VA HQ Veterans News for Monday, August 1, 2011.  Thanks to Kevin Secor at VA HQ!

 

1.    Prescription Pill Overuse by Military Drawing More Attention.  Patch.com  But you don't want to see a veteran go into a VA hospital and get a prescription drug filled for painkillers and then go down the street to a private doctor or private pharmacy and get another prescription pill when there's a database that could ...

 

2.    CCSU, Veterans Affairs Team Up in 'Call for Photos'.  Patch.com  Their names are among the more than 58000 listed on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC Central Connecticut State University and the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs are teaming up to put faces with those names. On Friday July 29,

 

3.    Families in Crisis aids vet families dealing with homelessness.  Killeen Daily Herald
In late July, the US Department of Veterans Affairs awarded Families in Crisis $358096 as a part of the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, a national initiative to award nearly $60 million to 85 nonprofit community agencies in 40 states

 

4.    Rochester veteran looks to future.  Beaver County Times  He's the man veterans in this region see for new wheelchairs. He's also a coach in charge of recruiting athletes for the annual games, which are sponsored by the US Department of Veteran Affairs and the Paralyzed Veterans of America. ...

 

5.    VA spurns requests for documents.  Charleston Post Courier  Not only did the US Department of Veterans Affairs fail for years to adequately oversee finances at the Good Neighbor Center, but it also has delayed for more than eight months in providing The Post and Courier with public documents ...

 

6.    Veterans Affairs approves Maine Media Workshops for GI Bill funds.  knox.VillageSoup.com  undefined The US Department of Veterans Affairs has approved many of Maine Media Workshops' one-, two- and four-week classes as education programs for the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Maine Media College's Professional Certificate and MFA degree programs ...

 

7.    Veterans find hope through chaplain training graduates.  Deseret News  A letter arrived at the chaplain's office at the Veterans Affairs hospital addressed from Martin Wilson, a distressed veteran in the county jail on March 2010. Wayne Hull, then a new student of the Utah Clinical Pastoral ...

 

8.    Minimum of 1400 small businesses receiving false VA benefits.  123Print.com  After an investigation, the US Department of Veterans Affairs found major problems with small businesses claiming to be owned by veterans, according to the Navy Times. The news source said VA officials found 76 percent of businesses ...

 

9.    Access to care is the focus of Veterans Services secretary visit.  Silver City Sun News
But getting local care for local veterans is the bigger issue and continues to be a huge hurdle for veterans, particularly aging World War II vets who have to get up at midnight to take the 1 am van from Silver City to Albuquerque to the VA hospital ...

 

10.                       Veterans Affairs administration to grant $600K to Mobile social services. Press-Register - al.com (blog)  -- The US Department of Veterans Affairs this week announced a $600000 grant to a Mobile social services organization that serves the homeless. Housing First Inc., which serves the homeless and marginally ...

11.                       VA Grounds Not For Politics.  Houston ChronicleResponding to threats by an area Congressman to use an appropriations bill to eliminate the job of the director of the VA cemetery in Houston, because of her allegedly anti-religious practices, a pastor and veteran who says he has performed many funerals there says that "no one has ever tried to censor my speech." Noting that standard military honors "are not in themselves religious," he adds that families desiring religious ceremonies can receive them on request. He also notes that a funeral "is not the place for volunteers to inject their own beliefs when these are not requested by the family. The VA is doing the right thing here. Please, leave politics -- and politicized religion -- out if it."

 

12.                       White House Names Members Of New Effort On Waste, Fraud.  Washington Post  "The Obama administration is launching a Government Accountability and Transparency Board, which the White House says is designed to 'enhance transparency in federal spending and root out and stop waste, fraud and abuse in federal programs.'" The deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs, W. Scott Gould, is on the board, which "will recommend strategies to make spending data more reliable and accessible across the government."

 

13.                       Florida Drops Veterans Hall Of Fame List Prepared by DVA.  WFTV-TV The state of Florida "is getting rid of its list of possible inductees for the new Veterans Hall of Fame, after critics said it lacked diversity. Twenty-two people were on the veterans list. They were all white men and former governors with military service, including Gov. Rick Scott. If the list had been approved, Hall of Fame members would have been formally inducted on Veterans Day and honored with a plaque at the capitol. The Department of Veterans Affairs came up with the list."

 

14.                       Connecticut DVA Seeks Photos Of Veterans Who Died In Vietnam War. WFSB-TV  The state's Department of Veterans Affairs "is working with Central Connecticut State University to collect photos of veterans of died in the Vietnam War, for a virtual memorial in Washington, DC. The virtual memorial will be displayed near the memorial wall; the goal is to attach faces to the more than 58,000 names listed on the Wall."

