What's New
| Congressman Mitchell: Pausing to Consider People Who REALLY Matter |
Chairman Harry Mitchell is a Hero to Veterans Nationwide August 20, 2010 (Arizona Republic) - It's been a month since I spoke to Rep. Harry Mitchell about suicides among military veterans and I'm just getting around to writing something. |
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| What Obama Won't Say Tonight About US Withdrawal from Iraq |
| August 31, 2010 (ConsortiumNews) - President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of "combat operations" in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. We’ll see. |
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| Lawsuit Update: Prudential's Half-Billion in Dirty Secret Profits |
Families of Dead Soldiers Sue Insurer Over Its Handling of Survivors’ Benefits August 29, 2010 (New York Times) - Vickie Castro’s only child was killed six years ago just before Christmas, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Army mess tent in Mosul, Iraq, killing more than 20 people. |
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| Op-Ed: Cost of War Must Also Include Caring for Our Veterans |
Overlooked Cost of Iraq / Afghanistan Wars: Our Veterans' Healthcare and Benefits August 15, 2010 (San Francisco Chronicle) - Two years after an Army specialist saw half his platoon torn apart in Iraq, he hanged himself in a California backyard. |
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| VA Secretary Shinseki's Open Message to Gulf War Veterans |
| August 11, 2010, Washington, DC (VA Press Release) - August 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War, launched with Operation Desert Shield and followed by Operation Desert Storm. VA honors this milestone with a renewed commitment to improving our responsiveness to the challenges facing Gulf War Veterans. |
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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 |