On Sept. 15, we are going to make history with the first-ever virtual march for disabled veterans. And we hope you will take part.
You won’t need to travel to participate. You won’t need to spend any money to have your voice heard. You don’t even have to be online the day of the march, so no need to check your calendar. The DAV is working to ensure this will be the easiest and most convenient way ever to stand up for veterans.
With this march, you will support those who came back from war missing a limb, paralyzed, unable to see, terribly sick or otherwise disabled. They put their country – our country – before themselves. They gave so much, and now they need you to stand up for them.
There are many issues facing veterans today. The march will highlight those issues and what needs to be done to better the lives of veterans and their families. Together, we will generate greater public awareness and support for strengthening federal policies that provide health care assistance to disabled veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those from prior eras and conflicts.
Please take a moment to show your support for disabled veterans by joining the march today. Simply enter your e-mail address at the top of this page. We will also need your ZIP code so we can let lawmakers know which regions have constituents who care about the plight of veterans and their families. We will not share your email address with or sell it to anyone, nor will we use it to solict donations.
On the day of the march, there will be video messages from veterans, family members, veterans’ advocates, lawmakers and a few surprises. There will be opportunities to chat with those leading efforts to better the lives of veterans. And there will be easy-to-use tools for you to directly contact your representatives in Washington, D.C. If you cannot visit the site the day of the march, don’t worry; it will all remain online.
Lastly, after you sign up, please help encourage others to do the same. Post links on your social networks, send e-mails, blog about it, and tell everyone you know. We need to stand up together as a nation and let our voices be heard loud and in unison.
Those who have put their lives on the line for freedom are depending on you.
The 1.2 million-member Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is a non-profit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932. DAV is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation’s disabled veterans and their families.
Please take a moment to show your support for disabled veterans by joining the march today.
Simply enter your name, e-mail address and ZIP code on this page.
We need your ZIP code so we can let lawmakers know which regions have constituents who care about the plight of veterans and their families.
We will not share your e-mail address with or sell it to anyone, nor will we use it to solicit donations. We will send you a reminder e-mail just before the march.
Please make sure to enter all required data.
Registration be there in spirit and mind for your brothers and sisters they need ALL of us......
Friday, September 4, 2009
Register for the Virtual March on Washington for Veterans!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
This fraud attempt has been around for several years
This fraud attempt has been around for several years
http://www.va.gov/hac/forbeneficiaries/forbeneficiaries.asp
Fraud Alert!
The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported that the "Patient Care Group" is conducting a scam operation against veterans who receive VA prescriptions. Callers claiming to be representatives of this group tell veterans that their prescriptions are being administered by the company. They then ask for credit card information so that the veterans can continue to receive their medications. VA officials said that the department has made no change to its prescription system, and that veterans should not provide any information to callers from this group.
Veterans with questions about VA services should contact the nearest VA medical center or call, toll-free, 1-877-222-8387.
From: On Behalf Of Zeta MS bazzano
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 8:59 PM
To: VeteranIssues-owner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: CREDIT CARD SAMS FOR VETERANS
Hello Colonel Dan,
I just got this is my email and was hoping you could clairfy this for me?
This is going around on the internet, is this true?
Zee
Subj: VA Scam
While at the Vista VA Clinic on 28 Aug 09, VA staff were handing out flyers warning of a VA Scam. Here is the content of the warning flyer:
Veterans are reporting that they are receiving calls from people claiming to be from the VA Pharmacy. The callers are telling veterans that the billing procedure for prescriptions has changed, and that the veteran needs to provide his/her credit card number for prescription payment before Pharmacy will fill their medication requests.
Please alert your veterans that this is a scam! All billing for any V A treatment and/or prescriptions is done through the MCCR Section of the V A. If the veteran wishes to pay his/her account by credit card, the veteran must provide the credit card number to our Agent Cashier. Our Agent Cashier is the only V A employee authorized to accept credit card payments. Thank you.
