Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

Veterans!  Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources

We encourage you to browse our list so that you can take what you want and keep what you need…..

1. Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Alliance group meeting on Wednesday. Vallejo Times-Herald  … who served their country in the US Armed Forces and left service with a permanent disability, as determined by the US Department of Veteran Affairs,
2. Vet van program needs volunteers.  Republican & Herald  The county-run program is funded by the US Department of Veteran Affairs and allows veterans to get free transportation from their home to nearby VA
3. Group to study need for veterans hospital.  Cherry Hill Courier Post  The state, however, can only make recommendations to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, which decides where to establish hospitals to treat military
4. ICF International Awarded New $10 Million Contract to Support U.S. Department.  SYS-CON Media … has been awarded a new $10 million contract through High Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTi), to support the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
5. Rosebud national cemetery would be first on reservation.  Rapid City Journal Morrison, a Vietnam veteran who also serves as the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Veterans Affairs director, hopes to be buried in it someday
6. Local DAV chapter meeting veterans’ needs.  Cookeville Herald Citizen  With help from the DAV, veterans can have access to counseling on benefits offered through the United States Department of Veterans Affairs like disability
7. Federal Investigation Begins Into Missouri VA Center.  OzarksFirst.com  (St. Louis, MO) — The US Secretary of Veterans Affairs will discuss conditions at a St. Louis VA hospital this week. Members of Congress are hoping to get
8. New phase of National Cemetery set to begin.  Bradenton Herald  The US Department of Veterans Affairs finalized negotiations to build a new phase of the cemetery and
9. Honoring those who served.  The Times of Trenton – NJ.com  The ceremony was part of the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs outreach program, “One Mall a Month,” meant both to honor military
10. Paralyzed Veterans expo will focus on jobs, rehab – Statesman Journal.   Paralyzed Veterans expo will focus on jobs, rehabStatesman JournalThe event, from 10 am to 5 pm each day, will help connect veterans with available resources. A variety of businesses and health and financial resource …

OBITUARY

Dennis Michael Austin, a US Navy Veteran (1973-1977) has passed away.   He is survived by 3 children, 7 grand children and his wife Sonia.  He was a loving father, husband, grand father, brother, uncle & friend. He was born to Marine parents in Corpus Christi, Tx on November 12th 1955. The youngest of 4. He lost his battle with liver cancer on January 24th 2011 at 55 years old. He lifted his arms up to the heavens and gently slipped into a coma and passed shortly after in his sleep at 2:20 a.m. He will be dearly missed and will forever be in our hearts and a part of our nations freedom.  He will be buried in Riverside National Cemetery with Military Honors.  To contact the family, Christina Austin at cristinarda@hotmail.com

HAVE YOU HEARD?

VA recently announced the creation of the new Office of Tribal Government Relations to ensure that more than 200,000 Veterans who are American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians receive the VA benefits they have earned. “There is a long, distinguished tradition of military service among tribal peoples,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “VA is committed to providing these Veterans with the full range of VA programs, as befits their service to our nation.” Although VA has long provided benefits to Veterans in tribal lands, the new office will further strengthen and expand that relationship. Stephanie Elaine Birdwell, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation from Oklahoma, has been selected as the office’s first director. A former social worker, Birdwell has spent nearly 15 years working on tribal issues with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and, most recently, the Bureau of Indian Education. She will oversee a six-person office responsible for “establishing, maintaining and coordinating a nation-to-nation, federal-tribal relationship.”

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IN OTHER NEWS

11. Suicides by Marines continue to decline. The number of suicides among active-duty Marines fell in 2010, a downward trend that continued into the New Year with the Marine Corps recording only two suicides during January.

12. Military children of the year to be named soon. Navy Times

13. VA Announces Industry Innovation Competition Winners. Washington Technology “Two more vendors have been selected as winners of the Veterans Affairs Industry Innovation Competition for their use of new technologies to improve veterans’ health, Secretary Eric Shinseki announced” in a recent press release. The “winners are Agilex Technologies Inc. and Venture Gain LLC. Government Health IT VA has “awarded a contract to enable providers to share elements of a patient’s electronic health record on mobile devices in addition to three other contracts under its latest VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) competition to use new technologies in the agency’s facilities to improve the quality of veterans’ patient care.” The “Industry Innovation Competition was the third competition launched by VAi2 and is the first to involve the private sector, VA said in an announcement Feb. 4.

