Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 4 December 2015

1. Top Stories

1.1 - FOX News Channel (AP): Demotions for 2 high-ranking Veterans Affairs officials on hold after paperwork mix-up (3 December, 27.9M online visitors/mo; New York, NY) Veterans Affairs is rescinding the demotions of two high-ranking officials, but will reissue them after a paperwork mix-up in the case is resolved. Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves were demoted last month from senior executives — the highest rank for career employees — to general workers within the Veterans Benefits Administration. Rubens was director of the Philadelphia regional office while Graves lead a regional office in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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1.2 - The Washington Post (Federal Eye): The government paid $80 million last year for feds to stay home, new analysis reveals (3 December, Lisa Rein, 20.3M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) The government’s largest agencies paid out more than $80 million last year for thousands of employees to sit home for a month and longer while they faced allegations of misconduct, a system a senior lawmaker denounced as “ripe for abuse.” “Its costs are high, and its benefits dubious,” a report released this week by the staff of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said, referring to what is known as administrative leave.

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1.3 - The Denver Post: Patient took nurse hostage at gunpoint at Denver's veterans hospital, Patient used a gun in the incident (3 December, Kirk Mitchell and Elizabeth Hernandez, 3.3M online visitors/mo; Denver, CO) A patient has been arrested after he used a gun to take a nurse hostage Thursday morning at the veterans hospital in Denver, authorities say. "There was a nurse-hostage-like situation," said Nicole Alberico, spokeswoman for the hospital. A female nurse was taken hostage on the eighth floor, Alberico said. No shots were fired, and no one was injured, Alberico said. "The nurse is doing fine, considering," she said.

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1.4 - Stars and Stripes (Military Update): VA expands 'choice,' seeks funding to consolidate outside care (3 December, Tom Philpott, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) An additional 160,000 veterans became eligible Dec. 1 to receive VA-paid medical care from civilian health care providers, the result of changes to the Choice Act of 2014 voted several months ago as Congress seeks to ease the flood of complaints still swirling around that poorly designed law. Meanwhile, Department of Veterans Affairs officials have unveiled a costly, complex and phased plan to consolidate the Choice program with a “patchwork” of other purchased care initiatives…

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1.5 - WFED-AM (AM-1500, Audio): Scott Maucione: VA improves access to health care (3 December, Tom Temin, 461k online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

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Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) recently honored the Northern Virginia Technology Council for its work with the Veterans Affairs Department in improving access to care. On Federal Drive with Tom Temin, Federal News Radio reporter Scott Maucione caught up with Warner and VA Secretary Bob McDonald to talk about the VA's partnership with the council, the possibility of a government shut down and the future of the VA. He spoke first with Warner.

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2. Access to Benefits/Care

2.1 - Examiner.com: The VA’s treatment of secondary traumatic stress is a disaster (3 December, Thomas Mangan, 18.4M online visitors/mo; Denver, CO) The November/December 2015 issue of The VVA Veteran, the monthly magazine of the Vietnam Veterans of America, has an interesting article about the VA’s treatment of Secondary Traumatic Stress in the wives of combat veterans. The article was written by Thomas C. Hall, the chairman of the VA’s PTSD & Substance Abuse Committee. According to the National Institutes of Health, “Combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is linked with elevated psychological distress in service members’/veterans’ spouses.”

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2.2 - The Washington Times (AP): Veterans visit Athens ‘supermarket’ to connect with benefits (3 December, Jim Thompson, 3.5M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) Jessie Adams was on his way to Georgia Square mall on Wednesday morning when he saw a sign advertising something called a “supermarket of veterans benefits” at The Classic Center in downtown Athens. So the retired Army Reserve officer changed his plans for the morning and walked into a massive ballroom in the downtown convention space, where dozens of representatives of dozens of service-related groups and government agencies, and other organizations interested in assisting military veterans…

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2.3 - KIRO-TV (CBS-7): Veterans hope to transform empty space at VA hospital into healing garden (3 December, Siemny Kim, 1.5M online visitors/mo; Seattle, WA) In about six months, veterans hope to transform an empty space at the VA hospital in Seattle into a healing garden. “It will be like a meditation garden,” veteran Cyril Miller said. “That’s what we are trying to provide here.” Miller is one of the vets spearheading the project. He's been going to the hospital for more than 25 years. “Right now we got over a 100,000 people coming into the building,” Miller added.

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2.4 - KSAT-TV (ABC-12, Video): Veterans Affairs looks to cut wait times with telemedicine, SA system in need of physicians, psychiatrists (3 December, 1.1M online visitors/mo; San Antonio, TX) Currently, one in five patients using clinics or hospitals in the VA's San Antonio system wait 30 days or more for an appointment. Finding ways to get veterans more timely access to medical and mental health care in the agency's top priority. That was the message Thursday in the Alamo City from the VA's new Under Secretary for Health Dr. David Shulkin.

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2.5 - WXIN-TV (FOX-59, Video): Addiction counselor weighs in on opiate purchases and prescribing at Marion VA (3 December, Charlie De Mar, 753k online visitors/mo; Indianapolis, IN) FOX59's exclusive investigation uncovered a federal inspection at the Veteran Affairs hospital in Marion. The inspection is focused on the prescribing practices at the facility. Federal investigators were back at the VA for a fourth day and they are trying to determine why the facility orders more opiates and addictive pills than any other facility in all of northern Indiana. FOX59 has introduced you to several veterans this week who claim their addiction to pain medications started at the VA in Marion.

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2.6 - The Deseret News: Veteran amputees to undergo first ever prosthetic implants (3 December, Jed Boal, 536k online visitors/mo; Salt Lake City, UT) Early next week, two veterans of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom will undergo surgery at the Salt Lake Veterans Affairs Hospital that could change their lives. Bryant Jacobs and Ed Salau will be the first in America to get a percutaneous osseointegrated prosthesis, or POP, surgically implanted into a residual limb. “I’m stoked. I can’t wait,” said Jacobs, of Herriman.

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2.7 - The Gazette: VA officials say Pikes Peak region a 'role model' for the nation (3 December, Tom Roeder, 423k online visitors/mo; Colorado Springs, CO) Department of Veterans Affairs officials held up the Pikes Peak region as "a role model" for the nation Thursday, citing the close partnerships between local groups that offer help for vets. The federal agency remains troubled here, with one-third of Colorado Springs veterans waiting a month or more for care. But Danny Pummill, the agency's acting undersecretary said local groups are helping fill in when his agency falls short.

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2.8 - The Advocate: VA opened interim Lake Charles medical clinic for veterans (3 December, 406k online visitors/mo; Baton Rogue, LA) The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs has opened an interim medical clinic in Lake Charles, a step on the road to establishing improved and expanded permanent clinics for veterans there and in Lafayette. The interim clinic is at 814 W. McNeese St. Currently, the VA operates a mobile clinic in Lake Charles and a small clinic in Lafayette.

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2.9 - Missoulian: Veterans still paying price for lack of health services (3 December, Rex H. Miller, 286k online visitors/mo; Missoula, MT) I read with interest the article in Saturday’s (Nov. 21) paper about how two high-level Veterans Affairs officials making close to $200,00 annually manipulated the system to obtain “more than $400,000 in questionable moving expenses.” The abuse in the Department of Veterans Affairs continues while veterans who wore the uniform in defense of this country keep coming up short. I’m a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant who retired after 20 years with honors and decorations.

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2.10 - KSHB-TV (NBC-41, Video): VA Medical Foster program growing quickly, looking to expand in Kansas City (3 December, Dia Wall, 275k online visitors/mo; Kansas City, MO) A little more than a year after it was launched in Kansas City, the Department of Veterans Affairs national medical foster program is growing fast. Right now, nine veterans are placed in seven homes across the metro area as an alternative to a nursing home setting. The program is entirely voluntary and there is an extensive process for becoming a caregiver.

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2.11 - The Register-Guard: A VA clinic, at last (4 December, 76k online visitors/mo; Eugene, OR) Once the groundbreaking took place in April of last year, construction of the new Veterans Affairs clinic moved right along. The steady progress toward the ribbon-cutting date of Jan. 25 announced Wednesday creates an impression of smooth efficiency. But in fact it took 10 years for veterans in the southern Willamette Valley to get the medical facility they need and deserve.

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2.12 - KCSR-AM (AM-610, Audio): Chadron Meeting Shows Strong Opposition To VA Hot Springs Closure (3 December, John Axtell, 58k online visitors/mo; Chadron, NE) The fourth of 6 input meetings being held this week on the Environmental Impact Statement done by consultant Labat Environmental for the VA's proposed revamping of its Black Hills Health Care System drew about 40 members of the public to Chadron State College last night. 11 offered testimony - two of them speaking multiple times - and none of them liked the VA's preferred alternative: replacing the Hot Springs VA Medical Center…

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2.13 - The Sheridan Press: Sheridan VA to soldier on after Cheyenne opening (3 December, Phoebe Tollefson, 49k online visitors/mo; Sheridan, WY) The program in Cheyenne will provide inpatient care for problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Cheyenne currently provides outpatient mental health care. Cheyenne spokesman Sam House said the 10 beds for inpatient care — which will allow for 30- 45 day treatment programs — will help individuals with less severe mental health problems stay closer to their southern Wyoming homes. Cheyenne will still send the more severe cases to Sheridan or elsewhere.

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2.14 - FEDweek (Federal Manager’s Daily Report): VA Touts Innovation Program (3 December, 42k online visitors/mo; Glen Allen, VA) The VA is touting its Innovators Network program, which it is piloting in eight facilities led by specialists in fostering a culture of innovation with a theme of “spark-seed-spread.” “VA’s Innovators Network is a community of VA employees who are actively engaged in work that is moving the agency forward. This community facilitates collaboration, and enables colleagues — no matter the distance — to share ideas, challenges, opportunities, and to test and validate best practices.

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2.15 - Alexandria News: Warner, V-A Secretary McDonald Thank Virginia Technology Leaders For Pro Bono Efforts To Fix The V-A Health Care System (3 December, 15k online visitors/mo; Alexandria, VA) On Dec. 1, 2015 at the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) was joined by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald to thank the Northern Virginia Technology Council for donating their time and expertise to improve the V-A’s health care system following a nationwide crisis of veterans’ access to medical care.

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2.16 - WGAC-AM (AM-580): Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center One of Nation’s Most Improved (3 December, 2.2k online visitors/mo; Augusta, GA) The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta has recently been recognized as one of the Fastest Improved VA Hospitals in 2015 by Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson. Gibson wrote, “This distinctive recognition acknowledges your effort to achieve a balanced, superior system-wide performance in quality measures as deemed significant by the health care industry. The Department is proud of all you have accomplished and for your continued work to ensure our Veterans receive the best care available.”

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3. Ending Veterans’ Homelessness

3.1 - The Huffington Post (The Blog): Honoring Our Veterans at Annual Luncheon (3 December, Marc A. Coronel, 30.4M online visitors/mo; New York, NY) While there are many companies in the entertainment industry that make considerable monetary donations to a variety charities, one company consistently takes philanthropy to another level entirely. United Talent Agency, with one of the most impressive talent rosters in the business, consistently raises the bar in terms of fostering a culture of generosity and giving back to the community.

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3.2 - The Washington Times (AP): Cabins for homeless vets receive nearly $400,000 tax credit (3 December, 3.5M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) A project that would build cabins for homeless veterans on the grounds of a federal veterans’ hospital will receive nearly $400,000 in low-income tax credits. The Cabin in the Woods project is a proposed development by the nonprofit organization Volunteers of America. It would be located on the grounds of the veterans’ hospital at Togus about six miles from Maine’s state capital.

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3.3 - Los Angeles Daily News: VA must hear where housing, care are needed (3 December, 292k online visitors/mo; Woodland Hills, CA) At nearly 900 pages, the plan to revitalize the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’ West Los Angeles campus is a big part of efforts to offer Southern California’s military veterans the

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services they’ve earned. But it’s still only a part. Improvement is needed all over the region in the housing, health-care and employment services provided to veterans.

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3.4 - WIAT-TV (CBS-42, Video): Freezing overnight temperatures put homeless at risk (3 December, Michael Oder, 123k online visitors/mo; Birmingham, AL) As the temperature drops Thursday night, Birmingham’s homeless will be looking for a warm spot to sleep. It’s a matter of survival for some, because shelters don’t have the space to house everyone. There are many organizations that work to get homeless off the streets. Three Hots and a Cot focuses on the homeless veteran population.

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4. Ending the Claims Backlog – No coverage

5. Veteran Opportunities for Education/GI Bill

5.1 - The Lantern: Student-veteran outreach to mobilize enrollment in veterans affairs (3 December, Summer Cartwright, 147k online visitors/mo; Columbus, OH) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is making its services more available to student military veterans by bringing a portable outreach unit to the Ohio State campus. Resembling a bloodmobile, the mobile unit is staffed with nurses, nurse practitioners and volunteers to provide services ranging from medical care and flu shots to mental health screenings.

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6. Women Veterans

6.1 - KVAL-TV (CBS-13, Video): Local female veterans react to Pentagon news on women in combat (3 December, Ellen Meny, 272k online visitors/mo; Eugene, OR) The Pentagon announced on Thursday that all military positions and occupations will be open to women starting January 2016. The Department of Defense says that as long as they qualify and meet specific standards, women will be able to contribute to all Department of Defense actions, no exceptions, for the first time in history.

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6.2 - The Leaf-Chronicle: Female veterans share thoughts on combat jobs opening (3 December, Autumn Allison, 253k online visitors/mo; Clarksville, TN) Defense Secretary Ash Carter's decision to open up all combat jobs to women has gotten mixed reactions, even from female veterans. Carter announced Thursday that the armed services have until Jan. 1 to submit plans to make the change and until April 1 to accommodate women in all roles. "I think it is a positive thing," said Stacey Hopwood, a former Marine and now an assistant director at the Montgomery County Veterans Service Center.

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6.3 - WSJV-TV (FOX-28, Video): Michiana's female veterans react to order to open combat positions to women (3 December, Veronixa Jean Seltzer, 101k online visitors/mo; Elkhart, IN) "They'll be able to drive tanks, fire mortars, lead infantry soldiers into combat. They'll be able to serve as Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy Seals, Green Corps Infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, making the historic announcement today that all military positions, including combat roles, will now be open to women.

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7. Other

7.1 - Los Angeles Times: High veteran unemployment appears to be in the past, but the push for more hires continues (3 December, Alan Zarembo, 23.8M online visitors/mo; Los Angeles, CA) A coalition of more than 200 other companies has scrapped its original objective of hiring 100,000 vets and vowed this month to make a million hires. And a separate campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, called Hire 500,000 Heroes, has surpassed that target and collected promises from more than 2,000 businesses to hire at least 200,000 more veterans or their spouses.

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7.2 - ABC News (AP): George W. Bush Cheers on 'Invincible' Veterans for '16 Games (3 December, Verena Dobnik, 22.9M online visitors/mo; New York, NY) Volleyball played without the use of two legs — that's a game former President George W. Bush cheered on Thursday aboard a one-time aircraft carrier that had survived kamikaze and torpedo attacks. Bush is honorary chairman of the 2016 Invictus Games planned for Orlando, Florida, over one week in May. They'll bring together 500 military personnel and veterans from 15 countries competing in 10 sports adapted for special needs.

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7.3 - Forbes: When It Comes To Veterans, Donald Trump's Rhetoric Is Much More Generous Than His Giving Record (3 December, Emily Canal, 22.7M online visitors/mo; Jersey City, NJ) Although he’s not going to get it, Donald Trump demanded $5 million from CNN this week to appear in the network’s next debate. The billionaire added that he would donate the money to veterans and the Wounded Warriors Foundation. That would be $4.94 million more than his charitable foundation has given veterans in recent years, Forbes found.

