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.   Veterans get more education benefits for non-degree training.  Salisbury Post  The expansion is part of an effort to employ veterans by helping them gain skills for high-paying jobs that don’t require degrees. According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), over 1 million service-members are projected to leave the …
2.   District works on deal with VA to aid students.  Plain Dealer (blog)  The US Department of Veterans Affairs is using the developer, Doan Pyramid, to build its administrative offices, a parking garage and a shelter for homeless veterans with alcohol and drug problems. The VA then will lease the space from Doan Pyramid. …
3.   Why Blue Button Data Is a Big Deal.  Medgadget.com  Last year, the US Department of Veterans Affairs launched the Blue Button Initiative in an effort to facilitate veterans’ access to their medical records, which they’d be able to share with doctors or insurers. …
4.   Texas State recognized for veterans’ resources.  University Star (blog)  Jonathan Pritchard, English senior and veteran, said his experience with the Office of Veterans Affairs at Texas State has been positive. “The VA here is really good and helpful,” Pritchard said. “I went to Austin Community College for a semester, …
5.   Fear drives Pakistan support for Haqqanis network.  Pakistani support for the Haqqanis network is tied to Islamabad’s fears for its own future security, and Pakistan is unlikely to surrender that support no matter how much pressure the United States applies, analysts say.
6.   Navy online sexual-assault survey closes Friday.  The Navy has sent a last-minute request to sailors, Marines, and affiliated civilians to participate in a voluntary online sexual-assault survey that will gauge the effectiveness of prevention programs and scope of assaults.
7.   Mullen’s legacy as chairman defined by two bold moments.  In 43 years, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the son of a Hollywood publicist, has graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, deployed to Vietnam, commanded an aircraft carrier strike group and the Second Fleet, detoured through Harvard Business School and become the nation’s highest-ranking naval officer.
8.   First-ever SD Secretary of Veterans Affairs named.  Daily Republic  Lt Gov. Matt Michels will serve as interim Secretary of Veterans Affairs until 2013. Michels is a veteran of the United States Navy. He is already the Governor’s point-person on veterans’ issues. The lieutenant governor is a member of the American …
9.   Daugaard Appoints Rapid City National Guard Officer To Be Secretary Of Veterans Affairs.  Rapid City Journal  South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard “has appointed a Rapid City National Guard officer to be the state’s first secretary of veterans affairs. Command Sgt. Major Larry Zimmerman will assume the cabinet post once his Guard duties end on Feb. 1, 2013.” The “Department of Veterans Affairs is a new creation by Daugaard, who separated the previous department of Military and Veterans Affairs into two agencies.”
10. Military Community Exasperated At Prospect Of Prolonged Shutdown Threats.  Stars And Stripes  “After several days of threats of federal furloughs and disruption of military pay, Congress avoided another government shutdown Monday night by agreeing to a six-week temporary budget plan.” While that “move delays the next budget showdown until November,” it “doesn’t calm the frustration of veterans who have seen their benefits and military programs held hostage by partisan squabbles three times in the last six months.” Stars And Stripes added, “The shutdown threats have become so routine that VA and Defense Department officials didn’t even bother to offer new guidance on how to prepare for possible office closings and paycheck delays, instead dusting off plans originally written in March.”

Have You Heard?

Here is your chance to see how VA cares for the some of the most severely wounded and injured Service members and Veterans returning from war. You can see their incredible recovery stories and learn about VA’s unparalleled Polytrauma System of Care by visiting the polytrauma website, www.polytrauma.va.gov.  More than 50,000 Veterans have been screened and diagnosed by VA with mild traumatic brain injury, with over 2,000 having multiple severe injuries and wounds, or polytrauma.   Learn more about polytrauma and traumatic brain injury at VA’s polytrauma website. The information you learn here just may be what you need to help a Veteran in your community.

