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ByKevinFreking The Associated Press WASHINGTON Though it has made much progress, the Department of Veter- ans Affairs is likely to miss its target on two ambi- tious goals: ending veteran homelessness in 2015 and ending the backlog in dis- ability claims. The latest count avail- able showed about 50,000 homeless veterans on a sin- gle night in January 2014. That's a decline of 33 per- cent from January 2010. Re- sults from the January 2015 count are expected later this month. The disability and pen- sion claims backlog also is on a downward path, although not before the claims processing system became so overwhelmed that lawmakers and vet- erans groups demanded changes at the VA. The number of claims pending for more than 125 days soared from about 180,000 at the start of 2010 to more than 611,000 by March of 2013. It now stands at about 76,000. Those are the kind of trends that politicians would surely like to cite during election season. Yet, as one crisis be- gan to fade at the VA, an- other blossomed. Reports of thousands of veterans wait- ing months and sometimes years for health care have taken priority and colored the way all other issues are viewed. Investigators looking into delayed care found that inappropriate sched- uling practices were a na- tionwide systemic prob- lem. More than a year after the scandal broke congres- sional Republicans want to know why the number of employees fired is so low. VA Secretary Robert Mc- Donald faces complaints that he has overstated the number of employees disci- plined. The VA's reputation suf- fered another blow earlier this month after two high- ranking officials refused to testify at a congressional hearing on allegations that they manipulated the agen- cy's hiring system for their own gain. Investigators say they forced lower-ranking regional managers to ac- cept job transfers against their will and then stepped into those vacant positions, keeping their pay while re- ducing their responsibili- ties. Veterans groups have al- ways viewed the twin goals of ending homeless and the disability claim backlog with a healthy dose of re- ality. They're generally en- couraged by the trend lines. "If you don't meet your goals, it doesn't necessarily mean failure," said Joe Da- vis, a spokesman at Veter- ans of Foreign Wars. "You have to think big if you're going to do big." The VA has been fo- cused on getting the home- less into housing immedi- ately and paying for it with a voucher that subsidizes most or all of the rent. The VA then works to provide the veterans with counsel- ing, health care and other benefits. In August, Connecticut became the first state to an- nounce it had ended chronic homelessness among vet- erans. Officials said that means any veterans who had been homeless for more than a year or had four sep- arate bouts of homelessness in recent years were either in permanent housing or on an immediate path to it. New Orleans, Houston and a few others have also made such declarations. McDonald said last week that the end of the year was still the goal for ending vet- eran homelessness. The sur- vey verifying that outcome won't take place until Jan- uary and takes almost a year to tabulate. McDonald said his focus is now on Los Angeles with an estimated 4,200 homeless veterans. DISABILITY, PENSION CLAIMS VAentersstretchongoalsfor homelessness, claims backlog MARKLENNIHAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Henry "Bill" Warner, le , and John Middaugh clasp hands prior to their surgeries at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. By Jill Colvin The Associated Press WASHINGTON Starbucks is pushing back against sug- gestions stoked by Republi- can presidential contender Donald Trump that this year's minimalist design for its holiday cups is a slap at Christmas. Responding to questions about the cups, the Seattle- based coffee purveyor on Tuesday touted its "exclu- sive Christmas Blend Vin- tage 2015" — one of several Christmas-themed prod- ucts available in its stores. On its website, Starbucks pointedly said it was intro- ducing the blend on behalf of its 300,000 employees "from diverse ethnic back- grounds who proudly wear our green apron." Some religious conserva- tives have expressed anger over the coffee company's holiday season cups, which this year are a minimalist all-red design with no im- ages aside from the compa- ny's green and white logo. Previous years' cups have featured snowflakes and winterscenesaswellasocca- sionalChristmasornaments. A small number of critics have objected to the design choice, seeing it as part of a larger movement away from exclusivelyChristian-themed holiday decorations. Trump piled on Monday when he suggested boycot- ting the company at a rally in Springfield, Illinois. "Did you read about Starbucks? No more Merry Christmas on Starbucks," Trump told a capacity crowd of thousands gath- ered to hear him speak at a rally ahead of Tuesday night's GOP debate. "Maybe we should boy- cott Starbucks. I don't know," he said. "Seriously, I don't care." Trump, who has been trying to court evangeli- cal and other conservative Christian voters, has often bemoaned the use of the phrase "Happy Holidays" in place of "Merry Christ- mas" to cater to non-Chris- tians who don't celebrate the holiday. He said on Monday that: "If I become president, we're all going to be saying, 'Merry Christmas' again. That I can tell you." In response to ques- tions about Trump's crit- icism, Starbucks