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7.4 - Star Tribune: VA botches demotion of embattled St. Paul veterans chief (3 December, Allison Sherry, 8.2M online visitors/mo; Minneapolis, MN) St. Paul Veterans Benefits Office Chief Kim Graves, freshly demoted from allegations of financial wrongdoing, has appealed the demotion and has had the demotion rescinded because the bureaucracy committed an administrative error, VA officials said Thursday. The VA attempted to demote Graves Nov. 20 after the VA Inspector General found she orchestrated a move to Minnesota from the East Coast…

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7.5 - The Philadelphia Inquirer: Oops: VA rescinds demotion of Phila. Director (3 December, Matthew Nussbaum, 3.5M online visitors/mo; Philadelphia, PA) The Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday rescinded the demotion and reassignment of its embattled Philadelphia benefits office manager, at least temporarily, after conceding "an administrative error" in the process. In a statement, the VA said it had failed to give Diana Rubens one of five binders of evidence it used to justify her Nov. 20 demotion, and said she is entitled to the materials as part of her appeal.

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7.6 - The Washington Times: VA demotions over sweetheart deal put on hold by clerical error, Some evidence wasn’t handed over, scotching department effort to undo controversial job transfers (3 December, Anjali Shastry, 3.5M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) Due to a paperwork mix-up, the demotions of two high-ranking officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs has been put on hold and will have to be reissued once the paperwork is sorted out, the agency said Thursday. In the wake of a VA inspector general report saying that Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves of the Veterans Benefits Administration had manipulated the agency’s hiring process to secure for themselves sweetheart job transfers

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7.7 - Washington Examiner: Paperwork error spares VA fraudsters from punishment (3 December, Sarah Westwood, 2.8M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) A pair of Department of Veterans Affairs officials who were demoted after the inspector general found they had stolen $400,000 from the agency won't actually be facing any punishment because the VA bungled the paperwork for their demotions. The VA announced last month that Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves would be stripped of their present positions after they were both accused of manipulating a VA program meant to relocate agency employees who transfer long distances to take jobs within the VA.

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7.8 - Government Executive: Punishment for VA Senior Executives Delayed Because of ‘Administrative Error’ (3 December, Kellie Lunney, 2.6M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) An administrative error has forced the Veterans Affairs Department to rescind the punishment for two senior executives who were demoted after the department's watchdog found they used their positions of authority for personal gain, the VA said on Thursday. VA still plans to demote and reassign Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, but the department has to restart the disciplinary process because it failed to provide the two employees with all the information regarding their punishment during the notice period.

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7.9 - KMGH-TV (ABC-7, Video): Armed patient took nurse hostage on 8th floor of Denver Veterans Affairs hospital (3 December, Deb Stanley, 1.4M online visitors/mo; Denver, CO) An armed patient took a nurse hostage at Denver's Veterans Affairs Medical Center Thursday morning. It happened on the 8th floor of the medical center at 1055 Clermont Street, which is

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near 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. A man took a female nurse hostage around 8:15 a.m., Nicole Alberico, spokeswoman for the hospital, told Denver7. Alberico confirmed the suspect is a male patient who had an appointment at the medical center Thursday morning.

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7.10 - KUSA-TV (NBC-9, Video): Patient holds nurse at gunpoint in VA hospital (3 December, Blair Shiff, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Denver, CO) A hostage situation at the VA Medical Center near East 10th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard is now over. According to the VA Police, they initially responded at 8:20 a.m. on Thursday. A man who was a patient at the hospital took a nurse practitioner hostage inside an exam room on the eighth floor. VA officials say he held a loaded gun to the nurse during the hostage situation.

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7.11 - Stars and Stripes: VA botches demotions of execs who misused authority for personal gain, bonuses (3 December, Dianna Cahn, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) The Department of Veterans Affairs refueled outrage Thursday over its light handling of two corrupt senior executives when the agency acknowledged that it had botched its disciplinary actions against the two officials, forcing the VA to rescind their demotions and start the punishment and appeals process again. The agency announced last month that it was demoting and transferring Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves after an investigation determined that both women had manipulated…

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7.12 - KDVR-TV (FOX-31): Armed suspect taken into custody after taking nurse hostage at VA Medical Center (3 December Chuck Hickey, 998k online visitors/mo; Denver, CO) An armed suspect was taken into custody after taking a nurse hostage at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Thursday morning, the Denver Police Department said. Police responded to the call inside the hospital at East 10th Avenue and Clermont Street just after 8 a.m. Officials said the suspect had a weapon but did not specify what kind. The situation was resolved and the suspect was taken into custody, a hospital spokeswoman said.

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7.13 - Times Union: VA, police probe veteran's death (3 December, Dennis Yusko and J.P. Lawrence, 540k online visitors/mo; Albany, NY) The military veteran who fell to his death at the Samuel S. Stratton Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Hospital was an enigmatic ex-Marine who had been discharged from the hospital's psychiatric unit 90 minutes earlier, according to city police and those who knew him. Stewart A. Mosher, 34, appeared to have jumped from the top level of the parking garage on the VA campus just after noon on Nov. 27, according to a police report obtained by the Times Union.

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7.14 - KCNC-TV (CBS-4, Video): Suspect Arrested After Holding Nurse At Gunpoint At VA Hospital (3 December, 422k online visitors/mo; Denver, CO)

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The VA incident commander told CBS4 that a male was in an exam room with a female nurse practitioner and “held her there.” The man had a gun. “The patient did have a weapon, the weapon was loaded and he did, according to our initial reports, he did hold the staff member at gunpoint,” said VA Medical Center acting Director Corey Ramsey.

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7.15 - Los Angeles Daily News: Dennis McCarthy: Veterans Holiday Celebration at West Los Angeles VA delivers honor, gratitude (3 December, Dennis McCarthy, 292k online visitors/mo; Woodland Hills, CA) The VIPs will begin arriving around noon on Sunday, taking their place with the other guests of honor on the chow line. This is their day to be recognized and applauded because they have done something so few people in this country are willing to do: suspend their daily lives for a few years or more to wear the military uniform of this nation.

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7.16 - The Daily Courier: Change of heart: Former VA medical director departs agency for retirement rather than promotion (3 December, Nanci Hutson, 118k online visitors/mo; Prescott, AZ) After accepting a promotion to head up the VA medical center in Oklahoma City last month, five- year local VA Medical Director Donna Jacobs changed career plans and opted instead to retire. Jacobs' last day at Northern Arizona Veteran Affairs Health Care was Monday. Her position has been replaced with an interim director, Dr. M. Keith Piatt, who before his appointment served as the VA's chief of staff. Piatt came to Prescott in March 2014.

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7.17 - WDTV-TV (CBS-5, Video): Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center Prepared and Trained in Event of Unexpected Crisis (3 December, Austin Pollack, 102k online visitors/mo; Bridgeport, WV) Safety concerns continue to be on the rise in high traffic areas after Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino. The Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center goes through training several times each year in the event of a crisis on the campus. The hospital actually began training for these situations two years before it was mandated. Officials are trained and ready for anything that comes their way.

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7.18 - The Lawton Constitution: National Cemetery Among 6 To Achieve 'Gold Shrine' Status (3 December, Mitch Meador, 25k online visitors/mo; Lawton, OK) Staff and volunteers who work at the Fort Sill National Cemetery were recognized Wednesday for achieving Gold Shrine status. It's one of only six national cemeteries in the country to attain the Gold Shrine level. And, it's only the 21st of 133 national cemeteries to be named a National Shrine for not only meeting but exceeding national standards set by the National Cemetery Administration of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

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7.19 - Vermont Public Radio (Audio): Deborah Amdur Chosen To Fix What Ails A Veterans Affairs Hospital In Arizona (3 December, Mitch Wertlieb and Kathleen Masterson, 25k online visitors/mo; Colchester, VT) The chief of the Veterans Affairs hospital in White River Junction is moving to Phoenix, Ariz., to oversee a troubled VA facility there. Deborah Amdur is a social worker by training, and she will replace one of several interim directors in Phoenix. Her appointment comes after allegations surfaced last year that the Arizona hospital had manipulated reports on patient wait-times.

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1. Top Stories

1.1 - FOX News Channel (AP): Demotions for 2 high-ranking Veterans Affairs officials on hold after paperwork mix-up (3 December, 27.9M online visitors/mo; New York, NY)

Veterans Affairs is rescinding the demotions of two high-ranking officials, but will reissue them after a paperwork mix-up in the case is resolved.

Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves were demoted last month from senior executives — the highest rank for career employees — to general workers within the Veterans Benefits Administration. Rubens was director of the Philadelphia regional office while Graves lead a regional office in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Rubens and Graves are accused of forcing lower-ranking regional managers to accept job transfers against their will. Rubens and Graves then stepped into the lower, vacant positions while keeping their higher salaries.

VA Oversight Director Ryan Hedgepeth said Thursday that one of five binders of evidence supporting the demotions had not been given to the employees who are appealing the demotions.

1.2 - The Washington Post (Federal Eye): The government paid $80 million last year for feds to stay home, new analysis reveals (3 December, Lisa Rein, 20.3M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

The government’s largest agencies paid out more than $80 million last year for thousands of employees to sit home for a month and longer while they faced allegations of misconduct, a system a senior lawmaker denounced as “ripe for abuse.”

“Its costs are high, and its benefits dubious,” a report released this week by the staff of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said, referring to what is known as administrative leave.

“Agencies are able to place an employee on administrative leave simply to avoid addressing an uncomfortable—or potentially even unjustifiable—personnel action,” the report concludes. “Maintaining this status quo serves neither the taxpayer nor the employee.”

Grassley has worked for more than a year to highlight the practice of extended paid leave, whose widespread use was disclosed for the first time by the Government Accountability Office in October 2014. The GAO audit, first made public by The Washington Post, found that 53,000 civilian employees were kept home for one to three months during the three fiscal years that ended in September 2013. About 4,000 of them were idled for three months to a year and several hundred for one to three years, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $700 million.

Some high-profile federal employees have languished on paid leave. There was Paul Brachfeld, the former inspector general for the National Archives and Records Administration, who was

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banned from coming to work for almost two years, but paid his senior executive salary, during an investigation of alleged misconduct (he eventually retired).

There was Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a controversy of the agency’s treatment of groups seeking tax-exempt status, who was on paid leave for four months after she refused to resign (she also retired).

And dozens of whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs who reported covered-up patient wait times were sent home after facing retaliation, cases VA officials are still trying to resolve through negotiated settlements.

In June, the Obama administration urged agencies in June to curtail their reliance on administrative leave. But Grassley and his Senate colleagues say the system needs stronger, legislative fixes. Grassley and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) plan to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would crack down on abuses of paid leave, allowing federal agencies to send an employee home only in rare circumstances, when they physically endanger themselves or someone else.

The bill also would ensure that paid leave is tracked and recorded by agencies and prevent its use as a means of retaliation against whistleblowers, aides said.

Paid leave is supposed to be used only in rare circumstances when an employee poses a physical threat in the workplace. Comptroller generals have issued numerous rulings over many years saying that federal workers should not be sidelined for long periods for any reason because of the burden on both taxpayers and the employees, who have no right to appeal paid leave.

Grassley wanted explanations for why so many employees are paid not to work for such long stretches. Eighteen agencies, from VA to Housing and Urban Development, responded to his request for details, but with a lot less detail than the senator asked for, he said.

The State Department, for example, does not report administrative leave to the Office of Personnel Management. The Defense Department did not offer a response, Grassley said. And other agencies provided only vague explanations for why they paid employees not to work for periods that stretch to two and three years, the report said. The result is that it’s hard to know if some uses are warranted or not.

“We found that agencies appear to be using administrative leave as a way to place employees in a catch-all limbo status rather than address personnel problems expeditiously,” the report found. “With no clear standard, agencies’ use of paid administrative leave is largely unchecked and ripe for abuse.”

Supervisors use wide discretion in putting employees on leave, including for alleged violations of -government rules and laws, whistleblowing, doubts about trust-worthiness and disputes with colleagues or bosses. Some employees remain on paid leave while they challenge demotions and other punishments.

Of the $80.6 million paid out last year, the Department of Homeland Security, the government’s third-largest agency, spent almost $1.8 million to keep 88 employees on paid leave. Four were sidelined for some three years or more, and another 17 for two years or more. Of the 88, 53 faced misconduct charges, 13 had issues with security clearances and the agency had

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questions about the fitness for duty of another 22, according to data DHS provided to the senator.

Another 2,500 employees at the Veterans Affairs were placed on paid leave for at least a month last year, and the agency acknowledges it didn’t track the details and why they were sent home.

The total tab in salary alone for these absences — ranging from 30 days to more than a year for 46 employees — came to $23 million, according to the Judiciary Committee.

A patient has been arrested after he used a gun to take a nurse hostage Thursday morning at the veterans hospital in Denver, authorities say.

"There was a nurse-hostage-like situation," said Nicole Alberico, spokeswoman for the hospital.

A female nurse was taken hostage on the eighth floor, Alberico said.

No shots were fired, and no one was injured, Alberico said.

"The nurse is doing fine, considering," she said.

The incident happened around 8:20 a.m. at 1055 Clermont St., said Raquel Lopez, Denver police spokeswoman.

Within minutes, the VA police had the suspect subdued and in custody, Alberico said.

Denver police assisted VA police officers in making the arrest.

Police are seeking federal assistance with the case. "It is federal property, and the VA police are federal law enforcement," Alberico said.

1.4 - Stars and Stripes (Military Update): VA expands 'choice,' seeks funding to consolidate outside care (3 December, Tom Philpott, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

An additional 160,000 veterans became eligible Dec. 1 to receive VA-paid medical care from civilian health care providers, the result of changes to the Choice Act of 2014 voted several months ago as Congress seeks to ease the flood of complaints still swirling around that poorly designed law.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 14 4 December 2015

Meanwhile, Department of Veterans Affairs officials have unveiled a costly, complex and phased plan to consolidate the Choice program with a “patchwork” of other purchased care initiatives enacted over the years, even as VA hospitals continue their own referral agreements with local community providers.

The resulting hodgepodge of purchased care deals and requirements, in the wake of the Choice Act and rising demand for outside care, has created an administrative nightmare for VA care coordinators and sown confusion for many veterans, VA staff and local health care providers. For the most part, Choice operates nothing like lawmakers or veterans envisioned.

Sloan Gibson, deputy VA secretary, appeared before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Tuesday to explain the ambitious New Veterans Choice Program to be phased in over several years as well as changes made Dec. 1 to the current Choice program.

Before December, enrolled veterans gained automatic eligibility for Choice if they resided more than 40 miles from any VA medical facility. The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Act, now implemented through VA regulation, makes the eligible pool deeper. Vets now have access to Choice if they reside more than 40 miles from a VA facility staffed by a primary care physician at least 36 hours a week.

This opens Choice to 160,500 more veterans enrolled in VA care.

Another Dec. 1 change lifts a requirement that to qualify for Choice a veteran must have enrolled in VA health care by Aug. 1, 2014. That date is removed, making 26,000 recent enrollees eligible for Choice automatically because they live more than 40 miles from VA primary care.

