Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 7-01-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Shinseki Part Of White House’s "Rural Tour."  
2. Some Oregon Vets Complaining About VA.  
3. Duckworth Tours Vermont.  
4. University Of Charleston Participating In Yellow Ribbon Program.  
5. Veterans Groups Seek Release Of Detainee-Abuse Photos.  
6. CEO Says Hospital In Texas May Serve VA. 
7. Perry Point VAMC Scaling Back Late-Night Hours. 
8. VA, Military Urged To Do More To Reduce Smoking Rates. 
9. FDA Advisers Recommend Banning Two Painkillers, Reducing Tylenol Dosages.  
10. Dedication Ceremony To Be Held For New VA Clinic In Washington State.  

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HAVE YOU HEARD?
A story produced for The American Veteran, VA’s monthly outreach video for veterans and their families, has received a prestigious regional Emmy award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Chesapeake Bay Area Academy presented its top award in the Public/Current/Community Affairs Feature/Segment category to Employee Education System producer George Dwyer for the “Puppies Behind Bars” segment he produced with editor Ben Pekkanan for the October 2008 edition of The American Veteran. The story profiled a program that trains prisoners how to train service dogs to help veterans with physical and emotional disabilities. Through the national “Dog Tags” program, inmates help change the lives of veterans and change their own lives, as well. The Chesapeake Bay Area Emmy Awards cover the Baltimore-Washington market which includes some of the top television stations in the country. The American Veteran is a monthly half-hour video magazine featuring stories that honor and inform America’s veterans. It is broadcast around the world on The Pentagon Channel and on more than 100 cable stations across the U.S. Check out this month’s edition streaming on the VA home page at www.va.gov.

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1.      Shinseki Part Of White House’s "Rural Tour."   The AP (7/1) reports, "President Barack Obama is dispatching top administration officials and Cabinet members on a ‘rural tour’ this summer to explore ways to strengthen rural America." The "secretaries of Health, Veterans Affairs, Labor and Agriculture will discuss rural health care on July 20 in St. John the Baptist Parish, La. Obama says ‘a healthy American economy depends on a prosperous rural America.’" The Boston Globe’s (6/30, Rhee) "Political Intelligence" blog and "The Caucus", a New York Times

2.      Some Oregon Vets Complaining About VA.   Oregon’s Willamette Live (7/1, Traver) reports, "This year marks a milestone for the Oregon Army National Guard. More than 3,000 soldiers have already left or are preparing for deployment to Iraq in 2009," but "questions have recently been raised about the care veterans receive upon their return from war. Some Oregon weekend warriors are finding a Department of Veterans Affairs that is unwilling or unable to care for the long-term physical and mental disabilities they are now facing." However, the VA "office in Portland disputes these claims, saying it is doing more for veterans now than any time in the past, and points to increased services and a new processing facility in Hillsboro."

3.      Duckworth Tours Vermont.   The Rutland (VT) Herald (7/1, Peters) reports, "Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth toured Vermont on Tuesday with a double dose of good news for the state’s veterans. In stops in Burlington and Rutland with Peter Welch, Vermont’s Democratic US representative," Duckworth "spoke about the ‘largest increase’ in benefits for veterans since the Vietnam War, in the form of a new GI Bill." Duckworth, an Iraq veteran, "also spoke about her office’s goals to remedy veterans’ concerns including the wait time for benefits claims, care for veterans who live in the country’s more remote locations, homelessness and keeping attention on the country’s older veterans at the same time the VA begins to ramp up for the return of currently deployed troops." The Herald adds, "Tuesday’s trip was Duckworth’s first visit to a congressional district since she was appointed by President Obama, according to Welch."

4.      University Of Charleston Participating In Yellow Ribbon Program.   WOWK-TV Charleston, WV (6/30, 6:13 p.m. ET) broadcast, "The University of Charleston is now a member of the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program," which allows colleges to "enter into dollar-for-dollar matching agreements with the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover any outstanding tuition and fees above those covered by the GI benefits. Those who are eligible to participate for the…program may apply at the University of Charleston on a first come-first served basis."

