Numerous Veterans Affairs whistleblowers are ecstatic over the recent firing of Secretary David Shulkin, who had a personal hand in selecting hospital directors who allegedly continued a history of meting out <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/whistleblowers-claim-retaliation-revealing-va-horrors-n707996">retaliation and abuse against informants</a>.
Running on a campaign promise to clean up the VA, President Trump appointed holdover Shulkin to replace Robert McDonald whose tenure had exploded with allegations of secret wait lists, needless deaths, and substandard hospital conditions. On paper, Shulkin appeared to be a good pick with a <a href="https://www.va.gov/opa/bios/docs/shulkin.pdf">background in corporate health care</a>.
But for insiders, Shulkin&#8217;s appointment was depressing news because he oversaw hospital operations under MacDonald where the atrocities festered. He was fired on March 28 after news reports showed he allegedly took his wife on a $122,000 European business trip with extensive sightseeing at taxpayer expense. Admiral Ronny Jackson, the White House doctor, is tapped to take his place.
Fired whistleblower Dr. Dale Klein, a pain specialist at the Poplar Bluff, Missouri VA hospital, wasted no time in calling a VA lawyer to ask for his job back. Klein&#8217;s previously-thwarted attempts to be reinstated could likely move ahead now that Shulkin was gone. &#8220;You heard what happened in Washington. That person is no longer involved in this,&#8221; the attorney told Klein.
Klein was fired last year after reporting extensive wrongful opiate diagnoses by other doctors at his hospital, claims that were upheld by the VA Inspector General in a 2017 report. He tested the urine of numerous patients and found they were either overmedicated or had no signs of painkillers in their bloodstream. The latter still requested prescription refills which were likely sold on the street. After complaining, Klein was <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/30/va-retaliation-against-whistleblower-doctor-kept-in-empty-room.html">banished</a> to an office and not allowed to see patients for 16 months.
The Office of Special Counsel wrote in a June 2017 report that &#8220;OSC has reasonable grounds to believe that the VA&#8217;s proposed removal of Dr. Klein is retaliation for protected (whistleblower) activities.&#8221;
Klein was <a href="http://www.kfvs12.com/story/35381804/poplar-bluff-va-whistleblower-doctor-fired">fired two months later</a>.
&#8220;This is good news that Shulkin is gone and it could lead to a settlement agreement,&#8221; Klein said. &#8220;I told people for a long time that Shulkin was going to get fired and it may open things for my case.&#8221;
VA spokesperson Curtis Cashour said Klein&#8217;s termination was in no way related to his whistleblower activities, rather &#8220;he was removed for failure to follow orders related to his duties.&#8221;
Klein said the VA made up the excuse that he refused to return to work; he has copies of daily emails where he pleaded to return.
In another case, a Pennsylvania whistleblower found 5,000 pages of his medical file and complaints to the Inspector General uploaded on a public VA server. Sixteen employees &#8212; including many from the VA&#8217;s central office in Washington, D.C. &#8212; accessed the file of James DeNofrio from the Altoona VA hospital. This occurred after DeNofrio made the allegations that a doctor was working while impaired and a 400-patient secret waiting list existed.
DeNofrio complained about the &#8220;filegate&#8221; incident in a letter to Shulkin and asked for an investigation. This was denied, he said. A federal administrative law judge ruled this year that any correction would be denied, even though a 2017 VA letter admits to the HIPAA violation and tells DeNofrio to &#8220;<a href="http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Letter-from-VISN-4-Director-Privacy-Violation-4.pdf">take appropriate steps to protect yourself against identity theft</a>.&#8221;
Cashour responded, &#8220;VA does not tolerate retaliation. Any employees who feel they are experiencing retaliation should contact the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection immediately.&#8221;
Other Whistleblowers
Perhaps the most controversial move that Shulkin made occurred when he personally installed Rima Nelson as director of the notorious Phoenix VA Hospital, which was Ground Zero for the waitlist avalanche. In 2013 the hospital became the focus of the first of many news reports outlining a secret wait list where veterans languished for years waiting to be seen by a doctor. Hospital bureaucrats initiated the wait lists so that their patient care numbers would look good to Washington, ensuring bonuses, investigations found.
The director at that time was fired and four more came and went, including Deborah Amdur, who <a href="https://www.disabledveterans.org/2016/08/26/phoenix-va-move-make-deborah-amdur-sick-enough-retire/">lasted only a year </a>and retired in 2016. During that final year, another wait list scandal erupted when whistleblower Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez came forward to say 90 veterans waited 400 days for care and another 4,000 had their appointments inexplicably canceled.
Nelson became the next director, hand-picked by Shulkin who even traveled to Phoenix to hold a press conference announcing her appointment. He <a href="http://www.azfamily.com/story/33326709/va-undersecretary-for-health-defends-appointment-of-new-director-in-phoenix">defended</a> his pick to members of Congress who asked that she not be appointed.
Nelson was formerly from the St. Louis VA, where a dirty dental clinic led to <a href="https://www.disabledveterans.org/2016/09/30/breaking-rima-nelson-new-phoenix-va-director-has-skeletons-in-closet/">exposure of HIV and hepatitis to 1,800 veterans</a>. The hospital also ranked at the bottom in quality on a national internal ranking. Phoenix has also had a poor showing, ranking <a href="https://www.va.gov/QUALITYOFCARE/measure-up/End_of_Year_Hospital_Star_Rating_FY2017.asp">1 out of 5</a> during the past two years of Nelson&#8217;s tenure.
Rodriguez has endured continued harassment under Nelson&#8217;s watch, an <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/10/veterans-affairs-whistle-blower-faces-punishment-for-revealing-alleged-harasser-email-shows.html">investigation</a> has found. Rodriguez was given a letter that is the first step toward termination and has had his workload increased beyond any one person&#8217;s capability, which would show that he is incompetent and should be fired, Rodriguez said.
&#8220;I have had people threaten to assault me and I have even had death threats,&#8221; Rodriguez said. &#8220;They&#8217;ve moved me to an office that was formerly a closet.&#8221;
<div>After the Daily Wire emailed Nelson asking for a response, which was not provided, Rodriguez was hauled into a meeting with managers who demanded to know what he said in his interview. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>&#8220;I told them I had a First Amendment right to speak to the media. I stated that I wasn&#8217;t making anything up. It is what it is,&#8221; Rodriguez said. </div>
Puerto Rico hasn&#8217;t been immune to problems either. Over there, whistleblower Joseph Colon disclosed that hospital director DeWayne Hamlin was arrested for driving while under the influence of drugs. Hamlin was later fired &#8211; and reinstated by a VA review board. His successor, Antonio Sanchez, signed the documents suspending Colon as punishment, the Daily Wire found.
&#8220;How do you replace one retaliator with another if you are talking about changing the culture?&#8221; Colon asked. &#8220;Hamlin and Sanchez tried to fire me twice. If it wasn&#8217;t for former Congressman Jeff Miller of the House VA Committee intervening, I wouldn&#8217;t have a job.&#8221;
Colon said he is excited about Jackson taking over the leadership.
&#8220;He was a combat veteran who served in Iraq. He doesn&#8217;t owe a favor to anyone,&#8221; Colon said. &#8220;Admirals and generals believe in accountability. What better choice to have the secretary of the VA, a person who served in combat and knows the mental health of a veteran.&#8221;
<div> </div>

VA Whistleblower Harassment Common Under Shulkin’s Tenure

Department of Veterans Affairs

Veterans Affairs (VA)

