VA HQ Veterans News for Friday, August 19, 2011.  Thanks to Kevin Secor at VA HQ

• 1.     Vietnam Veterans Hoping for Progress.  KTVN  The Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the only organization in the country dedicated to veterans and their families. And now, they're in Reno for the 15th National Convention. Today, US Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki spoke ...
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• 2.     MicroTech CEO Tony Jimenez Delivers Keynote Address at Veterans Conference.  PR Newswire  In remarks entitled: "Love What You Do – Do What You Love," Jimenez focused on his story of business success as a veteran turned entrepreneur, and, in return, on inspiring veterans to launch their own business. The US Department of Veterans Affairs ...
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• 3.     Task Force Arrests 14 In VA Center Drug Bust.  WPBF West Palm Beach
  The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, the State Attorney's Office, the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of the Inspector General - Criminal Investigations Division joined forces to conduct the probe inside the center, targeting VA workers ... 
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• 4.     Veterans summit set for Aug. 26 in Fairbanks.  Dutch Harbor Fisherman  The event is hosted by the Department of Military & Veterans Affairs, the Joint Alaska State Legislative Veterans' Caucus and the Alaska Veterans Advisory Council. After presentations by the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the State of Alaska, ... 
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• 5.     Dept. of Veterans Affairs introduces comprehensive new social media policy.  OhMyGov! (blog)  In their roughly two years of practicing social media development and outreach, The Veteran's Affairs Department has established itself as one of the more innovative and forward thinking federal agencies when it ... 
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• 6.     VA Opens Small Business Conference in New Orleans.  MarketWatch  The conference learning sessions are targeted at a variety of businesses--from new business owners to well-established Veteran-owned businesses looking to expand opportunities or increase market share. Additionally, the state directors of VA from 10 ...
  
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• 7.     Melrose Welcomes New Veterans Service Officer.  Patch.com  His studies focus on veteran benefits delivery at the local and state level, with specific concentrations on disability, employment and homelessness prevention. “McLane's unique education, military, and veteran affairs background made him the ideal ... 
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• 8.     Free SBA clinics help veterans start or grow small business.  White Mountain Independent  James Pipper, SBA Veterans Affairs Officer, will help military veterans assess their business concept, prepare a business plan and conduct a feasibility analysis. The SBA Veteran's Business Outreach provides business training, counseling, mentoring and ... 

9.     Veterans' "Stand Down" Set For Sept. 9.  Bristol (CT) Press On Wednesday, the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs "said...it expects more than 1,000 homeless and needy veterans to attend 'Stand Down 2011' Sept. 9 at the state Veterans Home." The event "provides free services, assistance and information from federal and state agencies as well as local businesses and corporations for veterans. Last year, a record 1,300 needy veterans participated."

10. Vets Differ On Whether The US Military Retirement System Should Be Changed. Fox News' Fox & Friends "Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says military pensions can be cut." Fox News asked Kieran Michael Lalor, the founder of Iraq Veterans for Congress, and veteran Todd Harrison, senior fellow of Defense Budget Studies for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, what they thought about Secretary Panetta's comments. Lalor said, "There is a need for pension reform when it comes to Federal employees and all civil employees. But let's not start" with military retirees. Harrison, however, said "no one loses benefits under the plan," which would "transition from the current entitlement system for military retirement to a system more like the 401K, where individuals would be in charge of their own retirement savings."

11. Shinseki Touts VA's Employment Assistance Efforts.  CNN Newsroom An interview with Iraq veteran Greg Simmick, who was in New Orleans, where VA "is holding a boot camp for vet entrepreneurs." The Simmick interview was part of a series that CNN is broadcasting this week on veteran-owned small businesses looking for work. On Tuesday, CNN Newsroom (8/16, 10:13 a.m. ET) interviewed disabled Iraq veteran Dawn Halfaker, who is currently the "head of Halfaker and Associates," a software development company.  The New Orleans Times-Picayune (8/17, Barrow, 147K) said that when Shinseki spoke to several thousand people at the National Veterans Small Business Conference and Expo in New Orleans on Tuesday, he "promised a sharpened focus and new federal resources aimed at improving business and employment opportunities for present and former military men and women as they return to the civilian work force." Veterans Affairs "organizers pitch the weeklong conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as having several purposes, from equipping veteran-owned businesses to win more federal contracts to linking small startups with firms already established in the private marketplace." Shinseki's "visit comes on the heels of President Barack Obama publicly highlighting several administration policies aimed at veterans in the private sector."  The Air Force News Service (8/18) reports, "The National Veterans Small Business Conference and Expo in New Orleans is underway." Hosted by VA "for the first time, it is the largest nationwide conference of its kind focused on helping veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses succeed in winning federal contracts and expanding their businesses." This "'conference offers a new approach to providing veteran-owned businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses the access and tools they need to thrive in the federal marketplace,' said" Shinseki, who added, "Our primary goal is to help more veterans start and grow their own businesses." The AFNS points out that other "conference speakers include Jane Lute, deputy secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and Frank Kendall, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, logistics and technology."

12. VA Chief Touts Promises Kept To Blinded Veterans. Las Vegas Review-Journal On Wednesday, Shinseki spoke to more than 300 members of the Blinded Veterans Association, who were in Las Vegas for the group's annual convention. Shinseki told those in attendance that progress has been made toward two goals he set when he first took charge at VA. Shinseki said that VA will "open a new Las Vegas VA medical center next year," which will have a positive economic impact on the city, and that he is determined to reduce VA's disability claims backlog. After noting that US Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) and US Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) also addressed the convention, the Review-Journal points out that VA's budget for automating the claims process has been increased by 27 percent.

