i believe the use of the forensic psychiatrist was isolated to madigan. that's where i believe that comment that it wasn't system wide. that type of additional part -- >> the forensic system wasn't system wide. system wide, we have issues with people not being diagnosed correctly. >> we want to look across the system. if we have issues, we identify those and get the individuals back into the system. it was a forward leaning approach to say we need to look across the system. not that we are convinced that similar problems exist. it's the right thing to do. we saw a number of these reevaluations ended up with diagnosis change. it's the right thing to do. >> i think it's extremely important to find anybody who was misdiagnosed to get them cured. we will continue to focus on this. >> with that, i'll turn it over to senator boseman. >> yes, ma'am. with your permission, i would like to defer to senator burr then come back. >> great. >> i thank my colleague. madam chairman, thank you for this hearing. mr. gingrich, i share your cold. it's not fun. dr. rooney, do

rooney, there is no doubt that the events at madigan have shaken the trust and confidence of service members who will r in the disability evaluation system. i believe that transparency and sharing information about the ongoing re-evaluations that are happening today and actions from the army and d.o.d. are taking to remedy this situation will go a long ways towards restoring some trust in this system. i wanted to ask you today what we have learned from the investigations that the army is conducting into the forensic psychiatry unit at madigan. >> well, us a pointed out earlier, there have been 196 re-evaluations completed to date, of which 108 of those have been diagnosed as having ptsd where before they had not. >> let me just say that they had been diagnosed with ptsd when they went through the evaluation they were told they did not and now going back and re-evaluating them once they have gone out saying yes, indeed, you did have ptsd. >> 108 of those -- >> more than half. >> yes. there are 119 deshld to be eligible for re-evaluation, 287 from the original group that was looked at,

>> thank you. >> and i would just add, senator johanns, as a result of what we have looked at at madigan, that is being reviewed back to 2007, i believe, all the cases. but army-wide now as a result of the work i've done, they're now going back to 2001 to review all army cases. but it still is not system-wide. and i think that that has to be part of it. so it's something i'm very focused on. we'll work with you on making sure that we continue to stay on top of this. i want to go back, dr. rooney, i am very concerned about what i continue to hear about the warrior transition units on the ides experience itself. i hear from service members who are in the disability process that they are languishing in this process without any meaningful or productive things to do. service members tell us that they feel that their commanders are out to get them. and on the other hand, we hear from commanders that they feel these service members are being deliberately obstructed and delaying the process in order to be more difficult. that kind of adversarial relationship can't be beneficial for either the un

causing the problem up to the legislature to come up with a viable solution >> house speaker michael madiganmake to get this passed quickly and the of the adjusted session if it does pass students gearing up for a legal battle >> sen mark kirk ex-wife filing a complaint to federal election commission sen mark kirk and kimberley vertolli force to amicably three years ago worked on senate campaign of one year after the divorce play kimberley vertolli bus with sen mark kirk and girlfriend dodi mccracken paid by a third-party more than three times as much as she received for campaign work spokesman for sen mark kirk respondent calling the claim baseless a bitter personal attack attempting to involve a federal agency in a divorce settled 36 months ago. more to come at the coming up tonight man's best friends to the rescue out a dog saved family in riverside when their home became engulfed in flames and to check out soldier emotional reunion with her son. always great to see that. [ water ] hey, it's me water. does this faucet make me look fat? probably because of the lead i can pick up in your pi

they found evaluations that focus on perceived exaggeration similar to what we saw at madigan. without documentation of opprobrious standardize interview techniques. they have encountered in adequate medical examinations especially in relation to brain injuries and rating decisions based -- issued as part of the joint process containing errors which in some cases impact the level of benefits to veterans should have received. before we begin today's questions i am entering the results of this investigation into the record at this point and there will be more to come. let me start with dr. jo ann rooney. we have had discussions about the joint disability evaluation system and the challenges service members face going through this process. it has come to my attention that our service members involved in the disability process, and unsupported behavior from the chains of command with a limited duty and waiting for disability decisions. service members forced to participate in activities in direct violation of doctor's orders to have been disciplined for behavior of health condition

we will continue to see issues similar to those at madigan until they ensure policies and actions like those we have seen from the army in recent weeks are adopted across the services and throughout the joint system. ensuring service members receive a proper diagnosis and the care and benefits they earn is an obligation we have as a nation. we owe it to them to get it right. these are not the only challenges confronting disability evaluation system. we are going to hear about other challenges facing the department. challenges i must say sound all too familiar. everyone on the committee knows the v.a. struggles for the claims backlog. numbers from the evaluation system paint a similar picture. enrollment continues to climb. the number of service members cases meeting the timeliness goals is low. the amount of time it takes to separate and provide benefits to a service member through this system has risen each year since inception. this continued rise in the amount of time it takes to provide a service member with a decision has to be addressed. the goal the departments have set for comp

