Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – July 18, 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.   VA awards $100 million in homeless grants.  The funds are part of the department’s larger effort to end veterans homelessness by 2015.
 
2.   Israel, US ‘on same page’ on Iran, Clinton says.  Wrapping up a whirlwind international trip to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that the U.S. and Israel are “on the same page at this moment” over how to deal with Iran and vowed to use “all elements of American power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
 
3.   Humane Society program to unite pets, military veterans.  The Western Pennsylvania Humane Society is giving away pets to military veterans, officials announced on Monday.
 
4.   Some vets feeling shorted by the Army College Fund.  At the time, the deal seemed irresistible to Eric Hickam: Give six years to the Army, a recruiter told him in 2003, and you can get a $50,000 “kicker” — the Army College Fund. When his payments started coming last fall, his first year at Columbia University in New York City, the amount fell far short of what Hickam had anticipated.

5.   From Battleground to Business.  Jackson Free Press  The U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense have teamed up to launch a training program for transitioning veterans from service to entrepreneurship. The U.S. Marine Corps will pilot the nation-wide …

6.   VA Grants Will Aid Homeless Veterans.  Department of Defense  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is awarding nearly $100 million in grants that will help approximately 42000 homeless and at-risk veterans and their families, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced.

7.   Veterans Affairs to hire hundreds of mental health staffers.  Ventura County Star  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a nationwide recruiting campaign to hire hundreds of additional mental health clinicians for its facilities. Plans call for adding 1600 mental health clinicians, along with 300 support staff …

8.   Wash. effort seeks to identify veterans in prison.  The Seattle Times  She stressed that when both they, and the state, know their veteran status, the state can better help them get the benefits they’ve earned once they’re released, easing their re-entry into the community and hopefully cutting back on recidivism. “I don …
 
9.   Native American Veterans Falling Through Cracks Between VA, IHS Healthcare Services. US Medicine  “The VA and IHS need to better coordinate services for American Indian and Alaska Native veterans, federal officials acknowledged at a recent Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing.” Stephanie Elaine Birdwell, director of VA’s Office of Tribal Government Relations, “told the committee during her testimony that VA is embarking on a robust outreach and consultation effort with tribes. She said her office was established by the VA last year to develop partnerships with American Indians and Alaska Natives to ‘enhance access to services and benefits’ for native veterans.”
 
10.  Bariatric Surgery Doesn’t Reduce Long-Term Costs. Reuters A new study of obese, middle-aged, male veterans found that bariatric weight-loss surgery may not save money. Matthew Maciejewski, the study’s lead author from the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Durham, North Carolina, discussed his findings, stating, “There are some real health benefits that were realized in these patients, they just don’t translate into cost savings in a three-year time.”  MedPage Today  “Among obese veterans, bariatric surgery — predominantly gastric bypass — was not associated with lower healthcare expenditures in the three years after the operation,” according to a study published in the July issue of the Archives of Surgery. An invited critique “noted some unanswered questions from the current study, including whether pharmacy costs were reduced with surgery, whether quality of life differed between the two groups, and whether the findings can be extrapolated to current practice, which includes greater use of laparoscopic gastric bands and sleeves.”

 

Have You Heard?

New Grants to Help End Veterans Homelessness

On July 17, VA announced the award of nearly $100 million in grants that will help approximately 42,000 homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families. The grants will go to 151 community agencies across 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Learn more

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