Page 39 - Phoenix Va News Today

Across the country. tornadoes on the ground, floods turning streets to rivers, and hail sending many running for cover. indra petersons tracking the areas hardest hit and who is in the storms crosshairs today. finally free. a 15-year-old girl kidnapped from her home ten years ago found alive. this morning shes finally back with her family. we will tell you this remarkable and alarming story, ahead. >> thats right. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to "early start." good to see you today. im j...

This is the center of a growing scandal right now, and really the center of disturbing, new allegations of delays involving care for wounded veterans. a doctor at the phoenix va tells cnns drew griffin, who has broken so much of this information about this scandal, this doctor told drew that this facility is violating a national mandate in making injured veterans of the wars in iraq and afghanistan wait for months to get appointments. the worst part, dr. katherine mitchell says it was still goin...

Scheduling, do not. >> who are coming to the phoenix v.a. for care, for war injuries are being put on a waiting list and made to wait six to ten months? >> yes, or longer. >> youre kidding. >> no, but its the same for everyone. everyone is made to wait. >> now? that is happening now? >> unless they changed something since the -- >> youre there now. >> since all this happened. >> but were talking about two or three weeks. >> right. >> can you tell me two or three weeks ago what type of person wer...

Is wrong, and so long as i have the privilege of serving as commander in chief, i am going to keep on fighting to deliver the care and the benefits and the opportunities that your families deserve now and for decades to come. that is a commitment to which i feel the sacred duty to maintain. >> the president says someone will be held accountable, but for now hes standing behind veterans affairs secretary eric shinseki. shinseki today is on capitol hill holding closed-door meetings about the va sc...

So weve asked what was the list? who was on it and why was it destroyed and when was it destroyed? we have not gotten an answer to that. we sent a subpoena. they have not complied. we only got partial lists of e-mails on monday. we were supposed to get some more yesterday. we have not gotten anything. so i said it is time to invite them to the hill. and if they dont come in the morning we intend to subpoena them to testify on the 30th. >> and drew, you have investigated what was going on in phoe...

Of his team have long known about some of the specifics. and before that, members of the prior administration also knew about them. the question is what on earth is taking everyone so long to address them? worse than that, why were some of these officials rewarded? the head of the v.a. in phoenix got a nearly $8500 bonus for her performance last year. by the way, that was rescinded today. drew griffin has been covering the story and joins us from phoenix. what do you think about what the preside...

Now being audited as part of this investigation. in portland, oregon, va officials say tens of thousands of appointment requests took more than 14 days to fill. and the va in seattle is now facing a lawsuit from a family who says delays in scheduling surgery contributed to the cancer death of a vietnam-era veteran. the president called veterans affairs secretary eric shinseki to the white house and demanded answers, saying hes outraged and insisting whatevers going on at the va needs to be remed...

Inspector general investigators showed up she and a colleague were actually so worried that documents would be destroyed that she actually on a sunday night went into the hospital and hid some of the records until the inspectors could get their hands on them the next day. listen to this. >> we actually took the list and we hid it in my clinic. i found a place where we could secure it where no one else would be able to find it in the next 12 hours. there were actually -- it was actually the list ...

Appointments and then, apparently, covered up the extreme delays, allegedly. this morning the man at the center of the scandal heads to capitol hill amid new allegations. were breaking it down, ahead. happening now, u.s. troops on the ground searching for hundreds of nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by terrorists. were live in nigeria with the latest. tornadoes, hail, rain just ripping apart trees, damaging homes, and these severe storms are not dead yet. it will be a very busy morning. millio...

And thats something that you have to look at to see if there is a more growing chorus of democratses who are calling for shinseki to step aside and the the president seemed to hint that that could be a possibility if he comes back with a report that the president finds unsatisfactory. i do think that well also see conversations about the va. i think we flashback 10, 20 years we could have the same conversations. the president who has campaigned on veterans care and you have the first lady also t...