Alabama has a veterans controversy with national implications - Washington Examiner

Bob Greene : Alabama governor fired state mental health commissioner after ethics complaint.

Greene: Ivey may be engaged in a form of whistleblower retaliation.

Greene says the state's mental health system ranks among the five or so worst in the nation in quality and quantity of services.

He says Ivey fired commissioner , retired Rear Adm. W. Kent Davis , after he filed ethics complaint against state Mental Health Department officials and others for allegedly colluding to divert $7 million of federal funds away from veterans groups for whom the money had been intended.

Sally Kohn : Ivey's claim that Davis mishandled the grant money was factually absurd.

She says Davis , battling cancer at the time, recused himself from the selection process.

Ivey should use Veterans Day to claim there had been a “series of misunderstandings” but that, having heard “loud and clear” from state veterans groups, she will now reinstate Davis .