Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

1.      VA Researcher Finds Fish Oil Supplements Do Not Slow Alzheimer’s. USA Today (11/3, Marcus, 1.83M) reports, “Fish oil supplements don’t slow the progress of dementia, a study in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association finds. Patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease who took omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplements did not experience a slowing of brain decline compared with patients who took a placebo, says lead author Joseph Quinn” of the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who “presented findings Tuesday at the National Press Club.” WebMD (11/3, DeNoon), HealthDay (11/3, Gardner), Medscape (11/3, Cassels), the “Healthland” blog for Time (11/3, Park, 3.37M), and the “Booster Shots” blog for the Los Angeles Times (11/3, Roan, 681K) also note that Quinn’s affiliation with the Portland VAMC.

 2.      Conn. Commissioner Resigns Amid Pressure Over HC Rate Hikes. National Underwriter Property And Casualty Insurance News (11/3) reports, “Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Thomas Sullivan resigned under pressure Monday from state and federal regulators and consumer groups. The primary trigger was the decision to approve a 47 percent health care insurance rate increase by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut on certain new health insurance policies starting in the fourth quarter of 2010.” Sullivan “also a strong defender of retained asset accounts when they came under fire several months ago from veterans’ groups, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration and several House committees.”

 3.      City Council Approves Plan To Build Facility For Homeless Vets. According to the Omaha (NE) World-Herald (11/3), the Omaha City Council has “unanimously approved the rezoning of land near 40th and Pacific Streets,” where the US Department of Veterans Affairs and “Volunteers of America plan to build a $20 million housing and support facility for up to 75 homeless veterans. Many critics said that they supported the mission of the facility, but that the building was too large for the surrounding neighborhood. Some said having such a concentration of veterans with mental issues would be unsafe.”

 4.      Vets Honored With Quilts During VA Hospital Ceremony. The Grand Island (NE) Independent (11/2, Pore, 19K) noted that on Monday, Iraq veteran Carlos Garcia was “overwhelmed by the quilt he received…during a Quilts of Valor ceremony at the Veterans Affairs” hospital in Grand Island. Joyce Heger of the “Grand Island VA’s Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom said the Quilts of Valor program is a way to honor veterans who served their country in the armed forces. Heger said this is the third year that local quilt guilds have helped to honor the veterans with homemade quilts.”

5.      Actor Concerned About Vets Returning To “Overwhelmed” VA. During an interview with “Speakeasy,” a Wall Street Journal (11/3, Toepfer, 2.09M) blog, actor Michael Ealy said that in an upcoming Tyler Perry movie, he plays an Afghanistan veteran “struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.” Ealy told the Journal that “a lot” of returning veterans are “coming home to no support” and an “overwhelmed” Department of Veterans Affairs.

 6.      City Council Approves Christian Flag At Vets Memorial. The AP (11/3) reports, “After having previously voted to remove it, the city council” for King, a “small North Carolina community,” has “voted to allow a Christian flag to fly at a veteran’s memorial as part of a limited display. The Winston-Salem Journal reported that King City Council voted 4-0 Monday to develop a policy to eventually fly the flag as part of a display allowing religious flags recognized” by the US military. A prior council vote to remove the flag had “prompted some veterans to camp out at the park to guard their own Christian flag in front of the memorial.”
     The KRIV-TV Houston, TX (11/2) said the council’s first vote was taken “after a resident and Afghanistan war veteran demanded the Christian flag be taken down from a veterans memorial” at King’s Central Park. On the “advice of lawyers,” the King City Council at first “decided to remove the flag, rather than spend the estimated $200,000 to $300,000 it would cost to fight the American Civil Liberties Union in a First Amendment lawsuit.”

 7.      Shift Of Services To Downtown Makes Good Sense. In an editorial, the Huntington (WV) Herald-Dispatch (11/3) says, “In line with a national goal of ending homelessness for all veterans during the next few years, the local Veterans Affairs” hospital is “taking a logical step” by “relocating the homeless services it offers to veterans from the hospital located six miles outside Huntington city limits to a planned Homeless Resource Center in downtown Huntington.” The “new space will not only give the VA more room than it has now for those services, but the move to downtown means it will be within a six-block radius of the Huntington City Mission and other homelessness resources. The end result, program coordinator Leeann Bills said, should be more effective services to homeless veterans.”

 8.      MOVE To Help Overweight Veterans. Writing in an op-ed for the Muskogee (OK) Phoenix (11/2, 13K), Jack C. Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center Gregory Thomas noted that his hospital “has a weight loss/weight management program called…MOVE,” which is “designed to help veterans manage their weight and improve their overall health.”

 9.      VA Hospital Made Tough Time Easier. In a letter to the editor of the Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier (11/3, 16K), Prescott resident Maria Jaques thanks a Veterans Affairs “hospital for the good care they gave” her husband.

 10.    Free “Patriot eGames” For Vets, Troops. The “Sgt. Shaft” column for the Washington Times (11/3, Fales, 77K).