This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

In less than a year, Donald Trump's second term as president has seen spectacular improvements in many areas of government, including notably in the U.S. military. However, at least one major area of support for America's armed forces – the Department of Veterans Affairs – is reportedly failing in its commitment to veterans. Case in point: Howard "Buck" Sheward, an 80-year-old Vietnam vet suffering from leukemia, who many believe deserves much better treatment than he is receiving from the VA.

WorldNetDaily spoke to retired Army Lt. Col. Francesca Graham, who currently serves as chief operating officer of Walk the Talk Foundation, an advocacy organization for members of the U.S. military. As Graham put it, "The Oklahoma VA system lacks connectivity between the systems in place to help Buck, a veteran who is undergoing chemotherapy and has almost died a couple of times."

For example, she said, "At the end of 2023, he unexpectedly spent nearly a month in a non-VA hospital in and out of lucidity fighting leukemia. While there, the VA kept calling to tell him he was missing pre-scheduled VA cancer treatment appointments."

In the rare moments that Sheward was lucid and able to talk, Graham said, he told the VA representatives where he was, but the calls to him did not cease. "According to Buck," she told WND, "he was berated for missing the VA appointments and was told that the VA would cancel his referrals if he continued to no-show his appointments."

"He's been asked why he was at a community care facility without a referral when he was actually taken there by ambulance," she shared. "Where's the common sense and connectivity?"

When it comes to community care facilities and the VA, she said, "These systems need to be talking to each other."

Not only is the lack of communication problematic, but so is the bureaucracy itself, Graham argued. "When a veteran travels to an appointment outside of the VA hospital, the veteran is supposed to receive travel reimbursement for that appointment," she said. Yet Sheward has not been reimbursed for the last six months. "He's submitted the paperwork," Graham said, "and then he hears nothing."

"There are also days where he'll submit paperwork for two different trips on the same day and only get reimbursed for one," Graham added. "Given his sickness and his age, is the VA not capable of helping him navigate getting his reimbursements and the ever-changing forms, or is the bureaucratic machine too large to really care about his health?"

Between February 2023 to May 2025, Graham said Sheward submitted 113 travel claims for cancer treatment and routine care. Out of these, 46 were approved for payment, while 67 claims, or 59%, were denied. Another 18 are still awaiting a decision. Interestingly, some trips that received approval one day were denied the following day.

In addition to the "bureaucracy and apathy" issue, the Walk the Talk Foundation's executive offered this shocker: "Buck discovered that a behavioral health provider, assigned to help veterans, including him, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, had been tried and convicted of a federal crime but still continued to see patients until it was time for him to report to prison."

"Just think about the implications of trusting your mental health to the VA, only to learn that your therapist has a criminal record," she said. "Buck brought up the issue, but it was swept under the rug."

"Buck is very frustrated because his concerns are not being acknowledged in any sort of meaningful way," Graham told WND. In fact, he is beginning to think the gradual accumulation of his problems and the indifference toward his health is retaliatory.

"Is this the position an 80-year-old Vietnam vet should find himself in?" she questioned. "I can assure you that he's not the only one facing these kinds of struggles."

Buck Sheward has reached out to several congressional offices in Oklahoma, including that of GOP Sen. James Lankford, regarding his concerns. "Unfortunately," Graham told WND, "those efforts have been hampered by a combination of bureaucratic inertia and a limited understanding of the complexity of his case within the state's VA system."

WND asked Sen. Lankford's office what steps, if any, his office is taking to address the lack of record integration between the VA and community care providers in Sheward's case. The office did not reply to request for comment by publication time.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump and Russian chief Vladimir Putin talked by telephone on Thursday and have agreed that they will meet again – this time in Hungary – to discuss a resolution to the war in Ukraine.

Trump said the call was "a very productive one."

They already has met for talks in Alaska in August, but no solution to the war emerged.

The call was set up to precede a meeting at the White House on Friday in Ukrainian chief Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He has been demanding Trump provide Tomahawk missiles to him, for use against Russia.

They would allow his army to strike at targets far inside Russia.

"I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and it was a very productive one. President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East, something that, he said, has been dreamed of for centuries," Trump wrote on social media.

