Top 10 Veterans News From Around the Country 2/4/10

Find out What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. VA To Open Clinic In Mall
2. Hearing To Focus On VA Budget Needs
3. Man Who Stole TV From VA Hospital Back In Jail
4. Students Make Valentines For VA Hospital Patients
5. DOD Funding Theatrical Performances For Combat Vets
6. Grant For Advanced “Telemove” Technology At Tomah VA
7. Prominent Vets Groups Oppose Repeal Of Gays In Military Ban
8. VA Coordinating Medical Evacuations Of Haitian Earthquake Victims
9. OPM Issues Strategy For Boosting Government’s Employment Of Veterans
10. PTSD Reportedly A Problem For Many Vets Returning From Iraq, Afghanistan

Have You Heard
If you watched the Grammy Awards on January 31, you were part of one of television’s largest audiences and you also saw VA’s new health care recruitment ad. The Winter Olympics is another big-audience event coming up where the commercial will run a total of 12 times between February 8 and February 28. The ads will also run during CBS’s Amazing Race on February 14 from 8-9 p.m. (EST) and on 60 Minutes February 28 from 7-8 p.m. (EST). The ads direct viewers to VA Careers, and VA medical centers are making sure all available jobs are posted to make the most of the ad campaign’s referral to the site for information about VA job opportunities. These are just a few of the hundreds of television airings scheduled for the recruitment ads in the near future.

1.      Hearing To Focus On VA Budget Needs. The Navy Times (2/4, Maze, 54K) notes that a hearing conducted today by the House Veterans Affairs Committee “will focus on how much of an increase is enough” for Federal veterans programs. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, “who will defend” the Obama Administration’s VA budget request for fiscal 2011, “said the plan attempts to make improvements to speed disability claims, end homelessness and make it easier for veterans to access services, while also trying to transform how the VA does business.” Appearing “at the same hearing will be representatives of major veterans groups who have produced their own version of the budget — known as the Independent Budget — which concludes that VA’s $60.3 billion discretionary budget, covering everything but the payment of benefits, is $1.2 billion short.”
Orszag: Budget Will Allow VA To Focus On Top Construction Priorities. The Tri-City Herald (2/4, Carey), which is based in Kennewick, Washington, notes that on Tuesday, US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) “questioned Peter Orszag, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, about…the Veterans Administration construction budget at a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee.” Murray, who “said she is pleased to see policy changes in the budget that would provide greater access for nondisabled veterans with modest” incomes, “questioned why the construction budget…is proposed to decline by 15 percent.” The Herald adds, “Although the proposed 2011 construction budget is lower than this year’s budget, it is still at a historic high level and will allow the Veterans Administration to focus on its top construction priorities, Orszag said.”
VA Access Said To Be A Problem For Many Vets. The WABC-TV New York, NY (2/3, Torres) website says “many vets…have a hard time getting access to health care and benefits,” but the recent VA “budget proposal…asked for additional funding to hire 4,000 more claims processors. ‘The VA continually looks on how to improve services to veterans,'” said Joe Sledge of the Northport VA Medical Center.
Obama Supporting New Veterans Cemetery In Colorado. The KRDO-TV Colorado Springs, CO (4/3, Harrison) website said the idea of the VA building a local veterans cemetery has “received a big boost from” President Obama, who “says he will make the project a priority in next year’s budget. Members of the state’s Congressional delegation who have been working on the idea for several years, influenced Obama in the decision. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki also was involved.”

2.      PTSD Reportedly A Problem For Many Vets Returning From Iraq, Afghanistan. On its website, WABC-TV New York, NY (2/3, Miles) website reported, “A staggering one million Vietnam veterans suffer from” post-traumatic stress disorder it. And now, “many service men and women…returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have the disorder.” WABC added, ” New Book Describes Ex-POW’s Struggles. The AP (2/4, Hefling) reports that in a “new book out this week,” 37-year-old veteran Shoshana Johnson

“describes mental health problems related” to the 22 days she spent as a prisoner of war (POW) in Iraq. Johnson, the “nation’s first female black” POW, “said she felt she was portrayed differently because of her race, either by media outlets that chose not to cover her experience or those who portrayed her as greedy when she challenged the disability rating she was given for her” PTSD. The AP, which notes that Johnson’s “book, ‘I’m Still Standing,’ is being released in time for Black History Month,” adds, “After successfully fighting to receive improved disability benefits stemming from her PTSD,” Johnson “was later asked to serve on the Veterans Affairs Department’s panel on minority affairs.”