More Veteran News

• Military Retirees Say Benefits Hard-Earned.  USA Today   “The financial stress of retirement programs has caused the military, the deficit commission and others to propose a range of money-saving measures, such as making retirees pay more for health care and creating a 401(k)-style retirement system to replace the traditional lifetime pension.” But for the “10 million former federal workers who get retirement compensation – especially those who served in the military – these benefits are regarded as well-deserved, hard-earned promises.” USA Today quotes military retiree Betsy Majma, who stated, “When people say I’m getting a handout, it irritates me. I earned this retirement. When I” joined the military, “I did it knowing what they would give me in return for what I gave them.”

• Army Is Behind In Granting Medical Retirements To 20,000.  USA Today  “The Army is falling further behind in granting medical retirements to soldiers to the roughly 20,000 soldiers who are physically or mentally unfit for duty, according” to Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff. The situation hurts military readiness, says Chiarelli, who “blames the delays on a military disability system that is ‘complex, disjointed and confusing'” after “10 years of war.” USA Today adds, “One achievement, however, is that by Saturday, a system of jointly assessing troops for medical retirement and Department of Veterans affairs benefits will be fully underway, Army and VA officials say.”

• VA Reaching Out To Female Vets. KGO-TV The US Department of Veterans Affairs “wants all vets to know about the services they offer, but right now there is a special push for attracting the fastest-growing part of the military and the VA: women.” According to KGO, VA is “working at changing its image to females” by, among other things, training “more than a thousand doctors to care for women.” The agency is also “phoning female veterans and making sure they know their eligibility for VA benefits.”

• VA Baby Showers Offer Thanks, Support System For New Mothers.  Troy (NY) Record  “As a way of celebrating, and thanking, those who have served our country, the North Albany American Legion Auxiliary and Silverstein Auxiliary hosted a baby shower for Crystal Furnari on Sept. 23” at the Albany Stratton Veterans Affairs Hospital. The Record adds, “Although other veteran hospitals offer programs to enhance the inpatient stay of female veterans, Albany is the only VACM to offer baby showers.

•  WNY VA To Offer Free Child Care.  Buffalo Business First   “A free child-care service for veterans will begin service Oct. 3 at the VA WNY Healthcare Center.” The “Buffalo hospital is one of three VA medical centers nationwide to benefit from the pilot program, established by Congress as part of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010. The Buffalo site is the first to open, to be followed by pilot sites in Northport on Long Island; and in Puget Sound, Wash.”

•  Alfonso Batres: A Leadership Veteran.  Washington Post  “Federal Coach” blog interviews Dr. Alfonso Batres, who has “spent nearly three decades working with the community-based Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Readjustment Counseling Vet Centers, starting in the field offices and heading the national program since 1994.” Batres “is the 2011 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals Career Achievement medal recipient.” According to Batres, Vet Centers “are the gold standard in employee” and client satisfaction.

•  Collateral Damage: Stigma Can Keep Many Soldiers From Seeking Mental Health Help.  Fayetteville (NC) Observer  There is a “growing number of soldiers and veterans” facing mental health problems, “despite the biggest effort that the Army, Veterans Affairs and this community have ever made to address them. Army officials say the stigma attached to getting help remains the primary reason soldiers suffering from mental health problems avoid counseling.” The Army, however, has instituted programs to help in this area. Meanwhile, advocacy groups, VA, “law enforcement and the judicial system in Fayetteville have stepped up efforts to help soldiers and veterans.”

• Student Veterans Studying Online To Get GI Bill Housing Stipend Next Month.  Stars And Stripes  “Student veterans attending online classes under the post-9/11 GI Bill will start receiving housing stipend checks next month for the first time, part of another slate of changes to the education benefit.” Veterans Affairs “estimates that 22,000 students will qualify for the new housing stipends.” In addition, VA “officials said they expect about 40,000 more veterans to take advantage of new rules allowing the post-9/11 GI Bill to be used for non-college degree programs like apprenticeship training, correspondence courses and vocational rehab.”

• Holly Petraeus Urges Vets To Investigate For-Profit Colleges.  NPR  audio  Story on for-profit colleges, which are “accused of targeting members of the military with aggressive and often misleading marketing.” Holly Petraeus, “director of service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the wife of General David Petraeus,” told NPR that there is real incentive “for-profits to see them that way because of something called the 90/10 rule, which says that for-profit colleges can only get 90 percent of their money from Title IV education funds, and the 10 percent has to come from somewhere else.” Petraeus added that veterans “need to investigate the colleges that they’re going to take courses from to be sure they are getting quality.”

