Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 2/9/10

Find out What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Stolen Valor.
2. Kentucky Governor Visits VA Hospital, Thanks Vets.
3. VHA Asking For Health IT Ideas From Employees, Contractors.
4. Nevada Governor Updates Veterans Commission Appointments.
5. Study Finds Top Priorities Of Doctors, Patients Do Not Always Match.
6. DAV Official Suggests New VA Employees Handle Only Simple Claims.
7. Murtha, First Vietnam Combat Vet Elected To Congress, Passes Away.
8. Officials Tell Halvorson VA Considering Joliet Location For New Facility.
9. Quinn Said To Have Discussed Lieutenant Governor Post With Duckworth.
10. Vets, Mental Health Personnel At West Los Angeles VA Create Strawberry Project.

1.      Murtha, First Vietnam Combat Vet Elected To Congress, Passes Away. The AP (2/9) reports 77-year-old John Murtha US Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), “an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Monday.” In 1974, Murtha “became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress,” a point also noted by McClatchy (2/9, Youssef), the Wall Street Journal (2/9, Bendavid, Miller, 2.08M), The Hill (2/9, Tiron, 21K), and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2/9, Roddy, 223K), as well as in reports aired by ABC World News (2/8, story 5, 0:25, Sawyer, 8.2M), ABC’s Nightline (2/8, 12:05 a.m. ET), and the CBS Evening News (2/8, story 8, 0:30, Couric, 6.1M). NBC Nightly News (2/8, story 3, 0:45, Williams, 8.37M) also broadcast a story that noted Murtha’s vet status.
In a front page obituary, the Washington Post (2/9, A1, Leonnig, Weil, 684K) reports, “The 19-term lawmaker died from complications of gallbladder surgery,” while in another obituary, the New York Times (2/9, A25, Stout, 1.09M) says Murtha served “as an officer in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967,” and received a “Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts…and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.” The Seattle Times (2/9, 225K) runs the same obituary. In its obituary, the Los Angeles Times (2/9, Oliphant, 776K) notes that Murtha “was awarded two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.” The Chicago Tribune (2/9, 534K) runs the same story on Murtha’s passing, which is also covered by Bloomberg News (2/9, Rowley, Arnold), USA Today (2/9, Kiely, Schouten, Kelley, 2.11M), the Washington Times (2/9, Dinan, 77K), Politico (2/9, Rogers, 25K), Town Hall (2/9, Jackson), TV Guide (2/9, Rowe), the Johnstown (PA) Tribune-Democrat (2/9, Griffith), the Somerset County (PA) Daily American (2/9, 13K), the websites for KDKA-TV Pittsburgh, PA (2/8) and KYW-AM Philadelphia, PA (2/8), and the “Political Hotsheet” blog on the CBS News (2/9, Condon) website.
Murtha Said To Have Been “Beloved” By Vets. In an op-ed on the Fox News (2/9) website, Democratic strategist Bob Beckel says Murtha “was beloved by veterans and veterans groups for his support for the Veterans Administration and VA hospitals and facilities that he put in appropriations bills over the years.” Murtha, Beckel adds, opposed a later war, the one in Iraq, “out of conscience as a former warrior and as it turns out he was right.” Opinions on the death of Murtha also appear in a Somerset County (PA) Daily American (2/9, 13K) story, which quotes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called Murtha a “great patriot.”

2.      Officials Tell Halvorson VA Considering Joliet Location For New Facility. The Ottawa (IL) Times (2/9, 16K) reports US Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) “questioned senior Department of Veterans Affairs officials Thursday in Washington and received an update that the VA is interested in moving forward in establishing a veterans health facility at Silver Cross Hospital’s soon-to-be vacated Joliet location.” At a “House Veterans Affairs committee hearing, Halvorson questioned Secretary of Veterans Affairs General Eric Shinseki and Acting Undersecretary for Health Dr. Gerald Cross. Cross acknowledged Halvorson’s efforts to bring the facility to the attention to the VA, and noted in his testimony that though no final decision has been made, the facility is actively being considered to meet needed services expansion in the region.”

3.      Vets, Mental Health Personnel At West Los Angeles VA Create Strawberry Project. Nurse.com (2/9) says an “innovative new project at the West Los Angeles VA on the northern side of campus is roughly the size of a football field – but smells much better. Artist Lauren Bon and a team from the Metabolic Studio in Lose Angeles have worked” with Veterans Affairs “mental health personnel and veterans to create The Strawberry Flag project.” Nurse.com adds, “According to Donna Beiter, RN, MSN, the director of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, the…project at the VA WLA campus stimulates healing, growth and recovery.”

