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. VA Loans Help Veterans Find Their Home Sweet Home.  Patch.com  To learn more about VA loans visit the US Department of Veteran Affairs’ website. Editor’s note: Nancy Minor is a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty Chattahoochee North. Her office is located in Peachtree Corners.

2. Auto Accidents Are The Leading Cause Of Death For Veterans.  The Car Connection More According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause… Read More According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among veterans who have …

3. College brings back sense of normalcy for veterans.  Rochester Democrat and hronicle
Veteran and MCC student Roger Yeomas of Rochester, right, listens to Mike Bates, Coordinator of Veterans Services at Monroe Community College. / Shawn Dowd/staff photographer Some state agencies will help veterans returning from service to qualify for …

4. 8 Smart Tips for Veterans Heading Back to School.  Money Talks News (blog)  Angelia N. Millender, Broward College Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. On Veteran’s Day, we thank our nation’s military veterans and reservists for their service. …

5. Veteran’s Day: Wounded Warrior’s Bond With Dog Saves Both.  Fox News  “A complete an utter overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to happen,” Montalván said. Montalván, who has Cuban and Puerto Rican roots, enlisted in the United States Army when he was 17-years-old. During his childhood, while other kids …

6. Area veterans get $3.7M in state bonuses.  Cincinnati.com  Moe said the state agency works with local veteran offices and organizations, such as Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and AMVETS, to improve communication with veterans and their families. “Our biggest challenge is reaching the vet,” said …

7. Dayton pitches plan to fix veterans’ unemployment.  Minneapolis Star Tribune  The state’s military education program now provides a stipend only to veterans who have served since 9/11. Dayton and Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Larry Shellito said they will propose the state open up the program to include Vietnam, ..

8. Veterans: ‘Each of us has something to offer’.  Kansas.com  Most are in their late 80s and 90s. They are dying, according to US Department of Veterans Affairs, at a rate of 1000 a day. “I’m glad to be celebrating my 90th birthday. Glad I have lived that long,” Smith said. “I’m glad to be a veteran. ..

9. Uncertainty about skills, injuries dampens hiring of veterans.  Washington Post (blog)
According to the US Department of Veteran Affairs, about 11 to 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in the US have post traumatic stress disorder, a condition that can cause hyper-vigilance, flashbacks and other symptoms. …

10.  A $784000 federal grant will help Volunteers of America Kentucky set up. Louisville Courier-Journal  The grant from the US Department of Veteran Affairs was announced at a press conference Friday by US Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District. The money will be used to counsel veterans who are homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless and connect them …

More Veteran News

•  VFW blasts proposed changes to retirement, Tricare.  A guest column by Richard L. DeNoyer, a retired Marine and Vietnam combat veteran from Middleton, Mass., the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its auxiliaries.

• Honoring those who served: Veterans Day in D.C..  Braving the cold weather, hundreds of veterans came to the National Mall Friday to commemorate Veterans Day. Many congregated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where esteemed journalist Joseph L. Galloway was the keynote speaker at the annual Veterans Day ceremony

• Senate Approves Jobs Benefits For Veterans.  AP   “On Veterans Day eve, an uncharacteristically unified Senate emphatically passed a bill to help unemployed veterans and government contractors that includes the first, small slivers of President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda that he is likely to sign into law.” The “legislation would award tax credits of up to $9,600 to companies that hire disabled veterans who have been job-hunting for at least half a year and strengthen employment counseling and training programs for vets and troops about to leave the military.” The tax breaks “would be paid for by extending a fee the Veterans Affairs Department charges to back home loans.”

• House Urged To Follow Senate’s Lead And Approve Legislation. Bloomberg News “We applaud the Senate for passing a measure yesterday to provide tax credits to employers who hire veterans. We hope the House will follow suit, giving” the President the “opportunity to sign into law a small piece of his $447 billion jobs bill.”

•   Fewer Members Of Congress Today Also Served In Military.  USA Today  “Just 22% of members of Congress today have also served in the military – the lowest number since at least World War II.” Because the “party makeup of congressional veterans has usually…trended Republican,” Democrats are “reprising their ‘Vet Strategy’ of 2006” and running 11 veterans “in what the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sees as winnable districts.” USA Today adds, “The National Republican Campaign Committee wouldn’t discuss its veteran recruiting efforts, but provided a list of 74 GOP veteran challengers looking to run in 51 Democratic districts.”

