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. Worldwide travel advisory issued for U.S. citizens overseas.  The State Department issued a worldwide advisory to U.S. citizens traveling and living abroad about the potential for anti-American violence in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

2. In Europe, troops express relief, joy over bin Laden’s death.  As word spread of the death of Osama bin Laden, servicemembers around Europe were relieved but cautious, wondering what follows the killing of the man whose murderous plan had sent them to war a decade ago.

3. Troops surprised, relieved over bin Laden’s death.  Shock and awe. That’s how U.S. servicemembers around the world reacted to the news that 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden had been killed.

4. Obama wants to maintain ban on open gays for now.  The Obama administration wants a federal appeals court to maintain the ban on openly gay servicemembers until the Pentagon is ready for them, probably by the end of the year, and to reject a demand for an immediate halt to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

5. Dodgers to provide free tickets to military members during month of May.  Los Angeles Dodgers….During the 2010 season, the Dodgers donated approximately 5000 tickets to the armed services, to groups including the California Department of Veteran Affairs, United States Navy Port Hueneme and Los Angeles Air Force Base. Twenty-five children from …

6. Doctors, lawyers, dentists tops in fed jobs that pay $180K-plus.  USA Today  Department of Veterans Affairs doctors, Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers and National Institutes of Health physicians represent the most numerous groups among at least 17828 federal employees whose annualized salaries totaled $180000 or more …

7. Soldiers with mental illness more often get PTSD.  Reuters  Between seven to eight percent of the general population eventually develops PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The psychological toll — including flashbacks, “numbing” toward other people, …

8. Cardiocom set to cash in on health care reform.  Finance and Commerce  The US Department of Veterans Affairs recently granted the right for Cardiocom and five other companies to compete for $225 million worth of home health monitoring services contracts in the next five years. Cosentino expects revenue to grow to $15 …

9. San Ramon man fights to serve wounded warriors.  San Jose Mercury News  The US Department of Veterans Affairs takes care of injuries and, through the GI Bill, education costs. But there are other needs, such as getting a place to live, obtaining additional medical help and finding volunteers who can help with financial …

10. United States Department of Veterans Affairs Adopts F4W Systems.  PR Newswire  Announced today that it is providing the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with thirteen of its latest Core communication systems. The systems, which will be placed at VA’s …

HAVE YOU HEARD?

VA research is showing that tailoring primary care to Veterans coping with homelessness may be an effective way to improve their health and put them on the road to permanent housing. Several VA medical centers now have clinics that blend primary care with an array of homeless services, including mental health care and housing support. Studies show that the approach works. Research at the West Los Angeles VAMC found that a special clinic boosted access to primary care and curbed reliance on emergency care. Similarly, a trial at the Providence VAMC showed that “tailoring primary care to homeless Veterans can decrease unnecessary emergency department use and medical admissions and improve chronic disease management.” To read more on this topic in VA Research Today magazine, and to learn more about this week’s National VA Research Week activities at VA Central Office and nationwide, go to www.research.va.gov.

IN OTHER NEWS

• First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden Promoting Support For Military Families. NBC’s Dateline First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, are “leading a new battle to help” US military families with soldiers deployed to war, as such families face their own kind of “sacrifice, tension, and trauma.” NBC interviewed both women “just after a White House ceremony to launch the program called ‘Joining Forces,'” which aims to convince “employers to hire and rehire veterans and their families,” as well as promote “education and wellness” in military families.

• Portsmouth Conference Reaches Out To Veterans. Foster’s Daily Democrat (NH) “More than 200 veterans, mostly individuals who served in the Vietnam War and older conflicts, packed the Pease Air National Guard Base’s Building 149 on Saturday as part of the second annual Seacoast Veterans Conference.” The “New Hampshire National Guard, in partnership with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, the Rochester VFW and Long Term Care Partners, LLC, hosted the event, which lasted most of Saturday.” In addition to a keynote presentation from “Dr. Marc Levenson, the Manchester VA Medical Center director,” the event featured a “panel of VA experts, the Mobile Vet Center, and many stations providing information on VA enrollment, the benefits and claims process, suicide prevention information, and more.”

• LePage Pushes Gold Star Plates. Kennebec (ME) Journal Maine Gov. Paul LePage is “working with the Legislature to make Gold Star license plates available to family members of Mainers who have been killed in military operations.” “Maine is one of only three states that do not offer Gold Star plates, according to the House Republican Office. The bill has been referred to the Legislature’s Transportation Committee.”

• While Giffords Recovers, Her Staff Assists Vets. NBC’s Dateline  “Veterans and military families were always important” to US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). So as she recovers from being shot earlier this year, “her staff members act as her surrogate,” helping both the “family of a deceased Korean war veteran” get his Bronze Star and a blind veteran at the University of Arizona.

• Finalists Named For Top Federal Workforce Awards. Washington Post Matthew Friedman, “executive director of the Veterans Affairs Department’s National Center for PTSD,” is “among 34 federal workers nominated for the 2011 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal awards.” Over his time working with vets, Friedman has overcome “many skeptics” who “believed the affliction was not a serious disorder.”

