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.   Judge rejects new restrictions for attorneys at Guantanamo Bay.  Using strong words, a federal judge has rejected the Obama administration’s efforts to change the rules under which Guantanamo Bay detainees are represented by lawyers.
 
2.   Veteran appalled by tattered flag at Va. high school football game.  Stafford County resident Mike Curry drove to Chancellor High School on Aug. 24, looking forward to an evening of high school football featuring one of his grandsons on the visiting Riverbend team. But before the kickoff, he was aghast at what he saw in the bleachers beyond the end zone of the Spotsylvania County school.
 
3.   Research project looks to connect returned soldiers and nature.  Keith G. Tidball, a senior extension associate at Cornell University, Ithaca, wants to know if nature has a positive effect on soldiers returning from deployment.
 
4.   Fort Bliss center offers interdisciplinary approach to pain.  Beaumont Army Medical Center has opened a pain center that brings together traditional and nontraditional treatment methods to better serve injured and wounded soldiers at Fort Bliss.
 
5.   Mixed jobs news for veterans in August.  The overall veterans jobless rate decreased to its lowest levels since 2008, but the number for younger veterans were discouraging
 
6.   F/A-18 maintenance facility workers exposed to toxic materials.  Workers at the Navy’s top maintenance facility for F/A-18 warplanes have been exposed to “extremely toxic materials” such as lead, cadmium and beryllium, according to surprise inspections by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

7.   Veterans Affairs to bring 500 jobs to Kernersville by 2015.  My Fox 8  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has purchased property to build a 273,000 square foot facility bringing hundreds of jobs to the area and services for area veterans. According to Carol Waters, a spokesperson with the …

8.   Sheridan Veterans Affairs officials bring ‘Stand Down’ to Casper.  Casper Star-Tribune Online  But since 2009, when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced its six-year plan to end veteran homelessness, Banks said the numbers he has seen have decreased. National VA estimates suggest the number of homeless veterans has dropped …

9.   Joint DOD-VA Health Record Program Regains Traction.  AOL Government “Since rebooting efforts nearly a year ago to merge their electronic health care management and record keeping systems, the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs have made what top officials described as considerable progress after the program was in danger of slipping its schedule.” AOL Government adds, “The notion of an integrated health record for the DOD is fundamental to taking care of warfighters, said” Barclay Butler, director of the DOD/VA Interagency Program Office (IPO). Butler “noted that adopting an agile process has greatly improved the delivery times of systems, which a considerable contrast to traditional project development and delivery processes.”
 
10.  ONC, Veterans Administration Launch Initiative To Automate Blue Button Technology.  BNA Health IT Law & Industry Report   “In hopes of providing patients easy access to their health information, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Department of Veterans Affairs have launched an initiative to automate ‘blue button’ technology. Representatives from both departments say they plan to develop standards and specifications allowing patients to download their information from their own providers and automatically send that data to an email account or elsewhere.” Peter L. Levin, VA’s chief technology officer, said such a plan is needed because the “inaccessibility of medical records” is a “chronic problem, and not just at the VA but in the United States.” BNA also reported that in a recent press release about its blue button initiative with CMS, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said, “Since President Obama announced the availability of Blue Button two years ago, VA has worked tirelessly with our sister agencies to make online access to personal health records convenient, reliable, and safe.” Shinseki added that he is “very pleased” with VA’s blue button progress.