Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 1-14-09

1. Senate Committee To Conduct Shinseki’s Confirmation Hearing Today.
2. VA Said To Offer Financial Health Care Assistance To Struggling Vets.    
3. Gulf War Advisory Committee Due In Seattle.  
4. Delay In Alabama Vets Home Project Did Not Surprise Local Officials.  
5. New VA Clinic To Be Built In Texas.  
6. VA Touts Effectiveness Of Home Telehealth.  
7. Report: Marine Suicides In 2008 Highest Since Iraq Invasion.  
8. Program Assists Injured Sailors.  
9. Iraq Vet Acquitted On Gun Possession Charges. 
10. Obama Urged To Pardon Soldier Who Refused To Go To Iraq. 

1.      Senate Committee To Conduct Shinseki’s Confirmation Hearing Today.      Shinseki Expected To Say He Can Transform VA Into 21st-Century Benefits Provider.   CQ (1/14, Johnson) reports Shinseki "will make the case that he can transform" the VA "into a 21st-century benefits provider when he appears before" Akaka’s committee. Shinseki "is expected to tell the senators that his first 90 days as VA secretary would be spent implementing veterans’ educational assistance legislation (PL 110-252) enacted in June, streamlining disability claims, modernizing the delivery of benefits, and preparing the fiscal 2010 budget request." Senators "and veterans’ service organizations will keenly listen to what Shinseki says about proposals to provide" advanced funding for the VA. Another issue expected to be discussed during the hearing is "Shinseki’s views on providing mental-health care and treatment for traumatic brain injuries." Shinseki "will also discuss the enrollment of ‘Priority 8’ veterans, whose incomes exceed about $30,000 a year and who have non-service-related injuries."

      Hearing Expected To Go Smoothly For Shinseki.   The AP (1/14, Hefling) reports Shinseki, who is "expected to have a smooth Senate confirmation hearing in his bid to lead" the VA, "has pledged to modernize the government’s second largest agency and to reopen benefits to ‘Priority 8’ middle-income veterans who didn’t qualify under the Bush administration." Such veterans "were blocked from enrollment in the VA system in January 2003. Shinseki has also said he would switch the agency to electronic filing for disability benefits in an effort to cut down on six-month waits for claim processing, and ensure new GI benefits are rolled out in August as planned."
      The Los Angeles Times (1/14, Muskal) also notes Shinseki’s nomination hearing after first reporting on problems surrounding the "nomination of Timothy Geithner to be secretary of the Treasury." While discussing Shinseki, the Times says "there is no ill will against him in the Senate," and his "platform of cleaning up the VA’s health system and making the agency more responsive to veterans will likely go over well."

      Changing VA Seen As A Difficult Job For Shinseki.   The Politico (1/14, Dimascio) reports, "If confirmed, Shinseki…will have a prime opportunity to address" concerns "at the vast agency that handles health care for servicemen and women after they leave the military." But changing "the VA’s health care system during a crushing economic crisis will be nearly insurmountable, said Shad Meshad, president of the National Veterans Foundation, which fields hundreds of calls a day from frustrated veterans about the waits caused by an 850,000-case backlog." However, Hoeper "and others described Shinseki as a quiet visionary who is a master at working the government bureaucracy."

      Job Creation For Vets Said To Be A Daunting Task For Shinseki.   On its website, Fox News (1/13, Vlahos) said Shinseki "will face a daunting task if he is confirmed as the next secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department: getting soldiers returning from war into the workforce in a very troublesome employment climate." Shinseki, "whose confirmation hearing will be held Wednesday before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, will be expected to engage in a government-wide job creation strategy." VA officials, meanwhile, "said they are taking a two-pronged approach — working with the veterans in the VA system to transition into employment through a wide range of vocational and educational support services, as well as reaching out to veterans to place them into VA jobs across the country."
      Shinseki Participates In Terrorist Attack Drill.   On its "Political Intelligence" blog, the Boston Globe (1/14, Rhee, 373K) says, "One of the biggest fears during the transition of power in Washington is a terrorist attack," so on Tuesday, "senior officials in the Bush administration and the incoming Obama administration," including Shinseki, "gathered at the White House…to rehearse what to do."

2.      VA Said To Offer Financial Health Care Assistance To Struggling Vets.   In continuing coverage, the lead story in Ron Seman’s "Veteran’s Beat" column in Ohio’s News-Leader (1/14) notes that for "veterans struggling financially due to a job loss or decreased income, the Department of Veterans Affairs offers an assortment of programs that can relieve the costs of health care or provide care at no cost." The VA noted this situation "in a Jan. 8 press release."

3.      Gulf War Advisory Committee Due In Seattle.   The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1/14, Barber) reports the "14-member" Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans, "a special panel created" by Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake "last May to hear from and give voice to long-neglected veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, is coming to Seattle’s veterans medical center on Beacon Hill." The panel, "which will be in the area Wednesday and Thursday, is making a first of its kind appearance in Seattle. The visit comes two months after a different research advisory committee finally determined that Gulf War illness is real, not an imaginary condition."

