Wayne’s Daily Veteran Update–



 



Greetings good folks.  




Hoping you and your loved ones are well.  Lets keep up with those Prayers and Blessings for our Troops and their loved ones everywhere. 


 

Best………………….Wayne




VA News for Tuesday, February 23, 2010



 



1.      Shinseki “Fighting To Reduce” Red Tape For Vets Seeking Benefits. In continuing coverage, KITV-TV Honolulu, HI (2/22, 10:31 p.m. HT) broadcast, “Kauai-born” Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki “is fighting to reduce the red tape…veterans” encounter when seeking benefits. Shinseki “has already made it easier for veterans exposed to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War to get benefits” for numerous diseases “associated with the toxic chemical.”
     Shinseki Urged To Take On Bureaucracy While Attempting To Reduce Claims Backlog. In a related editorial, the Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer (2/23, 19K) notes Shinseki recently “told the Associated Press he will make it a priority this year to reduce backlogs in processing veterans’ disability claims.” The Intelligencer urges Shinseki not to “shirk from the bureaucratic battles he will have to wage to keep that promise. Our veterans are worth it.”



 



2.      Lawmakers Urge VA Support For New Fisher House In Colorado. The Aurora (CO) Sentinel (2/23, Goldstein, 8K) reports, “Congressional representatives are seeking federal support for a $10-million, 20-bed residential center that would serve patients at the new, $800-million standalone veterans hospital” in Aurora. In a letter sent to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, “Aurora Reps. Mike Coffman and Ed Perlmutter, and Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall,” along “with other members of the Colorado congressional” delegation, “urged support for a new Fischer House facility to be built next to the new VA hospital.” The Sentinel notes that according to Leslie Oliver, a spokeswoman for Perlmutter’s office, the VA needs to give its approval if the Fischer House is to be completed by the time the VA hospital opens its doors in 2013.



 



3.      White House Calls For Health IT “Task Force.” Government Health IT (2/23, Mosquera) reports, “The White House Friday called for a government-wide health IT ‘task force’ to strengthen coordination of health IT among federal agencies that hold key roles in carrying out the administration’s plans for a digital healthcare system. The plan, issued in a memo” from Office of Management & Budget Director Peter Orzsag and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “sets up a way for agencies with heavy healthcare agendas to participate formally in planning health IT adoption projects set in motion by passage of the HITECH Act last year.” The memo, which was addressed to several Cabinet secretaries, including Veterans Affairs’ Eric Shinseki, “asked the secretaries to choose a senior leader from their agencies to represent them on the task force and to send HHS their choices within five days.”



 



4.      Homeless Vets Facility In Texas Could Soon Begin Accepting Residents. The Fort Worth (TX) Business Press (2/22, Dillard) reported, “The finishing touches are all in place at Liberty House: the walls are painted, the carpet is in, the beds are turned down and the staff is ready to welcome home the first residents in a new transitional housing program for homeless veterans in Tarrant County. Liberty House, a partnership between Mental Health Mental Retardation of Tarrant County (MHMRTC)” and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, “could begin accepting residents by March 1, once final approval is received from the government.” The Business Press added, “Construction on the two-story, 7,500-square-foot veterans’ facility began in August 2009 after MHMRTC’s Addiction Services Division received” a $600,000 VA grant.



 



5.      Stimulus Funds To Pay For Upgrades At Several VA Facilities. The Newport News (VA) Daly Press (2/23) reports, “The Hampton VA Medical Center will receive funds to replace fire alarm and nurse call systems through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the US Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday. The $1.5 million project to upgrade the two systems was awarded to Adira Construction Inc., a small, veteran-owned business” in Chesapeake, Virginia. After noting that the hospital will also “complete an electrical upgrade project estimated at $6.2 million,” the Daily Press adds, “Rep. Robert C. ‘Bobby’ Scott, D- Newport News, said the stimulus-funded work ‘will go a long way toward enhancing and improving the benefits our veterans have earned.’” The Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot (2/23) also covers this story, as does the “Hampton Road Recon”, a blog for the Newport News (VA) Daily Press (2/23, Lessig, 76K), and the AP (2/23).
     A separate AP (2/23) story reports, “Federal stimulus funding will pay for $5.4 million in construction upgrades at the Department of Veterans Affairs Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System. A White House news release says the upgrades include replacement elevators and dumbwaiters, a replacement roof and an updated exterior finish to several buildings at the…facility,” which is located in Biloxi, Mississippi. Thomas Wisniesk, the facility’s director, “says the improved infrastructure will benefit the veterans who rely on the center’s services.” The Biloxi (MS) Sun Herald (2/23, Newsom) publishes a similar story.
     The KTVN-TV Reno, NV (2/22) website reported, “Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid says more than $5 million in economic recovery dollars are headed” to Reno’s VA medical center. According to KTVN, the “money will help renovate the community living center and urgent care center,” as well as “help upgrade elevators and refurbish heating and air conditioning units and the hospital floors. Reid says not only is this money important for our vets, but it will help put Nevadans back to work as well.”




