Latest news with #Nevins
NBC News
26-05-2025
- Health
- NBC News
A double amputee who served in Iraq is pushing lawmakers to end the 'wounded veterans tax'
WASHINGTON — When Army veteran Dan Nevins was forced to medically retire from the military after losing both his legs in combat, he thought he'd be financially taken care of by the country that he served. But Nevins soon discovered the so-called 'wounded veterans tax' — an unofficial term for a federal policy that prohibits certain injured veterans from receiving both their full retirement pay and disability compensation. 'I was told I could not receive both,' Nevins told NBC News in an interview. 'And I was like, 'Wait a minute. That's not what I thought was going to happen.'' It's an issue that affects around 50,000 veterans, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, costing them each about $1,900 per month. Under current federal policy, veterans who have less than 20 years of service and a disability rating under 50% get a dollar taken out of their retirement for every dollar they receive in disability compensation. The disability rating is assigned by the Veterans Affairs Department and assesses how much an injury or disability may impact a veteran's health and ability to function. And now, Nevins is pushing lawmakers in Washington to change that. In 2004, when Nevins was deployed to Iraq as a squad leader, an improvised explosive device detonated beneath his vehicle. The blast killed his platoon sergeant, and eventually both of Nevins legs would be amputated below the knee because of the injuries he sustained. 'People say when you're about to die your life flashes before your eyes. That wasn't really my experience. It was more like a slideshow of things left undone,' said Nevins, who still wears a bracelet every day to honor his platoon sergeant. 'The last sort of vision, it was my 10-year-old daughter, but she was all grown up and dressed in white head to toe, and walking down the aisle without her dad. And I was like, 'I'm alive. I have to do something to keep it that way.'' After a painful and lengthy recovery process, which included 36 surgeries and an 18-month stay at Walter Reed Hospital, Nevins started to live his life again. That included learning some new skills, such as becoming a certified yoga instructor. But because of his injuries, Nevins left the military earlier than anticipated. That is when, to his surprise, Nevins learned that he would not be receiving his full retirement pay. 'It's a tragedy really,' Nevins said. 'So many people are cutting what we would all take for granted out of their lives, just so they can survive. And I mean, it's not a ton of money, but it will help and really change lives and families for the better.' Congress is making a renewed push to eliminate the offset with a bipartisan bill, dubbed the Major Richard Star Act, that would give wounded veterans their full retirement benefits and disability pay. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is spearheading the effort in the Senate, where it has 71 co-sponsors, while Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., is leading the bill in the House, where it has 274 co-sponsors. 'Veterans are retired early because of the wounds and the injuries they receive, and they're entitled to disability compensation for them, but then their retirement pay is reduced dollar for dollar because of that disability compensation,' Blumenthal told NBC News. 'They're being penalized for being wounded. ... It's about simple justice and fairness.' But the bill is costly: The CBO estimated in 2022 that the legislation would have cost $9.75 billion from 2024 to 2033. And at a time when the Trump administration is looking to trim government spending — including at the Veterans Affairs Department — cost concerns could stand in the way of passage. A spokesman for the VA said it does not typically comment on pending legislation, but vowed that no health care or benefits for veterans will be cut. The Department of Defense did not return a request for comment. Blumenthal said he sees 'a number of paths' for the bill. He plans to offer it as an amendment to an annual defense policy bill later this year. And in the coming weeks, Blumenthal is going to try to bring it up under unanimous consent and 'see who has the nerve to come forward and say we should deny our veterans basic fairness.' Ahead of Memorial Day, Nevins traveled to Washington to advocate for the bill. He appeared at a press conference alongside Marine Corps veteran Jamel Daniels, who also lost his leg in combat. The two got to know each other during their respective recoveries and even did wheelchair races in the hospital hallways, according to Nevins. Now, Nevins and Daniels are fighting for a legislative fix in the halls of the Capitol. And Nevins says his message to Congress is simple: honor the country's commitment to veterans. 'We should keep our promises,' Nevins said. 'I teach my kids to keep their promises, even when it's not convenient for them.'
