•1.    Obesity linked to higher risk of prostate cancer progression.  EurekAlert  To examine the role obesity may play in prostate cancer, Keto and colleagues at Duke identified 287 men whose diseased prostates had been removed at five US Department of Veteran Affairs hospitals from 1988-2009. Because their cancers had reappeared, ...

 

•2.    Graduates Urged to Take Risks in Life.  Duke University  ... Alan Page, an NFL Hall of Fame member, judge and education activist; Lisa Randall, a professor of theoretical physics and a leading expert on particle physics and cosmology; Eric Shinseki, secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, ...

 

•3.    Aragon speaks at Veterans Appreciation Day.  Ada Evening News  Rita Aragon, a retired major general in the US Air Force who now serves as Oklahoma's secretary for veterans affairs, will highlight Veterans Appreciation Day May 20 at East Central University. Veterans Appreciation Day will be hosted by ECU's Veterans ...

 

•4.    Lakeshore family to take part in suicide awareness walk.  Herald Times Reporter  Of the 30000 Americans who commit suicide on average each year, 6000 are veterans, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. “Flashbacks are one of the worst things that can happen to a guy,” said Ken Decker, president of the Vietnam Veterans ...

 

•5.    Officials anticipating 'huge costs' for care.  Louisville Courier-Journal  Budgets for health care are also on the rise at the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA's budget for medical care was $48.2 billion in 2010, and is estimated to be $51.7 billion this year. It's expected to hit $54.9 billion in 2012, ...

 

•6.    Battle for troops on home turf .  Sunday Sun  They might well look enviously across the across the Atlantic where the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government's second-largest ...

 

•7.    As military grows older, injuries increase and treatment .  Louisville Courier-Journal
But Dr. David X. Cifu, national director of physical medicine and rehabilitation for the Veterans Health Administration, said the US Department of Veterans Affairs is now studying the medical problems of older veterans, and he believes his agency is up ...

 

•8.    Agent Orange Linked to Kidney Cancer: Study .  U.S. News & World Report  "These data indicate that we may need to better determine whether exposure to these chemicals should be considered a risk factor for kidney cancer." The US Department of Veterans Affairs has more about Agent Orange.

 

•9.    Regional business conference for military veterans set for Tuesday in Muskegon .  Muskegon Chronicle - MLive.com   Included as panelists are: Dave Eling, executive director of West Michigan Veterans, Inc. and the Muskegon County Department of Veterans Affairs; Huntington Bank's Lynette Griffith of Muskegon; Dante Villarreal of Grand Valley State University's small ...

 

•10.                       Veterans' Issues a Major Focus for Florida Congressmen .  Sunshine State News  Sunshine State Republican Congressman Gus Bilirakis, the vice chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, teamed up with Democratic Congressmen Tim Walz on two proposals -- one to improve services for veterans suffering from traumatic brain ...

 

•11.                       Treasury Phasing In All-Electronic Payments .  Newton Press Mentor  As of May 1, anyone applying for benefits from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Railroad Retirement Board, and Office of Personnel Management has had to choose an electronic payment option – direct ...

 

•12.                       CSM Joins Maryland Campus Compact for Student Veterans .  Southern Maryland Online  In Annapolis earlier this year, CSM President Dr. Brad Gottfried, left, signs the Maryland Campus Compact for Student Veterans which aims to improve on-campus services for veteran students. The college has had a veterans affairs coordinator since 2008. ...

 

•13.                       House Panel Would Boost VA Funding, Cut Budget for Construction Projects.  CQ Weekly (5/15) reports that the "House Military Construction-VA Appropriations Subcommittee gave voice vote approval to a draft bill that would boost funding for the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) at the expense of military construction. Overall, the bill would provide about 1 percent less in discretionary funding than the fiscal 2011 law. The amount for the VA would rise by $8.7 billion, to $58 billion. The military construction section is down by $2.6 billion, to $14 billion."

