Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

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From the VA:

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1.      Lawmakers Urge Shinseki To Reconsider Roanoke VA Office Renovations. The Augusta Free (VA) Press (7/30) notes that on Thursday, US Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, both Democrats from Virginia, “sent a letter requesting Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and General Services Administrator Martha Johnson re-evaluate plans to renovate the Roanoke Veterans Affairs Regional Office. The renovations, as currently planned, would likely exacerbate the VARO’s high backlog rate without solving some of its major infrastructure needs, the senators are saying.” The lawmakers “suggested that rather than spending over $50 million to refurbish the Poff Building, the VA could construct a new facility that meets federal environmental efficiency standards, addresses Roanoke’s current infrastructure needs, allows claims processing staff to continue working without disruption during construction, and improves convenience for veterans.”
     The WSLS-TV Roanoke, VA (7/29) website said US Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is “getting some help from Virginia’s Senators, in his fight to stop a planned $51 million renovation of the Poff Federal Building in Downtown Roanoke.” After taking note of the letter to Shinseki from Warner and Webb, WSLS pointed out that VA “has told Rep. Goodlatte that it may have to move the Roanoke VA office to four separate locations.”

2.      Shinseki: VA Improving Care For Women Vets. In continuing coverage, the American Forces Press Service (7/30, Carden) reports, “Women in today’s military serve closer to the front lines of combat than ever before, and as they become veterans the Veterans Affairs Department will be ready to handle their care, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said” on Wednesday. Shinseki, who made his comments during a “forum on women veterans at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial” in Arlington, Virginia, “underscored the need to improve care for women veterans, citing their military contributions and the complexity of issues women may return with from battle.” The Secretary, who “explained that VA experienced a 20 percent spike in women using the department’s health care system in 2009,” went on to note some improvements VA has already made in caring for such veterans, including placing full-time women veterans’ program managers at each of the agency’s 144 hospitals.

3.      VA Grant To Fund Veterans Cemetery Improvements. According to the Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal (7/29), a “$499,900 Department of Veterans Affairs grant” will allow the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery to “provide burial sites for veterans for an estimated 10 years.” After noting that the “grant funds will be used to construct full casketed gravesites, cremains burial areas, additional visitor parking, landscaping, irrigation, and supporting infrastructure,” the Gazette-Journal says in a press release, US Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) thanked VA Secretary Eric Shinseki for awarding the funds.

4.      Florida VA Director Killed In Bike Accident. The AP (7/30) reports, “Retired Adm. LeRoy Collins Jr., a former US Senate candidate and current director of the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs, was killed Thursday morning when he was hit by an SUV while riding his bicycle, police said.” After noting that Collins was 75, the AP quotes Steve Murray, a “Collins friend and communications director” for the Florida VA, who said his agency is “deeply saddened.” The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (7/30, Danielson, Velde, Silva)
     According to the Jacksonville (FL) Observer (7/30, Florida), Florida Gov. Charlie Crist “announced Collins’ death during a Cabinet meeting,” calling it a “tremendous loss.” Crist “later requested that all flags at the Capitol, Veterans Affairs buildings, and all state buildings, courthouses and city halls in Hillsborough County be lowered to half-staff.” The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (7/30, Danielson, Velde, Silva) publishes a similar story.

5.      Cemetery, Wyoming Vets Commission To Host Memorial Service. The Casper (WY) Tribune (7/29) noted that on Friday, the “Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery in Evansville will host a memorial service,” as “part of a statewide effort to help bring closure to families who’ve lost veterans.” The service, which “will be conducted in…partnership with the Wyoming Veterans Commission,” is the “second such ceremony around the state to be held on the last working day of the month.”

