N O T I C E

^{FREE TO ACTIVE DUTY FREE TO ALL VETERANS}

ALL ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY, ALL

VETERANS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Southwest Arizona Stand Down is back for it’s 3^RD annual event in Yuma. This year we’ll be providing all these free services: Hot meals, hot showers, fresh clean clothing, shoes, Medical, Dental, Hearing and Optical Clinics,VA Reps, DES Reps, Legal Assistance, Family Assistance, Job Opportunities, blankets, backpacks, BDU’s, care kits, women’s needs, haircuts, child and pet care, live entertainment and most of all, the camaraderie and family atmosphere that South West Arizona Stand Down is known for. We’ll be adding a few goodies this year like drawings for bicycles, tarps, bungees, folding chairs, cell phones and calling cards, sleeping bags, portable stoves, battery operated shavers & radios, etc…

FRIDAY LIVE ON STAGE SATURDAY

DJ EDDIE LINDA CLATONE

TOMMY & THE DRIFTERS DJ EDDIE

TOD HOWARTH (CHEAP TRICK) PAUL STEFAN

HIWAY 61 LEAVIN’ RUSTON

MARK GOEFFNEY & BIG TOE SLICK NICKEL

Also appearing: US Congressman Raul Grijalva, Senator Amanda Aguirre, Representatives Lynne Pancrazi and Teresa Ulmer, Mayor Larry Nelson, veterans of all eras, and Stand Down’s successful alumni

FREE TO ALL ACTIVE DUTY PERSONNEL AND ALL VETERANS

Come join your brothers and sisters. Take advantage of these free opportunities to make life a little easier. Work with caring people who want you to feel at home, and be part of this annual event that’s become so much a part of our community. We provide free transportation to and from the event, so check out Yuma’s own, Z93 for more information.

SOUTH WEST ARIZONA STAND DOWN 2008

14, 15, 16 MARCH 2008

Desert Sun Stadium

YUMA, ARIZONA

REMEMBER, WE’RE HERE FOR YOU, AND NOTHING HAS A PRICE AT STAND DOWN. IT’S JUST ABOUT VETS HELPING OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, SO COME ON DOWN AND TAKE FEW DAYS OFF AT OUR PLACE

SOUTH WEST ARIZONA STAND DOWN IS A CLEAN, SOBER AND WEAPONS-FREE EVENT PROVIDING FOR THE NEEDS OF ALL ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY PERSONNEL AND ALL VETERANS.

(928) 503-0552, 24/7

February 17th, 2008 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments

Low-Income Families will Pay no Tuition

Manuelita Ybarra, P.A.
U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau
1111 Third Avenue, Suite 925
Seattle, WA  98101-3212
Ph: (206) 553-1534 x 8501
Fax: (206) 553-5085
ybarra.manuelita@dol.gov
www.dol.gov/wb/
____________________________________________________
Harvard University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard’s president Lawrence H. Summers said, ‘When only 10 percent of the students in Elite higher education come from families in lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution.’ If you know of a family earning less than $60,000 a year with an honor student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to pay the tuition. The prestigious university recently announced that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to Harvard for free…no tu ition and no student loans! To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year visit Harvard’s financial aid website at: http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/ or call the school’s financial aid office at (617) 495-1581

January 30th, 2008 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments

Women that Served in Vietnam

Hi! My name is Brenda Meadows. I was an entertainer in Vietnam, 1968-69. The
group I toured the Nam with for six months was called “The Sho-Lettes.” We
were 18-19 years old at the time.

I later joined the Army as a Psych Tech. I was later a member of The
California Army National Guard.

I have since done many things, and most of them because of the training I
received in the military.

I now reside in Branson, MO where Vets are honored. I have joined the group
of women veterans that preserve the great contribution all women have made
as military personnel. In May (19-24, 2008) we will host the fourth Women
Veteran’s Week.

I am looking for women that served in Vietnam and some of the nurses I had
the pleasure to meet while filming an episode of China Beach, the TV series
(the episode was titled “Vets”).

Among them was Diane Carlson Evans, whom I am sure you are familiar with.
Please help this great Womens’ Veterans Task Force localte nurses, enlited
and other former American service personnel members. We are also looking to
host a keynote speaker for the event. Connie Stevens will be our guest
celebrity.

Thank you so much!