 

•14.                       Veterans Affairs Secretary To Visit Guam. KUAM-TV  Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is scheduled to make a visit to Guam next week on the "the heels of various concerns from veterans about the lack of staffing at the new veterans affairs clinic in Agana Heights." Shinseki "will meet with veterans affairs officials and attend a dedication ceremony for the Veterans Outreach Center." Island veterans hope to get a "chance to express their concerns directly."

 

•15.                       Committee Passes Bill Giving Governor Power To Appoint Veterans Secretary. AP   "A Wisconsin state Assembly committee has passed a bill giving the governor the power to appoint the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill now heads to the full Assembly, which is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday."  

•16.                       Wisconsin Budget Committee Approves Five Million Dollars For Veterans Trust Fund.   AP  The "Wisconsin Legislature's budget committee has voted to inject $5 million into a trust fund that pays for veterans assistance programs. Under Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal, the fund faced a $3.7 million shortfall by the middle of 2013." On Thursday, though, the "Joint Finance Committee voted unanimously...to put $5 million in state taxpayer money into the fund, which would leave the fund with a $1.5 million balance." 

•17.                       VA Implementing Enhancements To Existing Services For Veterans And Their Caregivers. Char-Koosta News  "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently published the interim final rule for implementing the Family Caregiver Program of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act 2010." The rule "will provide additional support to eligible post-9/11 veterans who elect to receive their care in a home setting from a primary family caregiver."

 

•18.                       Commercial Health Record Software Would Cost $16 Billion, Says VA.   NextGov "If the Veterans Affairs Department replaced its existing Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture with commercial software, it would face a bill of $16 billion, Roger Baker, the department's chief information officer, told a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday. By contrast, the open source software approach now planned by VA will allow the department to upgrade VistA incrementally, avoiding 'a huge outyear expense,' Baker said" during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

 

•19.                       2 Images Of VA IT Security Emerge At Hearing.   GovInfoSecurity.com "Two distinct images emerged on how the Department of Veterans Affairs addresses IT security at a congressional hearing Wednesday on the VA's 21st century IT strategy." The agency's Chief Information Officer Roger Baker "highlighted improvements the department has made in addressing IT security concerns." But auditors from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) "and the VA's inspector general gave grim assessments." 

•20.                       GAO, VA's IG Express Concern While Baker Touts Way Things Are Done Now By Agency. InformationWeek  "A $127 million project to build a new outpatient appointment-schedule system failed because of IT management issues that historically have plagued the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), according to" a recently released report from the GAO. Joel Willemssen, "managing director of information technology at the GAO, described" what the report found during testimony given Wednesday "before a House oversight subcommittee concerned with the VA." But Baker "said via email that the GAO report describes how systems development worked before the accountability system was in place, and is not reflective of how the VA operates now." 

•21.                       Watchdog Dings VA For Poor Management Of Rural Health Program. Government Executive   "The Veterans Health Administration has not adequately managed a large chunk of funds associated with a program that provides patient services to vets in rural areas, according to a report from the department's" inspector general (IG). The IG "concluded the Office of Rural Health lacked certainty that it effectively allocated $273.3 million, or 51 percent, of $533 million in funding it received during fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2010."

 

•22.                       VA Preparing Itself For New Services For Women Veterans.  Fayetteville (NC) Observer  "The Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to break out of its old-boy club image by expanding services for women veterans, officials said Thursday," during a news conference call. The "event was the first of several VA officials plan to hold in the coming months." The Observer adds, "The recent influx of women veterans -- especially those of child-bearing age -- has caused VA hospitals and clinics to reconsider the services offered to women, said Patricia Hayes, chief consultant for the Women Veterans Health Strategic Health Care Group," who spoke during Thursday's conference call.

 

•23.                       Military Veteran Opens Up About 1970s Sex Assault.  Arizona Republic (5/15, Creno) reports, "Gilbert resident JoAnn White says she was wounded while serving with the Air Force in the Vietnam War and has not been able to work since. Her injuries were not inflicted by a foreign enemy. She said she was raped and sexually assaulted by men who were supposed to be on her side. White says her pain is as emotional as it was physical and was exacerbated by a system that shrugged off her reports without investigating." She has "looked on with satisfaction recently as a group of 17 men and women who were raped and assaulted during active service filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon and as legislation was introduced in Congress to expand legal rights and protections for such victims."

