U.S. military veteran suicides rise, one dies every 65 minutes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most extensive study yet by the U.S. government on suicide among military veterans shows more veterans are killing themselves than previously thought, with 22 deaths a day - or one every 65 minutes, on average.

The study released on Friday by the Department of Veterans Affairs covered suicides from 1999 to 2010 and compared with a previous, less precise VA estimate that there were roughly 18 veteran deaths a day in the United States.

More than 69 percent of veteran suicides were among individuals aged 50 years or older, the VA reported.

"This data provides a fuller, more accurate, and sadly, an even more alarming picture of veteran suicide rates," said Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington state, who has championed legislation to strengthen mental health care for veterans.

The news came two weeks after the U.S. military acknowledged that suicides hit a record in 2012, outpacing combat deaths, with 349 active-duty suicides - almost one a day.

That was despite sharper focus at the leadership level at the Pentagon and VA on the suicide problem, and came during an overall rise in suicides in the United States. The number of suicides in the United States rose 11 percent from 2007 to 2010, the VA said.

The VA did not provide raw data and acknowledged its national figures were still estimates. The new study was based on data collected from 21 states in which military status is reported on the death certificate. It said more data from more states were being processed.

Reuters last year obtained less-detailed data for the 2005-to-2010 period from 32 states, also showing a significant rise in the number of suicides among the country's 23 million veterans.

The VA said that while the number of veteran suicides had risen, the percentage of all suicides in America identified as "veteran" declined from 1999 to 2003 and had remained relatively constant in recent years.

The VA said the data would help it better identify where at-risk veterans may be located and improve targeting of specific suicide intervention and outreach activities.

"We have more work to do and we will use this data to continue to strengthen our suicide prevention efforts," Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a statement.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-military-veteran-suicides-rise-one-dies-every-000416080.html

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Want to enter this contest? Read the design brief and then submit a design.

Source: http://99designs.com/other-business-advertising/contests/weight-snap-needs-business-advertising-193784

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Marines head shares skepticism on women in combat

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? The commandant of the Marine Corps said the infantry side of the most male of all military branches is skeptical about how women will perform in their units, and some positions may end up closed again if too few females meet the physically demanding standards of combat.

Gen. James Amos made the remarks to reporters Thursday at a defense conference in San Diego hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and the defense trade group AFCEA.

Amos says most Marines support the Defense Department's lifting of the ban last week, which opened thousands of positions to women.

He pointed out that over the past decade, many male service members already have been fighting alongside women in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Women who serve in supply troops, as clerks and with military police have ended up on the unmarked front lines of modern warfare, blurring the distinction between combat and noncombat jobs. More than 150 women have been killed in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while serving in support roles.

Many of the positions opened by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's announcement are in Army and Marine infantry units and in potentially elite commando jobs. It will be up to the military service chiefs to recommend and defend whether women should be excluded from any of those more demanding and deadly positions, such as Navy commandos or the Army's Delta Force.

The infantry units are smaller and spend more grueling time in battle.

"I think from the infantry side of the house, you know they're more skeptical," Amos said. "It's been an all-male organization throughout the history of the U.S. Marine Corps so I don't think that should be any surprise."

Military officials say they will not lower standards, but they are reviewing them to ensure they are necessary in making a warfighter and not just difficult to be difficult.

When asked by The Associated Press about whether women will be allowed to someday serve as SEALs, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert said it will be up to special operations commands to determine how they will transition the standards to females.

"It is a matter of what are the expectations, and is it feasible to change the standards they have right now, physical standards," Greenert said. "They would say early on 'No, we can't do that,' but I think that's really to be determined."

Amos said his branch also wants to gauge how much interest there is among women to join the infantry units and whether enough can qualify for those units. If there is little interest or few can pass the infantry officers school, then certain positions may be closed to women.

Still, he emphasized, that doesn't mean he is expecting that to happen. He said military leaders want to ensure the military continues to be an effective war-fighting force. And if the data and analysis support closing some positions, he believes the defense secretary will support that.

"I have every expectation that the secretary of defense will honor that," Amos said. "It's a commonsense approach to this thing."

The Marine Corps opened its tough infantry course at Quantico, Va., to female volunteers last fall. Two tried unsuccessfully in the first session. In the second session, none signed up. Amos said two female lieutenants have signed up for the third session that will start in March.