Other enrolled veterans still are eligible to use the Choice program if:

 Their local VA facility tells them they cannot schedule an appointment within 30 days of the date their physician determines they need to be seen, or within 30 days of the date the veteran wants to be seen if the physician specifies no date, or  They need to travel by air, boat or ferry to the VA medical facility closest to their home, or  They face an unusual or excessive burden in traveling to the closest VA medical facility based on geographic challenges, environmental factors, a medical condition, the simplicity or frequency of care needed or whether an attendant is needed. VA promises to train local VA medical staff to work with veterans to determine if they are eligible for any of these reasons, or  They live in a state or territory with no full-service VA medical facility. That includes Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire (except for those who live within 20 miles of the White River Junction VA medical center) and U.S. territories except Puerto Rico.

Vets can verify Choice eligibility and learn more about the program by calling 1-866-606-8198 or visiting the website: www.va.gov/opa/choiceact

“We’re making some good progress on Veterans Choice,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., committee chairman. “For all the bad stories you hear about, they’re mostly stories of things that happened in the past that we’re trying to correct, not things happening today.”

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 15 4 December 2015

But senators from rural states including Alaska, West Virginia and Kansas expressed bitter disappointment with how Choice operates today.

Isakson and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, agreed the plan to consolidate purchased care leaves Congress with many critical decisions to make and a lot of money at stake.

The task of combining the “patchwork of programs we have now is certainly an urgent one and apparently a very expensive one — $1.9 billion is a lot of money to spend on organization,” said Blumenthal. “I want to know how that money is necessary and specifically what it will be used to do.”

Gibson described the New Veterans Choice Program as “an historic opportunity to make a major advance” in veterans’ health care by creating a truly integrated health system.

Though VA today refers more veterans to private-sector care than ever before, Gibson said, “we’re saddled with a confusing array of programs, authorities and mechanisms that greatly complicate the task of ensuring veterans get the care they need, when and how they need it.”

That array includes Choice, new Patient-Centered Community Care networks (PC3) building across the country, something called Project ARCH, two different VA-paid emergency care plans, VA affiliations with other federal agencies and various academic partners, and numerous individual agreements between VA health facilities and community care providers.

“Each has its own requirements, different eligibility rules, reimbursement rates, different methods of payment and different funding routes,” Gibson said. “It’s all too complicated — for veterans, for community providers and for VA staff as well.”

On a recent visit to the VA hospital in Charleston, S.C., Gibson told the committee, he “watched what our staff was going through in order to set up a Choice referral. It would dumbfound you!”

The consolidation plan, he said, will focus on five goals: Establishing a single set of eligibility criteria based on distance, wait time and availability of VA care, and expanded outside urgent care too; improving access by simplifying authorization and referral processes; partnering with federal, academic and community providers to offer a tiered provider network; better coordination of care by deploying an improved health information exchange; ensuring prompt payment with better billing and claim processing.

Major veterans organizations endorsed the plan, though some cautioned a lot of money could be wasted if not designed and executed well.

Only Concerned Veterans for America, a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers who oppose big government and sustaining a large bureaucracy to provide veterans health care, attacked the plan as grandiose and wasteful.

1.5 - WFED-AM (AM-1500, Audio): Scott Maucione: VA improves access to health care (3 December, Tom Temin, 461k online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 16 4 December 2015

2. Access to Benefits/Care

2.1 - Examiner.com: The VA’s treatment of secondary traumatic stress is a disaster (3 December, Thomas Mangan, 18.4M online visitors/mo; Denver, CO)

The November/December 2015 issue of The VVA Veteran, the monthly magazine of the Vietnam Veterans of America, has an interesting article about the VA’s treatment of Secondary Traumatic Stress in the wives of combat veterans. The article was written by Thomas C. Hall, the chairman of the VA’s PTSD & Substance Abuse Committee.

According to the National Institutes of Health, “Combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is linked with elevated psychological distress in service members’/veterans’ spouses.” This condition is referred to as Secondary Traumatic Stress, or Compassion Fatigue, and it is very similar to, but not as severe as, PTSD.

In his article, Hall writes that, “Since more than a third of war veterans’ wives meet the criteria for secondary traumatic stress, any treatment offered to veterans with PTSD must address the traumatization of their families.” But what Hall doesn’t say is that the VA’s treatment of secondary traumatic stress is a total disaster.

The VA’s couples counseling program is supposed to deal with couples struggling with PTSD and secondary traumatic stress. But The VA’s couples counseling program is broken, and the VA has no idea how to fix it. The motto of the couples counseling program is list as, "Strengthening Relationships through VA counseling." But when you talk to the VA’s counselors, they act as if couples counseling has nothing to do with improving the veteran’s relationship with his or her spouse.

For example, at the Vet Center in Rochester, New York one couples counselor focused on incidents that had happened fifteen to twenty years ago, before the veteran even knew he had PTSD, and years before he had sought treatment and worked to change his life. When the husband called the Vet Center and tried to speak to the couple’s counselor about that, she told him that she couldn’t talk to him at all because she was counseling his wife in one-on-one sessions. The couple’s counselor had broken the rules of couples counseling and started to counsel the wife singly in one-on-one sessions without the husband being present, despite the fact that the wife was already participating in one-on-one counseling with a different VA counselor.

Rather than doing something to treat the Secondary Traumatic Stress, and save a 32 year marriage, the couples counselor actively encouraged the wife to leave her husband. Then the counselor refused to talk to the husband about what she had done or why she had done it.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 17 4 December 2015

The Vet Center in Rochester is part of the Canandaigua VA Medical Center, which is located about 30 miles southeast of Rochester. Amazingly, another combat veteran who was going to couples counseling at the VA hospital in Canandaigua had almost the exact same experience.

The VA’s couples counseling program is broken, and the VA has no idea how to fix it. In fact they probably don’t even realize what a mess it is. So it may be a pipe dream for Thomas C. Hall to suggest that any treatment offered to veterans with PTSD must address the traumatization of their families. In too many cases, the VA isn’t part of the solution; the VA is part of the problem.

2.2 - The Washington Times (AP): Veterans visit Athens ‘supermarket’ to connect with benefits (3 December, Jim Thompson, 3.5M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

Jessie Adams was on his way to Georgia Square mall on Wednesday morning when he saw a sign advertising something called a “supermarket of veterans benefits” at The Classic Center in downtown Athens.

So the retired Army Reserve officer changed his plans for the morning and walked into a massive ballroom in the downtown convention space, where dozens of representatives of dozens of service-related groups and government agencies, and other organizations interested in assisting military veterans, were gathered to provide guidance and help to northeast Georgians who had served their country.

The groups were brought together in Athens by the Georgia Department of Veterans Service, which assists veterans in obtaining benefits to which they are entitled.

Adams, who retired from service as a major, and whose reserve duties once included commanding the Army Reserve postal unit based in Athens, found himself talking Wednesday with Cory Thornton, a veterans’ representative from the Georgia Department of Labor’s career center in Athens.

Currently working in poultry plant management, Adams, who is closing in on 60 years of age, is also the single father of a 16-year-old son, and was interested in exploring career opportunities close to home with hours that would allow him to spend more time with his son.

Like any number of the veterans who came to Wednesday’s benefits “supermarket,” Adams wouldn’t necessarily walk away with a job or other immediate assistance. He would, though, get a good start toward getting any help he might need, according to Coy Gibson of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which helped host the conference.

“If you haven’t started into it (the process of claiming benefits), this is tremendous,” said Gibson, a U.S. Air Force veteran of the Korean War.

And at any rate, Adams, who spent seven years on active duty, followed up with 14 years in the Army Reserve, likes his chances in his job search, based on the personal discipline instilled in him during his service.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 18 4 December 2015

“A lot of veterans have a lot to offer,” he said.

The Department of Veterans Service expected Wednesday’s supermarket, which included a host of representatives from various divisions of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, along with people from the University of Georgia’s Small Business Development Center and other organizations not primarily associated with veterans benefits, to attract people from far beyond Athens.

One of those people was Larry Smith, who came 30 miles from Franklin Springs to update himself on veterans’ benefits. Smith, 55, who served as a tank officer in the U.S. Army from 1979 until 1986, has previous experience in claiming benefits, and said he liked the “one-stop shop” offered at The Classic Center events. Smith also saw the day as an opportunity for some fellowship.

“I’m enjoying meeting other veterans,” he said.

Smith did get a bit of bad news, though, learning that because his service dates were outside the eligible wartime periods that govern some Veterans Affairs benefits, he didn’t qualify for any nursing home costs he might incur in the future. He was philosophical about the news, though, saying that at least he’d learned that he’d have to make other arrangements for the care.

Mike Roby, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Veterans Services, was on hand for the “supermarket,” and said the events, held annually in cities around the state - it was last held in Athens in 1989 - serve as a learning experience for many veterans.

“A lot of them don’t know what they’re entitled to,” Roby said.

The “supermarkets,” Roby added, are a visible example of the work that the Georgia Department of Veterans Services does each day in connecting veterans with the benefits they’ve earned.

2.3 - KIRO-TV (CBS-7): Veterans hope to transform empty space at VA hospital into healing garden (3 December, Siemny Kim, 1.5M online visitors/mo; Seattle, WA)

In about six months, veterans hope to transform an empty space at the VA hospital in Seattle into a healing garden.

“It will be like a meditation garden,” veteran Cyril Miller said. “That’s what we are trying to provide here.”

Miller is one of the vets spearheading the project.

He's been going to the hospital for more than 25 years.

“Right now we got over a 100,000 people coming into the building,” Miller added. “There is no quiet corner in the building where you can just sit.”

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 19 4 December 2015

It's a project that has been blossoming for 11 years now.

On Wednesday, supporters of the garden celebrated a big moment when they presented a $40,000 check to Daniel Winterbottom from University of Washington’s Department of Landscape Architecture.

Winterbottom will work with his students to design and build the garden.

Veterans, their families and VA staff will be invited to participate in the design process.

“What I envision is this will be a retreat, almost like monastery within the VA for veterans to seek respite, re-energize, be with family, friends,” Winterbottom explained.

“This is the gift that will keep the healing for years to come,” Miller said.

The group still needs to raise another $35,000.

The garden should be complete next May.

2.4 - KSAT-TV (ABC-12, Video): Veterans Affairs looks to cut wait times with telemedicine, SA system in need of physicians, psychiatrists (3 December, 1.1M online visitors/mo; San Antonio, TX)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is hoping to reduce wait times with the use of telemedicine.

Currently, one in five patients using clinics or hospitals in the VA's San Antonio system wait 30 days or more for an appointment.

Finding ways to get veterans more timely access to medical and mental health care in the agency's top priority.

That was the message Thursday in the Alamo City from the VA's new Under Secretary for Health Dr. David Shulkin.

"Here in San Antonio, our two biggest priority areas in terms of where we're having the most difficulty in hiring are primary care physicians and in psychiatrists and mental health professionals," he said.

Along with hiring doctors, the VA is expanding telemedicine, which lets patients have medical appointments without have to go to the VA facility.

The telemedicine program can be especially helpful for veterans in rural areas of Texas without one of the system's clinics or hospitals nearby.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 20 4 December 2015

The VA expects to reduce hospital admissions by as much as 35 percent nationally by using more telemedicine visits.

2.5 - WXIN-TV (FOX-59, Video): Addiction counselor weighs in on opiate purchases and prescribing at Marion VA (3 December, Charlie De Mar, 753k online visitors/mo; Indianapolis, IN)

FOX59's exclusive investigation uncovered a federal inspection at the Veteran Affairs hospital in Marion. The inspection is focused on the prescribing practices at the facility.

Federal investigators were back at the VA for a fourth day and they are trying to determine why the facility orders more opiates and addictive pills than any other facility in all of northern Indiana.

FOX59 has introduced you to several veterans this week who claim their addiction to pain medications started at the VA in Marion. Those veterans are now battling with serious addictions to opiates and claim it started at the VA in Marion.

"I’m a drug addict, I've been a drug addict since 2008. As my body builds up a tolerance they just give me more, more, more, " said Stephen Tarter, a VA Marion Patient.

"I've lost relationships because of my addiction," said Elijah Shreve, another VA Marion patient.

"A lot of these medications are addictive by nature. We don’t want our vets to suffer but we also don’t want to turn them into addicts. For folks suffering from long term chronic pain, opiates might not be the best way," said Scott Watson, an addiction counselor at Heartland Intervention.

Watson does not treat any of the veterans profiled, but he has reviewed the quantities of medications allegedly ordered by the hospital.

"We may be treating their pain but we are also creating a culture of addiction. For people that are on these pills for months or years it's impossible for them not to become dependent on the substance," said Watson.

There is no timetable for when the DEA will report its findings from the inspection. At this point, it's considered civil and routine check.

2.6 - The Deseret News: Veteran amputees to undergo first ever prosthetic implants (3 December, Jed Boal, 536k online visitors/mo; Salt Lake City, UT)

Early next week, two veterans of operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom will undergo surgery at the Salt Lake Veterans Affairs Hospital that could change their lives.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 21 4 December 2015

Bryant Jacobs and Ed Salau will be the first in America to get a percutaneous osseointegrated prosthesis, or POP, surgically implanted into a residual limb.

“I’m stoked. I can’t wait,” said Jacobs, of Herriman.

Eleven years ago Thursday, he was severely injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle in Iraq.

Doctors saved Jacobs' legs, but after a decade of challenges, he had his right leg amputated two years ago. When he exercises and sweats, he said the prosthetic leg starts to loosen and rub the skin raw on the remaining stump.

“I’ve had open sores that whole time,” he said,” just stuff like that that impedes life, like putting on jeans.”

With the prosthetic, patients can also experience discomfort, phantom limb pain and frequent refitting due to weight loss or weight gain. Such problems can make it hard for amputees like Jacobs to wear a prosthetic for more than a few hours a day.

Salau, also an Iraq War veteran, lost his left leg in November 2004 when he was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade. He said his wife loves to walk on the beach back in North Carolina, but that’s hard for him.

“It’s hard on my socket,” Salau said. “I’m going to burn a blister pretty fast because of all of the body motions that have to happen for walking in the sand, so I don’t do it a lot.”

With the new percutaneous osseointegrated prosthesis, both men will have a rod sticking out of their femur, to which the prosthetic attaches.

"The osseointegration is going to be huge for that reason,” Jacobs said. “It's seriously going to be life-changing of all of those little things that add up to be huge in your life.”

The men went through a series of tests Thursday at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center to establish how much energy they expend using their socket prosthetics.

Dr. Laurence Meyer, director of research at the Salt Lake VA, said the surgery will be Monday. During the first stage, doctors will embed a titanium stud in the femur. About six weeks later, they will go back and attach the docking mechanism for the prosthesis.

“Then we will start getting the actual data if it works, and we don’t know that yet,” Meyer said.

Doctors hope to see as much as a 30 percent reduction in that energy expenditure.

This is all part of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved feasibility study to determine the safety and function of the new implant.

Jacobs said he hopes it changes the world for the nearly 6,000 amputees in the VA system nationwide and civilian amputees in the future.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 22 4 December 2015

“I'm more than happy to be the guinea pig,” he said.

2.7 - The Gazette: VA officials say Pikes Peak region a 'role model' for the nation (3 December, Tom Roeder, 423k online visitors/mo; Colorado Springs, CO)

Department of Veterans Affairs officials held up the Pikes Peak region as "a role model" for the nation Thursday, citing the close partnerships between local groups that offer help for vets.

The federal agency remains troubled here, with one-third of Colorado Springs veterans waiting a month or more for care. But Danny Pummill, the agency's acting undersecretary said local groups are helping fill in when his agency falls short.

"You guys have broken the code - it is working the way it's supposed to work," Pummill said during a town hall meeting at the Norris Penrose Events Center.

