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

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1.   VA takes action against builder in WAVE 3 Troubleshooter report.  WAVE   The US Department of Veterans affairs is taking action after a WAVE 3 Troubleshooter investigation exposed a construction company accused of building shoddy homes near Fort Knox. But as Troubleshooter Eric …
2.   Benefits briefing for Big Bend area veterans set this month.  Alpine Avalanche  Joining them will be representatives from the Texas Veterans Commission, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and lenders specializing in veterans loans. …
3.   State to continue providing funds for honor guard at veterans’ funerals.  Minnesota Public Radio  Mark Dayton had cut the program’s funding for the next two years because of the state’s budget crisis. But Shellito said the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs will continue to provide funds to veteran service organizations for funerals. …
4.   Veterans connect to free services at IBEW event.  Dorchester Reporter  Clothing provided by the Veterans Administration as well as sleeping bags were also available to the veterans. The event was tailored to serve homeless and at-risk veterans – a demographic that has been a high priority of local public figures and …
5.   Beyond PTSD: Soldiers Have Injured Souls.  Miller-McCune.com  These veterans and thousands like them grapple with what some call “the war after the war” — the psychological scars of conflict. Working with the US Department of Veterans Affairs and private organizations, these men and women are employing …
6.   Texas Is Tops In US At Putting Vets In Jobs. San Antonio Express-News US Department of Labor statistics show that, “for the 12 months ended June 30, 2010, the most recent data available, 38,714 veterans in Texas found jobs after seeking” help from the Texas Veterans Commission, the most of any state. Stan Kurtz, the commission’s operations specialist in the employment sector, said, “No other state is focusing on employment outreach like we do in Texas.” While part of the figure “is due to the size of [Texas’] veteran population,” it “found jobs for about 56 percent of the veterans who sought assistance last year,” a rate that only Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota topped.
7.   Minn. Finds Money For Honor Guards At Vet Funerals.  AP Minnesota Veterans Affairs Commissioner Larry Shellito said “his agency has the funds to keep paying for” honor guards at veterans’ funerals despite the spending being cut from the new state budget.
8.   VA Starts Online Open Source Community For VistA.  Federal Computer Week  VA “started its online open-source community intended to leverage crowdsourced knowledge to update its Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) electronic health record system.” VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said that with the Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent, “we begin the implementation of our strategy and we look forward to the creation of a vibrant open source Electronic Health Record community.” The agency “intends to modernize VistA with open-source code, and to use those applications in the joint digital record system being developed with the Defense Department.” Roger Baker, the VA’s assistant secretary for information and technology, said, “I have great optimism that this will lead the way to how these [open-source] systems get done.”
9. VA’s PMAS Not Fully Operational, Says IG. FierceGovernmentIT VA Office of Inspector General report found that the department’s Program Management Accountability System “should not be ‘considered completely established or fully operational.'” According to the audit, “the VA office of information technology stood up PMAS without a roadmap, adequate leadership or enough staff to effectively execute the program.” Additionally, report author Belinda Finn, assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations, “questions the data reliability of PMAS.” However, the department’s leadership “has repeatedly touted the program’s gains,” with its “most prominent supporter…probably” VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. Still, “VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker concurred with the audit’s recommendations that VA develop an implementation plan, improve leadership and staff, and ensure data reliability.”
10. VA Takes Aim At Jobs, Transition Help.  American Legion  Steve Brooks writes VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said at the American Legion convention that “employment, business and education have percolated to the top of VA’s crowded priority list.” He said “that VA and the Department of Defense ‘will spearhead a government-wide effort to reform the way members transition out of the military services,'” an “important component” of which “is to stimulate growth and success for veteran-owned businesses.” Meanwhile, “VA itself has set a goal of increasing its own veteran workforce from 30 percent to 40 percent.” Shinseki also touched on “improved access to veterans health-care facilities, elimination of veteran homelessness and reducing VA’s backlog of undecided benefits claims.”

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More Veteran News

• Shinseki Encourages Vets To Apply For Benefits.  Lake County (CA) News  “Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said Tuesday that more than $2.2 billion in retroactive benefits has already been paid to approximately 89,000 Vietnam veterans and their survivors who filed claims related to one of three new Agent Orange presumptive conditions.” He added, “I encourage all potentially eligible veterans to apply as soon as possible to preserve the most favorable effective date for payments.” Under Secretary for Benefits Allison A. Hickey said, “VA encourages survivors of veterans whose death may be due to one of the three diseases to file a claim for dependency and indemnity compensation.”

• Veterans Discover Allure of Jobs in Western Wilderness. New York Times A pilot program in California that “gives veterans a chance to learn skills and perhaps pursue careers preserving public lands.” The program is “a collaboration among many government agencies and nonprofits, particularly a three-year-old group called Veterans Green Jobs” and originally began “in Colorado in 2009 and has spread from the Rockies to the rest of the West.” In the backcountry veterans get “a respite from the very different demands of civilian life,” paid work, and are “in a familiar situation: part of a small group in a far-off location with a little-understood job to do.”