 

•24.                       Women Vets Get Manicures And, Most Importantly, Their Due.  St. Louis Post-Dispatch (5/15), "Though women now make up more than 15 percent of the armed forces, a gathering of military veterans still tends to summon images of a cluster of guys bellied up to an American Legion bar recounting stories they've all told a thousand times before. It does not, for most, trigger a picture of former military personnel swapping tales as technicians manicure their nails and coif their hair." Events like Saturday's "Women Veterans Stand Up!" have "been, until now, a rarity."

 

•25.                       Local VA Mental Health Care Given An "F" By Advocate For Veterans. Des Moines (IA) Register   P.J. Sesker-Green, an "activist who works with injured veterans said the Des Moines Veterans Affairs Medical Center," is "plagued by the same kind of poor mental health care that an appeals court cited nationally on Tuesday. 'I would say that they would rank an 'F' if they had a report card,' said" the woman who "volunteers with a veterans-assistance group called Operation First Response." Sesker-Green "said she hopes the court ruling leads to major changes in treatment for PTSD, 'because the more guys who get deployed and the more often they go, the worse and worse it gets.'" 

•26.                       Head Of Veterans For Common Sense Calls Ruling "Huge." Austin American Statesman The court's "historic decision... has the potential to radically change the way the VA provides care to veterans." The ruling "came largely as a result of the efforts of an Austin veteran's organization." Paul Sullivan, a "Gulf War veteran and Austin resident who runs Veterans for Common Sense, (which brought the original suit against the VA along with California-based Veterans United for Truth in 2007), calls the court's decision 'huge.'" 

•27.                       Biden To Headline Announcement Of New Approach For Researching Vets' Injuries. Politico "Vice President Joe Biden will speak at an event to announce a unified approach to the study of the brain by all elements of the federal government - timed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's 'moonshot' speech, Patrick Kennedy tells POLITICO. Biden is set to speak on May 25 at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston at an event to announce a 10-year blueprint to streamline federal research on neuroscience, brain injuries and mental illness among veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, Kennedy said." According to Politico, the "event is part of Kennedy's One Mind project, an initiative whose goal is to draw attention to the lack of a single repository in government for brain research or a unified approach to the work." 

•28.                       Data Shows More Returning Vets Have Psychological Problems.   ProPublica "More than half of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans treated in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals since 2002 have been diagnosed, at least preliminarily, with mental health problems, according to statistics obtained by the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense. The data, which is released quarterly, also shows that the raw number of returning soldiers with psychological problems is rising." Laurie Tranter, a "spokeswoman for the VA, told ProPublica that the agency has increased the number of mental health staff in the US by more than 40 percent since 2002 to more than 20,000."  

•29.                       Nonprofit Sending Helmet Upgrade Kits To Deployed US Soldiers. Houston Chronicle   76-year-old Dr. Bob Meaders, who is a "man on a mission - protecting the heads and brains of US troops. Meaders founded the nonprofit Operation Helmet in 2003, after his grandson Justin requested safer helmets for his Marine Corps unit." Since then, Operation Helmet has "provided more than 54,000 free helmet upgrade kits to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan" so that they can add shock-absorbing pads to their helmets and help prevent traumatic brain injury. 

•30.                       Vet Walking With Purpose From Dyess.  Abilene Reporter-News 38-year-old Army veteran Matt Parrish plans to walk to Los Angeles and then back to Tampa, Florida. He started the trip on January 19 and originally expected it to take seven to nine months. Now he believes that it will take longer. The Reporter-News adds that "Parrish pushes a stroller that carries his necessities -- medicine and sunscreen, along with some clothes and camping supplies." The Reporter-News also reports that "Parrish said he has sponsor support of Magnum Boots USA and New Balance for footwear and apparel but he otherwise is self-funded and accepts donations from the people he meets along the way. He is blogging his journey at Trekforhope.com."