Monday, August 31, 2009
VA's Suicide Prevention Program Adds Chat Service
VA's Suicide Prevention Program Adds Chat Service
New Service Expands Online Access for Veterans
WASHINGTON (August 31, 2009) - The Suicide Prevention campaign of the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expanding its outreach to all
Veterans by piloting an online, one-to-one "chat service" for Veterans
who prefer reaching out for assistance using the Internet.
Called "Veterans Chat," the new service enables Veterans, their families
and friends to go online where they can anonymously chat with a trained
VA counselor. If a "chatter" is determined to be in a crisis, the
counselor can take immediate steps to transfer the person to the VA
Suicide Prevention Hotline, where further counseling and referral
services are provided and crisis intervention steps can be taken.
"This online feature is intended to reach out to all Veterans who may or
may not be enrolled in the VA health care system and provide them with
online access to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline," said Dr. Gerald
Cross, VA's Acting Under Secretary for Health. "It is meant to provide
Veterans with an anonymous way to access VA's suicide prevention
services."
Veterans, family members or friends can access Veterans Chat through the
suicide prevention Web site (www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
on the left-hand side of the website that will take them directly to
Veteran resource information. On this page, they can see the Hotline
number (1-800-273-TALK), and click on the Veterans Chat tab on the right
side of the Web page to enter.
Veterans retain anonymity by entering whatever names they choose once
they enter the one-on-one chat. They are then joined by a counselor who
is trained to provide information and respond to the requests and
concerns of the caller.
If the counselor decides the caller is in a crisis, the counselor will
encourage the Veteran to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline, where a
trained suicide prevention counselor will determine whether crisis
intervention techniques are required.
The pilot program, which has been in operation since July 3, has already
had positive results. In one instance, the online counselor determined
that a Veteran in the chat required immediate assistance. The counselor
convinced the Veteran to provide the counselor with a home telephone
number and then remained in the chat room with the Veteran while the
hotline staff called the number and talked to the Veteran's mother. The
hotline counselor worked with the Veteran's mother to convince the
Veteran to be admitted to a medical facility for further treatment.
"The chat line is not intended to be a crisis response line," said Dr.
Janet Kemp, VA's National Suicide Prevention Coordinator at the VA
medical center in Canandaigua, N.Y., where VA's trained counselors staff
the chat line 24 hours a day, seven days a week. VA's suicide
prevention hotline is also staffed continuously.
"Chat responders are trained in an intervention method specifically
developed for the chat line to assist people with emotional distress and
concerns," Kemp said. "We have procedures they can use to transfer
chatters in crisis to the hotline for more immediate assistance."
Both Veterans Chat and the VA's Suicide Prevention Hotline have been
established under the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which was
established through collaboration between VA and the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the Department of
Health and Human Services.
Since becoming operational in July 2007, VA's Suicide Prevention Hotline
has received more than 150,000 calls, resulting in 4,000 rescues.
Gulf War Syndrome Researchers Blame Sarin Gas and Toxic Exposures
Gulf War Syndrome Researchers Blame Sarin Gas and Toxic Exposures
Lourdes Salvador August 26, 2009Toomey and colleagues, researchers at the Boston Veterans Administration Healthcare System, confirmed that Gulf War deployment is associated with subtle declines of motor speed and sustained attention as influenced by exposure to toxicants during deployment.
Toomey found that exposure to sarin gas released during the Khamisiyah destruction is correlated with long-term reduced motor speed in veterans that has not resolved after 10 years. Self-reported exposure to these toxicants is also significantly associated with attention deficits.
Ten years after the war, deployed veterans are still in poor health and perform significantly worse on cognitive tests than non-deployed veterans. Gulf War veterans complaints include:
Poor cognition.
Slowed motor function.
Memory Loss
Chronic Fatigue
Skin Rash
Hair Loss
Headache
Muscle pain
Gastrointestinal Disorders
Cardiovascular Changes
Chemical Sensitivity
These health alterations point to potential long-term, permanent impairment from toxicant exposure.
The symptoms of Gulf War veterans are analogous to a group of multi-system illnesses increasingly seen in the general population, notably: multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and fibromyalgia (FM). These illnesses all share a common pattern of initiation and, thus, they may share a common etiology (cause) in long-term, permanent impairment from toxic exposure.
Reference
Toomey R, Alpern R, Vasterling JJ, Baker DG, Reda DJ, Lyons MJ, Henderson WG, Kang HK, Eisen SA, Murphy FM. Neuropsychological functioning of U.S. Gulf War veterans 10 years after the war. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2009 Jul 29:1-13. [Epub ahead of print] Print Email
Your Name
Recipient's Name
Recipient's Email
Lourdes Salvador
Lourdes Salvador is the founder of MCS America, a science writer, and a social advocate for the greater awareness of environmental contamination, human toxicology, and propagation of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) as a disorder of organic biological origin induced by toxic environmental insults.
The mission of MCS America (MCSA) is:
1. To propagate medical, legal, and social recognition for multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) as a disorder of organic biological origin induced by toxic environmental insults.
2. To provide support and referral services to the individuals with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), electrosensitivity, Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), autism, and other illnesses of environmental origin.
3. To ensure that environmental toxicants are identified, reduced, regulated, and enforced through lobbying for effective legislation.
MCS America serves as a partner for Environmental Education Week, a partner for the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE), and a supporter for the American Cancer Society: Campaign for Smokefree Air.
All articles Copyrighted © 2007 - 2009 MCS America
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Veterans Target Of Mold Lady
August 27, 2009 issue
http://warblermolddetection.com/ fraud web site
Veterans Target Of Mold Lady
by Paul C. Clark
Staff Writer
http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-i-2009-08-27-199154.112113_Veterans_Target_Of_Mold_Lady.html
August 27, 2009
The woman who thrust herself into the center of the Oak Ridge Elementary School environmental mystery, terrifying parents, is at it again.
Linda May, a self-proclaimed "mold expert" who drove the news coverage of the longstanding health problems at Oak Ridge for weeks, trying to get herself hired as an expert witness and to sell $345 medical tests of questionable validity to worried Oak Ridge parents, has moved on to another target audience: elderly, ailing veterans.
On August 11, May appeared on Veterans for Veteran Connection, an internet radio program, selling the same test kits for Agent Orange exposure. Agent Orange is a pesticide chemically unrelated to mold and was used as a defoliant during the Vietnam War.
On the show, May claimed that the test kits are approved by the US State Department, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). "We are approved to do the testing for Agent Orange T-2 toxin for all government agencies in the US," she said of her company, Warbler of Illinois. T-2 is a toxin found in mold and is chemically unrelated to Agent Orange.
All that sounds impressive, but May, as usual, didn't provide anything to back up either her personal qualifications or the claims she made for the test she is selling. She said the Warbler of Illinois lab is in Pontiac, Illinois, in a secret location. On the show, as in Guilford County, she repeatedly turned down requests to verify her credentials and those of her purported laboratory by saying they were deep government secrets. When she was operating here, she refused to provide her resume, the number of the patent she claims to hold on the urine test, any US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for the test, or proof of Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) registration for the claimed laboratory – a registration that is required for labs offering medical tests in the United States.
May also claimed that the test would benefit Gulf War veterans, World War II veterans and Korean War veterans. "Same toxin, same test," she said.
That angered some of the listening veterans, who said May was comparing apples and oranges and trying to sell a test to as many veterans as possible, whether or not they were exposed to any chemicals. One veteran said, "I don't think they had problems with an overgrowth of foliage in the Gulf War."
May interjected herself into the Oak Ridge debate this June, calling reporters and parents and identifying herself as "the international mold expert," "the international health and safety expert," a "Department of Defense bioweapon expert" and claiming connections with OSHA and the EPA. She also claimed to be an OSHA-certified mold expert, to have written the OSHA regulations governing mold and chemical contamination in the workplace, and to have secret connections that could get Oak Ridge parents millions of dollars to build a new school. She didn't back up any of those claims with evidence.
