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“What’s your service and where did you serve?”
“I didn’t. My dad (mom) did.”
More than 38,000 military children and spouses have gone to college this past year on benefits transferred to them from military careerists and recent retirees. And that flow has just begun.
Through early September, the services had approved requests from 145,000 service members to transfer GI Bill benefits to 331,000 children and spouses. Congressional auditors two years ago estimated the transferability feature alone would add $10 billion to program costs over the first decade.
Benefits can be transferred to a spouse if the member has served at least six years and commits to four more. Transfer to children, in return for that extra time, is allowed after 10 years’ service.
But GI Bill transfers are in overdrive right now because Defense officials made almost the entire career force eligible, and eliminated or reduced that extra service obligation for those near to retirement.
As a result, awkward moments over transferability are occurring on Capitol Hill too. In July, at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, Chairman Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) said the Department of Defense “has too broadly extended this benefit.”
Akaka said Congress believed transferability would be used selectively, to retain members with critical skills, and not to reward all careerists.
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), chief architect of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, in a brief interview Friday, recalled how he hesitated to accept transferability when pushed by the Bush administration in final GI Bill negotiations.
“My personal focus was on the citizen soldier who spends a tour and then returns to civilian life. They are the ones who were to benefit, as they did from the original GI bill, the World War II GI Bill. To help these people get on with the rest of their lives has been my main focus,” Webb said.
“I would like to see the numbers on transferability,” he said. “I’m not saying I’m opposed but I would be very curious to see the numbers.”
And on his visits to the Pentagon, Webb added, “I’d like to see senior leaders over there spend more time talking about how great this benefit is for the people who leave the military. Yet every time I come over they want to talk to me about transferability … I remind them they ought to be just as happy about those people who have gotten out” after fewer than six years.
The first bill Webb introduced as a new senator in 2007 was a GI Bill to rival the post-World War II benefit, paying the full cost of college for a new generation of warriors, at least at state-run schools. When his idea gained steam in early 2008, Republican leaders countered with a more modest plan to beef up the Montgomery GI Bill. Defense leaders preferred this, fearing Webb’s more generous plan would put force readiness at risk, enticing many to leave for college after a single hitch or mid-career.
Then-Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) proposed a compromise, a transferability test to allow members to give half of their new GI Bill benefit to family members. Bush had endorsed transferability in his 2008 State of the Union address, so it snowballed into a very robust feature of Webb’s bill.
Eligibility would depend on how Defense officials wrote the implementing regulation. What they produced was far more inclusive than many observers had expected. Even some veterans’ service organizations were surprised at how expansive they made GI Bill transferability.
“DoD got this great retention tool. Instead of managing it by specific military occupational specialty or hard-target skill sets, DoD says ‘It doesn’t come out of our budget so we’re going to give it to everybody,’” complained an education expert for one vet organization. “They made the application for transferability so liberal it was perceived as a retiree benefit. That, very clearly, was not the intent of the legislation. It’s the equivalent of paying new retirees a retention bonus for being retired.”
Akaka thought he had a partial solution in May when he introduced a comprehensive bill to reform the Post-9/11 GI Bill. He tucked in a provision to shift the cost of transferability from the VA budget to DoD, so Defense officials would tighten eligibility or suffer the fiscal consequences. By August Akaka had pulled that provision at the request of Defense officials.
DoD has no plans to tighten transferability rules.
“Transferability will help us continue to recruit and retain highly qualified American youth,” said Robert E. Clark, assistant director for accession policy at DoD.
It’s a tool, he said, “to address the force management goals of the services, while allowing career service members to share the benefits they've earned with their families.”
Members qualified for transferability only if they were on active duty on or after Aug. 1, 2009. In opening it to the entire career force, Defense officials relaxed the four-year added service obligation for anyone eligible to retire from August 2009 through July 2012. This had to be done, officials said, to preserve force structure and promotion opportunity.
That very large wave of eligible families with older children will pass with time and won’t be seen again. One official put it this way:
“The old-guys-get-the-money stuff pretty much happens in the first year or two,” he said. “After that, they're all signed up and it's the people completing six years who are your new class of [transfer] takers. So in the end, all warriors will have benefited … but it will grow to become applicable only to those completing their sixth year – a retention sensitive group – exactly as Senator Akaka suggests.”
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The event is back after a one-year hiatus.
For more than 14 years SolFest has attracted up to 10,000 attendees due to dynamic keynotes speakers, education panels and workshops, music and celebration as a way to demonstrate solar and sustainability applications, said Solar Living Institute Executive Director Ross Beck.
SolFest is the original “greenest show on earth” featuring a two‐day, family‐friendly, green festival of more than 50 informative workshops and education panels, hands‐on demonstrations, prime networking opportunities, celebrations and world‐class entertainment with thousands of sustainable living enthusiasts in attendance.