Boston Globe
15-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
For Greater Boston, a different kind of freedom trail
Now the 'People's Guide' is being refigured into a series of maps so everyday explorers might tread a history that's often devalued by the established culture. The first, a Advertisement 'One of our goals in bringing maps like this into our collection is to encourage people to see maps not just as something done to them and their communities,' said Garrett Dash Nelson, cq president and head curator of the Leventhal Center. Rather, he sees the Lawrence map as a visual argument, intimately linked to the changing ways ordinary people think about their place in the world. Maps have long been considered documents of power, often commissioned and funded by history's winners. But technology has democratized cartography and put its tools in the hands of nearly everybody. 'You don't have to be a British naval officer or computer scientist to map your own community,' Nelson said. In fact, the idea of ' 'We started thinking about whose history is commemorated in our public places and whose story is lost,' said Catherine D'Ignazio, cq a professor of urban studies and planning at MIT, who helped create the Cambridge map. Participants named streets in memory of beloved pets, changed the Colonial-era Charles River to the indigenous name Mishaum, cq and suggested 'Scarlet's End' as a more poetic choice for Cambridgepark cq Drive, near the Alewife station — the last Red Line stop. Advertisement Far from mere utilitarian diagrams to get from point A to point B, D'Ignazio said, maps can be powerful narrative tools. 'If we only accept the Google way of mapping we'll have a very impoverished way of seeing our spaces,' she said. Leafing through 'A People's Guide to Greater Boston' brings home another truth: So many of the original places highlighted have been razed or gentrified beyond recognition. Maybe a small sign or bronze plaque marks the place where immigrant workers or antiwar protesters once agitated for their rights. Nevins is OK with this, since cities are naturally dynamic, and he doesn't want to fetishize the past. Still, we save what we value, Nevins said. 'In highlighting what is lost we are trying to offer a cautionary tale and a challenge,' he said. We need to ask, 'Who shapes these decisions? How does change unfold and for whom?' At a time when a revisionist administration in Washington is Advertisement Renée Loth's column appears regularly in the Globe.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cashew Chickens rally past Naturals 3-2
SPRINGFIELD, Mo–Cashew Chicken was the special at Hammons Field Thursday night. Springfield continued its series with Northwest Arkansas. Springfield hoping that playing as the Cashew Chickens could snap a losing skid. The Cardinals limping into tonight's game losers of ten of their last 12. Springfield is 0-1 this season playing as the Cashew Chickens. Springfield southpaw Pete Hansen started. And he would strike out Missouri State product Spencer Nivens swinging in the second. Hansen pitched into the sixth inning with two strikeouts. The Cashews would take the lead in the second Nathan Church takes this deep to right center, up on the berm, a two run shot, it's 2-0 Springfield. But Northwest Arkansas cuts that lead in half in the third, Jordan Groshans flares this to right field, it drops in fair, Carter Jensen scores and it's 2-1. Then in the fourth, Nevins would get his revenge on Hansen, Nevins takes this deep to left, into the bullpen, a solo shot, and we're tied at two. That's Nevins second homer of the season. It's 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth, and Church singles over first into right, Dakota Harris scores and the Cashew Chickens win 3-2. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Andrea Nevins, Who Turned Offbeat Subjects Into Moving Films, Dies at 63
Andrea Nevins, a documentary filmmaker who brought sensitivity and depth to seemingly lighthearted stories about underdogs and unlikely heroes, including punk-rock dads and Barbie dolls, died on April 12 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 63. Her daughter, Clara, said the cause was breast cancer. Ms. Nevins received an Academy Award nomination in 1998 for her first independent project as a producer, the short film 'Still Kicking: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies,' about a cabaret group made up of retirees in the Southern California desert city. The film bears all the hallmarks of her later work: offbeat characters in unconventional circumstances who, through their struggles, say something meaningful about life and how to live it. Her first full-length project, 'The Other F Word' (2011), was based on the 2007 memoir 'Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life,' by Jim Lindberg, the lead singer of the band Pennywise. In some ways the opposite of the performers in Palm Springs, Mr. Lindberg was known for his aggressive stage presence and profane lyrics, even as he navigated the everyday challenges of raising three daughters. Working with a lean film crew, Ms. Nevins was able to get deep into the lives of Mr. Lindberg and other punk dads, producing a touching portrait that went far beyond its fish-out-of-water premise. 'What I discovered was that a lot of these guys were really devastated by their own fathers,' she told NPR in 2011. 'And when handed a child, suddenly that all came rushing to the forefront, and they felt like they had to truly be there in a way that their parents weren't.' The film was jointly acquired by Showtime Networks and Oscilloscope Laboratories, a company founded by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. 'When I first heard about this film about musician fathers, I thought, 'Oh no, not another film that everyone thinks I'm going to like,'' Mr. Yauch said in a statement at the time. 