May made wild health claims that went far beyond any symptoms actually reported at Oak Ridge, which included headaches, nosebleeds, sore throats and dizziness. She told parents that mold found at Oak Ridge "basically is AIDS by inhalation," and, "You do not expose your child to a room full of cyanide – I'm telling you, you have a room full of cyanide." She also told parents to expect funerals.
At the time, a spokeswoman for OSHA said she could find no record of May being involved in any of the agency's rulemakings, and that OSHA had no certification for mold experts – so May could not be one.
On the radio show, skeptical veterans grilled May about her qualifications and the claims she made for the purported urine test, and the president of a veterans group later said he thinks she's a fake.
"Her laboratory doesn't exist," said Jim Davis, the president of California-based Veterans for Change, which lobbies for veterans benefits. "The test she's trying to sell is only a sterile urine bottle, and you can buy one at any pharmacy for less than $5. This is the third time since we've founded the organization that we've found someone trying to scam veterans. If they're doing harm, we try to stop them."
May's resume lists a bachelor's degree in nursing from Lakeview College of Nursing in Illinois. It also lists an OSHA accreditation as an instructor of construction safety and health, and an OSHA/EPA accreditation as a hazardous materials site manager. None of those claims, even if true, would qualify her to sell medical tests or to act as an expert witness in a lawsuit, and May has provided no example of any lawsuit in which she has acted as an expert witness.
A spokeswoman for OSHA in Washington had already debunked the mold certification, saying it didn't exist. And Jim Barnes, the director of OSHA's Office of Training and Educational Programs, part of the OSHA Directorate of Training and Education in the agency's regional office in Arlington Heights, Illinois, said the other OSHA certifications May has claimed don't exist either.
Barnes said, "OSHA does not accredit nor certify individuals."
The FDA found no listing for May or her company in its approval databases for biological tests.
"As far as we can tell, we haven't cleared or approved any devices or tests like that," said Peper Long, a spokeswoman in the FDA press office. "Nothing that could make those claims. These tests would need CLIA and FDA approval if they were going to be sold to the public. If she is marketing it as FDA approved or FDA cleared, it's not. In general, a medical device isn't legal if it hasn't been approved by the FDA, and it can't be marketed in the US."
There is no listing for Warbler of Illinois or May in the FDA's CLIA database.
Susan Myler, a spokeswoman in the Chicago regional office of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs the CLIA program, said the Warbler of Illinois lab would have to be registered under CLIA.
"That's correct," Myler said. "If they're reporting results back to a clinician, and it evaluates health, it has to be under CLIA."
Myler said the Warbler test could be a case of "sink testing" – so called in the medical industry because they are offered by companies that pour the samples down the sink, then provide whatever test results a person wants, or no results at all. "It's amazing how many people will send $400 to people on the Internet," she said.
There are waivers to the requirements for FDA approval and CLIA registration, and it is conceivable that the Warbler of Illinois test could fall under one of those waivers. But such waivers are public, not secret, and May should be able to provide them if they exist. To date, she has offered neither any approvals nor any waivers, and in an interview with The Rhino Times in June, she seemed to know nothing about the FDA and CLIA approval processes.
May's air of secrecy contrasts sharply with the way legitimate testing laboratories operate – in public. The Warbler of Illinois website lists no address for the company, and May won't identify the site of the laboratory, the company's employees, their qualifications or the methodology of the claimed test.
FDA, OSHA and medical experts asked about testing laboratories said they knew of no cases in which the location of a laboratory was a secret.
Davis, who said he has worked for a company that held Department of Defense (DOD) contracts, said he knew of no cases of such secrecy – and if one existed, he would expect it to be nuclear manufacturing, not urine tests.
"If you're granted a contract, especially with the DOD, there is no language that demands that any laboratory or manufacturing facility remain secret," he said. "It just doesn't happen."
On the radio show, May claimed veterans have won benefits from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, but wouldn't say how many such cases there were, or provide examples, despite repeated questions on that issue from veterans. "I don't keep track of that," she said.
