Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

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Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today's News

From the VA:

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1.      Study Suggests Obesity Makes Brain Damage From Heavy Drinking Worse. HealthDay (9/9, Preidt) reports that a study online and in the December print issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research found that “obesity caused by heavy drinking can add to brain damage caused by drinking itself.” In a news release, principal investigator Dieter J. Meyerhoff, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and San Francisco VA Medical Center, said, “This new study suggests that a high BMI, independent of drinking and smoking, is also associated with brain injury.” In release, Susan F. Tapert, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and director of substance abuse/mental illness in the VA San Diego Healthcare System, said, “In other words, weight also is related to brain health among those with alcoholism.”

2.      Judge To Head San Diego Veterans Court Is Vietnam Vet. The North County Times (CA) (9/10, Rogers, 71K) reports, “Vietnam veteran and longtime San Diego Superior Court Judge Roger W. Krauel will preside over San Diego County’s first veterans court,” a pilot program that “will handle cases involving military veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury or substance abuse who are arrested in San Diego County.” Kruael and other key county staff will visit Buffalo, New York, “to see firsthand how the veterans court there works.”

3.      Missouri State Veterans Cemetery To Be Dedicated. The Rolla (MO) Daily News (9/9, 5K) reports, “The Dedication Ceremony for the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery – Fort Leonard Wood will be held Monday September 13.” Its construction “was funded by a $ 7.5 million federal grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

 4.      More Possible Locations For Minnesota Veterans Cemetery Allowed. The Redwood Falls (MN) Gazette (9/9) reports, “According to Marty Caraway, Redwood County veterans service officer, a change in the way the bill approved by the state legislature read opens up the options for the” location of the veterans cemetery. “The language requiring the cemetery be set up in Redwood County is no longer part of the requirement,” and Caraway says this was primarily due to cost. “Caraway said the change allows for the use of state-owned land. He said with the funding tight the use of land already owned by the state is the best option.”

 5.      UK Delegation Examining State Programs For Vet Prisoners. WJZ-TV Baltimore (9/9, Fujii) reports that Maryland prisons sent vet prisoners to “a veterans group organized by the Veterans Administration and the Maryland Department of Correction.” Additionally, “some work at veteran state cemeteries.” These programs “have sparked interest from an UK delegation,” and MP Elfyn Llwyd traveled to Maryland to learn “how to best treat incarcerated veterans.” He said, “It seems to me that this set up is also very good in terms of trying to accommodate the special needs that many veterans have, because heaven knows they’ve seen things that you and I can’t even imagine.” Llwyd and his “delegation also visited a Washington, D.C. and Buffalo, N.Y. prisons with similar programs.”

 6.      Massachusetts Working With Organizations For Federal Grants To Help Homeless Veterans. The Quincy (MA) Patriot Ledger (9/10, 43K) reports, “One of the biggest challenges for many military veterans is readjusting to civilian life-including finding a place to live and securing a job” – which is why the Massachusetts Department of Veterans’ Services worked with Father Bill’s Place, Veterans Inc, and the Veterans Northeast Outreach Center “to apply for a federal grant supporting vets’ job-training and housing programs” from the Department of Labor’s Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program. The article focuses on Father Bill’s Place, which “has put the money toward helping homeless veterans by training them for and placing them in jobs that hopefully help them become self sufficient.”

7.      Wisconsin Nursing Home Administrations Say New Veterans Home Unneeded. The Eau Claire (WI) Leader-Telegram (9/10, Dowd, 0) reports, “Local nursing home administrators say a new government-funded veterans home slated for Chippewa Falls is unnecessary because there already are enough beds available in existing private centers.” Dove Healthcare CEO Jim Deignan has both spoken to the state Veterans Affairs Board “and sent his analysis of the local nursing home market to Ken Black, state Department of Veterans Affairs secretary.”

8.      Soldiers Not Getting Purple Hearts For TBI. On its website, PBS’s NewsHour (9/9) reported on soldiers with traumatic brain injuries suffered in combat and Purple Hearts, basing it upon the reporting of ProPublica and National Public Radio, which appeared in yesterday’s briefing. “Many commanders still don’t believe that TBIs are really an injury.” The mindset that giving the Purple Heart for TBI “was like giving the Purple Heart for minor scrapes” was the “official policy under General Joseph Caravalho,” who ran the medical system in Iraq in 2008. In a memo, he said, “In many cases, soldiers wouldn’t get Purple Hearts if they only got minimal medical treatment.” Additionally, “soldiers say that fine print makes it almost impossible for them to get the Purple Hearts” for TBI, and “Army doctors didn’t keep many of those records” needed for the applications. US Army vice chief of staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli “says, it’s true, some commanders still don’t award Purple Hearts for concussion, despite the regulations,” but he added that “he’s trying to change that.”

 9.      VA To Install Wind, Solar Energy Facilities. The Washington Post (9/10, Rein, 605K) reports that agencies are seeking “to reduce the federal carbon footprint in the next decade to reach President Obama’s goal of a 28 percent emissions reduction.” One example given is that the Department of Veterans Affairs “will use some of its $144 million stash” from the economic stimulus “to install wind and solar energy facilities in its medical centers scattered across the country.” The efforts “will be monitored for progress by the Office of Management and Budget, which will release an annual scorecard starting next year.”

 10.    Sarasota National Cemetery Construction Delayed. The Sarasota (FL) Observer (9/9, Roy) reported, “The construction timeline for the Sarasota National Cemetery has fallen behind schedule – a year-and-a-half behind” – after “the disqualification of four bidders, another bidder’s protest and then a counter-protest by yet another bidder.” Due to “all the problems, the VA decided to start the bidding process all over again,” and “will hold a pre-solicitation meeting Sept. 23 at the Venice Community Center for potential bidders on a new construction contract.” According to Cemetery Director Wes Jones, “after a winning contractor is selected, construction could begin by December or January and be completed 18 months later.”

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