The call comes following Trump's visit to the Middle East this week. He celebrated there a ceasefire agreement he orchestrated between Israel and the terrorists of Hamas, who invaded Israel and killed some 1,200 civilians two years ago.

The last of the hostages Hamas took then, dead and living, are being returned.

Trump continued, "I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin thanked the First Lady, Melania, for her involvement with children. He was very appreciative, and said that this will continue. We also spent a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over. At the conclusion of the call, we agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week. The United States' initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated. A meeting location is to be determined. President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this 'inglorious' War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end. President Zelenskyy and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more. I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation."

Trump made a campaign issue of his commitment to resolve the conflict and end the massive killing spree that has occurred between Russia and Ukraine. His phone conversation was the next step in that effort.

In other efforts, he already has worked to bring about ceasefire steps in at least six or eight other military conflicts that had been ongoing.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

University communities often, across the United States, essentially are communes of liberalism. Professors donate the vast majority of the political contributions they make to Democrats. Conservative students often are silenced. Conservative teachers largely cannot be found.

But now one student at the University of North Georgia says it's gone further, with her assigned $100 textbook openly slamming Christians as "white supremacist."

Kelbie Murphy, a senior, bought the assigned book for her course in International Public Relations.

"In Chapter 8, the opening passage reads: 'An internet search produces the following modifier for identity: corporate, sexual, digital, public, racial, national, brand, and even Christian (a U.S.-based white supremacist group),'" according to report by Fox News.

Murphy said, in an interview, "The way it was worded, it listed several marginalized groups, but then only called Christians to be white supremacists. But the scariest thing is that the book was written in 2007."

She warned, "This has been shared for almost 20 years, and it was never questioned. I think American academia needs a definite reevaluation, especially in our textbooks, as we can see from my prime example."

"Murphy is a devout Christian who was recently baptized in March, and she was inspired by her grandfather, a Baptist pastor in North Carolina, to 'never back down' when it comes to her faith.," Fox explained.

"I don't want people who don't know who Jesus is or who don't know what Christianity is to take this and run with this and see Christians as a U.S.-based white supremacist group," she said.

The university had commented on the dispute on social media, claiming, "Recently, questions have been raised about a passage in a course textbook. After fully reviewing the concern, we want to be clear: the reference in question was not describing Christians or Christianity. The passage refers to an extremist group that misuses Christian symbols to promote hate."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

During Barack Obama's tenure in the White House, the Internal Revenue Service was told to target and attack conservatives, Christians and critics of his leftist administration.

Remember those "Tea Party" organizations whose members were grilled about their lives, families, politics, speech, even their prayers, during his re-election campaign when they were denied authorization by the IRS, mostly likely because they would have expressed opposition to Obama.

Eventually, officials admitted their schemes, but they largely went unpunished, some retiring with lucrative government pensions.

Now President Donald Trump is working on a "massive revamp" of the agency, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

His targets, the report claimed, will be "wealthy Democratic donors whom the White House believes could be funding nefarious political activities."

A list of possible candidates for investigations, the report said, now includes Democrat funder George Soros. Other names are expected to be added.

Interim IRS commissioner Scott Bessent already has appointed an adviser, Gary Shapley, to work on possible investigations.

And the work has support in Congress, where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has proposed a plan to go after those who have funded the recent anti-Trump "No Kings" protests and riots under a federal law targeting organized crime.

The senator told Fox, "Follow the money. Cut off the money. You look at this No Kings rally – there's considerable evidence that George Soros and his network is behind funding these rallies which may well turn into riots."

The Open Society Foundation created by Soros, now run by his son, is the world's largest funder of leftism and leftist radicalism, the report said.

For example, the Fund for Policy Reform, now run by Alex Soros, handed out $60 million to Democrats in 2024, the report said.

Trump also has offered criticism of liberal billionaires like Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, over the damage done by leftists across America.

The OSF has denied any wrongdoing and denounced violence.

The changeovers at the agency already have been in the making. There were some 100,000 IRS workers at the end of 2024, but the president's Department of Government Efficiency cut that to about 75,000.

Many of those are not at work right now because of the Schumer shutdown, where Democrats in the Senate refused to agreed to a resolution that would have kept the government funded for a few weeks.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The terrorists of Hamas, who agreed to participate in President Donald Trump's stepped peace agreement to resolve a war they launched against Israel two years ago when they invaded and killed 1,200 and kidnapped hundreds more, have thrown a wrench into the works.

