National Briefing

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WASHINGTON, D.C.

Vets with PTSD could get benefits

A military review could bring millions of dollars in benefits to thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans discharged with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The military has agreed to review the records of recent veterans discharged with PTSD to decide whether they were improperly denied benefits.

The agreement stems from a judge’s order in a class action lawsuit originally filed by seven combat veterans. They alleged the military illegally denied benefits to those discharged, at least in part, because of the disorder during a six-year period that ended Oct. 14, 2008.

Legal notices are currently being mailed to about 4,300 veterans informing them they can “opt-in” to the lawsuit until July 24 to be part of the expedited review. Attorneys for the veterans estimate that millions of dollars could be paid to veterans under the agreement, with some receiving hundreds or more dollars in increased monthly benefits.

ILLINOIS

Plea entered in terrorism case

A Chicago businessman accused of leading a double life as an international terrorist has pleaded not guilty to playing a role in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.

Tahawwur Rana also pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that accuse him of helping to lay the groundwork for a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper. The paper’s cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad had sparked outrage in the Muslim world.

The 49-year-old Rana, who owns a Chicago-based immigration service, could get life in prison if convicted.

The November 2008 attacks in Mumbai killed 166 people.

A second man indicted with Rana, David Coleman Headley, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

ALASKA

Census begins in arctic wilderness

The director of the U.S. Census Bureau has started the 2010 count of the nation’s residents in a village in Alaska’s arctic hinterlands.

Bureau Director Robert Groves flew to Noorvik on Monday and initiated the count in the Inupiat Eskimo community of 650.

Census workers and trained local aides will spend the next week interviewing Noorvik residents, using the same 10-question form to be mailed to most U.S. residents on March 15.

In the coming weeks, census workers also will visit 217 other rural Alaska communities not linked by roads that have been the first counted since the 1990 census.

AND FINALLY . . .

Who will get the ‘highest’ award?

It’s like a beer or wine competition for marijuana.

A cannabis festival in Aspen this spring will be the first in the state for approved growers to put their strains in a contest.

The Western Slope Cannabis Crown will have about 50 medical marijuana growers enter their strains. The marijuana strains will be diagnostically tested for their THC levels. Growers will also be able to sell to medical marijuana patients. The customers would vote on a “people’s choice” strain.

The Cannabis Crown organizer, Bobby Scurlock, says about 1,500 tickets have been sold for the two-day event.

-- times wire reports