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The man convicted and sentenced to death for carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 is fighting to keep federal prosecutors from seizing the funds he has accumulated in his prison canteen account. The Boston Herald reported an attorney for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 30, filed an appeal seeking to stop the feds in Boston from taking the $4,200-plus in Tsarnaev's account,

Just how the Defense Department will allow an estimated 3.5 million veterans and their caregivers on base early next year to use commissaries, exchanges and some recreation resources is still largely unanswered, despite a looming deadline and potentially complicated access issues. Beginning Jan. 1, 2020, all service-connected disabled veterans, caregivers enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs' Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers program, and former prisoners of war will be able to shop at on-base grocery stores and exchanges. They will also be allowed to use some MWR amenities, such as golf courses and bowling alleys.

The Pentagon’s last two budget plans to “reform” the commissary benefit for military families and retirees were driven by a goal to save money, without due regard for preserving the benefit, said a senior Defense official who claims to be leading commissary reforms on a less perilous path. In a strikingly frank address Tuesday to commissary brokers, suppliers and product representatives at the annual convention of American Logistics Association, Peter Levine, deputy chief management officer for the Department of Defense, confirmed what critics in Congress and industry, and advocates for commissary patrons, had charged for the past two years. That...

House and Senate conferees negotiating a package to fund the Department of Defense through September 2015 have protected commissary operations by restoring 90 percent of a planned $100 million cut. Once again lawmakers thwarted a cost-saving initiative targeting military compensation and endorsed by the Joint Chiefs as a way to dampen personnel costs so more dollars can be spent on training, weapon buys and other readiness accounts being victimized by arbitrary “sequestration” cuts. Only last week House and Senate conferees on a different bill, the 2015 defense authorization act, unveiled a deal to lower the Defense Commissary Agency annual $1.3...

A retired Army sergeant first class living in Northeast El Paso, Texas, says he and his wife will stop shopping on Fort Bliss if the Department of Defense allows commissary prices to climb, as planned, to within 10 percent of local grocers. “I am not the only one here who thinks the same way,” said Louis Lindemann. “By the time we pay for gas alone, we could go to the local Albertson’s or the Walmart food store around the corner. The commissary already has a number of items we can purchase cheaper on the economy.” His email arrived moments after...

The Defense Department is discussing a $1 billion cut over the next three years to the commissary’s budget in a move that could lead to a widespread closure of stores, Pentagon and industry officials said. Word of the pending cut comes two months after news that the Pentagon’s top financial advisor ordered the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) to produce a plan to close most stateside commissaries should the need arise. The commissary agency currently operates 247 stores worldwide. Under the requested closure plan, all but 24 rural stores stateside and stores located outside the continental U.S. would close.

FORT HUACHUCA — The post commissary will reopen at 9 a.m. this morning after being closed due to employees being furloughed as a result of the federal government shutdown during the past week. When the recall of most of the furloughed Army civil service employees on post was announced on Sunday, some of the store’s employees were called to work that day to prepare for the Tuesday reopening of the facility, post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said Monday. Western Region of the Defense Commissary Agency spokeswoman Nancy O’Nell said about 11,000 of the agency’s 16,000 employees were furloughed, of which 62...

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Motion sensors and razor-wire coils ring the ammunition depot on this vast Marine Corps base. Sentries stand watch in the lobby of the headquarters complex. Military police officers patrol the barracks every few hours. But no building here boasts the defenses of the giant, government-run supermarket, whose bright, wide aisles are stocked with seemingly every brand of every food product available in America — Heinz ketchup, Oscar Mayer bacon, Lay’s chips — all sold at close to wholesale prices. The cost of ordering the goods, filling the shelves and checking out customers is all borne by...

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2008 – The Defense Commissary Agency is taking the commissary benefit to National Guard and reserve members and their families living in remote areas. Guard and reserve members and their families shop at the case-lot sale at the North Carolina Air National Guard base of 145th Airlift Wing, held in Charlotte, N.C., April 3-6. U.S. Army Photo by Margaret McKenzie  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "The 2004 National Defense Authorization Act authorized full commissary benefits for members of the Ready Reserve," Richard Page, acting Defense Commissary Agency director, said. “Through our new ‘Bringing the Benefit...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2006 – The Defense Commissary Agency is partnering with a national anti-substance-abuse organization to promote the concept of families dining together as a means of establishing healthy lifestyles for young people, a DeCA spokesperson said today. “Since we’re the food leader for the military, anything that has to do with family quality and family lifestyles and focuses on eating is a good thing for us to be involved in,” said Bonnie Powell during a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service from her organization’s headquarters at Fort Lee, Va. DeCA will support and celebrate “Family Day...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2005 – The Defense Commissary Agency and the Fisher House Foundation have teamed up again to offer educational scholarships to children of military families and retirees. The Scholarships for Military Children Program is marking its sixth year, DeCA spokesman Kevin Robinson said. The goal, he said, is to provide at least one $1,500 scholarship for each of DeCA's 268 commissaries worldwide. "It's important for us to give back to the military community that we serve," Robinson said. "This is one of the ways we do that, in addition to providing a commissary benefit to our customers." He...