Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 12-05-08

1. City On Verge Of Purchasing VA-Owned Homes.   
2. VA Planning To Open 31 New Clinics.  
3. Official Says VA, DOD Are Working On Gulf War Illness.
4. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Recommends Noriega For VA Secretary.  
5. Iraq Vets Sue Over Toxin Exposure.  
6. Mullen Praised For Stance On PTSD.  
7. Medquist Settles Overbilling Dispute With US Government.  
8. VA Facilities Said To Be Extra Vigilant When It Comes To MRSA.  
9. Veterans Rally Against Montrose VA Plan.  
10. VA Hiring In Buffalo.  

1.      City On Verge Of Purchasing VA-Owned Homes.   The Cincinnati Enquirer (12/4, Wartman) reported, "A document in an office" in Washington, DC, "needs one more signature before the spacious 19th century homes in Fort Thomas’ Tower Park can go on the auction block." The "city of Fort Thomas had hoped by this month to purchase" the homes, owned by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but the agency "must get one more signature in a memorandum of agreement, said Todd Sledge, spokesman for the VA in Cincinnati." Once that occurs, the "city plans to issue bonds to purchase the homes and then auction them." The "amount of legal matters involving the country’s 153 VA medical centers has delayed approval for selling the property, Sledge said. ‘It is one of many volumes of legal matters that are in that chain,’ Sledge said." 

2.       VA Planning To Open 31 New Clinics.   The Sedalia (MO) Democrat (12/5) reports, "Sedalia will be the location for one of 31 outpatient clinics that the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to open in the next couple of years." VA Secretary Dr. James B. Peake "announced Thursday" that the VA "will establish new clinics here and in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Vermont. The community-based outpatient clinics are expected to be operational by late 2010."
      The AP (12/5) reports, "Missouri is getting three new community-based clinics for military veterans." The VA "plans to open clinics next year in Excelsior Springs, located north of Kansas City, and in the Bootheel town of Sikeston. A clinic in Sedalia is scheduled to open in 2010.

3.      Official Says VA, DOD Are Working On Gulf War Illness.   In continuing coverage, the Armed Forces Press Service (12/5, Gilmore) reports, "The Defense Department continues to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to resolve veterans’ health issues, including maladies associated with the Gulf War, a senior DoD official said" in Washington, DC, "Nov. 26. ‘We work very closely with the VA for those who’ve separated’ from military service, Dr. Michael E. Kilpatrick, deputy director of health affairs for force health protection and readiness, said." A "congressionally-mandated report titled ‘Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans’ was released Nov. 17 and presented" to VA Secretary Dr. James Peake. Gulf War Illness "isn’t a mystery, Kilpatrick said, but it is ‘something we don’t understand, and we need to do more work.’"

4.      Congressional Hispanic Caucus Recommends Noriega For VA Secretary.   In continuing coverage, the AP (12/5) reports, "Texas Rep. Rick Noriega’s name is on a list of candidates for President-elect Barack Obama’s remaining Cabinet posts." On Wednesday, the "San Antonio Express-News reported…that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in a bid to increase Latino representation in the new administration, presented a slate of candidates Wednesday. Noriega is being touted for the secretary of Veterans Affairs post." The McAllen (TX) Monitor (12/4, Perkins) published a similar story, while KEYE-TV Austin, TX (12/4, 5:07 p.m. CT) and KXAN-TV Austin, TX (12/4, 5:04 p.m. CT) both aired brief reports noting that Noriega "is being touted" as a potential candidate to become the next VA secretary.
      Source Says Obama Has Met With Noriega Regarding An Administration Position.   In his Washington Post (12/5, A23) column, Al Kamen reports, "Noriega, an Army veteran who served as a National Guard officer in Afghanistan and oversaw the evacuation of Hurricane Katrina victims to Houston, met with Obama recently about a position in the administration, perhaps" as VA secretary, "a source said. Former Clinton administration official Federico Peña, a close adviser to Obama’s transition, is said to be lobbying for Noriega." The AP (12/5), meanwhile, mentions "Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq war veteran" and director of Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and former Sen. Max Cleland as potential VA secretary candidates.

