Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From The VA

VA’s 2010 VA Energy Champion is Rick Hart, energy manager for the VA North Texas Health Care System based in Dallas, Texas. Rick leads an energy management team that has significantly reduced VA’s energy intensity, environmental impact, system vulnerability, and annual energy costs. The Dallas medical center is expected to provide health care during regional emergencies and Rick has focused on developing higher efficiency standby systems. His VA facility has made a strong commitment to install a variety of energy technologies, from solar PV to thermal energy storage; it has an operational E-85 fueling station and was the first VA facility to install its own advanced energy metering system integrated with its digital control system.

Top Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1. Senator wants VA to review criteria for groups listed on website Tampa, Florida – In the wake of multiple investigations into the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, Sen. Jim Webb asked the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday to review how it checks out the veterans service organizations the VA lists on its website. “It stands to reason that veterans have a reasonable expectation of legitimacy and credibility if such an organization is listed on your official website, regardless of official endorsement,” Webb said in his letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
2. NPR News Examines Challenges Of Overburdened Veterans Affairs System Washington, DCAs hundreds of thousands of servicemen and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan join the ranks of America’s veterans, they enter an increasingly overburdened system struggling to serve them.
3. VA disconnects Sprint’s voice, data services The U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs will complete a major network transition this fall, migrating from Sprint as its primary service provider to a new architecture that splits telecom traffic across three other carriers: AT&T, Qwest and Verizon.
4. Colleague Says Blumenthal Claims Grew in Time Former Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut found it puzzling: over time, his friend Attorney General Richard Blumenthal kept revising how he talked about his military service during the Vietnam War. At first, in the 1980s, he was humble. He played it down, Mr. Shays recalled, characterizing it as humdrum desk work.
5. House may add concurrent receipt to tax bill Washington, DC – House Democrats are considering adding concurrent receipt payments for military retirees to a tax extension bill — a move that could solve funding problems but raise other new issues as well. The main purpose of HR 4213, the bill that could carry the retiree benefit, is to extend several provisions of tax law that have expired or were extended only temporarily by earlier legislation.
6. Drug may prevent lung cancer, US study finds WAashington, DC – A drug approved to treat a range of conditions may also work to prevent lung cancer in people who have given up smoking, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. The drug, called iloprost, is approved in inhaled forms to treat pulmonary hypertension, when blood pools near the lungs, a connective tissue disease called scleroderma and a nerve condition called Raynaud’s phenomenon.
7. Fiduciary Program Shortchanging Vets Did you know that the Department of Veterans Affairs has a fiduciary program to help veterans handle their finances when they can’t do it for themselves? No? Lots of people don’t. Fiduciary representatives can be a group such as a nursing home or law firm, or a family member or someone appointed by the VA. At present the fiduciaries are managing the financial affairs of more than 100,000 veterans with estate assets of more than $3 billion. Fiduciaries earn 4 percent of the amount they manage.
8. NY State veterans’ affairs head steps down Albany, DC – The Director of the New York State Division of Veterans’ Affairs, James McDonough, Jr., has resigned, the Governor’s office announced Tuesday. McDonough has served as director for two and a half years. His resignation is effective June 15, at which time William Kraus, the division’s executive deputy director since January 2008, will step in as acting director.
9. Iraq Vets start pedicab company Muncie, Indiana – Two 24-year-old entrepreneurs with a pedal-powered taxi and lots of lung power hope to become the latest entry into Delaware County’s budding green economy. Longtime friends Cory Brown and Tyler Wright have given up on fossil fuels and internal combustion to form Doing It Green Pedicab LLC, a company aimed at ferrying people home from downtown and near-campus bars in a pedicab, or what some might call a bicycle rickshaw.
10. VA to develop clinical kiosk for patient self assessment The Veterans Affairs Department plans to develop a kiosk-based system for its mental health clinics that would allow patients who have limited computer literacy or cognitive disabilities to conduct self-assessments of their conditions.