Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News May 31, 2012

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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.   Pakistan: Doctor who helped find bin Laden was convicted for ties to militants, not CIA.  A Pakistani doctor arrested after helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden was convicted and sentenced on charges of militancy, Pakistani authorities insisted Wednesday, not because of his links with the effort to pinpoint the whereabouts of the al-Qaida leader.
 
2.   Mismatch between veteran job seekers and employers’ needs.  A new survey found most jobs postings are for college-educated candidates who are mid-career – and most veterans don’t fit that description.
 
3.   Calif. counties dealing with missed deadline on overseas ballots.  Eleven California counties including Contra Costa, San Mateo and San Francisco didn’t meet a federal law’s deadline for sending out vote-by-mail ballots to military families and other Americans living abroad, federal and state officials announced Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Justice simultaneously announced a lawsuit and a settlement agreement Tuesday to remedy the situation.

4.   VA Partnership Aims to House 10000 Homeless Veterans.  Patch.com  The US Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday that it will collaborate with the “100000 Homes” campaign and its 117 participating communities to help find permanent housing for 10000 vulnerable and chronically homeless veterans …

5.   101-year-old WWII Navy man credits clean living as he goes for gold.  Fox News  Decades later, in 1975, he retired from his painting business but remained active as a volunteer for the Hayward Police Department and US Department of Veterans Affairs. Believed to be the only 100-year-old competitor in the event’s 25-year history, …

6.   McDonnell launches Virginia’s new veteran ID card program.  The Republic  Virginia’s veterans are getting new IDs to help them take advantage of special discount programs. Gov. Bob McDonnell will launch a new Virginia Veterans ID Card on Wednesday during an event at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical …

7.   Small Businesss Resources Aid Veterans.  Southern Pines Pilot  Another valuable source of information is www.vetbiz.gov, established by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to assist veteran entrepreneurs with starting and expanding their businesses in the federal and private marketplace.

8.   After Service, Veterans Go On To College.  USA Today “The Post-9/11 GI Bill, enacted in 2008, has paved the way for hundreds of thousands of recent veterans to enroll in college.” And with “drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the number of vets in college is “likely to continue to climb.” There is concern, however, about whether vets are doing well in college, especially at for-profit schools. Last Month, President Obama ordered Veterans Affairs, “along with the Education and Defense Departments, to track college completion data for veterans to provide ‘a more accurate picture of what success looks like,’ a White House statement says.”
 
9.   Enrollment Begins For Jobs Program Targeting Older Vets.  Stars And Stripes “With the Vow to Hire Heroes Act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year, a new employment program aiming to recalibrate the career prospects of veterans over 35 is now available for applicants. The Veteran Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) targets those between 35 and 60, despite the large number of unemployed veterans from the Iraq-Afghanistan era, according to a story in The Washington Post.” Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki commented on the program, saying it will help vets “receive the education and training they need to find meaningful employment in a high-demand field.”
 
10.   Veteran’s Wife Can Be Buried At National Cemetery.  Washington Times  “Sgt. Shaft” column states, “Kudos to the Department of Veterans Affairs.” For the “third time since the 1990-1991 Gulf War, VA researchers will contact Gulf War-era veterans as a part of a long-term study of their health.” Commenting on the news, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said, “Our message to our Gulf War veterans is clear. We are not forgetting you, we are listening to you, and we are acting.”

Have You Heard

Progress in Ending Veteran Homelessness

On May 30, VA Secretary Shinseki partnered with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Donovan to discuss the progress in ending Veteran homelessness at the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. Learn more

 

More Veteran News

 

  • Blogger Criticizes VA Effort To Help Gulf War Vets. 91 Outcomes  Anthony Hardie says, “Two medical research researchers at the University of California-San Diego are aiming to help veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffering from Gulf War Illness by working to improve the scientific understanding of precisely what is going on in GWI patients’ bodies.” Hardie says most GWI “research is now being conducted outside the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the agency that purports to be veterans’ ‘chief advocate’. Gulf War veteran activists recently discovered an unannounced, two-thirds budget cut in the VA’s current budget proposal, which would reduced already limited GWI medical research at VA to less than $5 million annually.”
  •    17 Veterans Assistance Offices Closing In Ala.  AP  “Seventeen veterans’ service offices will close around the state, meaning ex-soldiers in some counties will have to travel to receive benefits or other assistance. The Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs says it closed the offices because of severe funding cuts to agencies funded by the state General Fund budget.” On Tuesday, spokesman Robert Horton “said…that no employees will lose jobs because manpower will be consolidated in the other offices.”
  •   Hospital-At-Home Programs For Intensive-Care Patients Spread. Four VHA Facilities Offer Program. USA Today  Hospital-at-home programs provide “intensive care and monitoring” at the homes of “chronically ill patients with acute medical issues.” The concept already used by four Veterans Health Administration facilities, including in Portland, Oregon, is “getting more attention with increased pressure from the national health overhaul to improve the quality of medical care and lower costs.” The “‘patient, the family, the nurse, the doctor and the referring physician all need to feel if it’s safe,’ said Scott Mader, clinical director of rehabilitation and long-term care at the Portland VA Medical Center.
  •    PTSD Fight Requires Awareness, Helping Hand.  Dayton (OH) Daily News “Encouraging veterans to seek help is essential to addressing the avalanche of PTSD cases resulting from America’s prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Blue Star Families, an organization formed to support military families.” One person who has gotten such help is 24-year-old Iraq veteran Rodney Barnum, who was assisted by the Dayton VA Medical Center. Barnum, who said he finds joy and purpose in being a father, “has worked for three years as an ER health technician at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center.
  •  In Sweat Lodge, Vets Find Healing “Down To The Core.”  NPR  “While doctors and researchers put enormous efforts into developing new treatments, one group of veterans in Salt Lake City is finding relief in a very old tradition: a Native American sweat lodge.” The Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake is “one of just a handful” of VA hospitals “in the country that offers” the sweat lodge experience to veterans.
  • Research Institute Hopes To Offer Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment For Vets With PTSD.  KCPQ-TV “The National Brain Injury Rescue and Rehabilitation study is looking to recruit 1,000 people” for a study on hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatments for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that results from a traumatic brain injury. Gulf War veteran Jeff Brennan is the “first veteran to participate” in the study, which is being conducted by the Restorix Research Institute in Issaquah, Washington. Brennan said he is very excited by the potential benefits of the treatment.
  •  There’s Help In Tulsa Area For Struggling War Veterans.  Tulsa (OK) World  The Mental Health Association in Tulsa has a “number of programs geared toward” homeless veterans, “including one funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs” that can shelter 23 people. That is according to Michael Thomas, administrator of long-term supportive housing for the Mental Health Association in Tulsa.
  •    Lack Of Funding Forces Veterans Sanctuary To Close.  WFMZ-TV
  •   Virtual Reality: A New Therapy For PTSD Victims.  KNBC-TV

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