Stung by criticism in 2007 that they were neglecting severely wounded service members, the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs have now gone extreme the other way, routinely providing at least a half-dozen (and as many as two dozen) caseworkers per patient.
A Government Accountability Office report in October said the result was “duplication, confusion and turf battles,” according to a November Washington Post story, leaving the members and their families often conflicted and overwhelmed about prognoses.
At times the Pentagon (serving active-duty personnel) and the VA (ex-military) balked over coordinating their treatments.
The agencies, however, told the Post that any duplication was intentional, even though the Post cited military families who each wished they had a single, authoritative case manager they could turn to.
A GAO official called the situation “crazy” and “disturbing.”
It’s the
honor
that’s
important   
The super-enthusiastic winners of a Kingston, Ontario, radio station contest claimed their prize: the chance to don gloves and dig for free Buffalo Bills’ football tickets — value: $320 — buried in buffalo manure in a child’s plastic inflatable pool.
The show’s host, Sarah Crosbie, reported the digging live.
But, overcome by the smell, she vomited on the air.
More curious was a runner-up contestant who continued to muck around for the second prize, even though it was only tickets to a local zoo.
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa Fla. 33679 or go to www.newsoftheweird.com.)