Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 10-07-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Vets Have Trouble Cashing Emergency GI Bill Payments.
2. Editorials Compares McChrystal To Shinseki.
3. Business Schools Hoping Yellow Ribbon Program Will Attract More Vets.
4. Veteran Frustrated By Lack Of Retirement Pay.
5. Different VA Facilities To Provide Services To Vets In Meadville, Mississippi.
6. Warning Issued By VA About Credit Card Scam.
7. Vaccine For Cocaine Users Said To Show "Promise And Problems."
8. VA Doctor Co-Authors Study On Importance Of Exercising.
9. Arguments To Be Heard In Veterans Memorial Case.
10. Agencies Surpass Recovery Act Small Business Contracting Goals.

1.      Vets Have Trouble Cashing Emergency GI Bill Payments.  In continuing coverage, the lead item for the Washington Post‘s (10/7, A23, O’Keefe) "Federal Diary" column says, "The Department of Veterans Affairs’ problems" new GI Bill "benefits seem to linger, no matter what the government does. Tens of thousands" of vets, "active-duty servicemembers and their dependents have been waiting for promised higher-education benefits" from the VA "since fall classes began." The agency recently "attempted to address the backlog by granting $3,000 in emergency checks." The VA, however, "was hustling so to get checks in the right hands that officials began distributing…checks" which "had been filled out by hand. Not surprisingly, that
sent up alarm bells at banks." The VA "contacted banks, university officials and other program participants over the weekend to alert them."
      Arizona State University’s State Press (10/6, Quizon), meanwhile, said US Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) "is pressuring the US Department of Veterans Affairs to release GI Bill benefits to thousands of veterans, a process that has been delayed this year by an increase in veterans applying" for Federal aid. Mitchell "has been pressuring the VA since last month, when he wrote two letters" to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki "asking for ‘a full accounting of the problems the VA is encountering and what the VA is doing to resolve them.’" The WHDH-TV Boston, MA (10/6) website also runs a story about problems vets have been having with the new GI Bill benefits. 

2.      Editorials Compares McChrystal To Shinseki.  The Wall Street Journal (10/7) editorializes, "Democrats have found someone worth fighting in Afghanistan. His name is Stan McChrystal," but Gen. McChrystal’s "liberal critics…have very short memories. In 2003, Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki clashed with his superiors by saying many more troops were needed to pacify Iraq." Shinseki "became a Democratic hero and is now" President Obama’s secretary of Veterans Affairs. After noting that in "an interview with Newsweek, Gen. McChrystal said he wouldn’t resign if the President rejects his request for more troops," the Journal concludes, "No commander in uniform should ask his soldiers to die for a strategy he doesn’t think is winnable-or for a President who lets his advisers and party blame a general for their own lack of political nerve." An editorial in the Wilmington (DE) News Journal (10/7) also compares McChrystal to Shinseki.  

3.      Business Schools Hoping Yellow Ribbon Program Will Attract More Vets.  BusinessWeek (10/6, Damast) reported, "Dozens of business schools like Wake Forest have signed up for the Yellow Ribbon program this school year, hoping to encourage more veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to apply." The magazine, which said veterans are "for the most part a large and untapped market of students" for business schools, also pointed out that over "1,100 colleges and universities signed up with the Veteran Affairs Dept. for the Yellow Ribbon initiative, which involves some 3,400 schools and programs within those institutions. While the VA is still compiling data from all the schools on how many veterans have enrolled, it is pleased with the institutions’ response, says Keith Wilson, the VA’s education service director." 

4.      Veteran Frustrated By Lack Of Retirement Pay.  According to the KETV-TV Omaha, NE (10/6) website, 78-year-old LG Harrison, a "Marine Corps veteran who retired 38 years ago," is "still fighting to get the retirement pay he said he has earned. But the government can’t seem to confirm…Harrison’s service, even though he said he has proper records." The Department of Veterans Affairs "can’t give Harrison an answer to why he hasn’t received any retirement pay. Out of frustration, Harrison called the KETV NewsWatch I-Team," which contacted the military liaison for Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE). KETV "will be checking with Johanns’ office to monitor the issue’s progress," but Harrison "has been cautioned not to expect quick solutions." The VA, meanwhile, "has provided Harrison with some medical services, and it’s checking to see if he’s eligible for more."  

