Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 9-19-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Shinseki Helps Announce Vets Program. 
2. VA Warns Veterans About Credit Card Scam. 
3. Some Texas Vets Report Not Receiving New GI Bill Housing Stipend. 
4. Damaged And Discharged, A Soldier On Edge.
5. VA Hospitals To POW/MIA Ceremonies. 
6. New VA Clinic In North Dakota A "Hit" With Veterans. 
7. VAPHS In line For Stimulus Money. 
8. Groundbreaking To Be Held For the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery Northeast.
9. VA Employees Pleased By New Farmers Market.
10. Health Coverage Not Universal For Federal Workforce.

1.      Shinseki Helps Announce Vets Program.  In continuing coverage, the New England Sports Network (9/17, Beattie) reported, "The Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital are teaming up to develop a program" for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans "and their families who are affected" by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI). In "cooperation with the Department of Veterans Affairs, the new program seeks to support" veterans from New England. On Thursday afternoon, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki was scheduled to be at Boston Marriott Copley Place to help "announce and celebrate" the program, known as "Home Base." A separate story on the NESN (9/17, Keefe) website added, "The four elements of the Home Base Program include providing diagnosis and clinical care for veterans with PTSD and TBI; offering outreach and support services to families of affected veterans; conducting innovative research to deepen the understanding of these problems and develop better treatments for them; and educating community health-care providers about the diagnosis and treatment of these complex disorders."
      St. Cloud VAMC To Focus On PTSD During Public Meeting.  The St. Cloud (MN) Times (9/18) reports the St. Cloud Veterans Affairs Medical Center "will have a meeting Wednesday about readjustment for returning soldiers," with a "focus on post-traumatic stress disorder. Michael Mathies, a clinical social worker at the VA, will talk about the symptoms of PTSD and how to support and treat individuals with it." The meeting, which "is free and open to the public," is scheduled to be held from "6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Cloud Public Library." 

2.      VA Warns Veterans About Credit Card Scam.  In continuing coverage, the CNN (9/18) website reported, "Watch out for the latest scam targeting veterans and their credit card numbers, the Department of Veterans Affairs warns. Scam artists are calling veterans and posing as VA workers who need credit card information to update prescription information, as part of a scheme that fraudsters have recycled over the years." CNN noted that Dr. Gerald Cross, the VA’s undersecretary for health, commented on the problem, saying, "America’s veterans have become targets in an inexcusable scam that dishonors their service and misrepresents the department built for them. VA simply does not call veterans and ask them to disclose personal financial information over the phone." Sheryl Harris, the consumer affairs columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer (9/18, 319K), also covered this story. The scam was also noted by the KHON-TV Honolulu, HI (9/17) website and the Las Cruces (NM) Sun-News (9/16).
 

3.      Some Texas Vets Report Not Receiving New GI Bill Housing Stipend.  In continuing coverage, the Waco (TX) Tribune-Herald (9/18, Dennis, 36K) reports, "Though the new GI Bill has been in effect for more than a month, some local veterans have reported not receiving monthly housing stipends provided by the bill from the Department of Veterans Affairs." Steve Hernandez, "veterans services coordinator for McLennan County, said a few veterans have called him and reported not receiving the monthly housing stipend." Hernandez "said he called the VA regional processing center in Muskogee, Okla., and learned that the VA has been overwhelmed with calls and claims for the GI Bill benefits, slowing down the housing stipend disbursements." Jim Becker, spokesman for the Muskogee processing center, "did acknowledge some problems in processing claims."
      Schools Attempting To Ease Transition To Student Life For Veterans.  In a front page story, the Washington Post (9/18, A1, Brown, 652K) reports, "As more veterans…return to school, drawn by a new GI Bill that offers more-generous benefits than its predecessor, colleges and universities in the Washington region and across the nation are launching efforts to ease the daunting social, psychological and logistical transition from combat to classroom." The Post goes on to say the "number of student veterans receiving benefits is expected to climb as much as 25 percent this year to 460,000, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and schools that can attract them will share in the $78 billion" the Federal "government will spend in the next decade on educational benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which took effect Aug. 1."  

4.      Damaged And Discharged, A Soldier On Edge.  Julia O’Malley’s Anchorage (AK) Daily News (9/17) column, which McClatchy (9/18) syndicates under the headline, "Did Iraq Veteran’s PTSD Spark His Shoplifting Charge?"

