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. Groups Calling Upon Governor To Restore Veteran’s Home Funds.  KSEE  Monday joined veterans’ groups and local officials in calling upon Governor Brown and legislative Democrats to restore $12.1 million in funding to the California Department of Veterans Affairs. …

2. Pat Tillman Foundation to pay for Iraq veteran and the wife of a US Marine. The Flint Journal – MLive.com  After volunteering at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Ann Arbor where the couple lives, Tiffany Johnson was inspired to go into healthcare. It’s where she helped care for veterans of both current and past wars. She is now pursuing a graduate …

3. VA plans to lease space long-term in Spotsylvania.  Fredericksburg.com (blog)  One of the questions I’ve received since my report ran late last week about the US Department of Veterans Affairs bringing 156 jobs to the Lee’s Hill area of Spotsylvania County by mid-2012 is why the lease is only for two years. …

4. Helping with plants and pencils.  Omaha World-Herald  On June 18, Peggy Watkins from the US Department of Veterans Affairs supervised visitors to a Benson Plant Rescue sale in the assembling of flower bowls and baskets for Nebraska and western Iowa National Guard troops returning from deployment in …

5. Midlander’s great-grandfather Civil War veteran gets marker.  Midland Daily News  He wrote what he called “a good long letter” to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. His letter successfully appealed the department’s denial of his request for a grave marker. Clarey said he was surprised and happy “when we got such a beautiful …

6. VA official to meet with Northwest tribes.  The Seattle Times  Representatives of several Northwest Native American tribes plan to meet with US Department of Veterans Affairs’ new director of tribal government relations. The Associated Press No comments have been posted to this article. …

7. VA Official To Meet With Northwest Tribes. AP (7/12) story run by at least 16 publications reports, “Representatives of several Northwest Native American tribes plan to meet” on Tuesday with Stephanie Birdwell, the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ new director of tribal government relations. Birdwell, a member of the Cherokee Nation, was “selected as the first director of the new department that is intended to strengthen the relationship between the VA and tribal veterans.” Tuesday’s “meeting will take place at the Northern Quest Resort & Casino in Airway Heights.”

8. Veterans’ Caregivers Program Issues First Payments. Providence (RI) Journal The US Department of Veterans Affairs is “sending out more than $430,000 this month in stipend payments to nearly 200 family caregivers nationwide who were the first to complete their caregiver training under the Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers Program. Family caregivers will usually receive an average of $1,600 in monthly stipend payments, but the initial payments will average $2,500 because the first stipend checks are retroactive to the date of application.” The stipend amount is “based on the veteran’s health condition and the amount of care he or she requires, as well as where the veteran resides.”

9. Caregiver Says VA Undervaluing Her Work. Army Times “A Texas mother who gave up her high school teaching job to be a fulltime caregiver for her son, a severely wounded Iraq veteran, said she is glad the government has launched a program to support people like her, but expressed disappointment in the benefits.” On Monday, Debbie Schulz “said…that as the Veterans Affairs Department works out details for a caregiver relief program, she believes it is undervaluing the work she and others like her are doing.” According to Schulz, the monthly stipend provided by VA is based on a 40 hour work week, which is “concerning for the many caregivers who provide nearly around-the-clock care,” says Schulz.

10. Women Veterans’ Health Issues Get Attention. Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch Tammie Smith was asked by a reader about the status of a recommendation “from a December 2010 Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general report” that there “be more sensitivity training on military sexual trauma.” In response, Smith wrote that VA “‘screens all veterans coming for health care for’ military sexual trauma, said Susan McCutcheon, of the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ office of mental health services, during a telephone news briefing with reporters recently.” Smith added, “In a new outreach effort, VA staff members are proactively calling female veterans to hear any concerns they have.”

Have You Heard?

Sergeant Receives Medal of Honor

Today, Sergeant First Class Leroy Petry was awarded the Medal of Honor on the 149th anniversary of the establishment of the Army service medal by President Abraham Lincoln. Read more at VAntage Point

In Other News

• Psychiatric Service Dogs Aid Local Veterans. Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer Trainer Lisa Slama’s involvement with a new program called Veteran’s Best Friend “matches dogs with military personnel coping with the debilitating effects of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The project started earlier this year after Frank DeLorenzo — who works with the Army’s Wounded Warrior Program at the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center — contacted Slama about training his dog, Nina, to help DeLorenzo cope with the PTSD and TBI resulting from being wounded in Iraq in 2004.” The Plain Dealer adds, “Congress is considering a Veterans Dog Training Therapy Act which would create a pilot program administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs for training dogs to help veterans suffering from post-deployment mental health problems.”

• Drug Concerns In Parkinson’s. Wall Street Journal Despite a black-box warning issued in 2005 from the US Food and Drug Administration, antipsychotic medications are still being prescribed to more than half of elderly American patients with Parkinson’s disease and psychosis, according to a study of Veterans Affairs data published in the July issue of the Archives of Neurology. The FDA’s 2005 black-box warning had pointed out that atypical antipsychotics appeared to raise the risk for death in older patients with dementia. In 2008, the agency expanded that warning to include all classes of antipsychotics, and not just the newer ones.  For the study, researchers analyzed VA “data from 2002 to 2008 to assess antipsychotic drug prescription rates among 1,804 Parkinson’s disease patients without dementia, 793 Parkinson’s patients with dementia, and 6,907 patients with dementia and psychosis but no Parkinson’s disease,”

• Two Formerly Homeless Vets Doing Better After Attending VA Assistance Event. CBS’ 60 Minutes Last fall, CBS broadcast that according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, there are more than 9,000 homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, some of whom took part in the 23rd annual “Stand Down” in San Diego, California, a VA-funded “three-day campout” for homeless veterans “that’s part jobs fair, part health clinic, part sobriety meeting.” While VA recently “set a goal of ending homelessness among vets in five years,” this year’s “Stand Down” in San Diego “turned out to be the largest ever.” In an update, CBS reported the 24th annual “Stand Down” will be held this coming weekend. One of the vets who was homeless at last year’s event will be there as a volunteer this year, after having gotten into college. Another vet at last year’s event also has improved her situation.

• Fresno Veterans Program Goes Nationwide. McClatchy A “military-to-civilian transition program” is “going nationwide, as utilities try to tap into veterans’ potential.” On Monday, “five investor-owned utility companies formally unveiled in Washington the training program called Troops to Energy.” The “five utilities participating in Troops to Energy are committed to spending $50,000 each on veterans’ training for the next two years.”

• With Abuse Increasing, Army Limits Addictive Medications, Changes Rules For Drug Testing. AP “Faced with rising abuse of prescription drugs, the Army has limited how many painkillers a soldier can get at one time and is threatening disciplinary action for troops caught violating the restriction.” The “increased surveillance of medications was initially developed for injured and ill soldiers assigned to Warrior Transition Units, specialized units developed in the wake of an investigation into poor outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.” The AP notes that the US Department of Veterans Affairs “says more than 50 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans report pain issues as they leave active duty military service.”

• Army Taking New Approach To Fighting Pain. Army Times The US Army is “reinventing the way it treats pain. Based on 109 recommendations from an Army-led Pain Management Task Force, the Army is seeking to move away from merely dispensing pain medication to embracing a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to caring for soldiers.” The new approach “could include traditional medications coupled with more unconventional treatments such as massage therapy, acupuncture and yoga.”

• World War II Vet Sees Self-Hypnosis As Way To Defeat PTSD. St. Petersburg (FL) Times “Like some of the soldiers who return home these days,” 85-year-old World War II veteran Pat Myers “struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, fear and guilt stowed inside him for most of his life. Then, one night seven years ago, he read a self-hypnosis book” and used it to cure his troubles. Today, he goes around the Lakeshore Villas Health Care Center in Lutz, Florida, “evangelizing with instructional tapes and a portable cassette player.”

• Report On Pentagon Program Questions: “Where Is The Money?” Tacoma News Tribune “A four-year-old Pentagon effort to improve psychological health services across the military is spending tens of millions – some of it at Joint Base Lewis-McChord – without providing a clear picture of how the money is used, according to a new report” from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). It is the “second report this year to criticize the Defense Centers of Excellence; both were produced by the GAO, the non-partisan investigating arm of Congress.” The News Tribune added, “The Defense Department has declared that it will work toward improving transparency in its psychological health programs.”

• Gov’t Watchdog Criticizes Pentagon Center’s Handling Of PTSD, Brain Injuries. Pro Publica “If you want more explanation about the military’s troubles in treating troops with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress, read no further than two recent but largely unnoticed reports” from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). It “turns out the Pentagon’s solution to the problems is an organization plagued by weak leadership, uncertain priorities and a money trail so tangled that even the GAO’s investigators couldn’t sort it out. The GAO findings on the Pentagon’s Defense Centers of Excellence (DCOE) echo our own series on the military’s difficulty in handling the so-called invisible wounds of war.”

• PTSD Clinic Move Has Patients Nervous. Rapid City Journal “After hearing concerns from veterans and their families, who are worried that a move would be detrimental to patients’ progress, doctors at Fort Meade VA Black Hills Health Care System still plan to move the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Team Outpatient program to a different building on the campus.” Veterans “who participate in the program called a meeting with three doctors on June 30 to voice their concerns” about the move, which is scheduled to take place next month. They “said the sterility of the building makes it feel like a hospital and that it is not as comfortable as their current location.” They also expressed concern about the presence of video cameras, but Gwen Fagala, the acting associate chief of staff for mental health, said the old building is too expensive to keep up.

• Hospitals Prepare For 405 Closure. Redondo Beach (CA) Patch “In preparation for the weekend shutdown of the 405 Freeway, Southern California hospitals and medical centers are planning now to ensure their doctors are nearby (and not stuck in traffic) in case they’re needed. The Department of Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles medical center, for example, which sits adjacent to the freeway, plans to offer overnight accommodations to its employees to make sure the center is fully staffed over the weekend, officials said Friday.” According to the Patch, VA has also “sent 72,000 letters to veterans in the area notifying them of the upcoming freeway closure.” VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director Donna Beiter pointed out, however, that her organization will “continue to provide health care services.”

• New Orleans’ VA Hospital Plans Safe And Sound. WWL-FM “Financing’s not a problem” for a new Veterans Affairs hospital in New Orleans. Construction “on the $800 million job is underway. ‘It’s moving along fairly well. We’re fully funded; we’ve completed asbestos abatement at the Pan Am building and we’re moving forward,’ says Project Engineer/Coordinator Liz Failla.”

• GUI For Defense/VA Health Records? NextGov “On May 26 I reported that the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments selected a key component of their electronic health record system, a graphical user interface (GUI) called JANUS developed by the Honolulu-based Pacific Telehealth and Technology Hui, a joint Defense/VA outfit. Roger Baker, the VA CIO made this seem like a done deal, but I wonder if Defense has really signed on, based on language in the June 30 Senate Appropriations Committee report on the 2012 VA budget bill.” According to Brewin, that language says, “The Committee notes the successful VA pilot of GUI powered off the JANUS framework which was developed by the VA and focuses on clinician and patient centric data and is customizable by the user. As the Departments move forward on developing an iEHR [integrated electronic health record] the Committee encourages the Departments to consider this as an enterprise-wide solution.”

• HUD Secretary Unveils Plan To Foster Growth By Pairing Federal, Local Officials In 6 Cities. AP “The Obama administration is launching a pilot program designed to spark economic growth in urban America by partnering federal officials with local decision-makers in six cities, the US Housing and Urban Development secretary announced Monday.” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis “visited New Orleans on Monday to outline plans for that city as part of the pilot program. Solis noted that Mayor Mitch Landrieu often has referred to the city after Hurricane Katrina as a laboratory for urban economic innovation, including…plans to partner a major medical center now in the planning stages with a new Veterans Administration hospital.”

• American Legion Riders Bring Christmas In July Tidings. Rapid City Journal “The American Legion Riders of Post 22 did their best Santa Claus impersonation on Saturday, delivering Christmas gifts to the Fort Meade Veterans Medical Center. In their first Christmas in July event, the Legion Riders brought gifts and company to the veterans of the Medical Center to ‘lift their hearts’ and show gratitude to the veterans, according to Dennis Edwards, director for the Legion Riders of Post 22.” The Journal added, “The Legion Riders started their ride Saturday morning at Post 22, meeting up with some members in Sturgis before continuing to Fort Meade by motorcycle and car, the American flags attached to their bikes waving in the wind.”