The GSA Reimbursement Rates apply to Defense Base Act Claimants.  Check the archives below to be certain you have not been underpaid by CNA

* Airplane nautical miles (NMs) should be converted into statute miles (SMs) or regular miles when submitting a voucher using the formula (1 NM equals 1.15077945 SMs). You can also use the link to BoatSafe.com (a non-government website) to assist you in converting NMs to SMs or SMs to NMs.

For calculating the mileage difference between airports, please visit the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inter-Airport Distance web site.

The following are previous privately owned automobile rates:

National Average Weekly Wages (NAWW), Minimum and Maximum
Compensation Rates, and Annual October Increases (Section 10(f))

These apply to Defense Base Act Claimants at the time of award. 

See Also Somali Pirates Demand 50m Kroner for Demining Workers

Malta Today January 25, 2012

An American and a Dane were rescued by U.S. helicopters after being held hostage by pirates in Somalia.

The two hostages were working for the Danish Demining Group (DDG), a refugee council, and were kidnapped in October in the semi-autonomous Galmudug region.

American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted were rescued in a rare raid into the Horn of African nation by the helicopters in an attempt to free foreign captives.

Nine pirates were killed and five captured during the rescue operation according to Galmadug’s president, Mohamed Ahmed Alim who added that he was negotiating to secure the release of an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

Alim said attacks on pirate bases were very rare and thanked the U.S. for their intervention because pirates were considered the mafia in the region.

Two teams of U.S. Navy Seals landed by helicopter after a gun fight with the kidnappers and took the freed hostages to an undisclosed location

Please see the original here

See 3 Americans killed in Afghanistan Helicopter Crash

James Scott Ozier, 30, was one of three employees of Palm Bay, Fla.-based AAR Airlift Group who died on Jan. 16 while conducting operations for the U.S. Department of Defense in Helmand Province.

Officials for AAR, which provides airlift services for military and humanitarian operations, said Tuesday they would not comment on Ozier or the circumstances of the accident, but they issued a statement saying the company is cooperating with authorities investigating the incident

The company took out a full-page advertisement in today’s Times to commemorate Ozier, who they identified as the crew chief on the mission.

In the company’s statement, it said all three killed on Jan. 16 were crew members. An unrelated helicopter crash in the same province killed six people on Jan. 19.

Ozier, formerly of Tuscaloosa, Ala., was buried Tuesday in Sylvania Hills Memorial Park in Daugherty Township

“In the coming years leishmaniasis may become the most important condition you have never heard of among veterans”

Barbara Herwaldt, CDC, on Leishmaniasis

Contractors will be even less likely to be diagnosed and/or treated timely or effectively despite the possibility you can transmit this to your family

Peter Hotez & James Kazura at The Atlantic

In recent months, many politicians and presidential hopefuls have called for budget reductions, and many have specifically targeted military spending for cutbacks. Unfortunately, even programs proven to be cost effective are vulnerable to cuts. Medical research for our troops is no exception to this rule — programs such as the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) often find themselves low on the priority list despite their crucial role in saving the lives of our troops on the battlefield and here at home.

One important area of research is tropical medicine. During World War II and the Vietnam War, more than one million service members acquired tropical infections such as malaria, dengue fever, hookworm, and typhus, and many of these diseases continued to plague our veterans after they returned home. Today, American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan still face formidable tropical disease threats, especially from a disease transmitted by the bite of sand flies known as leishmaniasis, which can cause a disfiguring ulcer in one form, and a serious systemic condition that clinically resembles leukemia in another. In the coming years leishmaniasis may become the most important condition you have never heard of among veterans.

WRAIR’s leishmaniasis diagnostic laboratory is the only one of its kind in the world, so each time funding is slashed our military loses considerable expertise and capabilities in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this devastating disease. For example, in the years prior to the Gulf War, the WRAIR leishmaniasis program was officially decommissioned and all research was halted. Only after cases of leishmaniasis among U.S. forces exposed to sand-fly bites in the Iraqi desert were the remaining leishmaniasis experts at WRAIR quickly assembled and tasked with making up for lost time. In 2002, the WRAIR leishmaniasis program was again dissolved only to be urgently activated once more with the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. The interruptions to the WRAIR leishmaniasis program are part of much larger budget cuts across all of WRAIR’s tropical infectious disease research programs. There is no end to the irony of such cutbacks given that they coincide with the activation in 2008 of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), charged with fighting the war on terror across the African continent. Today, sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of cases of tropical diseases anywhere in the world. Many of these tropical infections, such as river blindness and African sleeping sickness, have been shown to destabilize communities and may actually promote conflict in the region.

Please see the original and read more here

Addressing threats to health care’s core values, especially those stemming from concentration and abuse of power. Advocating for accountability, integrity, transparency, honesty and ethics in leadership and governance of health care.

US Presidential Candidates’ Financial Relationships with Health Care Organizations

As the leadership of the large field of Republican candidates for the US Presidency shifts, different candidates come in for increased media scrutiny. Recently, reporting about former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum focused on his financial relationships with a health care organization. Senator Santorum, however, is only the candidate with ties to health care organizations to come into the spotlight most recently. We will review the report on Santorum, and then summarize the publicly known relationships of the other candidates.

Please go here to read about each candidates connections to the people who are bleeding you to death

A Rice Lake couple says their son has been killed in a helicopter crash while working in Afghanistan.

Darrell and Jan Walker say their 48-year-old son, Todd, worked for AAR Airlift. He was conducting operations for the U.S. Department of Defense when the chopper crashed in Helmand Province Monday. All three crew members died. There were no other passengers.

