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.   Lawmakers tell Panetta, Shinseki it’s time for collaboration to yield results.  Lawmakers frustrated at years of limited collaboration between defense and Veterans Affairs officials pressed the secretaries of those departments Wednesday to ensure that servicemembers’ lives aren’t lost to paperwork mistakes and red tape.
 
2.   Country star Tim McGraw offers veteran new home, fresh start.  The home is one of 25 that McGraw plans to give away this year during his Brothers of the Sun tour with Kenny Chesney. The program, which is also being organized by Operation Homefront and JPMorgan Chase & Co., aims to help wounded servicemembers.
 
3.   Report: State systems for overseas voters vulnerable.  States trying to make it easier for troops overseas to vote have set up voting systems that are vulnerable to hacking when they allow voters to return ballots online, via e-mail, or Internet fax, says a state-by-state report that was to be to be released Wednesday.
 
4.   Grieving widow gathers pieces of vet’s WWII life.  Donovan Gabriel was 84 when he died a year ago. Avaline, 68, can hardly mention his name without tearing up. She thinks about what he went through during his war. She thinks about what two of her grandsons, now in the Navy themselves, must be going through.

5.   East TN veteran community “disgusted” by couple accused of faking military.  WBIR-TV
A federal grand jury indicted the Kaczmarczyks on eight counts including three counts of stealing public money from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and three counts of Social Security fraud for more than $1000. The indictment states that while …

6.   Husband and Wife Indicted for Conspiracy to Steal Public Money.  7thSpace Interactive  This investigation was a joint effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force, Department of Veterans Affairs-Office of Inspector General, Social Security Administration-Office of Inspector General, and the United States Air …
7.   Lawmakers Push to Ease U.S. Troops’ Transition to Veterans.  Bloomberg  Federal agencies need to do a better job of meeting the needs of as many as 1 million troops who will leave the military by 2017, U.S. lawmakers said today. The Department of Veterans Affairs has struggled to ease a backlog in disability claims and to …

8.   Veterans with businesses can get state advice.  Sacramento Bee  The Illinois Departments of Veterans Affairs and Central Management Services will host “Mission: Veterans 2 Entrepreneurs” in Marion at the VFW Heyde-Pillow Post. Officials will provide information on doing business with local, state and federal agencies …

9.   Obama again vows Veterans Affairs exempt from sequester.  Politico  Mitt Romney warned veterans that the looming sequester would mean bad things for the health care military veterans get through the Department of Veterans Affairs. “That devastation would start here at home. Mark my words, those cuts would only weaken …
 
10.  Romney Ignores Other Budget Players.  AP When Mitt Romney spoke at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) convention on Tuesday, he blamed President Obama “for the prospect of large cuts in defense spending next year.” Romney, however, is “ignoring the role that Congress and members of his own party played in setting up that possibility.” The VFW convention heard from Obama on Monday. During his speech, according to the AP analysis, Obama “glossed over just how much” problems with disability benefits and mental health treatment “have grown during his time in office.”

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