Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald announced a much needed Veterans Affairs overhaul Monday. Also, will selling cigarettes on military bases be outlawed? Then, a new study reveals long-term marijuana use leads to brain shrinkage.
After health care scandal, Veteran Affairs to restructure around providing better customer service
The Veteran Affairs Administration unveiled Monday plans to overhaul the agency in the wake of the health care scandal that has plagued the department for a better part of a year. It represents the first major action by new VA Secretary Robert McDonald, who has been in the job for just three months. Under the plan, the agency will streamline its massive bureaucracy and improve its customer service to better serve veterans. In focusing on improving customer service, McDonald is bringing his experience from the private sector to fix the VA health care system that has hitherto been beset by long wait times, sloppy record-keeping, and fraudulent practices.
In an interview with CBS, McDonald said that the VA is looking to fire 35 executives and discipline 1,000 staffers because of the mishaps.
Guest:
Travis Tritten, reporter at Stars and Stripes who’s been following the story,
This piece is part of KPCC's ongoing coverage of issues affecting veterans for Veteran's Day 2014. See more of our coverage at KPCC.org/vets.
What our veterans can teach us about citizenship, heroism and sacrifice
The United States has sent 2.6 million American soldiers to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other fronts. It's a staggering number, but a sustained drop in military enlistment also means that the men and women who made the decision to serve our country have become strangers to many of us.
In the new book, "For Love of Country," authors Howard Schultz and Rajiv Chandrasekaran profile a number veterans to give readers an intimate portrait of the men and women in uniform.
The book is not just about their war experiences, but also about their homecomings and the contributions they make to society after their return. It shows us what veterans can teach us about becoming better citizens, better workers and better people.
Guest:
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, co-author with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz of “For Love of Country” (Knopf, 2014)
This piece is part of KPCC's ongoing coverage of issues affecting veterans for Veteran's Day 2014. See more of our coverage at KPCC.org/vets.
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em: Pentagon, DoD consider banning sale of tobacco on military bases
Smokers in the military may have to go off base to get their cigarettes and chewing tobacco if Congress decides to enact a ban on the sale of tobacco products on U.S. military bases.
The Defense Department and Congress are currently mulling over the bill, which would prevent the sale of cigarettes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco on military bases, in the hopes of snuffing out high smoking rates in the military. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus was the first to bring up the issue, and shortly after he did, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the Defense Department to review the issue.
Supporters of the ban say that members of the military are expected to be in peak physical condition and that curbing tobacco use would help better prepare those enlisted. Opponents, like Congressman and Marine reservist Duncan Hunter (R-CA), say that tobacco use isn't curbed for anyone else, and that those people who are putting their lives on the line to protect American freedom shouldn't have their own freedoms taken away.
If the discussion is going to happen in Congress, it will most likely be during the upcoming lame-duck session.
Guests:
Karen Jowers, reporter for Military Times
Greg Haifley, director of federal relations at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Rick Ungar, senior political contributor at Forbes, host of Steele & Ungar on Sirius XM
West LA veterans facility slow to help homeless
The new director of the West Los Angeles Veterans Home, Thomas Bucci, is tasked with speeding up the slow progress of the half-empty facility. In June 2010, $253-million was pledged for the facility to create a 396-bed veterans home managed by the California Department of Veterans Affairs.
As chronicled by the Los Angeles Times' Steve Lopez, the building remains half vacant because it was constructed without a kitchen, which became a problem when a food service contract evaporated.
Meanwhile, L.A. County has the unfortunate distinction of having the most homeless military veterans in the country, more than 6,300. Mayor Eric Garcetti has pledged to end veteran homelessness in the city of Los Angeles by 2016.
Whether anyone will be able to use the sprawling land and facilities in Westwood is an open question. Veterans advocates have protested and taken legal action over alleged misuse of the land and a failure to help ailing and homeless veterans. Recent mediation into the matter has failed. Why has Veterans Affairs been slow to help the problem of homeless vets?
Guests:
Maj. Gen. Peter James Gravett, Secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs
Toni Reinis, Former Executive Director of New Directions - an organization that offers housing, counseling, training, drug abuse treatment and more to veterans in LA County.
This piece is part of KPCC's ongoing coverage of issues affecting veterans for Veteran's Day 2014. See more of our coverage at KPCC.org/vets.
Study says chronic marijuana use shrinks your brain
A study conducted by researchers from the University of Texas’ Center for Brain Health and the Albuquerque-based Mind Research Network has found evidence that chronic pot smokers have less gray matter than people who have never smoked marijuana. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the observations of decreased gray matter were found in the orbital frontal cortex, an area of the brain that is related to the decision-making and addictive behaviors network. The finding had been widely observed among mice but disputed for human beings.
Yet the researchers also found higher connectivity relating to white matter in the chronic pot smokers, which is associated with better adaptive learning. The authors of the study could not determine whether there is a causal relationship between the pot use and levels of gray matter, and they could only make a correlation between pot use and IQ. The study used 62 non-pot smokers and 48 chronic pot smokers (people who used marijuana at least four times a week over the past six months), matched for age and gender.
Will these findings deter marijuana users? How will the growing science around marijuana shape the national debate?
Guest:
Sina Aslan, Assistant Adjunct Profressor at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas, one of the co-authors of the marijuana study
Dr. David Agus, Professor of Medicine and Engineering at the University of Southern California and Director of the Westside Cancer Center
Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin
Pianist and singer Hershey Felder is probably best known for bringing the works of George Gershwin to a new generation with his one man show, “George Gershwin ALONE.” Now he’s back with a new project at the Geffen, this time memorializing the music of Irving Berlin. Felder joins Larry to talk about the new show and the inspiration it drew from “America’s Composer.” From the depths of anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia, to New York’s Lower East Side, Berlin’s story epitomizes the American dream and Felder’s show honors his legacy with some of the composer’s most popular and enduring songs from “God Bless America,” to “White Christmas” and beyond.
Guest:
Hershey Felder, creator and star of “Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin,” which runs through December 21st at the Geffen Playhouse.