Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

Veterans!  Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need…..

1. Veterans can help themselves get help.  myCentralJersy.com  There are hundreds of veterans’ organizations throughout the state of New Jersey who want to help our veterans and their families. Any veteran or family …
2. Vet bill amended; 5 back on ACOVA.  Bismarck Tribune  It was a confusing hearing for veterans and legislators Thursday in the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee as a last-minute amendment changed
3. Report outlines VA homelessness.  UPI.com  10 (UPI) — On any given night in 2009, nearly 76000 US military veterans were homeless, the Housing and Urban Development and the Veterans Affairs agencies …
4. Underground Railroad exhibit to open.  Chicago Sun-Times  The seminar will shed light on the little-known Veterans Affairs Aid & Attendance program, which provides eligible veterans and surviving spouses up to
5. WV Veterans’ Benefits Attorney Encourages Taking Advantage of Fast-Track Agent.   Benzinga  … of a faster claims process being offered by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, West Virginia Veterans’ benefits attorney Jan Dils said this week.
6.  Phoenix-area non-profit keeps veterans, pets united.    Arizona Republic  Brunner and Mike West, president of Valley Dogs Rescue, have learned from US Department of Veterans Affairs that there are hundreds Valley veterans just …
7.  New VA clinic progress on track.  Appleton Post Crescent  Although the announcement is being postponed until spring, the US Department of Veterans Affairs says the project remains on schedule, with construction set
8. Huntington, Federal Home Loan Bank to finance housing for military vets.    Columbus Business First
   The Federal Home Loan Bank also will extend a $550000 Affordable Housing Program grant to the project while the US Department of Veterans Affairs will pay
9.  Administration, Pentagon Focus On Veterans Issues.  DoD Live  But the image may fade with time, particularly as the administration seeks $57 billion in additional funding for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, 
10.  Legal Group For Veterans Defends Man Denied VA Grant.  Law Firm Newswire   Northville, MI (Law Firm Newswire) February 10, 2011 – The United States Department of Veterans of Affairs is supposed to provide benefits for those who