Brenda Owen Meadows
(417) 334-8991

(916) 307-8913

January 30th, 2008 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments

Her toughest battle

Her toughest battle

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer Albayny NY Times Union
First published: Thursday, January 17, 2008

 http://timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?storyID=655899&newsdate=1/21/2008&BCCode=MBTA

Tanya Towne says she lost everything in Iraq, starting with physical custody of her first child.

Before Towne’s 2004 deployment, a Montgomery County Family Court judge gave her son, Derrell Diffin, to her first husband because she was being sent to war. This month, Towne lost an appeal to get Derrell back.
The decision has devastated Towne, a specialist and radio repairer with the New York Army National Guard’s Rainbow Division in Troy. It’s also put her at the center of a legal battle that at least one lawyer who assists service personnel says will force future troops to choose between their families and service to the country.
“This decision marks a serious attack on our national security and the civil rights of military members,” said Gregory Rinckey, who defended military personnel as a captain in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and now practices military and family law in Colonie. “Soldiers fighting in Iraq should not be burdened with worry that their children will be taken away because of their service.”
Yet that’s exactly what happened to Towne, who even the Appellate Division acknowledged in its ruling would likely have retained control of Derrell had it not been for her 18-month activation.
There’s a growing national trend in which U.S. soldiers say they are losing custody of their children in family courts just because of their absences while on active military duty, according to the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank. On many occasions, courts — looking to establish a stable environment for the child — have said it’s in the best interest of children not to be moved again, especially if there’s a chance the parent in the military could be deployed again.
Towne’s deployment to Tikrit, Iraq, strained her marriage to her second husband, Jason Towne, so much that they separated about two years ago, she said. Broke from legal bills, Tanya Towne works full time as a materials handler at Watervliet Arsenal. She lives with her brother and her second son, 4-year-old Darren Towne, in an apartment in Canajoharie.
“Honestly, I don’t even look back at my time in Iraq,” Tanya Towne said Tuesday in an emotional interview. “I look back and realize how much I lost because of Iraq. My time over there was easy compared to what I went through when I got home.”
But her first husband, Richard Diffin Jr., said New York courts correctly served Derrell’s needs. He met Towne at a base in Georgia while serving in the Army.
“They based it on our stability now, and where she is at this point in time,” Diffin said in an interview from Virginia, where he and Derrell live. “It’s not about the deployment, but because of the situation she’s in in her personal life.”
Towne, who lived most of her life in Johnstown, married Diffin in 1993 and moved with him to an Army base in Germany, where Derrell was born. She and Derrell returned to New York together after the couple broke up after about five years of marriage.
Towne and Diffin shared joint legal custody of the boy, but she had physical custody and raised Derrell until he was 8.
In April 2004, Diffin petitioned for custody of Derrell after learning that Towne was being activated for training for Iraq that May, court papers say. Towne had sought to have Derrell stay with her second husband while she was gone. But a Montgomery County Family Court issued a temporary order placing Derrell with his biological father.
Towne trained seven months at Fort Drum before deploying to a base in Tikrit, where she served on convoy missions and supply runs and did guard detail. She tried to regain physical custody of Derrell when she returned from overseas duty in November 2005. But following a trial with testimony from both sides, Family Court Judge Philip Cortese granted custody to Diffin with visitation rights for Towne, court papers show.
She appealed the decision.
In its ruling on Jan. 3, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruled that uprooting the 12-year-old would not serve his best interests.
The appellate court says that Derrell had no preference as to where to live and the court called both Towne and Diffin “excellent parents.”
The court ruled that Towne’s deployment, subsequent separation and move from the Towne family home represented “a significant change” in circumstances, and that remaining with Diffin would best provide stability.
“This is not an anti-military decision, not an anti-woman’s decision,” Diffin’s attorney, Robert Cohen of Ballston Lake, said. “Through no fault of her own, she left her son.”
But Rinckey, the military attorney, says the decision greatly decreases support for military families and undermines the rights of parents in the reserves.
Towne expects to be honorably discharged in the next year due to a back injury. She doesn’t know what the future holds.
She said she will appeal the decision because she wants to live with Derrell again. “I miss his energy, his smile, and he’s a snuggle boy,” Towne said as a tear rolled down her cheek. “He’s a very lovable child.”
Yusko can be reached at 581-8438 or by e-mail at dyusko@timesunion.com.
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January 30th, 2008 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments

Lawyers Representing Military Personnel

Greetings:

You’ve probably seen this or know of specific examples sadly… This is a huge disgrace…  FYI.