4.      VHA Asking For Health IT Ideas From Employees, Contractors. Federal Computer Week (2/9, Lipowicz, 90K) reports, “The Veterans Health Administration is asking employees and contractors to submit, rank and vote on ideas for creative new health information technologies. The Veterans Health Administration Innovation Initiative was launched Feb. 5 and will run until Feb. 21, according to a news release.” Federal Computer Week notes that the “top 100 ideas” from the initiative “will be selected and their authors will be invited to submit full proposals.”

5.      DAV Official Suggests New VA Employees Handle Only Simple Claims. The Navy Times (2/9, Maze, 54K) reports, “Veterans could receive disability benefits faster, with fewer errors, if new Veterans Affairs Department employees worked exclusively on simple claims and experienced employees handled everything else, says” John Wilson, the assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. The suggestion from Wilson, who made his comments during an “interview and in testimony provided” to the House Veterans Affairs Committee, “comes as VA and Congress grapple with ways to handle an ever-increasing backlog of claims.” The Times notes that while there is money in the “2011 budget…to hire more claims processors,” US Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is “holding out for more fundamental changes in the claims process, including the idea of automatically approving some simple claims without delay.” The Federal Times (2/9, 40K) publishes the same story.

Lawmaker Highlights Money In Budget For New Claims Processors. The Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record (2/9, Goldberg, 71K) says during a”Monday afternoon press conference at the Orange County Veterans Service Agency Center,” US Rep. John Hall (D-NY) noted that President Obama’s 2011 budget contains money for new veterans claims processors. Hall “hopes the new claims processors will be trained and ready to work by 2013.” The Times Herald-Record adds, “At the same time he’s trying to reduce the claims backlog, Hall said, ‘We’re fighting to increase awareness’ of the benefits to which veterans are entitled.”

6.      Study Finds Top Priorities Of Doctors, Patients Do Not Always Match. The New York Times (2/9, D6, Rabin, 1.09M) reports, “A new study that surveyed health care providers and their patients with both diabetes and high blood pressure found that most of the time they agreed on at least one or two of the three most important health problems affecting the patient. But in almost one-third of the cases, the provider’s top three concerns did not include the top priority of the patient, the survey found, especially if that item was pain or depression, said Dr. Donna M. Zulman, a Veterans Affairs researcher who was lead author of the study.” After noting that the study “was published online on Feb. 2 in The Journal of General Internal Medicine,” the Times adds, “The findings may reflect a lack of awareness about how important it is for diabetics to control their blood pressure, Dr. Zulman said, adding that the message to patients is that they must communicate clearly and ‘not assume their health care provider shares their priorities.'”

7.      Quinn Said To Have Discussed Lieutenant Governor Post With Duckworth. The Chicago Tribune (2/9, Pearson, Long, 534K) notes that on Monday, “Democratic Party leaders began the delicate dance of picking a new running mate” for Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. Sources “said Quinn has discussed with top Democrats the possibility of selecting Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost a 2006 run for Congress in the western suburbs before becoming an assistant secretary” at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Duckworth “could not be reached for comment.”

8.      Kentucky Governor Visits VA Hospital, Thanks Vets. On its website, WTVQ-TV Lexington, KY (2/8) said Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear “spent part of his morning” Monday at the Lexington Veterans Affairs Medical Center “in honor of National Salute To Hospitalized Veterans Week.” Beshear toured the hospital and thanked the veterans for their service and sacrifice.” After noting that the deputy commissioner of the Kentucky Department Of Veterans Affairs “also greeted veterans” Monday morning, WTVQ pointed out that two of their reporters “will visit veterans at the Leestown Road facility this Thursday.”

9.      Nevada Governor Updates Veterans Commission Appointments. The Gardnerville (NV) Record Courier (2/9, 7K) notes that Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons “recently appointed Sally Wiley of Gardnerville and reappointed Ron Gutzman of Carson City to serve two-year terms on the Nevada Veterans Services Commission,” which advises the “Governor, legislature, and directors of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services regarding aid or benefits to veterans.” According to the Record Courier, Gutzman is a veteran and Wiley “is a member of….Gold Star Mothers of America” and Sierra Nevada Blue Star Mothers.

10.    Stolen Valor. In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times (4/9, 776K) says that when Congress passed the Stolen Valor Act in 2006, it “expanded a previous law against fraudulently wearing a service medal to include falsely representing that one had received that honor.” But now, “two men — one from California — are challenging the constitutionality of the act. The federal courts should rule in their favor, not because their misrepresentation is innocuous – it’s not — but because criminalizing lies that aren’t part of a fraud would open a loophole in the 1st Amendment’s protection of free speech.”