Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 12-17-08

1. US Soldiers Killed In Action To Be Given More Funeral Honors At Arlington.   
2. Paper Says Problems At VA Were There Before Bush Administration Arrived.  
3. Hearing To Be Held In Disability Claims Lawsuit Against VA.  
4. AFGE Applauds Plan To Put Changes On Hold At Hefner, Vows To Keep Fighting For Hospital.  
5. VA Officials Unveil New Billing Center.  
6. Teenager Arrested For Trying To Poison Her Grandfather.  
7. Vets Finally Get Local Treatment.
8. World War II Veteran Donates Art To Brooklyn VA Hospital.  
9. Concert Raises Money To Help Build Fisher House Boston.  
10. Viera VA Clinic Staff Professional, Outstanding.

     1.      US Soldiers Killed In Action To Be Given More Funeral Honors At Arlington.   The AP (12/17) reports, "Starting next year, the Army will provide full military honors for all soldiers killed in action when they are laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery." The policy change "means funerals for enlisted soldiers now will also include the horse-drawn caisson and other honors previously given only to certain soldiers such as officers and Medal of Honor recipients." On Tuesday, "Army spokesman Paul Boyce said…that the full honors also adds an escort platoon, a colors team and a band, whereas standard honors uses a firing party, bugler and chaplain." The change in policy "applies only to Arlington because it is unique in having a caisson."2.      Paper Says Problems At VA Were There Before Bush Administration Arrived.   An editorial in the Honolulu Star Bulletin (12/17) says "the newly discovered failure of veterans’ widows and widowers to receive their spouses’ last checks shows" the VA’s "incompetence to have preceded the Bush administration." And now, Shinseki "faces a major challenge in trying to bring efficiency to an unbending bureaucracy."
      WTimes Wonders If Anyone At VA Will Be Held Accountable For Benefit Denials To Veterans’ Widows.   In an editorial, the Washington Times (12/17) also discusses the situation involving compensation to veterans’ widows, asking, "What defense is there" for the VA "to fail for 12 years to comply with a law giving veterans’ spouses the right to keep pension and disability checks their partners received in the month they died?" Well, the "defense from the VA…is that it ‘wasn’t fully aware of the problem,’ according to the Associated Press. Outrageous!" The Times argues that "ignorance or stupidity is simply unacceptable. Will anyone be held accountable?"
      Shinseki Urged To Avoid "Bunker Mode" At VA.   In an editorial, the Army Times (12/17) says that when Shinseki was Army chief of staff, he "showed a quirk that could work against him at VA – he sometimes went into a defensive crouch when his views and decisions were criticized." The VA, however, "receives heavy, constant scrutiny," and "for good reason. In recent years," the VA "has endured a string of embarrassing problems, including badly underfunded budgets and a health care system still struggling to accommodate the swelling ranks of disabled veterans from the current wars." Shinseki "can expect to take frequent flak on these and other issues. To effectively lead" the VA "in confronting the challenges, he can’t go into bunker mode; he must publicly and forcefully make the case for getting" the agency "the resources required to fully serve the needs of our veterans – and then work to build consensus to make it happen. If he does that," Shinseki "has the opportunity to become a truly transformational" VA secretary.

      Veteran Says Shinseki Will Have "A Lot On His" VA Plate.   In a letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Daily News (12/17), veteran George J. Walton praised the Shinseki nomination, saying, "I wish" Shinseki "well; he has a lot on his plate to handle."
      Shinseki Said To Be A Good Pick For VA Secretary.   In his syndicated column, appearing in the Waltham (MA) Daily News Tribune (12/17), Dan K. Thomasson also noted that Shinseki "has been picked to serve as the head" of the VA "in…Obama’s Cabinet. It couldn’t have been a better choice nor come at a better time for tens of thousands of American soldiers, many of them maimed emotionally or physically for life, returning from the desert." Those soldiers "obviously need someone with his basic understanding of combat veterans."

3.      Hearing To Be Held In Disability Claims Lawsuit Against VA.   The Air Force Times (12/17, Kennedy) reports, "A hearing begins Wednesday in a lawsuit aimed at cutting the time that the Department of Veterans Affairs takes to process disability claims to no more than 90 days. Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare, which "filed the lawsuit against" the VA, are asking "for monetary relief for veterans if VA can’t reduce its processing time." The Times notes that the two organizations "are sponsoring a rally at 10 a.m. Wednesday" at the US District Court for the District of Columbia, "where the lawsuit was filed."
      Texas Couple Goes Directly To VA Clinic, "Demanding Answers" On Disability Compensation.   On its website, KJTV-TV Lubbock, TX (12/16) reported, "A Lubbock veteran who fought in the Vietnam War" suffers from prostate cancer "due to exposure to Agent Orange." An oncologist confirmed a linkage between Markwell’s cancer and his exposure, and Grant’s wife, Joanne, "says that made her husband eligible for veterans disability compensation." But Joanne "says it’s been eight months since" the appropriate paperwork was filed, "and tired of waiting," she and Grant went to the VA’s clinic in Lubbock, Texas, "demanding answers." The Markwells’ wait time, however, is "pretty typical for all veterans seeking compensation." Joanne "says since their visit, he’s been granted 100%," which means "a check should be on its way soon."
      DAV Wants Additional Claims Staff At VA, Mandatory Agency Funding.   In his GateHouse Media (12/17) column, Bruce Coulter writes, "According to Thom Wilborn," the advocacy group Disabled American Veterans (DAV) "has its sights set on a number of issues for the coming year. Among them is pushing for the VA to hire additional staffing to process claims quickly and properly." The DAV "would also like to see increased disability compensation, but the group’s primary issue is full" and "mandatory" funding "for VA healthcare…which now, noted Wilborn, is discretionary."

