What's New
| VA Secretary Pressed by Senator on High Percentage of Wrongly Denied Benefit Claims |
March 16, 2010, Washington, DC (CQ Politics) - A leading Republican senator on Tuesday asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to explain why so many veterans’ benefit claims are wrongly denied, resulting in a high rate of reversal on appeal. |
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| Profile of New Veterans' Courts in New York Times |
Defendants Fresh From War Find Service Counts in Court - VCS Supports Veterans' Courts March 15, 2010, Charleston, West Virginia (New York Times) — When Judge Robert C. Chambers handed down Timothy Oldani’s federal sentence for selling stolen military equipment on eBay, he gave the former Marine a break. |
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| 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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| Philanthropist Bobby Willis to Build New $3.3 Billion Hospital for VA in Farmington, NM for Rural and Native American Veterans |
Proposed state-of-the-art Kirtland veterans clinic could provide as many as 8,000 jobs March 14, 2010, Farmington, New Mexico (Farmington Daily Times) — A proposed veterans complex in Kirtland centered around a new hospital, backed by a wealthy entrepreneur and costing an estimated $3.3 billion promises to bring state-of-the-art medicine and other benefits to veterans, as well as 8,000 jobs to the local economy. |
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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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Editorial Column: Will Veterans Sit for $250
Written by Luis Carlos Montalván
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 09:53
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August 10, 2009 - According to the Treasury Department, 64 million Americans received "...one-time Economic Recovery Payments of $250" in June and July," thereby creating "...an economic impact of more than $16 billion."
As part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, "...all VA service-connected veterans receiving disability compensation -- regardless of their rating..." were "...eligible for this automatic payment." That means millions of disabled veterans received this $250 "stimulus check." But many veterans are shaking their heads at this effort to stimulate the economy by appearing to meet the needs of America's veterans. With the backlog of Veterans' disability claims now at 1,000,000, a Veterans' Benefits Administration under a cloud of corruption, and well-documented VA hospital problems ranging from dilapidated buildings to substandard care, perhaps we need to stimulate something other than the economy in this case. Perhaps we can serve the men and women who have served us all so well by replicating or expanding the very successful intranet service, Army Knowledge Online (AKO), into a Veterans' Knowledge Online (VKO), which would substantively, positively change the lives of veterans and decrease service costs over time by: * Providing all veterans and VA service providers alike with one-stop, on-line, permanent storage of veterans' military, disability and medical documents; * Decreasing constant delays in often urgently needed services to veterans; * Improving the VA "processes, procedures and services."
Isn't that what VA Spokeswoman Katie Roberts expressed in when she said: From day one [VA] Secretary [Eric] Shinseki has made it a top priority to understand where within the department we can improve our processes, procedures and services. Two hundred and fifty dollars? I will gladly send my check back for real change in "our processes, procedures and services." The Department of Veterans' Affairs should ask Congress to fund the change required to install a VKO. Now that's change we could believe in! Luis Carlos Montalván is a veteran of Iraq.
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