Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

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. Medal of Honor recipients pay tribute to courageous civilians.  More than two dozen recipients of the nation’s highest military award and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos were on hand at Arlington National Cemetery Friday as the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation recognized four civilians “who have demonstrated indomitable courage and selflessness.”

2. Va. doctor in malpractice suit has long disciplinary record.  The Virginian-Pilot  She filed the lawsuit in federal court after an administrative claim for compensation was denied by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The medical center has denied the allegations in court papers. No trial date has been set. …

3. Klobuchar to introduce legislation to assist victims of sexual trauma. Coon Rapids ECM Publishers  “Military sexual trauma” is the phrase that the US Department of Veterans Affairs uses to refer to sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment that occurred while a veteran was in the military.

4. Local vet trying to revive DAV chapter.  Times-Georgian  After the US Department of Veterans Affairs awarded him a disability benefit, he applied to become a member of the DAV and soon learned of the local chapter’s situation. “In talking with state DAV representatives, I found out that the nearest chapter …

5. Man’s long fight against Guidant finally lands in the open.  Minneapolis Star Tribune…His case alleges that more than 19000 fraudulent claims were filed after April 2002 with both Medicare and the US Department of Veterans Affairs costing the programs — and taxpayers — about $726 million. He claims Guidant made changes to the…

6. Veterans Affairs to announce new clinic developer.  StarNewsOnline.com  By Shelby Sebens The US Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to announce a new developer for the planned Wilmington veterans clinic in the next couple of weeks. Construction of the community-based outpatient clinic could start within six months

7. Unmarked Civil War Soldier’s Grave to receive a Headstone at Artesia Cemetery.  Los Cerritos News  Through the efforts of Margaret Alley of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, assisted by Floyd Farrar of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the cemetery has received a headstone from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. …

8. Federal contracts for March 27.  Rapid City Journal  St. Pierre Inc., Rapid City, won a $300919 federal contract from the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ Black Hills Health Care System, Hot Springs, for office renovations. RLH Inc., Mission, won a $9695.19 federal contract from the US National Park …

9. NATO to command no-fly zone, but U.S. retaining control of airstrikes.  The United States has already turned over responsibility for enforcing an arms embargo against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to NATO, and will soon hand off policing of the no-fly zone, the Pentagon announced Friday.

10. VA enlists harsh critics as it belatedly embraces the Web.  Alex Horton started his blog, “Army of Dude,” as a young enlisted infantryman in Iraq from 2006 to 2007. It was one soldier’s view of war, graphic and often critical, penned at first for an audience of friends and family.

HAVE YOU HEARD?

Registration is still open for the 31st National Veterans Wheelchair Games, the largest annual wheelchair sports event in the world. Presented by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Games are open to Veterans who use wheelchairs for sports competition due to spinal cord injuries, amputations or certain neurological problems and who receive care at any VA medical facility. Co-hosted this year by the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and the Keystone Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the 2011 Games will be held August 1-6 and include competitions in 17 different events such as swimming, basketball, table tennis, archery, and wheelchair slalom, which is a timed obstacle course. This year’s Games mark the second time that Pittsburgh has hosted this event, as they were previously held in Pittsburgh in 1998. If you know a Veteran who would benefit from this rehabilitative event tell them to visit www.wheelchairgames.va.gov

 

IN OTHER NEWS

• Study: Women three times as suicide-prone while deployed.   A wide-ranging study examining suicide among troops has revealed that female soldiers are three times more likely to kill themselves downrange than while not deployed, and that married soldiers are less likely to commit suicide than their single or divorced counterparts

• Workers allege wider problems at Ohio VA clinic.  Columbus Dispatch  Worker testimony in a US Department of Veterans Affairs investigation indicates that the Dayton VA Medical Center’s dental clinic had problems beyond a dentist being accused of not changing gloves between patients and exposing them to diseases.

• V.P. Biden Surprises Disabled Veterans In Snowmass Village. KUSA-TV Denver, CO “More than 400 disabled veterans were surprised Sunday evening by Vice President Joe Biden,” who “stopped by the opening ceremony of the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village to thank them.”