4.      AFGE Applauds Plan To Put Changes On Hold At Hefner, Vows To Keep Fighting For Hospital.   In continuing coverage, Federal Daily (12/17) reports, "The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) applauded a plan by the Department of Veterans Affairs…to keep open until 2013 emergency and inpatient health care services" at the W.G. (Bill) Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salisbury, North Carolina. However, AFGE "was critical of what it said was VA’s continued intent to privatize the medical center. VA officials are ‘are claiming that they want to do what is in the best interest of veterans and save this hospital, but all they have really done is committed to giving it a slow death,’ said AFGE National Secretary-Treasurer J. David Cox in a Dec. 15 statement. ‘We refused to let that happen and we’ll fight every day until 2013 to make sure it doesn’t.’" Federal Daily added, "The union said that the proposed changes at Salisbury largely are driven by a new VA leasing program that emphasizes leasing facilities or purchasing care from outside providers, while downsizing efforts to construct new facilities."

      VA Introduces Plan To Expand Health Care Facilities In North Carolina.   The Stanly (NC) News & Press (12/16, Lisk) reported, "The expansion of health care facilities to better serve North Carolina’s 774,000 veterans was announced" at the W.G. (Bill) Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center "in Salisbury on Friday." The VA plans to create "health care centers in Charlotte and Winston-Salem, both scheduled to be completed by 2013." The Hefner VAMC, meanwhile, "has the lone emergency department" for veterans "in the region," but a VA "study of 12,000 emergency visits found that only 2,000 were true emergencies. As a result, by December 2013, the VA will begin transitioning veterans to usage of private hospitals for true emergencies," with the VA "covering the cost." The VA is also "looking to negate the misinformation that there will be job cuts within their facilities. ‘That’s not the case,’ said Carol Waters, public affairs officer at Hefner Medical Center."

5.      VA Officials Unveil New Billing Center.   The Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times (12/17, Barrett) reports, "Department of Veterans Affairs officials say a new facility that handles billing for department facilities in several Southeastern states is likely to add another 60 employees or so as its service area expands." On Tuesday, officials "unveiled the Mid-Atlantic Consolidated Patient Account Center, located in the former Square D manufacturing plant building on Bingham Road. The center currently employs 240 to 250 people and opened for business last month, Director Debbie Miller said. Workers had previously been housed in space" at the VA medical center in Oteen.

6.      Teenager Arrested For Trying To Poison Her Grandfather.   WKYT-TV Lexington, KY (12/16, 6:07 p.m. ET) broadcast, "A Casey County woman is under arrest, accused of trying to poison her grandfather. Police in Liberty say 19-year-old Brittany Ann Miller laced her grandfather’s coffee with anti-freeze so she could inherit his estate." The grandfather, Leonard Walls, "told a security officer" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Lexington "he thought the teen may have poisoned him."
      The WKYT-TV (12/16, Pendleton) website, which also covered this story, noted that the indictment against Miller "states that the alleged poisonings happened in February 2008, but Walls didn’t learn about it until he was a patient at Lexington’s" VA hospital. Walls complimented the facility, saying, "I don’t think any other hospital would have looked for antifreeze." This story was also covered by the websites for WLEX-TV Lexington, KY (12/16) and WTVQ-TV Lexington, KY (12/16).

7.      Vets Finally Get Local Treatment.   The Traverse City (MI) Record-Eagle (12/17) editorializes, "It’s hard to overestimate just how much adding three new" Veterans Affairs "clinics in northern Lower Michigan will mean to the men and women who depend on the VA for medical care. The VA recently announced it would open new clinics in Cadillac, Grayling and Cheboygan by 2010; a fourth will open in Bad Axe." The "new clinics are being met with enthusiasm from thousands of vets, which is great. But the fact that it will take until 2010 to have more than one clinic in northern Michigan is a scandal."

8.      World War II Veteran Donates Art To Brooklyn VA Hospital.   In a story submitted by Raymond Aalbue from the Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System, the Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle (12/16) reported Morris "Mike" Greenstein, a World War II veteran, "recently donated a work of art to the Brooklyn campus of the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, otherwise known as the Brooklyn VA Hospital." It "was the second piece of art that…Greenstein created specifically for the facility."

9.      Concert Raises Money To Help Build Fisher House Boston.   GateHouse Media (12/17) reports, "A holiday concert by Irish tenor John McDermott and a three-hour radio-thon hosted by Boston radio talk station 96.9 WTKK raised more than $100,000 to benefit the Fisher House Boston, a home for families of wounded and ill veterans in West Roxbury." The December 12th "concert was dedicated to honoring" US military personnel "serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the audience were several local families of troops currently serving overseas." Earlier "in the day, WTKK talk host Michael Graham devoted his entire three-hour show to raising money for the Fisher House Boston," which "broke ground in October on a 20-suite facility" at the West Roxbury Veterans Affairs Hospital. The facility "is slated to open in September 2009."

10.    Viera VA Clinic Staff Professional, Outstanding.   A letter to the editor of Florida Today (12/17).