They had agreed that they would release all living hostages and return the bodies of those killed in captivity to Israel.

They returned 20 living hostages, but now claim they are unable to return all the bodies of the 28 dead hostages that have been listed.

A report in the Washington Examiner said the terrorists handed over 10 bodies, but one of those was not a hostage at all.

Now Hamas is claiming to have returned "all the remains it had without additional equipment."

The report suggested the terror organization perhaps knows of the location of other victims, but it cannot "access" those locations.

"The al Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, said it 'committed to what was agreed upon and handed over everyone it had in terms of living captives and what it had in terms of bodies that it could recover,'" the report said.

But the extraction of the remaining bodies will require "special equipment," the terrorists said.

The report described how the hostages taken Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its war against Israel, were handled in a "decentralized" plan, meaning they were spread out across the Gaza Strip. That means some of them could have died during military force conflicts between Israel and Hamas.

One U.S. adviser explained, "On top of all that debris is a lot of unexploded ordnance, and presumably, under that unexploded ordnance and that debris, there are many bodies. Now, there's a lot of different intelligence on where someone might have been killed, where they might have been injured, and we've got a lot of information with regard to that. And we've got a huge, huge effort in understanding all of those things."

The development, the report said, could result in sanctions against the terrorists, including "limiting promised aid" or even "continuing the war."

It will depend on whether the Hamas explanations come across as "genuine," the report said.

The Washington Examiner cited a statement from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said, "If Hamas refuses to abide by the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the U.S., will return to fighting and work to completely defeat Hamas, change the reality in Gaza and achieve all the goals of the war."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A nurse arrested for driving under the influence has been dismissed from her job after a video of her being taken into custody confirmed she promised the officers she would let them "die."

"I'm a f—— nurse. When you come through my hospital, don't worry, I'll let you die. All your family members, and this is all on recording," the video reveals her to be saying.

According to a report at Law & Crime, the nurse was identified as Crystal Tadlock, who used to work at Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital in Houston.

She was stopped and arrested by police from the Magnolia, Texas, department.

Tadlock allegedly added, "Greater Heights, b—. Don't go there."

The arrest documentation, Law & Crime said, charged that she was pulled over for speeding.

"[Tadlock] stated she was unaware she was traveling 66 mph and mentioned she was returning home from a concert at the Cynthia Woods Pavilion," the report alleges. "She indicated she had dropped off friends who had been drinking and was on her way home."

The officer reported a smell of alcohol coming from the vehicle when he pulled her over, and she allegedly failed field sobriety tests.

"During transport, Crystal became increasingly belligerent, making derogatory remarks and threats. She initially stated that the reason I was doing this was because ICE had not picked me up yet. Crystal also made racist comments about my ethnicity and stated that she is going to be getting out of this because she is white. She also stated that she had an issue with me because I was not white," the arresting officer reported.

The hospital, when officials were given details, released a statement that the employee was suspended pending investigation, and subsequently terminated.

"Once she arrived at jail, staff stated that she had also made the same comment to them that she uttered earlier, saying 'that if any of them went to the hospital where she works, she would ensure they die as well,' according to the arrest report," Law & Order said.

Police officials claimed there is "no excuse" for such actions.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A stunning charge has come from Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is giving "criminal illegal aliens badges and guns."

Actually, her comment was, "J.B. Pritzker doesn't just allow violent illegal aliens to terrorize Illinois's communities — he allows illegal aliens to work as sworn police officers. Radule Bojovic violated our nation's laws and was living illegally in the United States for 10 years. What kind of police department gives criminal illegal aliens badges and guns?"

The comment came after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested an illegal alien who was operating as an active Illinois police officer.

A report from Fox News said Bojovic "overstayed" his tourist visa by a decade and recently has been working as a police officer. He was "approved" for a pension in January.

The Department of Homeland Security said Bojovic was an illegal immigrant from Montenegro who was working as a sworn police officer with the Hanover Park Police Department.

He was taken into custody during Operation Midway Blitz, targeting illegal immigrants living in Illinois.

McLaughlin added, "It's a felony for aliens to even possess a firearm — a law enforcement officer who is actively breaking the law. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is restoring law and order. Criminal illegal aliens have no place in our communities, especially on our police forces."