3.      Prominent Vets Groups Oppose Repeal Of Gays In Military Ban. The Washington Times (2/4, Scarborough, 77K) reports the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), the “nation’s two most prominent veterans groups,” have “come out in opposition to President Obama’s plan to end the military’s long-standing ban on open homosexuals in the ranks.” Spokesmen “for the VFW and the Legion told The Washington Times…their groups do not want to see military readiness disrupted while the armed forces are fighting two wars.” The “opposition…comes as the White House has begun a push in Congress to repeal the law this year.”

4.      DOD Funding Theatrical Performances For Combat Vets. PBS’ Newshour With Jim Lehrer (2/3, 7:45 p.m. ET) broadcast, “The ‘Theater of War’ is the brainchild of writer and director Bryan Doerries. … His insight: That a theatrical experience can help unlock the inner grief and suffering that many soldiers bring back from war zones.” PBS added, “The Department of Defense has provided funds so that ‘Theater of War’ can visit 50 military sites over the next year.”

5.      OPM Issues Strategy For Boosting Government’s Employment Of Veterans. Government Executive (2/3, Parker) noted that on Monday, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) “issued a strategy for boosting the employment of veterans within the federal government that emphasizes training, coordination, marketing and the inclusion of military spouses in hiring initiatives. The plan comes in response” to an executive order last November “from President Obama, creating a governmentwide council to address veterans hiring and establishing veterans employment offices at individual federal agencies.”

6.      Grant To Fund More Advanced “Telemove” Technology At Tomah VA. The Tomah (WI) Journal (2/4, Rundio, 4K) reports the Tomah Veterans Administration “recently received a grant to install…far more” sophisticated “TeleMove” technology. The system “will give patients the option of undergoing examinations in Tomah instead of Madison or Milwaukee.” It is “expected that TeleMove will reach 300 additional veterans based on the experience of other VAs.”

7.      VA Coordinating Medical Evacuations Of Haitian Earthquake Victims. In continuing coverage, the New York Times (2/4, A16, Brown, 1.09M) reports several evacuees brought to Atlanta this week “were the first Haitian patients to arrive in the United States after the federal government decided on Monday to reimburse hospitals for treating people who suffered life-threatening injuries in last month’s earthquake, injuries that doctors and government officials decided could not be treated properly at Haiti’s hospitals, many of which were badly damaged or destroyed in the earthquake.” The “medical evacuations are being…coordinated locally with Departments of Veterans Affairs and the Red Cross.” The VA’s Kenneth Wheeler, “an emergency manager…who helped coordinate the evacuations,” said they were needed because the patients “have nowhere else to go.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/4, Stevens, 292K) reports, “For the second night in a row, earthquake victims from Haiti arrived Wednesday night at Dobbins Air Force Base in Cobb County. The seven victims that arrived Wednesday all have very serious injuries, according to Greg Kendall” with the VA hospital in Atlanta, who noted out that his facility is coordinating the victims’ transport from Haiti to hospitals in the Atlanta area.

8.      VA Top Open Clinic In Mall. The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal (2/4, Daniel) reports the Marketplace Mall “has found a new tenant — the Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salisbury — that has big plans for part of the space. The VA plans to open a branch clinic” that is “expected to open in early summer.”

9.      Students Make Valentines For VA Hospital Patients. The Bonner Springs (KS) Chieftain (2/4, Linenberger, 9K) reports, “Various hues of red, white and pink were scattered on desks and floors Friday throughout” Tonganoxie Elementary School (TES), where “students were making Valentine’s Day cards…that will be given to patients” at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Leavenworth. The Chieftain adds, “TES counselor Connie Weltha said the project was part of the Valentines for Vets, the nationwide effort born from an Ann Landers column several years ago.” The Basehor (KS) Sentinel (2/4) publishes the same story.

10.    Man Who Stole TV From VA Hospital Back In Jail. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/4, Diedrich, 224K) reports, “A Milwaukee slaughterhouse worker sentenced to federal prison for stealing a television from a veterans’ hospital is back in jail, this time on suspicion of driving drunk for a seventh time, according to court documents.” The 46-year-old Jeffry Polak, who has pleaded not guilty to the new charges, “received a year and a day in prison for dressing up like a maintenance man and carting a 52-inch television out of the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2008.” WITI-TV Milwaukee, WI (2/3, 10:04 p.m. CT) aired a similar report.