13. VA Seeks New Impact With Latest Social Media Push.  Stars And Stripes  "Stripes Central" blog reports that VA "officials unveiled their new social media policy Tuesday, promising to expand upon efforts already underway to reach out to veterans on Facebook, Twitter and any other tools. In a statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said that the goal is for veterans to have 'consistent and convenient access to reliable VA information real time using social media -whether on a smartphone or a computer.'" Stars And Stripes adds, "VA social media experts say the real breakthrough is that they've already seen success with the efforts in one unexpected area: suicide prevention."

14. Pilot Program Connects HealtheLink. Buffalo Business First  "Veterans in the Buffalo region will benefit from a federal pilot project designed to improve communication between public and private sector health-care providers. HealtheLink was selected among 11 organizations nationwide to participate in the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) Health Communities Program by the Department of Veterans Affairs." Daniel Porreca, "HealtheLink executive director, said the program will lead to better health-care services for veterans."  According to Government Health IT (8/17), "Western New York is one of 11 expected demonstration sites around the country by the end of September in which VA and participating local providers share patient data through access to the nationwide health information network (NwHIN), a set of standards and services to exchange information securely through the Internet." Government Health IT added, "VLER is VA's development of a single electronic system to track the medical, benefits and administrative records of service members from their induction into the military throughout their lives as veterans." Five "communities are testing the exchange of records between VA, the Defense Department and private sector providers in San Diego, Calif.; Hampton Roads, Va.; Spokane, Wash.; Indianapolis, Ind.; and southeastern Utah."

15. VA Kicks Off Project To Provide Cloud Tools To 134,000 Medical Staff. NextGov "To stay ahead of doctors and residents who prefer to use Web-based applications rather than government-provided software, the Veterans Affairs Department has launched a project to provide potentially all 134,000 medical personnel with access to commercial collaboration tools hosted in a cloud computing environment. VA, in a request for information issued to industry last Thursday, indicated it wants to host these collaboration tools in commercial data centers, with the caveat that those data centers must be located in the United States." NextGov adds, "Responses to the RFI are due Sept. 9."

16. Charity Providing Service Dogs To Injured Vets. MSNBC Live   "Since 9/11 more than 45,000 servicemen and women have been injured -- many with serious or permanent disabilities -- and their recovery is often complicated and arduous. But an innovative charity" called Canines for Veterans is "recruiting man's best friend to...help injured veterans." The charity's founder told MSNBC that his organization provides a "triple win" because it has military prisoners learn a job skill by teaching them how to give service dog training to dogs rescued from shelters, and the dogs then serve injured vets. According to the founder, the charity relies on donations to fund its work, although the military does provide the prison to train the dogs and the prisoners who do the training.

17. Army Suicides See A Spike. San Antonio Express-News (8/17, Christenson, 151K) reported, "As the 10th anniversary of war nears, the Army continues to be plagued by suicides, roughly two-thirds of them veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan." After noting that the Army has spent years working to prevent suicides, the Express-News pointed out that Army Lt. Col. Steve Warren "said 32 active-duty soldiers in July likely had killed themselves - the highest number for any month since it started tracking the problem in 2009." The "Army's vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, expressed concern about the rise in July's suicides, but said the service's suicide prevention programs are making a difference."

18. Housing For Homeless Vets Increases Through VA.  Fort Bragg (NC) Patch "A partnership was announced Tuesday with the Salvation Army and the Myrover-Reese Fellowship Home that will increase short-term housing for homeless veterans by 23 beds." The "partnerships are part of the Fayetteville VA's plan to end homelessness among local veterans in five years."

19. Grant Aims To Help Keep Vets In Their Homes.  Shore News Today  "A regional nonprofit is one of 85 national recipients of US Department of Veterans Affairs grant money to help low-income veterans and their families avoid homelessness. Catholic Charities, of the Diocese of Camden, will receive nearly $750,000 under the one year program to serve low-income veterans in South Jersey's six counties." Shore News Today adds, "The program has been dubbed 'Ready, Vet, Go' by the Camden group, and is funded under...VA's new 'Supportive Services for Veteran Families' initiative."

20. Predialysis Dietitian Care May Improves Survival.  Renal And Urology News  "Predialysis dietitian care for more than 12 months may be associated with better survival during the first year on hemodialysis (HD), researchers reported." Dr. Yelena Slinin, who works at a Veterans Affairs hospital, helped conduct the study, which appears in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

21. Moving Vietnam Wall Exhibit Brings Memorial To Valley Veterans.  Arizona Republic "The 'Bringing Home the Wall' exhibit, which includes a scaled-down replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC, opened for a three-day run on Wednesday at the Phoenix VA Health Care System." Veterans "Tom and Dee Twigg were moved to develop the downsized exhibit - which they primarily fund themselves, with help from donations - after realizing hospital-bound veterans might not be able to make it outside to see larger traveling replicas." Navy veteran "and VA hospital spokeswoman Paula Pedene said she jumped at the opportunity when the Twiggs offered to bring the replica to the Phoenix hospital, at Seventh Street and Indian School Road."

22. Veterans Take The Beach.  Asbury Park (NJ) Press

23. Thousands Honor Slain San Diego Police Officer.  Chattanooga Times Free Press

24. "Yoga For Veterans:" A Twist On An Ongoing Effort In Myrtle Beach.  Florence (SC) Morning News

25. VetCorps Hosts Event To Benefit Veterans Saturday.  Wenatchee (WA) World

26. Exeter Man Receives Overdue Recognition.  Cassville (MO) Democrat  "Earlier this month, Bill Henry, of Exeter, received a much overdue recognition. On Aug. 4, he was presented with a Purple Heart during a special ceremony held" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

27. New Veteran Van Put Into Service.  Burlington County Times