Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 12-11-08

1. Support Appears Strong For Shinseki As Confirmation Date Is Set.  
2. Conference In New Mexico Discusses Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.  
3. Massive World War II Collection Debuts Online
4. Pentagon Said To Be "Dragging Its Feet" On Injury Review Board.  
5. VA Announces Changes To Traumatic Injury Insurance Program.  
6. National Resource Directory For Wounded Service Members, Vets Available Online.  
7. VA Announces Mileage Reimbursement Rate Increase.  
8. VA Hospital Awarded Money For Hospice Unit.  
9. Many Cold War Vets Will Have To Wait For New York Tax Break.  
10. 2008 Class Inducted Into Connecticut Veterans Hall Of Fame.

     1.      Support Appears Strong For Shinseki As Confirmation Date Is Set.   In continuing coverage, the Federal Times (12/11, Maze) reports, "The Senate will hold a confirmation hearing for the new Veterans Affairs secretary one week before it formally receives the nomination so it can vote on members of President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet immediately after" he takes office. The "hearing for retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki to lead" the VA "will be Jan. 14," Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chairman Daniel Akaka (D-HI) "announced Tuesday night." Shinseki "appears to have strong support from veterans services organizations and bipartisan support in Congress. Even the current VA secretary, Dr. James Peake, has thrown in his support," saying Shinseki "will be a great leader…and a strong advocate for our veterans." The Times adds, "Also backing Shinseki is the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 150,000 VA workers." The Army Times (12/11) runs the same story, while the AP (12/11) briefly notes Shinseki’s nomination.
      Filner Says More Must Be Done For Veterans.   The syndicated "Sgt. Shaft" column, appearing in the Washington Times (12/11, Fales) congratulates US Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), "who was recently re-elected by the Democratic caucus as chairman" of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. In commenting on the re-election, Filner said, "We made significant progress in caring for our veterans over the past two years, but much remains to be done. A new basis of stable funding must be developed," and the "claims backlog must be attacked in a new way." In addition, the "mental health of our veterans — both old and new — must remain a high priority." Filner added, "I am looking forward to working with a dynamic new secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Obama administration to achieve these aims."
      Shinseki Appointment Praised.   In his McClatchy (12/10) column, Joseph L. Galloway wrote, "Obama’s choice of…Shinseki to head" the VA "is the smartest and best appointment he’s made so far." That Obama "chose…Shinseki to reform the stumbling, bumbling, expensive bureaucracy that is the VA is an unmistakable signal that business is going to be anything but usual in the future."                                                                                          The Orlando Sentinel (12/11) expresses similar sentiments, concluding, "Clearly, the next" VA "secretary has a big job ahead of him. Veterans should find comfort that a man of Mr. Shinseki’s caliber is ready to take it on." In its own editorial, the Florida Times-Union (12/11) agrees, saying Obama "could not have picked a better individual," to lead the VA, while the Clark County (WA) Columbian (12/11) editorializes that Shinseki "obviously is a wise choice" for VA secretary.

2.      Conference In New Mexico Discusses Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.   The Santa Fe New Mexican (12/9, Vorenberg) said the "Behavioral Health Collaborative Conference" held last Friday at the Albuquerque Convention Center discussed the needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A "packed crowd" attending the event heard Kristy Straits-Troster, "clinical co-director of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center," say that some aspects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it more likely that vets will return with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. The New Mexican added, "New Mexico’s strategies for helping returning vets have improved dramatically in the last five years, but more needs to be done, said John M. Garcia, secretary of the Department of Veterans Services." The VA "does well with what it has, but ‘it needs mandated funding. It doesn’t have that,’ Garcia said."

      Man Dedicates Cross-Country Walk To His Fellow Vets.   The Redwood (CA) Times (12/11, Anderson) reports veteran Eddie Gray "arrived in Garberville on Tuesday, Dec. 3, in the fourth month of a walk around America that he started on April 3 from his home in Ashland, Mont." Gray "says he thought of the walk as a way of meeting Americans, ‘the people I could have died for and whose freedoms I was protecting.’" But as "began to lose comrades to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his vision grew broader. ‘After this war started and I started losing buddies in Afghanistan and Iraq…it started becoming more than for myself. It was for them and for all veterans.’" Gray, who hopes those he meets on his walk will, among other things, "donate to…charities that help veterans and wounded" service members, "would…like to see improvements at the Veterans Administration." Gray says the VA finds "the least cost way to help a veteran."
      Iraq Vets Welcomed Home At Ceremony In California.   The Santa Barbara (CA) Independent (12/10, Preston) reported, "While most" of the US Army’s 425th Civil Affairs Battalion "is currently deployed in Iraq, about 20 soldiers from the unit who had been stationed there within the past couple of years were officially welcomed home in a ceremony at the Canary Hotel this weekend." One of the people attending the event was Joseph Narkevitz, "a Veterans Administration counselor from the center in Ventura." Narkevitz, who is a Vietnam veteran, "praised the government’s efforts to support veterans, saying that his department just received its first budget increase since 1979."
      Concerned Mother Tries To Improve Care For Wounded Vets.   The Newcastle (WA) News (12/10, Feehan) profiled Cynthia Lefever, whose "was nearly killed four years ago by a roadside bomb in Fallujah, Iraq." Since then, Lefever has been "trying to get national officials to improve medical care for returning Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress." In April, "Lefever accepted a job as a case manager" with the US Army Wounded Warrior Program, "administered by the Army Human Resources Command. It assists severely wounded soldiers and families from injury throughout recovery."

3.      Massive World War II Collection Debuts Online.   The AP (12/10, Scheraga).

4.      Pentagon Said To Be "Dragging Its Feet" On Injury Review Board.   The AP (12/11, Maurer) reports that prior to last year, after hearing many complaints, veterans advocates protested "that the military was manipulating disability ratings to save money." So Congress "ordered the Pentagon to accept appeals from wounded and injured troops. So far, officials have yet to examine a single case. ‘Congress finally took action to give those troops a fair hearing, and now the Department of Defense is dragging its feet,’ said Vanessa Williamson, the policy director at New York-based Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a veterans’ advocacy group." The "three-member Physical Disability Board of Review, created by Congress last December and managed by the Air Force," and officials "have said they hope to take the first application for review this month." The AP notes that Loren Dealy, "a spokeswoman from the House Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers…are ‘keeping an eye on the progress of the board.’"

5.      VA Announces Changes To Traumatic Injury Insurance Program.   Federal Daily (12/10) reported, "Some severely injured military personnel and veterans are eligible for expanded benefits under the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection Program (TSGLI), the Department of Veterans Affairs…announced on Dec. 8. Following a review of the program," the VA "decided to increase the number of injuries covered, and liberalized injury criteria." Another change to the TSGLI program, which is "designed to provide severely injured servicemembers and their families with short-term financial assistance," is "the payment of a $25,000 benefit to servicemembers hospitalized for 15 consecutive days as a result of a traumatic injury. Changes to benefits are retroactive to Oct. 7, 2001."

6.      National Resource Directory For Wounded Service Members, Vets Available Online.   The syndicated "Sgt. Shaft" column, appearing in the Washington Times (12/11, Fales) reports, "The Department of Defense has launched the National Resource Directory," an Internet-based, "collaborative effort between the departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs." Located "at www.nationalresourcedirectory.org, the directory offers more than 10,000 medical and non-medical services and resources" to "wounded, ill and injured service members, veterans, their families, families of the fallen and those who support them."

7.      VA Announces Mileage Reimbursement Rate Increase.   The syndicated "Sgt. Shaft" column, appearing in the Washington Times (12/11, Fales) reports, "The Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced improvements to its beneficiary travel program for veterans who must travel for VA" healthcare. The agency "increased the mileage reimbursement rate by 13 cents a mile and cut deductibles by more than half. The improvements were mandated in legislation introduced by Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, that was included in the Veterans’ Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008."

8.      VA Hospital Awarded Money For Hospice Unit.   On its website, WDEL-AM Wilmington, DE (12/10) reported, "Three million federal dollars will come to the" Veterans Affairs "hospital in Elsmere for a new hospice unit. The Wilmington VA Medical Center competed for the money with other facilities around the country." The funding, which is "expected early next year, will go towards establishing a new Comprehensive End of Life Care program, including staffing support and a palliative care unit."

9.      Many Cold War Vets Will Have To Wait For New York Tax Break.   The Schenectady (NY) Gazette (12/11, Munger) reports, "Counties, towns and cities throughout the Capital Region are placing laws on the books providing a new property tax exemption authorized by the state back in 2007 in honor of Cold War veterans. But of all the veterans" in that region, "only 73 will see the benefit on their 2009 tax bills – and they are all in Montgomery County, according" to county officials. Difficulties "veterans experienced under the law’s first provisions prompted revisions of the state law that carried into 2008, and some counties waited to pass their laws until the confusion was cleared up. Those that waited and passed a local law this year, or who do so in time for veterans to apply by March 1, 2009, will be offering eligible veterans the benefit, which they’ll see on their tax bills in 2010."

10.    2008 Class Inducted Into Connecticut Veterans Hall Of Fame.   In continuing coverage, the Stamford (CT) Advocate (12/10, Lockhart) profiled Roger Paulmeno and Robert Ritz, two of 10 people "inducted into Connecticut’s Veterans Hall of Fame on Tuesday night. The 2008 "class inducted Tuesday also included the first woman — Barbara Miller, a Navy veteran from Gales Ferry — and the late Gov. William O’Neill, who was a gunner flying combat missions over North Korea."