A bot hacked into the online campaign news feed of Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) and created dozens of hilariously off-topic headlines like &#8220;<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hhyq0qNLLBQJ:https://billjohnsonleads.com/facts-about-unicorn/+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">Facts about Unicorn</a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:d1LGquHbDq8J:https://billjohnsonleads.com/demonic-attacks-real/+&amp;cd=3&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">Demonic Attacks Real</a>,&#8221; and &#8220;Your boyfriend is loved by you,&#8221; before staff realized the intrusion and changed the password.
&#8220;This is a pretty standard spam bot putting news on the news feed. I find some of the headlines funny myself,&#8221; said Johnson&#8217;s spokesperson, Matt Dole. &#8220;I want to differentiate between this, Hillary&#8217;s emails, Facebook and the Russians. This was not the donor site.&#8221;
Dole said donors are housed on a different server and no private information was compromised. About 30 headlines showed up two weeks ago after the campaign switched to a new website vendor and didn&#8217;t change the temporary password. The &#8220;news&#8221; items have since been deleted, but are still online in cache form (screenshot below).
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The humorous headlines top press releases that are mostly gibberish and have nothing to do with the subject matter. Grammar in the posts suggests that the bots were created in a foreign country.
For example, &#8220;Your boyfriend is loved by you&#8221; went on to say: &#8220;The introduction is only an general outline of junk you may discuss within the body or your essay. The creating part within the overall IELTS is again based on real-life scenarios. Studies have proven that exercising the head is great system to maintain the human brain healthier.&#8221;
And &#8220;Demonic Attacks Real&#8221; had nothing to say about demons: &#8220;The essays may protect every prospective issue below sunlight. Do you really need to get papers essays on the web. Each of the illustrative composition subjects have their particular unique article subjects.&#8221;
Other headlines included, &#8220;<a href="http://billjohnsonleads.com/a-short-history-of-the-greasers-3/">A short history of the greasers</a>,&#8221; &#8220;The liver has two areas one is appropriate lobe as well as other is lobe,&#8221; and &#8220;Three regulations for applying commas are addressed here.&#8221;
Johnson is a conservative seeking his fifth term and is expected to win a race against three Democratic opponents who have not held state or federal office. He has been a stalwart in regulatory reform and led the pushback against President Obama&#8217;s war on coal.
Dole said Johnson took the intrusion in stride.
&#8220;Members of Congress have pretty easygoing personalities about these types of things, they know it happens and he wasn&#8217;t mad about it. But he doesn&#8217;t believe in unicorns,&#8221; Dole said.

Hackers Take Over GOP Rep’s Campaign Site, Post Hilarious Things About Unicorns, Demons, & Love

Republican Party

&#8203;An online law school owned by an Orange County trustee has continued to receive an accreditation that has been the gateway to millions of dollars in federal student aid &#8212; despite a grade-changing probe by the California State Bar and failure to meet the accreditor&#8217;s graduation standards.
In a series of emails from 2016, a State Bar official blasted Taft Law School for its policy of changing the grades of failing students, which enables them to take one of the nation&#8217;s toughest Bar exams. In one case, the revisions came five years after the courses ended.
Taft is located in Santa Ana, California, and is owned by David L. Boyd, a trustee with the Orange County Dept. of Education. He also owns an online college in Colorado.
In the past five years,<a href="http://tus.taftu.edu/docs/Taft%20Consumer%20Information%20Guide.pdf"> only 7.5% of Taft students have continued on to a required fourth year</a> of study, far below the<a href="https://www.deac.org/UploadedDocuments/Media-and-Events/News-Releases/121517_graduation_rates_announcement.pdf"> 73% graduation benchmark</a> imposed by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). The DEAC accredits law schools that don&#8217;t meet American Bar Association standards, opening a pipeline for the schools to receive federal student aid.
The DEAC specializes in online colleges and universities and operates with the approval of the U.S. Dept. of Education. Despite missing the benchmark every year, DEAC executive director Leah Matthews defended Taft and claimed that the low graduation rate included a mix of general education students even though Taft&#8217;s website clearly states that the statistic is for a J.D. degree program. She added that the school has passed each review.
&#8220;As outlined on their website, Taft Law School provides programs both for students seeking a general legal education as well as those pursuing a degree and a legal career,&#8221; Matthews said. &#8220;As such, measuring the entire student population on outcomes (graduation rates) that are not relevant for a meaningful percentage of the students would be inappropriate.&#8221;
Taft has been accredited by the DEAC since 2003, the same year Boyd began his 15-year run sitting on the agency&#8217;s Standards Committee, according to public records. The DEAC was asked to comment on this, but rather defended Taft and forwarded this reporter&#8217;s emails to Boyd. Boyd would not agree to a phone interview for this article.
&#8220;To me, that raises concerns of agency capture,&#8221; said attorney Kyle McEntee, founder of Law School Transparency,<a href="https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/who_we_are/issues/"> a non-profit dedicated to transparency and accountability</a> in law schools. &#8220;The regulators are too in bed with the regulated. If their policy is to let the schools know that someone is inquiring about them &#8212; that is incredible. That right there bothers me more than [BOYD] serving on their board.&#8221;
Non-profits like DEAC often rely on volunteers to serve on commissions, McEntee said.
&#8220;It&#8217;s something to keep an eye on and blow the whistle when it&#8217;s going too far. It seems to me that this is a case where it&#8217;s gone too far,&#8221; he added.
The school&#8217;s poor performance could be the reason behind a grade-changing policy for failing students that landed Taft in trouble with the State Bar two years ago.
Taft&#8217;s Bar passage rate has been half the state average of 45 to 55%. Between 2011 and 2015, a total of 199 students took the exam and only 43 passed, according to a<a href="https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Taft%20Law%20School&amp;item_type=topic"> Taft disclosure page</a> which has since been removed from its site. The State Bar has refused to provide a breakdown by school for the past two years.
Students with failing grades are ineligible to take the exam and also cannot receive federal aid. Since 2008, Taft students have received more than $14 million in tax-funded student loans, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
In a terse email exchange, the State Bar condemned Taft after discovering changed grades in a transcript that accompanied an unidentified exam applicant.
&#8220;A student who had their grades revised after their first year and still failed to be at good standing at the end of their second year could and should fairly be characterized as someone who is &#8216;demonstrated they are not qualified to continue,&#8217;&#8221; wrote the State Bar&#8217;s George Leal, citing a state code that calls for unaccredited schools to kick out students who cannot get passing grades.
Leal, who is director of Educational Studies, discovered that Taft had revised the student&#8217;s failing grades in both the first and second years, allowing him to barely squeak by with a four-year cumulative average of 2.04, emails show. He went on to say &#8220;I cannot ignore the fact that, apparently, a motivating factor in the use of these two policies is expressly tied to maintain a student&#8217;s eligibility for Title IV (federal) loans.&#8221;
Boyd responded that the grade-changing program was found to be &#8220;acceptable and in full compliance with federal law&#8221; during a 2014 DOE audit. He identified himself as the chancellor of The Taft University System and also &#8220;Trustee, Orange County Board of Education&#8221; in an automatic signature.
&#8220;I am personally concerned and alarmed at your comment regarding our student&#8217;s use of Title IV loans,&#8221; Boyd wrote. &#8220;The policy was also fully disclosed and discussed during our most recent site visit by your office.&#8221;
Boyd said he implemented the policy of revising grades 30 years ago as a reward for students who pass the state&#8217;s first-year law students exam, also known as the Baby Bar exam. Students at non-ABA accredited schools must pass this test after their first year of study in order to be eligible for the Bar exam later on.
Leal shot back that Taft&#8217;s grade revisions extended beyond the first year into the second year as well.
&#8220;Given the average number of Taft graduates who qualify to take the Bar exam, compared to the school&#8217;s average enrollment in the first and second years, I would assume that a majority of those students who benefit from having their first year grades revised do not graduate,&#8221; Leal said. &#8220;For those who do, I would also question their overall performance on passing the Bar exam.&#8221;
Taft&#8217;s dean, Robert Strouse, responded a few days later by saying, &#8220;We are also concerned about both our Baby Bar and General Bar pass rates.&#8221;
The<a href="https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/admissions/2008-01-01_Final_Guidelines_for_the_Unaccredited_Law_School_Rules-Re.pdf"> State Bar&#8217;s guidelines for unaccredited schools</a> require schools to &#8220;adopt written grading standards that ensure accuracy, validity, reliability&#8221; and to &#8220;as soon as possible identify and disqualify those students who have demonstrated they are not qualified to continue under these standards.&#8221;
The DOE was asked whether it was looking into Taft&#8217;s access to federal student loan funds in relation to its run-in with the State Bar over its low graduation and exam passage rates. Press Secretary Liz Hill said, &#8220;No comment.&#8221;
To be considered for federal aid, the school must obtain &#8220;institutional accreditation&#8221; and comply with all regulations, Hill said.
Hill was also asked about the credibility of the DETC and did not answer but rather said that the organization was federally recognized in 1959 and has a current recognition that expires in 2022.

California Law School Receives Millions In Federal Student Aid Despite Grade-Changing Scandal, Subpar Graduation Rates

California

Education

Five months after the worst hurricane on record made landfall in Puerto Rico, roughly 800,000 people are still without power as desperate islanders wonder whether their plight has been forgotten by the federal government. For the residents who need to power medical devices, this has been particularly traumatic. So the Red Cross has stepped up where the feds have failed by distributing more than 2,300 solar panels with accompanying batteries to the public, which includes 645 veterans.
&#8220;If you served in battle and survived, you should not have to suffer because of a poor electrical grid,&#8221; said Joseph Colon, a health system specialist in the credentialing department at the Puerto Rico VA hospital.
Puerto Rico has a population of 3.4 million who rely on an antiquated above-ground electrical system. 80% of the island&#8217;s power poles, lines and transformers were destroyed by Hurricane Maria on September 20, and the Army Corps of Engineers has been working to restore power. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reported last week that 75% of its customers now have electricity, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/electricity-restored-75-percent-customers-puerto-rico-utility/story?id=53005459">according to ABC News</a>.
President Trump has said it would take a year to restore full power, but this was something that a team of social workers from the VA and Red Cross didn&#8217;t want to wait for.
&#8220;I had a conversation with the VA ombudsman and the idea came to see if we could assist,&#8221; said Ramonita Santiago, the Red Cross regional manager for armed forces services to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. &#8220;A bunch of folks came into the VA, they were having problems not being able to sleep and needing some assistance because they can&#8217;t turn on their sleep machines.&#8221;
Residents also needed to power small refrigerators for insulin, generators for oxygen tanks and recharge heart monitors.
&#8220;I had a veteran who needs to use a sleep apnea machine and he almost had a stroke because he became so disoriented without sleep, he didn&#8217;t know what was happening,&#8221; Santiago said.
So starting in December, the Red Cross began a series of monthly distributions of boxes containing one 50 watt solar panel with a lithium battery and instructions for installation. The only criteria was that a person had to show they had a medical need.
&#8220;The equipment comes ready for use and our volunteers explain use and maintenance,&#8221; said Puerto Rico Red Cross spokesperson Rosemarie Valdez.
One recipient was Oscar Rivera, 64, who served 26 years in the Army in the Vietnam and Gulf wars. As a medic, he saw a lot of death which has resulted in repeated flashbacks. Desperate to sleep more than three hours, he obtained a sleep machine. After the hurricane swept through the island, Rivera was left without power.
&#8220;I was thinking I have to wait for the government to fix the power, it&#8217;s been a nightmare,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A friend of mine got one of the solar panels and told me about it. I called the Red Cross and person in charge and put me on the list.&#8221;
Now that he can at least power his machine, Rivera says he can tolerate the wait for an electrical hookup.
Residents who have been selected to receive panels were overjoyed because they will have a piece of equipment that should endure during future disasters.
&#8220;I had someone who cried, hugged me, kissed me and was just ecstatic when we called to say we were going to have another distribution event,&#8221; Santiago said. &#8220;It&#8217;s groundbreaking for us because we are specifically giving an item to the community that focuses on a specific need.&#8221;

Red Cross Comes Up With Innovative Way To Help Puerto Rican Vets With Medical Needs

On Monday in Anaheim, California, Orange County officials will begin to dismantle a Disneyland-area tent city of about 700 homeless people who have created an environmental crisis along a riverbed.
They will leave behind tons of trash and hazardous waste along the Santa Ana River channel which feeds into the ocean next to multi-million dollar homes in Newport Beach. The camp stretches 1.4 miles. On the north end, only a chain link fence separates the camp from Anaheim Stadium, where the Angels baseball team plays. Disneyland is two miles west.
&#8220;I have a riverbed that has a very specific purpose &#8212; it&#8217;s to protect Orange County from flooding, it&#8217;s to carry great amounts of water right to the ocean,&#8221; Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer <a href="https://kfiam640.iheart.com/content/2018-01-05-homeless-encampments-along-riverbed-in-orange-and-anaheim-to-be-cleared-out/">recently told Los Angeles&#8217; KFI-AM640</a>. &#8220;We use that riverbed to recharge our groundwater basin, I can&#8217;t have biohazard and waste and needles and syringes and blood products and Hepatitis A issues in my riverbed.&#8221;
Crime is also a concern: since September, 498 arrests have occurred for offenses such as rape, assault, robbery, weapons possession and narcotics violations, according to the Orange County Sheriff&#8217;s Dept.
And in a period when wildfires have ravaged California &#8212; many caused by homeless cookouts &#8212; a bigger disaster is just waiting to happen, Spitzer said.
Recently another encampment was dismantled to the north and authorities found some unusual items: solar panels, car batteries, frayed extension cords hacked into nearby electrical sources and inverters producing electricity. A big fire once occurred in the area when a propane patio heater was filled with gasoline, setting off an explosion, Spitzer said.
That camp of 400 closed in October, producing 315 tons of trash, 4,000 pounds of biohazard materials and 4,600 syringes, Spitzer said. Cleanup cost the county $20,000.
The ACLU has opposed camp closures because the inhabitants will likely just be homeless in another area.
&#8220;The reason they are (in the camp) in the first place is Orange County only has enough shelter for half the homeless people,&#8221; said ACLU analyst Eve Garrow. &#8220;That doesn&#8217;t include housing, which there is none. There is literally no affordable housing for people.&#8221;
Garrow said the county&#8217;s Section 8 lists have 90,000 names and it takes up to 10 years to receive housing.
Homeless camps have steadily grown over the past several years, prompting run-ins with work crews tasked with regular maintenance and repairs of the area. This <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2017/02/15/orange-county-sued-again-over-clearing-santa-ana-river-homeless-encampment/">prompted a federal lawsuit</a> last year by several occupants who claimed their belongings were illegally seized and destroyed. A federal judge has since issued a restraining order requiring the county to give advance notice of any cleanup and to store belongings of displaced persons for up to 90 days.
This time the process will apparently go more smoothly as the county is prepared to catalog and store personal items, shelter pets in kennels and offer bus rides to anyone who wants to relocate to one of several armories operated by the county, said county spokesperson Jennifer Nentwig.
The project will take up to three months to complete as the surface soil will need to be removed and overdue repairs to the channel will be conducted.
Upon completion, the area will have a nighttime curfew enforced by patrol. Before the homeless took over the area, the channel&#8217;s paved shoulder offered a scenic route for walking or biking, and cyclists trained on the <a href="https://www.traillink.com/trail/santa-ana-river-trail/">50-mile continuous trail</a> from the mountains to the beach.
Homelessness has increased on the West Coast by a massive amount. Warm weather and generous benefits to non-residents have beckoned people from across the country who hear about a homeless utopia through word of mouth and online, a Santa Ana homeless man told The Daily Wire. He lived in a camp of about 100 that cropped up in recent years in a plaza only steps away from Orange County Superior Court.
A study last year <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-11-homeless-explosion-west-coast-cities.html">by The Associated Press</a> found that California, Oregon and Washington had a combined homeless population of 168,000 &#8211; an increase of 19,000 from two years ago. The increase has contributed to a Hepatitis A outbreak in California numbering 688 people. It started in San Diego&#8217;s homeless community and spread up the state, <a href="https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/Hepatitis-A-Outbreak.aspx">according to the California Dept. of Public Health</a>. Orange County has not had any such cases.

