Retaliation complaints up at VA, counsel says
WASHINGTON – A federal investigative agency is examining 67 claims of retaliation by supervisors at the Department of Veterans Affairs against employees who filed whistleblower complaints – including 25 complaints filed since June 1, after a growing health care scandal involving long patient waits and falsified records at VA hospitals and clinics became public.
The independent Office of Special Counsel said 30 of the complaints about retaliation have passed the initial review stage and were being further investigated for corrective action and possible discipline against VA supervisors and other executives. The complaints were filed in 28 states at 45 separate facilities, Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said.
Obama to nominate donor to be envoy
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is nominating one of his longtime donors to be the next U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica.
The White House says Fitzgerald Haney is Obama’s pick for the job. Haney is a client services executive at Pzena Investment Bank. The White House says he’s worked in Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and studied at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Campaign finance records show Fitzgerald raised large sums for Obama’s presidential campaigns and also contributed to Obama’s transition team and inauguration. Obama selected him in 2013 to join the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
University to remove Confederate flags
LEXINGTON, Va. – Washington and Lee University says it is removing Confederate battle flags from its campus.
The move was announced in a lengthy email from university president Kenneth Rusio to faculty and students on Tuesday.
This spring, a group of law students demanded the school banish the flag from campus and repudiate one of its namesakes, Gen. Robert E. Lee. The group at the private liberal arts college found the flag troublesome in part because they had to pledge to an honor code in its prescence at the Lee Chapel.
Associated Press
