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

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1.    Veterans jobs bill signed into law.  On Monday, President Barack Obama signed into law new veterans employment measures designed to get unemployed vets back to work and help recently separated military members make a successful transition to civilian life. The legislation is the combination of Republican- and Democrat-backed job proposals, and easily passed through Congress earlier this month
2.    How will failure of ‘super committee’ affect the military?
Troops could see fewer military jobs, less dwell time, more outdated equipment and plenty of frustration for military planners for years to come, now that congressional efforts to trim the federal deficit have failed.
3.    War-torn marriage: Family shattered by TBI, PTSD picks up pieces.  The breaking point came when Sandra Rivera found their 9-year-old son backed against a wall with his arms over his face, shielding himself from her husband’s screaming.
4.    State looks to hike maintenance fees at Illinois Veterans Home.  Quincy Herald Whig
The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs is studying raising the maintenance fee maximum for residents of the state’s four homes for military veterans, including the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy.
5.    Researchers team up toward better understanding of PTSD.  eMaxHealth
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have teamed up to try to understand PTSD and find better treatment options for military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and …
6.    PTSD study may end up helping Canadian soldiers.  The Sudbury Star  QMI AGENCY Researchers at one of America’s preeminent academic medical centres and the US Department of Veterans Affairs are joining forces to improve the treatment of military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic …
7.    Work beginning on Aurora VA hospital.  Denver Business Journal  Kiewit-Turner, the joint venture that will build the new $800 million US Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Aurora, said Monday it will have more than 200 workers on the site engaged in initial construction activities over the next month. …
8.    Advancing Learning to Reinforce Veterans Services.  Chier Learning Officer  Her consistently demonstrated leadership and judgment in resolving complex personnel, organizational, teaming and training problems led her to become the chancellor of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Acquisition Academy, where she creates …
9.    Veterans remembered in wreath-laying ceremony.  American Pharmacists Association, pharmacist.com  “My dad was a pharmacist,” LTG (Ret) James B. Peake, MD, US Army, a former Army Surgeon General and former US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary, said in his keynote speech at a Veterans Day ceremony at APhA headquarters on November 11. …
10.  Project Homeless Connect shows community cares.  SunHerald.com  Todd said he recently found a job in food service through an employment program run by the US Department of Veteran Affairs in Biloxi. Todd said that VA vocational rehabilitation counselor Neil P. Smith, who manned a table for Monday’s event, …

Have You Heard?

VA Celebrates National Family Caregiver Month

This month, VA is honoring all caregivers who have dedicated their lives to ensure Veterans have the best quality of life possible. VA medical centers across the country will hold events in honor of those who care for our Vets. Read more below

More Veteran News

•  Sale Of Pension Income Targeted By Senator. Wall Street Journal The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chair Senator Tom Harkin is considering launching an investigation into the sale of future pension income by veterans and other retirees to investors, with profit going to middlemen who gain from transaction sales, after a Journal story earlier this month that reported that such middlemen had set up websites with titles like BuyYourPension.com to advertise to pension recipients looking for immediate cash who are then lured by promises of higher returns that don’t necessarily pay off.

• Rahall Bill Would Create Transportation Jobs For Vets.  Beckley (WV) Register-Herald  “To combat ongoing high unemployment among American veterans,” US Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and US Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI), the chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee, “introduced bipartisan legislation to create transportation jobs for American veterans.” The “‘Mobilizing Opportunities for Veterans Employment Act’ (H.R. 3473 – The MOVE Act), would provide veterans the opportunity to continue to serve our nation by rebuilding our deficient transportation infrastructure.” Among other things, the “MOVE Act would” require “public transit agencies and other recipients and subrecipients of federal transit funds to ensure that the contractors they use for capital projects give hiring preference to veterans to perform any construction work under the federally funded contract.”

•  State Looks To Hike Maintenance Fees At Illinois Vets Home.  Quincy (IL) Herald-Whig   “The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing an undetermined maintenance fee increase for residents of its four veterans homes to help covering increasing costs for care.” State Director of Veterans Affairs Erica Borggren “said the average cost of care is $7,424 a month per resident and that is expected to rise. Borggren said homes are required to increase the amount of daily care residents receive as part of the nursing home reform approved last year.”

•  Vets Court Focuses On Those Struggling After Their Service. Minneapolis Star Tribune  A “recently completed report” on the Hennepin County Veterans Court shows that one year into the “pilot program, 71 vets were actively participating in the court and two had graduated.” The court “includes the expected representatives from the county attorney, public defender and probation. But there are also people from Veterans Affairs, Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development and Hennepin County’s Veterans Services office.”

•  Telemedicine Connects Veterans To Critical Medical Care.  Cyprus (TX) Times Patients of the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center “(MEDVAMC) who live far away have better options when it comes to medical care thanks to a new telemedicine program being used in its Anesthesiology Pre-Operative Evaluation Clinic (POEC).” Telemedicine “visits at the Anesthesiology PEOC started this past July at the Beaumont VA Outpatient Clinic, but plans are in the works to have it available at all seven Houston-area VA clinics. The decision to fund this project was made because of the myriad of benefits the telemedicine program provides.”

•  Pearl Harbor Survivors Meet For The Last Time.  NPR audio  On Saturday, “in Snellville, Georgia, the Southeastern Chapter of Pearl Harbor Survivors held its final meeting.” The “group is part of a national organization that’s shutting down at the end of this year, due to a diminishing surviving membership.”

•  Military Hero Gets A New Home.  Tampa (FL) Tribune  With the “help of Building Homes for Heroes, a nonprofit group that supports the needs of severely wounded or disabled veterans and their families by providing mortgage-free homes,” Sgt. Joel Tavera, who was badly injured in Iraq, has a new home. On “Saturday, a parade from James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital took Tavera to his new home on Outpost Point Drive. The ceremony was attended by, among others, Adm. William McRaven, commander” of US Special Operations Command.

•  Suit Targets Care At VA.  Wilkes Barre (PA) Times-Leader  A Federal judge is considering a “$10 million medical malpractice lawsuit” veteran Stanley Laskowski “and his wife, Marisol, filed against the Department of Veterans Affairs relating to his treatment at its medical center in Plains Township. The lawsuit, filed last year, alleges medical professionals botched the mental health treatment provided to Laskowski after he was diagnosed in April 2007 with post-traumatic stress disorder, a psychological condition that results from experiencing a severe traumatic event.” The “suit is the latest in a growing number of actions nationwide that have been filed against the Department of Veterans Affairs for allegedly providing substandard care to veterans suffering PTSD.”

•  Suicide Prevention Efforts Must Integrate Military Families.  New York Times   Kristy Kaufmann, the “executive director of the Code of Support Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bridging the gap between civilian and military America,” writes, “Suicide among service members, veterans and families is an indicator of the amount and duration of stress we continue to bear. The fact is, even if everything in the Pentagon” and Veterans Affairs “were working perfectly, the government simply does not have the resources – or culture, for that matter – to support the level of need after 10 years of war, and it never will. Unless we develop a more holistic strategy to prevent suicide, one that effectively integrates military families and community support, we risk losing countless military and veteran families.”

• Challenges For Service Women.  New York Times   Anuradha K. Bhagwati, a “former captain in the Marine Corps” who is now the “executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, a nonprofit advocacy organization that advances the rights of military women.”

•  Veterans Must Endure Huge Backlog For Benefits. Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
  

•  Vietnam Tribute Earns Honor.  Detroit Free Press

•  Iraq Vet Finds Peace Transporting Dogs To New Homes. San Antonio (TX) Express-News