Lawmakers Close Homeless Camp Of 700 Near Disneyland

Managers at Veterans Affairs hospitals in four states underwent whistleblower training Monday after a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/24565/va-orders-staff-not-respond-subpoena-requests-tori-richards">Daily Wire story</a> outlined how a facility in Pennsylvania tried to stop employees from talking to federal investigators regarding wrongdoing.
The House Committee on Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel are also questioning why the Altoona VA Medical Center would send an email to employees ordering them &#8220;not to respond to a subpoena for testimony and/or provide any agency document &#8230;&#8221;
The hospital has been plagued by numerous allegations of wrongdoing brought by whistleblowers, including a secret wait list of 400 patients that may have resulted in seven deaths.
&#8220;In order to bring wholesale reform to the Department of Veterans Affairs, we must ensure that VA employees are not restricted from engaging in their legal right to freely communicate with Congress should they choose to do so,&#8221; wrote VA Committee Chairman Phil Roe (R-TN).
&#8220;As Chairman, conducting effective oversight of VA is one of my highest priorities, which is why my staff requested that the Altoona VA&#8217;s leadership clarify to its staff that the facility&#8217;s email was in no way intended to inhibit employees&#8217; rights to speak to Congress or other relevant entities,&#8221; Roe said.
The Special Counsel &#8212; which investigates whistleblower complaints and reports directly to the president &#8212; took the highly-unusual step last week of inviting Altoona whistleblower James DeNofrio to file a complaint. The OSC does not self-generate cases.
&#8220;Please note that OSC may open a new complaint for you regarding this matter if you give consent to do so,&#8221; OSC attorney Noah Fortinsky wrote in an email.
VA Secretary David Shulkin did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
It is unlawful for federal employers to interfere with workers seeking to report wrongdoing. Both <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/2302#b">5 U.S. Code 2302</a> and the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s743/text">Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act</a> of 2012 detail the rights and obligations of employees to report illegalities and mismanagement.
Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio have a total of nine VA hospitals, which encompass the agency&#8217;s fourth district. Approximately 1,200 managers from this district were invited by email to attend Monday&#8217;s whistleblower training comprised of a conference call with VA attorneys, an online slide show, and a question and answer period, according to an employee who did not want to be named.
The invitation, titled &#8220;A Manager&#8217;s Guide to Whistleblowing,&#8221; said the training will answer questions like &#8220;what is a protected disclosure/protected activity, what is whistleblower retaliation, and how supervisors can continue to manage employees that have &#8216;blown&#8217; the whistle.&#8217;&#8221;
The slides included:
<ul>
<li>A wallet card with 13 &#8220;Prohibited Personnel Practices,&#8221; which includes retaliating against whistleblowers</li>
<li>A detailed explanation of the OSC&#8217;s role</li>
<li>Tips on how to &#8220;keep your cool,&#8221; work with &#8220;thorn in your side&#8221; employees, and deal with situations involving &#8220;horrible lies&#8221;</li>
<li>The legalities of whistleblowing</li>
</ul>
DeNofrio found himself in an adversarial position with Altoona upper management after he complained to the VA Inspector General about the secret wait list, and how a doctor allegedly worked while impaired and though failing his physician credentialing standards was still allowed to see patients from 2013 to 2015.
As reprisal, VA managers uploaded more than 5,000 pages of his veteran medical record and Social Security file onto a public server, then advised him that he was a target for identity theft, according to memos reviewed by The Daily Wire.
DeNofrio&#8217;s plea for help from the Special Counsel was stonewalled, yet last week he received notice that it would be resurrected in light of Altoona&#8217;s &#8220;do not respond&#8221; memo.
&#8220;I appreciate the continued support of Congressman Roe and the House Veterans Affairs Committee. To date Altoona VA staff have not received clarification on the memo directing us not to cooperate with investigations or subpoenas despite Congressional intervention,&#8221; DeNofrio said. &#8220;VA senior officials seem to believe they are above the law and beyond accountability as whistleblower retaliation continues unchecked. If the VA is serious about reform then fire the VA bullies and rotten apples in addition to actually prosecuting VA officials involved in alleged criminal conduct instead of allowing them to quietly transfer or retire.&#8221;

VA Undergoes Whistleblower Training In 4 States After Muzzling Employee Statements To Federal Investigators

