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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| 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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| 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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Another VBA Blunder on Post-9/11 GI Bill Education Benefits
Written by Bob Brewin
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 13:55
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A Call Center That Doesn't Take Calls? January 25, 2010 (NextGov) - The answer to that question is the Veterans Affairs Department's Education Call Center in Muskogee, Okla., which no longer takes calls from veterans on Thursdays or Fridays. Reps. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., and John Boozman, R-Ark., find this a rather curious state of affairs, and at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee's Economic Opportunity Subcommittee last week, they asked VA officials to offer a rationale. The official explanation: VA closed the call center two days a week so the folks in Muskogee could use the time to process claims. Sandlin found this unacceptable and suggested VA spread out the claims processing throughout the week. Boozman also expressed bafflement. He said the worker bees in Muskogee told congressional staffers during a site visit in January that they did not understand the two-day weekly hiatus from saying hello. Boozman said staffers suggested spreading the claims processing load in Muskogee over the work week and that suggestion was forwarded to top VA management, which has yet to act on the suggestion. Boozman wondered, "Why does it take a suggestion from congressional staff to raise such a common sense issue and why do those responsible at the local level need to get permission from central office?" This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |