_____ From: Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 7:26 AM Subject: ... NEWS ... (1) 143 Army suicides at record high in 2008, passing civilians (2) Ohioan gets 44 years in underwear molestation ploy (3) Senate GOP leader says party must change
Army suicides at record high, passing civilians By PAULINE JELINEK and KIMBERLY HEFLING (Associated Press WriterS) >From Associated Press January 29, 2009 10:23 PM EST WASHINGTON - Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out. At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008, the Army said Thursday. And the final count is likely to be even higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated. "Why do the numbers keep going up? We cannot tell you," said Army Secretary Pete Geren. "We can tell you that across the Army we're committed to doing everything we can to address the problem." It's all about pressure and the military approach, said Kim Ruocco, 45, whose Marine husband was an officer and Cobra helicopter pilot who hanged himself in a California hotel room in 2005. That was one month before he was to return to Iraq a second time. She said her husband, John, had completed 75 missions in Iraq and was struggling with anxiety and depression but felt he'd be letting others down if he sought help and couldn't return. "He could be any Marine because he was highly decorated, stable, the guy everyone went to for help," Ruocco said in a telephone interview. "But the thing is ... the culture of the military is to be strong no matter what and not show any weakness." Ruocco, of Newbury, Mass., was recently hired to be suicide support coordinator for the nonprofit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. She said she feels that the military has finally started to reach out to suicide survivors and seek solutions. "Things move slowly, but I think they're really trying," Ruocco said. At the Pentagon on Thursday, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatric consultant to the Army surgeon general, made a plea for more professionals to sign on to work for the military. "We are hiring and we need your help," she said. Military leaders promised fresh prevention efforts will start next week. The new suicide figure compares with 115 in 2007 and 102 in 2006 and is the highest since current record-keeping began in 1980. Officials expect the deaths to amount to a rate of 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers, which is higher than the civilian rate - when adjusted to reflect the Army's younger and male-heavy demographics - for the first time in the same period of record-keeping. Officials have said that troops are under unprecedented stress because of repeated and long tours of duty due to the simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yearly increases in suicides have been recorded since 2004, when there were 64 - only about half the number now. Officials said they found that the most common factors were soldiers suffering problems with their personal relationships, legal or financial issues and problems on the job. But the magnitude of what the troops are facing in combat shouldn't be forgotten, said Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., a former Navy vice admiral, who noted he spoke with a mother this week whose son was preparing for his fifth combat tour. "This is a tough battle that the individuals are in over there," Sestak said. "It's unremitting every day." Said Dr. Paul Ragan, an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University and a former Navy psychiatrist: "Occasional or sporadic visits by military mental health workers are like a Band-Aid for a gushing wound." The statistics released Thursday cover soldiers who killed themselves while they were on active duty - including National Guard and Reserve troops who had been activated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the suicide rate for U.S. society overall was about 11 per 100,000 in 2004, the latest year for which the agency has figures. But the Army says the civilian rate is more like 19.5 per 100,000 when adjusted. An earlier report showed the Marine Corps recorded 41 possible or confirmed suicides in 2008 - about 19 per 100,000 troops. The military's numbers don't include deaths after people have left the services. The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks those numbers and says there were 144 suicides among the nearly 500,000 service members who left the military from 2002-2005 after fighting in at least one of the two ongoing wars. --- On the Net: Army suicide prevention http://www.armyg1.army.mil/HR/suicide/default.asp Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ........................................ Ohioan gets 44 years in underwear molestation ploy >From Associated Press January 29, 2009 10:50 PM EST CINCINNATI - A suburban Cincinnati man convicted of sexually touching children while claiming to be a market researcher who wanted to measure their underwear has been sentenced to 44 years in prison. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman imposed the maximum sentence possible on Ben Hawkins on Thursday. Prosecutors said the 44-year-old Hawkins targeted boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 16, and sometimes convinced parents to let him be alone with their kids. They say he arranged to meet parents and children at schools, hospitals or their homes and told parents he needed to measure underwear for research. Hawkins pleaded guilty in December to nine charges of importuning and three counts of gross sexual imposition. --- Information from: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. .............................................. Senate GOP leader says party must change <http://my.eimg.net/harvest_xml/NEWS/img/20090129/498145e0_3ca7_155272009012 9-790889048.jpg> Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, center, speaks at the Republican National Committee (RNC) meeting in Washington, Thursday, Jan. Pablo Martinez Monsivais By LIZ SIDOTI (Associated Press Writer) >From Associated Press January 29, 2009 10:56 PM EST WASHINGTON - After crushing defeats in back-to-back elections, the top Senate Republican warned Thursday that the GOP risks remaining out of power in the White House and Congress unless it better explains its core principles to woo one-time faithful and new loyalists. "Unless we do something to adapt, our status as a minority party may become too pronounced for an easy recovery," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the Republican National Committee on Thursday. "The situation is challenging, but it's far from irreversible." McConnell gave a stark assessment of where the Republican Party went wrong and provided a road map for how it can right itself as he spoke party activists gathered in Washington to choose the next national chairman. With voting slated for Friday, four candidates are trying to unseat former President George W. Bush's hand-picked RNC chairman, Mike Duncan of Kentucky. They are: former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, South Carolina GOP chairman Katon Dawson and Michigan GOP chairman Saul Anuzis. A fifth - former Tennessee GOP chairman Chip Saltsman - dropped out of the race on Thursday with little explanation, saying only in a letter to RNC members: "I have decided to withdraw my candidacy." Saltsman, who ran former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's failed presidential campaign last year, was considered a long-shot candidate who several Republican officials said likely wouldn't have had enough support even to be formally nominated had he continued his bid. It faltered in December after he drew controversy for mailing a 41-track CD to committee members that included a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro," by conservative comedian Paul Shanklin and sung to the music of "Puff, the Magic Dragon." Despite criticism, Saltsman didn't apologize and defended the tune as one of several "lighthearted political parodies" that have aired on Rush Limbaugh's radio show. All of Duncan's challengers have spent the past few months arguing that he simply represents a continuation of Bush; Duncan has argued he has the experience to make necessary changes. Republicans say it's all but certain no one will get a majority on the first ballot when the 168-member RNC votes. Republicans say Duncan leads in endorsements for a second two-year term, with Steele, Dawson and Anuzis in competitive positions, while Blackwell trails. Still, with at least two rounds of balloting expected, it's possible anyone could end up with a majority. Just eight years after Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, the GOP finds itself out of power and trying to figure out how to rebound while its foe has grown much stronger. The Democratic Party is empowered by a broadened coalition of voters - including Hispanics and young voters - who swung behind President Barack Obama's call for change. Meanwhile, Bush left the White House with low job approval ratings, Republicans saw their ranks in Congress grow even smaller and the party finds itself without a standard-bearer. Perhaps even more damaging to the GOP, the slice of the country that calls itself Republican has shrunk over the past few years as Obama and his Democrats attracted voters of all political stripes. Implicit in McConnell's message was the concern that the Republican Party under Bush strayed from its beliefs, resulting in drubbings in two straight elections. While McConnell praised Bush as a man of principle, he said: "We can all agree, sad as it is, that he wasn't winning any popularity contests. And history shows that unpopular presidents are usually a drag on everybody else who wears their political label." McConnell called for the GOP to embrace its conservative principles - and resist diluting its message - to bring people back and attract new rank and file. Still, he added: "It's clear our message isn't getting out to nearly as many people as it should. ... Too often we've let others define us. And the image they've painted isn't very pretty." He acknowledged GOP fears that certain demographics from certain regions have shunned the party. And, he warned: "In politics, there's a name for a regional party: it's called a minority party." Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ..... *** exposing the hidden truth for further educational research only *** CAVEAT LECTOR *** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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