5.      Iraq Vets Sue Over Toxin Exposure.   The Indianapolis Star (12/5, Murray) reports a "federal lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses" a "private company, KBR of Texas, of publicly downplaying and privately concealing the risk faced by as many as 141 Indiana National Guard soldiers potentially exposed to a cancer-causing agent" at a water-pumping plant in Iraq. The suit, "filed on behalf of 16" Indiana Guardsmen, "names KBR and several related companies and seeks damages based on negligence and gross negligence claims. A statement from KBR on Wednesday said the company acted appropriately and that officials planned to vigorously fight the lawsuit."
      The Boston Globe (12/5, Stockman) reports, "The complaint alleges that several reservists contracted respiratory system tumors and skin rashes after guarding reconstruction work" at the plant, "which had been looted and was strewn with chromium dichromate, an anticorrosion substance used on pipes that greatly increases the chances of developing cancer and other health problems." The Pentagon "tested about 100 soldiers after it discovered the chemical at the site," but "no obvious health effects were found, according to Dr. Craig Hyams, chief consultant for environmental health at the Department of Veterans Affairs." 6.      Mullen Praised For Stance On PTSD.   In an editorial, the Anchorage (AK) Daily News (12/4) said the VA Alaska Region "offered some striking numbers this week about veterans in Alaska. One number" in particular "jumped out. Nationwide, an estimated 50 percent of recent veterans who would qualify for mental health care don’t seek it. One of the reasons, said Reed Dyer, an outreach coordinator with the VA in Anchorage, is that there is a stigma attached to mental health care." Active-duty troops and veterans "fear losing status in the military or in the civilian world, or they feel shame or embarrassment" about seeking mental health treatment. The Daily News argued that Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has "done a real service" for US "troops and veterans by calling for more effective screening and treatment" for post-traumatic stress disorder, because, when leaders regard "psychological wounds…for what they are — honest wounds of war — soldiers, veterans and their families are all better off."                                                                                                            Study Said To Be Potentially Beneficial To People Suffering From PTSD.   HealthDay (12/3, Gunnerson) reported, "People with stress-related psychiatric conditions have faulty circuitry in the part of the brain that helps govern memories, a new study suggests." The study’s findings "pose a number of questions for future research, and may lead to new treatments for people suffering from" PTSD "and other stress-related mental illnesses, the researchers said." But Dr. Charles Marmar, chief of mental health services at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said the study had "some significant limitations, including a small sample size." Marmar "pointed out that the brain’s complexity makes drawing conclusions from such a small study impossible."

7.      Medquist Settles Overbilling Dispute With US Government.   In continuing coverage, the sixth story in the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s (12/5, Kanaley) "Business News In Brief" column reports, "Medical-transcription-service provider MedQuist Inc….paid $6.6 million to settle allegations that it overbilled Federal agencies," the US Justice Department said on Wednesday." Medquist, which "did not admit any wrongdoing," had been "accused…of overbilling for work done for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense and the Public Health Service between 1998 and 2004."

8.      VA Facilities Said To Be Extra Vigilant When It Comes To MRSA.   The Omaha (NE) World-Record (12/4, Ruggles) reported, "The veterans hospital in Omaha and its counterparts nationwide are taking the rare step of testing every inpatient" for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), "a contagious, drug-resistant bacteria." Federal Department of Veterans Affairs "nursing homes also have begun swabbing all residents’ noses for the bacteria." The World-Record says that while non-VA hospitals are also "adopting strategies to prevent the spread" of MRSA, "most do not go as far as the VA."

9.      Veterans Rally Against Montrose VA Plan.   The Westchester (NY) Journal News (12/4) reported, "Vowing to write letters, sign petitions, protest publicly and even lie down in front of bulldozers if necessary, more than 100 veterans rallied" Wednesday "against plans to redevelop the Montrose Veterans Affairs campus." Linda Puglisi, a supervisor of the town of Cortlandt, New York, called the forum, held at a "packed Cortlandt Town Hall," to "keep up pressure on VA officials set to award development rights."

10.    VA Hiring In Buffalo.   At the end of a story on jobs in Buffalo, the WIVB-TV Buffalo (12/4, Macko) website reported, "The United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Buffalo is…hiring 95 claims examiners to process benefits for the new post 9/11 GI Bill." In addition, the VA "will hold a job fair this Monday from noon until nine p.m. at the Millennium Hotel in Cheektowaga." Business First Of Buffalo (12/5, Drury) publishes a similar story.