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. Coalition Seeks to Raise Awareness and Help Returning Vets.  Fox News (blog)

Gillibrand from leaving Washington to reveal the details of her plan at a roundtable discussion, but veterans’ advocacy organizations, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, New York City leaders and corporate interests joined together to talk about …

2. Troops in Mideast Have More Respiratory Ills, Data Show.  Wall Street Journal…The US Department of Veterans Affairs has asked the Institute of Medicine, an agency that advises the government on policy, to assess the health risks of burn pits. The report is expected later this year. The 2010 National Defense Authorization Act …

3. Innovative Boston Program to Help Paralyzed Veterans Secure Good Jobs. PR Newswire (press release)  … based at VA Boston Healthcare System, West Roxbury Division. It is being established through an innovative public-private partnership between Paralyzed Veterans of America, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and Activision’s Call of Duty Endowment.

4. RecruitMilitary to Present Civilian Jobs/Opportunities Expo for Veterans. PRLog.Org… the National Veterans Employment Program (NVEP) of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Prudential Insurance Company, St. Augustine University, Sanford Brown, Southern Career College, Strayer University, Team Industrial Services Inc., …

5. Let veteran service officers pick board.  Madison.com  The Board of Veterans Affairs should be appointed by a group composed of all county veterans service officers and state-recognized veterans organizations, such as the VFW, American Legion, Disabled Veterans and others. These people are the ones who are …

6. Brecksville Veterans Administration campus ends 50 years of care.  Plain Dealer (blog)…”Brecksville has been a wonderful institution that has provided terrific care to thousands of veterans, but the physical plant is old and doesn’t allow us to provide state-of-the-art care to our veteran population,” said Susan Fuehrer, director of the …

7. Honor a Connecticut Veteran for Memorial Day.  Patch.com  The current head of the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Linda S. Schwartz, is the president of the Connecticut State Veterans Memorial group. Dr. Schwartz, herself a Vietnam War veteran, is the first woman to head the state vets’ group …

8. Family of disabled veteran relocates to be near treatment.  Glens Falls Post-Star…Looking to halve the distance to Albany and give their son greater access to Veterans Affairs occupational and physical therapists, the Ryans have begun constructing a home in Lake George. Eddie Ryan and his family spent much of their summers in Lake …

9. NH Veterans Home to get $4.3 million for upgrades.  Boston Globe  US Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki says the money will ensure New Hampshire veterans receive the top-notch care they have earned through their military service. Last year the Tilton home cared for 242 veterans of World War II and the Korean …

10. Future of Knoxville VA buildings being decided in Washington, DC.  Radio Iowa  The future of the former Knoxville veterans hospital should be decided sometime in the next couple of months after three groups recently made presentations to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. …

HAVE YOU HEARD?

NASA’s Endeavour Hosts VA Research

VA researcher, and former astronaut, Millie Hughes–Fulford shares the details of NASA and VA’s latest collaboration aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The two projects are working toward vaccines for common infections among deployed troops. Read more

IN OTHER NEWS

• Clinic could face fourth delay before construction.  Green Bay Press Gazette  It would be the fourth such delay since the US Department of Veterans Affairs originally said a development contract would be awarded last November. “We’re tying up loose ends,” said George Szwarcman, chief of real property services for the federal …

• Vans get veterans to clinic.  Kingman Daily Miner  Veterans in need of a lift to a medical appointment at the Kingman Veterans Affairs Clinic can get one courtesy of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The organization received a $1.7 million grant from the US Office of..

• Town hall connects veterans to resources.  Frederick News Post (subscription)…Representatives from the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Health Administration and Veterans Benefits Administration kicked off the informational session, speaking to about 75 people about what is new in veterans assistance. …

• Gates Notes His Efforts To Improve Care For Soldiers Wounded In Afghanistan. CBS’ 60 Minutes  “It’s not at all unusual to hear the Pentagon being criticized for its bloat, bureaucracy, and spending binges. But what is surprising about the latest criticism is that it doesn’t come from an outsider with an antimilitary agenda; it comes from” outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has “canceled tens of billions of dollars’ worth of expensive weapons programs.” During an interview it conducted with Gates, CBS said he “battled” the Pentagon’s medical bureaucracy to reduce the “time it takes to get a wounded soldier from the battlefield to a hospital” in Afghanistan.

• Officials Anticipating “Huge Costs” For Care. Louisville Courier-Journal Experts “predict that caring for injured, older troops soon will seriously strain already rising budgets for military and veterans’ health care.” Meanwhile, Veterans Affairs officials “said they have provided care to about half of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have left the military since 2002 – or about 625,000 veterans – and are committed to caring for them as they age.

• GAO: Improper Payments Under Post-9/11 GI Bill. Federal Times “A rise in improper payments and delays in claims processing are among the challenges the Veterans Affairs Department faces in implementing the Post-9/11 GI Bill, according” to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  “Almost one-third of $356 million in advance payments were awarded to ineligible recipients, GAO said in a new report, citing findings by the VA inspector general.” While the report, the findings of which a “top VA official agreed in principle” to, did note some improvement in VA’s processing times for Post-9/11 GI Bill claims, it also recommended that, among other things, VA “should learn from the experiences of the Education Department in administering student aid.”

• VA Chief To Visit Guam Clinic. Pacific Daily News “Guam veterans will have the ear of top Washington brass next week.” At that time, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki “will be arriving on island to participate in a dedication ceremony for the Guam Veterans Affairs Community Based Outpatient Clinic near Naval Hospital.”

• Graduates Urged To Take Risks In Life. Duke Today “In a ceremony that combined new details with familiar rituals, Duke’s Class of 2011 graduated Sunday with encouragement from their commencement speaker,” Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, “to be courageous in life.” The “university also awarded honorary degrees to Chambers and six other recipients,” one of whom was Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, a “former Army chief of staff and a Duke graduate.”

• VA Strives To Give Better Service To Women Veterans. US Navy SEALs “As more women become part of the armed forces, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is making a conscious effort to do more in terms of being of service to women service members.

• In New Mexico, A Place For Homeless Women Veterans. Reuters A new transitional housing facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, called the Henderson House caters to female veterans. A project of the YWCA of Albuquerque, the shelter has space for 10 women, who will receive career guidance, counseling, parenting classes, and free childcare.

• Gene Variant Linked With Development Of COPD In Men. Science Daily “Researchers have linked a variant in the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) with the onset of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Caucasian men. The study population consisted of participants in the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study, a multidisciplinary study of aging that began in 1963.” “Our results show that this gene variant is associated with development of COPD in Caucasian men, and provides support for the notion that vitamin D metabolic pathways may affect COPD risk,’ said Audrey Poon, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at Meakins-Christie Laboratories, McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.”

• Lawmakers Look For Updates On Arlington. Federal Times “Lawmakers are growing impatient with the ongoing investigation into misconduct at Arlington National Cemetery. Nearly a year has passed since an Army inspector general report found problems with at least 211 gravesites at Arlington,” whose director, Kathryn Condon, was “grilled recently by the House Appropriations Committee’s military construction panel.” Condon, who noted that Arlington is developing new systems to avoid similar problems in the future, “promised a full report to lawmakers when” investigations surrounding the matter are completed.

• Few Jobs In VA Contract: Army’s Sim Agency Adds Few Jobs Early In New Deal With VA. Orlando Sentinel “The Army’s Orlando-based training-contract command just landed a deal to become ‘acquisition central’ for the US Department of Veterans Affairs as that agency procures medical simulation-training systems for its 150 hospitals nationwide. But as big a deal as that is for the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training & Instrumentation, known as PEO-STRI, the effect on local employment has been negligible.” However, industry “experts insist that, given time, it will become a big jobs engine for the region.”

• Sentinels Give The Gift Of Mobility. San Ramon (CA) Express Ret. Petty Officer Ryan Sykes, a former Navy SEAL, was “given a uniquely outfitted car on Wednesday night, part of his ongoing rehabilitation as a Sentinel of Freedom. The Toyota Seneca — purchased by a joint effort of the Sentinels, Navy SEAL Foundation, Lescher Foundation, Danville and San Ramon rotaries and the Veterans Administration — has an electric ramp and swivel chair for easy access. Previously, Skyes’ pregnant wife, Mandy, had to lift her husband and his wheelchair into their car.”

• New Leash On Life: Dog Helps Vet Deal With PTSD. Salisbury (NC) Post “Through a program called Puppies Behind Bars,” Iraq veteran Jon Morris has been a dog that was “specially trained to help him deal” with his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “and his traumatic brain injury.” A Veterans Affairs “psychiatrist treating Jon for PTSD recommended that Jon apply for a dog through the program.”

• Events To Celebrate Veterans. Richmond (KY) Register “The Kentucky Veterans Welcome Home Celebration will take place Friday and Saturday at the Armed Forces Reserve Center near the entrance to the Blue Grass Army Depot. The event is free and open to the public.” For a “complete list of events of for more information go to www.kentuckyveteranscelebration.org.”

• Veterans Administration. St. George (UT) Spectrum Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense “have launched PTSD COACH, a phone application that offers tools to veterans experiencing” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The “app encourages self assessment, while offering on-the-spot ways to cope with PTSD symptoms. Doctors say smart phones and some of their apps have become an essential part of the treatment for some veterans.”

• Veterans Cast Their Stress Away. Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader Last Wednesday, 21 veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Wilkes-Barre “participated in Project Healing Waters.” Using fly fishing, the “program helps active military personnel and veterans with physical and emotional rehabilitation.”

• Brecksville Veterans Administration Campus Ends 50 Years Of Care. Cleveland Plain Dealer The “time has come for the Brecksville campus of the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center to ‘just fade away,’ as per Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s observation regarding all old soldiers.” In a move that is “expected to save” approximately $23 million per year for VA, there will be a “transfer of most of the services and 1,350 workers, plus more than 200 residents to new quarters at the Wade Park campus in Cleveland, where the results of a $526 million renovation and new construction project will be officially dedicated Monday.” The Plain Dealer adds, “According to the VA, the move was needed to upgrade medical treatment in terms of facilities and programs, handle a regional patient load that has more than doubled in the past decade (from 39,000 to 100,000 annually), and eliminate duplication of services.”

• Drivers Needed For Vets’ Appointments. Aiken (SC) Standard

• A Reservist’s Parents Pay A Price For The War. Off The Base “Army Reservist Katie Holt wrote a heartfelt entry about her enlistment after the 9-11 attacks and what happened to her parents after she deployed. The full article is available” on VAntage Point, VA’s blog. Holt adds, “My family, and many others, will forever be changed by the ongoing conflicts, and to them I say thank you.”

• FBI Teams Up With Wounded Warriors. KNSD-TV A new FBI program is helping wounded warriors prepare “for life after the military” by offering internships to ones “who are considering a career in law enforcement.” The FBI office in Carlsbad is the “first field office in the nation to start it up. It’s a win-win,’ said Agent in Charge Scott Gicking,” who added, “They get the experience, they get the opportunity to see if it’s something they want to do, but we get the resources we badly need.”

• Veteran Forms Cooperative Of Medical Marijuana Growers. Kennebec (ME) Journal Veteran Robert Rosso has “organized a cooperative of medical marijuana growers and patients, saying clients have dubbed him ‘a pioneer’ of Maine’s budding new industry.” Rosso “and other local growers have organized Kennebec Healing, a business that delivers hydroponic marijuana grown in three locations to 14 patients from Waterville to Windham.”