The Walkers say Todd transported ammunition and dignitaries, moved troops from base to base and delivered mail to remote areas in Afghanistan. The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram (http://bit.ly/zCyjiR ) says he was a 1981 graduate of Rice Lake High School. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Rice Lake Native dies in Afghanistan helicopter crash

Todd Walker of Arkansas packed a lot of life into his 48 years.

The 1981 Rice Lake High School graduate fought forest fires, worked in emergency medical services out of Duluth, Minn., and scouted schools of tuna in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean – all from his perch as a helicopter pilot.

On Monday, however, Darrell and Jan Walker of Rice Lake received a phone call that their son had died in Afghanistan. The company Todd worked for, Wood Dale, Ill.-based AAR Airlift, reported that a helicopter carrying a crew of three employees, including Todd, was involved in an accident in Helmand Province at about 10:45 a.m. Monday.

The team was conducting operations for the U.S. Department of Defense, according to a news release. All three crew members died; there were no other passengers.

The cause of the accident is under investigation. The terrorist group Al-Qaida has claimed responsibility, Jan Walker said, but that has not been substantiated. Marjan Haqmal, police chief of Nad Ali district in Helmand Province, told The Associated Press the Russian-made aircraft probably went down because of a technical malfunction.

Todd transported ammunition and moved troops from base to base in Afghanistan. He also transported dignitaries, his mother said, and delivered mail to remote areas of the country,

“We’re very proud of him,” she said.

Todd also is survived by a wife and three kids, who were scheduled to arrive late Wednesday in Rice Lake. His body was slated to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware at about the same time, Jan Walker said. She said it will take a few days for him to arrive in Rice Lake. Services will be at Red Cedar Community Church will conduct services.

Jan said one of her son’s passions was arguing about politics.

“(But) mainly I’ll remember his love for hunting and love for the Packers,” she said.

January 18, 2012

A Clay County helicopter pilot was killed this week in a crash in Afghanistan.

Michael Clawson, who worked for AAR Airlift of Chicago, was in Afghanistan doing work for the U.S. Defense Department.

Clawson leaves a wife and five children, said Father John Bamman, OFM Conv., of St. Joseph’s University Parish, where Clawson and his family attended worship services in Terre Haute.

The crash happened in southern Afghanistan on Monday morning. Two other people were killed, all employees of AAR Airlift, which is a unit of Wood Dale, Ill.-based AAR Corp.

NATO forces reportedly have secured the area of the crash and were attempting to determine what happened, according to news reports.

Funeral arrangements are pending this morning

Rueters December 27, 2011

A federal judge has approved American International Group Inc’s (AIG.N) $450 million settlement with rival insurers to end litigation accusing AIG of underreporting premiums on workers’ compensation policies.

AIG will make the payment after rivals accused it of understating its market share in workers compensation to state insurance regulators, allowing it to shortchange state insurance pools by making lower contributions. Rivals claimed the understatements dated back to the 1980s.

Many states require firms that sell workers compensation insurance to also fund pools to cover injuries for workers at companies that cannot obtain coverage on the open market, in some cases because their jobs are too risky.

District Judge Robert Gettleman in Chicago approved the AIG settlement on December 21, calling it “fair, reasonable, and adequate.”

Final approval will take effect when Gettleman issues an opinion addressing a variety of issues in the case, the judge wrote.

Liberty Mutual Group had opposed the settlement, saying it concealed the true nature of AIG’s underreporting and the resulting damages.

A Liberty Mutual spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

AIG last December agreed to pay $146.5 million in fines, taxes and assessments in a settlement with all 50 U.S. states over alleged workers compensation reporting errors.

The case is Safeco Insurance Co of America et al v. American International Group Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 09-02026

Hat Tip to John Gelman at Workers Compensation blog

James Scott Ozier  Todd Walker  Michael Clawson

AAR Press Release via MsSparky

AAR Airlift Reports Helicopter Accident in Afghanistan

WOOD DALE, ILLINOIS (January 16, 2012) – AAR Airlift, an operating unit of Chicago based AAR CORP. (NYSE: AIR) reports that a helicopter carrying a crew of three employees was involved in an accident in Helmand Province, Afghanistan at approximately 10:45 a.m., local time, January 16, while conducting operations for the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Company has confirmed that there were three crew member fatalities. The families of all three crew members have been contacted. The Company reports that no passengers were aboard the aircraft at the time of the accident.

Company officials are working closely and cooperating fully with authorities in Afghanistan and stateside. A recovery effort is underway and the cause of the accident is unknown. Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.

The Company is focused on its employees and their families. A dedicated hotline has been set up for employees and family members at (321) 837-2427 for updates and support information

Update from Monsters and Critics

Kandahar, Afghanistan – A civilian helicopter crashed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand Monday, killing all three foreign nationals on board, the authorities said.

A security official who confirmed the three deaths, but could not verify the nationalities of the victims, said: ‘The helicopter was completely destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire.’

The Russian-made helicopter belonged to the US-based ARR airlift company, a contractor for NATO’s operations in Afghanistan.

Dozens of Russian-built cargo helicopters are used by contractors working for the NATO-led coalition.

The coalition relies heavily on helicopters or airdrops to deliver food and other supplies to remote outposts in order to avoid using roads that are frequently mined by the insurgents. Transport aircraft are also frequently used for airdrops to isolated bases.

Associated Press  January 16, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — A civilian helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing all three people on board, an Afghan official said.

Marjan Haqmal, police chief of Nad Ali district in Helmand province, said the Russian-made aircraft probably went down because of a technical malfunction.

NATO confirmed that a civilian helicopter crashed Monday in southern Afghanistan. It said the site of the crash has been secured and that coalition forces are trying to gather more information about what happened.

The alliance did not provide information about casualties

Please see the original and read more here

ASN Aircraft Accident 141912 Aviation Safety Network updates