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.    Overseas voters should check website for registration options.  With the 2012 presidential election campaign in full swing and the first primaries only weeks away, those living overseas who want to vote should think about registering now to cast an absentee ballot.
2.    Retired Prescott nurse earns lifetime honor.  Prescott Daily Courier   Joella “Jodie” Williams entered the nursing field as a single mom at the age of 40, and spent 30 years with the US Department of Veterans Affairs here before retiring in 2009. Looking back, Williams, 72, said she felt awkward at first …
3.    Reasonable Charges for Medical Care or Services. Insurance News Net   This Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) notice informs the public of updated data for calculating the “Reasonable Charges” collected or recovered by VA for medical care or services provided or furnished by VA to a veteran
4.    Army honors WWII nurse for aiding U.S. troops during Battle of the Bulge.  In the freezing winter of 1944, Augusta Chiwy traveled to Bastogne to spend Christmas with her father, and ended up tending U.S. soldiers wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. On Monday, the 101st Airborne Division formally recognized her contributions at a ceremony in Brussels, Belgium.
5.    Health and healing in a new VA rose garden.  Los Angeles Times  The Historic Women Veterans Rose Garden, just north of Wilshire Boulevard, was created by the nonprofit Veterans Park Conservancy in partnership with the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ West LA campus. The aim of the 18-month, $1.1-million project …
6.    New GI Bill attracts growing number of veterans to colleges.  Plain Dealer  Cleveland State University’s Veterans Student Success Program is one of only eight in the nation offering a fulltime Veterans Affairs VetSuccess counselor to assist veterans in transitioning from barracks to campus. Bob Shields, coordinator of the …
7.    Groups trying to put up Korean War memorial.  Gainesville Times  The organization already has a memorial near the Georgia Mountains Center, but it’s small, tucked away and doesn’t account for veterans killed in Korea during a designated time after the war. The US Department of Veteran Affairs has ruled that anyone …
8.    Christmas display near DMZ sparks fear of reprisal from North Korea.  Uh-oh, Christmas tree! For the second year in a row, Christian groups plan on Dec. 23 to illuminate about 100,000 lights on a 100-foot-tall steel tower in the shape of a Christmas tree on the peak of Aegibong Hill, about 2 miles from the North Korean border, a move some fear could cause retaliation.
9.    Once bustling U.S. base in Basra now a ghost town.  For eight years, Camp Bravo bustled with hundreds of soldiers and contractors tasked with establishing security in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city.
10.  Veteran Campaign Now Underway.  MetroWNY   “‘Warriors on the Waterfront’ has been selected as the theme for the 2013 National Veterans Golden Age Games, to be hosted by the VA Western New York Health Care System. A sponsor benefits and incentives package has been developed to kick off the campaign, to bring the world’s largest sports and recreational competition for senior veterans to the area from May 30 to June 4, 2013.” MetroWNY adds, “The games are open to all US military veterans age 55 and older who receive care at a VA medical facility.”

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More Veteran News

•  Military Honored At Wreaths Across America Event At Texas State Veterans Cemetery At Abilene.  Abilene (TX) Reporter-News  “Several people gathered Saturday at the Texas State Veterans Cemetery at Abilene for Wreaths Across America to honor the military men and women who served their country. The local ceremony, sponsored by American Legion Post 61, was one of many across the nation held at the same time,” under a program called Wreaths Across America. The program “began in 1992 when wreath company owner Morrill Worcester of Portland, Maine, and a dozen other people laid 5,000 wreaths at headstones at Arlington National Cemetery, inspiring ceremonies across the country on the second Saturday of December each year.”

• The Full Story: The VA’s War Against Vietnam Navy Veterans.  Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News  Veteran Bob Ford says it is “disgraceful” that senior bureaucrats in the US Department of Veterans Affairs “seem relentlessly determined to prevent Navy veterans of the Vietnam War from receiving benefits that are automatically granted to all other Vietnam veterans” who were exposed to Agent Orange.

•   Burn-Casualty Soldiers At High Risk For Kidney Injury, Study Finds.  HealthDay “Many American soldiers who suffer burns and wounds during combat develop acute kidney injury, an abrupt or rapid decline in kidney function that is potentially deadly,” according to a study published online Dec. 8 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. After examining the incidence of “acute kidney injury among 692 US military casualties who were evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan to burn units,” researchers found through “using two different classification systems…that rates of acute kidney injury were 24 percent and 30 percent among the casualties.” Those “with acute kidney injury were much more likely to die than those without it,” the study also found.

•  VA Offering Grants To Prevent Vets From Becoming Homeless. WOAY-TV The US VA is “giving out money to make sure our nation’s heroes don’t become homeless after service.” Groups interested in VA’s “grant program have until February 15th to submit completed applications. Community organizations can use the VA website to find dates for the application and their workshops.”

•   New Liberty Landing Center To Offer Housing, Services To Homeless Veterans In Fort Wayne Area.  AP  Homeless veterans in Fort Wayne, Indiana, will “have a new place to stay and get help with substance abuse, mental illness or stress disorders.” The “Department of Veterans Affairs helped fund” the Liberty Landing facility.

•  In Florida, Using Military Discipline To Help Veterans In Prison.  New York Times “Florida is one of a handful of states that are rethinking their treatment of incarcerated veterans in the hopes of easing their transition back to society and then keeping them out of prison for good.” In August, Florida “created a program that provides separate dorms in five prisons for honorably discharged military veterans who have no more than three years left on their sentences and who volunteer for it. California and Illinois have similar programs, all designed to address the needs of imprisoned veterans better.”

•    A Visit Helps Change Perspectives On Pearl Harbor. San Francisco Chronicle

•     Vets Get Home-Front Abode.  Tampa (FL) Tribune

•   World War II Veteran, 94, Is Treasured For Her Optimistic Spirit.  New Orleans Times-Picayune

• Angel Flight Transports Villager To VA Program For Sight-impaired Veterans.  Villages (FL) Daily Sun

• DVD Sales Fund War Memorial Trips.  AP