we will continue to see similar issues to those at madigan until the d.o.d. and v.a. ensure policies and accesses like those we've seen from the army's in recent weeks are adopted across the services and throughout the joint system. ensuring service members receive a prop per diagnosis and the care and benefits they earned is an obligation we have as as nation. we owe it to these men and women to get this right. these are not the only challenges confronting integrated disability evaluation system bp we're going to hear today from g.o.a. about other challenges facing the departments. challenges which i must say sound all too familiar. everyone on this committee knows of v.a. struggles to address the claims backlog. i'm troubled because numbers of from the integrated system paint a similar picture. enrollment continues to climb. the number of service members cases meaning the department's timeliness goals is unacceptably low, and the amount of time it takes to separate and provide benefits to a service member through this system has risen each year since its inception.

investigation obtained a letter current mayor rahm emmanuel wrote recently to house speaker michael madigan and other leaders. warning to choices watched the system pension system go bankrupt in the next decade or triple property taxes $1.4 billion a year not a choice he's willing to force on the people of chicago. up for debate you might be surprised to learn how chicago most famous pensioner got a sweetheart deal >> all are around chicago you can see the legacy of mayor richard m. daley not so easy to see his role in shaping the chicago massive pension debt >> 20 years ago richard daley set in motion a series of events taxpayers pay for today. set himself up with pension deal far better than most city workers. before he was mayor. cook county state attorney. before that eight years as state senator of those years in springfield to set up daily for life. >> less taxes for less, more taxes for last city services remember he lost his first run at mayor. when the opportunity presented itself took advantage of an obscure provision in the state pension law. the kind of deal only those insiders

exploded in a speech denouncing what he called the excessive power of the illinois house leader mike madigan, a democrat the debt total power in one person's hands. not the american way. i have to figure out how to vote for my people. you should be ashamed of yourselves. i am sick of it. every year, we give power to one person. it was not been that way in the constitution. he was around when it was written. now we pass rules that stopped each one of us. enough. i feel like somebody tried to be released from egypt. that my people go. >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today marks the third anniversary of the death of dr. george tiller, a 67-year-old abortion provider who was shot point blank as he attended services in his wichita, kansas church. he was one of the handful in the nation that performed abortions after the 24 week of pregnancy. he faced constant threats of vandalism and violence. his clinic was bombed in 1985. in 1993, dr. tiller survived an assassination attempt. speaking to them this majority foundation in 2008, he described

. >> reporter: stanford researcher daniel madigan said the evidence of radioactivity found in the bluea is unequivocal that the tuna, which are a japanese delicacy, were contaminated from fukushima's nuclear explosion last year. >> we'll be looking at a wider number of blue fin tuna and other species. >> the fish had two types of radioactive. they were caught by fishermen and weren't intended for american consumers. they said it's not surprising that radioactivity was detected in the blue fin tuna. >> i'm sorry to say i'm not too surprised to hear about that. because they did a lot of testing after the nuclear disaster. and a lot of the fishes there showed signs of radiation absorption. >> reporter: the levels were well below what is considered unsafe for humans. but salt laker believes the discovery shouldn't be taken lightly. >> any kind of unnatural radioactivity is a concern, whether we're immediately eating it or whether it's just staying in the ocean. now, my understanding is that this type of radiation has a relatively short half life of two years. but still, all kines of toxins

he came back to the united states there at madigan army hospital at fort lewis on march 15th.y had kept him overnight. he met with a psychiatrist the next morning. who deemed him to be low to moderate risk for suicide. had him sign papers saying that he will get counseling and go to alcohol and substance abuse classes. two days later he tried to kill hisself again. by cutting himself. drinking alcohol with his medication. on his suicide letter he stated that he bandaged hisself up. went to formation on friday. that he walked around waiting for someone to notice him. that he felt invisible and transparent. and then friday night he hung himself in his which i learned later, that that was against army regulations fon >> do you feel that the army, i mean from the chain of events you've described in reading about the story, it's very difficult to conclude that this was handled properly. do you feel the army failed your son? >> yes. on the autopsy report and the autopsy photos, they said that my son, who hadn't been eating or sleeping since january, that he was a well-nourished, 110