Roger That: Hoffman sponsors bill to allow spouses to keep military license plates

State Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, is co-sponsoring a measure to allo the spouses of deceased military members to continue displaying the military-oriented license plates of their loved one.

“Military license plates are a simple way to honor the brave men and women who serve our country,” Hoffman said. “This bill allows the husbands and wives of former military members to continue honoring their loved ones after they have passed.”

Hoffman is backing House Bill 4433, which allows the surviving spouse of a former military member, now deceased, to retain specialty military license plates as long as he or she remains a resident of Illinois. Under current law, surviving spouses are not able to transfer ownership of the plates to their name.

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Congress is looking into why veterans are being denied a cure for a deadly form of hepatitis. At a hearing Wednesday, lawmakers directed their wrath at a physician who made hundreds of millions of dollars from a medicine developed while he was working for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The doctor got rich, but at $1,000 a pill, the VA can't afford it, CBS News reported.

“If I were you, I would be outraged," Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado, said.

Their target was Dr. Raymond Schinazi, who played a leading role developing a drug that cures hepatitis C. When he sold his company to pharmaceutical giant Gilead in 2012, he made over $400 million. And he did it all while working seven-eighths of his time for the VA.

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The Pentagon says the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has the weapons it needs, even as munitions supplies run low, according to The Hill.

“Obviously, the Department of Defense will prioritize supply to where it’s needed,” Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the campaign, said in a press briefing on Wednesday. “And as an active battlefield, obviously, priority of supply will come to us.”

Warren’s comments come after Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Tuesday said supplies are starting to run low because of the fight against ISIS.

In its 2017 budget, the Pentagon plans to spend $1.8 billion to buy 45,000 more smart bombs to drop on Islamic State targets, Carter added.

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Col. Warren, the spokesman for the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State, later acknowledged that the U.S. routinely has more troops on the ground in Iraq than the 3,500-3,600 frequently cited by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, the high command and President Barack Obama, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said Wednesday, according to Military.com.

“It's fair to say” that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq serving as trainers and advisers — or in support or on special assignment — was well above 4,000 on a daily basis, Warren said.

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This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Roger That: Hoffman sponsors bill to allow spouses to keep military license plates."