Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 12-17-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Administration Praised To Improve Veterans’ Mental Health Care Efforts. 
2. Lawmakers Told Of Abuses In VA Program.
3. New Administrator Will Oversee Marion VA. 
4. VA’s Efforts To Accommodate Female Needs Labeled "Hit Or Miss." 
5. Hearing Focuses On Adapted Housing Grants Programs Run By VA. 
6. Review: Despite Known Health Risks, Agent Orange Spraying Campaign Continued. 
7. About One In Four US Soldiers Admits Abusing Prescription Drugs, Study Indicates. 
8. Plan To Increase Rent At Wisconsin Veterans Home Causing Concern. 
9. Bill Includes Funding For VA Hospital Projects. 
10. Charges Dropped Against Vet Who Has Been Protesting Plans For VA Property.

1.      Administration Praised To Improve Veterans’ Mental Health Care Efforts.  The National Journal (12/15, Williams) notes that two "months ago, in a case believed to be the first of its kind, Iraq War veteran Jessie Bratcher was found guilty of murder but legally insane because of combat" post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). More recently, the US Supreme Court "overturned the death sentence for a Korean War veteran convicted of murder, ruling that the jury should have taken George Porter’s combat PTSD into consideration." The Journal spoke to Floyd Meshad, president and founder of the National Veterans Foundation, who said both rulings will "make it a little easier to fight for these cases, but they have to be pretty clear-cut." When the Journal asked Meshad how he thinks the Obama Administration "has been doing in improving the mental health care of veterans," Meshad praised their efforts, saying that by appointing Eric Shinseki as Veterans Affairs secretary, they have "put a great officer, a great man, a great warrior on top of an antiquated system." 

2.      Lawmakers Told Of Abuses In VA Program . Federal Computer Week (12/17, Weigelt) reports that at a hearing this week., "several House members were dismayed by the lack of enforcement against small-business owners who lied about being service-disabled veterans. Veterans Affairs Department officials failed to punish the owners who misled the VA to get a contract set aside for service-disabled veterans, Government Accountability Office officials told" the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Federal Computer Week noted that a "regulation finalized on Dec. 8 gives the VA secretary new authority to take action against…fraudulent companies." Government Executive (12/17, Newell) also publishes a story. 

3.      New Administrator Will Oversee Marion VA. In continuing coverage, the AP (12/17) reports Dr. Farhana Hasan is the new administrator of a "Veterans Affairs hospital in southern Illinois where major surgeries have been suspended for more than two years after a spike in patient deaths." VA Secretary Eric Shinseki "says…Hasan will take over Jan. 3 as chief of staff at the Marion VA. Hasan lately has served as chief of medical service at the VA’s biggest outpatient clinic in Columbus, Ohio." The Marion (IL) Daily Republican (12/17) publishes a similar story.  

4.      VA’s Efforts To Accommodate Female Needs Labeled "Hit Or Miss."  The Takeaway (12/16, Hockenberry, Headlee, Gunja), a national morning news program, reported, "More women than ever are returning home from military duty, but many Veteran Affairs centers don’t have adequate services for womens’ health." The program spoke to Ann Brown, director of the Veterans Affairs hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia, "and retired Marine Capt. Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, about what VA facilities need to do to better accommodate female needs." Both women agreed that the VA’s efforts in this area are "hit or miss," depending on where
 women seek VA treatment. Brown, however, noted that the VA is training its "providers in military sexual trauma" and developing "advocacy groups within all of the hospitals to bring the women together and tell us what they need." In a related editorial, the Baxter (AR) Bulletin (12/17) says "women veterans…face complications in dealing with the VA." 

5.      Hearing Focuses On Adapted Housing Grants Programs Run By VA. The last item in the Washington Times‘ (12/17, Fales) "Sgt. Shaft" column notes that US Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), chairwoman of the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, "recently conducted a hearing to review the Department of Veterans Affairs’ adapted housing grants programs." The "hearing specifically addressed the flexibility and sufficiency of the existing grants to address the current needs of veterans." The Times adds, "’Every year, we have a new pool of veterans returning from the combat zones with serious injuries that include losing a limb, loss of vision, or suffering from traumatic brain injury,’ said US Rep. Bob Filner, California Democrat and chairman" of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, who added, "Now, more than ever, VA needs to actively advocate and provide support for wounded veterans, and the adaptive housing grant program is absolutely instrumental in the reintegration efforts of these heroes."  

