mr. ruiz is richard edward ruiz jr. your true name?yes. >> the following day it's preliminary court hearing ruiz was charged with felony possession of narcotics which could carry a lengthy sentence behind bars. he entered a plea of not guilty and had one supporter at the hearing, his girlfriend, samantha dunn, who spoke to us afterwards. >> tell me how you found out that your boyfriend was in jail. >> he was supposed to pick me up from work one day and after work i was waiting outside and an hour had passed and he wasn't there and i knew something was wrong. and so when i got home i found out on the internet that he was arrested. >> what are your biggest fears for him right now? >> i'm just afraid that he's in isolation, just completely -- you know, scared and lonely and doesn't know what's going to happen. and on top of that, i'm afraid of how long he's going to be in jail. that's my biggest fear so far. and that it would change him in any way. i hope it doesn't change his heart. >> i didn't know my girlfriend was going to be in the c

mr. ruiz: how about using resolution as a metric? resolution from day one to the final final answer for our answers and looking at that in the whole continuum? mr. miller: did i hear -- did i hear you just say the v.a. wants legislative approval to close a veteran's appeals process? ms. mccoy: we have had that as a legislative proposal to close the record, yes, sir. mr. miller: and however -- and ow far did that go legislatively? ms. mccoy: we introduced it several times, is my understanding, and we're still working on that. mr. miller: i don't know if you'll get this committee to allow the v.a. to close a veteran's appeal just because you want to clean your books up. mr. coffman, you're recognized. mr. coffman: thank you, mr. chairman. ms. mccoy, i heard from a lot of my constituents about the backlog problems in the denver v.a. office. particularly on nonrating adjustment claims. v.a.'s own denver office numbers from last week peg the average days pending on , nrating claims at 384 days over a year and that assumes this data is reli

the 2008 world championship, mr. ruizmething to chat about really quickly. >> well, go on. >> i'm responding to people on twitter. there is a guy on here, reshawn reid senior who send a station to me and i can't believe you let lauren dawn get on the air with those busted nails, do better, he says. >> i have to say, i noticed this earlier in the week. >> no, no. >> you are busted. >> but look. >> i'm looking and so are the viewers. >> it is one nail that chipped. the rest of my nails. >> i have to -- rest of my nails look decent. but one nail and he is like i can't believe y'all let her on tv. i am going to today reshawn to get it fixed. >> stop it. >> here's the analysis i make. you see a beautiful ferrari going down the road and it has a dent or banged up headlight that is one thing you will focus on. >> tough crowd out there. >> men are visual. >> talking about adele. >> move over, adele. >> a teacher saying hello, you tube stardom, wait until you hear this song. the reason for this funny parody next. hershey's miniatu

mr. ruiz: she worked in the food industry for 14 years. she still had the energy and passion to volunteer countless hours for over 30 years with nonprofit organizations like the crow chela church, library, center of employment training, senior volunteer programs, senior centers, chambers of commerces and the list goes on and on. she was a photo columnist for the adventures of chris. she helped a boy grow for over 20 years. chris was named riverside county's volunteer of the year in 2000 and in twee, she was honored as -- 2003, she was honored as the city of cochella's citizen of the year. her attitude towards life is admirable. her sense of community is exceptional and her smile is irreplaceable. thank you and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lamalfa: t

ruiz, you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here. thank you for your efforts. i know your intentions are to serve our veterans with the utmost quality. there's wins and losses and a lot of interrogation from this committee, i'm sure. i think we need to take a step back and look at the big picture. this hearing is about backlog. backlog is a description of a metric definition saying we don't have resolution on a veterans application for their benefits after 125 days. we're even going even more specific away from the big picture when we focus on vbms since that's only one of several tools we have to help us reduce the backlog. however, after many conversations with our veterans, after many attempts in advocacy fighting the system, helping the veterans back home and visiting the l.a. regional office with representative brownley to hear from staff and others, we must ask what does backlog mean for veterans especially when we try to become a veteran-centered institution of excellence for them? what does it mean for our veterans when we th