In the News

NORFOLK, Va. — After two years of fighting the Navy for accountability and pushing for change, finally, Teri and Patrick Caserta have a little hope.

Last week, on the two-year anniversary of their son Brandon's death, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) introduced "The Brandon Act."

The goal: to create a pathway for service members to seek mental health care in confidence, outside of their own chain of command.

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton on Tuesday continued to press NOAA Fisheries to reverse its decision to return at-sea monitors aboard commercial fishing vessels as the pandemic still rages, saying the agency "is sailing right into a hurricane" of its own making.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is delaying its requirement for several hundred Atlantic groundfish and scallop vessels to carry at-sea monitors and fishery observers for another month due to COVID-19-related concerns.

If you think Capitol Hill has been desolate this summer, try talking to the interns who never made it there.

“It was kind of a bummer,” Matthew Mittelstaedt says. He’s an economics major at the University of Dayton with an eye on law school. For the rising senior, a summer in Washington looked like a bouncy springboard into his post-grad career.

That was until mid-March, when things changed. His school’s program, DC Flyers, got grounded due to the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Celtics center Enes Kanter can’t recall the last conversation he had with his father.

“Man,” he said, trying to think back. “I have no idea. I don’t even remember.”

Kanter is optimistic that will soon change.

WASHINGTON — Over the past two years, Patrick and Teri Caserta have tried to create a positive legacy for their son, a 21-year-old sailor who died by suicide June 25, 2018, after throwing himself into the spinning tail rotor of a MH-60s helicopter at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.

A command investigation into Brandon Caserta’s death determined that belligerent and brash leadership of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28 contributed to his decision to end his own life. He felt alone, stuck and afraid of retaliation, his parents said.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Caserta was trapped.

The Navy was forcing Caserta to spend another year in a rating he hated under a toxic supervisor, who constantly bullied him and insulted him for not completing SEAL training because he broke his leg during Basic Underwater Demolition School, Patricia Kime of Military.com first reported.

PEABODY — In the span of a year, both Michael Moutsoulas, 43, and his sister Stephenie, 44, were diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a neurodegenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The siblings have an inherited form of the disease. Their biological mother died of ALS in 2016, and her sister died of the disease about 18 years ago.

There is no cure for ALS. But the siblings are fighting for increased access to treatments that show better promise than the few that are approved.