Hope everyone is well and blessed with good food, laughter and love tomorrow (and maybe some good football.. )

I’m writing you who work with veterans with a special request:

I met this afternoon with two attorneys working on a legal training (CLE) for lawyers, to encourage them to represent trrops and veterans of the Iraq war…  You can find ithe “Lawyers and Warriors” event on the state bar association website I think (www.wsba.org) under “Sections”- the World Peace Through Law Section in cooperation with the Lawyers Representing Military Personnel  (LAMP) Section of the bar.  The event is December 27th at the bar association offices (where I now work.. but I’ll be in Calif. then and unable to attend unfortunately).

Their panelists/speakers include a few people you may know (Michael with GI Hotline, Sgt. Jean Sheridan?  other names that I can’t recall specifically but have notes in my file).  They are finalizing the topic areas for the panels and welcome input on what the common legal problems are that returning troops are facing.  I gave them the names of two suggested speakers who were part of the CLE organized by our wonderful board member with King County Washington Women Lawyers.

Also, my task is to locate a wounded warrior, a veteran or active duty soldier who is willing to share for 5-10 minutes in the beginning of the program what their experience has been and how a veteran like him or her could use the pro bono or reduced rate services of an attorney… and to identify perhaps with personal testimonial the legal issues they’ve had to face… putting a personal face to these issues that they will be receiving training to provide pro bono volunteer time down the road… to talk about maybe a fight for disability benefits, their job, housing or credit debt issues, family law matters, etc.

Any thoughts?  Please see if you can help me identify such a person within the next week.  The training, “Lawyers and Warriors” is expecting to have 70 attorneys present.  Lawyers are often seeking the CLE credits that you have to earn each year, and December events (particularly low cost like this one at $25) are very popular.  On the short term approach, a thought bantered around today was to hold a Phase II session in January with the ‘trained up’ attorneys providing a “Legal Rights Workshop” - not specific legal representation or consults (will take a little time to get that long term plan, pro bono clinic structure properly set, malpractice insurance in place, a screener to set up the appointments, a host identified for the clinic, a funding stream to keep it going, etc… but I don’t want this to be a project that takes years to set up.. but should be up and going by March at the latest.. that’s my hope… we have a good foundation started including 4 or 5 civil and criminal law agencies who have been talking together for some months about setting up a clinic (but they told me today that  my little core committee is apparently further along in thinking than they are but they have all the players who see people in their doors right now, especially in their Pierce County offices), NW Justice Project, Columbia Legal Services, Public Defender agencies, etc….I’m meeting with them in early December)

So, here is the message of hope:  love conquers hate, good prevails over evil, and people committed to doing a good thing for the right cause will succeed!  It’s not an easy climb, but I always pray that God gives me stronger legs and enough endurance to make it to the mountaintop:)

Blessings,-  and thanks!

Moni
206-915-8138

—–Original Message—–
From: rrmiller101@comcast.net
Bcc: moniesq@aol.com
Sent: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 6:22 am
Subject: FW: [wa-vets] Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse . . .

This is just crazy and we need to put a stop to it now!!!!!!!

————– Forwarded Message: ————–
From: frank & Nancy Logan <logans@javacs.com>
To: Veterans and Military Families Caucus <wa-vets@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [wa-vets] Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse . . .
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:46:57 +0000
As seen on Keith Olbermann tonight, the military wants wounded vets to refund enlistment bonuses since they didn’t finish their term of service. Someone’s going to be counting caribou in Alaska without winter clothing when all is said and done about this one. Read it:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004754.php

Nicely timed for Thanksgiving. This is how the Bush administration thanks vets!

My thanks to you are sincere; happy Thanksgiving to all you Veterans and Military Families Caucus members. Thank you for being there, thank you for your support.

Frank

January 30th, 2008 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments

(CLE) for lawyers, to encourage them to represent trrops and veterans of the Iraq war

I met this afternoon with two attorneys working on a legal training (CLE) for lawyers, to encourage them to represent trrops and veterans of the Iraq war… You can find ithe “Lawyers and Warriors” event on the state bar association website I think (www.wsba.org) under “Sections”- the World Peace Through Law Section in cooperation with the Lawyers Representing Military Personnel (LAMP) Section of the bar. The event is December 27th at the bar association offices (where I now work.. but I’ll be in Calif. then and unable to attend unfortunately).

Their panelists/speakers include a few people you may know (Michael with GI Hotline, Sgt. Jean Sheridan? other names that I can’t recall specifically but have notes in my file). They are finalizing the topic areas for the panels and welcome input on what the common legal problems are that returning troops are facing. I gave them the names of two suggested speakers who were part of the CLE organized by our wonderful board member with King County Washington Women Lawyers.

Also, my task is to locate a wounded warrior, a veteran or active duty soldier who is willing to share for 5-10 minutes in the beginning of the program what their experience has been and how a veteran like him or her could use the pro bono or reduced rate services of an attorney… and to identify perhaps with personal testimonial the legal issues they’ve had to face… putting a personal face to these issues that they will be receiving training to provide pro bono volunteer time down the road… to talk about maybe a fight for disability benefits, their job, housing or credit debt issues, family law matters, etc.

Any thoughts? Please see if you can help me identify such a person within the next week. The training, “Lawyers and Warriors” is expecting to have 70 attorneys present. Lawyers are often seeking the CLE credits that you have to earn each year, and December events (particularly low cost like this one at $25) are very popular. On the short term approach, a thought bantered around today was to hold a Phase II session in January with the ‘trained up’ attorneys providing a “Legal Rights Workshop” - not specific legal representation or consults (will take a little time to get that long term plan, pro bono clinic structure properly set, malpractice insurance in place, a screener to set up the appointments, a host identified for the clinic, a funding stream to keep it going, etc… but I don’t want this to be a project that takes years to set up.. but should be up and going by March at the latest.. that’s my hope… we have a good foundation started including 4 or 5 civil and criminal law agencies who have been talking together for some months about setting up a clinic (but they told me today that my little core committee is apparently further along in thinking than they are but they have all the players who see people in their doors right now, especially in their Pierce County offices), NW Justice Project, Columbia Legal Services, Public Defender agencies, etc….I’m meeting with them in early December)

So, here is the message of hope: love conquers hate, good prevails over evil, and people committed to doing a good thing for the right cause will succeed! It’s not an easy climb, but I always pray that God gives me stronger legs and enough endurance to make it to the mountaintop:)

November 28th, 2007 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments

Lawyers step up to help veterans gratis

November 27th, 2007 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments

Lawyers step up to help veterans gratis

Lawyers step up to help veterans gratis

Updated 19h 48m ago | Comments46 | Recommend8

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 Enlarge By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY Bart Stichman, an attorney at the National Veterans Legal Services Program, was instrumental in getting lawyers from around the country to provide legal services to veterans for free.  CLAIMS PROCESS CAN DRAG ON Veterans’ disability requests average 177 days to process but it can take years if claims are rejected and appealed. The disability claim’s process at a glance: 1) A veteran applies for disability benefits at one of 57 regional Veterans Affairs offices. At best, this process takes 30 days, but that time can stretch into years if additional documentation is needed to link the disability with a service-related event. 2) If the veteran’s claim is rejected, he or she can formally disagree and ask the regional office to reinvestigate the claim. This process can take 30 days to several years. After the VA issues a formal Statement of the Case, a rejected claim can be appealed to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals in Washington, D.C. This step can take more than a year. 3) If the veteran’s claim is rejected by the appeals board, it can be contested further in court. The process in each court, listed in order of escalation, can take six months to several years: • U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit • U.S. Supreme Court Sources: National Veterans Legal Services Program and Veterans Affairs Department  APPEALS GET SECOND LOOK More than half of the disability cases decided by the 57 regional offices of the Department of Veterans Afairs are reversed or returned for reconsideration upon appeal. In fiscal 2007, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals heard 40,401 cases. Of those, 22,817 or 56% were overturned or sent back to regional offices. Status of appealed cases at the 10 largest regional VA offices: City Reversed{+1} Sent back{+2} Total{+3} Atlanta 23% 40% 63% St. Petersburg, Fla. 26% 37% 63% Little Rock 22% 39% 61% New York 22% 38% 60% Nashville 23% 37% 60% Montgomery, Ala. 20% 38% 58% Winston-Salem, N.C. 23% 34% 57% Houston 18% 36% 54% Waco, Texas 19% 33% 52% St. Louis 18% 33% 51% National average 21% 35% 56% 1 - Claim granted by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals after being rejected by the regional office. 2 - Claim sent back to the regional office for further review. 3 - Total percentage of claims reversed or sent back. Source: National Veterans Legal Services Program analysis of Board of Veterans’ Appeals figures for fiscal year 2007

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By Laura Parker, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The scene resembled Hollywood’s version of how a multibillion-dollar legal deal might be negotiated. Big-name corporate law firm. Posh conference room, with a conference table so large 70 attorneys fit easily around it. Video technicians, hovering nearby, beam the meeting to other big law firms from Boston to Seattle.

