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If you are a California veteran returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom or any other military campaign, you are eligible for education benefits such as the California Fee Waiver program. It’s just a matter of knowing what those benefits are and how to take advantage of them.

When I separated from the military, I did it in California. I knew that my Montgomery GI Bill (which I later transferred to the Post 9/11 GI Bill) would provide great education benefits. What I didn’t realize was how many benefits I would receive if I chose to go to a state school. If you are a returning veteran in California- even if you aren’t a resident- consider these benefits and options.

California Veteran Fee Waiver Program. California will waive tuition costs for any veteran that wants to go to a California state school, to include community colleges. If you aren’t a resident of California, the state will also waive the non-resident fee for a year. After that year is up, you can re-apply as a resident if you have a California driver’s license.

However, if you are a discharged veteran, you can’t leave the state for more than a year for non-temporary purposes. If you do, you will be charged the full non-residency fee. Just make sure you have any evidence showing that you can still vote in California elections or are still a permanent resident if you do temporarily leave.

Eligibility. If you are an active duty veteran stationed in California for at least a year before you separate, you qualify for these benefits unless you are stationed here for educational purposes. If you are a grad student, there’s a two-year limit for the fee waiver benefits.

It isn’t just veterans who qualify, either. Spouses and children of these veterans can also qualify for the fee waivers. Students can’t earn an amount above the national poverty level as of December 31^st of the last year to receive the fee waiver benefits. This includes any financial support from parents. The spouse qualification includes certified domestic partners. If your dependents are going to grad school, the fee waiver is only good for one year.

How To Apply For Fee Waiver Benefits. You can apply through the administrative office of any California state school. They will hand you the College Fee Waiver Program application, which can be found at this link. Remember that you’ll need a Service Connected Disability rating from the VA. That can take a number of months to receive. If you don’t have a rating, contact your regional VA office to get the process started. You should be eligible for the Benefits Delivery at Discharge program which will speed up the process.

Dependents will need some sort of documentation proving they are a spouse or child of a veteran. Birth or marriage certificates as well as dependent government-issued ID should suffice.

United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta addressed the L.A. Times’ publication of photos of American troops posing with the dead and mangled bodies of insurgents in Afghanistan. Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and White House Spokesman Jay Carney all took time on Wednesday to express their disgust with the pictures and the behavior of the U.S. troops involved. Between NATO meetings in Brussels, Panetta said, “This is war, and I know war is ugly, and is violent. And I know young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions. I am not excusing that. My apology is on behalf of the Department of Defense and the US government. Again, that behavior is unacceptable.”

Of course, there were also many political and military analysts who were quick to criticize the L.A. Times for running the story and publishing the photos in question. The belief is that the published images will incite more violence against American troops and serve as a recruiting tool for Taliban and insurgent forces. The newspaper said that the photos were sent to them by a member of the U.S. military in support of a claim that leadership failures in Afghanistan were placing American troops in grave danger.

The editor of the L.A. Times, Davan Maharaj, defended the paper’s decision to publish the story and the photos: “After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering US troops.”

Unfortunately for everyone involved, this story is going to be pushed out of the headlines in the coming days as more bad – and possibly horrifying – news continues to emerge from Afghanistan.

High school reunions are not something I am in a rush to attend, but the fascination of meeting up with people you haven’t seen in at least a decade is irresistible. While you may be able to catch up with them on Facebook (assuming your friends from those years have a profile on it), meeting them face to face is far more appealing. That’s what makes “American Reunion” an entertaining prospect as we have known these characters since 1999, and it’s been awhile since we’ve last seen them. The question is, was it worth the wait? Well, not really.

Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) and his wife Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are now the parents of a two year old boy, but their sex life has become practically non-existent. Oz (Chris Klein) is now a famous sportscaster with a gorgeous but hopelessly dense girlfriend in Mia (Katrina Bowden). Kevin Myers (Thomas Ian Nicholas) has since gotten married and works from home as an architect, and Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) boasts of his travels around the world. As for Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott), he works as a lowly temp at an investment firm but still lives for the party of a lifetime. That is, if he can get past his vindictive boss Prateek Duraiswamy (Vik Sahay) who berates Stifler any chance he gets.

But despite a handful of very funny moments, “American Reunion” doesn’t have enough of them to sustain a full length feature film. The characters are set adrift with not much in the way of a story to hold them all together. Also, the guys get far more attention than the female characters this time around. Granted, that was always the case but in the previous movies they were given a lot of attention as well and were made to be more than the typical high school babes. Here, many of them are relegated to a mere cameo which is frustrating.