     The Salisbury (NC) Post (2/23, 21K) notes that on Monday, US Sen. Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) “announced that the Hefner VA Medical Center in Salisbury has received $5.7 million” in stimulus funds for building renovations. After pointing out that Hagan called the funds a “crucial investment”, the Post notes Carolyn Adams, the hospital’s director, said the money “allows the facility to complete many energy saving initiatives.”



 



6.      Turnaround At VHA Praised. While being interviewed on CNN’s No Bias, No Bull (2/22, 8:35 p.m. ET), David Osborne, co-author of a book called “Reinventing Government”, praised the turnaround at the Veterans Health Administration, which, according to Osborne, ended up having the “best electronic medical records system in the world, and by any measure they had better performance in terms of healthcare outcomes, quality, and customer satisfaction than the private sector in healthcare.”



 



7.      Following Efforts At VA, USDA, Army Explores Telemedicine At Some Europe Bases. After noting that the US Army is “testing telemedicine as a way to give patients at remote posts in Europe better access to American specialists,” Stars And Stripes (2/23, Robson) says telemedicine “has already gained a foothold” in the US healthcare system, at the US Department of Agriculture, which recently “announced $34.9 million in grants for 35 states to increase health care services in rural areas.” Stars And Stripes adds, “Additionally, the Veterans Affairs Department is already a step ahead of the rest of the federal government in promoting telemedicine, according to a Feb. 17 article in Federal Computer Week.”



 



8.      Ad Campaign Part Of VA Plan To Attract “Best And Brightest.” In its “Federal Eye” blog, the Washington Post (2/23, O’Keefe, 684K) says, “If you’ve watched the Olympics or other big events on television in recent weeks, then you’ve likely seen ads with doctors and nurses talking about careers with the Department of Veterans Affairs,” which “plans to hire a mix of medical professionals and clerical staffers to fill roughly 105,000 positions by the end of 2011.” During “an interview on Monday,” VA Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould said, “It’s a big number and a great opportunity for us to try to attract our fair share of the best and brightest.” The Post adds, “Virtually unanimous political support for the department’s planned growth should calm the nerves of weary applicants, Gould said.” The Washington Post (2/23, 684K) also publishes some of Gould’s interview responses.



 



9.      Veterans Affairs Secretary Pledges No Cuts In Services. A letter from Louisiana Veterans Affairs Secretary Lane Carson to the editor of the Shreveport (LA) Times (2/23).



 



10.    Home For Mentally Ill Vets Opens In Alabama. In a front page story, the Tuscaloosa (AL) News (2/20, A1, Avant) noted that last week, the Moundville City Council “approved opening a group home for mentally ill veterans, most of them senior citizens,” in a vacant assisted-living facility. After pointing out that back in 2006, “some residents in the city of Moundville and the City Council protested a group home for the mentally ill that had been planned” at the same facility, the News said that according to Rebecca Meyer, associate chief nurse for mental health at the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the new home is one of 144 private group homes in West Alabama that partner with Meyer’s hospital. The News noted positive feedback from residents of the new home, and then said there is a need for such facilities “because of an increasing population of aging veterans.”



 



11.    New Orleans Commission To Consider VA Hospital Construction Road Closures. The New Orleans Times-Picayune (2/23, Barrow, 169K) reports, “The New Orleans City Planning Commission is scheduled Tuesday to consider street closures within the Mid-City footprint of the planned” US Department of Veterans Affairs teaching hospital, which is “slated for ground-breaking this fall. Any vote would mark the first regulatory action the body has taken in a public meeting on either the federal hospital or the state teaching hospital proposed next door. Neighborhood residents, along with dozens of planning groups, historical preservationists and other advocacy groups, are poised to use the meeting as a platform to criticize the two projects.”



 






12.    Some Massachusetts Vets Concerned About Defoliant Exposure At Canadian Base. The Dedham (MA) Daily News Transcript (2/23, Studley) reports, “Some sick Massachusetts veterans are wondering if their medical conditions are linked to time spent at a training camp in New Brunswick, after reading a Daily News report last week about toxic defoliants used at the Canadian base” from 1956 to 1984. George Cameron, department service officer for the Massachusetts American Legion, “said in the past week…he has received about 15 phone calls from Massachusetts National Guard and Army Reserve veterans who served in Gagetown in the 1980s. He said some were sick and others voiced concern they may have been exposed to the herbicides.”