SolFest offers music, camping, kids' area, the MoonDance and a new location 12 miles north of the Solar Living Center.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the keynote speaker at this year's event. He will speak on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 25.
“We are honored to host such a powerful environmental leader as Mr. Kennedy,” said Beck.
Other notable speakers at the event include Arianna Huffington, Ed Begley Jr., David Blume, David Orr, Rhone Resch, virtual Bill McKibben, AG Kawamura, Paul Dolan and Congressman Mike Thompson.
Panels cover solar electric cars, off-grid solar in the third world, youth for green schools, green building for the 21st century and community resilience and localization.
Workshops range from Alcohol as Fuel and Starting a Solar Business, to Beekeeping, Eco Home Remodeling and Greywater Systems. Demonstrations illustrate Wind Turbines, PV System Performance, Eco-bricks and Medicinal Herbs.
For musical entertainment there's Poor Man's Whiskey, DGINN on the Main Stage. Sila, DJ Dragonfly and The Jug Dealers for Moondance, and non-stop music at the Solar Stage: Keegan Smith, Bucky Walters, Trailer Park Rangers, Misner & Smith, Linda Ferro Band, Alexis Harte, The Mighty Chiplings, Bruce Klein's Galactic Band, Festival of Friends, DJ Kevin West and Charlie Vaughan & Friends.
Children ages 12 and under may attend for free. Family stage programming has hands-on pottery making, hula hooping, tumbling and juggling workshops, puppetry, Native American storytelling, songs and music.
KRCB's Film Pavilion features the Natural Heroes series: the Brower Youth Awards, Global Oneness, Voyage of the Veizo, The Story of Stuff and How Cuba Survived Peak Oil and more.
The Network Cafe offers up to date information on green career options in today's economic climate and tips on writing a resume. Stop by and start a conversation with both experts and fellow citizens. Be inspired by the notable achievements of past Solar Living Institute Interns.
Visit hundreds of exhibits and booths showcasing green businesses and products. Enjoy organic and biodynamic wine, beer and fine food.
Visit www.solfest.org to learn more.
Tickets are now on sale. For ticket information and pricing visit www.inticketing.com/events/104481/Solfest-XIV.
For more information about Solar Living Institute visit www.solarliving.org.
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LUCERNE, Calif. – Late Monday, the Lake County Sheriff's Office continued to search for a suspect who had been the focus of a manhunt earlier in the day and was said to be armed and dangerous.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Lake County Central Dispatch warned local law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for Johnny Merritt Colcleaser, 27, of Vallejo.
Colcleaser, who has an active warrant for a parole violation, was last seen Monday morning in Lucerne wearing a blue t-shirt and blue jeans and carrying a 9 millimeter handgun, according to sheriff's officials. He is 6 feet tall, 150 pounds, has brown eyes and long brown hair in a pony tail.
The be on the lookout notification also warned that Colcleaser could be in possession of an additional firearm – an AK-47.
Colcleaser had fled from deputies earlier in the day after allegedly making threats to a cousin at a Ninth Avenue residence, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Bauman said at about 9 a.m. a 24-year-old Lucerne man called 911 and reported his cousin – later identified as Colcleaser – had threatened to kill him. Colcleaser was reported to have had a 9 millimeter handgun and was last seen walking on 11th Avenue towards Highway 20 in Lucerne.
Several deputies responded to the area, and Bauman said the first on scene spotted Colcleaser, who then took off running.
The deputy chased Colcleaser on foot over fences and through yards, and during the chase Colcleaser dropped a handgun but turned around and picked it back up before he took off running again, Bauman said.
The foot chase ended in the area of Ninth Avenue and Highway 20 when Colcleaser disappeared into a creek bed and the deputy lost sight of him. Bauman said the suspect was seen again momentarily emerging from the creek bed but disappeared again when deputies converged on him.
During the four hours that followed, numerous sheriff's deputies and sheriff's detectives searched for Colcleaser, according to Bauman.
Bauman said the California Highway Patrol responded to the area to close it off while the search went on. CHP officers also helped search for Colcleaser, including checking the area of Queen of the Rosary Church on Country Club Drive.
A Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department helicopter was requested to come to the area to assist with the search, Bauman said.
The sheriff's SWAT team was called when it was believed Colcleaser may be in a residence on Ninth Avenue, according to Bauman.
Bauman said deputies secured the Ninth Avenue home where Colcleaser was believed to be located while the SWAT team was en route to the scene, and evacuated several nearby businesses, including Lucerne Pharmacy and Foster's Freeze. The sheriff's office also issued a reverse 911 telephone notification about the situation.
