February 11, 2009 5:20 PM
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Forgotten Grandparents, Forgotten Kids
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Grandparents who are raising the children of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are being left out in the cold by the U.S. government, according to the Washington Post.
The Post reports that grandparents like Susan and Larry Jaenke of Iowa, whose daughter Jamie was killed by a bomb in Iraq, and who are now raising Jamie's daughter, are being denied the $100,000 "death gratuity" that military spouses ordinarily receive.
The $100,000 benefit must by law go first to a spouse or a child, so Jamie's 9-year-old daughter Kayla can collect it – along with another $400,000 in life insurance – when she turns 18.
"What about the next nine years?" wonders Susan Jaenke, who is behind on her mortgage and her bills.
"It's not bad enough that I lost my daughter," she said. "What else do they want me to lose?"
Remembering the Other War
As Congress debates a resolution against sending more troops to Iraq, President Bush offered a reminder Thursday that plenty of challenges still remain in that other war the U.S. is waging – the one in Afghanistan.
The president used a speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute to say that while "remarkable progress" has been made in Afghanistan since 2001, he expected "fierce fighting" this spring and called on NATO to contribute more forces to the battle against a resurgent Taliban.
The New York Times called the speech "an unusually high-profile acknowledgment from Mr. Bush of the precarious state of the effort to stabilize Afghanistan, a country the administration long held up as a foreign policy success story."
The Times also said the speech sparked fresh criticism from Democrats "that had the United States not been tied down in Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan would not have turned dire." And some Republicans said the president was not doing enough to rein-in the Afghan drug trade.
The Wall Street Journal, on its front page, points out that the U.S. has diverted 3,000 troops bound for Iraq to Afghanistan, "fearing an offensive by a Taliban fattened by opium profits."
New Orleans Brain Drain
As if a tornado earlier this week wasn't enough bad news for still-struggling New Orleans, now it appears the Crescent City is being hit by an exodus of hundreds of the city's "best and brightest."
The New York Times reports that high crime, high rents, high insurance premiums and a general sense that things are not improving is driving many well-educated professionals who had returned to New Orleans to try to rebuild after Katrina to finally toss in the towel.
A study by the University of New Orleans found that one in three residents, especially those with graduate degrees, were considering fleeing the city within two years.
"My friends here are just the greatest, hard-working, tax-paying people, and I think a lot of us are feeling under siege," said Dylan Langlois, who is leaving with his wife for New Hampshire after, among other things, finding "human feces deposited on their roof by, they suspect, the contractors next door," and two burglaries within a week and an overnight wait for the police.
"We came back, we tried," said Tyrone Wilson, a real estate agent leaving with his wife for Dallas. "It's really draining, and at a certain point you sit down and you say, 'We don't have to go through this.' "
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Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. Grandparents who are raising the children of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are being left out in the cold by the U.S. government, according to the Washington Post.
The Post reports that grandparents like Susan and Larry Jaenke of Iowa, whose daughter Jamie was killed by a bomb in Iraq, and who are now raising Jamie's daughter, are being denied the $100,000 "death gratuity" that military spouses ordinarily receive.
The $100,000 benefit must by law go first to a spouse or a child, so Jamie's 9-year-old daughter Kayla can collect it – along with another $400,000 in life insurance – when she turns 18.
"What about the next nine years?" wonders Susan Jaenke, who is behind on her mortgage and her bills.
"It's not bad enough that I lost my daughter," she said. "What else do they want me to lose?"
Remembering the Other War
As Congress debates a resolution against sending more troops to Iraq, President Bush offered a reminder Thursday that plenty of challenges still remain in that other war the U.S. is waging – the one in Afghanistan.
The president used a speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute to say that while "remarkable progress" has been made in Afghanistan since 2001, he expected "fierce fighting" this spring and called on NATO to contribute more forces to the battle against a resurgent Taliban.
The New York Times called the speech "an unusually high-profile acknowledgment from Mr. Bush of the precarious state of the effort to stabilize Afghanistan, a country the administration long held up as a foreign policy success story."
The Times also said the speech sparked fresh criticism from Democrats "that had the United States not been tied down in Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan would not have turned dire." And some Republicans said the president was not doing enough to rein-in the Afghan drug trade.
The Wall Street Journal, on its front page, points out that the U.S. has diverted 3,000 troops bound for Iraq to Afghanistan, "fearing an offensive by a Taliban fattened by opium profits."
New Orleans Brain Drain
As if a tornado earlier this week wasn't enough bad news for still-struggling New Orleans, now it appears the Crescent City is being hit by an exodus of hundreds of the city's "best and brightest."
The New York Times reports that high crime, high rents, high insurance premiums and a general sense that things are not improving is driving many well-educated professionals who had returned to New Orleans to try to rebuild after Katrina to finally toss in the towel.
A study by the University of New Orleans found that one in three residents, especially those with graduate degrees, were considering fleeing the city within two years.
"My friends here are just the greatest, hard-working, tax-paying people, and I think a lot of us are feeling under siege," said Dylan Langlois, who is leaving with his wife for New Hampshire after, among other things, finding "human feces deposited on their roof by, they suspect, the contractors next door," and two burglaries within a week and an overnight wait for the police.
"We came back, we tried," said Tyrone Wilson, a real estate agent leaving with his wife for Dallas. "It's really draining, and at a certain point you sit down and you say, 'We don't have to go through this.' "
A NOTE TO READERS: The Skinny is now available via e-mail for those of you umbilically attached to your blackberries and whatnot. Click here and follow the directions to register to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.
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