2.      Veterans' PTSD Rates Are Still Climbing. The Veterans Today Network (12/4, McGoldrick) reports that PTSD rates "in Iraq war veterans are high, and these numbers will only increase." As of 2009, the VA "is treating 143, 530 new PTSD patients which is up from 134,000 the year before." Appended to the article is a note from the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, which claims that, according to VA statistics the group has received through Freedom of Information request, "the numbers have risen substantially. As of June 2010, a total of 171,423 deployed Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans were diagnosed with PTSD, out of total of 593,634 patients treated by VA. A total of 84,005 OEF/OIF veteran patients were granted VA disability compensation (about half) for PTSD."

3.      First Lady Stresses Importance Of Fisher Houses. In continuing coverage, the Army Times (12/4, Jowers, 104K) reported, "Fisher Houses allow military families to be together 'when they need each other the most,' said" First Lady Michelle Obama, "who participated in the ribbon-cutting for three more Fisher Houses at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center on Dec. 2. The three houses increase the capacity from 15 families to 68 at Bethesda in preparation for the Defense Department's shifting of patients from Walter Reed Army Medical Center under base realignment actions." The Times said the Fisher House Foundation "builds and outfits the houses," which provide places to stay for families of injured soldiers, "then turns them over to the military services or the Veterans Affairs Department to operate."

4.      Maryland Veterans Affairs Secretary To Keynote Pearl Harbor Observance. The Annapolis-based Maryland Gazette (12/4, 30K) reports that the Maryland Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the state Department of Veterans Affairs will hold a remembrance ceremony Tuesday at the World War II Memorial on Route 450 near Annapolis. State Secretary of Veterans Affairs Edward Chow Jr. will be the keynote speaker."

5.      VA Funds Transitional Housing For Veterans In Colorado. The Windsor (CO) Beacon (12/4, Sokoloski, 7K) reports that, just before Thanksgiving, the Fort Collins, Colorado Catholic Charities Mission "began offering transitional housing for veterans, a program that will allow as many as 14 vets to live in a separate part of the shelter for up to four months, with possible extensions of six more months. ... The transitional housing program is part of a Veterans Administration push to end homelessness among veterans. Most of the funding will come from the VA."

6.      Congress Again Extends Stop-Loss Payment Applications Deadline. The Army Times (12/4, Maze, 104K) reported, "Congress has extended - again - the cutoff date for service members and veterans to apply for retroactive stop-loss allowances if their active-duty service was extended against their will." After noting that the "new deadline for applying is Dec. 18," the Times added, "Stop-loss allowance is a $500 payment for any month in which a service member spent one day or more under involuntary orders that delayed their retirement or separation from active duty."

7.      VA Office Handling Congressional Inquiries. According to the last "On The Move In Agencies" item for CQ Weekly (12/6), the "Department of Veterans Affairs has a new link to members of Congress and their staffs. Adam Anicich is deputy director of...VA's Congressional Liaison Service," which is "seeking a new director." While the search goes on, Anicich is "helping coordinate all inquiries on VA policies from members of Congress and also making sure lawmakers are aware of VA programs."

8.      Senate Votes For Full Account From Army Of Problems At Arlington Cemetery. In continuing coverage, WJLA-TV Washington, DC (12/5, 6:30 p.m. ET) broadcast that since last June, US Army investigators "have discovered hundreds of unmarked and wrongly marked grave sites" at Arlington National Cemetery. This past weekend, the US Senate "passed a bill to require the Army to give a full account of the situation."

9.      Some Concerned New PTSD Rules Might Encourage Fraud. The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune (12/6, LaPlante) reports, "Under rules imposed this year, veterans no longer have to provide absolute proof of the trauma they experienced in order to receive compensation" for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While "Congress and the White House have pushed the Department of Veterans Affairs to settle" PTSD "claims for financial compensation quickly and liberally," some, like Utah Department of Veterans Affairs Director Terry Schow, fear that the new rules "might encourage fraudulent claims."

10.    Montana Gets New Vet Center. KRTV-TV Great Falls, MT (12/5, 10:01 p.m. MT) broadcast that "thanks to some US congressional funding," veterans in "north central Montana have a new place to receive the help they need," at the "new Great Falls Vet Center."

11.    Health Applications Growing For Mobile Phones. The Baltimore Sun (12/4, Sentementes, 228K) reports that software designers, medical device makers, hospitals, insurers and wireless phone companies are all working to tap the potential of "mHealth" -- combining medical devices, wireless networks and mobile phones in increasingly sophisticated combinations to monitor and manage health conditions. It adds, "That potential is fast arriving here in Maryland and beyond. Rockville-based CTIS Inc., for instance, is working with Walter Reed Army Medical Center to design an app called 'mWarrior' for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to use on smart phones. And Baltimore-based WellDoc has devised an application that allows users to wirelessly connect blood glucose meters to their cell phones." One market researcher estimates that mobile applications on health will be used worldwide by 500 million people by the year 2015, and a recent US survey found nearly 30 percent of cell phone users have used them to access health information.