In terms of laughs, you can always depend on Sean William Scott and Eugene Levy to deliver the goods as their iconic characters. Levy, who has been in all the “American Pie” movies including those direct-to-video ones, sees his character of Jim’s dad trying to move on after the death of his wife. It’s an interesting development which forces some wonderfully awkward moments on Levy as he gets up close and personal with Stifler’s Mom (the always reliable Jennifer Coolidge), and who gets his trademark eyebrows tweaked to where you can make a wig from them.

Be sure to stay through the end credits as Stifler’s Mom makes Noah’s day by giving him a whole new reason to appreciate going to the movies.

Scott all but stole “American Wedding,” and he pretty much does the same here as Stifler is the one who really hasn’t changed a bit since high school. As much as the other guys try to avoid him like the plague, Stifler always manages to sniff them out and he remains as horny as ever. There is an increased desperation in his efforts to get laid, and this is clearly shown when he expresses his love for the “Twilight” novels to high school girls. I don’t know, maybe it is a good pick up line. There’s only one way to find out though.

Biggs once again sees his character of Jim getting into ridiculously embarrassing situations like when he pleasures himself while watching a horny college student website. Of course, he gets interrupted by his son who thankfully doesn’t have any idea of what daddy is doing. Things get even more awkward when he meets up with Kara (Ali Cobrin), the girl he used to babysit who is now 18. She’s on a mission to lose her virginity, and she thinks Jim is the guy. The “American Pie” movies were comically shocking when they first came out, but this one feels all too tame in comparison.

Of the actresses, Alyson Hannigan gets the most screen time as her character of Michelle tries to find ways to spice up hers and Jim’s love life as what she used to do with that flute doesn’t make much of a substitute (not like a shower head anyway). Aside from that, Mena Suvari returns as Oz’s ex Heather merely as a way to advance his character so he can get back what he lost. She’s not given much to do here other than show off her thoughtless boyfriend Ron (Jay Harrington) who’s a heart surgeon. As for Shannon Elizabeth’s character of foreign exchange student Nadia, she has one of those blink and you’ve missed it cameos which is frustrating. Surely the writers could have given her more to do this time around!

Still, it’s nice to see people like Tara Reid and Natasha Lyonne here. Reid has been dragged through tabloid hell and back, and her character of Vicky is made to be thoughtful in a way her old boyfriend should have darn well realized from the start. As for Lyonne, she’s had her battles with drugs and alcohol which garnered the strangest headlines ever, but it’s great to see her here even if it’s only for a minute. She’s always been a clever actress, and we finally get reminded of that here.

Adam Herz who created these characters didn’t helm this sequel which was instead written and directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. These two were responsible for the “Harold & Kumar” movies, the original which I probably should have seen by now. The problem is that neither of them brings anything new to this franchise, and “American Reunion” ends up running on fumes as a result. As much as it would be nice to see how these characters have grown over the years, they are for the most part relegated to doing the same things that got them into trouble in the first place.

The problem with writing and directing a sequel like this is that everyone goes into it expecting that the audience will want the same of what they saw before. But there also has to be an opportunity for the filmmakers to bring something new to these characters and the material as we have all grown up with them. If they can’t bring anything fresh to a long running franchise, then what’s the point of making another sequel other than money?

I don’t know, maybe I just resent that these characters had all these experiences when they were younger and the fact that they look back at high school as the best of times. They really aren’t meant to be that, and seeing characters get nostalgic for that kind of past feels sad. The fact that their lives don’t measure up to what they once were doesn’t give us much to look forward to. Times are tough right now, but we can always remind ourselves that we’re no longer in high school. Believe me, I’d rather be paying bills than going through those years again.

* * out of * * * *

Other articles by Ben Kenber:

Jason Reitman Talks with Actor Chris Klein About “Election”

Top 10 Movies for Teens

Teen Movie Review: “Pump Up The Volume”

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 5
Processor Count: 8
RAM: 8183 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total – 938444 MB, Free – 473897 MB; D: Total – 15359 MB, Free – 7945 MB;
Motherboard: Dell Inc., 0R849J
Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials, Updated and Enabled

Looking for drivers for a SimpleTech remote hard drive which Windows cannot install automatically.