14. Homeless Veterans Summit Held In Illinois. Gurnee (IL) Tribune “Federal, state and county non-profit and government agencies from Lake, McHenry and Kenosha counties joined staff at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center…in a collaboration to combat homeless amongst area” veterans. The “Homeless Veterans Summit was a unified community effort to fulfill Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki’s five-year plan to end homelessness amongst” veterans “by bringing government, business and the private sector resources together.”

15. Acupuncture Being Used To Treat American Soldiers With Concussions. McClatchy The US military is “applying an ancient Chinese healing technique to the top modern battlefield injury for American soldiers, with results that doctors here say are ‘off the charts.’ ‘Battlefield acupuncture,’ developed by Air Force physician Col. Richard Niemtzow, is helping heal soldiers with concussions so they can return more quickly to the front lines.”

16. Program Connects Vets With Pets. Colorado Springs (CO) Gazette Iraq veteran Mario Chiarolanzio “adopted Kona, a 14-month-old husky, six months ago from the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region with the help of Pets for Patriots, a local nonprofit that helps veterans adopt injured or older animals from shelters.” After noting that Chiarolanzio was “medically retired from the military after doctors diagnosed him with hypereosinophilic syndrome, a disease of the blood and bone marrow for which there is no known cause,”

17. VA Hospital Staff Praised. Battle Creek (MI) Enquirer Battle Creek Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Garringer offers, “Dozens of roses to Suzanne Klinker-VA Medical Center director; Anne Garrett-nursing supervisor; and Diane Swafford-R.N. nurse of the day, who either came in early or stayed over in anticipation of the expected blizzard on Feb. 2.” According to Garringer, Klinker and Garrett “showed true caring for the medical center staff who may have needed relief,” and their “loyalty to…veterans” was “remarkable.”

18. VA, DOD Need Better Collaboration On Health IT Investments. NextGov “The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs need a unified battle plan when it comes to health IT investments, the General Accounting Office says” in a recently issued report. After noting that both departments are “establishing the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) and shared health IT capabilities for the first joint DoD-VA hospital, the James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, in North Chicago,”

19. VA Hospital Looking To Assist Vets At Risk Of Becoming Homeless. KPBS-FM San Diego, CA. The Veterans Affairs hospital in “San Diego is looking for a property to house newly returned veterans who are at risk of becoming homeless. The idea of what is being called a ‘domiciliary’ is to prevent a new generation of vets from joining those already on the streets.” “The VA in San Diego has been awarded $33 million over five years to open the domiciliary, one of only five cities in the nation to get the grant.”

20. Task Force To Make Recommendations On Southern New Jersey Vets Hospital. Press Of Atlantic City “A law signed in Trenton on Monday establishes an 18-person task force to study and make recommendations on how to best build and operate a hospital for veterans. The New Jersey Veterans’ Hospital Task Force will study, evaluate and make recommendations related to the construction and operation of a veterans’ health care facility in southern New Jersey.”

21. VHA’s Chief Of Cardiology: More Data Needed On Cardiac Catheterization Through Wrist. Wall Street Journal Deepak Bhatt, chief of cardiology at the Veterans Administration Healthcare System, feels more data is needed to prove that using the wrist is the best way to go.

22. Entries Sought For Asheville VA Center Arts Competition. Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times.

23. Ex-TSU Professor Sentenced In Theft. Tennessean

24. Vet Van Program Needs Volunteers. Pottsville (PA) Republican Herald

25. PSA To Remind Military Families Of Suicide-Prevention Measures. Army Times “Concerned about the rate of suicide rate among service members” of the US military, “three nonprofit groups and a Tricare contractor have joined forces to produce a public service announcement.” The announcement will “feature celebrities who remind service members and their families that they are not alone, and that help is available.”