 

15.                       North Dakota Will Issue Driver's Licenses Noting Veterans Status. KXMC-TV  North Dakota veterans will "soon be able to get new licenses--which will give them recognition for their service. Starting August 1, veterans will be able add the letter 'V' on their licenses." Besides offering recognition for their service, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Veterans Affairs notes that having the symbol of their driver's license may make it easier for veterans to prove their eligibility for veteran's discounts.

 

16.                       Veterans Can Learn About Benefits At Supermarket In Madison. Wausau (WI) Daily Herald  A two-day Supermarket of Veterans Benefits in Madison on August 5-6, hosted by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, will bring together dozens of service providers, "including the federal VA, state agencies, County Veterans Service Officers, veterans service organizations, education centers and more. Veterans along with family members of veterans and deployed service members are encouraged to come to the Supermarket to learn about federal VA health care, employment, and other information."

 

17.                       VA Grilled On Veteran-Owned Small Businesses.  Army Times   "The Veterans Affairs Department was in the hot seat Thursday after an audit found it had awarded at least 1,400 contracts intended for veteran-owned companies to ineligible businesses. The contracts were specifically set aside for veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, but because companies can self-identify, many falsely identified themselves as veteran-owned." Thomas Leney, the executive director of small and veteran business programs at VA, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee's oversight panel that his job is to "fix verification and make sure it stays fixed." Leney "will update the subcommittee in 90 to 120 days on further progress."

 

18.                       Labor Official Resigns After Findings That He Gave Work To Favored Contractors.  McClatchy  "A top Labor Department official in charge of helping veterans find jobs resigned this week amid findings that he had steered work to favored contractors." Raymond Jefferson "oversaw the department's Veterans' Employment and Training Service, known as VETS, a federal effort to help veterans find jobs and protect their employment rights. It was geared to the veterans who couldn't get job assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs, whose employment and training programs are directed toward former service members with disabilities related to their military service."

 

19.                       New VA Contractor Registration Process Brings Delays. Washington (DC) Business Journal  The VA "recently put in place new registration requirements for service-disabled veteran owned businesses, which can tack on a lot of time to the process. Contractors should expect a delay in certification -- and their ability to bid on set-aside contracts."

 

20.                       Panel OKs Email For VA Claims Notifications. Air Force Times  Legislation allowing email to be used as the primary means of notifying veterans about the status of pending disability benefits claims was approved Thursday by a House subcommittee after a few changes were made to ensure veterans could not be inadvertently hurt by electronic rather than paper notifications." The House Veterans Affairs Committee's "oversight and investigations panel also approved a bill requiring the Labor Department to post information on its website about the number of veterans hired by federal contractors." The full Veterans Affairs Committee will take up by the two bills in August, as "part of a package of legislation that the panel wants to pass before Congress takes its summer break."

 

21.                       VAMC Takes Care Of Women Patients. Lebanon (PA) Daily News (

 

22.                       More Serious Innovation From Veterans Affairs. Huffington Post  Craigslist founder Craig Newmark writes, "Over the last two years or so, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been doing some seriously innovative work on behalf of the troops." Now the agency has "announced a competition to get the vets' Blue Button installed on doctors systems. The Blue Button works with a vet's health records, and the competition is about building personal health records and getting them installed in doctors' systems."

 

23.                       Vets With PTSD, Government Reach Settlement.  AP  Over a thousand Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder "would be given lifetime disability retirement benefits such as military health insurance under the terms of a settlement reached between the government and the veterans. Attorneys for the veterans, the Justice Department and the military jointly filed a motion on Thursday that spelled out the terms." Another thousand veterans who already had lifetime retirement benefits would receive a higher disability rating, potentially resulting in larger disability compensation payments. The settlement, which must be approved by a judge before becoming final, stems from a 2008 class-action lawsuit filed in the US Court of Claims by veterans claiming that, because they were unable to continue serving due to an anxiety disorder, they were being wrongfully denied benefits.

 

24.                       Remains Of 12 WWII Servicemen Identified. AP  "The Pentagon has identified the remains of 12 World War II servicemen. The military said Thursday they died in a plane crash in Papua New Guinea on Oct 27, 1943." According to the AP, the remains of the servicemen "will be buried Monday at Arlington National Cemetery."

 

25.                       Walter Reed Operations To Be Moved To Facilities In Maryland, Virginia. CBS Early Show  "From presidents to privates, Walter Reed Army Medical Center has treated the sick and the injured for more than a century, but its facility is closing as the Pentagon tries to consolidate hospital care and save money. On Wednesday, Walter Reed held a ceremony to close its mission." Walter Reed's "operations are being moved to new and upgraded facilities at the National Naval Medical Center In Bethesda, Maryland, and to another Army medical facility at Fort Belvoir, Virginia."