 



13.    Tuscaloosa VAMC Attempting To Help Homeless Women Vets. On its website, WIAT-TV Birmingham, AL (2/22, Wyatt) noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs “says there are thousands of homeless women vets, and the number is on the rise.” But as “more and more women return home from war, the VA says they try to expand their programs to help them better transition into civilian life.” After stating that the “near future will…see more help for homeless vets in the region” from the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, which is looking to help set up transitional housing for homeless vets, WIAT said “female vets will…have a new place to find improved medical care, as the Tuscaloosa VA unveils their new women’s health clinic next month.”



 



14.    Former VA Psychiatrist Pleads Guilty To Unlawfully Prescribing Controlled Substances. The AP (2/23) reports, “A former psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration hospital in Topeka has pleaded guilty to unlawfully prescribing controlled substances” while working at the hospital in 2006. US Attorney Lanny Welch “says 58-year-old Ethan Bickelhaupt entered the plea” on Monday. KSNW-TV Wichita, KS (2/22, 11:20 p.m. CT) broadcast a similar story.



 



15.    Memorial Honors Japanese-American Internees, Veterans. The AP (2/23) reports, “A new memorial now stands” in California’s “Merced County to remember the thousands of Japanese-Americans who were forced to relocate there during World War II. More than 150 former internees and their families gathered over the weekend to dedicate the plaza with the statue of a little girl sitting atop a pile of suitcases.” The AP adds, “Saturday’s ceremony also honored Japanese-American veterans who had enlisted as a way to prove their patriotism even as their families lived behind barbed wire.”
     The Merced (CA) Sun-Star (2/23, Gaines, 16K) reports, “During Saturday’s ceremony, Japanese-American veterans who served in the military intelligence service as Japanese interpreters and the Asian American 442nd Combat Infantry Regiment were honored. ‘While their families were behind barbed wire, more than 33,000 young Japanese-American men enlisted or were drafted in the US military. They joined the military effort to demonstrate their loyalty and service to the United States,’” the ceremony’s emcee “told the crowd.”



 



16.    Flag-Raising To Commemorate Battle Of Iwo Jima Anniversary. The Marine Corps Times (2/23, 32K) reports, “A flag-raising ceremony to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima will take place 9:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Marine Corps War memorial, located north of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.” The ceremony “will honor all Marines who fought during the pivotal World War II battle, as well as all the Marines killed in all wars, to whom the memorial is dedicated. Veterans of Iwo Jima will be on hand for the event.”



 



17.    WWII Female Pilots To Be Honored. The Air Force Times (2/23, Spoth) reports, “As World War II raged,” the Army Air Forces allowed hundreds of women “to take domestic military flying jobs that freed up male pilots to serve overseas, but their service was unappreciated and was kept secret for decades. Now, after years of lobbying, the Women Airforce Service Pilots will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on March 10.” The Times adds, “Nearly 300 of the original 1,102 woman pilots are still alive, and about 130 are expected to attend the March 10 medal ceremony, according to Marilla Cushman of the women’s memorial foundation.”



 



18.    “Most Heavily Decorated” Vietnam Vet Buried At Arlington. NBC Nightly News (2/23, story 9, 1:00, Williams, 8.37M) broadcast that on Monday, Medal of Honor recipient Robert Howard “was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.” Howard was the “most heavily decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.” The San Antonio Express-News (2/23, Martin, 210K) says the 70-year-old Howard, “an Army veteran from San Antonio,” died “of pancreatic cancer on Dec. 23 in a Waco hospice.”



 



19.    Wounded Warrior Program Advocate Added To Lebanon VAMC Staff. The second item in “Local Briefs” for the Lebanon (PA) Daily News (2/23, 19K) reports the Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center “has welcomed Wounded Warrior Program Advocate John Boylan IV to its staff. Advocates for AW2, as the program is known, are located throughout the country where there are large concentrations of AW2 soldiers, veterans at VA facilities, military treatment facilities and most military installations, according to a news release.” The Daily News adds, “The medical center’s Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom team has been in place since 2003 and is composed of a program manager, social-work case manager, two nurse case managers and one program support assistant.”



 



20.    Couple Hopes To Improve Care For Returning Vets. On its website, KGTV-TV San Diego, CA (2/22) reported, “A Rancho Bernardo couple has begun a campaign for federal legislation regarding health care for military veterans. While they have no complaints about the care and treatment afforded” by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Iraq veteran Aaron Dial, who is suffering from acute lymphocytic leukemia, and his fiancée Heidi Christ think there should be more screenings and warnings” from exposure to depleted uranium in ammunition. The couple is “working to get ‘Aaron’s Law’ passed by Congress, extending the health care window for returning veterans from two to five years and more proactively alerting them to the risk of carcinogens.”