Yet there was no deal to cut. Instead, the high-powered lawyers were getting a tutorial in the arcane vagaries of veterans law.

“This could be the VA’s worst nightmare,” Bart Stichman, one of the organizers, enthused from the podium. “Hundreds of attorneys from around the country providing legal service to veterans for free.”

The recent gathering at Sidley Austin, a firm with 1,700 lawyers around the globe, is part of a growing effort to provide free legal help to thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are trying to win disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“There are 100,000 veterans seeking benefits, and too many of them are waiting too long to get them,” says Ron Abrams, who, with Stichman, directs the National Veterans Legal Services Program, a non-profit group in Washington spearheading the effort. “These lawyers are going to treat these veterans the way they would treat their corporate clients.”

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Va | Lawyers | Department of Veterans Affairs | Vietnam veterans | American Legion | Bart | Veterans of Foreign Wars | Legion | Legal Services

The approach marks the first time since the Civil War that attorneys have been recruited in large numbers to represent veterans. The lawyers hope their legal expertise will speed consideration of claims and result in better benefits for veterans, Stichman says. More than 50 of the largest law firms in the USA and more than 400 attorneys have signed up. Stichman and Abrams hope to start assigning veterans to the attorneys early next month.

Law schools join cause

Amanda Smith, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based firm Morgan Lewis, says many of the participating lawyers are Vietnam veterans and “are appalled at the circumstances that they find veterans in today.”

Besides the push by big law firms, law schools in states such as the Carolinas, Virginia, Delaware, Michigan and Illinois also are offering free services to veterans.

Craig Kabatchnick, who worked as a VA appellate attorney from 1990 until 1995, launched a clinic last January for veterans at North Carolina Central University’s law school, where he now teaches.

“We had all kinds of veterans who were very disabled, litigating against trained attorneys like myself who were defending the VA,” Kabatchnick says. The VA would “win” if the claim was denied, Kabatchnick says. “Did we litigate to win? Absolutely. In cases where the veteran was representing himself, the win ratio was very high.”

Paul Hutter, the VA’s general counsel, says its attorneys have “an ethical obligation to fairly and justly” review claims and settle “meritorious cases quickly.”

“Our job is to ensure that veterans get the benefits allowed them by law,” he says in an e-mail.

Disability claims have increased from 578,773 in fiscal 2000 to 838,141 this year, according to VA figures. There are about 407,000 pending. The average processing time is 177 days, the VA says.

Change in law lifted restrictions

Traditionally, veterans have represented themselves or sought assistance from a service organization, such as the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But many of the caseworkers in those groups are overloaded with cases, Stichman says, and sometimes one volunteer oversees 1,000 veterans’ claims.

The approach has not led to quick compensation for veterans. Evidence supporting a veteran’s claim — medical records or letters from colleagues — is not always submitted with the original claim. When that evidence is added later, it can lead to reversals or requests for reconsideration. That can add more than a year to the appeals process, the VA says.

The Board of Veterans Appeals either reverses or orders reconsideration of decisions made by VA regional offices 56% of the time, according to an analysis of VA figures by Stichman’s group. Congress has long kept attorneys at arms-length from the veterans’ disability process. Until last June, when federal law changed, paid attorneys could not work on cases until after a final decision by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. The VA is now considering regulations that would require all attorneys to pass a test in order to qualify to handle veterans’ claims, according to Phil Budahn, a department spokesman.

Service organizations, including the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars, vigorously fought the change in law. They are now pushing to repeal the law and support requiring a test, arguing that lawyers could turn what is supposed to be a non-adversarial process into a litigious one.

“The fear was lawyers will dominate, and they’ll ruin everything,” says Thomas Reed, a law professor at Widener University in Wilmington, Del., who began offering free legal services to veterans in 1997.

Lawyers not the cure-all

Joe Violante, national legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans, which represents 1.3 million veterans, says trained volunteers from the service organizations are far more experienced at representing veterans’ claims than the newly recruited lawyers.

“If the veteran is under the impression that an attorney is going to get their claim through faster, there’s no proof of that,” he says.

Ron Flagg, a Sidley attorney involved in the pro bono veterans’ project, says there are so many claims that the system is overwhelmed.

“Lawyers are not the cure to all ills,” he says. “But this is a problem where lawyers can be helpful.”

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November 27th, 2007 Posted by asstdirector | Uncategorized | no comments