What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Finally, some action.
From MSNNews “A bipartisan deal to improve veterans’ health care would authorize at least $17 billion to fix the health program scandalized by long patient wait times and falsified records covering up delays, the bill’s chief supporters said Monday.
The agreement includes $10 billion in emergency spending to make it easier for veterans who can’t get prompt appointments with Veterans Affairs doctors to obtain outside care; $5 billion to hire doctors, nurses and other medical staff; and about $1.5 billion to lease 27 new clinics across the country, the chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees said.
also would expand a scholarship program for veterans to include surviving spouses of military members who died in the line of duty, allow all veterans to qualify for in-state college tuition, and grant the Veterans Affairs secretary authority to immediately fire senior executives, while providing employees with streamlined appeal rights.”
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2. Looks like ranchers are the only ones the govt is restricting land access to.
From TheHill “Federal land protections are hampering efforts to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across the border, Republicans say.
The Interior Department controls about 800 miles along the dividing line with Mexico, or about 40 percent of the total, with other land in the region owned by the Forest Service.
GOP lawmakers argue federal regulations intended to protect land and wildlife have become an obstacle for Customs and Borders Protection officers because they restrict their ability to drive near the border, build infrastructure or install surveillance technology.
“There is no doubt that the restrictions on accessing land along the border have made it more difficult for the Border Patrol to do their job,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who traveled to McAllen County, Texas, earlier this month to meet with officials about the surge of child migrants into the United States.”
Smugglers know this too, and are using it to their benefit.
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3. Yet another ObamaCare failure.
From HotAir “ObamaCare advocates have spent the summer trying to put the sunniest spin possible on the law, and they’d better make the best possible use of the time. Premium increases will hit in the fall as insurers adjust for the less-than-optimal additions to the risk pools in 2014, and the best that advocates can argue is that the average increase percentage might just barely avoid double digits. That, National Journal notes, was the the pace of premium increases without ObamaCare, too; so much for bending cost curves downwards, eh?
This fall, though, it won’t be business as usual for ObamaCare policyholders in another important way. Most people assume that their existing policies will automatically renew, and after all the struggles that these consumers had in getting enrolled the first time around, they had to be looking forward to avoiding the process for 2015. And they’re right about autorenewal, but they’re in for a big surprise about what it means:
If you have health insurance on your job, you probably don’t give much thought to each year’s renewal. But make the same assumption in one of the new health law plans, and it could lead to costly surprises.
Insurance exchange customers who opt for convenience by automatically renewing their coverage for 2015 are likely to receive dated and inaccurate financial aid amounts from the government, say industry officials, advocates and other experts. If those amounts are too low, consumers could get sticker shock over their new premiums. Too high, and they’ll owe the tax man later. …”
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4. Illegal immigrants are demanding representation at White House meetings. I don’t know why they’re whining, they already have it from Obama and his advisers from La Raza.
From TheWashingtonTimes “Illegal immigrants picketed the White House Monday afternoon, calling on fellow immigrant-rights advocacy groups to refuse to meet with the Obama administration until President Obama specifically includes illegal immigrants in any future meetings.
“We are among the millions of people who will either benefit or be harmed by the decisions the President makes, and we are here to represent ourselves in any future negotiations,” said Rosi Carrasco, one of organizers, in a statement announcing the action.
Billing themselves “undocumented immigrant leaders,” the organizers said they will erect a picket line to symbolize their demand.”
And a real President would have INS there to round them up for deportation. But thankfully for them, we don’t have one of those.
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5. Vive la France!
From MSNNews “France announced Monday the country would welcome Iraqi Christians forced to leave their homes as ISIS continues to take much of northern Iraq.
In a joint statement, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve denounced ISIS and extended help to Iraqi Christians.
“France is outraged by these abuses that it condemns with the utmost firmness,” they said. “We are ready, if they so desire, to help facilitate asylum on our territory.”
The announcement followed a rally on Sunday in support of ‘s persecuted Christians, during which about 5,000 people gathered outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Geneviève Jacques, president of France’s refugee N.G.O. La Cimade, told France 24 that the country had to offer help as Iraq’s neighboring countries like Jordan, Turkey, and have already been flooded by refugees.”
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Wandering Views 
$17 billion won’t fix the VA health care program.
It ain’t money that’s the problem.
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#4. The real problem with that is that no one sees a logic problem here.
Nor a legal one either.
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An easy way to fix the problem, if the vet lives in a state that has Kaiser Permanente Health, sign them up for Kaiser and get rid of the VA.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/iran-israel-gaza_n_5629631.html
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The headline for the link above is…”Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Calls For Arming Gaza To Fight Israel”.
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The last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay (the navigator of the mission that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945), has died.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/last-crew-member-of-enola-gay-dies-in-georgia/article_9bb93fef-577b-53d8-a6b7-9c8bc0f936bd.html
“Like many World War II veterans, VanKirk didn’t talk much about his service until much later in his life when he spoke to school groups, his son said.
“I didn’t even find out that he was on that mission until I was 10 years old and read some old news clippings in my grandmother’s attic,” Tom VanKirk told the AP in a phone interview Tuesday.
Instead, he and his three siblings treasured a wonderful father, who was a great mentor and remained active and “sharp as a tack” until the end of his life.
“I know he was recognized as a war hero, but we just knew him as a great father,” Tom VanKirk said.”
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The Enola Gay is in a air museum at Dulles, near Washington.
Chuck was amazed at “how small it is”.
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