Lucerne Elementary School also was locked down for a few hours late in the morning, according to school secretary Angela Austin.
The CHP closed Highway 20 between Seventh and 13th avenues as the sheriff's SWAT team arrived on scene, staged and prepared to search the home on Ninth Avenue where Colcleaser was believed to be located, Bauman said.. However, when the SWAT team entered and searched the house and its outbuildings at about 11 a.m. Colcleaser wasn't found.
Bauman said deputies continued searching Lucerne's neighborhoods for several more hours but, as of 2 p.m., Colcleaser was not located.
During that time, Bauman said sheriff's deputies also went out on reports of several suspects that they thought might have been Colcleaser, with no luck.
“The last time and place we saw him was when he popped out of the creek momentarily,” Bauman said.
The search wasn't completely fruitless – deputies found in the creek bed a blue plaid shirt Colcleaser had been wearing, Bauman said.
The bigger find – they located an unoccupied 2002 Ford pickup truck 13th Avenue that they believe Colcleaser drove to Lake County, Bauman said. The pickup was reported stolen out of San Pablo.
Bauman said the motive for Colcleaser's alleged threats against his cousin's life remain under investigation.
Community members should by no means confront Colcleaser, Bauman said.
Anyone with information on Colcleaser’s whereabouts should immediately call the Lake County Sheriff’s Office by dialing 911.
For footage of the day's search, see Lake County News' YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews?feature=mhum.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
LUCERNE, Calif. – Authorities spent Monday morning scouring the Northshore town of Lucerne for an armed man who allegedly had run from a deputy.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office identified the suspect as 27-year-old Johnny Colcleaser of Vallejo, who is wanted for questioning regarding threats he allegedly made while armed.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. Monday, sheriff's officials confirmed that the search for Colcleaser was still under way.
Colcleaser had allegedly run from a deputy – who saw that he had a pistol in the waist of his pants – and headed into the creek bed between Eighth and Ninth avenues, according to initial reports at the scene.
The sheriff's office reported that Colcleaser was last seen at about 9:20 a.m.
A Sonoma County Sheriff's helicopter, California Highway Patrol and the Lake County SWAT Team were called in to assist the sheriff's office with the search, and perimeter controls were set up around the town.
One area resident reported that the helicopter's loudspeakers warned residents to stay inside and keep their doors locks, and that deputies also drove through neighborhoods warning residents to keep indoors.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office also reportedly sent out a reverse 911 call warning area residents of the situation.
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Deputies and officers staged in an alley between Ninth and 10th avenues behind the Lucerne Pharmacy and Foster's Freeze as the helicopter circled overhead.
A report of movement in the trees above Foothill Drive drew deputies to the hillside there, where they expanded the search for Colcleaser, who they did not locate at that time.
CHP officers also searched the area of the Queen of the Rosary Catholic Church on Country Club Drive.
Angela Austin, secretary at Lucerne Elementary School, said the school started receiving calls Monday morning from concerned parents, and she called the sheriff's office to ask what to do.
The result was that the school was locked down for a few hours, with children kept inside classrooms from about 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., she said.
Kindergärtners were allowed to go home at 12:30 p.m., while older students were to be released at their normal times later in the afternoon, according to Austin.
The Lucerne Pharmacy – located in the midst of the search area – confirmed that it closed its doors for a few hours in the morning but had reopened by early afternoon.
By early afternoon the helicopter was no longer at the scene and the large law enforcement presence was no longer evident.
Colcleaser is described as a white male adult, 6 feet tall and 150 pounds. Officials said he has long dark hair in a pony tail.
Residents in the area were requested to lock their doors and immediately report suspicious activity to the Sheriff's Department Dispatch at 707-263-2690.
Officials emphasized that community members should not attempt to apprehend Colcleaser if they encounter him.
Colcleaser was allegedly involved in an incident in American Canyon three years ago this month in which he and two accomplices – one of whom was wanted at the time – were spotted getting into a stolen car, according to the Napa Valley Register.
In that September 2007 situation, Napa Sheriff's deputies apprehended Colcleaser after a foot chase and charged him with resisting arrest, violation of parole and possession of stolen property, the Napa Valley Register reported.
For video of the morning search, see the Lake County News YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews?feature=mhum, or the Lake County News Facebook page, www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf.
Tera DeVroede and John Jensen contributed to this report.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
Ceago Vinegarden, surrounded by gardens and perched on the shores of the lake in Nice, was the venue for this year’s event.
All available tickets – 350 of them – were sold out a month in advance, a first for the Wine Auction, and the rambling Mediterranean-inspired courtyards and various tasting rooms of the winery provided ample space for the sellout crowd.