6.      Senators Grill Arlington National Cemetery’s Former Leaders. NBC Nightly News (7/29, story 2, 0:50, Miklaszewski) broadcast that on Thursday, the US Army “came under fire” for problems uncovered at Arlington National Cemetery. NBC continued, “Angry Senators,” including Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, “grilled the cemetery’s former leadership, demanding to know how more than 200 graves could have been mismarked or have no headstones at all.” After noting that McCaskill “said the actual number could be as high as 6,600,” NBC said former cemetery “superintendent John Metzler accepted responsibility,” while his former deputy, Thurman Higginbotham, “refused to even answer most questions, invoking the 5th amendment.”
     The CBS Evening News (7/29, story 4, 1:35, Couric) broadcast that during his appearance before senators, Metzler “said he only discovered” Arlington’s problems recently, a statement that was angrily disputed by McCaskill, who “calls this a case of heartbreaking incompetence.” CBS added, however, that the “new team in charge…of Arlington says eventually all the discrepancies will be corrected.”
     McCaskill Calls For Section-By-Section Investigation Of Cemetery. ABC World News (7/29, story 6, 0:40, Sawyer) broadcast that McCaskill is “calling for a section-by-section investigation of Arlington,” which would involve “300,000 grave sites.” A brief report on Thursday’s Senate activity was also aired by CNN’s The Situation Room (7/29, 6:47 p.m. ET). The Los Angeles Times (7/30, Love), meanwhile, notes that Thursday’s hearing was conducted by the “Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee,” which is chaired by McCaskill. The Chicago Tribune (7/30) runs the same story.
     Former Deputy Superintendent Refuses To Answer Questions About Contracts. The Washington Post (7/30, Davenport, Davis) reports, “Invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” Higginbotham during his testimony before a “heated Senate subcommittee” hearing, Higginbotham “refused Thursday to answer…questions about his role in approving millions of dollars’ worth of botched contracts” at Arlington.
     The AP (7/30, Flaherty), meanwhile, says, “While Army officials have described Metzler as an ineffective manager who turned a blind eye” to Arlington’s problems, “investigators accuse Higginbotham of botching contracts and creating an ‘unhealthy organizational climate’ for employees.”
     Gibbs: Extent Of Problems At Arlington Is “Completely Unacceptable.” AFP (7/30) reports, “US military authorities lost track or mishandled remains at thousands of gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery, where many national heroes are buried, a Senate report revealed Thursday.” In response to the report, released at Thursday’s Senate hearing, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs “said that the latest figures were ‘shocking’ and ‘completely unacceptable,'” although he “added that Army Secretary John McHugh ‘has made correct personnel changes.'”
     Man Who Ran Arlington Says VA Grave Site System Was Incompatible With Army’s. USA Today (7/30, Brook) notes that during Thursday’s hearing, US Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) “asked Metzler why Arlington had not adopted the automated system the Department of Veterans Affairs uses to keep track of its grave sites.” When Metzler “responded that…VA’s system wasn’t compatible with the Army’s and could not be transferred,” Collins said, “This just sounds like bureaucracy at its worst.”

7.      Officials Tout Culture Of Innovation At VA. The “Wired Workplace” blog for NextGov (7/29, Ballenstedt) said that when it “comes to changing the culture at federal agencies to support more innovation, it appears as though federal managers could learn a lot from the example being set at the Veterans Affairs Department.” During a Tuesday evening “event…at the Partnership for Public Service, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker and VA Chief Technology Officer Peter Levin said that three changes must take place at an agency to make innovation possible: cultural change, which is the hardest; infrastructural change, which is the easiest; and process change.” Levin “said even the cultural change turned out to be easier than expected, in part because employees responded in such large numbers to innovation initiatives and contests,” while Baker took note of a “red flag process,” which he said allows employees to fail at innovation attempts without it being a “negative thing,” thus giving them the courage to make the attempts.

 8.      Obama To Speak At Disabled American Veterans Convention. The AP (7/30) reports, “President Barack Obama is coming to Atlanta next week.” The White House recently “announced…that Obama is scheduled to be in town Monday to speak to the national convention of the Disabled American Veterans.”

 9.      Following Change In VA Policy, Group Challenges US Stance On Medical Marijuana. In continuing coverage, a blog for the California-based LA Weekly (7/29, Romero) said medical marijuana “advocates have seized” the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ “new marijuana-friendly policy to challenge federal law.” LA Weekly continued, “The group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) this week filed a legal brief in its own longstanding Ninth Circuit court case in California that challenges the federal government’s assertion that ‘marijuana has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States,’ according to a statement from the group.” The blog added that under VA’s new policy, the agency “will allow vets to use prescribed pot in states where it’s legal, but it still will not allow its own doctors to recommend the drug.”
     VA Commended, Urged To Allow Its Doctors To Recommend Medical Marijuana Directly. Daniel Robelo, a “research associate at the Drug Policy Alliance,” says in a letter to the editor of the New York Times (7/30), that while VA “deserves to be commended for ceasing to penalize veterans who use medical marijuana in states where it is legal,” veterans and “advocates have called on the department to allow its doctors to recommend medical marijuana directly. The very least we can do for returning veterans is to provide unfettered access to the medicine that works best for their conditions.”
     In a more positive editorial, the Denver Post (7/30) says it is “glad…VA” decided to “allow patients to use medical marijuana in the 14 states where it is legal, including Colorado.” The Post argues that it thinks the move is in “keeping with the Obama administration’s law enforcement policy on medical marijuana. Last October, the Justice Department issued a memorandum directing US attorneys to steer clear of prosecuting people who are using medical marijuana in ‘clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws,'” although Attorney General Eric Holder “made clear…that going after commercial enterprises that were unlawfully marketing and selling marijuana was to remain a priority.”

 10.    VA Doctor Builds Booths To Test Hearing Loss In Soldiers. According to the Portland, Oregon-based Oregon Public Broadcasting (7/30, Templeton), which notes that the “Veterans Administration spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on hearing aids and rehabilitation,” Dr. Robert Folmer, who “manages a hearing loss prevention program for the Department of Defense and…VA,” has “built three small soundproof booths that allow soldiers to test their own hearing and learn about hearing loss. The first has been installed in the VA center” at the Oregon Health & Science University. Folmer’s “educational hearing booths will also be shipped to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington and Fort Lewis in North Carolina.”

 

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