Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News – August 21, 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.   Military satire news site manages to fool some people.  The stories — like “Chaos: General James Mattis Announced as Next Commandant of Marine Corps” (complete with an expertly Photoshopped picture of the U.S. Central Command chief with tatted-up arms) — are as outrageously funny as they are outrageously phony.
 
2.   E-ballots to be sent to deployed military from Calif. county.  While serving in the Vietnam War, Jesus Tzintzun said he was lucky to receive mail once a week. And because of inconsistent overseas military mail delivery, he never had the opportunity to vote.

3.   Need for PTSD Service Dogs Growing All the Time.  U.S. Politics Today  Despite the fact that the pairing of service dogs with veterans who have this disorder is promising, the United States Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) has not taken advantage of the research opportunity that Congress has allotted it regarding this …

4.   Vets, who needs them?  FederalNewsRadio.com  The federal government employs a higher percentage of military veterans than almost any — maybe any — big company in America. Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have lots of vets. So does the Treasury Department. And DHS. But the …

5.   Veteran pays it forward.  Warren Tribune Chronicle  From about Veteran’s Day in November through Christmas, he collects items like soap, toothpaste and puzzle books and drops the items off to a veterans affairs representative at Youngstown State University to be sent overseas. He remembers from his …
 
6.   Short Sail By USS Constitution Commemorates War Of 1812 Battle. ABC World News “Take a look at the USS Constitution, ‘Old Ironsides’, actually setting sail in Boston Harbor” on Sunday. The “sail…commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Constitution’s victory over the British frigate, the HMS Guerriere, during the War of 1812.” ABC added, “After a successful 17 minute sail at more than two miles an hour, Old Ironsides was tugged back to her berth in Boston Harbor where officials hope tourists can enjoy her for another 100 years.”

7.   VA, Embroiled In Scandal, Looks To Avoid Fate Of GSA.  Federal Times  “The Veterans Affairs Department, rocked last week by a scandal concerning excessive conference spending, hopes to skirt the fate that befell the top leadership at the General Services Administration four months ago.” In a statement, VA said its leader, Secretary Eric Shinseki, “will hold accountable any individuals who are found to have misused taxpayer dollars or violated our standards of conduct” at two conferences VA held in Florida in 2011. The Times adds, “Shinseki’s rapid response shows how definitively the GSA conference scandal has changed government attitudes toward conference spending, said Joe Newman, spokesman for the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight. But Newman said the mere existence of the VA conference scandal, so soon after GSA’s scandal, shows this kind of waste likely runs throughout the government.”

8.   Vision Restoration Nearing Reality With New System In Development.  CMU The Tartan “Carnegie Mellon senior systems scientist Shawn Kelly is developing a retinal prosthesis capable of restoring vision to those with degenerative eye diseases.” Kelly was “recently awarded a four-year, $1.1 million grant from the US Department of Veterans Affairs to continue his research.” Kelly “and his colleagues are working on a fifth and final prototype of the prosthesis, with clinical trials expected to begin in about two years.” Kelly adds, “We expect the device to be available for sale on the market in about five years.”
 
9.   The Portrait Of A Wounded Veteran. New York Times  Dr. Larry Ronan, who “serves as senior adviser to the Red Sox Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base program, which cares for veterans with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder,” says that in a recent column (8/11, Kristof, Subscription Publication) for the New York Times, “Nicholas D. Kristof details how we are failing our military and veterans when it comes to post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.” Ronan says that in order to help such vets, the US should enlist the “help of our academic medical centers to provide increased and timely access to care in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The care of these brave men and women is all our responsibility, not simply” VA’s.
 
10. Finding A Job Biggest Challenge For Veterans, Survey Finds. Washington Post  “Despite a continued drop in the unemployment rate among Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans, a new survey reports that more than two-thirds of their post-9/11 generation believe that finding a job is the greatest challenge they face in making the transition to civilian life.” The survey was “conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.” The Post adds, “In July, President Obama formally announced Transition GPS, a long-awaited overhaul of the military’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP), to help troops leaving the service.”

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