• Stanford Researchers Do Brain Imaging To Study PTSD. San Francisco Chronicle Craigslist founder Craig Newmark said work Stanford University researchers are doing in “conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs” is a “really big deal for vets” with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).   Stanford researchers have “launched an NIH-sponsored brain imaging study to understand how psychotherapy works for PTSD.

• Federal Government Stops Sending Paper Checks. Billings (MT) Gazette On Sunday, the US Department of the Treasury stopped “sending paper checks to all new recipients of Social Security and other federal payments. Henceforth, anyone applying for Social Security, Veterans Affairs or other federal benefits will be required to choose an electronic payment method.” The Gazette also noted that people “who currently receive federal benefits by paper check must switch to direct deposit by March 1, 2013.”

• Language Awards: The Best And Worst. Chester County (PA) Daily Local News “On Thursday, the Center for Plain Language announced its ClearMark and WonderMark awards, the former for the use of clear language and the latter for the use of confusing language.” Notables’ included the “Department of Defense, Veterans Benefits Administration, VBA My Pay System. ‘Not only is this written in long sentences filled with lots of subordinate clauses, it’s also in a typeface and size that makes it hard to read.'”

• Historic Hurdles Delay Planned PTSD Center. Honolulu Star-Advertiser Veteran Jason Ledford is “part of a steering committee for a Veterans Affairs post-traumatic stress disorder residential treatment center at Tripler Army Medical Center.” Ledford “believes the program saves lives,” so he is “aggravated by what he calls a ‘bureaucratic impasse’ that has delayed for years the construction of a larger standalone facility on Tripler grounds as the VA and historic preservation parties haggled over site plans.”

• Evolving VA Clinic Plans Hard To Pin Down. Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette The US Department of Veterans Affairs “vows to upgrade its Fort Wayne medical center” by, among other things, expanding its mental health services, this “despite abandoning a plan to replace” the hospital. But whether “area veterans see the latest plan as an improvement is another matter,” as demonstrated by vet Bill Becker, who during a recent town hall meeting in Decatur accused VA of “paying ‘lip service’ to veterans’ health care needs.”

• US Army Reserve Deputy Chief Tours The City. Cape Coral (FL) Daily Breeze “Cape Coral political and business leaders got the chance to spotlight what the city has to offer during a tour Saturday” for Maj. Gen. Keith L. Thurgood, the US Army Reserve deputy chief. Thurgood’s “itinerary involved a…visit to the sites of the Veterans Administration Clinic, which is nearing completion, and planned US Army Reserve Center.” Officials expect that the when the clinic becomes operational, as it is expected to in 2012, it “will employ about 300, increasing to more than 410 after a few years.”

• VFW Creates Its First Female Post. Fox News’ Fox And Friends  “The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization, or the VFW, has always been perceived as really sort of a men’s club.” Not anymore, however, as the nonprofit is “reaching out to women veterans by creating the first female post in the entire organization,”

• Wounded Warriors Find Life In Whitewater. Clarksville (TN) Leaf Chronicle “Team River Runner training, a program sponsored by Fort Campbell and VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System to help injured soldiers transition from combat missions to civilian life.'” The “six-week kayaking course will culminate this month when” wounded “soldiers take a weekend trip to the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, where they will go down either the Hiwassee or the Nantahala River.”

• White House Correspondents Dinner 2011. Washington Post Numerous celebrities, including actor Steve Buscemi, attended Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner. Buscemi “noted that part of the reason he came to Washington was to spend the previous day visiting with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed. ‘I just hope that with everything that’s going on that these guys are not forgotten,’ he said.”

• Hayward Man Hits Century Mark. Oakland Tribune When veteran and California resident Jack Faust recently turned 100 years old, 240 people attended a party held for him at the Fremont Elks Club. The “Elks have raised money for Faust to travel to Hawaii in May to compete against other veterans in the National Veterans Golden Age Games, where Faust is the reigning gold medalist at wheelchair bowling in the over-85 division. Faust bowls about once a month in Livermore, where he also sees his buddies at the Veterans Affairs nursing home.”

• Volunteers At VA Medical Center Recognized. Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader

• War Hero’s Battle: Legalizing The Medical Use Of Marijuana. Charlotte (NC) Observer “Perry Parks, a 68-year-old former Vietnam helicopter pilot, is relentless in his campaign to convince” the North Carolina Legislature “to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.” “He is doing this, Parks says, for his fellow veterans, many of whom are dealing with chronic pain, and have found that marijuana provides relief.

• Seguin Student Uses Science To Uncover The Past. San Antonio Express-News Seguin High School student Lauren Mandaville has “confirmed that unmarked graves can be found using” ground-penetrating radar (GPR) that was “originally developed to locate enemy tunnels during the Vietnam War.” Her “research earned several science competition awards, including two grand prizes in physical sciences at both the Alamo Regional Junior Academy of Science and the Texas Junior Academy of Science.” The US Army has used GPR “to determine if questionable burial sites…are occupied” at Arlington National Cemetery.