DENVER (AP) — Exasperated veterans who work part time for the Veterans Administration while attending college say their paychecks are sometimes weeks late, leaving them in trouble with bill collectors or having to borrow money to avoid eviction.
Vets complaining
of late payments
DENVER (AP) — Exasperated veterans who work part time for the Veterans Administration while attending college say their paychecks are sometimes weeks late, leaving them in trouble with bill collectors or having to borrow money to avoid eviction.
The two-week paycheck is typically about $360, and can be vital to veterans raising families and juggling expenses.
“It’s absolutely crucial,” said Neal Boyd, an Army veteran who has two children, attends Danville Area Community College in Illinois and works for the VA in the school’s career services office to help other veterans.
The VA work-study program lets them work an average of up to 25 hours a week on the VA payroll if they are full-time or three-quarter-time college students.
The program is separate from other GI Bill benefits such as tuition and textbook assistance and a housing allowance that varies by location. But veterans said those benefits don’t cover all their expenses, and they need a job to make ends meet.
Apple unveils pricey iPad Mini
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Apple Inc.’s pencil-thin, smaller iPad will cost much more than its competitors, signaling the firm isn’t going to get into a mini-tablet price war.
The company debuted the iPad Mini Tuesday, with a screen two-thirds smaller than the full model, and half the weight. Customers can begin ordering the new model on Friday. In a surprise, Apple also revamped its flagship, full-sized iPad just six months after the launch of the latest model.
Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs once ridiculed a small tablet from a competitor as a “tweener” that was too big and too small to compete with either smartphones or tablets. Now Apple’s own Mini enters a growing small-tablet market dominated by Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire.
Apple is charging $329 and up for the Mini — a price that fits into the Apple product lineup between the latest iPod Touch ($299) and the iPad 2 ($399). Company watchers had been expecting Apple to price the iPad Mini at $250 to $300 to compete with the Kindle Fire, which starts at $159. Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook HD and Google Inc.’s Nexus 7 both start at $199.
Mother guilty in airport pat-down
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A woman was found guilty Tuesday of disorderly conduct for berating security officers trying to pat down her teenage daughter and then refusing to submit to the procedure herself at a Tennessee airport.
Jurors deliberated four hours before convicting Andrea Abbott. She had faced up to 30 days in jail and a $50 fine for her conduct in the July 2011 confrontation at Nashville International Airport, but the judge placed her on probation for a year because she has no criminal record.
Judge Joe P. Binkley Jr., warned the 42-year-old “to be certain you don’t get into any further problems with the law.”
Abbott didn’t talk to reporters outside the courtroom. Her defense attorney, Brent Horst, said she was disappointed in the verdict, but felt she got a fair trial.
“She just wanted to stand on principle, because she felt that she had done nothing wrong,” said Horst, who handled the case pro bono. “And I admire her for that.”
The prosecution said Abbott’s behavior “prevented others from carrying out their lawful activities,” which is part of the definition of disorderly conduct under state law. Abbott testified during the first day of the trial on Monday that she was not unruly but did yell at officers. She said she was “irritated, but not arguing.”
However, Assistant District Attorney Megan King said in closing arguments Tuesday that Abbott’s behavior caused two security lanes to be halted and made a normally one-minute security check a 30-minute ordeal.
“The defendant should have been aware that her behavior would prevent others from carrying out their lawful activities,” King said.
Horst said his client may have been loud, but she was only exercising her right to free speech.
“Telling a police officer your opinion, even in strong language, to me that’s a First Amendment right,” Horst told reporters.
According to an affidavit, Abbott first refused to allow her daughter — then 14 — to go through a body scan machine, saying she didn’t want “someone to see our bodies naked.”
Abbott and her daughter went through a metal detector and TSA Officer Karen King was sent to conduct a pat-down. King testified that before the pat-down, Abbott yelled in her face that she didn’t want anyone “touching her daughter’s crotch.”
Abbott was accompanying her daughter to the gate but not flying herself. She eventually allowed her daughter to undergo the pat-down, but then refused one for herself. By that point, airport police officer Jeff Nolen had been called and he testified that he asked her several times to calm down, but she wouldn’t.
“You’re not putting your (expletive) hands on me, this is (expletive),” he recalled Abbott saying.
Nolen said he then arrested Abbott, who he said continued to curse and call officers pedophiles. Abbott had lived in Clarksville when she was charged and has since moved to Texas.
“She gave him no option,” district attorney King said Tuesday. “She put him in that position with her behavior.”
During her testimony, Abbott acknowledged that she did say a few curse words, but said she wasn’t in anyone’s face and had a “normal conversation” about what she believed to be inappropriate about the pat-downs.
Earlier Tuesday, Horst used a surveillance video of what happened to support his claim that Abbott was the one being yelled at and that she didn’t create a distraction. The video, which didn’t have audio, did show Nolen speaking to Abbott close up and making some hand motions. It also showed people walking around Abbott and the officers.
“It’s clear from the video … she wasn’t preventing anything,” Horst said.
However, district attorney King said the video “doesn’t tell the complete story of this case,” which she said “is not a free speech issue.” She said the officers reminded Abbott several times that she could file a complaint if she had a problem with the security check proceedings.
“You can speak your mind, but you can’t do it in an illegal manner,” she said. “What the defendant did was a crime.”
The case briefly drew national attention as hundreds offered Abbott support and donations amid debate over whether new, intrusive screening methods should be allowed at airports.
“Since 9/11, we’re losing a lot of freedom, and we have to draw the line somewhere,” Horst said in closing arguments.
Billionaire gives $100 million to Central Park
NEW YORK (AP) — A billionaire hedge fund manager pledged $100 million Tuesday to the private organization that maintains Central Park in partnership with New York City.
John A. Paulson’s gift to the Central Park Conservancy is believed to be the largest gift ever to a public park. It will be paid out by Paulson and his Paulson Family Foundation.
Paulson, the founder and president of Paulson & Co., joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg and conservancy officials to announce the gift at the park’s Bethesda Fountain.
“John is a man who knows a good investment when he sees one,” conservancy CEO Doug Blonsky said. “Central Park is fundamental to the economic and cultural health of New York City and the quality of life of its residents.”
Paulson, a 56-year-old Queens native who said he was taken to Central Park as a child, called it the most democratic of New York’s great cultural institutions. “A contribution to Central Park Conservancy benefits all New Yorkers,” he said.
The conservancy raises more than 80 percent of the park’s $45.8 million annual budget.
Paulson said that the park was falling into disrepair before the conservancy was formed in 1980. “Its infrastructure was crumbling, its landscapes were in shambles and it was plagued with drugs and crime,” he said.
Half of Paulson’s gift will go to capital improvements and half to the park’s endowment, currently at $144 million.
Conservancy officials said the funds will go to maintain all the park’s facilities, including 21 playgrounds and 130 acres of woodlands.
Private organizations help raise money for some of the city’s other parks but their budgets are tiny compared with the Central Park Conservancy.
Some advocates of city parks have complained that other parks are neglected in comparison to Central Park, one of the city’s best-known destinations.
“It’s wonderful for Central Park, but there are thousands of other park properties in New York City that desperately need funding,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. “This gift is a reminder of the enormous disparities that exist between the haves and the have-nots.”