Veterans

A Pennsylvania Veteran Affairs hospital plagued by whistleblower allegations of wrongdoing has emailed a memo to all employees instructing them not to speak with federal investigators or comply with subpoenas, a violation of a U.S. Code of Federal Regulations.
Instead, the 750 employees of the James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center in Altoona are instructed to refer all inquiries from numerous open investigations &#8212; including the House of Representatives &#8212; to Director Sigrid Andrew, the memo states.
&#8220;Employees are not to respond to a subpoena to appear for testimony and/or to provide any agency document to include but not limited to copies of the Veteran&#8217;s protected health information,&#8221; reads the memo, dated last month. It goes on to explain that any search warrant would be conducted by VA police.
Agencies currently conducting various investigations include the Office of Special Counsel, Dept. of Health and Human Services, House Veteran Affairs Committee, the Government Accountability Office, the VA Inspector General, and the newly created Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection.
Whistleblower James DeNofrio has since forwarded a copy of the email to the House VA Committee, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), and the Government Accountability Office. DeNofrio, an Army veteran who is the business administrator for the Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Services, has an open case of reprisal for alerting the VA Inspector General and the Office of Special Counsel to a physician who was allegedly working while impaired and failing his physician credentialing standards but still allowed to see patients from 2013 to 2015.
DeNofrio also complained that 400 veterans were on a waiting list that was so extensive, seven of the service members committed suicide when they couldn&#8217;t get help.
Other whistleblowers have open cases as well.
&#8220;That is their attempt to try and quash everything,&#8221; said Andrew Scherzinger, president of AFGE Local 1862, a union of VA employees. &#8220;We can&#8217;t refuse to talk to people, especially in an official investigation like that. I think this is something that Congress should look at.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/2302#b">5 U.S. Code 2302</a>, which regulates federal agencies and employees, states that employees have obligations and rights regarding &#8220;communications to Congress, the reporting to an Inspector General of a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, or any other whistleblower protection.&#8221;
This section was strengthened by the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s743/text">Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act</a> of 2012, which stated: &#8220;This subsection shall not be construed to authorize the withholding of information from Congress.&#8221;
The VA responded to an inquiry by The Daily Wire by saying the memo was meant to protect patient confidentiality during an ongoing review by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).
&#8220;The premise of your inquiry is false,&#8221; stated VA Public Affairs Officer Andrea Young. &#8220;The email was prompted by an accreditation review &#8230; which recommended we clearly outline the policy for employees in order to comply with CARF standards.&#8221;
However, CARF does not survey the medical portion of the hospital. Their reviews are limited to employment and community services and a fraction of the VA&#8217;s employees, DeNofrio said.
The hospital only receives four CARF accreditations and they have already been completed, according to <a href="http://www.carf.org/providerProfile.aspx?cid=237233">CARF&#8217;s website</a>.
&#8220;I do not believe that the intent of the email is to protect employees from inadvertently releasing veterans&#8217; private health information. Nor do I believe that this email was simply prompted by a CARF review as most of the medical center&#8217;s programs are not CARF accredited,&#8221; DeNofrio said. &#8220;What is very troubling is that this email appears to direct all Altoona VA federal employees not to cooperate with federal law enforcement, legal oversight authorities like the Special Counsel, federal judges, or Congress.
&#8220;This is even more disturbing when you learn that over the past four years there have been many ongoing federal and congressional investigations into whistleblower disclosures here at Altoona as well as at least three ongoing judicial proceedings including mine related to alleged whistleblower retaliation,&#8221; DeNofrio said.
After DeNofrio&#8217;s complaints made it up the chain, he discovered that his medical records were uploaded onto a server in violation of HIPAA laws. Altoona executives used portions of DeNofrio&#8217;s privileged file against him as reasons to deny promotions, according to documents filed with the Merit System Protection Board, a type of judicial proceeding for employees seeking relief. The VA later released a memo that named 16 people &#8212; including officials from the VA&#8217;s Central Office in Washington, D.C. &#8212; who accessed his records
Nearly 5,000 pages of protected documents were also uploaded that included DeNofrio&#8217;s whistleblower reports, evidence sent to the VA Inspector General and Congress to build his whistleblower cases and Social Security information belonging to DeNofrio and other veterans.
In a March 18 letter to VA Secretary David Shulkin, DeNofrio outlined the scenario and said VA officials placed a false diagnosis of a cognitive disorder in his online VA medical records. He complained to the Inspector General, but the agency refused to investigate, a memo showed. 
VA District Director Michael Adelman responded on April 20 with a letter that said in part, &#8220;All information has been removed from the SharePoint (database) and education has been provided regarding the placement on sensitive information on the SharePoint site. &#8230; We are notifying you so you can choose to take appropriate steps to protect yourself against identity theft.&#8221;
Adelman closed by saying the &#8220;VA takes our obligation to honor and serve America&#8217;s veterans very seriously. We believe it is important for you to be fully informed of any potential risk to you and apologize for any inconvenience or concern this situation may cause.&#8221;
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VA Orders Staff Not To Respond To Subpoena Requests By Federal Investigators In Hospital Plagued By Wrongdoing

Military

A famous aquarium orca who has been dubbed &#8220;<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3511135/No-freedom-Lolita-loneliest-killer-whale-world-Miami-Seaquarium-says-continue-live-USA-s-SMALLEST-whale-tank.html">The World&#8217;s Loneliest Whale</a>&#8221; was left to fend for herself in the Florida Keys as a Hurricane Irma blasted toward Miami as a Category 4 storm.
The whale, named Lolita, is part of an endangered species and has been the star attraction at the Miami Seaquarium for 47 years. But as the biggest hurricane in history chewed up the Florida Keys on its way to the mainland, she was left in the open and not evacuated.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I always worry about animals in these storms. Dolphins were evacuated in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cuba?src=hash">#Cuba</a> prior to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Irma?src=hash">#Irma</a> ! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/grateful?src=hash">#grateful</a> <a href="https://t.co/t3OfakTwUa">pic.twitter.com/t3OfakTwUa</a>
&#8212; Matrixity (@Matrixity) <a href="https://twitter.com/Matrixity/status/906482117298794496">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
If Irma hadn&#8217;t taken a sudden jog to the west, Lolita&#8217;s 62-year enclosure would have become her tomb with projectiles like bleacher seats and thin corrugated metal roofing raining down on the open whale pool, animal rights organizations said.
She is housed in Virginia Key, which is at the base of Miami.
&#8220;Miami Seaquarium doesn&#8217;t have Lolita&#8217;s best interests at heart; if they did they&#8217;d send her to a seaside sanctuary where there would be no roofs, bleachers, and signage to collapse on her and where she would be able to dive deeply, escaping storms the same way orcas in the wild do,&#8221; said Jared Goodman, PETA&#8217;s director of Animal Law. PETA has been involved in several lawsuits to free Lolita.
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IMAGE: Miami Seaquarium holding tank for Lolita after Irma passed through. Courtesy Dolphin Project.
When contacted by The Daily Wire, the aquarium&#8217;s parent company, Palace Entertainment, said their animals were &#8220;fine&#8221; and the company has been more concerned with helping people.
&#8220;Many people have lost their homes, they are flooded and are without power,&#8221; said an unidentified woman who answered the phone at Palace Entertainment&#8217;s California headquarters. &#8220;We&#8217;re trying to help people. Human life is our priority right now.&#8221;
The employee did not say what relief efforts the aquarium was undertaking.
&#8220;Our animals have survived through many storms, so we&#8217;re doing our best to provide for our animals and our staff,&#8221; the employee said.
Emails to Palace Entertainment&#8217;s CEO and CFO were not returned nor was a message to the aquarium&#8217;s president.
Several hours later <a href="https://twitter.com/MiamiSeaquarium/status/907344906510778369">a tweet appeared</a> saying that the Seaquarium&#8217;s animals were &#8220;safe.&#8221;
The tweet showed a happy looking Lolita with a trainer, prompting a new round of backlash over the dirty pool as people demanded to see a current photograph. One tweeter showed a partially demolished seal tank that was a screen grab from a local TV newscast.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
give us a real update!! <a href="https://t.co/1XgZQbbzkN">pic.twitter.com/1XgZQbbzkN</a>
&#8212; Renee Murphy (@rmurphy1970) <a href="https://twitter.com/rmurphy1970/status/907370594999717889">September 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;If the storm hit like it was projected, the tank probably would&#8217;ve broken in half,&#8221; said Lincoln O&#8217;Barry with the Dolphin Project. &#8220;I saw the tank once and it appears that numerous cracks were just filled with spackle. The place is dilapidated, it hasn&#8217;t had any major renovation since it was built.&#8221;
In the hours after Irma passed Miami, social media was filled with anxious postings from people waiting for word on Lolita&#8217;s fate. Unlike other zoos, the aquarium did not provide specifics on their storm preparation or status reports during and after the storm. Their social media pages were silent.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Poor thing. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lolita?src=hash">#Lolita</a>&#8216;s stadium is unprotected. She&#8217;s a sitting duck for all that flying metal.
&#8212; Kimberly Ventre (@KimberlyVentre) <a href="https://twitter.com/KimberlyVentre/status/906372227548901376">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lolita?src=hash">#Lolita</a> the loneliest Orca in the world now abandoned to face <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HurricaineIrma?src=hash">#HurricaineIrma</a> in her tiny tank <a href="https://t.co/tTVIQf76yz">https://t.co/tTVIQf76yz</a> <a href="https://t.co/ffl3Xr5MxR">pic.twitter.com/ffl3Xr5MxR</a>
&#8212; Emily (@emeliobedelio) <a href="https://twitter.com/emeliobedelio/status/906414320677998592">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This is Lolita, nicknamed the loneliest whale for obvious reasons. She was left in this sad excuse for an enclosure during Irma. <a href="https://t.co/Tf0XmCdXMU">pic.twitter.com/Tf0XmCdXMU</a>
&#8212; cat/human bean (@CatLadyCaroline) <a href="https://twitter.com/CatLadyCaroline/status/907232094417506304">September 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Irma?src=hash">#Irma</a> has been described as <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Catastrophic?src=hash">#Catastrophic</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nuclear?src=hash">#Nuclear</a>. Consequently <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blackfish?src=hash">#Blackfish</a> Lolita/Toki has been abandoned by her &#8220;owners&#8221; -Nowhere 2 run <a href="https://t.co/yIqXACKamH">pic.twitter.com/yIqXACKamH</a>
&#8212; Voice of the Orcas (@Voice_OT_Orcas) <a href="https://twitter.com/Voice_OT_Orcas/status/906232500053094401">September 8, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Based on her location <a href="https://twitter.com/MiamiSeaquarium">@MiamiSeaquarium</a>, the real possibility exists that this could be <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blackfish?src=hash">#Blackfish</a> Lolita&#8217;s last day <a href="https://t.co/BpMWpW4rUn">pic.twitter.com/BpMWpW4rUn</a>
&#8212; Voice of the Orcas (@Voice_OT_Orcas) <a href="https://twitter.com/Voice_OT_Orcas/status/906203765757231104">September 8, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Made to perform in hell for 47 years then left for dead Praying for you Lolita <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lolita?src=hash">#lolita</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/prayforlolita?src=hash">#prayforlolita</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Blackfish?src=hash">#Blackfish</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MiamiSeaquarium?src=hash">#MiamiSeaquarium</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/orcas?src=hash">#orcas</a> <a href="https://t.co/zUyYfn3PKl">pic.twitter.com/zUyYfn3PKl</a>
&#8212; Alex Beresford (@alexberesford21) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexberesford21/status/906594102480982019">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
So O&#8217;Barry sent a drone over the aquarium and took photos showing a black mass swimming in what appears to be a dirty tank. Twitter rejoiced.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I saw the livestream! she&#8217;s fine, the poor girl. tank is quite dirty. <a href="https://t.co/37zoeUIHax">pic.twitter.com/37zoeUIHax</a>
&#8212; (@melanielove_) <a href="https://twitter.com/melanielove_/status/907305514031226880">September 11, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
O&#8217;Barry said the facility appeared to suffer some damage to the sea lion exhibit along with uprooted trees.
&#8220;One of the orders was to evacuate the keys,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t appear to do anything, they just battened down the hatches and left. Any projectile would be going 150 miles per hour.&#8221;
The aquarium&#8217;s decision to not evacuate Lolita could be viewed as a violation of federal statutes regarding captive endangered animals. Kate Brogran, spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the Seaquarium is in compliance with federal law given they provide care and maintenance &#8220;as long as such practices or procedures are not likely to result in injury.&#8221;
The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is tasked with overseeing endangered animals in captivity. Spokesperson R. Andre Bell said his agency received information from the Seaquarium prior to Irma that included &#8220;proactive measures&#8230;to mitigate the potential effects of hurricane Irma.&#8221;
He would not say what measures could be taken with a direct hit of a Category 4 hurricane.
He added that federal inspectors would be checking on the Seaquarium &#8220;to assess damage and ensure the welfare of the animals.&#8221;
Lolita has been the focus of an intense battle for decades to return her to a protective sea pod in her birthplace of the Pacific Northwest. Lolita&#8217;s tank is the smallest such enclosure in America and isn&#8217;t deep enough to allow her to dive straight down. She has no protection from the sun or any regular companions.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQcy_bgzZZg">NBC&#8217;s Dateline did a segment in 1996</a> where a scientist captured noises made by Lolita&#8217;s family and she reacted to it when the tape was played back.
PETA is a plaintiff in two different lawsuits aimed at wresting Lolita from the Seaquarium based on animal welfare laws. One of the cases will be heard by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in December.
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Famous Captive Orca Fends For Herself In Florida Keys During Irma

