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Washington in brief

Injured soldiers wrongly lost pay

By wire services
Published February 19, 2005

WASHINGTON - Hundreds and perhaps thousands of injured Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers, including many severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, have either lost or risked losing medical care and thousands of dollars in pay for months because a "convoluted" personnel system dropped them from active-duty status, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.

The report found that over a two-month period early last year, almost 34 percent of the 867 soldiers whose records it examined were removed from active duty while their requests for medical extensions were snarled in bureaucracy, and many soldiers and their families lost pay and benefits.

The Army does not track the numbers of injured and ill reservists suffering such gaps in pay and benefits, but with 16,000 reservists having passed through the military's "medical holdover" system since November 2003, and 3,400 there now, the total is "very possibly (in the) thousands," said Gregory Kutz, director of financial management and assurance at the GAO and author of the report.

WASHINGTON - The government on Friday issued its first safety standard for perchlorate, a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel and explosives and blamed for widespread contamination of drinking water near military sites.

The Environmental Protection Agency's new limit for what it considers a safe exposure level will be used in guiding Superfund cleanups and determining whether the agency should go a step further and regulate perchlorate as a drinking water contaminant.

The limit, which translates to 24.5 parts per billion in drinking water, is the same level recommended by the National Academy of Sciences in January but higher than what EPA proposed two years ago.

Perchlorate is a chemical found in nature, but the academy said its presence in the environment is mainly from its use in rocket fuels, fireworks and explosives. It has been linked to thyroid ailments and is considered particularly dangerous to children.

The Food and Drug Administration two years ago began testing for perchlorate in food and bottled water. It was found in iceberg, romaine, green leaf and red leaf lettuce grown mostly in Arizona and California but also in New Jersey, Texas and Florida. It also was found in different types of milk in numerous states, but hardly at all in bottled water.

WASHINGTON - Ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist will be absent from the bench when the Supreme Court returns for the second half of its term next week, the court announced Friday.

The 80-year-old Rehnquist, battling thyroid cancer, plans to skip the two-week cycle of oral arguments that starts Tuesday, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. He will continue reading transcripts of the arguments and voting on decisions, she said.

Rehnquist has been working mainly from home since Oct. 22, when he was hospitalized and then underwent a tracheotomy to help him breathe.

Rehnquist's illness has led to speculation that he will step down, giving the court its first opening since 1994.

[Last modified February 19, 2005, 00:58:04]