On the radio show, as in Guilford County, May claimed that any profits from the sale of the tests would go to three orders of nuns, which she wouldn't name, because she said the nuns wanted that kept secret. But Warbler of Illinois is registered with the Illinois Secretary of State's Office as a for-profit corporation, and is not on the US Internal Revenue Service list of 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 nonprofit groups. It would be unusual for a corporation whose financial goal was to benefit three orders of nuns to be set up as a for-profit corporation, subject to normal federal and state taxes.
In Guilford County, May claimed that a long-available cholesterol drug could cure the symptoms of toxic mold exposure, and on the radio show, she made the same claim for the same drug for Agent Orange-related illnesses. It's a claim doctors we've talked to have heard nowhere else.
May claimed to have a patent on the test, but searches of the US Patent and Trademark Office database found no patents with May listed as the inventor or assignee of a patent or the legal representative of a patent holder. The database lists two patents under the name "Linda May," one by an Oklahoma woman for a livestock restraining gate and one by a California woman for a face pillow.
An effort to talk to May about her claims was rebuffed. A call to the phone number on her business card, which she identified in June as her cell phone number, and which she answered when she was in Guilford County, was answered by a woman who certainly sounded like May, who The Rhinoceros Times interviewed for an hour in June and who spoke at length at public meetings here. The woman acted as if the phone were an office line.
"She's in a business meeting," the woman said after learning that the call was from The Rhino Times. "She can't come to the phone." Told that her voice seemed recognizable as Linda May, she hung up.
A few minutes later, a man who identified himself as Chuck Marlow, a "gofer" in the company, called back, claiming that the woman who answered the phone was May's sister. He refused to give the company's address or the location of its lab. "I'm not supposed to give out information," he said, also hanging up.
In June, May answered questions about her company not with references to legitimate sources, such as government agencies, physicians or academic studies, but with references to a strange collection of people she said would vouch for her, including her attorney, someone she knew in college and a low-level employee in an Illinois state agency whom she said couldn't talk on the record, because Illinois has a law making it illegal for government employees to talk to the press. Illinois has no such law, which would be unconstitutional on its face.
The mayor of Pontiac, Bob Russell, appeared on the radio show with May and a group of veterans from Pontiac town hall, saying the town had been working with May for months to try to get her to locate a lab there. Russell spoke as if the lab did not yet exist, at least in Pontiac. In a story in the Pontiac Daily Leader on August 12, Russell was quoted as saying Warbler of Illinois had a clean bill of health in regard to government contracts, but didn't specify any contracts the company had.
Contacted later by phone, Pontiac City Administrator Robert Karls angrily refused to answer any questions about May or Warbler.
"We're still in the preliminary stages with her," Karls said. "We deal with companies all the time, and until something is ready to be announced, we don't discuss those things."
May was scheduled to go back on the radio show at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, August 25. Veterans groups were prepared for her this time, and arranged for doctors, people who had researched May's history and a woman who said that May had defrauded her of $1,500 in a California workers compensation case to participate in the show.
May, possibly sensing a backlash, didn't show up to defend herself or her company.
From: Chuck Palazzo [mailto:chuck_pal@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 6:02 AM
To: Chuck Palazzo
Subject: Veterans Target Of Mold Lady
Dear Friends,
Yep, the scammers and there targets are still in full force. Not sure if any of you, especially those of you who have been affected by Agent Orange or might have been exposed, have heard of this person or people like her, but please read the article that the below link takes you to. And please, be aware of these and several others that are just out there trying to make quite a few bucks by exploiting our suffering and deaths.
http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-i-2009-08-27-199154.112113_Veterans_Target_Of_Mold_Lady.html
Semper Peace!
Chuck
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I am sick of people that target veterans to scam them out of money and veterans are so desperate for answers they waste money on idiotic claims like this, thinking a fly by night group can get them veterans benefits based on "test" the VA will not accept as evidence because it isn't evidence, it's nothing but a scam for a veterans hard earned dollars. It is time for a US Attorney to put this person out of husiness and in jail for fraud.......
