Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 12-09-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Illinois To Receive Additional Homeless Veterans Assistance Funds.
2. Operating One Of Four Polytrauma Rehab Centers In Country is Minneapolis VAMC. 
3. VA Nurse Commands Unit In Charge Of Medical Mentoring Program. 
4. Veterans Face Potential Diffuculties Transitioning Back To School. 
5. Deceased Vet’s Mother Finds Healing At Fisher House.
6. Little Has Been Done By the US Government To Clean Up Defoliant Contamination In Vietnam. 
7. Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record Initiative … VA In Search Of Vendors.
8. VA Staff Who Worked On Suspended E-Learning Project Call For Its Termination.
9. Jesse Brown VAMC Taking Steps To Keep Weapons Out.
10. White House Orders Agencies To Publish "High Value" Data.

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Fiscal Year 2009 Performance and Accountability Report

The Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) provides results on VA’s progress towards providing America’s Veterans with the best in benefits and health care. As VA’s report card, it contains performance targets and results achieved during FY 2009.

VA’s Fiscal Year 2009 Performance and Accountability Report can be found on VA’s website at http://www.va.gov/.

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1.      Illinois To Receive Additional Homeless Veterans Assistance Funds.  WGIL-AM Galesburg, IL (12/8) website reports, "Illinois will soon see additional" Federal "dollars for help with veterans’ issues. Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary" for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, "says President Obama has pledged $3 billion nationwide to help end homelessness among veterans," though it is unclear how much of money Illinois will get. Duckworth, the former director of the Illinois VA, "spoke at the ribbon cutting of a multi-unit building in Chicago that will offer living space and support services" for homeless vets.  

2.      Operating One Of Four Polytrauma Rehab Centers In Country is Minneapolis VAMC.  Rapid City (SD) Journal (12/8, Miller) said that when "there’s a spate of casualties in Afghanistan or Iraq, the staff" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, "can expect things to get busy up on 4-J," the "fourth-floor wing that houses some of the most severely wounded.   The others facilities are in Tampa, Fla., Richmond, Va., and Palo Alto, Calif. Also,  the Rapid City (SD) Journal (12/8, Miller) profiled injured Afghanistan vet Branden Stackenwalt, who is currently being treated at the Minneapolis VAMC. 

3.      VA Nurse Commands Unit In Charge Of Medical Mentoring Program.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (12/9, Jones, 224K) reports a "group of Wisconsin-based Army Reserve soldiers are mentoring…Afghan doctors through an innovative residency program. Afghan doctors are chosen for one-month residencies at the medical facility" in Camp Salerno, a US "military base in eastern Afghanistan."  The Journal notes that the 452nd’s commander, Lt. Col. Patricia Ten Haaf, a registered nurse who works at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin, said that while the mentoring program was started by previous medical units at Salerno, her unit has made efforts to refine both the curriculum and the selection process of residents. 

4.      Veterans Face Potential Diffuculties Transitioning Back To School.  University Daily Kansan (12/9, Archibald) reports "Since his return" from Iraq, veteran Matt Stroh faced a slew of emotional and psychological problems, but that hasn’t stopped him from being a full-time student at the University of Kansas since Fall 2008.  Stroh is one of more than 325 students currently certified as veterans at the University. "More veterans are enrolling in universities because of the GI Bills, but it can be really hard for them to transition from a military environment to an civilian environment.  The Kansan noted that Tom Padilla, social worker at the Lawrence VA Community Outpatient Clinic, "said lasting psychological problems, which can be combat-related, oftentimes cause social difficulties" for veterans.
     Following Calls From TV Station, Iraq Vet To Receive Benefits Check. According to the website for WINK-TV Fort Myers, FL (12/8), Iraq veteran Steve Bowling "has been waiting for his education stipend" from the VA for five months. His calls to a VA "hotline… never went through. ‘They just tell you, call
 back later, the line is busy.’ said Bowling." WINK added, "After we made about a dozen calls to the VA’s main office in Washington and contacted three members of Congress, we finally found someone at the agency" that "could help Bowling." The VA "promised to send him his check" this week. 

5.      Deceased Vet’s Mother Finds Healing At Fisher House.  Brandon (FL) News & Tribune (12/9, Routen) reports, "The Brandon High School Alumni Association inducted six former Eagles into the association’s Hall of Fame at a banquet Nov. 12 at the school." Among the inductees were several veterans, including Joseph Smith, who "received the…Bronze Star posthumously after being killed in an ambush in Iraq. His parents, Georgianna Stephens-Smith and Clifford Smith, accepted his Hall of Fame award." The News & Tribune adds, "Although the holidays are especially hard for her," Stephens-Smith "has found healing at the Fisher House (next to the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa), carrying on the spirit of her son by helping families whose loved ones have been wounded in service to the nation."  

6.      Little Has Been Done By the US Government To Clean Up Defoliant Contamination In Vietnam.  Chicago Tribune (12/9, Grotto, 534K) says that when Hatfield Consultants, a "small Canadian environmental firm," began "collecting soil samples on a former" US air base in Vietnam, Scientists were skeptical they’d find evidence proving herbicides used there by the US military decades ago that could still pose a health threat. But they fund levels of the cancer-causing poison dioxin were far greater than guidelines set by the US Environmental Protection Agency for residential areas. Since, Hatfield and Vietnamese scientists have taken samples from nearly 3,000 former US bases scattered throughout South Vietnam and report identifying 28 ‘hot spots. However, "since the first Hatfield study that was published in 2000, the US government has done little to clean up the sites it contaminated during the Vietnam War.   

7.      Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record Initiative … VA In Search Of Vendors. Federal Computer Week (12/9, Lipowicz, 90K) reports, "The Veterans Affairs Department is looking for three to six vendors who can coordinate pilot programs with local hospitals and health plans to advance the VA-Defense Department’s Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) program. In the pilot tests the VA, DOD, and "private-sector partners will exchange health data through the Health and Human Services Department’s Nationwide Health Information Network, with the goal of improved tracking and delivery of patient care. The VLER program will be a comprehensive system to collect administrative and medical information for members of the military through their period of service and beyond."
     Government Health IT (12/9, Buxbaum), publishes a similar story. 
 

8.      VA Staff Who Worked On Suspended E-Learning Project Call For Its Termination. NextGov (12/8, Sternstein) reported, "Veterans Affairs Department personnel who worked on an e-learning project that top agency officials suspended this summer say the project should be terminated and officials are contemplating removing the contractor." The VA’s Learning Management System (LMS) "was among 45 information technology projects…suspended" by the agency "in July because the projects either were over budget or behind schedule. Following a review, VA opted to cut 15 projects, give 17 another chance to meet the next deadline and restart 15 projects with a new contractor. LMS falls into the second category of projects that have one more chance. 

9.      Jesse Brown VAMC Taking Steps To Keep Weapons Out. On its website, WBBM-AM Chicago, IL (12/8) reported, "Guns, knives, boxcutters, an icepick and a stun-gun have found their way" into Chicago’s Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center.  Spokesman Carl Henderson "says a security review prompted some changes. ‘We have taken steps to address the needs for right now. There is always room for improvement.’" 

10.    White House Orders Agencies To Publish "High Value" Data. The AP (12/9) reports, "The White House on Tuesday instructed every federal agency to publish before the end of January at least three collections of ‘high value’ government data on the Internet that never have been previously disclosed, an ambitious order to make the administration as transparent as President Barack Obama had promised it would be." The "directive applies to each of the government’s 15 departments and four agencies with Cabinet-level status," including the Department of Veterans Affairs. The AP adds, "Open government advocates praised the plan."