The Lake County Wine Alliance has sponsored the auction since its inception in 2000 for the purpose of raising money for nonprofit organizations throughout Lake County.
The Employment Development Department reported that Lake County's unemployment rate dropped from an unadjusted rate of 17.3 percent in July to 16.8 percent in August. The county registered 14.8 percent unemployment in August 2009.
Lake ranked 53 out of the state's 58 counties for its August unemployment rate, the report showed.
Statewide, unemployment edged up to 12.4 percent in August from 12.3 percent in July, with nonfarm payroll jobs decreasing by 33,500 during the month, based on data derived from two separate surveys that the Employment Development Department released. The August 2009 unemployment rate was 12 percent.
The U.S. unemployment rate also increased in August to 9.6 percent, up from 9.5 percent in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That national rate for August actually is slightly lower than in August 2009, when nationwide unemployment reached 9.7 percent.
A federal survey of 5,500 households, done with a smaller sample than the survey of employers, showed an increase in the number of employed people during the month. It estimated the number of Californians holding jobs in August was 15,968,000, a decrease of 49,000 from July, and down 71,000 from the employment total in August of last year.
The number of people unemployed in California was 2,261,000, up by 11,000 over the month, and up by 81,000 compared with August of last year, the state reported.
“The latest job numbers show that Californians are continuing to suffer from slow job growth, and things will only improve when there is strong hiring in the private sector,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “That is the No. 1 reason I went on my trade mission – to drum up support for California’s products and services and create jobs.”
Schwarzenegger said it must be made easier for businesses to invest and hire to help turn the economy around.
The Employment Development Department reported that there were 620,844 people receiving regular
unemployment insurance benefits during the August survey week, compared with 666,502 in July and 790,099 in August 2009. At the same time, new claims for unemployment insurance were 65,261 in August, compared with 73,817 in July and 69,488 in August of last year.
This past August, Imperial County registered the highest unemployment rate, at 30.4 percent, with Marin having the lowest rate, with 8.4 percent, according to the report.
Lake County's labor force was composed of 26,360 people in August, of which 4,430 were unemployed. That's compared to 26,120 workers and 4,520 unemployed the previous month, based on state labor statistics.
Lake's neighboring counties posted the following rates and state rankings: Glenn, 17 percent, No. 55; Yolo, 11.6 percent, No. 22; Mendocino, 10.8 percent, No. 14; Sonoma, 10.5 percent, No. 11; and Napa, 9.4 percent, No. 4.
Within Lake County, Upper Lake had the lowest unemployment in August, with 8.7 percent, while Clearlake Oaks registered a 24.9 percent rate.
The following unemployment rates were reported for other areas of the county, from highest to lowest: Nice, 24.4 percent; city of Clearlake, 24 percent; Lucerne, 17.7 percent; Kelseyville, 17.1 percent; Middletown, 17 percent; city of Lakeport, 16.2 percent; Cobb, 15 percent; Lower Lake, 14.1 percent; Hidden Valley Lake, 13.9 percent; and north Lakeport, 13.3 percent.
State data shows lost jobs over the month
The Employment Development Department's report on payroll employment – wage and salary jobs – in the nonfarm industries of California showed that jobs totaled 13,827,900 in August, a net loss of 33,500 jobs since the July survey. This followed revised data that showed a loss of 22,900 jobs in July.
The report showed that two categories – mining and logging; and professional and business services – added jobs from July to August, gaining 500 jobs. Professional and business services posted the largest increase over the month, adding 300 jobs.
At the same time, the state reported that nine categories – construction; manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; information; financial activities; educational and health services; leisure and hospitality; other services; and government – reported job declines this month, down 34,000 jobs.
Of that group, government posted the largest jobs decline over the month, down by 9,200 jobs, which the state said included the loss of 7,700 temporary federal Census jobs.
In a year-over-year comparison – August 2009 to August 2010 – nonfarm payroll employment in California decreased by 113,100 jobs (down 0.8 percent), the Employment Development Department said.
Three industry divisions – mining and logging; professional and business services; and educational and health services – posted job gains over the year, adding 61,500 jobs. At the same time, the state said professional and business services recorded the largest increase over the year on a numerical basis, up 38,700 jobs, a 1.9 percent increase.
Mining and logging recorded the largest increase over the year on a percentage basis, up 2.4 percent, or an increase of 600 jobs, the state reported.
State data showed six categories – construction; manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; financial activities; leisure and hospitality; other services; and government – posted job declines over the year, down 174,600 jobs.
Based on the report, government employment showed the largest decline over the year on a numerical basis, down by 47,700 jobs, a decline of 1.9 percent, while construction showed the largest decline over the year on a percentage basis, down by 7.6 percent or 44,700 jobs.
One sector, information, reported no change over the month, the state report showed.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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