Colorado Springs is a testbed for VA efforts to better coordinate services with local governments and nonprofits through its new program "MyVA Pikes Peak region."

The agency hopes the program can help vets get care and benefits faster. Pummill pointed to local programs to help treat PTSD, get veterans jobs and help vets navigate the tangled VA benefits process.

Related:Budget woes have El Paso County VA cemetery behind schedule "None of this would have happened if it was up to the federal government to do it," Pummill said.

Veterans at the meeting, through written questions, pounded VA over long waiting times - among the nation's longest.

Natalie Merckens, VA's associate health care director for eastern Colorado, said VA is trying to cut the waits. Now, according to a VA report, veterans wait an average of 34 days in Colorado Springs for a primary care visit, 45 days for specialty care and nearly two weeks for mental health care.

Merckens said VA hopes to cut waits by opening the doors of its West Fillmore Street clinic six days a week.

"We will have Saturday clinics and make sure we get anyone with a clinical need that's critical in to see a doctor," she said.

VA also loosened rules for the Choice Program that allows some veterans to get care from civilian doctors.

"To my knowledge no veteran has expired due to a delay in health care," Merckens told the Colorado Springs crowd of nearly 100.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 23 4 December 2015

Bob McLaughlin, co-chairman of the local MyVA committee, said VA's troubles show that local help is needed.

"The government can't do it alone. The private sector has to step up," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin, who runs the Mount Carmel Center for Excellence in Colorado Springs, said the first goal of his nonprofit and the MyVA program is to make sure the federal agency, veterans and veterans organization are speaking the same language.

McLaughlin estimated that 70 percent of the issues veterans face with the VA involve miscommunication.

"Our focus primarily for this initiative is communication," he said.

Kate Hatten, the other-co-chair of the committee, said her nonprofit, the Peak Military Care Network, is working to get local care providers to fill in for veterans who face VA delays and gaps in the federal system.

"The Peak Military Care Network is really trying to connect the dots," she said.

But fixing VA woes in the Pikes Peak region will take more than help from the community, the agency admits.

Delays for care at the Colorado Springs clinic have quadrupled in one year. In November 2014, about 8 percent of local veterans waited more than a month for care and more than 32 percent of veterans wait more than a month now.

VA has blamed workforce problems on the delays and launched a hiring initiative early in 2015 to get more doctors and nurses in Colorado Springs.

Merckens said VA faces a lot of competition for doctors and nurses in Colorado.

Hatten said the MyVA Pikes Peak region will give the community a voice to address VA woes.

"The best way to address it is through collaboration," she said.

2.8 - The Advocate: VA opened interim Lake Charles medical clinic for veterans (3 December, 406k online visitors/mo; Baton Rogue, LA)

The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs has opened an interim medical clinic in Lake Charles, a step on the road to establishing improved and expanded permanent clinics for veterans there and in Lafayette.

The interim clinic is at 814 W. McNeese St. Currently, the VA operates a mobile clinic in Lake Charles and a small clinic in Lafayette. The agency promised replacements more than six years ago, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, has said. His district also includes Lake Charles.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 24 4 December 2015

The path to opening the new clinics was smoothed last year when President Barack Obama signed a VA reform bill that included approval for those outpatient clinics and 24 others around the country. But progress on the two southwest Louisiana clinics has been plagued by contract snafus.

Permanent clinics in both cities could open by late 2016.

2.9 - Missoulian: Veterans still paying price for lack of health services (3 December, Rex H. Miller, 286k online visitors/mo; Missoula, MT)

I read with interest the article in Saturday’s (Nov. 21) paper about how two high-level Veterans Affairs officials making close to $200,00 annually manipulated the system to obtain “more than $400,000 in questionable moving expenses.” The abuse in the Department of Veterans Affairs continues while veterans who wore the uniform in defense of this country keep coming up short.

I’m a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant who retired after 20 years with honors and decorations. I’m 66, on Medicare and yet I have to drive over 200 miles round-trip over a mountain pass in winter to Helena just to get routine diagnostic tests like an X-ray or MRI, etc.

Politicians like to point out that under the VA’s new Choice program, veterans no longer have to drive these long distances that present a challenge “if they live more than 40 miles away from a VA facility.” If this is the case, the new Choice program allows vets to get local care. The problem is the word “facility.” The VA outpatient clinic in Missoula is not capable of providing diagnostic tests like X-rays, colonoscopies, ultrasounds, etc., but because it is still a VA “facility,” us veterans who use it are denied local care and still must drive over the Continental Divide to Helena to receive most routine diagnostic care. And often the appointments still exceed the “more than 30 day wait time” stipulated in the Choice legislation passed by Congress.

The local VA doctors do all they can to resist writing local referrals and it’s almost impossible to get them. I had open heart surgery the VA refused to pay for this past March because I would not go to Salt Lake City the night before my scheduled surgery at one of the best heart hospitals in the country right here in Missoula (International Heart Institute).

So while corruption in the VA is still alive and well, the people who actually served our country keep being penalized. Folks who never wore a uniform don’t have to drive to Helena to get routine diagnostic tests - they just go to their local health care providers.

I was promised “free health care for life” every time I re-enlisted during my military career. Nobody told me I would have to drive over 200 miles round-trip over a mountain pass in winter to receive it. I’ve asked my provider, the Patient Advocates and the veteran service officers and the response is “nothing we can do about it.” I’ve asked my elected representatives about this and the answer is a deafening silence. The VA system continues to be broken and veterans continue to pay the price. We need help because it is simply not right to treat veterans this way.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 25 4 December 2015

2.10 - KSHB-TV (NBC-41, Video): VA Medical Foster program growing quickly, looking to expand in Kansas City (3 December, Dia Wall, 275k online visitors/mo; Kansas City, MO)

A little more than a year after it was launched in Kansas City, the Department of Veterans Affairs national medical foster program is growing fast.

Right now, nine veterans are placed in seven homes across the metro area as an alternative to a nursing home setting.

"The consensus is the quality of care has really increased because they're integrated with a family,” said Terry Curry, the coordinator for the program. “Health certification for sure, CPR, and first aid. We also ask for homeowner insurance, auto insurance for transportation sake and it's 27/7 care."

The program is entirely voluntary and there is an extensive process for becoming a caregiver.

The VA is currently looking to open homes in the Northland, Overland Park and Lees Summit. No experience is needed because the VA offers training for caregivers.

In Kansas City, Julius Anderson and Linda Thompson are caregivers to 93-year-old Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipients Roque Riojas and 85-year-old Thedosia Mobley. Both veterans have dementia and receive round-the-clock care.

"The people here are nice, very nice and they treat me nice. It makes me feel good," Riojas said.

"They watch over me. See what I need and take care of me." Mobley added, "I need anything, he's there to help me."

It's not a free program. The cost ranges from $1500 to $3000 a month, with the average in Kansas City around $2500 a month.

The VA says most veterans cover the cost through retirement and benefits, noting that it is a lower-cost option than the average nursing home in the metro area.

Julius Anderson has more than 20 years of experience caring for the elderly in a facility setting.

"I always wanted to be able to provide more personal care services." He says it's not an easy job. "It's a little bit more than you can imagine at times. It's a lot of responsibility but overall it's an enjoyment at the end of the day that you know you made a difference in someone's life." Thompson agreed that, "If I see they need something, then we're going to get it. They don't have any needs. We try to make sure they get everything they need or want."

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 26 4 December 2015

2.11 - The Register-Guard: A VA clinic, at last (4 December, 76k online visitors/mo; Eugene, OR)

Once the groundbreaking took place in April of last year, construction of the new Veterans Affairs clinic moved right along. The steady progress toward the ribbon-cutting date of Jan. 25 announced Wednesday creates an impression of smooth efficiency. But in fact it took 10 years for veterans in the southern Willamette Valley to get the medical facility they need and deserve. The clinic will be worth the wait, but the wait was longer than it should have been.

The need for better medical services for veterans in the state’s second-largest population center has long been apparent. Veterans have access to outpatient services at a clinic on River Road, but the primary VA health centers are in Roseburg and Portland. At a Veterans Day parade 10 years ago, representatives of veterans’ organizations approached U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D- Springfield, to ask for help in upgrading veterans’ health services in Lane County.

DeFazio became a champion of the project, and the VA was persuaded of the need — but for years, the process of siting a new clinic kept getting bogged down. The initial idea was to build on the site of the old Eugene Hospital & Clinic, where the Capstone student apartment complex now stands. But the VA eventually decided that the downtown location wouldn’t have enough parking, and could not accommodate the lower-profile building that its design standards had come to favor.

A building with no more than a few stories and plenty of parking would need a larger parcel of land — and as both local hospitals can attest, such parcels are not easy to find. The years-long siting process featured stiff competition between Eugene and Springfield and among local landowners. The VA eventually purchased property on Chad Drive in north Eugene from the Guard Publishing Co.

Now, the new clinic is on the verge of serving Lane County’s 33,000 veterans, plus others from surrounding counties. The VA says it will have everything that a hospital has, except beds — including ambulatory surgery, imaging, prosthetics and dental services. It will be a welcome addition to Lane County’s network of health-care services, and better late than never.

2.12 - KCSR-AM (AM-610, Audio): Chadron Meeting Shows Strong Opposition To VA Hot Springs Closure (3 December, John Axtell, 58k online visitors/mo; Chadron, NE)

The fourth of 6 input meetings being held this week on the Environmental Impact Statement done by consultant Labat Environmental for the VA's proposed revamping of its Black Hills Health Care System drew about 40 members of the public to Chadron State College last night.

11 offered testimony - two of them speaking multiple times - and none of them liked the VA's preferred alternative: replacing the Hot Springs VA Medical Center with an outpatient clinic, new inpatient facilities in Rapid City, and increased contracting with other providers for services to veterans in the region.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 27 4 December 2015

Near the end of the roughly 75-minute meeting, Jim Blecha of Chadron called for a show of hands on the 6 alternatives and the 26 people responding all backed the proposal from the Save The VA committee to actually expand operations at the Hot Springs Center.

As has been true ever since the VA first announced its intent to reconfigure the Black Hills system almost exactly 4 years ago, many of the comments last night simply praised the staff and services of the Hot Springs Center while calling the planning process a travesty from the beginning.

Several speakers accused VA officials of dishonesty in the planning process, including continued reduction of services to reduce patient numbers in Hot Springs, using flawed data to support the goal of closing Hot Springs, and manipulating figures and the process.

Bob Nelson, a Save The VA leader, offered numbers to back up some of the accusations. He said VA claims of sharply falling veterans numbers were based on figures from 2007 that were increased by about a third 6 years later because it turned out veterans going to Hot Springs from Scottsbluff weren't included.

Nelson said Save The VA used a Freedom of Information Act request to get 2013 figures for Hot Springs, the Fort Meade VA Center in Sturgis, and the VA clinic in Rapid City. Fort Meade saw about 20,500 veterans, Hot Springs around 16,500 and Rapid City about 9,000.

A closer review showed about 4,700 of those being treated at Fort Meade were actually from the Panhandle and had to go there because the services they needed were not offered at Hot Springs including several specialties that had been offered there in the past.

Nelson said the same was true of about 1,100 of those helped in Rapid City, meaning that if the full range of medical services was still offered in Hot Springs, it would have served about 22,000 with Fort Meade at about 16,000 and Rapid City at fewer than 8,000.

The final two input meetings on the EIS will be today (Thurs) - 1:30 at Newberry's in Alliance and 6:30 at the Gering Civic Center while written comments will be accepted through February 5th

Mary Peters, the Labat team leader who is leading the meetings, says all the comments received at the meetings and in writing by mail or online will be compiled and reviewed as part of the process of preparing the Final EIS. Another round of public input would then be held before the VA secretary makes a final decision. No timetable for those stages was given.

The Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota congressional delegations have been at best critical of the VA over the proposal to close Hot Springs with several members opening questioning the accuracy of the data being used to justify it. Nebraska 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith told reporters yesterday that he supports whatever the veterans want because they're the ones most affected.

The VA on Monday extended the EIS comment period a month to February 5th. Smith said the move was encouraging, but may not mean anything when it comes to changes in the VA position or its preferred alternative.

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Opponents say that those submitting comments should include specifics with personal examples of how the VA plan would result in reduced health care or increased burdens for them carry more weight.

2.13 - The Sheridan Press: Sheridan VA to soldier on after Cheyenne opening (3 December, Phoebe Tollefson, 49k online visitors/mo; Sheridan, WY)

The steady flow of patients from the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center to its Sheridan counterpart is not likely to change in January when Cheyenne opens a new mental health program.

The program in Cheyenne will provide inpatient care for problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.

Cheyenne currently provides outpatient mental health care. Cheyenne spokesman Sam House said the 10 beds for inpatient care — which will allow for 30-45 day treatment programs — will help individuals with less severe mental health problems stay closer to their southern Wyoming homes. Cheyenne will still send the more severe cases to Sheridan or elsewhere.

“That will not change,” House said. “What we’re trying to do is fit that middle bill.”

Sheridan provides more mental health care and care for more serious mental health problems than Cheyenne does. This will be the case even after Cheyenne’s expanded mental health services become available in 2016.

The Cheyenne VA hospital refers patients if they are suicidal, homicidal or experiencing extreme anger issues, House said. Many of these more severe cases are sent to Sheridan, but others go to the VA hospitals in Denver or Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Jackie VanMark, spokeswoman for the Sheridan VA Medical Center, applauded the mental health expansion in Cheyenne.

“This is really a great thing for Wyoming,” she said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

But VanMark does not expect the move to decrease the Sheridan hospital’s caseload — which she said remains mostly full the majority of the time.

“Wouldn’t that be great if it did?” she said. “I mean, if we were able to make that big of an impact on mental health where, wow, Cheyenne doing that or us doing something, and we were able to reduce the need for mental health [care], and reduce the need for primary care. But this is reality and that’s probably not going to happen.”

VanMark said Sheridan often sees the same patients cycling back through after their initial care, even after completing an intensive, weeks-long treatment program.

“It’s not uncommon to need a refresher. And so absolutely, I think that’s where Cheyenne’s going to step in and provide that for those veterans in that section of Wyoming,” she said.

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But because there is a constant stream of new and recurring severe mental health cases among veterans, the middle ground for care that Cheyenne will provide still won’t cut down on the Sheridan hospital’s work.

Sheridan is a top referral site for veterans’ mental health care in the region. The Sheridan VAMC serves patients from across the country, but VanMark said most are from the Rocky Mountain region.

2.14 - FEDweek (Federal Manager’s Daily Report): VA Touts Innovation Program (3 December, 42k online visitors/mo; Glen Allen, VA)

The VA is touting its Innovators Network program, which it is piloting in eight facilities led by specialists in fostering a culture of innovation with a theme of “spark-seed-spread.”

“VA’s Innovators Network is a community of VA employees who are actively engaged in work that is moving the agency forward. This community facilitates collaboration, and enables colleagues — no matter the distance — to share ideas, challenges, opportunities, and to test and validate best practices. It offers an interactive environment for VA employees to test new ideas, and join forces with stakeholders across the veteran community to improve the way VA serves Veterans,” it said in a blog post.

This is to be accomplished through steps such as: “build a strong understanding of VA’s clients, generate ideas for new products and services, test concepts with real people, and ultimately deliver easy-to-use, consistent products and positive customer experiences.”

The department said it expects failures, but those failures will be small because they will occur in the testing phase–and successes will be scaled up.

It pointed to past innovations by the VA that have been widely adopted in the health care industry, including barcode software for administering medications safely as well as medical advances such as the implantable cardiac pacemaker, the first successful liver transplants, the nicotine patch and artificial limbs controlled by brain impulses.