 



21.    Hefner VAMC To Host Creative Arts Festival Next Month. The Salisbury (NC) Post (2/23, 21K) reports the Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center “will host a March Creative Arts Festival for veterans.” The festival, scheduled to “be held March 13 in the social room” of building No. 6, “will allow participants to qualify for competition at the regional level for the national festival.”



 



22.    Why Did Sgt. Thomas Die? The Lexington (NE) Clipper-Herald (2/22) published a story that originally appeared in the Omaha (NE) World-Herald (2/22, Hansen).



 



23.    DAV Chapter Distributes Christmas Bags To VA Hospital. In a reader-submitted story, the Clarksville (TN) Leaf Chronicle (2/22, 19K) reported, “Local Chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, Hardy-Shelby Chapter 45, Clarksville,” Tennessee, “distributed Christmas bags to disabled veterans” at a Veterans Affairs hospital on December 15, 2009.



 



24.    Cuellar Talks About Van For Local Veterans. The Seguin (TX) Gazette-Enterprise (2/22, Maloney, 5K).



 



25.    Author Helps First Black Female POW Tell Tale. The AP (2/23, Fox) reports, “In helping” Iraq vet Shoshana Johnson write “I’m Still Standing”, her autobiography, “Fort Meade Media Relations Chief Mary L. Doyle not only exposed the world to the plight of the country’s first black female prisoner of war,” she “furthered her own budding literary career.” Doyle “said she hopes eventually to be able to write books and novels full time.”



 



26.    When Johnny (Or Jane) Marches Home. The Albany (NY) Times Union (2/23, Fitzgerald).



 



27.    Joseph Stack’s Daughter Calls Him A Hero, Then Retracts Statement. In continuing coverage, the KXXV-TV Waco, TX (2/22) website reported, “There is controversy brewing over the two people who died from the suicide flight that slammed into an Austin IRS office building on Thursday, February 18th.” The two men who died were Vietnam vet Vernon Hunter and the flight’s pilot, Joseph Stack, whose “daughter, Samantha Bell, told ABC News Monday morning” that her father was a hero. Bell later “called ABC News and retracted that comment, saying the only hero in the attack was Hunter, and we should all mourn his death.”



  



28.    Half-Scale Replica Of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Coming To Tuscaloosa. The Columbus (MS) Commercial Dispatch (2/22, 13K).



 



29.    Brothers Asked To Guard Tombs. In continuing coverage, the KRIV-TV Houston, TX (2/22, Keith) website reported, “A couple of brothers from the Houston area” have “achieved a military first. Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Brisiel, 27, is tomb guard number 560,” and on Friday, his little brother was named “tomb guard number 578.” This is the “first time ever two brothers have been selected to serve on this elite squad.”



 



30.    On the Hill for February 23, 2010:



 



The House votes on a number of commemorative resolutions as well as a bill to allow Native Hawaiian government reorganization.



 



The Senate continues to consider a package of infrastructure funding and tax breaks intended to create jobs.



 



Hearings continue in both chambers on the fiscal 2011 budget and appropriations.



 



House:  Convenes at noon for legislative business.



 



            Under suspension of the rules:



H Res 1066 , H Res 1059 , H Res 1048 — Haiti earthquake responders



H Res 1074 — Miep Gies



H Res 944 — Religious minorities in Iraq



HR 3695 — Missing persons database



H Con Res 227 — Urban crimes awareness



H Res 274 — National Nutrition Month



Draft — African-American contributions



 



            Subject to a rule:



HR 2314 — Native Hawaiian government reorganization



 



            Postponed suspensions:



H Res 1039 — American Heart Month



H Res 1046 — Black History Month



 



Senate:  Convenes 10 a.m.



 



Weekly caucus lunches: 12:30-2:15 p.m.



 



            Roll call votes possible.



HR 2847 — Job creation package



 



            Markup



House Rules considers rules for floor debate of a draft bill to repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurance companies. 3 p.m., H-313 Capitol



 



            Hearing Highlights



Senate Armed Services hearing on the fiscal 2011 budget for the Army, with Army Secretary John M. McHugh . 9:30 a.m., G-50 Dirksen



 



House Armed Services hearing on the fiscal 2011 budget for the Air Force. 10 a.m., 2118 Rayburn



 



Senate Budget hearing on war costs and the proposed Pentagon budget. 10 a.m., 608 Dirksen



 



Senate Environment and Public Works hearing on the proposed fiscal 2011 budget for the EPA, with EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson . 10 a.m., 406 Dirksen



 



House Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on stimulus spending projects. 10 a.m., 2167 Rayburn



 



Joint Economic hearing on job creation and economic growth, with Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas W. Elmendorf. 11:30 a.m., 2325 Rayburn



 



House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on proposed fiscal 2011 spending, with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan . 1 p.m., 2359 Rayburn



 



31.    Today in History:  



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