5.      Veterans Groups Seek Release Of Detainee-Abuse Photos.   The AP (7/1) reports, "St. Louis-based Veterans for Peace and two other military veteran organizations are asking the Obama administration to release pictures of abusive treatment of detainees" by US soldiers. Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Veterans for Common Sense "said in a joint letter to Obama that releasing the disturbing images is crucial" to US "national security and upholding international law." The AP notes, "The administration contends the images could incite violence and riots in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan."

6.      CEO Says Hospital In Texas May Serve VA.   On its website, KTEN-TV Sherman, TX (6/30) said that with a new Texoma Medical Center (TMC) opening "off highway 75 in just a few months," the question becomes "what to do with the old TMC on highway 91." Dr. Mackey Watkins, the CEO of TMC, "says they are trying to sell the old hospital building and some of the old campus, but there has been no interest." Watkins "says they are working" with US Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) "on the possibility that the old hospital building could serve" as a Veterans Affairs hospital. He "says they expect to hear whether that is a real possibility very soon. If so, they will have to go" to Washington, DC, "and pitch the idea."

7.      Perry Point VAMC Scaling Back Late-Night Hours.   Maryland’s Cecil Whig (7/1, Bellmyer) reports, "The urgent care clinic at Perry Point Veterans Affairs Medical Center is scaling back its late-night hours in a move that officials there say will improve more popular services." The Whig notes that Mark Olszyk, the deputy chief of staff for the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System, addressed the change, saying, "Most patients are using such services as telephone triage and are coming in to see a primary care physician."

8.      VA, Military Urged To Do More To Reduce Smoking Rates.   In continuing coverage, the Air Force Times (7/1, Kennedy) reports, "Medical experts say they have a solution for the military’s increasing smoking rates: Ban it," because, according "to the Committee on Smoking Cessation in Military and Veteran Populations, in a report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the math just doesn’t add up for an organization that depends on physical fitness from its employees." The Times notes that it "cost the Veterans Affairs Department $5 billion to treat smoking-related emphysema in 2008, and in 2006, the Military Health System spent about $564 million on tobacco-related costs." And although the "committee determined both the Defense Department and VA are doing some things right – such as anti-smoking campaigns and, for the VA, smoking-cessation programs – they’re far behind on other measures," such as making their healthcare facilities smoke-free. The committee did acknowledge, however, "that the military and VA face special challenges: Troops tend to take up smoking when they deploy, and cigarettes are highly addictive," which "means they’re less likely to stop when they get home." In addition, "people with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to smoke."

9.      FDA Advisers Recommend Banning Two Painkillers, Reducing Tylenol Dosages.   Bloomberg News (7/1, Larkin) reports, "The prescription painkillers Percocet and Vicodin should be banned and use of Tylenol, sold over the counter, should be reduced because the ingredient acetaminophen is linked to liver damage," US advisers said. On Tuesday, outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "voted…for the ban on Percocet and Vicodin, which also contain a narcotic. The panel agreed earlier that Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol should be given in lower doses than now recommended and the Extra-Strength version should be sold by prescription only." One of the panelists was Karl Lorenz, "an internal medicine specialist with the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System," who said, "The most important target for our action is unintentional harm, both in adults and in children." Bloomberg adds, "The advisers represented three committees that give recommendations to the FDA. The agency isn’t bound by what the panel says."                            The New York Times (7/30, A1, Harris, 1.06M), the Wall Street Journal (7/1, Favole, 2.01M), the AP (7/1, Perrone) reports,), Dow Jones Newswires (7/1, Favole), HealthDay (6/30, Reinberg), MedPage Today (6/30, Walker), and NPR (6/30, James) also note this story.

10.    Dedication Ceremony To Be Held For New VA Clinic In Washington State.   The Tacoma (WA) News Tribune (7/1, Relyea) reports, "A dedication ceremony for a long-awaited medical clinic for veterans is set for Thursday, July 2, on the second floor of the Mount Vernon Medical Building at 307 S. 13th St." The "ceremony for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ new Community Based Outpatient Clinic," which "opened May 18 near Skagit Valley Hospital," is scheduled to run from "10:30 a.m. to noon. Featured speakers will include" US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and US Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), "who spearheaded the effort to expand VA medical services."