TV News LIES

Starting Jan. 1, one of the liveliest spots aboard most submarines will wither away into the history books. RIP, Smoke Pit. Its death was scripted in April, when Navy officials announced smoking would no longer be allowed on submarines at sea. The reason: Testing showed that despite air filtering, there were "unacceptable levels" of secondhand smoke on submerged submarines.

Chief Petty Officer Robert Mueller Jr. used to head to the smoke pit before and after his shifts as assistant navigator aboard the submarine Albany.

"I have a passion to be a cop," said Janssen, 23, a fitness buff who dabbles in mixed martial arts. "But no one is hiring."

Janssen's experience is common among the 2 million veterans of the long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As they return home to the worst labor market in generations, the veterans who are publicly venerated for their patriotism and service are also having a harder time than most finding work, federal data show.

Peace groups outside the main gate of Beale Air Force Base on Wednesday protested the treatment of the private suspected of handing secret reports over to WikiLeaks. They also called on military personnel at the base to resist war and the use of drones.

Protesters from Veterans for Peace, CodePINK and other groups asked for "basic constitutional principles and human rights" be extended to Pfc. Bradley Manning. Manning is suspected of downloading thousands of secret reports and diplomatic cables and handing them over to WikiLeaks.

Every year, rape increases at an alarming rate within American military institutions – and even males are victims of the cycle. In fact, due to raw demographics, one can roughly surmise that most victims of sexual abuse in the military are male.

Regardless of gender, reports of victims of military sexual assault have been increasing. In 2007, there were 2,200 reports of rape in the military, whilst in 2009 saw an increase up to 3,230 reports of sexual assault.

Female veterans who become pregnant may be at more risk for mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, a study finds.

Researchers looked at data on 43,078 women who were veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq and were treated at the Veterans Health Administration over five years. Among the study participants, 32% of women who were pregnant had a mental health diagnosis, while 21% of women who were not pregnant received a mental health diagnosis.

The United Nations is probing a complaint that Bradley Manning, the detained Army private suspected of giving classified documents to WikiLeaks has been mistreated in custody. And WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange called Manning "a political prisoner" during an interview on MSNBC.

As The Huffington Post reported last week, Manning's supporters went public with their concerns about the harsh conditions of his imprisonment aboard a floating brig in Quantico, Va. -- he has no access to exercise or even a pillow and bedsheets during his 23 hours of solitary confinement a day -- after their complaints to the military over several months went unheeded.