Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From The VA
VA was ranked as one of the top five of 30 agencies responding in the 2010 DiversityInc Top Federal Agencies for Diversity! VA ranked second among agencies with more than 100,000 employees. The results were unveiled March 10 at a two-day event in Washington, DC by DiversityInc, recognized as the leading publication on diversity and business. This is the second year that Federal agencies were asked to participate and the first time VA applied. DiversityInc’s Federal-agency survey was sent to more than 500 agencies and focused on four key areas: Leadership Commitment, Human Capital, Communications and Supplier Diversity.

Top Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1. VA ratings will help ensure care of veterans Alexandria, Louisiana – Military veterans and their families should be pleased that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has evaluated its 112 hospital programs and classified them according to their ability to perform surgery. The ratings will help to ensure consistent, effective medical treatment throughout the system. As Central Louisiana veterans know, “their” hospital — the Pineville-based VA Medical Center at Alexandria — is one of five facilities nationwide that have been downgraded to “standard,” effective May 11. That rating authorizes them to perform operations that are done most frequently. It also requires them to refer more specialized procedures to centers rated to perform “intermediate” or “complex” surgeries.
2. Richmond Fisher House: A home away from home Richmond, Virginia – Wayne Walker and his team at Richmond Fisher House have made it their goal to ease the hardships experienced by families of veterans injured in combat. The house was built in July 2008 by the Fisher House Foundation at the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, located on Broad Rock Boulevard. The Fisher House Foundation was created to help support America’s military families by providing comfortable, on-site living accommodations for the loved ones of soldiers receiving medical care.
3. VA Nurse is Veterans’ “Bridge” from Active Duty to Veteran Washington, DC – Think “nurse” and you might think of syringes, blood pressure readings and thermometers. Not if you knew Brenda Stidham. She’s an example of how the role of a nurse comes in many forms. Throughout her career, she has made headway in clinical research, played a key role in developing an electronic records tool and now works as a vital liaison between military and VA hospitals.
4. Vietnam Veterans Gather for LZ Lambeau When World War II came to an end, most returning soldiers were hailed as heroes and were thus subjected to warm heroes’ welcomes, complete with parades. Based on the recollection of 66-year-old Andrew Thundercloud, who served as a medic during the Vietnam War and who is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, this same appreciation was not accorded the soldiers who fought during the Vietnam War, as shared in a feature on the Navy Times.
5. Why Isn’t VA Data Encrypted? Washington, DC – Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs, has sent a letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki expressing his “deepest” concern over the recent theft of an unencrypted laptop from a VA contractor, and the department’s information security procedures.
6. Veterans returning home to find jobs gone Washington, DC – It’s a complaint U.S. Rep. Phil Roe hears all the time. Military men and women leave behind their families and jobs and go off to war in faraway places like Iraq or Afghanistan. If they’re lucky, they eventually come home. Their families welcome them back, but too often, their jobs are gone, casualties of a sputtering economy that forces struggling employers to cut back.
7. McDonnell to give up $5,000 contribution from veterans group now under investigation Roanoke, Virginia – Gov. Bob McDonnell will give up a $5,000 campaign contribution he received last year from a then self-described director of a Navy veterans fundraising group that is under investigation in three states. McDonnell is among the prominent state officials who received contributions from Bobby Thompson, who said he was with a group called the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. The organization has encountered questions about its fundraising, its expenditures and its board members following an exhaustive investigation by the St. Petersburg Times newspaper. The Florida newspaper reported yesterday that stand-ins posed as Navy Vet members.
8. Experts Divided on Whether to Treat Thyroid Cancer Immediate treatment of thyroid cancer that has not spread beyond the gland doesn’t make much difference in long-term survival, according to a study that quickly aroused controversy.
9. Two Sentenced in $2 Million Scheme to Defraud Department of Veterans Affairs Louisville, Kentucky – Thomas Darrell Bryant, age 39, of LeRoy, West Virginia, and Joe Davis Snooks, Jr., age 62, of Roundhill, Kentucky, were each sentenced to one year and one day in prison, in United States District Court, Louisville, Kentucky, for participating in a scheme to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) through the filing of fraudulent military disability claims, United States Attorney David J. Hale of the Western District of Kentucky announced today.
10. State ends dog visits at veterans home Dover, Wisconsin – Randy Dvorak has spent his entire life around dogs. As a dog handler in the United States Air Force, Dvorak, 58, developed a knack for judging a dog’s temperament. He also developed a love for the animals. That’s why it came as a disappointment to Dvorak, a Vietnam veteran, and his fellow residents at the Veterans Home at Union Grove when they learned state officials decided to ban canine visitors from the buildings at the home.