2.15 - Alexandria News: Warner, V-A Secretary McDonald Thank Virginia Technology Leaders For Pro Bono Efforts To Fix The V-A Health Care System (3 December, 15k online visitors/mo; Alexandria, VA)

On Dec. 1, 2015 at the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) was joined by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald to thank the Northern Virginia Technology Council for donating their time and expertise to improve the V-A’s health care system following a nationwide crisis of veterans’ access to medical care. At the request of Sen. Warner, the NVTC assessed the scheduling and workflow challenges at V-A facilities and

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 30 4 December 2015

recommended practical solutions focusing on people, processes, technology, and performance. Today, Sen. Warner congratulated the NVTC member companies and leadership team and the V-A for taking major steps towards ensuring veterans have access to the medical care they deserve.

“I want to thank the Northern Virginia Technology Council for offering their expertise to the V-A. I also want to thank V-A leadership for welcoming this excellent team and working with them to make these recommendations a reality,” Sen. Warner said. “This was a great collaboration between the private sector and the Department of Veterans Affairs that didn’t cost taxpayers a dime.”

“We couldn’t be more thrilled. I also want to thank our V-A colleagues who demonstrated that open mind and that wiliness to learn to change. It’s great to see all of you here today celebrating this, which I hope will be the first of many times that we celebrate public private partnerships in order to help V-A better serve veterans,” Secretary McDonald said at the event. “We want to be very thankful of all the companies in the room for your time and generosity… It was all pro bono work. Your ideas, your innovation, all of that has been a great help to us, but it also has been an inspiration for what we can achieve when we are willing to partner with the private sector.”

“The Northern Virginia Technology Council is made up of the country’s most well respected and innovative technology companies, and we have a very long and proud association with military veterans. When Senator Warner called and asked us to help with Veteran’s [Affairs], we were very honored to offer our assistance,” said NVTC President Bobbie Kilberg today. “We joined on a pro bono basis to fix the business processes, the culture and the I-T challenges, because it was the right thing to do.”

In 2014, in response to reports of unacceptable wait times and systemic challenges facing military veterans seeking care, Congress passed comprehensive overhaul legislation to ensure timely access to necessary healthcare services. The bipartisan legislation, which was signed into law by the President on August 7, 2014, included Sen. Warner’s initiative to enlist the I-T expertise of the Northern Virginia Technology Council member companies to assess and recommend fixes for the V-A’s broken scheduling system.

The NVTC team conducted a six-week assessment, including two onsite visits to the Richmond and Hampton V-A Medical Centers. On Oc. 29, 2014, NVTC announced specific recommendations to improve VA’s scheduling processes, technologies, people and performance measures. The assessment was led by a Core Team of NVTC member companies – Booz Allen Hamilton, HP, IBM, The MITRE Corporation, and Science Applications International Corporation – with assistance from three additional member companies: MAXIMUS, Providge Consulting and Qlarion.

Today, Secretary McDonald announced that the V-A has fully implemented 26 of the NVTC recommendations, and is committed to making all of the improvements recommended by the NVTC.

Some key NVTC recommendations:

 Aggressively redesign the human resources and recruitment process  Prioritize efforts to recruit, retain, and train clerical and support staff  Develop a comprehensive human capital strategy that addresses impending healthcare provider shortages

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 31 4 December 2015

 Create a stronger financial incentive structure  Accelerate steps to improve the agility, usability, and flexibility of scheduling-enabling technologies that also facilitate performance measurement and reporting functions  Use fixed infrastructure more efficiently  Evaluate the efficiency and patient support gained by centralizing the phone calling functions in facility-based call centers with extended hours of operation  Invest in more current and usable telephone systems and provide adequate space for call center functions  Take aggressive measures to alleviate parking congestion, which can impact on the timeliness of care  Engage frontline staff in the process of change

The partnership between the V-A and NVTC builds upon a template established in 2011, when Sen. Warner and NVTC partnered with the U.S. Army to help design and implement a technology fix for Arlington National Cemetery after reports that the remains of warfighters had been misidentified and misplaced by Cemetery officials. An NVTC team worked with Cemetery officials to produce a comprehensive blueprint to correct and modernize the cemetery’s I-T and business practices.

The Northern Virginia Technology Council is the largest membership and trade association in the nation, serving about 1,000 companies and organizations in Northern Virginia, including businesses from all sectors of the technology industry, service providers, universities, and others.

2.16 - WGAC-AM (AM-580): Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center One of Nation’s Most Improved (3 December, 2.2k online visitors/mo; Augusta, GA)

The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta has recently been recognized as one of the Fastest Improved VA Hospitals in 2015 by Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson.

Gibson wrote, “This distinctive recognition acknowledges your effort to achieve a balanced, superior system-wide performance in quality measures as deemed significant by the health care industry. The Department is proud of all you have accomplished and for your continued work to ensure our Veterans receive the best care available.”

The recognition is based on quality of care, access to care, efficiency, Veteran satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

3. Ending Veterans’ Homelessness

3.1 - The Huffington Post (The Blog): Honoring Our Veterans at Annual Luncheon (3 December, Marc A. Coronel, 30.4M online visitors/mo; New York, NY)

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 32 4 December 2015

While there are many companies in the entertainment industry that make considerable monetary donations to a variety charities, one company consistently takes philanthropy to another level entirely. United Talent Agency, with one of the most impressive talent rosters in the business, consistently raises the bar in terms of fostering a culture of generosity and giving back to the community. At its 8th annual Thanksgiving holiday luncheon on November 25th, St. Joseph Center and the employees of UTA from every division of the company, from interns to partners, came together to serve a festive meal to more than 150 homeless or low-income veterans.

Even children of company staffers joined to lend a helping hand as well, serving the heroes who have given so much to their country.

"UTA is an amazing partner -- for many years now they have made sure that the veterans in St. Joseph Center's payee program have the happiest of Thanksgivings. What really makes this event so special every year is the family feeling UTA brings. Their turnout is always incredible and everybody from UTA comes with such a spirit of service -- and that really comes across in the respect they show for the veterans." - Paul Rubenstein, Development Director at St. Joseph Center

"It's very loving for UTA and St. Joseph Center to do this for us. I really appreciate their effort to come help serve Thanksgiving luncheon to the veterans." - Diego Alzaga, Army Veteran

Whether dishing out pies at dessert time, calling out numbers during a game of Bingo, or even hanging Thanksgiving decorations, no task was too big or too small for the UTA employees and their families. An air of excitement filled the dining room at The Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles Medical Center that was truly remarkable to witness. It's tough to say who benefited more from the event, the gracious guests of honor who partook in the meal, or those who helped make it happen.

3.2 - The Washington Times (AP): Cabins for homeless vets receive nearly $400,000 tax credit (3 December, 3.5M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

A project that would build cabins for homeless veterans on the grounds of a federal veterans’ hospital will receive nearly $400,000 in low-income tax credits.

The Cabin in the Woods project is a proposed development by the nonprofit organization Volunteers of America. It would be located on the grounds of the veterans’ hospital at Togus about six miles from Maine’s state capital.

The Kennebec Journal (http://bit.ly/1lzdqSr ) reports the $4 million project is meant to serve homeless veterans who need to be close to services at the hospital. It would be on 11 wooded acres of federal property and include a community center and 21 private, energy-efficient cabins.

The project still needs more money to move forward.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 33 4 December 2015

3.3 - Los Angeles Daily News: VA must hear where housing, care are needed (3 December, 292k online visitors/mo; Woodland Hills, CA)

At nearly 900 pages, the plan to revitalize the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’ West Los Angeles campus is a big part of efforts to offer Southern California’s military veterans the services they’ve earned. But it’s still only a part.

Improvement is needed all over the region in the housing, health-care and employment services provided to veterans.

Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in the San Fernando Valley, a frustrating freeway drive away from the West L.A. veterans facility and a vexing piece of an L.A. homelessness crisis that, sadly, involves many vets.

The VA released its draft master plan for the facility in October and has been gathering reactions during an official public comment period that will end Monday. Comments can be filed online to the VA at www.regulations.gov/#!home. The public also may weigh in at www.VATheRightWay.org/.

Whether or not you’ve read the draft master plan — or at least its 15-page executive summary — it’s important that the VA hear from veterans about whether it would meet their needs, and what is needed in the way of housing and services in the areas where you live.

This week, VA representatives met informally with editorial board members to discuss the plan. This is part of what sounds like a sincere effort by the VA to reach out, to listen, to hear the needs of specific communities. It’s all necessary to win back public trust after VA’s 2014 scandal about long waits for health care.

Under the plan — called for in the January settlement of a lawsuit by veterans claiming the VA was misusing the West L.A. facility for commercial purposes — the nearly 400-acre campus would receive 700 to 900 permanent housing units, and would target services for chronically homeless, aging and women vets, and physically or mentally disabled vets.

With California accounting for 24 percent of the nation’s homeless veterans, and greater L.A. accounting for 10 percent, the need to create more affordable-housing units is glaring. VA Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers can help veterans to afford housing only if units are available. But another major part of fixing the problem must involve using what are known as project-based vouchers to encourage developers to build new housing units or convert old buildings to housing.

The West L.A. plan is only part of the puzzle, and it will take other federal, state, county and city officials to make this fit together with L.A. city’s and county’s recently announced anti- homelessness efforts. Although VA officials want to make the West L.A. campus a “magnet” for vets, this won’t come to fruition for at least five years or satisfy the needs of veterans who want to live and receive services in their communities.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 34 4 December 2015

Vincent Kane, director of the VA’s National Homeless Center, said the VA is committed to increasing outreach and housing-voucher resources in the San Fernando Valley, where he conceded homelessness numbers probably are higher than people realize.

Kane said one question VA officials need the public to answer is: “Where should we be doing more?”

Now is the time to tell them.

3.4 - WIAT-TV (CBS-42, Video): Freezing overnight temperatures put homeless at risk (3 December, Michael Oder, 123k online visitors/mo; Birmingham, AL)

As the temperature drops Thursday night, Birmingham’s homeless will be looking for a warm spot to sleep. It’s a matter of survival for some, because shelters don’t have the space to house everyone.

There are many organizations that work to get homeless off the streets. Three Hots and a Cot focuses on the homeless veteran population.

Behind the lights and the flags, a home off 1st Avenue is trying to accomplish one thing; keeping homeless veterans from spending the night out in the cold.

“When the weather gets cold, the need becomes greater,” founder J.D. Simpson said. He thinks they house around 60 veterans a night.

“There’s only so many beds out there and there are more veterans than there are beds,” Simpson said. His organization does what they can to make homeless vets comfortable by taking them blankets and sleeping bags, or taking them food.

“It ceases to be a thing of comfort and more of a thing of survival,” Simpson explained. Surviving the night through to the morning. Morning didn’t come for 60-year-old veteran David Joseph Sierra. A jogger found his body at George Ward park Thanksgiving day.

“[It] hurt,” Simpson paused. He became emotional. Simpson gets upset that they can’t do more.

“I don’t blame that on anybody,” he continued.

“It’s either they freeze to death or we have these fires start out because they’re trying to stay warm in abandoned buildings,” Simpson said.

5. Veteran Opportunities for Education/GI Bill

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 35 4 December 2015

5.1 - The Lantern: Student-veteran outreach to mobilize enrollment in veterans affairs (3 December, Summer Cartwright, 147k online visitors/mo; Columbus, OH)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is making its services more available to student military veterans by bringing a portable outreach unit to the Ohio State campus.

Resembling a bloodmobile, the mobile unit is staffed with nurses, nurse practitioners and volunteers to provide services ranging from medical care and flu shots to mental health screenings.

VA is a government-run system that administers benefits and services, such as health care, to assist service members, veterans and their dependents or survivors.

“Some soldiers can be in some pretty dire situations of mental health, so the VA has different things set up to help,” said Yannis Hadjiyannis, a current member of the Army Reserve and a fifth-year in molecular genetics. “The VA providing medical assistance to veterans is one of the best things that they can do.”

The mobile-outreach unit makes many stops each month and has eight planned in central Ohio for the month of December.

The stops include OSU and Columbus State Community College, as well as hospitals in Columbus.

The mobile units sent to campus try to accommodate student veterans in an efficient manner that will take less than an hour of their time.

“Even with a tight schedule, they have time between class to come here and enroll or just find more information out about it,” said Christine Alley, a clerk of the VA mobile outreach program.

These services are free for all veterans with the exception of some co-payments.

“Medical care is income-based,” Alley said. “Student veterans do not typically have a large income since they are in school, so now is a great time to enroll.”

According to the Office of Military and Veterans Services’ website, OSU currently has more than 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students who are veterans, dependents, National Guard, active duty and Army Reserve members.

Along with medical assistance, the outreach programs can help veterans apply for benefits such as the GI Bill, which provides scholarships for students who served in the military.

“The GI Bill covers my student health insurance at Ohio State,” said Dan Corrigan, a second- year in exploration who served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps. “That’s the biggest advantage of being enrolled in the VA.”

After enrolling for VA benefits in the mobile unit, student veterans will be contacted regarding their eligibility for assistance programs — such as the GI Bill — via telephone and email.

However, some veterans are hesitant to enroll in VA programs because of doubt or lack of knowledge regarding assistance programs.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 36 4 December 2015

“There are some guys who don’t know about Veterans Affairs,” Corrigan said. “Stopping in an outreach vehicle for a few minutes could really help them out.”

Hadjiyannis said the military mindset could also be at fault for lack of enrollment.

“That kind of culture where saying that something is wrong is a big defeat (and) can be really negative, which could be reason why some do not enroll,” he said.

Alley said she believes that the outreach program is appealing to student veterans because it strays away from typical military outlets.

“They come in here and it’s a small and intimate atmosphere that isn’t crowded,” she said.

The next date that the mobile unit will be on campus is Dec. 13.

“This is a benefit they fought for. It doesn’t have to do with the military; it is one of the benefits that, as a civilian, they deserve,” Alley said.

6. Women Veterans

6.1 - KVAL-TV (CBS-13, Video): Local female veterans react to Pentagon news on women in combat (3 December, Ellen Meny, 272k online visitors/mo; Eugene, OR)

The Pentagon announced on Thursday that all military positions and occupations will be open to women starting January 2016. The Department of Defense says that as long as they qualify and meet specific standards, women will be able to contribute to all Department of Defense actions, no exceptions, for the first time in history.

"It's actually just an acknowledgement of the role many women have been playing for a long time already," said Lisa Fortin, an Army veteran who works as the Director of Events for the College of Education at the University of Oregon. "It's nice, one, that it's finally acknowledged, but two, it's also great that the women who want to be in the combat arms and want to perform as a marine or something and can meet those qualifications, it's really a great thing that they can now do that if they want to."

"It's a formality," said Joelle Goodwin, a retired major who now works as assistant director of alumni recruiting at UO. "Women have been serving in combat for years and years and years, but just haven't, maybe not given credit for it."

New options for military women include driving tanks, leading soldiers into combat, as well as joining groups like the Navy SEALs and Green Berets. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter says implementation won't happen overnight.

The DOD reports that before the ruling, women were restricted from roughly 10 percent of military jobs. They say that's almost 220,000 jobs in total.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 37 4 December 2015

The DOD also reports the Marine Corps asked for a partial exemption to the rule in areas such as reconnaissance, but Secretary of Defense Ash Carter overruled the request.

