Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – June 20, 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.    Veterans Attending Detroit VA for Vets Hiring Fair.  4-traders  Veterans Attending Detroit VA for Vets Hiring Fair Can Instantly Access Records … services and resources that are available from federal, state and community agencies. … VA will provide Veteran-owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-owned …
 
2.    Skeptics doubt VA’s claim of breakthrough on claims backlog.  Veterans Affairs officials say they’re poised to make a major breakthrough on the department’s massive claims backlog, but skeptical lawmakers and veterans advocates say they’ve heard such proclamations before.

3.    VA, US Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber Foundation.  MarketWatch  Leaders of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber …

4.    VA Provides Veterans Instant Access to Records with eBenefits.  MarketWatch
VA will have personnel available at the hiring fair to help Veterans and … services and resources that are available from federal, state and community … VA will provide Veteran-owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-owned ….

5.    How to properly fly the US flag.  Wicked Local  … the proper flag display guidelines. Learn how to fly the flag properly, and visit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ website, www.va.gov, for more information.
 
6.    90-year-old WWII veteran places job ad, gets three offers.  Arnold Levinstein, 90, has been working in sales his entire life and sees no reason to stop now. So the Boca Raton resident placed an ad. The World War II veteran said he got 14 phone calls and three potential job opportunities.
 
7.    Japan officials failed to use US data on spread of Fukushima radiation.  Japanese authorities failed to disclose U.S. data about the spread of radiation from a crippled nuclear plant last year, leaving some evacuees fleeing in the same direction as the emissions, according to several media sources.
8.    Strategic airlift crews fight an exhausting war in anonymity.  Avoiding fame is probably not a rule of thumb that would occur to a fighter or bomber pilot facing the potential death-or-glory calculus of combat. But for long-distance airlift fliers, men and women who usually operate far from the front lines of battle doing grueling but obscure logistical work that powers any war effort, emerging from the background generally isn’t a good thing.

9.    3-Day Veteran Hiring Fair To Include 22K Job Postings.  Detroit News “More than 22,000 federal and private-sector job openings across the US will be posted at a three-day Veteran Hiring Fair at Cobo Center” in Detroit next week. The US Veterans Affairs Department, “which is organizing the June 26-29 event, said veterans will be able to obtain military documents they need to apply for jobs on the spot through a joint Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs online portal, eBenefits.” The News adds, “In addition to the hiring fair, the event includes a Veteran Open House and the National Veterans Small Business Conference and Expo.”
 
10. Ferris State University Offering Vets Transportation To Hiring Fair. Grand Rapids (MI) Press “Ferris State University will provide veterans in the Big Rapids area transportation next week to a job fair in Detroit” hosted by the US VA. The school “is providing a charter bus to take veterans to the job fair, which is taking place on June 27 at Cobo Center in Detroit.”

 

Have You Heard?

PTSD Resources When You Need Them

June is PTSD Awareness Month, and we’ve put together information and resources to help Veterans receive the mental health care they’ve earned. Learn more

 

More Veteran News

 