'But I was actually very moved by it, pleasantly surprised, and glad I didn't go with my first instinct. It's a beautiful and touching film.' Ms. Nevins was also known for her 2018 documentary 'Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie,' a searching study of the famous doll that provided source material for Greta Gerwig as she and Noah Baumbach wrote the script for the 2023 film 'Barbie.' The germ of the project came from an offhand remark by a friend who worked at Mattel, which makes Barbie: Inside the company, she told Ms. Nevins, there was an ongoing conversation about the doll's place in the culture — and how to adjust her image as the culture changed. Ms. Nevins and her team spent seven months persuading Mattel to let them film inside its offices. The documentary was primarily shot in 2016, at a time when many people thought America was about to elect its first female president; it was released in 2018, as the country grappled with #MeToo scandals. 'I knew, no matter what, Barbie was going to be an interesting way to look at where we are now,' Ms. Nevins told The Los Angeles Times in 2018. 'I'd seen the progress that allowed my mom to have a full-time career, but also the images in society that were setting us back as women. I could see those waves, and that Barbie had been riding every one of them.' Andrea Blaugrund was born on March 15, 1962, in Manhattan. Her father, Stanley Blaugrund, was an otolaryngologist, and her mother, Annette (Weintraub) Blaugrund, was a museum curator. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in social studies in 1984, she worked as a newspaper reporter in North Carolina and Florida, and then as a producer for 'All Things Considered,' the NPR program, in Washington. She also worked for the ABC News documentary series 'Peter Jennings Reporting,' and was part of the team that won an Emmy in 1991 for a story on gun control. In 1996, she married David Nevins, who went on to become the chairman and chief executive of Showtime. Along with their daughter, he survives her, as do their sons, Charlie and Jesse; her brothers, James and Jonathan; and her mother. Ms. Nevins made several other films, bringing her trademark sensitivity to surprising characters at critical life moments. Both the 2015 feature 'Play It Forward' and 'Happiness,' a 2014 episode of the sports series 'State of Play,' looked at professional athletes contemplating how to move on from their sports careers. 'Hysterical,' which debuted at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, tracked the stories of several female comics in an exploration of the role of gender in standup comedy. And her most recent film, 'The Cowboy and the Queen' (2023), examined the unlikely friendship that blossomed between a Texas cowboy and Queen Elizabeth II after she learned of his unconventional approach to rearing horses. 'I loved capturing stories visually,' she told the website Women and Hollywood in 2021. 'In college, I saw Barbara Kopple's 'Harlan County U.S.A.,' and I knew that's what I wanted to do — tell stories on film that move people, maybe motivate them, maybe reveal a world they might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience.'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Andrea Nevins, Oscar-Nominated Documentarian, Dies at 63
Andrea Nevins, a documentary filmmaker who received an Oscar nomination for her uplifting 1997 short film Still Kicking, has died of breast cancer. She was 63. A writer, director and producer, Nevins died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles surrounded by her family and her dogs. More from The Hollywood Reporter Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian Author and Nobel Literature Laureate, Dies at 89 E. Jay Krause, Emmy-Winning Art Director, Dies at 98 Ed Arnold, Former Broadcaster at Los Angeles TV Stations KTLA and KABC, Dies at 86 Nevins' love of storytelling led her to a career covering subjects that spotlighted the good in humanity, first in her work as a journalist, which included stints as a reporter for NPR in Washington and for ABC News in New York, where she earned an Emmy. Still Kicking, her first independent documentary, focused on The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a wildly popular dance and musical revue that featured performers 55 and older and played at the historic Plaza Theatre. For co-producing the heartwarming 38-minute film, she received an Oscar nom for best documentary short. Her other projects included The Other F Word (2011), State of Play: Happiness (2014), Play It Forward (2015), Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (2018), Hysterical (2021), and, most recently, The Cowboy and the Queen (2023). Her interest in underdogs and in lives in transition led her to focus on such topics as punk rockers as they become fathers, female stand-ups, retiring NFL players, the cultural legacy of Barbie and an unlikely relationship between a California cowboy and the queen of England. Andrea Blaugrund was born in New York on March 15, 1962. Her father, Stanley, was an otolaryngologist, and her mother, Annette, was a curator of paintings, sculpture and drawings, an author and a lecturer. As a youngster, she performed ballet and was a swimmer, poet, photographer and president of her high school, the Chapin School. She then graduated cum laude from Harvard University, majoring in social studies. In 1996, she married David Nevins, the producer who later became chairman and CEO of Showtime and Paramount Premium Group. She was passionate about creating and championing meaningful causes as a founding member of the Los Angeles synagogue IKAR; as a founder of Larchmont Charter School; as a member of the Southern California board and executive committee of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF; and as a founder of X Fund, a donor-advised fund that addresses the needs of women and girls in L.A. Nevins also enjoyed watching movies and loved dogs, style and taking walks on the beaches of Montecito, California. In addition to her husband, survivors include her children, Clara, 25, Charlie, 22, and Jesse, 19; and her dogs, Phoebe and Frank. Donations in her memory can be made here. Best of The Hollywood Reporter "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong
