Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1.      VA Employee Honored. The lead “Local People Honored” item for the Augusta, Maine-based Kennebec Journal (8/17) reports, “Kathleen A. Hanley of Pittston was awarded the Disabled American Veterans National Commander’s Outstanding VA Employee Award on behalf of the Veterans Benefits Administration at a convention held recently in Atlanta. Hanley, a decision review officer” at Veterans Affairs’ “Veterans Service Center, Togus Regional Office,” has “spent 29 years serving veterans. She trains veteran service rating representatives in delivering earned benefits to veterans as part of the claims process.”

2.      Vet Attributes Cancer Recovery To Good Care At VA Hospital. According to the Fort Myers (FL) News-Press (8/16), 73-year-old veteran Ray Conley, who has donated hand-built models of the USS New Jersey and the USS Ronald Reagan “to the Idaho Military History Museum at Gowen Field,” was “diagnosed with pancreatic cancer” in 1996. Conley “attributes his recovery from a disease often considered a death sentence to good care at a Veterans Administration hospital and ‘stubbornness. I still had things to do.'”

3.      VA Hospital Placing Aging Vets With Foster Families. On its website, KUTV-TV Salt Lake City, UT (8/16, Moseley) reported, “Aging veterans often need constant care as their health deteriorates, but a nursing home isn’t the only answer” because during the “past two years in Utah,” a Veterans Affairs Medical Center “has been placing veterans with foster families.”

4.      Ground Broken On New VA Clinic. In continuing coverage, the Waynesboro, Virginia-based News Virginian (8/17, Gonzales) reports, “A new medical clinic for veterans will allow thousands in the Staunton area to skip lengthy drives to Salem or Martinsburg, W.Va., said officials with the clinic and the Department of Veterans Affairs during a groundbreaking Monday.” Carol Bogedain, interim director of Salem VA Medical Center, “said the Staunton clinic will provide services for chronic disease, mental health, smoking cessation and pain management.” WVIR-TV Charlottesville, VA (8/16, 11:05 p.m. ET) aired a similar, positive report on the groundbreaking.
     Slightly less positive coverage was offered by the Staunton (VA) News Leader (8/17, Martinez), which says the VA “plans to open” the clinic in “Staunton by January, about eight months later than originally projected.” The News Leader does state, however, that VA is “opening clinics in other parts of the region and the country to improve veterans’ access to health care and meet the growing demand fueled by the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The News Leader also reports that according to VA communications officer Bruce Sprecher, VA will lease the building where the clinic is to be located.

5.      Jobless Rate Up For Post-9/11 Vets. CNN Newsroom (8/16, 9:28 a.m. ET) broadcast that “trying to find a job “is a “new battle facing America’s veterans.” The “jobless rate among veterans who’ve served since 9/11 rose to 11.8% last month,” while the national rate was 9.5%. CNN added, “Unemployment is such a big issue for the Army National Guard that some states are testing out programs to help their part-time soldiers.”

6.      Missouri’s Funeral Protest Ban Ruled Unconstitutional. The AP (8/17) notes that on Monday, Federal Judge Fernando Gaitan “ruled Missouri’s ban restricting protests at funerals to be unconstitutional,” as it infringes on free speech rights. The ruling “affects restrictions targeting a Kansas church whose members have picketed outside the funerals of people killed during the Iraq war. A church leader filed a lawsuit challenging the law.”

7.      Tony Blair To Donate Memoir Profits To Charity For Injured Troops. The AP (8/17, Lawless) reports 57-year-old Tony Blair, “who took Britain to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, is donating millions in earnings from his forthcoming memoir to a charity for injured troops.” On Monday, the “Royal British Legion said…that the former prime minister has agreed to give all proceeds from ‘A Journey’ to its Battle Back Challenge Center.” The facility, which “opens in 2012,” will “provide state of the art sports facilities and rehabilitation services for seriously wounded personnel.”
     According to AFP (8/17, Ritchie), news of Blair’s donation plan “was warmly welcomed by the charity itself.” Anti-war campaigners, however, “said the money was welcome if it helped injured soldiers, but warned it did not absolve Blair of responsibility for the conflicts he led Britain into.”

8.      Funds Set Aside For Nursing Home At Beckley VAMC. The Charleston, West Virginia-based State Journal (8/17) reports, “The federal government has set aside $46.55 million for construction of a new nursing home at the Beckley Veterans Administration Medical Center.” On Monday, US Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) “announced…that the funds had been secured.” The WVNS-TV Beckley, WV (8/16) website ran the same story.

 9.      Copper Coils Stolen From VA Hospital Construction Site. The Fort Myers (FL) News-Press (8/17, Yousif-Bashi) reports, “Copper coils were recently stolen out of six air conditioning units at the Veterans Affairs Hospital construction site on the corner of Corbett Road and Diplomat Parkway East in Cape Coral, a police report said. According to the report: Bob Neurock of Kraft Construction said it would cost $29,200 to replace the air conditioning units.” Neurock “told police that someone…stole the coils and attempted to steal the coils from a seventh air conditioning unit.” WINK-TV Fort Myers, FL (8/16, 5:08 p.m. ET) aired a similar report.

10.    Portion Of Music Festival To Benefit Vets Hospital. The Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise (8/17, Franko) reports, “Dwight Yoakam has been added as a headliner to the Wagon Wheel Country Music Festival in Lake Elsinore this fall.” The festival is “donating a portion of the proceeds from the event to charities such as the Loma Linda Veterans Hospital and the Mourning Star Grief Centers.”