• Pentagon Personnel Chief Draws Criticism For Leadership Style. Washington Post Clifford L. Stanley, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness who was “brought in last year to reorganize a troubled division, has drawn complaints that his ineffective leadership has undermined his staff and slowed” the “Wounded Warrior” program. Defense Department spokesman Col. David Lapan said the increased time “is not necessarily indicative of a problem,” adding, “The important thing is to ensure there is no gap between the military and the VA systems.” However, there have been complaints that Stanley “hurt morale by dismissing or reassigning dozens of top officials,” wasted money, “and offended staff members when he used the word ‘mongoloidism’ to describe people of low intelligence.” They “refer repeatedly to Stanley’s ignorance of the department and an aggressive leadership style.” The Defense Department IG and a House subcommittee are investigating the allegations. “Stanley’s supporters say that he has succeeded and that his critics are mainly those he has dismissed or moved aside,” the Post notes.

•  Obama Makes a Vow To Veterans, But Can He Keep It?  New York Times  President Obama promised not to “balance the budget on the backs of our veterans,” but “just how much power Mr. Obama will have to prevent such cuts is not quite clear.” Proposals for the “super committee” to cut spending include changing “military pensions to make them similar to 401(k) retirement programs,” and if Congress doesn’t agree to the committee’s plan, the across the board cuts “almost certainly fall on the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Still, the President called for “expanding programs to prepare service members for the private sector” and “creating tax credits for companies that hire unemployed or disabled veterans.” Additionally, Obama, “acknowledged that, despite highly touted efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce the backlog in disability claims, that backlog has continued to grow, due largely to new claims for illnesses related to Agent Orange.”

•  Orthopedic Device Helping Wounded Return To Running.  San Antonio Express-News  Advances in surgical techniques enables allow “mangled legs once previously destined for amputation” to be saved. “During the healing process, rehabilitation for each wounded warrior is designed to get them back to how they were before their injuries.” Johnny Owens, director of Limb Salvage Rehabilitation at San Antonio’s Center for the Intrepid, “tailors a rehab program for each warrior according to their injuries.” The CFI developed the Intrepid Dynamic Exoskeletal Orthosis is a custom-fit orthopedic device that “resembles an amputee’s running prosthetic,” and, when paired with an extensive rehabilitation program, “is allowing wounded warriors who previously had difficulties walking or standing due to lower leg injuries to run again,” which “can be the difference whether a wounded warriors is allowed stay on active duty.”

• US Chamber Campaigns To Employ Vets.  American Legion The American Legion partnered with the US Chamber of Commerce on veterans hiring fair. “Legion organizers praised the hiring fair as among the most productive of recent Legion-sponsored career fairs and credited the US Chamber’s participation.” Additionally, “Kevin Schmiegel, vice president of veterans’ employment programs at the US Chamber of Commerce, announced the impending rollout of three additional components in the organization’s concerted campaign to employ military veterans,” including a private sector national employment advisory council, encouraging small business to hire veterans, and IT architecture for veterans and employers.

•  After In-Patient Care, Troops Face Bureaucracy. NPR’s All Thing Considered Following the Walter Reed scandal, the military “created a new entity called the Warrior Transition Units,” with the mission “just for these soldiers to get better.” There is a primary care manager, a nursing care manager, and a squad leader for each soldier, “and these three people keep an eye on you, everything from doctors’ appointments to paperwork, to taking your medications.” Bowman added, “Overall, it’s been doing a pretty good job,” although the Army IG found “they don’t have enough psychologists and counselors” and about a third of the soldiers are dependent on or addicted to drugs. However, many of the soldiers have wounds that people wouldn’t have survived until recently, as well as TBI and PTSD, so their care is “very, very complicated.” Meanwhile, the VA has “a huge, huge undertaking” to take care of those who leave the military, “so the VA is coming up with, let’s say, medical vans, storefront clinics in” rural areas, and telemedicine.

•  Legionnaires Bring Cheer To VA Patients. American Legion “A group of Legionnaires from the Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation (VA&R) Commission paid a surprise visit to recovering troops at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center” bearing gift bags “that included Nike backpacks, shower gel, American Legion T-shirts and thank-you letters written by students from Buck Lodge Middle School in Prince George’s County, Md.” that went to seriously wounded warriors in the polytrauma acute-care ward. Facility director Steve Kleinglass “said the Legion

•  VA Clinic To Receive New Staxi Wheelchairs. Easton (MD) Star Democrat “The Cambridge Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic was recently one of several recipients of new Staxi wheelchairs after the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System bought almost 50 new wheelchairs” following a donation of over $49,000 from the Department of Maryland Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The “unique wheelchairs are suited to meet the specific needs of veterans receiving care throughout the VA Maryland Health Care System.” Wheelchairs will also go to “the Cambridge VA Outpatient Clinic, as well as the Baltimore and Perry Point VA Medical Centers, the Loch Raven VA Community Living Center & Rehabilitation Center, and the Loch Raven and Pocomoke City VA Outpatient Clinics.”

• VA Workers Raise $7K For Trail Of Honor.  Muskogee (OK) Daily Phoenix Employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office Education Annex raised $7,321.68 “for a proposed ‘Trail of Honor’ at the Fort Gibson National Cemetery.” Three by five foot flags would be placed 24 feet apart will be displayed on three different routes in town leading to the cemetery, weather permitting. The VA employees “utilized many different fundraisers during the contest – bake sales, raffles, lemonade stands and hot dogs,” as well as raising money “by having two employees – Larry Koch and Rhonda Stinson – agree to dress up in a clown costume at a date to be determined.”