  • Businessman Praises Fair.  Ann Arbor  Keith A. Paul, founding member of the nationally franchised HandyPro Handyman Service, calls the Veteran Hiring Fair in Detroit a “step in the right direction” to lowering the unemployment rate for vets.
  •    VA Hiring Conference.  Army Times Veterans Affairs “will host its largest-ever hiring conference on June 26-28 in Detroit and at satellite locations across the country.” Mary Santiago, director of veteran employment services at VA, said his agency is “not doing just a job fair. We are calling these hiring events because the expectation is that there are interviews and job offers.”
  • Beshear Launches Initiative To Get Businesses To Hire Veterans.  Louisville (KY) Business First “Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has launched the Hiring Kentucky Heroes partnership, which works to connect returning members of the National Guard, Reserve and other veterans with job openings in Kentucky.” Beshear announced the program on Friday, “at the annual state convention of Disabled American Veterans in Lexington.” Several organizations, including the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs and the US. Department of Labor, are involved with the program.
  •    GI Bill Overpayment Rules Unfair, Lawmaker Says. Military Times US Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) “wants the Veterans Affairs Department to change the way it collects overpayments of GI Bill benefits to reduce the possibility that a student veteran might be forced to drop out of school.” To “give veterans more time to work things out, discover who is to blame and make plans for repayment, Bennet wants overpayments to come off the tail end of their 36 months of benefits rather than to be immediately collected.” Bennet proposed the change in a letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. The Times quotes spokesman Joshua Taylor, whose agency “has been looking at improvements in the debt repayment process.” Taylor said VA has “taken action to reduce the financial burden placed on veterans when debts are incurred and we will continue to work with Congress to address this issue.”
  •   VA, Two Other Agencies Discuss Obama’s Veteran Education Order At Webinar.  Federal News Radio “Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Education say they’re making progress toward implementing an executive order designed to protect military members and veterans from unscrupulous educational institutions.” The work “is the result of an order President Barack Obama signed in April, establishing what the administration called ‘principles of excellence’ for colleges and universities that serve veterans and servicemembers.” The “order requires some specific tasks and deliverables that focus on enhancing the information and resources available to students, as well as strengthening oversight and accountability within federal education benefit programs,’ said Robert Worley, director of the education service at VA during a recent webinar the three agencies hosted to describe the initiatives.”
  • VFW Rep Thinks VA Should Expand Pre-College Counseling. Army Times  “The White House and Congress are wrestling with how to provide accurate and useful consumer information to student veterans and service members to prevent them from wasting tuition assistance and GI Bill benefits.” Ryan Gallucci with Veterans of Foreign Wars “says he thinks the Defense and Veterans Affairs department should expand pre-enrollment counseling, which is available to those who ask.” The Times notes that Cutis Coy, VA’s undersecretary for economic development, has said it is important to give veterans a “more accurate picture of what success looks like for students like them.”
  •   Finding Their Way Back Home.  Atlanta Journal-Constitution US Department of Veterans Affairs “and Shepherd Center in Atlanta offer programs and health care professionals to help soldiers find their way home” from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007, VA created the Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OIF/OEF/OND) program for soldiers returning from service in those countries. Kerry Traviss, manager of the OIF/OEF/OND program at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, said VA “realized that the Vietnam vets did not get all the services they needed, so we’re taking a different, more holistic approach now.” The Journal-Constitution added, “Veterans have access to a 24/7 telephone advice program, a crisis hot line, support groups and My Healthy Vet, an initiative that allows them to talk virtually with primary care providers.”
  •    Official Says VA Will Hire More Crisis Line Employees. Finger Lakes (NY) Times In order to help an increasing number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, VA “has developed an aggressive national mental health hiring initiative to improve recruitment and hiring, marketing, education and training programs, as well as retention efforts for mental health professionals.” Sherry Sacco, behavioral health care line manager at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, “said the recruitment effort will likely result in 100 or so more people hired for the Veterans Crisis Line, formerly called the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.” The line operates out of the Canandaigua VA, which was praised by Sacco for assisting troubled vets. Sacco also said the Rochester VA Outpatient Clinic does a good job helping such vets.
  • “Major Marketing Campaign” From VA Focuses On Women Vets. Army Times  “The Veterans Affairs Department has launched a major marketing campaign focused on both outreach and internal culture in an effort to get more female veterans to enroll in VA care.” That is according to Dr. Patricia Hayes, director of VA’s national Women’s Health program. The Times adds, “With the launch of www.womenshealth.va.gov, which includes links to VA facilities and resources on military and sexual trauma, homelessness and more, VA will reach women who might not consider enrolling, say officials, who hope that a more female-friendly atmosphere inside medical facilities will convince them to stay in the system.”
  •   VA Clinic In California Expanding Care For Women Vets.  KNBC-TV “Women are the fastest growing population among veterans, making up 8-percent of veterans in 2011, according to statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care facility on Wilshire Boulevard is working to eliminate the gender gap in veteran care.” Officials with the “women’s clinic at the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care facility on Wilshire Boulevard” in Los Angeles “said the facility, which opened in the early ’90s, has been growing, making it able to meet the needs of more heroes returning home.”

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