Hurricane Irma

PETA

Confederate monuments have been coming down across America over the past two years, but these actions caused little fanfare until August 12, when a riot broke out involving removal of Robert E. Lee&#8217;s statue in Charlottesville, VA. So, effigies of dozens more have come down or are in the process.
Now <a href="https://www.change.org/p/ebay-paypal-amazon-stop-supporting-hate-groups?read_more=true">a petitioner on Change.org</a> has set his sights on three new targets: eBay, PayPal and Amazon.com for &#8220;actively supporting racist sellers and buyers.&#8221; More than 7,800 people have signed the petition, which was started by a Texas man named John Cohen.
&#8220;Ebay, PayPal and Amazon support hate groups by selling their items for profit. PayPal is the bank for these groups,&#8221; the petition says. &#8220;To their credit, Ebay and Amazon have deleted most Nazi items, but domestic terrorism must be addressed.&#8221;
Cohen called for the companies to &#8220;stop cashing in on hate in America.&#8221; He wants sales stopped of trinkets and clothing but not books, music or films because that would entail artistic censorship.
&#8220;ALL items containing the following should be removed permanently: The South Will Rise Again, anything with the Confederate flag, anything celebrating Confederate &#8216;heros&#8217;. This includes flags, shirts, keychains, stickers, license plates, koozies, cups, hats, etc. &#8230;,&#8221; the petition reads.
Amazon, which has numerous Confederate items on its site, did not respond to a request for comment.
Confederate items can also be found on eBay, even though the site has had a policy since 2015 banning such sales.
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&#8220;We have more than 1 billion items listed on our marketplace &#8230; we have measures in place to defer items that violate our policies from being listed,&#8221; said eBay spokesperson Ryan Moore. &#8220;When these items are discovered, they are removed.&#8221;
EBay monitors its site with keyword filters and also has a &#8220;report this item&#8221; link for customers. A team also conducts daily sweeps for such items and &#8220;we take action against sellers who attempt to circumvent our policies,&#8221; Moore said.
Similarly, PayPal said in a statement that the company&#8217;s &#8220;longstanding policy is not to allow our services to be used to accept payments or donations to organizations for activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance. We regularly assess activity against our Acceptable Use Policy and carefully review actions reported to us, and will discontinue our relationship with account holders who are found to violate our policies.&#8221;
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Another Texan, Rapper Trae Tha Truth, who rescued hundreds of victims during the Houston flood and is continuing to provide relief to thousands more, said Confederate items and statues promote a dark period in America and hold the country back from coming together. He is in favor of removing the statutes and stopping sales of related items.
&#8220;At the end of the day, I&#8217;m for helping people in general,&#8221; he said during a break from delivering supplies to flood victims. &#8220;When I&#8217;m helping people, I&#8217;m not looking at a color, I&#8217;m looking at people in need. I&#8217;m not going to handpick people who need my help. We&#8217;ve got to a place where we are all coming together.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/traethatruthweareonehurricaneharvey">Trae has started a victim&#8217;s fund</a> that is now at $142,000 of his $250,000 goal.
&#8220;People are in need and the last thing on my mind is racist stuff people are doing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If someone is promoting this stuff, it&#8217;s hatred.&#8221;
Former NFL star and current sports analyst George Wrighster said he doesn&#8217;t like seeing Confederate images, but doesn&#8217;t think it&#8217;s right to censor what people sell or buy. However, he doesn&#8217;t think the statutes should be displayed on public property.
&#8220;The flags represent traitors who don&#8217;t believe in the fundamental values of America, that all men are created equal,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t like the flag and I form my own opinions about those who do fly them proudly. However, people do and should have the right to buy, sell, and own them.&#8221;