spokes- woman Sanja Gould noted that the company's Christ- mas blend was available in 23,000 stores in 70 coun- tries starting Tuesday. She also directed report- ers to several pages on the company's website listing various Christmas-branded coffee blends, as well as "Ugly Sweater" and frosted snowman cookies. PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER Starbucks touts Christmas coffee a er Donald Trump's criticism over red cups By Ken Thomas The Associated Press DERRY, N.H. Hillary Rod- ham Clinton outlined steps to improve the Depart- ment of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday, casting her- self as a protector against proposals to privatize the sprawling health care sys- tem for those who have served in the military. In a pre-Veterans Day event, the Democratic pres- idential candidate said she would seek to improve vet- erans' health care, modern- izeveterans'benefitssystem and address an unwieldy bureaucracy that was ex- posed in a scandal involv- ing chronic delays for those seeking medical care or to havetheirclaimsprocessed. "These problems are se- rious, systemic and unac- ceptable. They need to be fixed," Clinton said at a Vet- erans of Foreign Wars hall. She added: "Privatization is a betrayal, plain and simple and I am not going to let it happen." Clinton'stown hallmeet- ing included questions about how she might tackle the threat posed by Islamic State militants if she be- comes commander in chief. Clinton said in response to aquestionthatshedoes not currentlysupportadeclara- tion of war against the Is- lamicStategiventhediffuse nature of the group and the potential costs. "If you have adeclarationofwaryoubet- terhaveabudgetthatbacks it up," she said. At another point, a man who once worked for Hewlett-Packard told Clin- ton that when he sees Re- publican candidate Carly Fiorina, a former HP chief executive, on television, he wants to reach in and "strangle her." Clinton laughed along with the audience as the man said, "I know that doesn't sound very nice." Clintontoldhim,"Iwouldn't mess with you." Republicans National Committee spokeswoman Allison Moore said that the joke was in poor taste and that Clinton and Demo- crats had "lost all credibil- ity claiming to be a party that stands up for women." Clinton's plan for veter- ans would seek fundamen- tal changes to veterans' healthcaretoensureaccess to high quality health care in a timely fashion and ad- dress the backlog in claims. She said within the first 30 days of taking office she would convene the defense secretary and VA secretary for regular meetings and there would be "zero toler- ance" for abuses and delays within the system. Her campaign has pointed to plans circulated by the conservative Con- cerned Veterans for Amer- icathatwouldseektopriva- tize the Veterans Health Administration. But Re- publicans say she has over- stated efforts to privatize veterans' health care. Responding to her pro- posals, GOP officials said Clinton was offering hy- pocrisy, noting that her plan would allow the gov- ernment to contract with the private sector for cer- tainservicessuchasspecial inpatient or surgical proce- dures and access to men- tal health and substance abuse treatment when the VA couldn't provide timely access to care. PRESIDENTIAL RACE Clinton pushes back against Republicans on veterans' health issues JIM COLE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Hillary Clinton speaks Tuesday during a campaign stop at the VFW post in Derry, New Hampshire. By Mark Gillispie The Associated Press AKRON, OHIO A small busi- ness jet crashed into an apartment building with a huge bang on Tuesday, killing at least two people aboard and shaking furni- ture in homes several blocks away, authorities said. Investigators were try- ing to determine how many people were on the 10-seat Hawker H25 jet, but they confirmed two deaths, said Lt. Sierjie Lash, an Akron fire department spokes- woman. No one was inside the small brick apartment building or another home that caught fire, she said. The jet, which took off from Dayton, had planned to land at Akron Fulton International Airport, about 2 miles from where it crashed. It clipped a util- ity wire on the way down and burst into flames and disintegrated after impact, Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Haymaker said. The plane then hit an embankment beyond the apartment building, caus- ing a nearby house to also burn, he said. There were no known injuries on the ground, he said. Witnesses reported hear- ing explosions when the plane hit. "I heard a big bang, and my couch shook twice," said Carrie Willis, who lives sev- eral blocks away. The front of the two- story apartment building was destroyed. A woman who lives about a block away and was driv- ing home with her grand- son at the time said she saw the plane crash into the building and burst into flames. "This plane just dropped out of the sky, veered and crashed into the apartment building," Roberta Porter said. She said it's scary to think that if she had been driving faster the plane may have clipped her car. A mass-fatality team planned to begin working at daylight Wednesday to sift through the wreckage and recover bodies of the victims. Summit County Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler said Tuesday eve- ning that authorities still hadn't confirmed how many people were on the plane. OHIO 2 dead as business jet crashes into building | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2015 8 A