12.    "Good Enough For Government Work." In an opinion piece for the Huffington Post (12/5), Terry Newell, who "has had a long career in public service," notes, "Last year, on the prestigious American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), run by the University of Michigan, the Veterans Health Administration civilian health and medical program got a score of 88 (out of 100), compared to the non-government hospital average of 73."

13.    Unemployment Rate Up Overall For Vets, But Down For Younger Ones. The Army Times (12/4, Maze, 104K) said, "The job market appears to have worsened for veterans overall in November, but it has slightly improved for young veterans, according to Labor Department data released Friday," which pointed out that for vets from the Iraq and Afghanistan era, the November unemployment rate was close to the one for national unemployment. For all vets, the "unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in November, lower than the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent for the month but higher than the 8.3 percent rate for veterans recorded in October."

14.    Wounded Afghanistan Vet Charged With Targeting Funeral Protestors. In a story run by at least 64 news sources, the AP (12/4, Hegeman) noted that on Thursday, 26-year-old wounded veteran Ryan Newell "was charged...with targeting members" of the Westboro Baptist Church, a "fundamentalist church infamous for protesting at soldiers' funerals." Newell, who "lost both his legs in a roadside bomb explosion" in Afghanistan, "faces five misdemeanor counts after he allegedly followed members of the Westboro Baptist Church," while he was "allegedly...armed with an M4 rifle, a .45-caliber Glock pistol and a .38 Smith and Wesson pistol."

15.    Property Manager Charged With Fraud In Housing Repairs For VA. The Cypress (TX) Times (12/4) reports that a former residential sales manager at a Florida property management company "pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with housing repair contracts for the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Justice announced yesterday. Benjamin K. Graves, formerly a residential sales manager at West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC, pleaded guilty today in US District Court in Orlando, Fla., to wire fraud." Managing foreclosed properties under contract with the VA, Ocwen was charged with steering repairs to a particular contractor in exchange for cash payments. Graves faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the loss suffered by the victims or the gain from the crime, whichever is greater.

16.    Suicide Rate For Young Women Veterans Is More Than Twice That For Civilians.  Medical News Today (12/4) reports, "Young women veterans are nearly three times as likely as civilians to commit suicide," according to a new study by researchers at Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University. Published in the December 2010 issue of Psychiatric Services, a paper titled "Self-Inflicted Deaths Among Women With US Military Service: A Hidden Epidemic?" contains the first general population study of current suicide risk among women who've served in the US military. From 2004 to 2007, female veterans between the ages of 18 and 34 had the highest suicide risk, with 56 suicides among 418,132 female veterans, or a 1 in 7,456 rate, compared with 1,461 suicides among 33,257,362 nonveteran women in that age group, or a 1 in 22,763 rate. Suicide risk declined for female veterans between 35 and 44, and dropped again to those 45 to 64, but the suicide for veterans in each age group was higher than for nonveterans.
     On NPR 's "Weekend Edition Saturday," (12/4, Spiegel) adds that of the approximately 32,000 suicides in the US each year, about 20 percent are veterans. In the segment, Dr. Jan Kemp, who runs the VA's National Suicide Prevention Hotline, describes one call the hotline received from a suicidal female veteran recently deployed from overseas and suffering from PTSD and military sexual trauma.

17.    Woman Obama Pardoned For Past Drug Dealing Served In Army, Illinois DVA. WFLD-TV Chicago (12/4, 10:09PM EST) reports that a Rockford woman "says she feels blessed to receive one of the first pardons from President Barack Obama. The White House isn't saying why Floretta Leavy and eight other people were chosen for pardons. She served a year in prison for dealing drugs back in 1984. She's since served in the US Army and become an officer of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs." The Associated Press (12/4) adds that Leavy had applied in January 2007 for a pardon.

18.    Battlefield Illumination Honors Civil War Soldiers.  Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail (12/4, Keels, 31K) reports, "The sky was still light Saturday as volunteers gathered for the ceremony marking the start of the 22nd annual Antietam National Battlefield Memorial Illumination, the brown paper bags arranged on the fields barely noticeable despite the flames inside. But by the end of the ceremony, as taps rang out through the night air, the landscape was dominated by the thousands of spots of light, each representing a soldier killed, wounded or missing at the Battle of Antietam." A ceremony before the event was opened to the public "also included remarks and candle-lightings to honor soldiers who served and died in Iraq and Afghanistan."

