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.    Sex with animals still not okay in U.S. military.  Just in case you weren’t sure, bestiality is still illegal in the U.S. military. And, yes, that issue was actually in question this week. For the past few days, White House and Pentagon officials have fielded uncomfortable queries on whether they are working to decriminalize sex with animals as part of efforts to update the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
2.    Study: Transition to civilian life harder for married troops.  Nearly half of the veterans who served since 9/11 have struggled with the transition back to civilian life ‘ and being married is likely to make it harder, according to a survey released Thursday.
3.    Re-enactments and military performances at British Tournament.  The ‘special’ relationship between the United States and Great Britain didn’t start that way, as the recently ended British Military Tournament highlighted.
4.    Senator wants Purple Heart in Arkansas shooting.  Lawmakers from Texas and Arkansas have been pushing the Army for years to award Purple Hearts to the victims of domestic terrorist attacks such as the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, but have seen little success. Now, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said he’ll take up the cause, too.
5.    VigiLanz Selected for VA Hospital Pilot Project to Prevent Adverse Drug Events.  MarketWatch   VigiLanz Corporation, a leading health care software technology provider headquartered in Minneapolis and Chicago, today announced it has been selected by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to …
6.    Few With Acute Kidney Injury See Specialists, Study Finds.  U.S. News & World Report
For the study, investigators analyzed US Department of Veterans Affairs data from 3929 survivors of acute kidney injury who were hospitalized between January 2003 and December 2008, and continued to have poor kidney function a month after they …
7.    New Online Tools for Veteran Job-Seekers.  MarketWatch  “Savvy employers look to Veterans for the excellent training and unique experiences they bring to the civilian workforce,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “Now, Veterans can have state-of-the-art access to official data about their …
8.    VA ranks 7th in Top 50 Employers of HBCUs.  St. Louis American  The US Department of Veteran Affairs has been recognized as a top employer of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) students and graduates. The VA ranked seventh on the 2011 list of Top 50 Employers of HBCU students and graduates …
9.    Veterans housing provides new look for neighborhood.  The Union Leader  The Hanover and Hall Project at 455 Hanover St. is the latest veterans housing project in Manchester and a joint effort with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, The Way Home, the city and Elm Grover Properties. On Wednesday, the project partners …
10.     Pearl Harbor: Being A Boy In WWII.  Washington Times  On Wednesday, he paused to remember the attack on Pearl Harbor “and a song I pounded out on my toy drum 70 years ago.” The song’s “closing lines were: ‘We will always remember/How they died for liberty/Let’s remember Pearl Harbor/And go on to victory.'”

Have You Heard?

VA’s Health Services Research & Development Service recently launched a Webpage designed for the Veteran community. Using plain language, the new page http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/for_veterans/ offers features describing health services research into critical topics such as women’s health and PTSD. Visitors can also read about current research news; watch videos featuring VA health services investigators talking about their work; and can use links to connect with VA via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The VA Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D) focuses on identifying, evaluating, and implementing innovative strategies that can lead to accessible, high quality, cost-effective healthcare for Veterans and the public. To learn more about the office visit http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/.

More Veteran News

•    Veterans Business Group Sues VA For Refusal To Set Aside Contracts.  Washington Business Journal   “In the latest turn of the screw in an ongoing battle between the Department of Veterans Affairs and members of the small business community, a non-profit association sued the agency and its secretary for alleged failure to comply with existing laws that require veteran-owned small businesses to receive priority in all contract awards. Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Network Inc. in Pleasanton, Calif., filed a Dec. 6 complaint on behalf of its members in a California district court, claiming that the VA violated the 2006 Veterans, Benefits, Health Care and Information Technology Act and the Veterans First Contracting Program, both of which mandate that the agency set aside contract opportunities for veteran-owned small businesses when at least two such businesses are qualified to meet the requirements.” The “lawsuit comes one week after two House subcommittees held a hearing on the topic.”

•   Military Veterans Prepare For A New Role.  Wall Street Journal  The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Veteran Entrepreneurial Transfer Inc. is one of several free programs that help veterans who are trying to become entrepreneurs.

•   Oak Brook Pain Doctor’s PTSD Treatment Receives Nationwide Attention!  Chicago Tribune  “A successful new study involving primarily veterans has added to the growing political support for a dramatic novel approach to treating” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The approach, “called a Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB),” involves “injecting a local anesthetic into the necks of patients with PTSD.” The aforementioned study is “to be published on Feb. 1, 2012 in Military Medicine, the international journal of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) which was chartered by Congress in 1903 to advance the knowledge of health care across the federal agencies,” including Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.

•  Red Tape Over Purple Heart Spurs Lawmakers To Ponder Changes.  CQ  “After hearing that a soldier killed by an avowed terrorist at a Little Rock recruiting station had been denied a Purple Heart, House and Senate lawmakers not only pledged to change the rules governing the decoration, they also began – within a matter of hours – talks for doing so.” CQ adds, “At a meeting Wednesday, conferees discussed changes to the Purple Heart’s regulations but did not take any formal action, committee aides said.”

•  Makeovers Give Veterans A Boost.  Newsday  “On most days, Denise Williams…is more concerned about taking care of veterans at her job in the Medical Support Center” at the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center “than maintaining her beauty regimen. But on Monday,” Williams, a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, “got a makeover, compliments of Cactus Salon & Day Spa in Stony Brook.” A “total of 12 military women” got makeovers, during an event “supported by Shining Service Worldwide, a special project of the Long Island United Veterans Beacon House.”