EBay, PayPal, Amazon Blasted for Sales of Confederate Items

Race

Racism

Texas

It turns out that homes, businesses, vehicles, power grids, bridges and people aren&#8217;t the only things Hurricane Harvey affected. The latest casualty of the monster storm could be the shining star of the NBA&#8217;s richest player.
The player in question is James Harden of the Houston Rockets. Harden was arguably Houston&#8217;s most famous athlete and recently inked the most lucrative contract in professional sports history at $228 million. On Saturday he pledged a $1 million donation to the mayor&#8217;s relief fund &#8212; the first time the public had heard from Harden since a tweet on Wednesday, asking America to pray for Texas.
His silence in the wake of the nation&#8217;s worst disaster has created a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6QXjEnS-dg">backlash on social media</a> from people who were questioning why Harden didn&#8217;t come forward to say what he was doing to ease the suffering of 30,000 people with homes under water.
Absent Harden&#8217;s voice, JJ Watt of the Houston Texans stepped up to become the city&#8217;s &#8212; and country&#8217;s &#8212; most adored athlete as he started a victim fund that has <a href="https://www.youcaring.com/victimsofhurricaneharvey-915053">now amassed $20 million</a>.
&#8220;JJ Watt&#8217;s History of Heroism: Why People Trusted the NFL Star Enough to Pour $15 Million into his Houston Flood Relief Fund,&#8221; is a <a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/877334/jj-watt-s-history-of-heroism-why-people-trusted-the-nfl-star-enough-to-pour-15-million-into-his-houston-flood-relief-fund">recent E! headline </a>that sums it up. Watt has also been profiled in People, Time, Forbes, Sports Illustrated and practically every major U.S. publication. And now a petition is circulating to name a highway after him.
The football defensive end has become a household name as he stands in front of TV cameras night after night wearing a T-shirt and white &#8220;JJ&#8221; baseball cap pleading for funds on his Youcaring page.
At first he just hoped to raise $250,000, but now he says he is in this &#8220;for the long haul&#8221; and will do anything needed to make Houston whole again. Watt <a href="https://twitter.com/JJWatt/status/904331995668520960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F2731206-jj-watt-tweets-photo-of-supplies-from-hurricane-harvey-fundraiser">repeatedly publicized</a> that he and his teammates would be filling <a href="https://twitter.com/JJWatt/status/903731802392625154?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">10 semi-trucks with supplies last weekend</a> and &#8220;going directly out into the community in areas that have been hit hard and we&#8217;re going to hand those out.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/houston-texans-jj-watt-hand-out-supplies-to-harvey-victims/">end result was nothing short of amazing</a> &#8212; the athletes and a band of volunteers distributed enough items to fill a Costco store: everything from plastic buckets and bleach to cat food and water. Plus autographs and selfies.
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Even Harden gave <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2731129-james-harden-donates-1-million-to-hurricane-harvey-relief-efforts-in-houston">kudos to his fellow athlete</a> while he visited a shelter Saturday to announce his donation.
&#8220;I want to thank you to JJ Watt, what he&#8217;s doing for the city,&#8221; Harden said. &#8220;Thank you to the mayor, for helping me. I just want to donate and give back as much as I can so I&#8217;m going to donate $1 million to the city and to areas that need it and to people that need it to make the city stronger.&#8221;
In Harden&#8217;s absence, the public watched other athletes and entertainers starting funds or traipsing through toxic water to rescue victims. They blasted him on Twitter and it hasn&#8217;t entirely abated, even with his with donation.
&#8220;All that money James Harden got, he should have took care of Houston by his damn self,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisChuck/status/904261029756096512">tweeted @ThisChuck</a>.
&#8220;JJ Watt the face of Houston, not James Harden,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/RealGloTevo/status/903652734062272512">tweeted @RealGloTevo</a>.
&#8220;JJ Watt is out here busting his ass for his city. Where is James Harden?&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/JLewisUTW/status/903485150767472641">tweeted @JLewisUTW</a>.
Other tweets during the week were much more brutal:
&#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/Anstatt18/status/902738307645394949">James harden gettin paid like 600 trillion dollars next season but hasn&#8217;t done shit for Houston victims yet</a>&#8221;
&#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/CHIDEAZY/status/902262519074574337">james harden with that $57 million per year just &#8220;praying&#8221; and laughing while chilling in LA and Vegas, DONATE MONEY and stop being a fake</a>.&#8221;
And: &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/brad_gohornsbkw/status/903448493829885952">you think James Harden even knows there was a huge flood in Texas</a>?&#8221;
Before the flood, Harden was last seen in Las Vegas the weekend before Harvey to celebrate his birthday and watch the Floyd Mayweather fight with a group of friends. Rockets spokesperson Tracey Hughes said a closed airport kept him out of town from the city he has called home since 2012.
&#8220;Our team was not in town or in season. Had they been, they would have been out helping immediately,&#8221; Hughes said.
Houston is home to several celebrities who have increased their fame and fan base by their high-profile relief efforts.
The Twitter and Instagram pages of rapper Trae Tha Truth are filled with videos depicting his rescues of stranded residents by both boat and vehicle. Several times a day he posted his location and asked for victims to post their addresses so he could pick them up. He often partnered with UFC star Derrick Lewis, who also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYWLOvNnU-J/?taken-by=thebeastufc">posted his own rescues</a> in his monster pickup truck. Social media is filled with hundreds of loving posts for the pair.
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Trae <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/traethatruthweareonehurricaneharvey">has started a GoFundMe page</a> to personally hand out money to people in the bayou because, with other organizations, &#8220;I can&#8217;t promise or say what they are going to do with the money or if you will see the money.&#8221; So far his fund has raised $130,000.
After he finished his rescue efforts one day, Trae <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYfDCgCHaKN/">visited the convention center</a> where about 9,000 residents were sheltered.
&#8220;I took some time yesterday and today&#8230;.to uplift people. Even tho we lost so much, them few moments can help a person push harder,&#8221; he wrote in a post.
Other Rockets personnel have been in the news with their contribution to flood victims.
Team owner Leslie Alexander has donated $10 million to the Mayor&#8217;s Hurricane Relief Fund and coach Mike D&#8217;Antoni $100,000. Rockets point guard Chris Paul, who just arrived this season and has yet to play a single season game, donated $75,000 to Watt&#8217;s fund.
And <a href="http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20501657/nba-houston-rockets-center-clint-capela-doing-all-help-aftermath-hurricane-harvey">Rockets center Clint Capela</a>, stuck in his apartment in downtown Houston for five days, used his popularity on Twitter to relay messages of trapped residents and animals along with responses by authorities.
&#8220;All of them want to help and we are currently working on the best way to do so,&#8221; Hughes said of the players.

