.

Follow AP writer Jonathan J. Cooper at http://twitter.com/jjcooper.

Struck teen speaks out about accident

Brooke Gagne was hit by a drunk driver last year

Updated: Monday, 30 Apr 2012, 6:51 AM EDT
Published : Sunday, 29 Apr 2012, 8:53 PM EDT

By Katy Fitzpatrick

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Fifteen year old Brooke Gagne is speaking out about her accident that left her with multiple injuries when a drunk driver struck her near her Riverside home.

49-year-old Susan Benedetti of East Providence was sentenced to a year in prison earlier this week followed by four years of home confinement after being convicted of multiple charges including drunk driving.

Benedetti's blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit when she hit Gagne last year.

Since the accident, Gagne has been trying to recover from the injuries she sustained including two broken legs, a brain injury, broken cheekbones, a broken nose and jawbone as well as broken wrists.

She also needs a walker to assist her with mobility and her leg is still in a brace.

Gagne was held back a year in school as a result of her injuries.

By Agency staff
Comments
30 Apr 2012 14:29

Crazy fuel: Former soldier jailed for deliberately crashing petrol tanker into estranged wife's bungalow

The Army veteran drove the lorry loaded with 2,000 litres of kerosene through the front of the bungalow causing £235,000 of damage

An Army veteran who crashed a petrol tanker into his estranged wife's home in an attempt to destroy it has been jailed for seven years.

Lorry driver Hugh Billington, 51, drove the seven-and-a-half tonne lorry loaded with 2,000 litres of kerosene through the front of the bungalow causing £235,000 of damage.

Christine Billington was in the kitchen when her husband mounted the pavement and crashed into the house.

She fled in terror and climbed over a wall into a neighbour's garden to escape the melee on the morning of January 20 this year.

As children with their parents walked past the bungalow on their way to school in Wool, Dorset, Billington attempted to raze the property to the ground by lighting kerosene he had poured around four rooms.

Billington, who had an "exemplary" record in nearly 25 years' service with the Household Regiment, then fled the scene.

Dorchester Crown Court heard that an off-duty special constable tried to arrest Billington while a hero passer-by risked his own life by driving the tanker away from the fire.

At an earlier hearing, Billington, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, assault by beating, dangerous driving and theft.

He denied the more serious charge of arson with intent to endanger life, a plea that was accepted by the Crown and ordered to lie on file.

At the time of the incident, Billington was on bail for an allegation of domestic violence against his wife and was the subject of restraining order.

Passing sentence Judge Roger Jarvis said several senior Army officers had spoken very highly of Billington's service and this made this case "more tragic".

"So far as these offences are concerned you were at the time on bail," he said.

"Your behaviour towards your wife had already come to the attention of the authorities.

"You took a tanker with 2,000 litres of kerosene and drove it towards your former matrimonial home.

"On driving it into the house kerosene was released.

"The valves were fortunately not fully open and if they had and the fire had caught properly it needs very little imagination to imagine what would happen - there would have been an enormous bomb.

"What concerns me is that it happened when people are walking to school and that is a deeply troubling feature and shows how wickedly irresponsible you were."

A fuel tanker was driven into a bungalow at Wool Dorset (Pic: PA)

As well as the jail term, Judge Jarvis banned Billington from driving for five years and imposed a restraining order banning him from direct contact with his wife indefinitely.

Prosecutor Jennie Rickman told the court that Billington and his wife had separated after 30 years and he would not accept the marriage was over.

He had moved out of their home the previous December and had been ordered by a court not to contact his wife or go to the marital home.

At 6.30am on the morning of the incident lorry driver Billington picked up the Watson Fuels tanker from his employer and drove to his former home in Folly Lane.

Mrs Billington, who is understood to run a dog-grooming business, was at home preparing to go to work when the tanker crashed through the bungalow at 8.45am.

Billington maintained that his wife had a routine and that she should have already left for work when he struck.

"Mrs Billington was in the kitchen and she heard and almighty crash as she entered the hall she saw the truck had gone through the front of the house and had made a hole in the wall," Miss Rickman said.

"As a result of that she went into the garden and over a wall into the neighbours' house and raised the alarm."

Billington had not expected his wife to be home and as he spread kerosene through the bungalow he checked she had fled.

Having also turned on the gas cooker, Billington then set light to the kerosene and ran off.

"After Mrs Billington ran out of the house Mr Billington started a number of fires," Miss Rickman said.

"From the basis of plea it is fair to say that the defendant knew Mrs Billington was not in the property."

Several witnesses had seen the unfolding incident and went to help, she explained.

Trevor Knott, an off-duty special constable, tried to apprehend Billington as he escaped on foot.

Mr Knott was unable to stop him as Billington assaulted him by kicking him.

Darren Fletcher, another witness, had also seen what Billington had done and he risked his own life by driving the fuel tanker out of immediate danger.

"It seems a fire was lit on the grass underneath the lorry and it was perhaps that which led him to get into the vehicle and reverse it back off the grass and on to the road," Miss Rickman said.

"Having done that he went to the house and tried to put the fires out but unfortunately the fire was too fierce."

About 30 firefighters tackled the blaze at the couple's bungalow, which suffered "significant" damage in the fire.

Three hours later police arrested Billington, who was wearing a boiler suit and a rugby shirt he had stolen from a washing line owned by Oliver Towers.

Upon his arrest he asked police: "Was anybody hurt?"

"Police attended his place of work found a note written by him which appeared to be written to his children," the prosecutor said.

The court heard that following the incident Mrs Billington has been left homeless with the fire destroying the bungalow and many of her possessions.

"She says she has been having nightmares and she has lost a lot of confidence," Miss Rickman said.

Timothy Shorter, defending, described Billington's "exemplary" military career and said that during the first Gulf War he worked as a medic treating injured servicemen arriving back at RAF Lyneham from Iraq.

"He is a man who for more than a quarter of a century served his country honourably," he said.

"But through one day's folly and stupidity he finds himself facing a substantial sentence of imprisonment.

"There are two words which perhaps sum up what happened to Mr Billington in those few hours immediately before the incident and they are his words: 'something snapped'.

"He is clearly a man who has served his country and clearly something snapped. During his lengthy prison sentence he has to find within himself why that happened.

"There is no doubt that Mr Billington is remorseful.

"He is someone who his whole life has been a leader of men and is someone that people looked up to.

"He knows what he did that day was thoroughly and ashamedly wrong and he knows it could have led to something worse.

"To put it bluntly he is very, very sorry for what happened that day."

Mr Shorter added: "Whatever this man did that day, which was wholly wrong, at least before he deliberately set the fires he had the common decency to check the house was empty."

As Judge Jarvis passed sentence he said it was only "good fortune" that the incident had not been more serious.

"It is in my view, that it is the most extremely good fortune that the incident was not more serious," the judge said.

"The impact upon Mrs Billington has been serious and profound and she had lost just about everything.

"I am told that you are full of remorse and so you should be. You have behaved in a very wicked way indeed.

"The offences are very serious offences indeed and if you had pleaded not guilty and had been found guilty I would have sentenced you into custody for 10 years.

"Having regard to your plea and what I have heard about you I sentence you to seven years' imprisonment."

The judge also praised the bravery of Mr Fletcher, who had reversed the tanker out of danger.

"Everybody needs to pay tribute to the actions of Darren Fletcher who must have realised there was some real risk to himself," he said.

"These are the actions of a very brave person."

Balding Billington, who was wearing a grey suit, white shirt and claret tie, showed no emotion as he was led away to start his sentence.

Mrs Billington did not wish to comment as she left court.

Debbie Wilson's Family Brain Injury Blog

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