Hagel order: Better military health care
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered improvements at military hospitals and clinics after a review found "wide performance variability" in the quality of care.
"We can do better," Hagel said Wednesday in a memo directing top military officials to come up with remedies.
The review of the Military Health System, which provides care to 9.6 million troops, retirees and family members, was started in May after reports of deaths, delays in treatment and substandard care at hospitals in the separate system run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Defense Department review, which included input from independent analysts, found the system's 56 military hospitals and 361 medical clinics provide "good quality care that is safe and timely, and is comparable to that found in the civilian sector," according to the report issued Wednesday.
Even so, the system "demonstrates wide performance variability with some areas better than civilian counterparts and other areas below national benchmarks."
Hagel ordered military facilities identified in the review as having poor quality or safety to draft "an action plan to improve performance" within 45 days, according to the memo he issued Wednesday. Those identified as offering poor access to care must have improvement plans completed within 30 days.
Murder suspect wants Muslim lawyer
NORMAN, Okla. -- A man accused of beheading a woman at an Oklahoma food-processing plant after being suspended from his job was ordered held without bail Wednesday and asked a judge to name a Muslim as his court-appointed lawyer.
Alton Nolen, 30, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Colleen Hufford, 54, and with two counts of assault. Prosecutors said Nolen was stabbing another employee when he was shot by a plant manager in an attack last Thursday at the Vaughan Foods plant in Moore.
In a video arraignment Wednesday, Judge Michael Tupper ordered Nolen held without bail and said the court would appoint an attorney.
"I'm Muslim," Nolen told the judge. "Do you have any Muslims who might represent me?"
The judge responded: "We'll see. I don't know the answer to that question."
A prosecutor said Tuesday that while Nolen had an "infatuation" with beheadings and had recently converted to Islam, it appeared the assault was motivated by Nolen's suspension.
GOP Senate hopes dealt blow in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. -- Kansas Democrats are not required to field a candidate this fall against Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, a state court decided Wednesday in a boost for independent Greg Orman and a blow to the GOP's hopes of capturing a majority of the U.S. Senate.
A panel of three Shawnee County District Court judges ruled in a suit filed after Democratic candidate Chad Taylor dropped out of the race -- a development Republicans resisted. The judges also said the disgruntled voter who sued the state Democratic Party failed "to provide evidence to sustain it" by refusing to participate in the only hearing in the case Monday.
Some Democrats pushed Taylor out of the race because they saw Orman as the stronger rival for Roberts and didn't want to split the anti-Roberts vote. Many Republicans hoped Democrats would be forced to replace Taylor, to siphon votes from Orman and help Roberts.
Man in rap-music case guilty of murder
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Florida man was convicted Wednesday in the 2012 fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager amid a dispute about loud rap music blaring from a car.
Jurors in the retrial deliberated for about five hours before finding Michael Dunn guilty of first-degree murder.
It was the second time that Dunn, 47, a software developer who claimed self-defense in the death of Jordan Davis, 17, faced a jury. In February, a jury convicted Dunn of three counts of second-degree attempted murder -- one for each of the surviving teenagers in the Dodge Durango -- a crime for which he could receive a 60-year prison sentence.
From the start, the case was infused with racial overtones and stirred the nation's debate about racial profiling and its possible consequences. Dunn is white and the teenagers black.
A Section on 10/02/2014