•  VA To Expand Care For Women Veterans.  Sioux Falls (SD) Argus Leader   “An increase in South Dakota women in the military is pushing” Veterans Affairs “to upgrade its Sioux Falls hospital and services. Both genders stand to benefit from a series of improvements at the VA Hospital, which opened in 1949 at 2501 W. 22nd St. But women in particular would gain from efforts to broaden the health care options in a system that historically has been more accommodating to men.”

• Vow To Hire Heroes Act Could Help Local Vets Find Work.   Gainesville (FL) Sun “The Vow to Hire Heroes Act signed by President Obama on Nov. 21 aims to give those who served their country a leg up in competing for jobs by offering tax credits for companies that hire veterans, providing funding for training and other benefits. FloridaWorks, the regional workforce board, does not yet know if the region will benefit from $4.5 million to be allocated for job skills training for veterans ages 35 to 60 or what impact the act will have here, according to a written statement from spokeswoman Lindsey Hicks,” who added that “additional tax credits are always helpful in getting veterans hired.” The Sun adds, “The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday that veterans can download information about their military training and experience to use to find jobs through www.myhealth.va.gov starting Dec. 3 as part of the act.”

•  VA Delays System For Tracking Equipment (And Employees.  NextGov  “The Veterans Affairs Department is pushing back the release date of the draft request for proposals for its $550 million Real Time Location System contract from yesterday, December 6, until this Friday, December 9.” The agency “said it will also delay release of the final RFP from Dec. 16 until Dec. 30. The agency gave no reason for this slight slip in its original schedule, but I wonder if it is related to the article I wrote Monday about VA unions’ concern that the project will result in a system used to track and monitor employees.”

•  Fisher House Receives $5,000 Donation.  San Antonio Express-News  “Employees and patrons of Sea Island Shrimp House and Tiago’s Cabo Grille helped raise $5,000 for the Fisher Houses at Fort Sam Houston.” There are “54 Fisher Houses in the US and Germany near military bases or Veterans Affairs medical centers.” The US “military and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs are responsible for operation and maintenance of the houses.”

•   How Much Is Your Testicle (Or Ovary) Worth?  Time  Improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq “often are buried and blow up as a soldier walks over them, which can cause serious harm to one’s nether regions, if he or she is fortunate enough to survive.” Now, those with such wounds can receive a “lump-sum payout under the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection program.” Veterans Affairs “has decided to make such wounds just as eligible for the one-time payments as the loss of an arm or leg.”

• Miami VA Hospital Employee Charged With Identity Theft.  Miami Herald  32-year-old Tarakesha Kendrick, an employee at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Miami, “has been charged with selling the personal identities of disabled patients who receive services at the hospital, authorities said Wednesday.” Kendrick “will be arraigned Monday on charges of aggravated identity theft and unlawfully selling the personal information of at least 22 military veterans, according to a federal indictment filed Tuesday.” The Herald adds that in 2009, VA “announced that about 2,500 Miami-area veterans may have been exposed to disease through colonoscopies they got with improperly cleaned equipment” at the Miami VA hospital.

•  Area Hospitals Trend Toward Private Rooms.  Gainesville (FL) Sun  “Getting a hospital room in this area is becoming much more of a private affair. Following the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s new construction and conversion to all-private rooms earlier this fall, North Florida Regional Medical Center has begun preliminary work on a 92-bed tower with only private rooms.” Al Linden, executive director of the Florida chapter of Disabled American Veterans, said private rooms may get “kind of boring” because patients will be “sitting in a room” by themselves “watching TV.” But Linden also “said he’s been impressed by what he’s seen on tours of the new, private rooms” at Malcom Randall.

• Veterans Garden Reopened As Rehabilitation Tool.  Brentwood (CA) Patch  “The Veterans Administration (VA) Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the Veterans Park Conservancy (VPC) hosted an event on Monday to celebrate the completion of renovations made to the historic Women Veterans Rose Garden located on the National Veterans Park grounds. The conservancy raised more than $1 million in private donations for the garden, which will be used in outdoor therapy for veterans housed on the VA grounds, according to the group.” The Patch says future “plans call for the renovation of an adjacent building to also be used for yoga, tai chi and other relaxation therapy classes.”

•  Air Force Dumped Ashes Of More Troops’ Remains In Va. Landfill Than Acknowledged.  Washington Post  The Air Force “dumped the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops in a Virginia landfill, far more than the military had acknowledged, before halting the secretive practice three years ago, records show.” According to the Post, the dumping “was concealed from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner, Air Force officials said,” but “there are no plans…to alert those families now.” The disposals also “were never formally authorized under military policies or regulations,” nor were they “disclosed to senior Pentagon officials who conducted a high-level review of cremation policies” at the Dover Air Force mortuary in 2008.

• Walter Reed Rewriting Policy On Religious Items.  Army Times

•    Pearl Harbor Day 2011: Three Enduring Mysteries.  Christian Science Monitor

•  FDA Panel Endorses ESA For Patients On Dialysis. MedPage Today  “An FDA advisory panel has voted 15-1, with one panelist abstaining, that the synthetic erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) peginesatide should be approved as an anemia treatment option for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients who are on dialysis.” Dr. Udho Thadani, a cardiologist with the “Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, abstained.”

• VA And UHC Partnering For Better Cancer Treatment.  WBOY-TV