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. Homeless vets in NE face similar problems.  Nashua Telegraph In a meeting with The Telegraph earlier this month, Harbor Homes officials said in setting such rules as random drug tests for all veterans in the program, they were complying with requirements established by the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
2. Elder Law: Clearing up VA benefit confusion.  Pittsburgh Post Gazette While this scenario is quite common and, under the right circumstances, the US Department of Veterans Affairs will pay a monthly Aid and Attendance benefit to Mrs. Williams, many are still confused over how to obtain these benefits
3. Servant leader.  Smart Business Network  … change in terms of working with all staff, informing the staff of what it means to provide patient-centered care,” says Johnson, the director of the 2400-employee, La Jolla-based health care provider within the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
4. Bill aims to help homeless veterans.  Minneapolis Star Tribune By MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune A chance encounter with the director of one of the state’s leading veteran advocacy groups has led US Sen. Amy Klobuchar to introduce legislation designed to help chronically homeless veterans.
5. VA Outpatient Clinic dedicated.  Brownsville Herald  Henry Cuellar, D-San Antonio, and Blake Farenthold, D-Corpus Christi, also credited veterans’ efforts to bring the VA facility to completion. Although federal, state, and local officials pushed to get the funding, veterans won the care that is needed …
6. Campaign for Vietnam Memorial visitors center coming to Richmond. Richmond Register  Lonnie Napier, R-Lancaster; former state Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, also a retired EKU administrator; representatives of EKU’s veterans affairs program; and others also attend the dinner. Scruggs spoke and showed a video that included a statement.
7. The new faces at the VA.  Sacramento Bee Cherrilyn Pugh, who had a 20-year military career, comes in for regular checkups at the US Department of Veterans Affairs McClellan women’s clinic. Increasingly, they are the face of the VA, joining Greatest Generation retirees and grizzled Vietnam
8. Homelessness hits young and old alike.  Columbia Daily Tribune  Now, he’s awaiting permanent housing through the Department of Veterans Affairs, which could come as early as next month. “I practiced drinking every day,” Findley said. “Now I practice a different way of life.”
9. VA used felons to help oversee a program.  Washington Examiner  AP The US Department of Veterans Affairs hired a felon to help oversee a program designed to help thousands of vets and their families. WTVF-TV of Nashville reported last week that the agency employed James Hammonds, a former investigator with the IRS,
10. Learning to live again.  The Register-Guard  Other visits followed and, the next year, the US Department of Veterans Affairs diagnosed McDowell with post-traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety disorder that can affect people who have been through traumatic events, including combat.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Secretary Shinseki Talks Education and Change at VA

By Alex Horton February 22, 2011 at 5:10 pm

Veterans are mission-oriented. It’s only natural after a stint in the military, where, whether it’s a patrol in a combat zone or a training exercise stateside, the next operation is planned to the smallest detail.  But once a tour of duty is over, it’s up to the Vet, on their own, to continue to plan and execute the next mission in the civilian world.  This is the part where some Vets fall through the cracks; when the next thing to accomplish isn’t so clear.

In his visit to the Rhode Island Community College last week, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki set a new mission for Vets attending school:  graduation.  Through their service, Vets have earned education benefits, but it’s up to them to finish and get a degree, he explained.

On the way back to Washington, I talked to the Secretary and asked him to elaborate on some of the things he’d discussed with students earlier in the day.  Sitting in a busy terminal at the Providence airport, he explained past implementation difficulties with the Post-9/11 GI Bill, what is being done to automate the process, and what it means to reintegrate back into society after a tour in the military.

IN OTHER NEWS

• Wounded Warriors Heal Together In Graham. Graham (TX) Leader “A group of 11 warrior women came to Graham to find healing last week. The Wildcatter Ranch and Resort hosted a group from the Wounded Warrior Project’s Project Odyssey for three days.

• Veterans With PTSD Train Dogs For Circle of Change Program. Beloit (WI) Daily News The Circle of Change Veterans Program, a non-profit program that gives veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder a chance to train and handle rescue dogs.

• VA, DOD Will Decide On Common EHR Method In March. Government Health IT Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments “will decide by late March the technical method they will pursue to create a common electronic health record. The two departments are able to exchange some patient information now, but their systems are not interoperable, even though many military members and veterans receive treatment in both systems.”

• Prototype VA Records Interface Can Fine-Tune Patient Privacy. Modern Healthcare “The Veterans Affairs Department demonstrated at the Health Information and Management Systems Society convention this week a new patient privacy consent management technology, that could help providers” deal more flexibly with patient privacy laws.

• Shinseki Advises On Tools For Academic Success. USNavySeals.com VA Secretary Shinseki’s visit to Rhode Island Community College, noting that he offered student veterans he met there “Three Tenets for Student Success,” which detail how Student Veterans of America, VA’s Vet Success campus pilot program and Veteran Service Organizations can help.

• VA’s Duckworth Will Be Among Faces In Women Veterans’ Monument. Mt. Vernon (IL) Register-News “The construction phase for the Daughters of the American Revolution Memorial to Honor Women Veterans officially began on Friday with a groundbreaking ceremony.” Being built with funds raised by the Illinois chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Illinois Department of the American Legion, the monument will “encompass the first women veterans of the Revolutionary War to today’s women veterans who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan and worldwide,” said Illinois DAR Regent Luanne Frosch Bruckner.

• Iraq Veterans, Families Will Get Extra Attention. North Country (CA) Times When members of Camp Pendleton’s 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment return in April from deployment in Afghanistan, having “seen more casualties — 25 killed and more than 150 wounded — than any similarly sized battalion in the nearly 10-year-old war,” mental health professionals will be assigned “to help them and their families in an intensive fashion never done before.”

• Bogus Injury Claims Could Bring Soldier Jail, Fine. KCAU-TV “A National Guard soldier from Scottsbluff faces charges that he made up combat injuries to get compensation for medical care. The US Attorney’s Office in Omaha says 27-year-old Dustin Douglass was indicted Friday on two counts of making false claims to the US Veterans Administration. The federal indictment says Douglass served in Iraq with the HHC 67th Support Company from July 2005 to October 2006 but was never in combat,” but nevertheless received over $22,000 in benefits for a variety of claimed injuries.

• New South Texas Facility Has Six Specialty Clinics. McAllen (TX) Monitor “Rio Grande Valley veterans celebrated Friday’s dedication of a $40 million healthcare center as a step toward the hospital they have long sought. The Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare Center at Harlingen represents the first part of a promise the state’s congressional delegation made in 2007 when it committed the building to construction, said US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

• Montrose VAMC Summit Reaches Out To Combat Homelessness. North County News, “Two years ago, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, set a goal of ending homelessness among veterans within five years. Area groups met on Jan. 28 at the Montrose VA Hudson Valley Healthcare campus to discuss ways to achieve Shinseki’s goal.”

• While Agency Mum On Shutdown Plans, VA Benefits Operations Would Likely Be Hardest Hit. Federal Times “Large portions of the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are expected to continue operating under a government shutdown that could begin March 5. But processing of new veterans’ benefit claims could be delayed and some initial benefits payments for new veterans could be reduced if the shutdown continues for more than a few weeks.”
• Mineral Rights Have Tangled Effort To Create New State Cemetery. Baldwin County (AL) Now Baldwin County Commission “went into high gear Tuesday in an effort to obtain mineral rights for a proposed veterans cemetery after learning new acquisition deadlines threaten forfeiture of about $7 million in federal funds to construct the cemetery.

• Virginia’s Veterans Chief Praises Advisory Group. Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch Virginia’s Commissioner of Veterans Services praises the “critical role played by the Joint Leadership Council of Veterans Services Organizations,” a group of representatives from 23 veterans services groups that advises state government on veterans issues.

• New State Veterans Home Advances In South Dakota. KOTA-TV South Dakota House Appropriations Committee “has signed off on a $35 million veterans home near Hot Springs. State Veterans Affairs leaders say they want to upgrade a facility that doesn’t meet certain federal standards.” Part of the current Michael J. Fitzmaurice Veterans Home complex was built in 1899, and officials say it is costly to maintain.

• Governor Jindal, DVA Secretary Hold Medal Ceremony. Alexandria (LA) Town Talk A ceremony in Alexandria, Louisiana where Gov. Bobby Jindal, state DVA Secretary Lane Carson, and Louisiana National Guard adjutant General Bennett C. Landreneau distributed the Louisiana Veterans’ Honor Medal to 173 veterans at Christian Worship Center.

• Vets Encouraged To Visit County Veterans Offices. Huron Daily Tribune “deserve support and respect, but often they don’t take advantage of the services they are entitled to.”

• Study Finds Complex Connection Between Service And Volunteering. Associated Press The “link between military service and civilian volunteerism may be more complex than formerly thought,” according to a new study by Indiana University researchers. Examining the frequency of volunteer activities …

• Study Of Alzheimer’s Finds Financial Planning A “Key, Neglected” Factor. San Francisco Business Times A press backgrounder from the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center “highlighted one of the main reasons our health system is broken: Doctors almost never talk …

• VA Researcher Comments Study Is “Important First Step.” BusinessWeek New research shows that teenagers living in homes with dogs “get a bit more daily exercise than teens without pooches.” Katherine D. Hoerster, “a postdoctoral fellow at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System, who has studied dogs and exercise,” called the study…

• VA, UCLA Researchers Find Anti-Stress Compound Regrows Lost Hair. Minneapolis Star Tribune A “team of researchers from UCLA and the Veterans Administration was experimenting with mice to learn more about how stress affects gastrointestinal function.” Researchers injected mice genetically…

• Veterans Of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary Donates Rosebushes For Veterans. Arizona Republic “In January, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary donated rosebushes to the Carl T. Hayden Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Volunteers also installed a wheelchair-accessible greenhouse and built raised gardening beds at the VAMC.

• PVA Chapter Backs Wheelchair Billiards Competition. Midlothian (VA) Exchange Virginia Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America for the second consecutive year is helping sponsor the National Wheelchair Pool Players Association 8-Ball and 9-Ball Championship.