In a press release, the Department of Defense released seven guidelines as they integrate women into all military positions:

1. Implementation will be pursued with the objective of improved force effectiveness. 2. Leaders must assign tasks and jobs throughout the force based on ability, not gender. 3. Equal opportunity likely will not mean equal participation by men and women in all specialties, and there will be no quotas. 4. Studies conducted by the services and SOCOM indicate that on average there are physical and other differences between men and women, and implementation will take this into account. 5. The department will address the fact that some surveys suggest that some service members, men and women, will perceive that integration could damage combat effectiveness. 6. Particularly in the specialties that are newly open to women, survey data and the judgment of service leaders indicate that the performance of small teams is important. 7. The United States and some of its closest friends and allies are committed to having militaries that include men and women, but not all nations share this perspective.

6.2 - The Leaf-Chronicle: Female veterans share thoughts on combat jobs opening (3 December, Autumn Allison, 253k online visitors/mo; Clarksville, TN)

Defense Secretary Ash Carter's decision to open up all combat jobs to women has gotten mixed reactions, even from female veterans.

Carter announced Thursday that the armed services have until Jan. 1 to submit plans to make the change and until April 1 to accommodate women in all roles.

"I think it is a positive thing," said Stacey Hopwood, a former Marine and now an assistant director at the Montgomery County Veterans Service Center. "My only thing is that I don't want them to lower the standards so that women can qualify. I think that there should be no gender restrictions if the service member can meet the criteria regardless if it is male or female.

"I think women are just as capable as men in doing just about everything, and I think as long as they meet the same criteria as their brother soldiers or Marines meet, then they should be allowed to do that same job. But if they ease up the qualifications, that's going to be tremendously negative for everybody."

Hopwood's co-worker, Sandy Britt, an Air Force veteran, echoed those sentiments.

"There should never be any lower standards for women," Britt said. "If they can make it, then fine."

But even some former female military members have reservations about the decision.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 38 4 December 2015

Cindy Layton, a 30-plus female Army veteran, has concerns about the grueling physicality of back-to-back deployments and the toil on the body.

"Initially, they are strong, ... their bodies can handle it, initially," Layton said. "However, you get in to start these multiple deployments like most of those units do ... once they get over there and their bodies have to go through what you go through in combat, with all that gear, the weapons, everything. Females bodies when they get older will break down much quicker, more seriously than a guys will.

"Women they can handle it, but in the long run when it comes time to get out ... they are going to be broken."

As reported by the Associate Press, Carter had been thinking about the issue since September after receiving divergent recommendations from the Army and Marine Corps. Army leaders recommended opening all combat arms jobs to women; the Corps leaders wanted to keep some male-only positions but will comply with the order.

6.3 - WSJV-TV (FOX-28, Video): Michiana's female veterans react to order to open combat positions to women (3 December, Veronixa Jean Seltzer, 101k online visitors/mo; Elkhart, IN)

"They'll be able to drive tanks, fire mortars, lead infantry soldiers into combat. They'll be able to serve as Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy Seals, Green Corps Infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, making the historic announcement today that all military positions, including combat roles, will now be open to women.

The Defense Secretary says the military can't afford to pass over talent in half of the American population. He's giving the armed services one month to make plans for the change. It comes after three years of discussion. The Marine Corps was the only branch who wanted to continue excluding women from certain jobs.

FOX28 spoke to one Michiana woman who's a veteran, is married to a military man and has a family. She says women need to think hard about what they want before entering a combat role.

"I was five years old when I told my Mother, 'I'm joining the military'," Amber Arceo said.

And as soon as she got her Mishawaka High degree, that's exactly she did.

"When you think of a superhero you think...I thought of Military," Arceo said.

200 women started basic training with her in Missouri; only 1/4 of them graduated. "I think a lot of them joined and not comprehend the actual mentality you need to have," Arceo said.

That mentality is why she's concerned about all combat jobs opening up to women. She says she doesn't want her peers to sign up just to prove a point.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 39 4 December 2015

"...because I'll tell you, the day you get there....doesn't matter what you have to prove because you're going to be treated just like everyone else," Arceo said.

Arceo says there are some special considerations women need to make before joining the military. She urges them to do thorough research before joining up.

"Ask around...ask other vets....ask other female veterans," Arceo said.

Asking about the physical demands, for example. Arceo says some women can do exactly what men can, but she could not. She was discharged for a back injury.

"If I could do it again I would've done it again in a heartbeat," Arceo said.

Another concern for her is the many reports she has heard of military sexual trauma.

"A woman on the first, first line of defense is going to be more susceptible to MST," Arceo said.

Despite her hesitation, Arceo says the military helped shape her life and if a woman truly wants to enter combat then she should.

"If she's doing it because this is something that's in her heart...do it," Arceo said.

Secretary Carter acknowledged there will be challenges. He also said equal opportunity won't necessarily mean equal participation in some of the newly opened fields. There won't be quotas for women.

One female veteran told FOX28 she felt like a job she deserved was given to a man just because the military didn't have facilities for women. Arceo said one thing that will definitely need to change is the VA, particularly its mental health services.

7. Other

7.1 - Los Angeles Times: High veteran unemployment appears to be in the past, but the push for more hires continues (3 December, Alan Zarembo, 23.8M online visitors/mo; Los Angeles, CA)

Wal-Mart says it met its goal of hiring 100,000 military veterans and has upped its commitment to 250,000.

A coalition of more than 200 other companies has scrapped its original objective of hiring 100,000 vets and vowed this month to make a million hires.

And a separate campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, called Hire 500,000 Heroes, has surpassed that target and collected promises from more than 2,000 businesses to hire at least 200,000 more veterans or their spouses.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 40 4 December 2015

Yes, corporate America loves veterans. There's just one problem: Most of them already have jobs.

"They won't be able to hire a million veterans anytime soon," Jeffrey Wenger, a public policy expert at the Rand Corp. think tank in Santa Monica, said of the corporate pledges. "There aren't a million veterans to hire."

High veteran unemployment, once rampant among those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, appears to be a thing of the past, based on data from the Labor Department.

The most recent unemployment rate for veterans who served after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, was 4.6% — essentially the same as the rate for nonveterans. That's 142,000 recent veterans out of work. An additional 280,000 veterans from other eras are also without jobs.

Overall, 3.9% of the 10.8 million veterans in the U.S. labor force were unemployed in October, a rate that economists say is largely attributable to routine turnover in the job market.

The corporate hiring campaigns, however, are not declaring victory. They say the unemployment rate in the general population should not be the bar for veterans.

"Until every veteran who wants a job is hired, our work is not done," Ross Brown, head of military and veteran affairs at J.P. Morgan Chase, said in an email.

In 2011, the company helped launch the 100,000 Jobs Mission, now called the Veteran Jobs Mission. With about 200,000 service members leaving the military each year, Brown said, the campaign is confident it will eventually reach its new goal of a million hires.

"We're not putting a timetable on this," he said.

Federal, state and local government efforts are not letting up either. Veterans continue to get preference for federal jobs, and federal contractors are expected to employ a certain number of veterans.

A White House initiative known as Joining Forces announced this year that it had secured new commitments from the private sector to hire or train 90,000 veterans and military spouses, in addition to 100,000 already brought on board.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced this summer that his initiative to hire 10,000 veterans was halfway to its goal. L.A. County supervisors approved a measure last week encouraging major contractors to hire more veterans.

The employment situation has changed sharply from five years ago, when the country was in the grips of recession, U.S. troops were still immersed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and being a recent veteran seemed to be a disadvantage in the job market.

Many employers hesitated to hire reservists, who could be deployed at any time. The stigma of post-traumatic stress disorder is also thought to have hurt job prospects.

The youngest veterans fared worst, with unemployment rates in some months that were double those of other workers their age. But the latest data show that among 18- to 24-year-olds, unemployment rates for veterans and nonveterans were statistically equal, at just over 10%.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 41 4 December 2015

Research suggests the turnaround is largely due to timing. A growing share of recent veterans have been out of the military long enough to find work.

Historically, veterans have long been better-employed than the general population. Being accepted into the military and getting out with an honorable discharge is an accomplishment that many employers value.

To a large extent, the promises to hire veterans simply highlight what companies would be doing anyway. Veterans make up about 7% of the labor force.

"It's good PR to say you're hiring veterans," said Chris Tilly, an economist who directs the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. "Everybody wants to support veterans. That's the main motivation for this."

The hiring campaigns release too little data to evaluate their true contribution to the cause of veteran employment. Most notably, the hiring numbers they report do not distinguish between veterans of the recent wars — who make up about 28% of veterans in the workforce — and those of older generations.

It is difficult to know whether the hiring pledges go beyond what would happen anyway in the normal flow of the economy, because the campaigns release too little data to evaluate them.

Wal-Mart provided figures showing that the 110,000 veterans it has hired since launching its initiative in May 2013 represent about 9% of its total hires over the same period. The initiative promised a job to any veteran who had left active duty in the previous year and could pass a drug test. But the company declined to say how many veterans had taken that offer.

The two biggest campaigns — the Veteran Jobs Mission and the Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Hire 500,000 Heroes — do not break down their hiring pledges or actual hires by company or job type.

"Some of the companies choose to make their commitments public, but some do not," Kim Morton, a spokeswoman for the chamber effort, said in an email.

Phillip Carter, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security, said the most important contribution of the hiring campaigns may be their underlying message: Most veterans are not the damaged people that many Americans imagine but valuable members of the workforce.

"The real value has been promoting a positive brand for veterans," Carter said. "The message has been: Hiring veterans is good for business."

"The programs are overly broad," he said. "But that's a good thing."

7.2 - ABC News (AP): George W. Bush Cheers on 'Invincible' Veterans for '16 Games (3 December, Verena Dobnik, 22.9M online visitors/mo; New York, NY)

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 42 4 December 2015

Volleyball played without the use of two legs — that's a game former President George W. Bush cheered on Thursday aboard a one-time aircraft carrier that had survived kamikaze and torpedo attacks.

Bush is honorary chairman of the 2016 Invictus Games planned for Orlando, Florida, over one week in May. They'll bring together 500 military personnel and veterans from 15 countries competing in 10 sports adapted for special needs.

"One of the things I will do for the rest of my life is, work with our vets," said Bush, the commander in chief of U.S. troops that invaded Iraq in 2003.

The former president spoke aboard New York's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, once the USS Intrepid that operated in the Pacific during World War II, withstanding five kamikaze attacks and a torpedo strike, and later served in Vietnam.

Bush watched teams of disabled athletes demonstrate what's called "sitting volleyball," sliding deftly on their backside across the court as the ball flew.

Britain's Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2014, taking the name from the Latin word for "invincible." Businessman Ken Fisher is chair and CEO of the follow-up American games. He's known for building housing units across the country where military and veterans' families can stay at no cost while their loved ones are receiving treatment.

Some wounds are invisible.

The George W. Bush Institute, a Dallas-based public policy center, is now launching a new initiative to address traumatic brain injury and what Bush calls "post-traumatic stress," ensuring care and cutting the stigma often associated with these conditions.

Bush noted that he's not adding the word "disorder" because "it's an injury not a disorder. Injuries and illnesses can be cured, and disorders can't."

Next to him on the court stood Air Force Tech Sgt. Israel Del Toro, an amputee who suffered nerve damage and scarring from a 2005 explosion in Afghanistan that left his whole body in flames, near death.

In Orlando, participants in the games will discuss how to help returning servicemen and women overcome their injuries and improve outcomes for their transition back to civilian life.

"Yeah, we might have gotten hurt, but we're still pushing, we're still living, we're still competing, we'll still be teammates," said Del Toro.

7.3 - Forbes: When It Comes To Veterans, Donald Trump's Rhetoric Is Much More Generous Than His Giving Record (3 December, Emily Canal, 22.7M online visitors/mo; Jersey City, NJ)

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 43 4 December 2015

Although he’s not going to get it, Donald Trump demanded $5 million from CNN this week to appear in the network’s next debate. The billionaire added that he would donate the money to veterans and the Wounded Warriors Foundation. That would be $4.94 million more than his charitable foundation has given veterans in recent years, Forbes found.

The Donald J. Trump Foundation has donated $5.5 million to 298 charities between 2009 and 2013 (the most recent year available), according to the non-profit’s 990 tax forms from those years. Of that, only $57,000 has been donated to seven organizations that directly benefit military veterans or their families, Forbes found. Wounded Warriors was not among the organizations Trump’s foundation gave to in that time period.

Forbes also found that Trump, who we estimate is worth $4.5 billion, has not made personal contributions to his foundation during the same time period. We reached out to his spokespeople for comment, but did not hear back before publishing.

For a bit of context, Forbes estimates that Jerry Speyer, another New York-based real estate mogul, is worth $4.4 billion. His philanthropic vehicle, the Speyer Family Foundation, has given $23.5 million between 2009 and 2013, according to his organization’s 990 forms. Speyer has contributed $6,103,368 to the charity during the same time period.

A Dec. 2 Quinnipiac University poll put Trump ahead of the other Republican candidates. On Nov. 30, he told a rally in Macon, Georgia that CNN “doesn’t treat me properly” and tendered the idea he would skip the Dec. 15 debate unless he was paid the $5 million. The network does not pay candidates to appear in debates, CNN President Jeff Zucker said Thursday, according to The Huffington Post.

Trump has spoken about the military multiple times throughout his campaign, but recently admitted to feeling guilt for not serving in the Vietnam War.

“I love the country. I’ve seen what it can do,” Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire Dec. 1. “I didn’t serve. I haven’t served. And frankly I had deferments because of college, like a lot of people did… I always felt a little bit guilty.”

Trump added that a “foot thing” and high draft number also prevented him from serving.

Additionally, on July 18, Trump said Arizona Sen. John McCain was “not a war hero” because he was captured during the Vietnam War. Trump added that McCain didn’t lead on military or veterans’ issues, unlike himself.

McCain, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, was a key sponsor on the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act and helped pass an overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Donald Trump is not a leader in veterans’ philanthropy, unless he’s donated a lot of money that nobody knows about,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told The New York Times in July. “We were founded in New York. We are headquartered in New York. I’ve been here 10 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever even seen Donald Trump.”

Trump’s campaign told The New York Times in July that he put on benefits for foundations like Wounded Warriors and hosted veterans and active-duty military personnel at his golf courses.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 44 4 December 2015

7.4 - Star Tribune: VA botches demotion of embattled St. Paul veterans chief (3 December, Allison Sherry, 8.2M online visitors/mo; Minneapolis, MN)

St. Paul Veterans Benefits Office Chief Kim Graves, freshly demoted from allegations of financial wrongdoing, has appealed the demotion and has had the demotion rescinded because the bureaucracy committed an administrative error, VA officials said Thursday.

The VA attempted to demote Graves Nov. 20 after the VA Inspector General found she orchestrated a move to Minnesota from the East Coast, receiving $130,000 in publicly paid moving expenses and retaining her $173,000 salary for much less work in Minnesota.

She was supposed to be demoted in November to an assistant director job at the Benefits Office in Phoenix. Graves was also supposed to take a paycut.

But Graves, and another Philadelphia VA director alleged to have done the same thing, appealed the demotions to the Merit Systems Protection Board.

During the appeal, VA's lawyers discovered that, due to an administrative error, one of the five binders of evidence supporting the demotion had inadvertently been omitted from the materials provided to the employees with their proposed demotion paperwork.

To rectify this, the Department must rescind the demotion and give employees the opportunity to respond. The VA said they will "re-initiate" the proposed actions, but both employees continue to report to the Benefits' central office.

Rep. Tim Walz, a Democratic member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said the entire process is frustrating.