6.      Review: Despite Known Health Risks, Agent Orange Spraying Campaign Continued. The Chicago Tribune (12/17, Jason Grotto, Tim Jones) says that according to a review it conducted of "court documents and records from the National Archives," as the US military "aggressively ratcheted up its spraying of Agent Orange over South Vietnam in 1965, the government and the chemical companies that produced the defoliant knew it posed health risks to soldiers and others who were exposed" but risks of such exposure were downplayed and the Agent Orange "spraying campaign would continue for six more years." The Tribune adds, "Debilitating illnesses linked to defoliants used in South Vietnam now cost the federal government billions of dollars annually and have contributed to a dramatic increase in disability payments to veterans since 2003."
     Critics Said To Believe US Is "Playing A Grim" Agent Orange Waiting Game. Time (12/17, Overland) reports on its website, "After years of meetings, signings and photo ops," the US "held another ceremony in Vietnam on Wednesday to sign yet another memorandum of understanding as part of the continuing effort to manage Agent Orange’s dark legacy. Yet there are grumblings that little — if anything — has actually been done to clean up the most contaminated sites." Critics "believe the US is playing a grim waiting game: Waiting for people to die in order to avoid potentially costly lawsuits. For a country currently engaged in two wars, accepting comprehensive responsibility for wartime damages could set an expensive precedent." 
 

7.      About One In Four US Soldiers Admits Abusing Prescription Drugs, Study Indicates. USA Today (12/17, Zoroya) reports that according to a recently released Pentagon health survey of over 28,500 US soldiers, "about one in four soldiers admit abusing prescription drugs, most of them pain relievers, in a one-year period." The survey found "that pain relievers were the most abused drug in the military, used illicitly at a rate triple that of marijuana or amphetamines, the next most widely abused drugs." Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, Director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force, said, "These areas of substance abuse along with increased use of alcohol concern us." He added that "prescription drug abuse is ‘an issue for American society as well, and we’re looking at it from every possible angle.’" 

8.      Plan To Increase Rent At Wisconsin Veterans Home Causing Concern. The Racine (WI) Journal Times (12/17, Sloth) reports, "A plan to raise rent at the Veterans Home at Union Grove by as much as 37 percent starting Jan. 1 has not only confused and concerned residents and their families, it has stymied the board appointed to oversee the agency that runs the home. Veterans Affairs Board members have been trying to get answers from Department of Veterans Affairs officials as to how rates at Union Grove have been set since it opened in 2001, board chairman Marv Freedman said." The Times adds, "The board will meet Friday during a special telephone conference, during which the board is expected to discuss the rate increase at Union Grove, Freedman said." 

9.      Bill Includes Funding For VA Hospital Projects. In continuing coverage, the St. Louis Business Journal (12/17) reports the John Cochran Veterans Affairs Medical Center "in midtown St. Louis will receive $43.3 million in federal funding to help build a 262,000-square-foot patient tower. This is the largest St. Louis-area project included in the $447 billion fiscal 2010 spending bill" the US Senate passed Sunday. As "part of the bill," the VA hospital "also will receive $19.7 million to expand the 331-acre National Cemetery at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. Earlier this year, St. Louis’ veterans hospitals received $10 million in federal stimulus money for several projects, including a renovation of John Cochran’s outpatient clinics and a road upgrade at the cemetery." 

10.    Charges Dropped Against Vet Who Has Been Protesting Plans For VA Property. In continuing coverage, the San Fernando Valley (CA) Sun (12/17, Chavez) reports, "Five citations against" a 67-year-old US Army veteran "for displaying the American flag upside down on federal property have been dropped." Robert Rosebrock "has been protesting the planned conversion of Veterans Administration property in West Los Angeles to a public park." The "charges were dismissed only days" after the US Attorney’s Office "learned that the ACLU of Southern California was representing Rosebrock in defense of his free speech rights."