Amos said he met with them Monday.

"They're stalwart," he said. "It looks like they're in great shape and they're excited about it."

Amos said he also met with one of the female officers who almost made it to the second-week mark of the course last fall. He said she was forced to drop out because of a stress fracture that was so severe it could have left her permanently injured.

"She did anything but quit," Amos said, adding that the woman was cheered on by her male counterparts. "She's a phenomenal officer."

The woman is now in flight training school in Pensacola, Fla. Amos said she was part of the team so he is optimistic that "we're going about it the right way."

"It's just a very, very difficult course, and it's a very small community," he added.

Women make up about 7 percent of the Marine Corps, compared with about 14 percent overall among the military's 1.4 million active military personnel.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/marines-head-shares-skepticism-women-combat-091358889.html

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Real Estate: Foreclosure activity down in Fresno | Fresno Bee ...

by BoNhia Lee on February 1, 2013

Foreclosure activity in the Fresno metropolitan area fell in 2012, according to a year-end report from RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service.

But Fresno still remains among the top 25 cities nationwide with the highest foreclosure rates.

Last year, one in every 38 houses in Fresno received a foreclosure filing. That?s a foreclosure rate of 2.63% which ranks Fresno at No. 24.

But the good news is Fresno saw nearly 30% fewer foreclosures in 2012 than 2011, the report said.

Four other California cities top the list. Stockton comes in first with a foreclosure rate of 3.98% where one in every 25 houses received a foreclosure notice.

Riverside is No. 2 with a 3.86% foreclosure rate where one in 26 houses received a notice. The foreclosure rates in Modesto and Vallejo were 3.82% and 3.73%, respectively.

To read the report, visit the?2012 Year-End Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.

?

?

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Source: http://news.fresnobeehive.com/archives/1234

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Obama decides not to extend term of jobs council

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is letting his jobs council expire, cutting off one source of input from business leaders while unemployment remains stubbornly high.

Obama formed the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in January 2011, when unemployment was about 9 percent. It's now 7.8 percent, though more than 12 million people are out of work.

Obama's executive order establishing the council said it would go out of business Jan. 31, 2013. The White House said Thursday that Obama had no plans to renew its charter.

"The work of the jobs council was very valuable," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "While the president didn't agree with all of its recommendations, he agreed with many of them and acted on a number of them."

White House officials said Obama intended for the council to fulfill its mission and then wind down, and that he would seek input about the economy from business leaders in other ways. Among the steps Obama plans to pursue are expedited permits for public works projects, plus programs to boost entrepreneurship and workforce development.

Even before Obama's decision was clear, Republicans seized on the council's likely expiration as evidence the president hadn't spent enough time on trying to create jobs, which is a priority for Americans. The Republican National Committee called it part of "the failed Obama record," while the House Republicans' campaign committee, in an online petition, accused Obama of laying off his own jobs council.

Adding to the concern about the job market's vulnerability, the Commerce Department said Wednesday that the U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1 percent from October through December of last year, the first quarterly drop since 2009. The Federal Reserve said the economy appears to have "paused in recent months."

The jobs council was a successor to an economic advisory board Obama created at the onset of his presidency. The panel was chaired by General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and included prominent business leaders and economists. Immelt said Thursday that progress has been made on putting in place 90 percent of the council's recommendations.

Obama met with the council only a few times. During the last meeting, in February 2012, the president and the council highlighted an engineering education initiative alongside school deans.

"The president treated his jobs council as more of a nuisance than a vehicle to spur job creation," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

The council's main product was report, "Roadmap to Renewal," that was released in January 2012. The council also organized a series of meetings across the country last year with business owners, elected officials and academics; Obama didn't attend those election-year sessions.

Critics have argued that the council's primary purpose was to create the appearance of action at a time when the nation was pining for something to rein in soaring joblessness. The administration acted on many of the council's recommendations, including suggestions to streamline permitting and small business loans, increase tourist visas and boost energy efficiency.

But the White House was at odds with several council members on tax policies, particularly a proposal to exclude overseas corporate earnings from U.S. taxes. That idea divided even the jobs council, whose membership included labor and Obama's political allies.