• Veterans Services Scrutinized. Review Criticizes Procedures, Management Practices Of Boston Veterans’ Services Department.Boston Globe “The grandson of one elderly Boston veteran and the daughter of an 85-year-old East Boston widow of a veteran have each been paid thousands of dollars a month by the city’s Veterans’ Services Department recently to provide home health care even though they have no formal training in providing the care. Although the US Veterans Administration mandates that anyone being paid to provide home health care to a veteran under its oversight be certified by a professional care association, no such requirement exists for veterans receiving benefits through the City of Boston.” That is “one of several troubling findings of a three-month review of the procedures and management practices inside the Boston Veterans’ Services Department, which provides …

• Veterans’ Home In Rocky Hill To Get Improvements. Middletown (CT) Press “Sen. Paul Doyle (D-Wethersfield) and Sen. Carlo Leone (D-Stamford), Senate chairman of the General Assembly’s Veterans’ Affairs Committee, announced Friday that the State Bond Commission has approved funds to facilitate the repair and improvement of multiple buildings on the campus of the Connecticut Veteran’s Home in Rocky Hill.” The US Department of Veterans Affairs “provided 65% of the original total cost of the $9.2 million project through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The State Bond Commission approved $1 million…in additional construction costs.”

• Whole Grain Cereal May Help Control Blood Pressure. HealthDay “Eating breakfast cereal – especially whole grain cereal – may reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure, a new study suggests. ‘We found about a 20% decreased risk of developing hypertension in those who consumed whole grain breakfasts cereals at least seven times a week,’ said lead researcher Dr. Jinesh Kochar,” of the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.

• Open House For New VA Facility Jobs Set This Week. Lebanon (PA) Daily News “About 450 positions need to be filled at the North East Consolidated Patient Account Center. A major new local employer will hold an open house to help guide job applicants this week. When the new North East Consolidated Patient Account Center” at the Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center is “fully operational, it will employ about 450 people”

• VA Hospital Helps Make Syracuse A Top Place For Retirees From Military To Live. WSTM-TV “Syracuse is being named” in USAA Magazine “as a top place for those who served in the military to retire.” The “pick is based on low living costs and a stable economy. Military retirees also say the VA hospital, Syracuse University, and even the snowy winters make this area a great place to live.”

• Huntington’s Kitchen Visits The VA Medical Center. Huntington (WV) Herald-Dispatch

• Homeless Veterans Honored With Military Funeral. McClatchy

• Surge In VA Sales Leads To Capacity Questions. Investment News

• Scottsbluff Soldier Charged With Faking Battle Scars. Lincoln (NE) Journal Star

• Disaster Aid Puts New Face On US Military In Japan. AP US relief mission in Japan is “showing a new and welcome face for troops the Japanese have hosted — sometimes grudgingly — for decades.” Some 20,000 US troops are part of “Operation Tomodachi” — or “Friend” — in “the biggest bilateral humanitarian mission the US has conducted in Japan.” The AP noted that Capt. Robert Gerbract, an Iraq veteran, is in “charge of the US Marines’ cleanup operations.”

• Is Lying Protected Speech? Military-Medal Case On Track For Supreme Court. Washington Post In ruling unconstitutional the Stolen Valor Act, passed by Congress in 2005 “to deal with an apparent proliferation of people falsely claiming to be military heroes,” 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski wrote, “If all untruthful speech” is unprotected, “we could all be made into criminals, depending on which lies those making the laws find offensive.”

• St. Charles Man “I’m No Terrorist.” Aurora (IL) Beacon-News “Local dog trainer Ibraheim ‘Abe’ Mashal,” a veteran and American-born Muslim, charges that “agents secretly put him on the federal government’s ‘no-fly’ list and launched an investigation that included his family, friends and clients, then offered to restore his flying privileges in exchange for him spying on area mosques.” Mashal is “one of 17 people …

• Volunteers Deliver Aid To Veterans With Smiles. Wichita Falls (TX) Times Record News