V.A. Watchdog Says Delays Affected Care in Phoenix Hospital

The inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs reported on Wednesday that at least 1,700 veterans at the agency’s medical center in Phoenix were not registered on the proper waiting list to see doctors, creating a serious condition that means veterans “continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost” in the convoluted scheduling process.

All the while, the hospital falsely reported waiting times that suggested delays were minimal, the report said.

The report prompted several leading Republicans, including Senator John McCain of Arizona, to call for the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric Shinseki, to step down.

“While our work is not complete, we have substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality of care at this medical facility,” Richard J. Griffin, the acting inspector general for the department, said in an interim report on his investigation into the Phoenix medical center.

Irregularities in how the ,700 veterans were handled, the report said, mean that “these veterans may never obtain a requested or required clinical appointment.” Mr. Shinkseki, who earlier this month put top administrators in Phoenix on leave, called the findings of the interim report "reprehensible” and promised to take immediate action.

read more >>>

Read more »

Senate Democrats Turn Focus to Local Issues for Midterms

WASHINGTON — In Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s first television ad of her re-election campaign, a Vietnam War veteran talks about how Ms. Shaheen, a Democrat, “cut through the red tape” to help open a veterans clinic in Keene, N.H.

“Jeanne Shaheen,” concludes the veteran, in a thick New England accent, “gets the job done for New Hampshire.”

A commercial for another Democratic senator, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, features a Republican shipbuilder from Lockport, La., talking about how the state cannot afford to lose Ms. Landrieu. “She’s chairman of the Energy Committee, the most powerful position a person can have for Louisiana,” the builder says.

And Senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat from Arkansas — where 57 percent of those who voted in the 2010 Senate race were white evangelical or born-again Christians — ran an ad that opens with him holding the Bible as he says, “I’m not ashamed to say that I believe in God, and I believe in his word.”

If Republicans are trying to nationalize the 2014 midterms, tying Democrats to President Obama and his signature health care law, Democrats considered vulnerable are countering by going local, doubling down on state-specific issues that are more typically the province of Republicans. Facing a hostile national climate — with Mr. Obama’s approval rating stalled below 50 percent, and that of Congress barely in double digits — Democrats say they believe their path to victory hinges on a series of individual contests rather than a referendum on the president and his policies.

Photo

An ad for Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.

read more >>>

Read more »

Obama Offers a Muscular, but Not Militaristic, Foreign Policy

WEST POINT, N.Y. — President Obama on Wednesday tried to regain his statesman’s mantle, telling graduating cadets here that the nation they were being commissioned to serve would still lead the world and would not stumble into military misadventures overseas.

Speaking under leaden, chilly skies, Mr. Obama delivered the commencement address at the United States Military Academy.

“America must always lead on the world stage,” he said. “But U.S. military action cannot be the only – or even primary – component of our leadership in every instance. Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

Under pressure from critics who say the United States has been rudderless amid a cascade of crises, the president said that those who “suggest that America is in decline, or has seen its global leadership slip away – are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics.”

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

• 
  

  video

  Video: Obama on Combating Climate ChangeMAY 28, 2014

• Transcript of President Obama’s Commencement Address at West PointMAY 28, 2014

• Highlights of the West Point SpeechMAY 28, 2014

• 
  

  U.S. Troops to Leave Afghanistan by End of 2016MAY 27, 2014

• Reaction to President Obama’s West Point SpeechMAY 28, 2014

A day after announcing that the last American soldier would leave Afghanistan at the end of 2016, the president told this latest class of Army officers that the United States faced a new, more diffuse threat in an arc of militancy stretching from the Middle East to the African Sahel.

read more >>

Read more »

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM SCAM AND FRAUD

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM SCAM AND FRAUD

1.         Always keep the land deed safe. In case of document lost, immediate informing to the police is recommended.

2.         Avoid making the loan agreement and take the land deed as collateral without a lawyer because such land deed may be a counterfeit or illegally obtained. Even the land deed is real and legal, the owner may inform the police that it is lost and issue a new one.

3.         If not keep it with yourself, only entrust the land deed with someone you can trust.

4.         Avoid signing any blank document especially a power of attorney.

5.         Before purchasing, accepting a mortgage or a sell with the right to redemption, self-check the location of the land and check the ownership of the land at the local land office. If possible, a prior survey of the land by the expert is recommended.

6.         Recheck your own land at the land office at least once a year whether you have any transaction concerning such land or not.

7.         Every transaction concerning the land must be registered at the land office. In case of purchasing, the land must be immediately transferred if the cost of the land is fully paid.

8.         Avoid making the contract with installment payment more than 2 times. In case you are unable to avoid such, please contact us. We have methods that can protect you but we cannot publicize such methods.

9.         Avoid purchasing the land that has its registration changed frequently. In case you are unable to avoid such, checking the status of the land and its owner more thoroughly by the expert is recommended. (Purchasing the land from the owner who has held the title of such land continuously for more than 5 years does not need to pay for the special business tax at a rate of 3.3% except that such owner is the juristic person.)

Read more »

WHO ARE LABOR INSPECTORS AND WHAT IS THEIR POWER?

Labor  Inspectors  are  government  officials  with  the  authority  to  inspect  and  to  take  care  of  the  labor  matter  in  accordance  with  the  Law.  They  are  appointed  by  the  Labor  Minister.  They  are  empowered  to:

1.  enter  any  business  enterprise  or  office  of  the  employer  and  the  work  place  of  employees  for  inspection  including  the  power  to  inspect  books  of  accounts  and  records  and  take  photo  copies  thereof;

2.  summon  any  person  for  inquiries;

3.  order  in  writing  the  either  the  employer  or  employees  to  comply  with  the  Law.

4.  They  have  to  show  their  official  ID  cards  in  performing  the  above  duties  to  the  persons  concerned  who  will  have  to  accord  them  with  every  facility  in  performance  of  their  duties.

.  Inspector’s  Companion

                In  performing  the  duty  of  a  labor  inspector,  the  Director – General  or  his  assignee  may  provide  the  inspector  with  a  doctor  or  a  social  welfare  official  or  an  expert,  to  accompany  the  inspector  into  any  work  place  to  give  him  opinions  or  assist  him  in  performing  his  duty.

.  Service  of  document

                The  service  of  an  official  order  or  a  document  may  be  made  in  either  of  the  two  the  following  ways,  namely.

1.  By  registered  mail  with  returned  receipt;  or

2.  By  hand,  with  which  the  inspector  may  do  it  by  himself  or  by  an  official  having  the  duty  to  serve  such  a  document  at  the  domicile  or  living  place  of  the  receiver  on  the  person  himself  or  any  other  person  sui  juris  being  in  that  place.  In  the  case  of  such  other  person  receiving  the  document,  the  service  shall  be  effective  after  15  days  from  the  date  of  service.

By  huahin   Business   lawyer

www.k-huahinlawyer.com

Read more »