“After weeks of failing to provide information about the actions they were taking to hold employees accountable, we find out today the VA has botched the process to ensure accountability and we now have to start over," he said, in an e-mail. "This is completely unacceptable and I’m calling on Secretary McDonald to take immediate action to address this appalling lack of accountability.”

The House Veterans Affairs Committee meets next week to discuss further accountability at the VA.

7.5 - The Philadelphia Inquirer: Oops: VA rescinds demotion of Phila. Director (3 December, Matthew Nussbaum, 3.5M online visitors/mo; Philadelphia, PA)

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 45 4 December 2015

The Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday rescinded the demotion and reassignment of its embattled Philadelphia benefits office manager, at least temporarily, after conceding "an administrative error" in the process.

In a statement, the VA said it had failed to give Diana Rubens one of five binders of evidence it used to justify her Nov. 20 demotion, and said she is entitled to the materials as part of her appeal. The agency said it made the same mistake in a similar case against another administrator.

"To rectify this omission, the Department must rescind and reissue the proposed demotions and afford the employees the opportunity to respond to the additional supporting evidence," its statement said.

The VA said it had already begun the process of reissuing the demotions. That did little to appease its chief critic in Congress.

"It seems VA's incompetence knows no bounds," Rep. Jeff Miller (R., Fla.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement. "By now, it's clear to nearly every objective observer that VA's top officials don't know how to properly discipline employees. What remains unclear, however, is whether they are even interested in doing so."

Rubens' demotion followed an internal investigation that concluded she had orchestrated her appointment from a senior Washington-based VA position to the director's job in Philadelphia, a post that carried fewer responsibilities but the same pay - and included overseeing operations in Delaware, where she has family.

The government paid $274,000 to relocate Rubens from her Virginia home to a new home in Delaware County.

The agency's inspector general has recommended federal prosecutors open a criminal probe into Rubens' actions, and Miller's committee has pressed her and the VA for answers.

Rubens did not respond Thursday to an email requesting comment. She has previously declined to publicly address the allegations, and at a Congressional hearing this fall invoked her Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

In its disciplinary action last month, the VA said Rubens would be demoted and re-assigned to its Houston office. A similar punishment was ordered for Kimberly Graves, who is accused of having helped create a post in St. Paul, Minn., so she could be transferred there. Graves was re-assigned to Denver.

During their appeals, each is reporting "virtually" to the agency's central office, the VA said.

The actions occurred under a 2014 law designed to expedite disciplinary processes at the VA - a step that emerged after evidence emerged that VA officials had allegedly manipulated data to conceal wait times for veterans seeking benefits.

The law allows disciplined employees seven days to appeal. A board then has 21 days to issue a final judgment. The administrative error affecting Rubens and Graves was discovered during that process.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 46 4 December 2015

Miller has called for Rubens to reimburse the government for her relocation expenses. This week he introduced a bill to give the VA the authority it has said it has lacked to demand such repayment.

In his statement, the congressman called the latest snafu over the demotions "an absolutely egregious" mistake.

"Right now. it's incumbent upon VA leaders to do two things: Explain to taxpayers, veterans and Congress who will be held accountable for this failure and outline its plan for finally getting serious about accountability at the department," he said.

Due to a paperwork mix-up, the demotions of two high-ranking officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs has been put on hold and will have to be reissued once the paperwork is sorted out, the agency said Thursday.

In the wake of a VA inspector general report saying that Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves of the Veterans Benefits Administration had manipulated the agency’s hiring process to secure for themselves sweetheart job transfers, the VA announced in November that the two employees were being demoted.

They went from being senior executives — the highest career employee rank —to being general workers.

Ms. Rubens and Ms. Graves “exercised their statutory right to appeal their demotion” and the appeals process would put on hold their geographic reassignments to their lower-paying jobs, Ryan Hedgepeth, VA oversight director, said in a statement.

An agency lawyer had discovered that one of five binders of evidence supporting the demotion hadn’t been given to the employees.

“To rectify this omission, the department must rescind and reissue the proposed demotions and afford the employees the opportunity to respond to the additional supporting evidence,” Mr. Hedgepeth said. “This process is now underway.

Ms. Rubens was deputy undersecretary of the VA’s Washington headquarters prior to her shift to the Philadelphia regional office, where she earned $181,497.

Ms. Graves had been director of the VBA’s North Atlantic region, and shifted to the St. Paul, Minnesota regional office with a salary of $173,949. They will both be shifted to the VA central office.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 47 4 December 2015

In the process of moving to their new posts, they also collected about $400,000 in improper relocation benefits that the IG said should not have been paid out. The IG’s office recommended criminal prosecution to the Department of Justice.

Rep. Jeff Miller, Florida Republican and chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has been calling on the VA to recoup the relocation expenses — a move the VA said it cannot legally make.

The botched demotions, he said, was another example that the VA was not focused on accountability.

“By now, it’s clear to nearly every objective observer that VA’s top officials don’t know how to properly discipline employees,” he said. “This is an absolutely egregious mistake, and right now it’s incumbent upon VA leaders to do two things: explain to taxpayers, veterans and Congress who will be held accountable for this failure and outline its plan for finally getting serious about accountability at the department.”

7.7 - Washington Examiner: Paperwork error spares VA fraudsters from punishment (3 December, Sarah Westwood, 2.8M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

A pair of Department of Veterans Affairs officials who were demoted after the inspector general found they had stolen $400,000 from the agency won't actually be facing any punishment because the VA bungled the paperwork for their demotions.

The VA announced last month that Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves would be stripped of their present positions after they were both accused of manipulating a VA program meant to relocate agency employees who transfer long distances to take jobs within the VA. Rubens fraudulently netted more than $274,000 and Graves more than $129,000, according to the agency's inspector general, but the VA indicated it would make no attempt to recover the money they siphoned from the program.

The VA has now been forced to rescind their demotions thanks to a paperwork error, effectively negating the only punishment the two officials would have received.

Both Rubens and Graves had appealed the VA's original decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a body that helps sort through disagreements among federal employees and management.

"During a review of the appeals, agency counsel discovered that, due to an administrative error, one of the five binders of evidence supporting each action had inadvertently been omitted from the materials provided to the employees with their proposed demotion paperwork," the VA said in a lengthy statement Thursday.

Because the VA had forgotten to hand over one of the five binders of evidence against Rubens and Graves, the agency must now "rescind" their punishment and attempt to pursue it again after both employees have had a chance to prepare a defense against the evidence in the forgotten binder.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 48 4 December 2015

The embattled officials will have a chance to appeal the punishment a second time if the VA decides to try for their demotions once more. Both Rubens and Graves pleaded the Fifth in a congressional hearing last month and refused to answer questions about their alleged fraud.

VA leadership has come under fire for its seeming refusal to hold employees accused of misconduct accountable. The case of Rubens and Graves, who may escape even a minimal form of discipline despite weeks of pressure from a bipartisan group of lawmakers who called their actions "shockingly unethical," is emblematic of a larger problem throughout the agency.

In the year and a half since the explosion of a scandal over secret patient waiting at 110 facilities across the country, only three VA officials have ever been fired for their role in covering up long delays in veterans' health care.

Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said the latest incident proves "VA's incompetence knows no bounds."

"By now, it's clear to nearly every objective observer that VA's top officials don't know how to properly discipline employees," Miller said. "What remains unclear, however, is whether they are even interested in doing so."

7.8 - Government Executive: Punishment for VA Senior Executives Delayed Because of ‘Administrative Error’ (3 December, Kellie Lunney, 2.6M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

An administrative error has forced the Veterans Affairs Department to rescind the punishment for two senior executives who were demoted after the department's watchdog found they used their positions of authority for personal gain, the VA said on Thursday.

VA still plans to demote and reassign Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, but the department has to restart the disciplinary process because it failed to provide the two employees with all the information regarding their punishment during the notice period. “During a review of the appeals, agency counsel discovered that, due to an administrative error, one of the five binders of evidence supporting each action had inadvertently been omitted from the materials provided to the employees with their proposed demotion paperwork,” the VA statement said.

Rubens and Graves appealed their demotions to the Merit Systems Protection Board earlier this week. MSPB dismissed those appeals as “moot,” presumably because of the administrative error the department discovered.

Once VA “re-issues” its proposed discipline, Rubens and Graves will have five business days to respond to the additional evidence before the department issues final decisions on the demotions and reassignments.

“Both employees will continue to report virtually to VBA’s Central Office during this process,” which is currently under way, the statement said.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 49 4 December 2015

The snafu essentially restarts the whole disciplinary process, including any subsequent appeals to the MSPB.

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., called the mistake “absolutely egregious” and questioned the VA’s commitment to accountability. “It seems VA’s incompetence knows no bounds,” Miller said in a statement. “After VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson repeatedly expressed concerns that our committee’s legitimate oversight efforts could jeopardize these disciplinary proceedings, VA seems to have sabotaged this case all on its own.”

The VA on Nov. 20 announced the demotion of Rubens and Graves to General Schedule 15 assistant director positions within the Veterans Benefits Administration, at the Houston and Phoenix regional offices, respectively. Under the 2014 Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, the VA can fire or demote Senior Executive Service employees immediately, with paychecks getting cut off the day of the termination. The affected executive would then have seven days to issue an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, which in turn would have 21 days for an expedited adjudication.

The department’s watchdog in September concluded that Rubens, who was director of VBA’s Philadelphia regional office, and Graves, who led VBA’s St. Paul regional office, improperly helped create vacancies at their respective offices and volunteered to fill them. The two employees occupying those jobs at the time -- Antione Waller and Robert McKenrick – were relocated to jobs (in Baltimore and Los Angeles, respectively) they did not volunteer for to make room for Rubens and Graves, who were working elsewhere at the time, according to the watchdog. VA paid roughly $274,000 in relocation expenses for Rubens, and about $129,000 for Graves, for a total of more than $400,000.

The VA’s decision to demote and not fire Rubens and Graves has added more tension to an already hot debate over firing in the federal government. Many lawmakers and other observers are frustrated with the VA’s inability to quickly get rid of poor performers or those engaged in misconduct. The 2014 Choice Act makes it easier for the department to fire and demote senior executives, but some believe the VA isn’t using the new authority adequately. (The VA used that authority to demote Rubens and Graves.) Critics of the expedited firing authority say it violates career employees’ due process rights.

Still, Republicans and Democrats have both expressed disbelief and frustration that the VA did not sack Rubens and Graves. “Rubens and Graves clearly should have been fired,” House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., has said. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the department’s demotion of the two “an appallingly insufficient punishment.” Veterans’ groups including the American Legion and Concerned Veterans for America also criticized the VA for not firing the two VBA officials.

7.9 - KMGH-TV (ABC-7, Video): Armed patient took nurse hostage on 8th floor of Denver Veterans Affairs hospital (3 December, Deb Stanley, 1.4M online visitors/mo; Denver, CO)

An armed patient took a nurse hostage at Denver's Veterans Affairs Medical Center Thursday morning.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 50 4 December 2015

It happened on the 8th floor of the medical center at 1055 Clermont Street, which is near 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

A man took a female nurse hostage around 8:15 a.m., Nicole Alberico, spokeswoman for the hospital, told Denver7.

Alberico confirmed the suspect is a male patient who had an appointment at the medical center Thursday morning.

The patient had a gun.

"VA police acted quickly, subdued the suspect and the weapon," Alberico said. "Staff and employees reacted quickly, as trained, and were able to keep themselves and other patients out of the scene."

The situation lasted about 15 minutes.

No shots were fired.

The nurse is doing as well as can be expected, Alberico said.

No injuries were reported.

7.10 - KUSA-TV (NBC-9, Video): Patient holds nurse at gunpoint in VA hospital (3 December, Blair Shiff, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Denver, CO)

A hostage situation at the VA Medical Center near East 10th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard is now over.

According to the VA Police, they initially responded at 8:20 a.m. on Thursday.

A man who was a patient at the hospital took a nurse practitioner hostage inside an exam room on the eighth floor. VA officials say he held a loaded gun to the nurse during the hostage situation.

The hospital was placed immediately on lockdown. Both Denver Police and VA police responded, along with a hostage negotiator. The hostage situation lasted about 10 minutes, and the lockdown was lifted.

The nurse was not injured during the hostage situation.

Authorities took the patient into custody. He is currently being held in a cell within the VA facility.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 51 4 December 2015

7.11 - Stars and Stripes: VA botches demotions of execs who misused authority for personal gain, bonuses (3 December, Dianna Cahn, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)

The Department of Veterans Affairs refueled outrage Thursday over its light handling of two corrupt senior executives when the agency acknowledged that it had botched its disciplinary actions against the two officials, forcing the VA to rescind their demotions and start the punishment and appeals process again.

The agency announced last month that it was demoting and transferring Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves after an investigation determined that both women had manipulated the hiring system to carve out their jobs of choice and collect huge relocation bonuses meant to entice employees to take hard-to-fill jobs.

Rubens and Graves received more than $400,000 in total relocation bonuses.

Lawmakers, veterans advocates and other watchdog groups lambasted the agency for not firing the women and for not recouping the money they received through their scheming.

On Thursday, the VA issued a statement saying that during the processing of the demotions, an administrative error had occurred and one of the five binders of evidence had inadvertently been omitted from paperwork provided to the two women.

“Not only is it impossible to fire employees at the VA, but they cannot even effectively demote employees for just cause,” Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

“This highlights yet again the desperate need for accountability reform at the VA,” he said, adding that the agency “has so far either been incapable of or unwilling to adequately hold bad actors appropriately accountable.”

The department had to rescind and reissue the proposed demotions to allow the women an opportunity to respond to the omitted evidence, the VA statement said, adding to the cascade of dismay over the VA’s handling of the case.

“It seems VA’s incompetence knows no bounds,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R- Fla., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. “By now, it’s clear to nearly every objective observer that VA’s top officials don’t know how to properly discipline employees. What remains unclear, however, is whether they are even interested in doing so.”

The VA Inspector General’s office issued a report in September finding that Rubens and Graves had “inappropriately used their positions of authority for personal and financial benefit” by arranging the transfer of subordinates whose jobs they wanted and then volunteering for the vacancies.

Rubens became director of Veterans Benefits Administration’s Philadelphia and Wilmington VA regional offices and received $274,019.12 for relocation expenses. Graves became director of the VBA’s St. Paul (Minn.) regional office, with relocation pay of $129,467.56. The program has been suspended.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 52 4 December 2015

Both women maintained their senior executive salaries after transferring to these less demanding jobs. Their predecessors also received relocation costs totaling $60,000, the report found.

The report had recommended that the VA deputy secretary consult with the VA’s Office of General Counsel to determine whether Rubens and Graves should have to repay their relocation expenses. Miller said last week that he’d been informed that the VA’s top lawyer determined the agency did not have the legal authority to recoup the money even after acknowledging that the women had abused their offices.

On Monday, Miller introduced a bill that would allow the VA secretary to recoup relocation expenses paid to any VA employee at any time if the secretary deems it necessary, and would require that any appeal by that employee be decided by a third-party federal entity.

The bill was introduced in direct response to the decision on Rubens and Graves. Miller said that the only way the VA could reform itself into an organization worthy of its veterans was to not tolerate corruption within its ranks.

After their demotions were announced Nov. 20, Graves and Rubens were reassigned. Both women appealed their demotions and their transfers were stayed pending the outcome. It was during the review of the appeals that VA counsel discovered the administrative error.

The department is reinitiating the demotions, the VA statement said. Once that paperwork is in, Graves and Rubens will have five business days to respond to the additional evidence before a decision is made on their demotions. If the demotions stand, the women can reinitiate their appeals, the VA said.

