Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1.      Stimulus Money To Pay For New Columbia VA Employees, National Cemetery Improvements. WLTX-TV Columbia, SC (8/9, 7:04 p.m. ET) broadcast, “The Columbia Department of Veterans Affairs office is hiring 167 new workers to help Midlands vets.” The new employees “will process benefits, pensions, and handle other administrative work. The money to hire the new workers comes from Federal stimulus funding.” KOAM-TV Joplin, MO (8/9, 6:01 p.m. CT), meanwhile, broadcast, “Fort Scott National Cemetery is getting” stimulus funds from VA “to improve its roads.”
     WBIR-TV Knoxville, TN (8/9, 6:08 p.m. ET) broadcast, “one of Knoxville’s historic veteran monuments will be getting a facelift thanks to funds from the Federal Recovery Act.” According to the report, VA “says the Union Soldiers Monument at Knoxville National Cemetery will receive nearly $150,000 dollars for it’s renovations.” WBIR added, “In all, $50 million from the American Recovery and Restoration Act has been allocated by…VA to improve national cemeteries and monuments around the country.” WATE-TV Knoxville, TN (8/9, 5:07 p.m. ET) aired a similar report.

2.      VA Official Notes Federal Support For Veterans Courts. In continuing coverage, the Tulsa (OK) World (8/10, Graham) says a “regional veterans justice outreach training conference” that began in Tulsa on Monday was “put together after Tulsa’s Veterans Treatment Court was named…one of four national mentor programs by the National Drug Court Institute. The designation means the court can get grants from the institute and put on training sessions, such as this one, which continues through Tuesday.” Paul Hutter, the “chief officer of legislative, regulatory and intergovernmental affairs for the federal Department of Veterans Affairs,” attended the conference on Monday and “said veterans court programs have federal support, noting that they have increased from 12 in April 2009 to the present 42.” The KRMG-AM Tulsa, OK (8/9, Crockett) also took note of the conference.

3.      VA Official: Healthcare Becoming More Methodical In Preparing For Bad Events. During a segment on man-made disasters, the NPR (8/9) program, “Talk Of The Nation,” spoke to James Bagian, a “former NASA astronaut” who currently directs the Veteran Administration’s National Center for Patient Safety. Bagian told NPR that his “observation” is that in fields “more heavily…rooted” in engineering — “so, space flight, aviation — there tends to be a more methodical approach to what can go wrong, anticipation of that, and then to try to put robust systems in place to account for that and reduce the probability of a bad event.” Bagian went on to say that in healthcare “over the last 10 years or so, there’s starting to be an awakening of how to do the same things, rather than concentrate on asking people to be more careful, try harder, don’t make mistakes and be perfect.”

4.      Parents Connecting Agent Orange Exposure To Medical Problems Afflicting Their Children. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (8/10, Smith), a “growing number of parents” are “connecting exposure to Agent Orange with…ailments affecting their children. Dioxin exposure will be a key topic at a national leadership conference” being held in Florida this week by the Vietnam Veterans of America, which will also “host town hall meetings on Agent Orange, starting in California, in October.” The Tribune-Review adds, “C. Bernie Good,” chief “of the section on general internal medicine at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, said there is little credible research on a link between birth defects and dioxin exposure in men.”

5.      Stimulus Money To Fund Veterans Wellness Treatment Program. KOAT-TV Albuquerque, NM (8/9, 10:31 p.m. MT) broadcast, “New Mexico’s veterans are getting” $350,000 in Federal “stimulus money to help cope” with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After noting that the money “will create the first ever veterans wellness treatment program,” KOAT added, “According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, up to 25 percent of vets nationwide have signs of PTSD.”

6.      Three Charged With Stealing Donations From Disabled Vet. The Norwich (CT) Bulletin (8/10, Smith) notes that on Saturday, police in Colchester, Connecticut, “arrested three men in connection with the brazen midday theft of a donation box from wheelchair-bound disabled veteran raising money in front of the Stop & Shop in Colchester.” Walt Pallman, a “member of the American Legion Post 54 in Colchester who is familiar” with the victim, “said the Vietnam veteran was raising money to participate in the annual National Golden Age Games, a sporting event for senior veterans receiving medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

7.      No New Leads Reported In Mojave Cross Theft Case. The Victorville (CA) Daily Press (8/9, Lindstrom) reported, “Three months since the Mojave Cross was stolen from its site at Sunrise Rock, a legal battle is ensuing over when” the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) “can erect a new one, and investigators haven’t reported any leads into who swiped the national memorial.” In 1934, the VFW “first placed a wooden cross on Sunrise Rock, about 10 miles south of Interstate 15 off Cima Road, to honor those killed in World War I.” After noting that the cross “came under legal fire…by a former park service employee on grounds that it violated the constitutional separation of church and state,” the Daily Press pointed out that in April, the US Supreme Court “said the cross should remain,” after which time it was stolen by an “unknown vandal.”

8.      Stimulus Funds Paying For VA Hospital Improvements. The Durham (NC) Herald-Sun (8/10, Offen) reports, “Eight million dollars in federal stimulus payments has funded significant improvements” to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Durham. Among “those upgrades has been an expanded physical therapy space for veterans in the Community Living Center that cost $541,000.”

9.      Petition Calls For Another VA Clinic In West Virginia. On its website, WVNS-TV Bluefield, WV (8/9) reported, “Leaders with the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce are lending their support to bring” a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic to “nature’s air-conditioned city.” After noting that a petition “has been circulating to gauge support for a clinic in Bluefield, thanks to the Chamber,” WVNS added, “That petition will be presented” to US Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) “on Aug. 20, 2010.” News “came last week” from the VA hospital in Beckley, West Virginia, that two new VA outpatient clinics will be opening in Greenbrier County and Wytheville.

10.    VA Reps To Be On Hand At Veterans Information Day. The WXVT-TV Greenwood, MS (8/9) website said veterans are “urged to come out for the third annual Veterans Information Day,” which will be held “at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Washington County Convention Center.” Representatives from the US Department of Veterans Affairs “office in Jackson, and from the VA branch clinic in Greenville, will be on hand.”