Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1.      Vets Urged To Sign Up For Electronic Payments.  The Union City (TN) Messenger (12/28, 8K) reports VA officials “are urging veterans to sign up for electronic payment of their benefits” after the Department of the Treasury announcement last week extending “the safety and convenience of electronic payments to millions of Americans and phase out paper checks for federal benefits by March 1, 2013.” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said getting the “benefits electronically will increase the security, convenience and reliability of these vital payments. … VA encourages veterans who are now receiving their benefits in paper checks to set up direct deposits before the deadline.”

2.      West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery Recognized.  The AP (12/28) reports on the US Department of Veterans Affairs award of “‘shrine status’ to the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery,” making it one of “three state-owned veterans cemeteries in the country” with the status. “Attaining ‘shrine status’ means a cemetery’s design and features meet the National Cemetery Administration’s standards. It also means the cemetery’s caretakers are committed to maintain it at that level.”
     The Hawaii Tribune-Herald (12/28, Lucas-Zenk, 19K) reports the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery is “the only Hawaii cemetery so recognized — which comes with no extra money, just bragging rights, said John Grogan, president of the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery Development and Expansion Association. Shrine status means a cemetery’s design and features meet the National Cemetery Administration’s standards, and that there’s a commitment to maintain the cemetery at that level for its entirety. The cemetery has a 100-year expansion plan, Grogan said.”

3.      Investigation Concludes At Vets Home.  The Pierce (WI) County Herald (12/28, Richardson, 4K) reports, “The two administrators at the Minnesota Veterans Home who were recently put on leave will not be going back to their old positions.” The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs “concluded that residents were not retaliated against, but staff members at the home were. Administrator Chip Cox and director of nursing Connie Ball were both placed on paid administrative leave when the investigation began.”

 4.      Ottawa County To Consider More Help For Veterans Seeking Benefits.  The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (12/28, Chandler) reports the Ottawa County Commission’s finance and administration committee has proposed a pilot program that could help veterans access federal benefits by creating “a staff position to deal with their concerns.” With $25,000 proposed in next year’s budget, the program would “run for three years,” and “is expected to come before the commission on Tuesday, said Keith Van Beek, assistant county administrator.”

5.      Local Woman Inducted Into Arizona Veterans Hall Of Fame.  The Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier (12/28, Irish, 16K) reports, “When K. Renee Ball, an active member of Disabled American Veterans, was looking for a way to give back to other veterans, she used her background in agriculture to create an orchard at the Bob Stump Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Prescott and later to develop a gardening therapy program for veterans in the Community Living Center.” She “was recently inducted into the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame.” The Daily Courier adds that “Ball said she joined the Disabled American Veterans in 1984 after they helped her get an increase in her mental health disability claim, and since then she has done all she can to get better mental health care for veterans.”

6.      Congress Shores Up Military Health Care.  On its “Washington Wire” blog, the Wall Street Journal (12/27, Hodge, 2.09M) says budget officials in the Pentagon have eyed the Tricare system for years, but Congress has maintained its defense of the program. Tricare coverage would expand under the defense-authorization bill passed last week, and some would be shielded from premium increases. Still, some expect fee hikes for military retirees to be proposed in the Administration’s budget request.

 7.      Vegetarian Diet Keeps Kidney Disease At Bay – Study.  The Med Guru (12/28, Chandvani) reports a study conducted by Sharon Moe, MD of Indiana University School of Medicine and Roudebush Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center, has found that “regular intake of a vegetarian diet helps patients suffering from kidney disease by preventing the accumulation of toxic levels of phosphorus in their body.” Moe and her colleagues “examined the effect of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet on the phosphorus level of body in nine patients suffering from CKD,” finding that “both vegetarian and meat-based foods had equivalent concentration of protein and phosphorus but patients who ate vegetarian diet reported lower levels of phosphorus level in the body.”

 8.      Three-Track Path To Federal Workforce To Replace Popular Internship Program.  The Washington Post (12/28, Rein, 605K) reports, “President Obama revamped the government’s internship programs Monday, the latest effort by his administration to recruit recent college and trade-school graduates to the federal workforce.” The government board that oversees hiring practices said the previous system – the Federal Career Intern Program – “undermined the rights of veterans to get hiring preference, and federal employee unions had criticized it for undercutting competition and targeting fewer young people than it purported to. The new ‘Pathways Program,’ to launch within a year, is part of the Obama administration’s response to the forthcoming loss to retirement of the government’s significant baby-boomer contingent.”
     Government Executive (12/28, Brodsky) reports the popularity of the “controversial” FCIP “as a means for quickly hiring new employees has skyrocketed since it was created in 2001 — as of March 2011.” Monday’s “order consolidates a host of disparate government internship programs into a single system targeted to students enrolled in a variety of educational institutions. … Veterans who were precluded from applying because of military service obligations will have six years after completing their degree to apply.”
     Federal News Radio (12/28, Serbu) reports on its website that under one track, “graduates would have two years from the time they earned their degree to apply for the program. An exception will be made for veterans who served in the military during that two-year window – they would have up to six years from the time they earned their degree.”
     The Epoch Times (12/28, Hayley, 1.4M) also covers the story.

9.      VA CIO: Less Than Anticipated Spending On IT Preceded Budget Cut. On its website, Federal News Radio (12/28) reports on its Monday Morning Federal Newscast segment that “Veterans Affairs CIO Roger Baker says a cut to the agency’s IT budget is the result of spending millions of dollars less than anticipated on IT development last year. The VA saved $250 million in 2010 by delaying and suspending nearly 200 troubled IT projects through its Projects Management Accountability System.” According to Federal Computer Week, “the savings are part of $700 million dollars in unspent IT funding that Baker says he was hoping to spend this coming year.”

10.    Government Pay Freeze Expands To More Civil Servants.  The Washington Post (12/28, Rein, 605K) reports a “two-year pay freeze that is now law for federal employees on the pay scale known as the General Schedule will also apply to hundreds of thousands of civil servants whose wages are set under a separate salary system, according to an executive order signed last week by President Obama.” Employees covered by the so-called Administratively Determined pay scale include “public health doctors and nurses, medical personnel in the Veterans Affairs system, administrative law judges and attorneys, auditors and other staff at financial agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.”