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Storytelling program created by actor Tom Skerritt helps veterans returning home
Actor Tom Skerritt understands first-hand how storytelling could help U.S. veterans returning home after their military service.
The 90-year-old Hollywood actor – whose appearance in 1962’s “War Hunt” led to roles in “M*A*S*H*”, “Top Gun” and others – served four years in the Air Force.
In 2012, Skerritt met Evan Baily, who had recently returned stateside after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together, they worked to pitch the Red Badge Project, which helps veterans work through their issues like post-traumatic stress disorder and re-assimilate into civilian life through storytelling.
“It starts with that wanting to help someone else rather than talking about it,” Skerritt said. “I just got tired of talking about this if I could do something about it.”
Skerritt and Bailey were the perfect match for this program: Bailey knew which doors to knock on and Skerritt’s Hollywood resume helped them open up.
“Tom is the most genuine,” said Bailey. “He is not in this because he’s a celebrity, but because he cares. With these vets, you can’t fake it.”
One year after they met, the project became a reality. The inaugural class of the Red Badge Project was conducted in partnership with veteran affairs centers and hospitals across Washington State.
Howard Harrison, who served as a medic during the Vietnam War, is one of the hundreds of veterans to have worked with the Red Badge Project to share his story.
“You share things there that you may not have shared with anybody else, and you feel safe in sharing that with other veterans, and you really get to know them, year after year,” Harrison said.
Inside the classrooms, multi-media writer Warren Etheredge and author Suzanne Morrison teach the mechanics of storytelling. Morrison also leads classes for female veterans like Crystal Lee Dandridge, a torpedo man’s mate adjusting to civilian life after 12 years in the Navy. She said she felt “displaced” until she found the Red Badge Project.
Dandridge said the work she did in the classroom let her open up about a traumatic experience on her first day back at work after having her son. A shipmate’s mother had gifted her a handmade doll, she wrote, but shortly after returning she found the doll “lynched by single rubber bands linked together to form a noose, dangling from a thumbtack, piercing my baby’s picture straight through his forehead.” Dandridge was later informed that the person responsible received disciplinary action, but was allowed to remain in the military.
“Reading it out the first time, it was like I gained some awareness of it, like acceptance that it happened. This really and truly happened. But I also gained some healing and perspective of the whole ordeal,” Dandridge said.
The Red Badge Project has now expanded to five cities throughout Washington state. Over a thousand veterans have taken part in the program.
“I tell my kids, when they ask me what I did in the military: ‘We take care of each other,'” Bailey said. “That’s what I continue to do through Red Badge.”
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House conservatives revolt over GOP-backed spending bill to avoid shutdown
Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a conservative revolt over a last-minute measure to keep the government funded into the spring and avoid a shutdown, with some Republicans strongly objecting to billions of dollars in spending that has been added to the bill.
Congressional leaders unveiled the stopgap funding measure late Tuesday after days of negotiations, facing a Friday deadline to approve new spending. The bill would extend government funding through March 14, but it also includes disaster aid, health care policy extenders and a pay raise for members of Congress, among other provisions. The disaster relief portion of the bill alone carries a price tag of $110 billion.
The legislation immediately sparked anger from multiple members of the House Republican conference, mostly targeted at Johnson. While the speaker had pledged to avoid the kind of massive, end-of-year spending bills that conservatives loathe, the final product resembled a scaled-down version of what the party’s right flank has railed against for years now.
But the Republicans’ slim majority in the House means Johnson will need Democratic votes to pass the bill, a dynamic that gave the minority more leverage to extract concessions during negotiations.
Johnson acknowledged that the bill was intended to be “very skinny” before a “couple of intervening things” occurred, citing the devastation left by hurricanes earlier this year.
Before the text of the bill was released, Johnson dismissed Republican concerns that the continuing resolution was equivalent to an “omnibus” bill, a term used when Congress packages the annual appropriations bills that fund many federal government agencies into one large piece of legislation.
“This is not an omnibus, OK?” Johnson said at his weekly news conference on Tuesday. “This is a small [continuing resolution] that we had to add things to that were out of our control. These are not man-made disasters. These are things that the federal government has an appropriate role to do.”