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James Harden, Move Aside – JJ Watt Is The New Face Of Houston

Houston

Hurricane Harvey

Nevada&#8217;s attorney general has accused California of &#8220;launching a direct and outrageous assault&#8221; on Nevadans by promoting a sanctuary city position that allows criminal &#8220;illegal aliens&#8221; to run free and threaten the safety of the Silver State.
The lengthy statement by Attorney General Adam Laxalt was emailed to Nevada Republican Party supporters after he filed a brief in federal court Friday seeking to undo <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/15747/breaking-federal-judge-blocks-sanctuary-cities-elliott-hamilton">an April 25 stay</a> that blocked President Trump&#8217;s executive order barring funding for sanctuary jurisdictions. Nevada joins nine other states in this effort, including Texas.
In his statement, Laxalt bemoaned the fact that California shares a border, presumably allowing illegal immigrants easy access to Nevada.
&#8220;Because California is right next door, its sanctuary cities pose a genuine danger to Nevadans &#8212; particularly given those cities&#8217; refusal on some occasions to detain illegal aliens with violent criminal histories, releasing them instead into communities where they have no right to be,&#8221; Laxalt wrote.
He then praised Nevada lawmakers and law enforcement for wanting no part of the growing sanctuary city trend. <a href="http://www.dopplr.com/sanctuary-city-list/">California has 19 sanctuary jurisdictions</a> out of the nation&#8217;s 171, second highest behind Oregon at 32.
&#8220;Fortunately, Nevada policymakers &#8212; including legislators, sheriffs and municipal leaders &#8212; have wisely and consistently rejected this absurd and reckless approach,&#8221; Laxalt said.
The court issued its injunction after receiving briefs from the California counties of San Francisco County and Santa Clara that stated Trump&#8217;s order was unconstitutional because a state has responsibility to control law enforcement for its residents. California, which recently passed a bill seeking to become a sanctuary state, filed an opposing brief as well.
&#8220;Threatening to take away resources from sheriffs and police officers in order to promote misguided views on federal immigration policy is reckless and puts public safety at risk,&#8221; California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-xavier-becerra-files-amicus-brief-city-and-county-san-francisco">statement on his website</a>. &#8220;It is the right and responsibility of California and each state under the Constitution to determine how it will provide for the safety and general welfare of its residents and to safeguard their constitutional rights. We will not be intimidated or coerced into compromising our state values on account of the Trump Administration&#8217;s fear mongering and falsehoods.&#8221;
Becerra did not respond to a request for comment on this article.
If Trump&#8217;s order proceeds, it will strip jurisdictions of some $1.7 billion in law enforcement funding &#8212; a punishment U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he intends to implement.
&#8220;The unlawful actions of these California cities cannot be allowed to stand,&#8221; Laxalt said. &#8220;They pose a clear and direct threat to public safety here in Nevada, and that&#8217;s why it was so important that my office take action on this crucial issue.&#8221;

Nevada Slams California’s Sanctuary City Stance: ‘Reckless’ And ‘Outrageous Assault’ On Nevadans

Donald Trump

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Nevada

Trump Administration

Administrators at a Chicago-area VA hospital knew they had a cockroach problem so severe that bugs were served in patients&#8217; food for years, yet both in-house kitchen inspectors and management did nothing to resolve the problem, the Veteran Affairs Office of Inspector General said in a report issued Tuesday.
Even though employees had been complaining about the infestation since 2011, VA inspectors only began investigating on May 10, 2016 after <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/04/27/whistleblower-cockroaches-served-in-food-at-chicago-area-va-hospital.html">a news article had documented the infestation</a> at the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Ill. The report gave no reason why its public release was delayed a year.
Problems have continued until this week as contracted quality control inspectors from the Joint Commission found numerous problems, such as food past the expiration date, refrigerators at the wrong temperatures, and frozen food with no expiration dates, according to an internal email. Whistleblower Germaine Clarno, who is a Hines social worker, also saw raw chicken served to a patient. (Images of raw chicken and expired food below, courtesy Clarno.)
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Hospital Director Steve Braverman sent an email to staff Tuesday outlining IG investigations saying he &#8220;concurred with those unacceptable findings&#8221; and that the hospital will be &#8220;making these improvements now&#8221; pertaining to the Joint Commission&#8217;s review.
&#8220;Although our surveyor and the OIG inspection teams found areas for improvement and, in some cases, unacceptable conditions, I consider both experiences to be beneficial,&#8221; Braverman wrote. &#8220;These findings have led, and will lead, to improvements in the services we provide to our patients and Veterans. We will take action.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.hines.va.gov/features/New_Leadership_at_Hines_VA_Hospital.asp">Braverman, an Army physician</a>, was hired as the director last October after 10 different people had cycled in and out of the job between 2011 and 2016.
Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, issued a stern statement to Daily Wire: 
&#8220;I was disgusted to read the OIG&#8217;s report on Hines,&#8221; said Roe. &#8220;When our nation&#8217;s heroes seek services at any VA facility, they deserve to be treated with respect and to be cared for in a high-quality environment, not have their health endangered by neglect of proper sanitation. Reports of the conditions at Hines &#8211; and the fact that those sanitation failures were swept under the rug &#8211; are unacceptable and will not be tolerated: He also stated, &#8220;I was disgusted to read the OIG&#8217;s report on Hines. When our nation&#8217;s heroes seek services at any VA facility, they deserve to be treated with respect and to be cared for in a high-quality environment, not have their health endangered by neglect of proper sanitation. Reports of the conditions at Hines &#8211; and the fact that those sanitation failures were swept under the rug &#8211; are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.&#8221;
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s unfortunate that these issues were first raised by me and other whistleblowers in 2011 and it took a news article before they did anything,&#8221; said Clarno, who is also the local AFGE union president at Hines. &#8220;I was in Mental Health when I first saw the cockroaches on the food trays &#8212; these were veterans with mental health issues. They were devastated, they refused to eat; they got sick.&#8221;
Clarno blasted the VA&#8217;s internal inspectors for &#8220;covering up&#8221; the roach problem by refusing to document any bug sightings despite visiting the kitchen four times a year. The IG investigators said they found &#8220;dead cockroaches on glue traps dispersed throughout the facility&#8217;s main kitchen.&#8221;
&#8220;Practically every employee at Hines has known for years that there&#8217;s a cockroach problem,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If the employees know, how could the inspectors miss it? This is the problem when the VA inspects itself.&#8221;
According to the report, &#8220;for at least the last 2 years (VA inspectors) did not document the presence of cockroaches.&#8221;
The IG substantiated six reports of cockroaches that were served to patients, transported throughout the 483-bed hospital in dirty food carts. Employees told investigators that no one was assigned the primary responsibility of ensuring and maintaining kitchen cleanliness. This was blamed on a staffing shortage. Hines has since hired a cleaning crew and 20 additional kitchen staff positions.
&#8220;We were informed that patients became very upset and distressed as a result of witnessing cockroaches on food trays and transportation carts,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;At times, the patients&#8217; distress would disrupt the entire unit. (Mental Health) nursing staff reported that on one occasion, pizza was ordered because patients were upset and refused to eat the food delivered via transportation carts the presence of cockroaches.&#8221;
The report said that between March 2011 and December 2015, six reports of cockroach problems had been delivered to facility leadership, which &#8220;relied on its pest control program and did not take additional action to control the problem.&#8221;
Despite knowing about these findings for a year, Nutrition and Food Service Director Valerie Adegunleye &#8211; who has held that position since 2014 &#8211; remains on the job. 
When questioned about this, Hines spokesperson Rick Fox told the Daily Wire that &#8220;Our leadership team is reviewing the actions of those involved and will take steps as appropriate.&#8221;
A spokesperson for VA Secretary David Shulkin could not be reached for comment. Both Shulkin and President Trump have vowed to rid the VA of &#8220;bad&#8221; employees, which has culminated in a new executive order that creates a division within the agency to do just that.
Hines has had some measure of success under its new director. Last year it abandoned use of the in-house extermination team and hired Orkin pest control to eradicate the bug problem. Orkin has confirmed to the Daily Wire that the hospital&#8217;s kitchen was pest-free.
Braverman discussed this in his email.
&#8220;An inspection by Orkin two weeks ago confirmed our pest control improvements, &#8216;Your kitchen is very clean, nearly perfectly repaired, and your staff are pursuing recommendations aggressively. You are now outperforming the wide majority of commercial kitchens out there as regards to pest proofing management,'&#8221; Braverman wrote.
Tori Richards has reported on some of the biggest stories in the world over the past 20 years for outlets including Fox News, Bloomberg, Reuters, The New York Times, NY Post and CBS News. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsWriter2">@NewsWriter2</a>.

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