Wednesday, February 06, 2008

'An Intolerable Fraud'

Money-grubbing veterans charities need better oversight.

Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page B06

ORGANIZATIONS that cynically exploit America's best impulses to help its wounded veterans give a perverse new meaning to the notion that charity begins at home.

Troubling activities by some of the nation's largest veterans charities were revealed by a watchdog group and were spotlighted Thursday in a congressional hearing. The American Institute of Philanthropy studied 29 groups and found 20 guilty of such shoddy practices as high overhead costs, high-priced solicitations and big salaries to leaders. Even well-established groups such as the Disabled Veterans Association, AMVETS National Service Foundation and the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation got F's on the institute's report card. Help Hospitalized Veterans, The Post's Philip Rucker reported, paid its founder and wife a combined $540,000 in compensation and benefits. That some groups spend as much as 91 cents of every dollar raised on fundraising is, as Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said, "an intolerable fraud." read more


"Yigaquu osaniyu adanvto adadoligi nigohilvi nasquv utloyasdi nihi" Cherokee - "May the Great Spirit's blessings always be with you."

Wounded warrior gets a bionic hand

Juan Arredondo is one of the first recipients of the i-Limb, a bionic hand with independently moving joints that flex and bend like natural fingers.

According to the caption, each finger has an individual motor that allows the recipient to engage in activities such as shaking hands and gripping rounded objects like door knobs.

"To have this movement, it's -- it's amazing," Arredondo tells reporters. "It just gets me more excited about now, about the future."

Arredondo, now a retired U.S. Army sergeant, lost his hand and lower arm two years ago when his patrol hit an IED in Iraq.

"As the soldiers raced to get out of the vehicle for fear of additional explosions, Sgt. Arredondo grabbed his severed hand, which was still grasping the steering wheel, and put it in his pocket while he fought to stay conscious," the company that manufactured his bionic hand says on its website. "Soon after arriving at a MASH station in Ramadi, it became clear his life would be saved and his legs healed, but that his hand was too damaged to be reattached."

The 27-year-old now works with the Wounded Warrior Project.

"Yigaquu osaniyu adanvto adadoligi nigohilvi nasquv utloyasdi nihi" Cherokee - "May the Great Spirit's blessings always be with you."