5.      Different VA Facilities To Provide Services To Vets In Meadville, Mississippi.  On its website, WAPT-TV Jackson, MS (10/6) reported, "Veterans receiving health care services in Meadville will soon have to travel to Natchez or Jackson for services, officials said." CR Associates, a healthcare "provider that contracts with VA to provide veterans medical care in Natchez, had been providing service at the Meadville satellite location through a subcontract with Franklin County Memorial Hospital. That subcontract will end on Oct. 31, officials said. Beginning Nov. 1, veterans in Meadville" will start receiving services at the G.V. Sonny Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center Community Outpatient Clinic "in Natchez or the parent facility in Jackson. There will be no disruption in continuity of patient care, officials said." WAPT added, "In the summer of 2010, the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center anticipates opening a CBOC in nearby McComb." 

6.      Warning Issued By VA About Credit Card Scam.  In continuing coverage, the Boston Globe (10/7) reports, "Hingham Veterans Services Agent Michael Cunningham has issued a warning from the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs about a credit card scam." The VA’s "warning tells veterans not to give credit card numbers over the phone to callers claiming to update" the agency’s prescription information. Cunningham "said callers have falsely claimed they are representatives of the VA and that the agency has changed procedures for dispensing prescriptions and need credit card numbers for prescriptions to be processed." 
 

 7.      Vaccine For Cocaine Users Said To Show "Promise And Problems."  In continuing coverage, Scott Hensley noted in his "Health" blog for NPR (10/7) that "researchers say they’re making progress on a vaccine to fight dependence on cocaine." Results "of a study comparing a five-shot regimen of an experimental vaccine and a placebo in 115 drug users also taking methadone showed promise and problems. A high level of antibodies against cocaine was associated with a significant reduction in cocaine use," yet "just 38 percent of the study subjects achieved the desired level of antibodies, and the protection lasted for only a couple of months." What is "next? We asked Dr. Thomas Kosten, senior investigator on the study, now at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Center in Houston," and in "an email, he told a broader test of the vaccine at multiple sites is slated to start in Jan. 2010." Hensley also points out that work "on the cocaine vaccine was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Celtic Pharma," and the VA "medical centers in West Haven, Conn., and Houston." 

8.      VA Doctor Co-Authors Study On Importance Of Exercising.  Forbes (10/7, Ruiz) reports, "According to a study of more than 4,300 people published this summer in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, the least-fit individuals had a three-fold increased all-cause mortality risk and a nearly four-fold increased cardiovascular mortality risk when compared to the most fit." That "study is just one in a recent spate of research in children and adults that draws connections between physical inactivity or obesity and poor health outcomes." Forbes adds, "While physical activity is just one component of developing fitness–the others include overall health and genetic predisposition–exercise is essential. The ideal amount, says Jonathan Myers, Ph.D., a co-author of the ACSM study and a health research scientist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in northern California, is a half-hour of moderate-intense activity five days of the week." 

9.      Arguments To Be Heard In Veterans Memorial Case.  In continuing coverage, Ashby Jones, writing in his "Law Blog" for the Wall Street Journal (10/6), noted that on Wednesday, Supreme Court "justices will hear arguments in one of the highest-profile First Amendment cases of the term: Salazar v. Buono," which "involves whether a cross erected in a national preserve in California to honor veterans violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution." The case has a "complicated procedural history, and the questions presented have not only to do with the Constitution, but with standing – who has the right to mount a challenge to government action."
      The case is also discussed in a Wall Street Journal (10/7) op-ed by Ted Cruz and Kelly Shackelford, who "represent the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and the American Ex-Prisoners of War as amici curiae in Salazar v. Buono." The authors argues that if the Supreme Court "allows this cross to be destroyed, it could presage the
destruction of thousands of similar memorials nationwide, inflicting sorrow on millions of Americans, especially veterans and their families." The New York Times (10/7, A28), however, takes an opposing view in an editorial, arguing that while a "single cross does not, by itself, mean America has an established religion," if the Supreme Court "stops caring that the government is promoting a particular religion, we will be down the path toward having one."  

10.    Agencies Surpass Recovery Act Small Business Contracting Goals.  Government Executive (10/7, Brodsky) reports, "More than $1 out of every $4 spent on Federal Recovery Act contracts has gone to small businesses, but several large spenders appear to be lagging behind in including small firms, Administration officials told members of a Senate panel on Tuesday. As of Oct. 2, nearly 26 percent of all Federal stimulus contracting dollars — or more than $4 billion — was awarded to small businesses, said Joe Jordan, associate administrator for government contracting business development at the Small Business Administration, in testimony before the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee." Government Executive adds, "The Recovery Act spending totals for the various socioeconomic and disadvantaged categories also have been encouraging, Jordan testified. For example, small disadvantaged businesses have received 11 percent of stimulus contracts, exceeding the goal of 5 percent, he said. Meanwhile, firms owned by service-disabled veteran-owned firms," as well as "those operating in historically underutilized business zones have received 4 percent and 7 percent of Recovery contracting dollars, respectively. The goal for both categories is 3 percent."