Miller said the VA is showing no real signs of reform, even in the wake of serious scandal in which facilities had maintained secret wait lists for doctor appointments, leaving veterans languishing for months and sometimes years without care.

This latest error by the VA further detracts from the agency’s credibility, he said. “This is an absolutely egregious mistake, and right now it’s incumbent upon VA leaders to do two things: explain to taxpayers, veterans and Congress who will be held accountable for this failure and outline its plan for finally getting serious about accountability at the department.”

7.12 - KDVR-TV (FOX-31): Armed suspect taken into custody after taking nurse hostage at VA Medical Center (3 December Chuck Hickey, 998k online visitors/mo; Denver, CO)

An armed suspect was taken into custody after taking a nurse hostage at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Thursday morning, the Denver Police Department said.

Police responded to the call inside the hospital at East 10th Avenue and Clermont Street just after 8 a.m.

Officials said the suspect had a weapon but did not specify what kind.

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 53 4 December 2015

The situation was resolved and the suspect was taken into custody, a hospital spokeswoman said.

No injuries have been reported and the hospital has resumed full operations.

7.13 - Times Union: VA, police probe veteran's death (3 December, Dennis Yusko and J.P. Lawrence, 540k online visitors/mo; Albany, NY)

The military veteran who fell to his death at the Samuel S. Stratton Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Hospital was an enigmatic ex-Marine who had been discharged from the hospital's psychiatric unit 90 minutes earlier, according to city police and those who knew him.

Stewart A. Mosher, 34, appeared to have jumped from the top level of the parking garage on the VA campus just after noon on Nov. 27, according to a police report obtained by the Times Union. Five people, including a VA employee and a nurse from Albany Medical Center Hospital, witnessed Mosher hit the pavement in front of 67 Veterans Way, police said.

Mosher lived in Selkirk and joined the Marine Corps right after graduating from New Lebanon Junior-Senior High School in 2000. Four years later, he was discharged with post-traumatic stress disorder, which he self-medicated with "entheogens," or psychoactive drugs, he wrote on his Facebook page. Emergency responders were called to the VA around 12:10 p.m. last Friday and found Mosher unconscious and unresponsive, according to police.

The police report states Mosher left the VA's psychiatric unit at 10:40 a.m. His apparent suicide highlighted the alarming issue of suicide among military veterans. In the most extensive study on the issue, the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that 22 U.S. veterans took their own lives each day from 1999 to 2010. Individuals 50 and older accounted for 69 percent of the suicides, the VA reported.

On Nov. 19, in a case tragically similar to what happened in Albany, a military veteran seeking psychiatric treatment at a VA medical center in Philadelphia walked out of its waiting room and jumped to his death from the facility's parking garage.

Mosher's apparent suicide where area veterans receive treatment also raised questions about the quality of care at the Stratton VA, whose director, Linda W. Weiss, is on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons. Citing privacy laws, the VA refused to address questions about Mosher's admission into the Stratton hospital or his discharge. Mosher's family in East Chatham had no public comment. But veterans following Mosher's case said they were horrified to learn that a vet may have killed himself just after walking out of the VA.

"It's absolutely horrible and very heartbreaking," said Gena Hulse, 51, a Navy veteran from Gloversville who is being treated for PTSD at the Albany VA. "Veterans are outraged. We were wondering if he was given thorough enough care."

Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 54 4 December 2015

While Albany police continue to investigate Mosher's death, the VA plans to review and provide a root-cause analysis of what happened, Stratton VA spokesman Peter Potter said. In a statement, the VA extended its condolences to Mosher's family and friends.

"Stratton VA Medical Center was saddened to learn of the loss of a veteran in the local area," the VA said. The hospital said veterans and loved ones could call a suicide prevention hot line 24 hours a day at (800) 273-TALK (8255). VA staff members who answer the phone can access veterans' updated medical records. Joe Hunter, a suicide prevention coordinator at the Stratton VA, can be reached at 626-5329.

Mosher was born in Saranac Lake, and most recently worked as a detention counselor at Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth in Canaan in 2011. He wrote about his struggles with PTSD on social media.

Mosher wrote on his Facebook page that he had a couple of close calls with death when he was young, "but it wasn't until my last four months in the Marine Corps Infantry (while securing Port- au-Prince, Haiti, in 2004) that death seriously made me question whether or not there is life after death." He stated that he found it difficult to transition back into civilian life, but was eventually introduced to salvia divinorum, a psychoactive plant from Mexico that can produce a hallucinogenic high. "This information kicked off a four-year quest of self-healing and opening up a much broader view of reality using a variety of entheogenic substances," Mosher wrote. Mosher apparently created two videos with psychedelic art that he posted on his YouTube account. He also spoke about experimenting with mind-altering drugs in an interview with EntheoRadio, and wrote about his "spiritual" journeys on YouTube and in an illustrated 114- page book.

Mosher graduated from HVCC with a degree in individual studies in 2006, and received a certificate from the college's digital media program in 2012. Kyra Garrigue, digital media instructor at HVCC, said Wednesday that Mosher spoke openly in class about his experiences in the military and desire to help other veterans with PTSD.

"I am greatly saddened to hear of the passing of my former student," Garrigue said. "Stewart was a warm and sincere student who easily engaged with his peers. He brought a unique perspective to class discussions and his sense of humor will be greatly missed."

Mosher had experienced hard times by 2013 and became homeless, according to David Poach, admissions director at the Capital City Rescue Mission. Mosher stayed in the shelter on South Pearl Street for a couple of weeks starting in July, Poach said. The shelter helped Mosher line up housing through the VA on Dec. 27, 2013, Poach said, adding that he never heard from the vet again.

"We're heartbroken this happened," he said.

Mosher is survived by his parents, three siblings and others. A calling hour at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Wenk Funeral Home in Chatham will be followed by a 2 p.m. memorial service. Donations in memory of Mosher should be made to the Capital City Rescue Mission.

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7.14 - KCNC-TV (CBS-4, Video): Suspect Arrested After Holding Nurse At Gunpoint At VA Hospital (3 December, 422k online visitors/mo; Denver, CO)

One man has been taken into custody after an incident at the VA Hospital facility in Denver where he allegedly held a nurse at gunpoint.

The VA incident commander told CBS4 that a male was in an exam room with a female nurse practitioner and “held her there.” The man had a gun.

“The patient did have a weapon, the weapon was loaded and he did, according to our initial reports, he did hold the staff member at gunpoint,” said VA Medical Center acting Director Corey Ramsey.

The suspect had an appointment on the 8th floor of the medical center. The motivation for the attack remains unclear.

There are no reports of any injuries and the nurse is doing well despite having a gun pointed at her.

The initial call came in at 8:20 a.m. but was over 10 minutes later after VA police defused the situation.

The medical center was placed on lockdown while the situation was resolved. No one was evacuated.

The suspect remained at the VA in a holding cell as of noon Thursday. The VA said it will follow federal guidelines for filing charges.

The VA Medical Center is located at 10th and Clermont in Denver.

The VIPs will begin arriving around noon on Sunday, taking their place with the other guests of honor on the chow line.

This is their day to be recognized and applauded because they have done something so few people in this country are willing to do: suspend their daily lives for a few years or more to wear the military uniform of this nation.

Only 7.3 percent of all living American adults have served in the military at some point in their lives, according to Department of Veterans Affairs statistics. And as of Jan. 31 this year, 1.4 million men and women were serving in the U.S. Armed Forces — about 0.4 percent of the population.

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So that makes them special, but from what I hear from the volunteers working the 23rd annual Veterans Holiday Celebration at the West Los Angeles VA, that’s not how they feel.

“It always amazes me how humble and thankful they are, as if what they did was just something ordinary,” says Gregg Sanders, who has been volunteering at the event for 11 years.

“If it was ordinary, something everybody does, we’d all be vets. What they did was extraordinary, and we want them to know that.”

The holiday celebration began on Christmas Eve 1992 with a couple of turkeys and some guitars for entertainment. Half a dozen members of the local chapter of MDI — Mentor, Discover, Inspire — an international men’s organization, showed up unannounced to visit veterans in the VA hospital.

They had heard that most of the guys had no one visiting them, and that Christmas Eve dinner was a ham and cheese sandwich they ate in bed.

“That wasn’t right,” says Greg Telle, chairman of the board of the Veterans Holiday Celebration, a nonprofit corporation. “These men deserved so much better than that.

“We served about 30 hospitalized vets hot turkey dinners and sang Christmas songs with them that first year, and it just took off from there. This year we’re expecting 3,500 to 4,000 veterans and their families to attend the celebration.

“We’ll have 40 volunteers serving them dinner, and later Jim Belushi, one of our members, and his Sacred Hearts Band will be performing.”

They’re keeping their fingers crossed there will be more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans this year, says Barry Gershenson, who has worked the event for 18 years.

“Most of them think of the older guys as veterans — the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam guys. They look at themselves as military or active military.

“We want them to join us with their families and see it doesn’t matter when you served, you’re a veteran.”

So, if you go Sunday, and the public is certainly invited, this is what you will see. Plenty of gratitude and camaraderie, says Telle, who has worked the event for 20 years.

“Vets from each era will sit together eating and talking about their years in the service. Pretty soon, families with kids will start walking up and thanking them, and they’ll be surprised, especially the Nam guys.

“I’ve seen a lot of these guys cry, telling those kids it’s the first time anybody thanked them for their service. The others will appear almost embarrassed because they don’t expect praise for what they did.”

Because they don’t see themselves as special, just ordinary. But try to imagine this. What if they hadn’t been there to put on the uniform when we needed them?

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So if you want to meet some real VIPs, stop by the holiday celebration Sunday afternoon to say thank you and shake some hands.

The Veterans Holiday Celebration begins at noon this Sundayon the West L.A. VA campus at 11301 Wilshire Blvd. It will be held in parking lot 29, adjacent to Jackie Robinson Stadium.

7.16 - The Daily Courier: Change of heart: Former VA medical director departs agency for retirement rather than promotion (3 December, Nanci Hutson, 118k online visitors/mo; Prescott, AZ)

After accepting a promotion to head up the VA medical center in Oklahoma City last month, five- year local VA Medical Director Donna Jacobs changed career plans and opted instead to retire.

Jacobs' last day at Northern Arizona Veteran Affairs Health Care was Monday.

Her position has been replaced with an interim director, Dr. M. Keith Piatt, who before his appointment served as the VA's chief of staff. Piatt came to Prescott in March 2014.

VA Public Affairs Officer Mary Dillinger confirmed Jacobs' retirement on Wednesday. She said Jacob's decision occurred after she initially accepted and announced in October the promotion to head up the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. Family needs played into her final decision, she said.

Jacobs, a former nurse and administrator, has worked for the VA system for more than two decades.

Jacobs' retirement decision was not publicly announced, though some local residents stated Wednesday they recently attended a retirement party in her honor.

Jacobs could not be reached for comment this week. Dillinger said her former boss was in the process of relocating to her new home in the Midwest.

An active civic and veteran leader in the community, Jacobs was well-respected in Prescott and was lauded for steering the local VA in the right direction amid national controversies about medical care delays at other facilities across the nation. She was touted for her commitment to expanding mental health care, as well as the extensive outreach efforts, and opening out-patient and tele-health clinics for veterans who live in rural areas and cannot access the main campus located off Route 89.

The timetable for a permanent replacement for Jacobs remains unknown at this time.

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7.17 - WDTV-TV (CBS-5, Video): Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center Prepared and Trained in Event of Unexpected Crisis (3 December, Austin Pollack, 102k online visitors/mo; Bridgeport, WV)

Safety concerns continue to be on the rise in high traffic areas after Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino.

The Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center goes through training several times each year in the event of a crisis on the campus. The hospital actually began training for these situations two years before it was mandated. Officials are trained and ready for anything that comes their way.

"The nuts and bolts of what we train non-police staff is a three-phase evolution in the event of an active threat," said Chief of Police Scott Engel. "Run, hide, and if you have to, fight."

5 News went to speak to some of you about the issue of threats in highly-populated areas. Some think th is is another wake-up call.

"Make yourself aware of your surroundings and people around you," said Thomas Lyons from Grafton. "A lot of the times you can see things coming before they ever get near you."

We spoke to another person who is very concerned about this. She's concerned not only for herself, but for her children.

She always thinks about it when she goes into a public place, and has made some adjustments as a result.

"I always look to see if someone is strange," said Roxanne Williams, who is from New York. "I always have my kids on alert. I'm extremely concerned. It can happen anywhere, and it's a real threat to all of us. And I homeschooled my kids this year because of what's been going on. This is the only time I've ever done it. But that's how concerned I am."

One of the biggest suggestions Chief Engel has for the public is if you see something, make sure you say something.

7.18 - The Lawton Constitution: National Cemetery Among 6 To Achieve 'Gold Shrine' Status (3 December, Mitch Meador, 25k online visitors/mo; Lawton, OK)

Staff and volunteers who work at the Fort Sill National Cemetery were recognized Wednesday for achieving Gold Shrine status.

It's one of only six national cemeteries in the country to attain the Gold Shrine level. And, it's only the 21st of 133 national cemeteries to be named a National Shrine for not only meeting but exceeding national standards set by the National Cemetery Administration of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Steve Best, VA's regional director for its 10-state Continental District based in Denver, presented Bill Rhoades, director of the Oklahoma National Cemetery Complex that includes

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Fort Gibson National Cemetery as well as this one, with a framed copy of the scorecard. It was signed by Ronald E. Walters, VA's interim principal deputy undersecretary for memorial affairs, and Matthew Sullivan, deputy undersecretary for finance and planning.

As part of the Organizational Assessment and Improvement (OAI) program, both Fort Sill and Fort Gibson national cemeteries were assessed the last week of July on how well they stacked up in 144 different categories, Rhoades said.

The team that did the assessment looked at the cleanliness, height and alignment of headstones, turf, customer satisfaction surveys, conditions of the facility, safety issues and the way finances are handled. Fort Sill National Cemetery met or exceeded the national standard in 142 or the 144 categories. Most of those were 95s but a few were 100 percent. The scores mean the staff and volunteers are fulfilling their obligations to the nation's veterans, Best said.

"When we place a casket in a gravesite, there is no room for error. Our standard is zero errors," Rhoades said.

The Fort Gibson National Cemetery has been deemed a National Shrine as well, but there are two levels, and it falls in the Green Shrine status, just below Gold.

The Fort Sill National Cemetery has a staff of six, all of them veterans, so it's veterans taking care of veterans, noted Marty Talley, wage lead for the cemetery. In addition to the paid staff, there are more than two dozen extremely important volunteers who make contact with funeral homes the day of a service and help loved ones locate gravesites, he noted.

"This is a dedication, and if we don't enjoy doing what we're doing, it's a job and we've got the wrong mix of people in here. It's a sacred trust. The guys who come in every morning, they're already thinking about what has to be done. We're planning not only the day but the day after, and the week, and the month. And that's why we did so well on this, because we didn't wait until the week before they showed up to start doing things. We started a year ago, and every day we took these areas and started peeling them apart and saying, 'Are we really doing this? We've got to do better,'" Talley said.

The chief of the Veterans Affairs hospital in White River Junction is moving to Phoenix, Ariz., to oversee a troubled VA facility there.

Deborah Amdur is a social worker by training, and she will replace one of several interim directors in Phoenix. Her appointment comes after allegations surfaced last year that the Arizona hospital had manipulated reports on patient wait-times.

The Phoenix VA became a flashpoint in a national scandal over mismanagement and corruption in the VA health system.

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Amdur says her top goal in Phoenix will be to restore the trust of the veterans with timely, high- quality care.

Listen to an interview with the director above.

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