•  From Soldier To Student, A Bumpy Road.  New York Times  “At War” blog, Iraq veteran Alex Horton, a “public affairs specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he writes for the department’s blog, VAntage Point,” says, “As a growing number of veterans leave Iraq, Afghanistan, and the military, many will decide” to attend college. According to Horton, a Georgetown University student, veterans “need universities to understand and anticipate” their “unique circumstances.” Horton says several schools have done so by establishing “programs to help” veterans succeed.

•  New Brain Imaging Could Improve PTSD Treatments.  KGO-TV  “Research on how best to deal” with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “is critical as” more soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan. To address this matter, Veterans Affairs in Palo Alto and Stanford University are conducting “brain imaging research.” Those working on the project are “hoping to use magnetic stimulation to activate the same neural pathways that are activated by standard psychotherapy, with the goal of possibly duplicating or accelerating the results.”

• VA Hospital Aims To Serve New, Younger Vets.  WSPA-TV The Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center has broken “ground on new facilities that will serve the changing demographic of veterans returning from war.” On Wednesday, “hospital officials and veterans celebrated the new Freedom Health Center, which will help give combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan outpatient care.” The hospital, noted WSPA, has also “developed a women’s care program.”

•  Smart Home” Technology Used At Tampa VA Hospital.  WINK-TV  “The road to recovery led” injured Afghanistan vet Sgt. Anthony Torres “to the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa, where he is being treated along with 9 other patients at the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center.” Recognizing the “challenges for patients, doctors had the idea to turn the rehab facility into a ‘smart home’ of sorts. One that would prepare vets for life outside the hospital setting.”

•  VA Prepares To Purchase iPads, iPhones.  Federal Times   “The Veterans Affairs Department plans to equip about 1,000 employees with Apple iPads and iPhones next month and then gradually increase that number. Employees will need to show a strong business case that having a mobile device is necessary to get work done, said VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker.” After noting that Baker made his comments while speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Times adds, “Baker is one of more than 100 VA employees participating in pilot programs to test how iPads and iPhones can be used at VA hospitals.”

• Baker Hoping More Incident Reports Will Help Promote Security Awareness. FierceGovernmentIT  Baker “spoke with reporters Sept. 28 about the department’s monthly data breach report.” FierceGovernmentIT adds, “In the month of August, VA reported six low-risk data breach incidents and only one medium-risk incident” at a VA medical facility in Spokane, Washington. After noting that employees at that facility have been trained to avoid such a problem in the future, FierceGovernmentIT adds, “VA’s monthly data breach reports have been increasingly mundane, but Baker said he would like to see an increase in the number of incidents reported, as it could help promote a culture of security awareness.”

• SLC Housing Authority Board Investigating Sunrise Metro.  Salt Lake Tribune  “High staff turnover is threatening the care of residents at the Sunrise Metro public housing complex, while illegal drug use is widely tolerated, former employees of the Salt Lake City Housing Authority have alleged” to its Board of Commissioners, which is investigating the allegations. The “allegations come after the Department of Veterans Affairs – also citing high turnover and acceptance of substance abuse – threatened to pull funding if the housing complex doesn’t fix those and other problems.” According to the Tribune, the Sunrise Metro public housing complex “opened five years ago to provide supported housing for the chronically homeless, including veterans, many of whom are dealing with addiction or mental illness.”

• Defense Forum Addresses Veterans Unemployment..  Army Times   “The military must educate personnel on transitioning to civilian life as well as it does indoctrinating them into the service – but the task of preparing veterans for private-sector employment should not be shouldered by the Pentagon alone, a panel of industry and labor experts said Monday. Speaking at a defense forum on wounded-warrior care after active duty, business leaders said veterans’ employment – for all, not just the disabled – must be addressed in concert by the Defense Department, Veterans Affairs Department and private companies.” The Times adds, “According to the US Chamber of Commerce, the overall veterans’ unemployment rate is hovering at 9.9 percent.”
  

• Arlie Pulls Out Of VA Derby.  Eugene (OR) Register-Guard  “Eugene-based developer Arlie & Co. said Wednesday that it has dropped out of the race to land a new federal” Veterans Affairs clinic. The Register-Guard adds, “‘We have informed the chair of the unsecured creditors committee that we exhausted all options in our efforts to overcome a major impediment to placing the VA clinic at Crescent Village,’ the company said” in a news release. After noting that Arlie officials did not say what the impediment was, the Register-Guard points out that VA is “seeking at least 13 acres in the Eugene-Springfield area for its clinic.”

•  Asheville VA, Local Hospitals To Share Records Electronically.  Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times  On Tuesday, officials “from local hospitals and the…Department of Veterans Affairs gathered for a live demonstration” of the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) program. The Charles George VA Hospital is “one of 11 pilot sites nationwide chosen for the program. It will allow doctors and other health care professionals to view a veteran’s file in real time, even when the veteran’s most recent care occurred at another local hospital.”

•  Notable Neighbor: VA Nurse Practitioner Named A Texas Nurses Association’s Outstanding Nurse.  Bellaire Examiner  “Nurse Practitioner Jane Anderson was selected as one of the Texas Nurses Association’s 20 Outstanding Nurses for 2011.” She “will receive her award on Nov. 10 at the organization’s Nursing Celebration 2011. Anderson has worked at Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center since 1998.”

• The Department Of Veteran Affairs Helping To Get Veterans Off The Street.  WAGT-TV  “More housing options could soon be on the way for veterans” on the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Hospital campus. On Tuesday night, VA “gave the public a first look at a proposal and asked for input on what’s called an Enhanced Use lease project,” which involves someone leasing an underutilized VA building in order to “provide some care for our senior veterans with assistant living and also some of their families,” said Carolyn Adams, Norwood’s interim director. She added, “This is an opportunity for homeless veterans or Veterans at risk to have housing and the assistant living and the family housing. So it would be different types of components with in this development.”

•  Camp Nelson Cemetery Gets Sign For Namesake.  Jessamine Journal  “Camp Nelson National Cemetery got a new sign on its grounds Tuesday afternoon to commemorate the Civil War veteran it is named after – Major General William ‘Bull’ Nelson. Several Civil War groups gathered to dedicate the historical marker and interpretive sign in Nelson’s honor.” The “ceremony took place on what would have been Nelson’s 187th birthday, just two days prior to the anniversary of his 1862 death.”

• Groundbreaking Set For State Veterans Cemetery Near Spanish Fort.   Mobile (AL) Press-Register  A seven million dollar grant awarded last month by the US Department of Veterans’ Affairs has “set the stage for a groundbreaking ceremony for the Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery near Spanish Fort.” The ceremony is scheduled to take place at 1:30 p.m. on “Oct. 7 at Saluda Hill along Ala. 225.” The Press-Register adds, “Under an agreement, the federal government will pay for construction, and then turn over the cemetery to Alabama.”

• Helping Veterans Adapt..  New York Times  Sherri Brown, the American Red Cross’ senior vice president of Services to the Armed Forces, writes, “‘Looking After the Veteran, Back Home and Damaged’ (news article, Sept. 28) provides a thoughtful look at just a few of the complex issues facing returning service members, veterans, their caregivers and their families. For anyone touched by war, coming home can be a grueling challenge, one that requires the attention not just of the Defense Department or the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also of nongovernment organizations and community groups.” Brown says people who work at Red Cross and other “organizations dedicated to serving the armed forces and their families” must adapt to help veterans’ caregivers.

•  Man Who Shot Himself In Leg To Get A Purple Heart Got Convicted Instead. SF Weekly

•  Veterans Court Debuts Tuesday In Northumberland County. Sunbury (PA) Daily Item

•   Veterans Encouraged To Sign Up For Electronic Patient Access.  Walla Walla (WA) Union-Bulletin