4.      Delay In Alabama Vets Home Project Did Not Surprise Local Officials.   In continuing coverage, the Talladega (AL) Daily Home (1/14, Heath) reports, "News of a delay in the construction of Pell City’s Veteran Affairs nursing home didn’t come as a total surprise to St. Clair County officials." On Monday, County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon "said St. Clair officials were originally told a completion of ‘either 2011 or 2012’ when the project was first introduced. Late last week, state Veterans Affairs Commissioner W. Clyde Marsh said a construction grant of more than $26 million" from the US Department of Veterans Affairs "will not be available this year. Construction on the new home cannot proceed without that money, which he and the rest of the county hopes will be ready by 2010. ‘We’re disappointed but not surprised,’ Ed Gardner Jr. of the county’s Economic Development Council said Monday. ‘We’re confident they’re still committed to the project, and we plan to be ready when they’re ready.’"

5.      New VA Clinic To Be Built In Texas.   The McAllen (TX) Monitor (1/13, McEver) reported, "A new 120,000-square-foot veterans’ clinic will open" in Harlingen, Texas, "by 2010, expanding the services of the existing clinic, federal officials said Monday. The expanded facility will eliminate 95 percent of veterans’ visits to San Antonio for medical care," US Department of Veterans Affairs "officials said." The current "clinic in Harlingen, which opened in 2007, already has reduced veterans’ visits to San Antonio, VA officials have said. Officials have announced plans to contract with local hospitals for veterans to receive emergency and inpatient care, and to expand an outpatient clinic in McAllen."
      On its website, KVEO-TV Brownsville, TX (1/13, Nino) said VA Secretary Dr. James Peake "approved the expansion of the South Texas VA Health Center." The "expansion will bring outpatient surgery to the Valley, helping to eliminate trips to San Antonio. Most veterans are pleased with the expansion, but say it’s still not enough accommodations for the 100,000 veterans who live here."
      KRGV-TV Harlingen, TX (1/13, 6:06 p.m. CT) broadcast, "The VA says the expansion will quadruple the size of the Harlingen Clinic." Vets, meanwhile, "say it’s a positive move, but it" will not "stop them from fighting for a real hospital."

6.      VA Touts Effectiveness Of Home Telehealth.   In continuing coverage, the third story in Ron Seman’s "Veteran’s Beat" column in Ohio’s News-Leader (1/14) notes, "Veterans with chronic conditions can manage their health and avoid hospitalization by using special technology provided" by the Department of Veterans Affairs, "according to a Jan. 5 VA press release." In the release, VA Secretary Dr. James B. Peake said a recent VA study "showed that home telehealth makes health care more effective."

7.      Report: Marine Suicides In 2008 Highest Since Iraq Invasion.   The Los Angeles Times (1/14, Perry) reports, "More active-duty Marines committed suicide last year than any year since" the US-led "invasion of Iraq in March 2003, although the suicide rate remained virtually unchanged because the Marine Corps is increasing in size, according to a report issued Tuesday. Forty-one Marines are listed as possible or confirmed suicides in 2008, or 16.8 per 100,000 troops, the Marine Corps report said." The release "of the Marine figures came during a four-day suicide prevention workshop in San Antonio sponsored by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments." 

8.      Program Assists Injured Sailors.   The Kitsap (WA) Sun (1/13, Friedrich) said "Naval Hospital Bremerton’s new Safe Harbor program…provides wide-ranging help to seriously injured or sick sailors, Coast Guardsmen and their families." The program was launched by "Navy leaders…in 2005 to take care of the growing number of sailors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan." In 2008, Safe Harbor "was expanded to include all seriously injured sailors, not just those hurt in combat." Marvin Molina, one "young sailor" assisted by the program, said it helped him with his transition by pointing him "in the right direction to people that can help out" in the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Clark County (WA) Columbian (1/13), the Seattle Times (1/13), and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1/13) all published the same story.

9.      Iraq Vet Acquitted On Gun Possession Charges.   The Washington Post (1/14, B1, Alexander) reports, "After being deadlocked twice," a DC Superior Court jury on Tuesday acquitted a 24-year-old Cpl. Melroy H. Cort, a "Marine amputee," on "felony charges of gun possession stemming from an arrest while he was on the way to Walter Reed Army Medical Center." Cort was found guilty, however, "of possessing ammunition, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to time already spent" in the DC jail. The Post notes that Cort was "honorably discharged in 2007" after having his legs "amputated above the knees when he was wounded by a makeshift bomb in…Iraq."

10.    Obama Urged To Pardon Soldier Who Refused To Go To Iraq.   In a North County (CA) Times (1/13) op-ed, Dave Patterson, a Vietnam veteran and past president of the San Diego Chapter of Veterans For Peace Inc., wrote, "It is our hope that the community of San Diego, all veterans and military family members will join us in asking" President-elect Barack Obama "to do the right thing by pardoning Robin Long," a member of the US Army who went to Canada three years ago "rather than fight the war in Iraq." Currently, Long "sits in the MCAS Brig, a prisoner of conscience."