19.    Veterans Honored At Grave Blanket Ceremony. NJ.com (12/4, Cook) reports that, in Bridgeton, New Jersey, "hundreds of grave blankets made by students at Cumberland Regional High School were placed at the Cumberland County Veterans Cemetery Saturday afternoon." Delivered in an autocade procession led by the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club and the Sheriffs Department, over 500 blankets were placed at headstones by Boy Scouts, veterans, Junior ROTC members and Civil War reenactors.

20.    VA Hospital Employees Are Top-Earning Federal Workers In North Carolina. As President Obama proposes a curb on federal salaries paid in North Carolina, the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times (12/5, Ostendorff, 38K) reports, such a move "would affect thousands of people in North Carolina -- some of them with pretty hefty paychecks. Buncombe County, for example, has 2,400 federal employees. Of those, 271 made six figures in 2009. Doctors and nurses at the Veterans Administration hospital in Oteen topped the list." A spokesman for the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville "said the high salaries at the hospital reflect the number of doctors and nurses who work there."

21.    Pearl Harbor Day Train Rides Back To 1941. The Los Angeles Times (12/5, O'Neil, 681K) reports that inside the San Diego-bound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner on Sunday "it was pure 1941, right down to the 1940s-era first-class lounge car, vintage Navy blue uniforms, Yank magazines and packages of Clove chewing gum. Sixty-nine years after the attack on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor, veterans and their families, railroad buffs and World War II reenactors in period dress took to the rails Saturday to mark Tuesday's anniversary." For the past eight years, the annual event has been organized by a pair of railroad enthusiasts, Debbie and Bill Hatrick, who "said they were inspired to begin the ride after the 60th anniversary of the attack raised awareness about the dwindling number of World War II veterans." During the six-hour ride Saturday, World War II veterans "recalled enlisting at 17, Kamikaze attacks, wartime rationing and lost comrades."

22.    Survivors To Return For Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremony. In a story carried by at least 56 publications, the AP (12/6, McAvoy) notes that on Tuesday, "about 120" Pearl Harbor survivors will return there "for a ceremony in remembrance of those who died in the Japanese attack 69 years ago. About 580 family and friends are due to join them, as are several hundred members of the public. The Navy and the National Park Service are jointly hosting the event."
     WII Valor In The Pacific National Monument To Open On Tuesday. The Dallas Morning News (12/6, Cook, 257K) says that after "years of planning and fundraising, the all-new, $56 million" WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, formerly the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, "will open Tuesday."
     Service In Rhode Island Commemorates Anniversary Of Attack. The Providence (RI) Journal (12/6, Landis) reports, "More than 100 veterans held a joint service Sunday commemorating the attack on Pearl Harbor at the World War II Memorial off South Main Street" in Providence. Tuesday is the "anniversary of the attack by Japan, on Dec. 7, 1941, that brought the United States into World War II."

23.    VA Anticipating Final Transfer Of Land For New Orleans Hospital At End Of January. In a story focused on "complications with land acquisition and site preparation" for the University Medical Center in New Orleans, the New Orleans Times-Picayune (12/5, Barrow, 158K) said "Ryan Berni, spokesman" for New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, "did not answer the question of when the city would meet its obligation to the federal government" on land that will be used for an adjacent US Department of Veterans Affairs medical complex. Amanda Jones, "spokeswoman for...VA, said it is the federal government's 'understanding that the city and state are finalizing the subdivision of the site as part of the land transfer process' and that 'all parties anticipate final transfer to...VA at the end of January.'"
     Jones is also mentioned in an AP (12/6) story run by at least six different news publications. The AP points out that since May, "more than 100 homes and businesses have been either demolished or transplanted to other spots around" New Orleans, in order to make way for the UMC and VA hospital projects. The AP reports that while Jones "said the project would provide health care for veterans throughout the South and pump billions of dollars into the city's economy," veteran Wallace Thurman, whose house was relocated, stated, "They bulldozed everything down on me when I was 80."

24.    Students Sing "Like Angels" For Homeless Vets. The Salisbury (NC) Post (12/6, 21K) notes that on Friday, "two...members of Livingstone College's Concert Choir" sang "for some homeless veterans" at the W. G. "Bill" Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center. After pointing out that Hattie Johnson, "homeless coordinator at...hospital," said the students "sang like

angels," the Post adds, "The students were part of the entertainment for the hospital's annual veteran's holiday luncheon, which also doubled as an appreciation ceremony for community partners who work with and support the homeless population, Johnson said."

25.    VA Hospital's Open House To Focus On Safe Patient Handling Program. The Sioux Falls (SD) Argus Leader (12/6) says the Veterans Affairs hospital in Sioux Falls is inviting "area residents to learn more about" its "safe patient handling program...during an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 15 in the fourth floor auditorium."

