VA Crisis: Veterans Affairs secretary Eric Shinseki apologized today for what he called “a systemic, totally unacceptable lack of integrity within some of our veterans’ health facilities.” Shinseki meets with President Obama today, a day after the release of a …

Thank You for Your Service: As the Veterans Administration scandal becomes a political talking point,the inspector general for the VA says 1,700 veterans were sidelined by the VA facility in Phoenix, never given an appointment or even put on a …

Maya Angelou: Poet and memoirist Maya Angelou, whose 1969 bestseller “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” described growing up in the Jim Crow South, died yesterday at home in Winston-Salem, NC. She was 86. Angelou wrote about being raped …

Ukraine: Up to 50 pro-Russian fighters were killed in heavy fighting over control of the Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine.The government used air strikes and sent in paratroopers in a successful effort to reclaim the airport. Helicopters fired rockets and …

Ukraine: Chocolate billionaire Petro Poroshenko has declared victory in the Ukraine presidential election after winning more than 55 percent of the vote. If the margin holds in the final count, Poroshenko avoids a runoff. The 48-year-old “chocolate king” ran on …

Nation: The shooter Friday night at UC Santa Barbara was a 22-year-old city college student who had vowed revenge on girls who wouldn’t go out with him. Elliot Rodger had Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism, and some other undisclosed …

Nation: Seven people are dead and seven injured in the Isla Vista neighborhood near UC Santa Barbara after a drive-by shooting spree and two gun battles with police. The gunman is among the dead, an apparent suicide. One of the …

Nation: Tennessee’s governor has signed a law to bring back the electric chair for executions if lethal injection drugs are not available. States are beginning to have trouble obtaining drugs for lethal injection as the method becomes increasingly controversial. Some …

Nation: Authorities in the New York area yesterday rounded up 71 people accused of possessing and swapping child pornography images. The suspects include a small town police chief, a New York City cop, and a mother believed to have produced …

Veteran Scandal: President Obama said this morning that he has ordered a broad investigation of accusations that veterans are dying while waiting for healthcare. “If these allegation prove to be true it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful and I will …