"It was helpful in terms of putting a spotlight on a variety of issues, but particularly helpful in the area of entrepreneurship," said AOL co-founder Steve Case, a member of the panel, in an interview. "There's still work to be done, but we did make good progress."

The council's dissolution also comes as White House aides are optimistic about the prospects for a second-term detente with business.

During Obama's first term, business leaders bristled at his harsh depiction of "fat-cat bankers" and his efforts to impose regulations, tax policies and spending initiatives they argued were unfriendly to business. Obama aides hope the warming of ties between the president and the business world can benefit the White House in future fiscal debates with Republicans.

White House officials said the president made a fresh effort to reach out to business in the days following his re-election. Between the November election and the end of 2012, in the height of negotiations to avert the "fiscal cliff," more than 400 business leaders, ranging from CEOs of large multinational companies to small business owners, met with Obama or his aides at the White House, officials said.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn and AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Obama's executive order: http://tinyurl.com/b8y3r2n

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-31-Obama-Jobs%20Council/id-418e94ec6de341c6a48e9afe6471b57d

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Marines head shares skepticism on women in combat

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The commandant of the Marine Corps said the infantry side of the most male of all military branches is skeptical about how women will perform in their units, and some positions may end up closed again if too few females meet the physically demanding standards of combat.

Gen. James Amos made the remarks to reporters Thursday at a defense conference in San Diego hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and the defense trade group AFCEA.

Amos says most Marines support the Defense Department's lifting of the ban last week, which opened thousands of positions to women.

He pointed out that over the past decade, many male service members already have been fighting alongside women in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Women who serve in supply troops, as clerks and with military police have ended up on the unmarked front lines of modern warfare, blurring the distinction between combat and noncombat jobs. More than 150 women have been killed in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while serving in support roles.

Many of the positions opened by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's announcement are in Army and Marine infantry units and in potentially elite commando jobs. It will be up to the military service chiefs to recommend and defend whether women should be excluded from any of those more demanding and deadly positions, such as Navy commandos or the Army's Delta Force.

The infantry units are smaller and spend more grueling time in battle.

"I think from the infantry side of the house, you know they're more skeptical," Amos said. "It's been an all-male organization throughout the history of the U.S. Marine Corps so I don't think that should be any surprise."

Military officials say they will not lower standards, but they are reviewing them to ensure they are necessary in making a warfighter and not just difficult to be difficult.

When asked by The Associated Press about whether women will be allowed to someday serve as SEALs, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert said it will be up to special operations commands to determine how they will transition the standards to females.

"It is a matter of what are the expectations, and is it feasible to change the standards they have right now, physical standards," Greenert said. "They would say early on 'No, we can't do that,' but I think that's really to be determined."

Amos said his branch also wants to gauge how much interest there is among women to join the infantry units and whether enough can qualify for those units. If there is little interest or few can pass the infantry officers school, then certain positions may be closed to women.

Still, he emphasized, that doesn't mean he is expecting that to happen. He said military leaders want to ensure the military continues to be an effective war-fighting force. And if the data and analysis support closing some positions, he believes the defense secretary will support that.

"I have every expectation that the secretary of defense will honor that," Amos said. "It's a commonsense approach to this thing."

The Marine Corps opened its tough infantry course at Quantico, Va., to female volunteers last fall. Two tried unsuccessfully in the first session. In the second session, none signed up. Amos said two female lieutenants have signed up for the third session that will start in March.

Amos said he met with them Monday.

"They're stalwart," he said. "It looks like they're in great shape and they're excited about it."

Amos said he also met with one of the female officers who almost made it to the second-week mark of the course last fall. He said she was forced to drop out because of a stress fracture that was so severe it could have left her permanently injured.

"She did anything but quit," Amos said, adding that the woman was cheered on by her male counterparts. "She's a phenomenal officer."

The woman is now in flight training school in Pensacola, Fla. Amos said she was part of the team so he is optimistic that "we're going about it the right way."

"It's just a very, very difficult course, and it's a very small community," he added.

Women make up about 7 percent of the Marine Corps, compared with about 14 percent overall among the military's 1.4 million active military personnel.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/marines-head-shares-skepticism-women-133743508.html

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Football clubs look to youth to cut costs

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Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/video/europe/2013/01/2013130125948932610.html

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