In the News: 3 April 2015

$1.73 billion VA Hospital, Colorado Springs

Aurora, Colorado … The US Army Corps of Engineers are taking over construction management at the new Denver veterans hospital after an internal investigation discovered that the project is $1 billion over budget. It is a hospital that should never have been built. Recommendations for the VA to create a liaison with private sector hospitals and clinics would be more cost efficient and veteran patients would not have to travel far to get medical treatment and medications required. It is another example of inefficiency of a government bloated with bureaucracy and rift with wasting tax-funded dollars. I have encouraged the gradual change from VA hospitals to liaison with private sector hospitals for more than ten years. Yet, Congress will not listen. Veterans on the average have to travel at least 40-50 miles to get to a VA hospital in every state. In the past, the excuse was that medical personnel at VA hospitals and clinics are trained to address veteran health problems; but that is absurd. Major city medical staff deal with gunshot wounds regularly, and psychiatrists in the private sector are completely capable of treating patients with combat mental stress. The hospital in Colorado is costing $1.73 billion to build and that cost does not stop because maintenance will be required.

Salem, Oregon … An Oregon Senate committee will hear public testimony this week on a proposal by gun-control advocates to require a background check any time someone sells or gives a firearm to another person who isn’t a relative. The bill requires gun buyers and sellers who aren’t related to visit a licensed gun dealer that can, for a fee, run a background check through the Oregon State Police. Oregon law prohibits giving a gun to minors, felons, people with recent convictions for violent behavior or those who have been found by a court to have a mental illness.

Utah … the state of Utah has approved the firing squad as the method of carrying out a death sentence. Governor Gary Herbert approved and signed the law as a backup if the state cannot restock its supply of lethal injection drugs. It’s near-impossible to get the lethal drugs: Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, and the 29 other states where the practice is legal, are finding it really difficult to restock the lethal injection drugs. Over the past few years, an acute and mysterious shortage of sodium thiopental, a key drug in lethal injections, has left states scrambling for alternative ways to execute prisoners. It is because sources around the world, and in the US, have been refusing to supply drugs for lethal injection, most explain it is because of their negative views of the death penalty and are afraid their products will be associated with executions providing bad public relations. So they would rather see the electric chair method to return or hanging or the firing squad? The argument of the firing squad is legitimate and logical: Five precision shooters, hand-picked from a pool of skilled and trained volunteers, aim their rifles through slots on a wall and target the prisoner’s chest (because it’s a larger target than the head). If the shooters hit their mark correctly, the prisoner’s heart ruptures and causes a relatively quick death from blood loss. Lethal injections, on the other hand, have been a hit-and-miss, with many botched executions still haunting the states. This is because doctors, who can correctly administer the lethal injections, refuse to do so as it violates their professional ethics. Combine that with states using unreliable and not-thoroughly-tested drugs, makes a very dangerous combination that has horrible results, but not a painless death.

Rapid City, South Dakota … Several recent grass fires has caused the US Forest Service to issue a warning to shooters in the woods to be cautious and avoid causing fires. Lack of rainfall had provided extremely dry conditions in the Black Hills.

Breitbart.com … Kroger CFO, Michael Shlotman stated the retail food chain will not comply with the demands of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense by changing its policy of allowing permitted conceal-carry customers in their stores. The anti-Second Amendment group also targeted Harris Teeter – but they would not change their gun policy as well. They are being logical. Every case of mass murder has been at places where firearms were not allowed – and posted. In addition, they are also preventing armed robbery. Criminals like hitting easy target areas, rather than face one or more customers present who are armed. Too bad other businesses are not practicing logic backed by statistics.

KIMATV.com … Sarah Worthington wrote an article concerning the topic of traveling with a firearm. It also brought to mind the video of the Patriot Nurse who tells of her bad experience traveling with firearms – hers was stolen during the transit process:

I end this article with a delightful bit of humor at a wedding ceremony - Facebook: