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

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1. VA pays $925000 in Bridgeport exploding eyeball suit.  Ct Post  The US Department of Veterans Affairs agreed Monday to pay $925000 to a man whose eyeball exploded during a routine outpatient cataract operation at the West Haven Veterans Affairs hospital. The settlement, on behalf of 60-year-old Jose …

2. VA drops plans to lease part of St. Albans veterans’ home to private developers.  EmpireStateNews.net  – United States Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, and Congressman Gregory Meeks announced today that after a meeting with officials from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) yesterday, the VA has decided to abandon …

3. Richmond City Council approves real-estate tax exemption for some veterans.  Richmond Times Dispatch  under state law, covers a home and up to 1 acre of land and applies to any veteran who has “a 100 percent service-connected, permanent and total disability” as recognized by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The veteran also must …

4. Colleges Gain HHS Health IT Training Materials.  InformationWeek  Users can download a modified copy of the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ VistA electronic health record (EHR) system and create exercises around that, Hersh said. The site went live June 19, although ONC did not make a public announcement until …

5. Colorado State University’s Yellow Ribbon Program to Provide Full Tuition. Colorado State University News   – Colorado State University, partnering with the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program, is offering full awards – including tuition, fees, and generous housing and books stipends – to US military …

6. Conn. man wins nearly $1M for botched eye surgery.  Forbes  A 60-year-old Army veteran won a $925000 settlement with the Department of Veterans Affairs after he was blinded in one eye during a routine outpatient cataract operation, his attorney said Monday. Jose Goncalves of Hartford was blinded in his right …

7. Fort Bayard may host polytrauma center.  Silver City Sun News  The bill, called the Southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas – Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Care Improvement Act of 2011, calls for a report by the US Department of Veterans Affairs on the feasibility of a new polytrauma rehabilitation center or …

8. Brainsway reports success in diabetic pain and aphasia trials.  Globes  Today, the company also announced that the ethics committee of the US Department of Veterans Affairs has approved a clinical trial of Deep TMS for the treatment of obesity, which will be conducted by the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. …

9. Russia convicts top spy of exposing ‘US sleeper cell’ .   (AFP) — A Moscow military court on Monday handed down a 25-year sentence to a top Russian foreign intelligence agent who was convicted in absentia of exposing a “sleeper cell” network in the United States.

10. Intelligence shift shows change in Afghan war aims. (AP) — Military intelligence officers were scrambling a year ago to collect and analyze the social, economic and tribal ins and outs of each valley and hamlet in Afghanistan.  This information wasn’t the kind of secret or …

Have You Heard?

Veterans of the United States armed forces may be eligible for a broad range of programs and services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). These benefits are legislated in Title 38 of the United States Code. The 2011 VA Benefit booklet contains a summary of these benefits effective Jan. 1, 2011. The 2011 VA Benefits book is now available online.  www.va.gov/opa/publications/benefits_book.asp For additional information on federal programs and benefits available for Veterans, Dependents and Survivors,  please visit the VA Web page at www.va.gov.

 

More Veteran News

• The Week At A Glance: June 27-July 1. CQ At 3 p.m. Tuesday in 124 Dirksen, the “Senate Appropriations Military Construction-VA Subcommittee marks up the draft fiscal 2012 Military Construction-VA spending bill.” On Wednesday, at 3 p.m. in 418 Russell, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee “marks up bills on Camp Lejeune veterans (S 277), Veterans Affairs workforce (S 572), educational benefits (S 745), veterans’ cost-of-living adjustments (S 894), telemedicine co-payments (S 914) and veterans’ employment (S 951).”

• Vet’s A Miracle Walker. Exoskeleton Being tested At Bronx VA. New York Post Disabled Veteran Ian James Brown is “taking baby steps across the Bronx VA Hospital with the help of a specially fitted exoskeleton suit called the ReWalk.” Brown, the “first military man to test the device,” began his “wobbly walking lessons in April. VA spinal-cord-injury doctors expect he’ll master the machine by the end of summer.”

• Program Taking “Innovative New Approach To Healing” Vets With PTSD. NBC Nightly News “Among the many lessons learned after almost ten years of war in Afghanistan is that those who fight can never quite leave the war behind.” But the Napa Valley, California-based The Pathway Home is taking an “innovative new approach to healing the scars” of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Veterans Affairs has referred vets to the program, which uses “traditional clinical therapy” and physical activities like “scuba diving, bowling,” and “even…Pilates” to help vets recover from PTSD.

• Official: VA Pioneering Use Of Dogs For Psychiatric Assistance. Columbus (OH) Dispatch Joshua Endicott states; “like many coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, lives” with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After noting that Endicott would like to get a service dog to help with his condition “The Army is developing a policy regarding service animals and also is involved in an overarching Defense Department policy on the use of dogs…said” Lt. Cmdr. Kathleen Watkins, deputy director for family programs in the behavioral-health division of the Office of the Surgeon General for the Army. “The US Veterans Administration, and to some degree the military, has pioneered the use of dogs for psychiatric assistance, according to Ken Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.”

• Dog Helps Vet With PTSD. Killeen (TX) Daily News Terri Schlichenmeyer noted that veteran Luis Carlos Montalván returned from Iraq “suffering from migraines, post-traumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia and other injuries, both physical and emotional.” But through a program called Puppies in Prison, which makes service dogs available to war veterans, Montalván received a dog named Tuesday, who has helped him heal. Montalván has written a book about his experience, called “Until Tuesday”.

• Anti-Oxidant Supplements Ease Gulf War Syndrome. USA Today “Anti-oxidant supplements can significantly reduce the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome, suffered by tens of thousands of veterans, according to research to be presented Monday to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The study by Beatrice Golomb of the medical school at the University of California-San Diego tested the value of giving doses of the coenzyme Q10 to Gulf War veterans.” The “research was funded by the Defense Department through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.”

• Agency Surveys Tainted Water At Marine Base. Washington Post “Hundreds of thousands of people who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina more than 25 years ago are being asked to complete a detailed health survey to determine what diseases may be linked to contaminated water they drank and bathed in at the largest Marine base on the East Coast.” The Federal Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, a “sister agency of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is sending the survey to about 300,000 people who lived or worked at the Marine base and about 53,000 to those who lived and worked at Camp Pendleton, Calif., before 1986. The responses from Camp Pendleton are being used for comparison purposes, officials said.”

• A Spirit Beyond Physical Limits. Minneapolis Star Tribune Staff Sgt. Kyle Malin’s legs were lost during service in Afghanistan. Malin will “soon resume therapy at an Army rehabilitation center in San Antonio. Despite the traumatic changes to his life almost a year ago, Malin is still a laid-back guy.”

• Wounded Warrior Project Ends In Lower Burrell.Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

• Video Helps Wounded Warriors With Care System. Army Times “The Army Warrior Transition Command has released a 10-minute video designed to help wounded warriors and their families navigate the Army’s warrior care system.” The video “walks viewers through topics such as the Warrior Transition Unit structure, comprehensive transition plan process and career transition options.”

• Veteran In Westboro Case Looks To Move Beyond His Legal Troubles.Wichita Eagle

• Fire Base Nam Dedicates Flags, Solar Light To Vineland Veterans Home.News Of Cumberland County

• One-Armed Veteran Relishes Moment After Nice Catch. AP