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IN OTHER NEWS

• VA gives $7.5M for disabled sports programs.  USA Today  (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded two grants worth $7.5 million to the US Olympic Committee. The money is to enhance sports
• Report: Over 75000 America’s Veterans Are Homeless.  Afro American  … according to an assessment recently released by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Wilson proposed legislation to expand Beaufort National Cemetery.  Hilton Head Island Packet  Wilson sponsored a bill in 2008 that would have allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs to purchase 5 acres now occupied by the Lafayette Square
• Agency responds to complaints.  Nashua Telegraph  NASHUA – After complaints about a program for homeless veterans, officials from Harbor Homes and the US Department of Veterans Affairs met with veterans to …
• Richland County Veterans Service Commission gave $4 million to vets, families.  Mansfield News Journal  These monetary awards are granted by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. “The main service rendered by this office is to assist veterans and their …
• Lawmakers: U.S., DOD still not taking cybersecurity seriously.  The U.S. still is not well equipped to respond to cyberwarfare attacks and is not taking the threat seriously enough.
• Pennsylvania House Veterans Panel Unanimously Clears Measure. Advance Of Bucks County (PA) A bill to “grant formal burials to veterans buried at Washington Crossing National Cemetery won unanimous approval in the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee on Tuesday.” If the bill passes, veterans groups will be able to contract with state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to provide military honors details at Washington Crossing, as it already does at two other national cemeteries in the state.
•  Vermont Bill Would Bring Tax Credit For Employing Veterans. Burlington (VT) Free Press Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin ( ) “said Saturday he and Legislative leaders have agreed to ‘fast-track’ a bill offering tax incentives to employers who hire on some of the 600 out-of-work Vermont National Guard soldiers just back from a deployment to Afghanistan.” Under the bill, a Vermont employer would get a $2,000 tax credit for every unemployed veteran who stays on the payroll for a year after being hired for a full-time (35-hour) job while being either on active duty or unemployed for at least 90 days following release or discharge.
• Wider Military Use Of Powerful Drugs Can Prove Lethal. New York Times “After a decade of treating thousands of wounded troops, the military’s medical system is awash in prescription drugs — and the results have sometimes been deadly.” The wider use of psychiatric drugs and narcotic painkillers for PTSD, traumatic brain injury, depression and other conditions is “increasingly linked to a rising tide of other problems, among them drug dependency, suicide and fatal accidents — sometimes from the interaction of the drugs themselves.” An Army policy on multiple medication use adopted in November calls for greater clinician training, sets 30-day limits on new prescriptions and mandates comprehensive reviews of patients receiving four or more medications.
• Vet Killed In World War II Will Be Buried With Full Honors. The Baltimore Sun (2/13, Marbella, 228K) reports, “Traveling across the globe and through time, Technical Sgt. Charles A. Bode came home Friday from the Second World War. The Highlandtown man was 23 on Nov. 20, 1943, when he vanished with 10 fellow crew members during a B-24 bomber mission over the Pacific.” After a possible crash site was discovered in Papua New Guinea in 1984, the remains of Bode and the other crewmen were eventually located and identified through sophisticated DNA technology, thanks to the efforts of the Joint Prisoners of War/MIA Accounting Command,. A military command working to determine the fate of some 80,000 unaccounted for wartime service members. Accompanied by relatives who were not born at the time of his death, Bode was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
• First Vietnam POW Release Anniversary Noted. The Associated Press timeline (2/12) notes for February 12 notes that the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place on that date in 1973.
• Events Will Honor Veterans, Inform On Volunteering. Beckley (WV) Register-Herald The Beckley VA Medical Center “invites the public to participate in open-house activities Feb. 13-19 during the National Salute to Veteran Patients.” VAMC director Karin McGraw noted that the events would honor veterans receiving care there and feature visits from “local celebrities, elected officials and other groups.” The event will also offer information on volunteer opportunities.
• VA Clinic Social Worker Finds Housing For Down-And-Out Vet. Providence Journal Bob Palardy, a once-homeless 52-year-old veteran, called him to relate “what the Department of Veterans Affairs has done for him. He thinks too many veterans are down on the VA or don’t know what it can do for them. He was like that once. He was leery of the VA — too bureaucratic, he thought, too many regulations between him and the help he needed.” But after bouts of alcoholism, homelessness and even a stretch in prison, Palardy found transitional housing through a social worker at the VA Homeless Clinic, and now tells other veterans, “Don’t give up on the VA. They have more programs. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.” 
• Transitional Housing Operator, VA Meet With Veterans. Nashua (NH) Telegraph “After complaints about a program for homeless veterans, officials from Harbor Homes and the US Department of Veterans Affairs met with veterans to address complaints that some in the program had raised.” Some veterans in the Veterans FIRST program run by Harbor Homes had complained to the newspaper about overly restrictive rules and leases. After the paper last month ran two articles on the controversy, the meeting was held, and a five-member committee of residents was formed to improve communication between management and tenants.
• Veterans Groups Help Cemeteries With No-Cost Service Medallions.  Twin Falls (ID) Times-News “Some veterans groups are trying to assist area cemeteries by promoting a new service medallion available to honorably discharged veterans whose death occurred on or after Nov. 1, 1990. The medallions are available at no cost through the US Department of Veterans Affairs,
• Parents Right That VA Clinic’s Quick Diagnosis Got Needed Care For Son. Lorain (OH) Morning Journal “an overdue thank you to all those responsible for the continued services offered by the Veterans Clinic at St. Joseph’s Community Center and to all the doctors, nurses and other personnel who work there.” They write that their veteran son received tests there and was promptly directed to the Wade Park Veterans Hospital in Cleveland. Suffering renal failure, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and eventually received a stem cell transplant at the Nashville VAMC. “Had it not been for the caring staff” at the Lorain clinic, they write, “I don’t know where our son would be today.”
• Bypass Patient Thanks Prescott VAMC. Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier A veteran whose cardiac condition was diagnosed at the Prescott VAMC writes to “express my heartfelt thanks, appreciation and respect to all with whom I came in contact at our VA hospital, here in Prescott. These folks are understaffed, overworked and rather unappreciated.”
• Veteran Recipient of Medal Of Honor With 442nd Regiment. Honolulu Star-Advertiser Medal of Honor recipient Barney Hajiro “is due to be buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific next week.” A member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, mostly Japanese-American unit in World War II, Hajiro “was the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient at the time of his death at the age of 94 on Jan. 21.”