Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 09-09-08

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Today’s Local News for Veterans

What’s Inside

1. In China For Paralympics, Peake Meets With Chinese Vice President. 
2. Peake Scheduled To Visit Marion.  
3. VA Data Says Male US Veteran Suicides Set A Record In 2006.  
4. VA Lifts Voter Drive Ban.  
5. VA Committee Member Meets With Vets In Uvalde, Texas.  
6. Group Of Vietnam Vets Hopes To Help Counterparts From Iraq, Afghanistan.  
7. Iraq Vet Helps Start Veterans Court Program In Oklahoma.  
8. College Advisory Board Addresses Needs Of Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.  
9. Iraq, Afghanistan War Widows Find Support In Each Other.  
10. Conference, Advocacy Group Focus On Veterans’ Mental Health Needs.

     

1.      In China For Paralympics, Peake Meets With Chinese Vice President.   China Daily (9/9) reports, "Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Monday met with the US presidential delegation to the Beijing Paralympics, headed by US Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake." Xi "thanked the US government and people for their support of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, citing President George W. Bush’s attendance at the Olympics’ opening ceremony and the high-profile presidential delegation to the Paralympics. Peake said, ‘It is very wonderful to be here to represent President Bush and the United States of America.’"

2.      Peake Scheduled To Visit Marion.   The Southern Illinoisan (9/9, Homan) reports, "The itinerary will be firmed up later this week," but US Secretary for Veterans Affairs Dr. James A. Peake "is scheduled to pay a visit to Marion Saturday. New communications director Peggy Willoughby with the VA Medical Center in Marion said late Monday that plans are for Peake to address the public at a town hall meeting at noon Saturday at the high school auditorium." A news conference "is tentatively scheduled to follow the town hall meeting at 1 p.m." Willoughby "said Peake would also spend time on the VA Medical Center campus Saturday."

3.      VA Data Says Male US Veteran Suicides Set A Record In 2006.   USA Today (9/9, Zoroya) reports, "Suicide rates for young male Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans hit a record high in 2006, according to statistics to be released Tuesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs." The statistics, which come "days after the Army said 2008 may be another record year for suicides" among active-duty soldiers, "accompany the release of a study conducted by a group of mental health experts appointed by VA Secretary James Peake." That group investigated the VA’s "efforts to track and prevent" veteran suicides, and in a prepared statement, Peake "said the VA will try to cut the number of suicides by following" the panel’s recommendations.

4.      VA Lifts Voter Drive Ban.   The New York Times (9/9, A18, Urbina) reports, "The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday that it would no longer ban voter registration drives among veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country." Back in May, the VA "said such drives would violate the prohibition on political activity by federal employees and would be disruptive. The reversal came after months of pressure from state election officials, voting rights groups and federal lawmakers who said that such drives made it easier for veterans to take part in the political process." In a press release, VA Secretary James Peake commented on the reversal, saying his agency "has always been committed to helping veterans exercise their constitutional right to vote."
      The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser (9/9, Rowell) reports the VA will now "welcome state and local election officials and non-partisan groups to its hospitals and outpatient clinics to assist VA officials in registering voters at VA facilities." That "assistance, however, must be coordinated by those facilities in order to avoid disruptions to patient care." The Advertiser says the new VA policy also "requires that information about the right of VA patients to register and vote, and other patients’ rights, be posted in every VA hospital, and that all VA patients be provided a copy of these rights when they are admitted to a VA facility."

5.      VA Committee Member Meets With Vets In Uvalde, Texas.   The Uvalde (TX) Leader-News (9/9, Palermo) reports that last Thursday night, "a small gathering of veterans…assembled at the Our Health-Nuestro Centro de Salud conference room for a discussion of concerns" related to Veterans Affairs healthcare for Uvalde veterans. Even "so, the stories of problems were extensive. Rachel Gonzales-Hanson, chief executive officer of Community Health Development Inc., which runs Our Health community clinic, explained that she had been named by VA Secretary James B. Peake to a committee that’s supposed to do something about VA care for veterans." Gonzales-Hanson said, "About a month and a half or two ago, I was informed that I was appointed" to the committee, but it does not "have a charge yet. I don’t know what the committee is supposed to do." She added that since she was named to the committee, she has "never heard worse stories" from veterans about problems they are having.

6.      Group Of Vietnam Vets Hopes To Help Counterparts From Iraq, Afghanistan.   The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (9/8, Lazo) profiled, "Band of Brothers, a group of mostly Vietnam combat veterans who visit" the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, "celebrated their first family picnic" Sunday at American Legion Post 137. Group members, many "dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, have been meeting each week for the past four years." Lawrence M. Davis, one of the group’s founders, said the members hope they can help a new generation of soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, whether that means guiding the younger veterans on how to get Veterans Affairs assistance or simply assisting them with their attempts to find other support groups. Davis added, "We are here to help them."

7.      Iraq Vet Helps Start Veterans Court Program In Oklahoma.   The Sequoyah County (OK) Times (9/9, Keen) reports John Bennett, a resident of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, "served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan" and "has seen how war can ravage the soldiers fighting for their country." When these soldiers return home, some enter the US court system, where they "are treated like everyone else — a fact that Bennett is hoping to change in Oklahoma and across the country with a court system specifically for veterans." Bennett "started his personal mission for a veterans drug court in Oklahoma in July after seeing that New York began a veterans court." Bennett "mirrored the New York program, tweaking it to the Oklahoma courts system, and took his idea to the Tulsa mayor’s office." He "met with mayor’s office representatives, and they got together with Veterans Affairs…and started a pilot veterans drug court program in the Tulsa County court system."

8.      College Advisory Board Addresses Needs Of Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.   The Lowell (MA) Sun (9/9, Perry) reports, "More than 18 months ago, the staff and administration at Middlesex Community College" in Massachusetts "noticed that student-veterans returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan were facing unique challenges. Some were anxious, agitated, restless," and some "had short-term memory damage." The "people at the school didn’t fully understand the issues," so they formed an advisory board, which includes staff from the Bedford Veterans Affairs Hospital. The board "met for the first time last Thursday." 

9.      Iraq, Afghanistan War Widows Find Support In Each Other.   The Los Angeles Times (9/9, Esquivel) reports that "nearly half of the 4,155 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan were married. Most of the dead were young, as are the women they left behind." Some of those women have formed a group called the American Widow Project, and later this month, women in the group "will take their stories across the country. In a rented RV, they will travel to military bases, trying to find other young widows, hoping to spare them a bit of the overwhelming loneliness, isolation and helplessness that they felt in the weeks and months after their husbands died."

10.    Conference, Advocacy Group Focus On Veterans’ Mental Health Needs.   The Sierra Vista (AZ) Herald (9/8, Hess) reported, "As the combat in Afghanistan and Iraq continues, more troops are showing signs of mental distress, and that is leading federal, state and local governments, as well as other agencies, to offer their help." The Herald noted that representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs attended the two-hour meeting.
      On its website, WCLT-AM Newark, OH (9/8) reported, "This is National Suicide Prevention Week," and the VA "says 18 who have served" the US take their own lives every day. Now, however, Chad Lego, an Iraq War veteran affiliated with the Circle of Friends for American Veterans, says his group is proposing a "Veterans’ Bill of Rights" that would help address mental health issues.

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