Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 08-29-08

1. Concerns Expressed About New GI Bill.  
2. MUSC President Still Hopes To Join Forces With Charleston VA.  
3. Federal Employee Leave Report Criticized.  
4. VA To Operate Mobile Clinics In Six States.  
5. Ceremony Held For New Clinic In North Carolina.  
6. Durham VAMC To Expand, Renovate.  
7. VA Clinic In Indiana Hosts Stand Down Event.  
8. Hospital Seeks Hall Of Heroes Nominees.  
9. Vets Upset About Bed Closures At Wainwright VAMC.  
10. Florida Vet Says Wheelchair Games Rescued Him. 

     1.      Concerns Expressed About New GI Bill.   The Mohave (AZ) Daily News (8/28, Dent) reported, "A new GI Bill intended to help veterans and active duty military better afford higher education would be even more valuable if it helped cover living expenses for those taking online courses, education officials told two members of Congress on Wednesday" during a roundtable discussion held at the American Legion’s national convention in Arizona. At that same roundtable, veterans also "raised concerns" about "rumors that the Department of Veterans Affairs intends to outsource the administrative work needed to implement the law’s provisions." The American Legion "passed resolutions during the convention decrying" those rumors, and at Wednesday’s roundtable, Richard M. Romley, a "former Maricopa County attorney who once served as an adviser" to the secretary of Veterans Affairs, warned, "The VA will not have accountability for the program if it is outsourced and run to a private contractor.      Federal Daily (8/29) reports, "The American Legion on Aug. 26 joined a chorus of veterans groups critical" of a VA "move to outsource the processing of new GI Bill education benefits. The American Legion, meeting in Phoenix for its 90th National Convention, passed resolutions opposing the outsourcing of benefits processing, as well as the VA’s proposed privatization of state veterans homes inspections." The "American Federation of Government Employees and the union’s National Veterans Affairs Council also have criticized the proposed outsourcing of GI Bill processing."

2.      MUSC President Still Hopes To Join Forces With Charleston VA.   The fifth story in the Columbia (SC) Star‘s (8/29) "Business Briefs" column reports, "In Columbia, the Veterans Affairs hospital is connected on the same Garners Ferry Road campus with" the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), "and in Charleston the same is proposed." VA Secretary James B. Peake "declared a low probability the Charleston VA and the MUSC would join forces on a hospital, but MUSC President Ray Greenberg is still talking up the idea as part of his long- term framework."

3.      Federal Employee Leave Report Criticized.   The Washington Post (8/29, A16, Lee) reports US Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) "has been checking up on the attendance records of federal employees," and "he doesn’t like what he’s found. Civil servants have been away from their jobs without permission much too often in recent years, Coburn says in a new report. Records from 17 federal agencies" and the US Postal Service "show that workers were absent without leave for 19.6 million hours between 2001 and 2007, the study found." The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Treasury "were the most absentee-plagued," but VA spokeswoman Lisette Mondello said her agency’s AWOL hours amounted to one-third of 1 percent of all hours worked. Other agency officials, "federal employees and their advocates" also "called the report misleading," saying it does not put things in context. For example, Coburn’s numbers "show that the average federal employee is absent from work without permission for about 67 minutes a year."

4.      VA To Operate Mobile Clinics In Six States.   The Bangor (ME) Daily News (8/29, Haskell) reports, "Maine is among a half-dozen states selected to take part in a federal program that will use mobile clinics to provide health care to military veterans living in rural areas, the US Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday. Three of the states chosen to participate in the program – Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming – will share a single mobile unit, but Maine, Washington and West Virginia will each have" their own rolling clinics. All "four mobile clinics are expected to be operational by early 2009."
      Nebraska Will Share Clinic With Wyoming, Colorado.   KOLN-TV Lincoln, NE (8/28, 5:20 p.m. CT) broadcast, "Military veterans in western Nebraska will soon be able to get some medical treatment closer to home through a new mobile clinic. The US Department of Veterans Affairs plans to have four mobile clinics operating by early next year to help serve veterans in rural areas" of the country. As "part of the pilot program, veterans in Cheyenne, Kimball and Scotts Bluff Counties will be served by a clinic that also serves vets in parts of Wyoming and Colorado." The AP (8/29) publishes a similar story.
      Lawmaker Praises Mobile Clinic Program.   The WHSV-TV Harrisonburg, VA (8/28) website reported that after the VA "announced the roll out of a new mobile health care clinic that will serve rural veterans in West Virginia," US Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) released a statement saying her state’s "veterans shouldn’t be disadvantaged simply because they live in rural areas, and thankfully this program stands to help bring care directly" to them. WHSV added, "Capito is…the sponsor of HR 3458, which would establish a pilot program within the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand treatment for rural veterans with" traumatic brain injuries.

5.      Ceremony Held For New Clinic In North Carolina.   The Clay County (NC) Progress (8/29) reports, "An estimated crowd of 700 people including veterans and their families, local, state and federal leaders and citizens gathered Aug. 18 to celebrate the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new" Franklin Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). US Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), who spoke at the event, "said the opening of the Franklin CBOC clinic and other North Carolina clinics is a sign of a change in the delivery of healthcare within" the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is now delivering healthcare closer to where veterans live.

6.      Durham VAMC To Expand, Renovate.   North Carolina’s Triangle Business Journal (8/29) reports, "With older veterans requiring increased care and younger ones returning from two war zones, the primary care and mental health facilities" at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center "will be renovated and expanded." A "total of 5,500 square feet of existing clinical space will be renovated, and 12,000 square feet will be added. Also added will be 9,250 square feet of research space, according to a request for proposals sent to general contractors."

7.      VA Clinic In Indiana Hosts Stand Down Event.   The Evansville (IN) Courier & Press (8/29, Lesnick) reports the Evansville Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic hosted "an outreach Thursday to provide free food, clothes and supplies to homeless and needy veterans." VA officials "hope the event – dubbed the Stand Down – will make" life a little easier for the more than 100 veterans that attended.

8.      Hospital Seeks Hall Of Heroes Nominees.   The Holmen (WI) Courier (8/29) reports the Tomah VAMC "is seeking nominations for its Hall of Heroes." On November 10, "in conjunction with" its Veterans Day program, the hospital will hold a dedication ceremony for "two… veterans selected for the Hall." This "is a continuing tribute, with two new veterans being added each year." The West Salem (WI) Coulee News (8/29) runs the same report.

9.    Vets Upset About Bed Closures At Wainwright VAMC.   On its website, KEPR-TV Pasco, WA (8/28, Shahbazi) reported, "Veterans are ready for a fight after" the Department of Veterans Affairs "closed down the only urgent care mental health beds in the region. The VA says it’s temporary, but vets don’t buy it," so this week they "confronted" Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire about their concerns. It has "been less than two months since an inspector swept into" the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center "and closed down its nursing home." Now, the VA "has closed down the facility’s only two urgent care psychiatry beds and its one detox bed." The VA "says they’re referring vets to other facilities to meet their needs, and they’re working to open a state nursing home in place of the one that closed last month. They say they also hope to have a new mental health facility in 2009, and that they’re working on an outpatient facility" and a specialty "care clinic projected to open in the next few years."

10.    Florida Vet Says Wheelchair Games Rescued Him.   The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (8/29, Alexander) profiles 63-year-old Florida resident Francisco Lopez-de-Victoria, a veteran who became confined to a wheelchair in the year 2000, after which time he "spent hours in his native Puerto Rico underneath a mango tree, counting crawling ants and slowly trekking the path toward insanity, said his wife, Nereida." But then, "his nephew rescued him by introducing him to the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, Lopez-de-Victoria said." The Times adds, "Lopez-de-Victoria…competed in his fifth" games "in late July, collecting a gold medal in archery and bronze in bowling."