What's New
| Presdent Obama Donated $250,000 of Nobel Prize Money to Fisher House |
March 11, 2010, Washington, DC (New York Times) - President Obama made good on his promise to give his $1.4 million Nobel Prize money to charity, releasing the names on Thursday of the organizations that will benefit. |
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| Dr. Haley at UTSW Presents Compelling Brain Images Showing Gulf War Illness |
VCS Asks VA: Since UTSW Research Remains Vital to Understanding Gulf War Illness, Then Why Did a Handful of VA Staff in Washington Impede UTSW Contract and Then End Funding for UTSW? March 9, 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah (Science News) - Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images – various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements – that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome. |
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| March 9 VCS Weekly Update |
This week’s VCS update keeps you in the loop with news on issues you care about. One good change – our weekly news updates won’t ask you for money. Instead, our news updates point you to news articles at our web site. We hope you will read them and share the important facts with your friends. This week's update includes news about VA and suicides, VCS on CNN, our VCS FOIA campaign, VA automating Agent Orange claims, a waterboarding torture video, and Gulf War veterans' benefits. |
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| Federal Court Keeps Torture Lawsuit Against Rumsfeld Alive |
What's Waterboarding? Watch Video of Torture March 5, 2010, Chicago, Illinois (Associated Press) - A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm. [Rumsfeld served at the Pentagon under former President George W. Bush.] |
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| Reducing Suicides: VA Adopts Policy on Emergency Care for Mental Health Patients |
This Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive provides policy to ensure the provision of safe and secure mental health services during all hours of operation for Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) in VHA |
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VCS Lawsuit Press Alert - Appeals Court to Hear Case About VA’s Broken Claims System, Other Problems
Written by Paul Sullivan
Monday, 10 August 2009 00:00
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Morrison & Foerster and Disability Rights Advocates to Present Appeals Argument Against Department of Veterans Affairs on Behalf of 900,000 Veterans August 10, 2009, San Francisco, California - Attorneys from Morrison & Foerster LLP and Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) on Wednesday will present arguments in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a landmark lawsuit demanding reform of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a system now backlogged with 900,000 disability claims. Since 2001, a total of nearly 400,000 claims were filed by Iraq war veterans. The case is Veterans for Common Sense v. Shinseki. Contact: Frances Cosico, Public Relations, Morrison & Foerster The non-profit group Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and co-plaintiff Veterans United for Truth (VUFT) are asking Court of Appeals judges to reverse the lower court's ruling, which lacks the authority to order VA to provide timely medical care and disability benefits to hundreds of thousands of waiting veterans. The lawsuit was filed in July 2007 on behalf of all veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), conditions impacting more than 600,000 U.S. service members sent to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The case forced VA to admit publicly for the first time that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have overwhelmed the VA's healthcare and disability benefits systems. Veterans wait an average of six months for an answer to a disability claim, and they are forced to wait another four years if they appeal a VA decision. One in four veterans waits more than 30 days to see a doctor, which is a very serious obstacle in cases of PTSD where immediate attention is often critical to suicide prevention. Paul Sullivan, executive director of VCS, said, "The lower court found that VA is causing some serious problems for our veterans by delaying and denying benefits and healthcare, including emergency healthcare to suicidal veterans. We are here today to demand justice and to see that the judicial system and executive branch are held accountable for VA's failure to properly and promptly treat our sick veterans." Bob Handy, head of VUFT, added, "VA's failure to provide timely care is a national disgrace." Gordon Erspamer, Morrison & Foerster partner and co-lead counsel on the case, said, "The appeal presents the issue of whether the federal courts are powerless to act when a huge federal bureaucracy fails to fulfill its legal duty to our retiring heroes. This is not an abstract question - the stakes are high for millions of veterans who have served our country." Sid Wolinsky, co-lead counsel from DRA, added, "Unless the Court acts now, the backlog of claims will continue to swell, the suicides will continue, and our veterans will suffer horribly." The Ninth Circuit has granted C-SPAN access to broadcast the oral argument on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 in San Francisco. The veterans' appeal brief can be viewed here. |