Veterans

The Obama administration's new plan to stimulate refinancings of FHA mortgages is likely to help large numbers of homeowners — even those who are deeply underwater — cut their monthly costs by switching to a loan with a rate below 4%. Here's a quick overview of the "streamline refi" program and what it will take for you to qualify. First, the baseline criteria: Your current home loan must be FHA-insured and must have been put on the Federal Housing Administration's books no later than May 31, 2009.

SAN FRANCISCO — Horatius A. Carney spent seven weeks in a military hospital after injuring his knee while in the segregated Army Air Forces. He first filed a disability claim in 1947. He is still waiting for a response. Lisa Scott, an Army communications specialist who served in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm and Desert Shield, waited seven years for the Veterans Benefits Administration to approve her disability claim for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Ari Sonnenberg served three tours in Iraq and came home with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD and internal injuries.

In a 2-hour toast to patriotism and heroes, a tiny Anaheim church on Sunday pulled together a tender tribute to America's fallen soldiers at an afternoon ceremony that drew four major generals, an admiral and 10 Medal of Honor winners. Despite the allure of blue skies and big games for the Los Angeles Lakers and California Angels, about 700 veterans, their relatives and members of the five military branches filled Anaheim's Pearson Park Theater for the event, organized by the 67-member Lighthouse Baptist Church.

He is the well-dressed player sitting on the Clippers' bench, the sage veteran offering advice and encouragement during this playoff push for his teammates and coaching staff. But make no mistake, Chauncey Billups said, it has been killing him not to be dressed in a uniform and playing and helping the Clippers with his skills on the court. Billups hasn't played in a game since suffering a season-ending left Achilles' tendon injury Feb. 6 at Orlando. The 14-year veteran guard now says it was easier for him to not play when "I didn't travel.

The walls are bare and the bedroom is still missing a television, but Thomas Simmons couldn't be prouder of his new home. "It's all mine," the 35-year-old says, looking around. "My couch, my bed, my gas stove. It's finally mine. " For nearly a decade, the veteran of Afghanistan lived in homeless shelters and in his car, wandering from Georgia to Nevada to California, his clothes crammed in his trunk and his life in disarray. He was among the estimated 7,400 veterans who are homeless in Los Angeles County — battling post-traumatic stress, substance abuse, alcoholism and mental issues.

Fifty years to the day since Paris was liberated from the Nazis, an American and a Frenchman who fought side by side in the French Resistance were reunited Thursday in Los Angeles. Arlie Blood and Jean le Brix exchanged kisses on the cheek, swapped war stories and complimented each other on surviving to 1994 ("I'm 73, but I only look 72," cracked le Brix)--and on surviving 1944. "There aren't words to describe it, but I will say he's a very brave man," said Blood, 78.

The Small Business Administration is launching a loan program for the military community that promises faster and cheaper access to money. The discounted Patriot Express loan, which will be available June 28, marries the faster processing time of the SBA's existing express loan program with the lower interest rates and higher guarantees of its traditional loans. The limit on the new loan is $500,000.

President Obama has signed an executive order that the administration says will crack down on colleges that prey on military veterans with misleading information about financial aid, credits and programs. The move comes amid reports of for-profit schools aggressively targeting veterans and the tuition assistance money provided in the G.I. Bill. Administration officials said they've seen a pattern of some schools enrolling large numbers of military students. Some of the schools lure the students in with false promises of generous financial aid or take advantage of veterans suffering from brain injuries sustained at war. "That's appalling.

An audit report released Monday cited serious financial and operational problems involving a nonprofit organization's handling of federal grant money flowing through its social service centers in Inglewood and Long Beach. A Washington-based agency conducted the audit of the United States Veterans Initiative and questioned about $500,000 of the $5.36 million in costs claimed by the group from Sept. 1, 2003, through Aug. 31, 2006.

Re "Vets struggle to go from war to work," April 26 Veterans are a minority group representing about 8% of our nation's population, selflessly serving on behalf of the other 92%. They pledged their lives to defend our Constitution, which protects the many freedoms we take for granted. Some delivered on that pledge, while many are disabled for life from their military injuries. AMVETS, a national veterans organization, proposed a federal law to include veterans as a protected class against employment discrimination that currently includes race, age, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Icy wind whipped Lt. Nauman Ahmed's face as he plodded up a barren expanse of snowfields and crevasses. Woozy and spent, he reached a Pakistani military outpost 20,000 feet above sea level and slumped down on a cot in one of the camp's fiberglass igloos. The next morning, the peril of waging war in the world's highest conflict zone began to take its toll. His head throbbed, and he was coughing up blood. When he tried to speak, he couldn't form words. "I thought to myself, 'What is happening to me?

OK, so I recognize that guy. Of course, absolutely, that's him. Still clutch, still fearless, still talented enough to throw his aging body in front of a defeat and almost single-handedly stop it, spin it on its axis, and turn it into a victory. Yeah, Kobe Bryant is still the one. Two days after giving away a second-round playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Bryant grabbed one back for the Lakers on Friday night, controlling the momentum and creating the magic that gave the Lakers a 99-96 home victory in Game 3. With memories of Bryant's fourth-quarter collapse Wednesday still fresh, Bryant scored 14 points in this fourth quarter to give the Lakers new life, if only for 24 hours.

SAN ANTONIO - He might be getting older, but Spurs power forward Tim Duncan does not appear to have lost a step. For the second straight game, Duncan schooled the younger Clippers defenders in footwork and fundamentals, and helped lead his Spurs to a 2-0 series advantage with a win in San Antonio on Thursday night. The two-time NBA most valuable player scored 18 points on nine-for-14 shooting to help San Antonio cruise to a 105-88 victory. The win takes the 36-year-old yet another step closer to his fifth NBA title.

Joyce Redman, a two-time Oscar-nominated Irish-born actress whose erotically charged dinner-eating scene opposite Albert Finney was a highlight of the bawdy 1963 British film comedy "Tom Jones," has died. She was 96. Redman died Thursday in Kent, England after a short battle with pneumonia, said her son, actor Crispin Redman. A veteran of the London and Broadway stage, Redman received her first Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for "Tom Jones," which starred Finney as the incorrigible 18th century English title character who has a series of amorous adventures.

Oklahoma City hasn't been to the NBA Finals but has plenty of time to get there with its youthful roster of size, speed and Kevin Durant. The Thunder swept Dallas in the first round, and the Lakers were pressed to merely get out of it, needing seven games to beat Denver. The Thunder won the regular-season series, 2-1, beating the Lakers with ease in Oklahoma City, 100-85, and at Staples Center, 102-93, before losing in double overtime at Staples Center without James Harden after the second quarter, 114-106.

A Riverside County jury convicted a parolee Friday of first-degree murder for shooting a Riverside police officer in 2010, a brutal slaying that occurred after the officer pleaded with the killer. Earl Ellis Green, 46, faces a possible death sentence for the murder of Officer Ryan Bonaminio, an Iraq War veteran who had been on the force for four years. The jury deliberated for about three hours before returning with the guilty verdict with special circumstances that would make Green subject to execution.

They have almost faded away, those young Americans who crouched once upon a time in the muddy trenches of France, braving machine-gun fire, artillery salvos and poison gas for what they were told would be the last war ever fought. More than 2.1 million U.S. servicemen--doughboys, they were nicknamed--served in France and helped deliver the coup de grace to Germany and its allies in 1917 and 1918.

The guys down at the VFW hall in Costa Mesa were talking about baseball, poker and why they don't have a ladies auxiliary here at Post 3536 any more. "They're getting up so far in age there just isn't anyone" around, said John McNett. Not that the men themselves are youngsters. At 57, McNett was the next-to-youngest vet at one recent meeting. His lodge mates ranged on up to 72. Their spirits were more than willing, but for a few, the flesh wasn't what it once was.

Mort Lindsey, a conductor, arranger and composer best known as the music director for Judy Garland in the 1960s and for his more than two decades as music director for "The Merv Griffin Show," has died. He was 89. Lindsey, who was in declining health since breaking his hip six months ago, died May 4 at his home in Malibu, said his son Trevor. A pianist and a former staff conductor for CBS and ABC in New York in the 1950s, Lindsey was music director for Garland at her historic Carnegie Hall concert on April 23, 1961.