Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1.      With New Initiative, VA Aims To Improve Communications With Veterans. In continuing coverage, Federal Computer Week (9/23, Lipowicz) says the Veterans Affairs Department has “debuted its new Veterans Relationship Management customer service initiative, a multiyear effort aimed at improving veterans’ interaction with the VA for access to care, information and benefits. The multifaceted initiative includes improvements to telephone services” at department “calling centers, as well as enhancements to VA’s year-old e-benefits website that offers veterans department information. ‘Veterans Relationship Management will transform veterans’ interactions with VA by using innovative 21st-century technologies,’ VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a news release dated Sept. 21.”

 2.      Brewin: IBM Is Having Trouble Building Agent Orange Claims System. In his “What’s Brewin'” blog for NextGov (9/22), Bob Brewin notes, “In July, the Veterans Affairs Department awarded IBM a $9.1 million contract to develop within three months a system to process claims for Vietnam veterans suffering from diseases stemming from exposure to the Agent Orange.” Brewin says VA Secretary Eric Shinseki “hailed the approach as ‘a new way of doing business and a major step forward in how we process the presumptive claims we expect to receive over the next two years.’ But…I’m told IBM quickly ran into problems trying to build” the system, which “probably explains why early this month VA issued a notice that it would like to find a second contractor to develop an Agent Orange claims processing system, with the ability to start within 15 days of award.”

 3.      Pennsylvania Governor, Vet Groups Opposing Gettysburg Casino Plan. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/23, Barnes, O’Toole, 205K) says Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and “officials of some veterans groups have joined the opposition to a plan to put a small casino with slots and table games near the historic Gettysburg battlefield.” Rendell, “who also had been against a previous Gettysburg casino plan in 2006, expressed opposition to the new plan for a resort hotel casino during a visit Wednesday to a senior center.” James Lighthizer, “president of the Civil War Preservation Trust,” who praised Rendell for opposing the new plan, “also was pleased about opposition to a Gettysburg casino that was expressed Tuesday at the state Capitol by officials of some veterans groups, including American Legion Director Peter Gaytan, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund President Jan Scruggs and retired National Park Service historian Edwin C. Bearss, a World War II veteran.” The Hanover (PA) Evening Sun (9/22, Prudente, 18K) also took note of the opposition expressed by the vets groups.

 4.      VA Funding West Virginia’s First State Cemetery. In continuing coverage, WCHS-TV Charleston, WV (9/22, Wood, 34K) website said that because West Virginia has gotten a check from the US Department of Veterans Affairs “for more than $14 million,” the “first state veterans’ cemetery is in the works. Dow/Union Carbide donated the 350 acre plot in Institute for the Donel Kinnard Memorial State Veterans’ Cemetery,” which is “named after Donel Kinnard, a veteran who devoted his life to making sure other military men and women were taken care of after their service ended. Kinnard’s family says they are very proud to have this cemetery named after him.” WVAH-TV Charleston, WV (9/22, 10:11 p.m. ET) aired a similar report.

 5.      Committee Asks VA, DOD For Details On Development Of Their EHR Systems. According to NextGov (9/22), the Senate Appropriations Committee “has asked the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments for details on how they will develop new electronic health record systems for soldiers and veterans. In a report on the fiscal 2011 Defense appropriations bill, which was posted on the Library of Congress website on Monday, the committee said it believes the programs should include plans to modernize their respective electronic health record systems measures that meet the needs of both departments so that they can reduce costs.” After noting that the committee “approved its version of the spending bill last week,” NextGov points out that committee members “said they were encouraged Defense and VA recognized they have similar requirements” for the electronic health record systems, “but they were concerned the two ‘have not explicitly indicated how they intend to efficiently and effectively meet these common requirements.'”

 6.      Senate Approves COLA Increase For Disabled Vets. CQ (9/23, Lesniewski) reports, “By voice vote, the Senate on Wednesday cleared a bill that would provide” a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for disabled veterans. After noting that the bill “would increase the amounts paid to veterans for disability compensation and to their survivors for dependency and indemnity compensation,” CQ adds, “The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that it will provide disability compensation to just over 3 million veterans with service-connected disabilities in the current fiscal year.”

 7.      After Senate Candidate Talks About Privatizing Vets Healthcare, Olbermann Praises VA. MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann (9/22, 8:46 p.m. ET) makes “Colorado Republican Tea Party Senate candidate Ken Buck” its runner-up for the “Worlds’ Worst” person, because, according to program host Keith Olbermann, Buck thinks the government should pay the private sector to provide care to veterans. After noting that surveys in 2003 and 2006 both found veterans are pleased with the care provided to them by Veterans Affairs, Olbermann said VA hospitals are “uniformly considered among the best in the country.”

     Rieckhoff: Vets Groups Do Not Want VA Care Privatized. MSNBC’s The Ed Show (9/22, 6:18 p.m. ET) also broadcast a story on Buck, saying “he’s talking about privatizing veterans hospitals.” When the program asked Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff for his reaction to Buck’s comments, Rieckhoff said, “There’s not a single veterans group in America, from any side of the political spectrum that would support the privatization of VA healthcare.” Rieckhoff told the program that “VA…gets banged up a lot, but the quality of care is generally very good.”

 8.      Mobile Vet Center Offering Assistance To College Students In Maine. The Waterville (ME) Morning Sentinel (9/23, Stone, 20K) says a “38-foot recreational vehicle, adorned with Department of Veterans Affairs insignias,” was parked on the University of Maine (WMA) “at Augusta’s campus for four hours Wednesday, hoping to catch a few veterans…looking for help.” The” swing around UMA’s various campuses” by the mobile Vet Center, “one of two in Maine and 50 nationwide that take to the roads to deliver their message to veterans, rather than waiting for veterans to seek out help at Veterans Affairs centers,” is “part of the 5,000-student college’s Military Achievement Project, a grant-funded push begun at UMA last year to recruit more veterans as students and to provide them veteran-specific services.”

 9.      Veteran Accused Of Threatening To Kill Obama. The AP (9/23, Suhr) notes that on Wednesday, 50-year-old US Army veteran Roman Otto Conaway was arrested and “charged…with threatening to kill President Barack Obama as part of what authorities said was his plan to ignite a war between Muslims and Christians and ‘start an apocalypse.'” After a “seven-hour standoff,” during which Conaway falsely “insisted a bulky belt he wore and three storage containers on his Fairview Heights property were packed with explosives,” the suspect surrendered. Conaway is “scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday on one count apiece of making a threat against the president and making false threats to detonate an explosive device.”

 10.    Pentagon Ceremony Pays Tribute To Most Recent Medal Of Honor Recipient. In continuing coverage, the Army Times (9/23, Fontaine, 104K) notes that during a ceremony held at the Pentagon on Wednesday, the US Air Force’s “top officers and hundreds more paid tribute” to Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger, the “most recent Medal of Honor recipient.” After noting that a day earlier, Etchberger’s three sons had “posthumously accepted the Medal of Honor on their father’s behalf during a…ceremony at the White House,” the Times says in 1968, Etchberger “held off enemy troops advancing on his secret radar facility” in Laos and “braved enemy gunfire to load his wounded comrades on an evacuation helicopter but was shot and killed as the helicopter flew away.”