26.    Cards, Decorations Created For Vets At VA Hospital. The Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader (12/6) reports, "Faculty, students and student council at Solomon/Plains Memorial observed Veterans Day by creating cards and decorations that honored veterans who are residents of the Community Living Center" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Plains Township.
     Disabled Perform At Same Facility. The Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader (12/6, Ungvarsky) says, "First Chance on Stage," a "non-profit...dedicated to making sure every disabled, disadvantaged or mainstream child or adult who ever wanted to perform in public has a chance to fulfill that dream," performed "Sunday for a crowd of more than two dozen" vets and "their caregivers and family" at the VA hospital in Plains Township.

27.    LATimes Columnist Discusses Vet Groups' Use Of Paid Fundraisers. In the Los Angeles Times (12/5, Lopez, 681K) columnist Steve Lopez writes that, after he ran a column highlighting the charitable work of the National Veterans Foundation with veterans and their families, including homeless program and helping veterans "jump Veterans Administration hurdles to get their benefits and healthcare," some readers questioned the group's fundraising and spending practices. The columnist noted that the group's use of professional fundraisers has been strongly criticized by a website called Military-Money-Matters and by American Institute of Philanthropy, which gave a failing grade of F to 20 veterans groups, including the National Veterans Foundation. Because of heavy outlays to professional fundraisers, only 19% of the National Veterans Foundation's budget is spent on delivering programs. He also notes that some experts call such criticism unfair, and argue that charities may need to use intermediaries in order to stay in business.

28.    Tens Of Thousands Of Wreaths Are Heading For Cemeteries, Monuments. The Associated Press (12/4, Canfield) reports from Portland, Maine that tens of thousands if wreaths destined for hundreds of veterans cemeteries and monuments "were set to depart eastern Maine on Sunday to take part in what has been called the world's largest wreath-laying ceremony. For the 19th year in a row, wreaths from Worcester Wreath Co. in Harrington will be laid on soldiers' gravestones next Saturday to pay tribute to the nation's veterans. A caravan of 20 tractor-trailers will leave Harrington on Sunday, with five of the trucks bound for Arlington National Cemetery." Trucking firms shipping the wreaths have donated their services.

29.    Ride 2 Recovery's Hawaiian Outing Raises Funds For Veteran Cycling Programs. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (12/4) reports, "A national program that promotes cycling as a physical and psychological therapy will add Hawaii to its long list of stops Sunday as an estimated 50 to 60 cyclists ride 62 miles from the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel to Marine Corps Base Hawaii and back in support of American veterans. Ride 2 Recovery, a partnership between the Fitness Challenge Foundation, the US military and the Veterans Administration Volunteer Service Office, raises funds to support cycling-related programs around the country that help injured veterans overcome their disabilities." Sunday's "Cyclefest" events are open to the public.

30.    Costumed Man Seeks To Call Attention To Homeless Vets. WTVF-TV Nashville, TN (12/4, Oh, 8:29 a.m. EDT) reports on Allen Mullins, a Tennessee man who is traveling the country in a Captain America uniform to call attention to homeless veterans. The segment notes that the Department of Veterans Affairs says that about a third of homeless men are veterans, which "means more than 100,000 veterans are living on the streets and the VA says 1.5 million more are at risk for homelessness because of poverty and a lack of support systems."

31.    Parade Goers Urged To Bring Items For Deployed Troops. WSPA-TV Asheville, NC (12/3, Crabtree) invites people going to the Greenville, South Carolina Poinsettia Christmas Parade to bring useful goods, which Blue Star Mothers will collect and ship to troops deployed overseas, and suggests specific personal care, food and candy, and entertainment items.

32.    Waco Earns Top Ranking For Military Retirement. The Waco (TX) Tribune-Herald (12/6, Dennis, 34K) says that having a "Veterans Affairs hospital helped earn Waco" the top sport "on the inaugural 'Best Places for Military Retirement' list sponsored by the United Services Automobile Association and Military.com." According to the Tribune-Herald, the list is to be unveiled on Monday.

33.    First-Graders Offer Christmas Gift Packages To Veterans. According to the Muskogee (OK) Phoenix (12/5, Burton, 13K), first-graders at Harris-Jobe Elementary are "giving their best to spread some holiday cheer to local homebound veterans." Jacqueline Bennett's "class was asked to help make Christmas cards and gift bags for the veterans this year. A group from the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center will collect the goodies and give them to individual veterans in their homes, Bennett said."

34.    Girls On The Run Holds 5K On The VA Campus. The Johnson City (TN) Press (12/6, 29K).

35.    VFW Post Delivers 500 Pounds Of Food. The New London (CT) Day (12/6, 28K) reports, "Last month, members of the Preston Veterans of Foreign Wars Post and Auxiliaries delivered more than 500 pounds of non-perishable food and turkeys to the Norwich Vet Center."