•  Dayton Pitches Plan To Counter High Joblessness Among Veterans.  Minneapolis Star Tribune  On Thursday, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton “proposed expanding the state’s GI Bill to include older veterans, an effort to jump-start job skill training to reduce high veteran unemployment.” Minnesota’s “military education program now provides a stipend only to veterans who have served post 9/11. In an announcement, Dayton and Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Larry Shellito said the state will open up the program to include Vietnam, Gulf War and peacetime vets.”

•   State Announces New Initiatives For Veterans.  Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal  On Thursday, New York state “leaders announced several initiatives…designed to help veterans and members of the military.” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “announced the ‘Experience Counts’ campaign to help veterans returning from service to qualify for jobs.” In “addition to Cuomo’s announcement, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a guide to help veterans to be aware of benefits and other services they can take advantage of.”

•  Veterans And Loved Ones Gather To Witness Dedication Of New Veterans Home.  KETK-TV   Veterans “and those who support them were on hand Wednesday to witness the dedication of the Watkins-Logan-Garrison Texas State Veterans Home in Tyler.” The “home was made possible thanks to a $12 million grant” from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The Texas Veterans Land Board paid the “remaining 35 percent” of the home’s cost.

•  Why Veterans Make Good Employees.  Wall Street Journal   Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki says President Obama knows how important it is that veterans help the US economy recover by getting jobs. So it is a good thing, Shinseki adds, that the First Lady was able to announce on Thursday that US corporations have made a pledge to hire a significant number of vets. Companies that do so will be glad, says Shinseki, because of the many skills vets learn during their time in the military. Shinseki concludes by urging community members across the country to help find jobs for vets.

•  Government, Businesses Trying To Lower Veteran Unemployment Rate.  USA Today  “Veterans who served since 9/11 have been hit particularly hard” by a tough job market, facing an unemployment rate of 12.1% while the “national rate is 9%. The hardest-hit group is male veterans ages 20-24,” who are “facing a competitive labor market with extra handicaps: youth, a lack of education and experience other than the military, and wounds of war that left some with physical or mental disabilities.” USA Today adds, “The Obama administration, Congress, businesses and private groups are trying to help veterans transition from the military to the civilian work world,” through means ranging “from a presidential push for new tax incentives to hire veterans to expanded training programs, targeted job fairs and personalized career counseling.”

•  First Lady Announces Veteran Hiring Pledge. ABC World News  On the “eve of Veterans Day, attention was paid” to “veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who have returned from the battlefield to another kind of battle here,” where they face 12.1% unemployment, a rate “that’s well above the rest of the country. Today, First Lady Michelle Obama announced that American corporations have now pledged to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses by the year 2014. It’s part of a jobs initiative that she and Jill Biden, the Vice President’s wife, launched earlier this year.”   AP  “Assuring military veterans that ‘America has your back,'” the First Lady “announced commitments from companies Thursday to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014. ‘That’s 100,000 veterans and spouses who will have the security of a paycheck and good career,’ Mrs. Obama said in a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce. ‘That’s thousands of families that can rest just a little bit easier every night.'”

•  Feds Strive To Boost Job Opportunities For Veterans, Brace For Influx.  AOL Government  “Many agree the federal government should be doing more to help.” But several Federal “agencies are…ramping up efforts to address veterans’ needs as they take on the challenges of acclimating to civilian life, finding a home, accessing health care and learning how their skills apply to jobs outside the military. Efforts include” expanding the Post-9/11 GI Bill to provide “vocational training and other non-degree job training programs,” programs “within the American Jobs Act,” and “partnerships with private industry,” as “well as a new focus on helping disabled” vets and “understanding mental health needs.”

•  Craigslist’s Craig Praises VA Innovation.  NextGov  On Wednesday, “Craig Newmark, founder of Craiglist, had high praise for the Veterans Affairs Department in a post on the official VA blog, VAntage Point today.” In his post, Newmark said people should give credit to VA because it has “accomplished at lot” in the “last couple years or so.” Also in the post, said Brewin, Newmark “praised employee and vendor innovation, better interaction between VA employees and vets, the open source model to help develop the next generation of VA/Defense Department electronic health records and the lead VA has taken in the use of iPads in the federal government. So, in face of this endorsement, nothing cranky from me about VA today.”

•  Two Years Later, VA To Start Construction On New Hospital.  Denver Post  The US Department of Veterans Affairs has struck a deal with two contractors to begin construction on a new hospital in Aurora, Colorado. The agreement comes on the heels of pressure from several members of the Colorado delegation to get started on the project, two years after VA Secretary Eric Shinseki attended its groundbreaking ceremony.

•  Official: VA Effort Going “Very Well.”  NPR  audio  Veterans “make up just nine percent of the US population, yet nearly 15 percent of the country’s homeless adults are veterans,” many of whom “served in Iraq and Afghanistan.” NPR spoke with Susan Angell, the executive director for Veterans Homeless Initiatives at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She said her agency is doing “very well” in terms of making progress toward its goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015. Angell pointed out that unemployment “is an issue for many of our homeless veterans. So we have hired nearly 400 formerly homeless veterans to assist currently homeless veterans in getting” and “keeping jobs.” She also said VA is “working closely” with the Defense Department “on a high-level committee to try to make that transition piece much more useful and relevant to those that are leaving the military right now.”

•   For Soldiers, The End Of The Mail Means the End Of The War.  New York Times  “At War” blog, author and Veterans Affairs’ Director of Online Communications Brandon Friedman, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an infantry officer with the 101st Airborne Division, said he was with co-workers when an announcement was made that “mail postmarked after Nov. 17, 2011 would not be delivered to American troops” in Iraq. Friedman said an Army “survives on word from home,” so the announcement had a “palpable” effect on him because it drove home the fact that the war is ending.

•   Special Courts To Help Veterans Are A Growing Trend Nationwide.  ABA Journal New courts being established to help those who served their country cope with special problems members of the US military may suffer when they return home.” The Journal adds, “Among the states that now have special courts for veterans either up and running or soon to be launched are California, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, Texas and Washington state.” On Thursday, the US Department of Justice “announced in a press release that it is providing more than $1 million in grants to help support such courts in California; Hennepin County, Minn.; Yellowstone County, Mont.; and Spokane County, Wash.”

• An Accounting Of Programs That Aim To Help Troops.  New York Times  The “Pentagon recruited the RAND Corporation to catalog for the first time all of the military’s programs dealing with traumatic brain injury and the mental and social health of its troops,” with an eye toward beginning the “process of evaluating whether programs overlap, whether more are needed, which are effective and which are not.” The first step in that process “was a report, released on Wednesday,” which “calls on the Defense Department to conduct a comprehensive assessment of service members’ psychological needs, then review existing programs to make sure they are meeting those needs, are located in the right places, complement each other and use the best evidence-based treatments available.

• “Middle Tennessee Veterans Face Delays For Care.  Tennessean   “Veterans in Middle Tennessee have some of the longest wait times in the nation for a new patient mental health appointment.   USA TODAY  Department of Veterans Affairs data. The analysis determined that nearly a third of the nation’s VA hospitals had wait times longer than the agency’s goal of seeing patients in 14 days or less.” The Tennessean added, “In Middle Tennessee, the average time for a new patient appointment was 25 days, which put the VA system here among the five with the longest average waits.”

• Military And Veteran Suicide Rates.  Diane Rehm Show  audio  Discussion about an increase in military and veteran suicide rates. On the panel was Dr. Jan Kemp, Veterans Affairs’ National Mental Health Program Director for Suicide Prevention, who said it is hard to get “solid numbers” on veteran suicides, because “not all states are required to report veteran status on their death certificates.” Dr. Kemp talked about how VA is helping troubled people who call the agency’s Veterans Crisis Line. In addition, she said, VA provides the same kind of help through an online chat service.

•  Poll: Veterans Looking For Food Help.  Wall Street Journal  A poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, the largest food bank in the country, has found that approximately one in four New York City households with military veterans struggle with putting food on the table. An organization that is helping vets in this area is the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which runs the Hero Hunger Health Project. Over 2,400 privately funded gift cards to food shops have been given out by the program since 2006.

•   Man Accused Of Defrauding Disabled Vets.  Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution   “A federal grand jury indicted a Luthersville man this week on charges of getting $2.85 million in government contracts by fraudulently claiming his business was controlled by a veteran. Arthur Wayne Singleton, a 62-year old construction contractor, defrauded programs that set aside certain government contracts for businesses owned and controlled by disabled veterans, according to a federal indictment.” The Journal-Constitution adds, “Singleton secured contracts from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the US Coast Guard and the US Army Corps of Engineers for construction projects around the country.”

•  Biden Visits An American Legion.  Politico  On Thursday, “Vice President Joe Biden visited with veterans at a Manchester-area American Legion in New Hampshire.” The “‘way it’s been going on the last 10 years in this country, fighting two wars, it would be appropriate to have every day be Veterans Day,’ Biden told the crowd a day ahead of the federal holiday.” The Vice President also pitched the Administration’s “jobs bill, speaking about financing care for wounded soldiers, protecting their finances and funding the defense department.”