Further angering conservatives was Johnson’s vow to give members 72 hours to read the bill before a vote. But a vote could come as soon as Wednesday, giving lawmakers less than 24 hours to get through the nearly 1,550-page text.
Rep. Eric Burlison, a Missouri Republican, on Tuesday called the process “a total dumpster fire.” He said he was “disappointed” in Johnson and called on him to “communicate better.” Other members, like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, have dubbed the bill the “Cramnibus.”
The fight could prompt a challenge to Johnson’s speakership when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said Wednesday that he won’t support Johnson in the speaker’s election.
“I’m not voting for him,” Massie said. “This solidifies it.”
Massie said he’s spoken with other members who have a similar stance.
Johnson has run into a buzzsaw of opposition outside the House as well. Elon Musk, the co-head of President-elect Donald Trump’s advisory Department of Government Efficiency, said in a post on X that any lawmaker “who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years.” Musk posted dozens of times throughout the day calling for lawmakers to oppose the bill, which he called “criminal.”
The speaker told Fox News earlier in the day that he had discussed the situation with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the other DOGE co-head, on Tuesday evening. Johnson said he emphasized to them that passing a continuing resolution now would be “clearing the decks” and allow the incoming GOP majorities to “put our fingerprints on the spending” in March. Both Musk and Ramaswamy came out strongly against the bill anyway.
Trump himself has not indicated publicly how he thinks lawmakers should vote, leaving Republicans in Congress to fight amongst themselves.
While Johnson said he and GOP leaders had hoped to move forward with the legislation under the regular process, including bringing the bill through the House Rules Committee, pushback from committee members on the party’s right flank threatened to prolong the path to passage. The legislation is expected to instead be brought up under suspension of the rules, meaning a two-thirds majority will be required for passage.
The stopgap measure will lapse about two months into Trump’s second term, setting up another budget fight as Republicans try to pass Trump’s top priorities during his first 100 days. Though they’ll have control of both chambers of Congress, House Republicans will be operating with a thinner majority until vacant seats held by members joining the Trump administration are filled.
contributed to this report.
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Biden comments on dangers of mysterious drones in U.S.
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Paris Hilton’s bill to protect minors at residential treatment facilities heads to president’s desk
Heiress, model and actor Paris Hilton is the force behind a bill headed to President Biden’s desk that’s aimed at preventing the abuse of minors at rehab and other residential facilities.
The House passed the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act in a bipartisan 373-33 vote Wednesday, after the Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent earlier in the week. It’s a cause that’s personal to Hilton, who says she was abused at residential treatment facilities as a teen. Hilton lived in a series of residential treatment facilities from the age of 16, testifying before Congress in June that she had been violently restrained, stripped of clothing and tossed into solitary confinement, among other experiences.
“Today is a day I will never forget,” Hilton wrote on Instagram. “After years of sharing my story and advocating on Capitol Hill, the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act has officially passed the U.S Congress. This moment is proof that our voices matter, that speaking out can spark change, and that no child should ever endure the horrors of abuse in silence. I did this for the younger version of myself and the youth who were senselessly taken from us by the Troubled Teen Industry.”
Now 43, Hilton has championed child protection legislation on Capitol Hill for years, encouraging lawmakers to pass regulations to help protect troubled teens from abuse at treatment centers. Hilton met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week, urging them to take up the legislation before the 118th Congress ends.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna introduced the legislation in the House and Senate, and they were joined by Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Tommy Tuberville and Republican Rep. Buddy Carter.
“Children across the country are at risk of abuse and neglect due to a lack of transparency in institutional youth treatment programs,” Khanna said in a statement. “The industry has gone unchecked for too long. Paris Hilton and other survivors of abuse in this broken system have bravely shared their stories and inspired change. I’m proud to lead this legislation with my colleagues to protect the safety and well-being of kids.”
The legislation creates a federal work group on youth residential programs to oversee the health, safety, care, treatment and placement of minors in rehab and other facilities. It also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to make contact with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to make recommendations about state oversight of such programs.
Hilton is the great-grandaughter of Conrad Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels.