Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

1. Administration Announces Plan To End Homelessness. The AP (6/23, Morales) reports, “Better coordination among the many agencies that try to help homeless people find employment and health care as well as stable places to live is a central component for reaching the Obama administration’s ambitious goal” of “ending chronic homelessness – where people cycle through shelters and hospitals – and homelessness among military veterans in five years, and for ending homelessness among families and children by 2020.” A proposal, “called ‘Opening Doors,'” was “announced Tuesday at the White House by Cabinet officers,” including Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who said the “‘downward spiral’ for veterans into homelessness has begun to break down.” In discussing the Administration proposal, the AP noted, “The effort would be driven mainly by integration of support services and applying state and local models at the federal level, according to the federal Interagency Council on Homelessness.”
According to McClatchy (6/23, Pugh), “Opening Doors” will “focus resources on housing youths who age out of the foster care program at 18 and often end up homeless within a few months,” as well as “homeless veterans, who accounted for 13 percent of the people who were in shelters last year.”

The Washington Post (6/23, A15, Cauvin, 684K) says a strategy by the US Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) “details several smaller projects intended to spur collaboration among federal agencies and with local and state governments,” including one that “helps vulnerable veterans move swiftly into housing” via the “Supportive Housing program of the departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs.”

Shinseki, Other Cabinet Secretaries Speak In Support Of Plan. The Columbus (OH) Dispatch (6/23, Price) notes, “Cabinet secretaries Shaun Donovan of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Hilda Solis of the Department of Labor, Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Eric Shinseki” of VA “all spoke in support of the plan,” a point also made by the Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram (6/23).

2. US Military To Combat Suicides With Internet-Based Services. McClatchy (6/23, Seidman) reports, “Although the suicide rate has climbed measurably across all sectors of the military over the past few years, top Army and Marine Corps officials on Tuesday proposed…solutions to erase the social stigma associated with mental health illnesses and to combat the less visible wounds of war. Responding to a congressional committee’s concerns about an NPR report, which identified various deficiencies in the Army’s mental health program,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter W. Chiarelli “defended the Army’s current policies and promised to engage the military’s vulnerable youth” by using Web-based healthcare services, which Chiarelli said would help address the high rate of suicides among reservists, who are often on their own in rural communities. In a related story, the NPR (6/22) program “Talk Of The Nation” interviewed “NPR correspondent Jamie Tarabay” about a recent report he filed, which led to the aforementioned congressional committee’s concerns.

3. Digital Technology Being Used To Treat TBIs, PTSD. The American Forces Press Service (6/23, Daniel) reports, “The military services” and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) “of the Veterans Affairs Department increasingly use digital technology to reach out to identify and treat servicemembers” with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). On Tuesday, the “second-ranking officers of each of the four services” and Dr. Robert L. Jesse, a physician and VHA’s acting principal deputy undersecretary of health, “outlined for the Senate Armed Services Committee…the many programs and delivery methods they are using to reach servicemembers who may have mild brain injuries or PTSD. Increasingly, they are turning toward the ‘virtual’ intervention of the Internet and digital technology, they said.”

National Intrepid Center Of Excellence To Be Dedicated. The Navy Times (6/23, Bacon, 54K) noted that on Thursday, “Defense leaders…will dedicate” the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a “state-of-the-art center designed to diagnose and treat wounded warriors who suffer from brain injuries, post-traumatic stress and psychological health issues.” The Times adds, “More than one in 10 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered a concussion or brain injury, and up to 15 percent will develop lasting problems, according to military studies.”

4. VA Figures Into Congressional Negotiations On Financial Regulatory Overhaul Bill. CQ (6/23, Carter, Sloan, Weyl) reports, “House and Senate negotiators on a financial regulatory overhaul bill” recently “found common ground on how to structure a new agency that could write rules for the products and services that banks and other financial institutions offer their consumers.” After noting that House “members sought to authorize $35 million a year for fiscal 2011-2014 for a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program to provide grants to state and local organizations that give foreclosure legal assistance to low- and moderate-income homeowners and tenants,” CQ says, “The House offer would have allowed HUD,” the Veterans Affairs Department, the “Agriculture Department and the Rural Housing Service to prescribe rules defining the types of loans they insure, guarantee or administer that are ‘qualified mortgages.'” CQ points out that “Senate conferees accepted the proposal with several limits on that authority,” then adds, “Senate conferees also accepted a House change to the bill that would have exempted HUD,” VA, “and the Rural Housing Service for the loans they insure, guarantee or administer from regulations requiring retention of credit risk.”

5. “Ride For Pride” To Accompany Moving Wall To VAWNYHS. The Buffalo News (6/22, 185K) reported, “Motorcycle groups and area police agencies will take part in the ‘Ride for Pride’ accompanying the Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall as it arrives Thursday for a four-day stay” at the Veterans Affairs Western New York Healthcare System, located at “222 Richmond Ave. The Wall will be open to the public 24 hours a day.”

6. Possible Remains Of Three US Soldiers Killed In Vietnam Sent To US For Identification. The AP (6/23) reports Ron Ward “of the US Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command detachment” in Hanoi, Vietnam, “says remains believed to be those of three American servicemen killed during the Vietnam War have been sent to the United States for identification.”

7. Nurse From “Times Square Kiss” Photo At End Of WWII Dies. On its website, KGO-TV San Francisco, CA (6/22) said 92-year-old Edith Shain, the “nurse known around the world for a kiss in New York’s Times Square at the end” of World War II, “passed away in Los Angeles on Sunday. Edith was in San Jose in February, lobbying for a national holiday celebrating the ‘greatest generation.'”

8. Incoming D-Day Memorial President Standing By Stalin Bust Decision. In continuing coverage, the Washington Times (6/23, Watson, 77K) reports, “Robin Reed, slated to become the next president of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation on Monday, is standing by his predecessor’s decision to install a bust of dictator Josef Stalin at the memorial.” Reed, however, who made his comments during “an interview Tuesday” with the Times, “said the foundation’s board of directors will seriously consider any petition that comes before them, such as the one in the works by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation,” which opposes the bust.

9. Judge Orders War Memorial Caretaker To Undergo Mental Health Treatment. The AP (6/23) reports 60-year-old Kenneth Nelson, “who was known as the unofficial caretaker of Sacramento’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial,” has “been ordered to undergo mental health treatment for wearing a military medal that he didn’t earn. Prosecutors say…Nelson claimed for 20 years that he was a Vietnam War hero, though he never saw combat.” Nelson was “prosecuted under the Stolen Valor Act,” and on Monday, a “judge sentenced Nelson…to a year of probation,” along with the mental health treatment.

10. Former Arlington Officials Knew About Tombstones Lining Banks Of Stream. In continuing coverage, a front page story in the Washington Post (6/23, A1, Davenport, 684K) reports, “Officials at Arlington National Cemetery were aware that discarded tombstones were lining the banks of a small stream on the grounds for more than a decade but left them in the mud, officials said Tuesday,” adding that the tombstones were not removed because of concerns about damaging the stream. After noting that an “Army investigation released this month found a ‘dysfunctional’ and chaotic management system” at Arlington, the Post says the “cemetery’s new management team,” which was put in place after the report’s release, has “vowed to remove” the tombstones from around the steam and dispose of them properly.