The report said his 2025 earnings so far were $205,707.

Pritzker has been actively fighting Trump's border security measures, and recently sued to block National Guard action in Illinois.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump has worked hard during his second term to bring about a ceasefire between the terrorists of Hamas in Gaza and Israel.

The war was launched on Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas when members invaded Israel and slaughtered some 1,200 people, kidnapping hundreds more. And the ceasefire, endorsed by both Israel and Hamas, took effect just days ago.

But immediately, and even as hostages were being returned to Israel, the terrorists lashed out at their political foes inside Gaza, "publicly executing Palestinian civilians" and claiming that they were "criminals and collaborators with Israel."

A report at Fox News said while Trump wants a ceasefire, he's ardently opposed to the terrorism that has been going on.

And his warning, "If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them."

Trump added, "Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

The president's reaction followed online videos showing the executions in Gaza City's main square.

The report noted residents of Gaza also confirmed Hamas terrorists were reappearing in the streets and reasserting control, having issued an ultimatum giving Israeli collaborators until Sunday to surrender and seek amnesty.

WND had reported on the videos of the gruesome agenda.

The horrific clip shows eight beaten and blindfolded men on their knees before they're all shot on the street as a crowd cheers.

Adm. Brad Cooper, at U.S. CENTCOM, also had warned, "We strongly urge Hamas to immediately suspend violence and shooting at innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza – in both Hamas-held parts of Gaza and those secured by the IDF behind the Yellow Line."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Elon Musk, the former chief of DOGE, the federal Department of Government Efficiency, is hammering the judge who sentenced two teenagers who jumped Edward "Big Balls" Coristine, a former DOGE staffer, in Washington, D.C., last summer.

Musk posted on X: "This was a racist verdict by a racist judge. The simple test to apply is if the races has been reversed, the White kids would be in prison. Equal justice for all!"

Judge Kendra Briggs Tuesday sentenced the boy and girl, both 15, from Hyattsville, Maryland, to probation after they agreed to plead guilty to simple assault.

On Aug. 3, after an attempted carjacking, Coristine tried to intervene and was badly beaten. He said he and a female companion were jumped by "a group of 10 guys."

According to the New York Post, the boy was handed a 12-month probation and allowed to return home under strict house arrest, while the girl was given a nine-month probation and remanded to a local youth shelter.

Their accomplices in the attempted carjacking and assault at approximately 3 a.m. in a D.C. parking garage remain at large, as Coristine pointed out on X:

Here's Coristine describing the assault on Fox News:

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

For his years in the Oval Office, one of Joe Biden's focal points was to promote transgenderism. He wanted tax funding for body-mutilating surgeries on children, his bureaucracy demanded that nude boys and men be allowed to mingle in the showers and locker rooms of private areas for women. He even promoted the extremist administration of chemicals to children.

He made it fashionable. But he's now out of office.

And a new report says the transgender identification among young people is in a "free-fall."

The professor of politics who assembled the details explained, "The fall of trans and queer seems most similar to the fading of a fashion or trend. It happened largely independently of shifts in political beliefs and social media use, though improved mental health played a role."

The results are from Vancouver, B.C. professor Eric Kaufman.

 

 

 

 

A report at Not the Bee noted, "The world is waking up."

And it added, "This is great news for young people, great news for parents – and terrible news for the doctors who had begun to profit from this madness."

The report quoted UnHerd, "Data from my new Centre for Heterodox Social Science report, 'The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans', shows that since 2023 both trans and queer identification have dropped sharply within Generation Z. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which conducts a large annual survey of US undergraduates, polled over 60,000 students in 2025. My analysis of the raw data shows that in that year, just 3.6% of respondents identified as a gender other than male or female. By comparison, the figure was 5.2% in 2024 and 6.8% in both 2022 and 2023. In other words, the share of trans-identified students has effectively halved in just two years."

The report noted, "According to one survey, in 2023 9.2% of students at Andover Phillips Academy in Boston identified as neither male nor female. That number now sits at 3%. Brown University saw similar numbers, going from 5% to just 2.6% over a similar time period."

The report commented, "Who would've thought that a decline in mental illness would coincide with a decline in trans identification?"

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