 5.      VA Hospitals To POW/MIA Ceremonies.  The Muskogee (OK) Phoenix (9/18, 16K) reports, "The public is invited to attend the Prisoners of War and Missing in Action Remembrance Ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday" at the Jack C. Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The "event will be in the medical center’s auditorium, located on the second floor in the south end of the hospital at 1011 Honor Heights Drive." The Lake City (FL) Reporter (9/17), meanwhile, said the Lake City VAMC "will host the 2009 National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday," in the facility’s auditorium, while the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune (9/17, 18K) reported, "A ceremony to honor those who were prisoners of war or are listed as missing in action will take place" Friday "at Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital. The event, marking the 31st annual National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Recognition Day, will begin at 2 p.m. in the hospital auditorium." The "national POW/MIA day will be observed at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide." 

6.      New VA Clinic In North Dakota A "Hit" With Veterans.  The Grand Forks (ND) Herald (9/17, Bonham) said the "new Veterans Administration Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Grand Forks is a hit. Open only a week, more than 1,000 military veterans already have filed paperwork to switch their care to Grand Forks from other VA facilities, including the VA Medical Center in Fargo and the VA Clinic in Grafton, N.D., said Peggy Wheelden," public affairs officer for the Fargo VAMC, who added, "We’re really pleased that so many
veterans are taking advantage of the clinic in Grand Forks, and we look forward to serving veterans there." The Herald added, "Many who are registering at the Grand Forks clinic had been going to the Grafton VA Clinic. VA officials expect the caseload in Grafton to drop over time."   

7.      VAPHS In line For Stimulus Money.  The Pittsburgh Business Times (9/18) reports the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System "is in line for $11 million in economic stimulus money, which will be used to upgrade the surgical intensive care units, make plumbing improvements and upgrade the emergency power distribution system at the Oakland facility. Fourteen private rooms will be added" to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. The VA "said Thursday that it expects to make this $2 million construction award next week." Meanwhile, "Butler-based Right Electric has been awarded a $7.2 million contract to upgrade the emergency power system and Lee & Ryan Environmental, of Greenfield Ind., has been chosen for the $1.5 million plumbing project." The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (9/18, Heinrichs, 154K) publishes a similar story. 

8.      Groundbreaking To Be Held For the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery Northeast.  The AP (9/18) reports, "Gov. Steve Beshear and other state officials are scheduled to attend the groundbreaking" Friday "for a new veterans cemetery in northeastern Kentucky." A "$6 million grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs is funding all of the costs to build the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery Northeast." 

9.      VA Employees Pleased By New Farmers Market.  The Washington Post (9/18, Brown, 652K) reports First Lady Michelle Obama "continued her crusade for fresh food and local farmers under drizzly skies Thursday when she spoke before a cheering crowd at the opening of the District’s newest farmers market," located at a "block of Vermont Avenue between H and I streets NW." Employees "of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Export-Import Bank, whose buildings flank the block, shrugged off concerns about closing Vermont Avenue during rush hour. ‘There’s not a lot of options for fresh food in the District,’ said Roz Howard," a VA management analyst, who added, "You shut down for sporting events all the time. Why not for something that can really help people?" The Chicago Tribune (9/18, Skiba, 498K) says the market is located "in front of the US Department of Veterans Affairs." The market location is also noted by Dana Milbank, in his "Washington Sketch" column for the Washington Post (9/18, 652K).
 

10.    Health Coverage Not Universal For Federal Workforce.  In his "Federal Diary" column for the Washington Post (9/18, 652K), Joe Davidson writes, "The health insurance program that covers President Obama and members of Congress has been touted during the current debate as a model for overhauling the nation’s" healthcare system. But "one overlooked aspect of the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program is that many" Federal "workers go without health insurance for themselves or members of their families," including Lorene Salazar, who "prepares food, serves it and cleans up a canteen in a Department of Veterans Affairs facility in North Little Rock, Ark. Although she makes just $8.56 an hour, Salazar does pay a share of the premium for Blue Cross/Blue Shield coverage on herself," but "she can’t afford to cover her 11-year-old girl and her 9-year-old boy" so the "children are covered by Medicaid. Private coverage for her kids, both of whom have attention-deficit disorder, ‘takes too much money out of my check, and I don’t make that much money as it is,’ she said. ‘ There’s not much left.’"