Mixed jobs news for veterans in August

By Leo Shane III
Published: September 7, 2012

WASHINGTON – The unemployment rate for young veterans took a significant step backwards last month, rising to 10.9 percent and countering what had been positive post-military jobs news for most of 2012.

Administration officials and veterans advocates have warned about putting too much emphasis on the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, stating that the overall trend among Iraq and Afghanistan era veterans looking for work is still encouraging.

VA: Battle buddies can help fight obesity in vets

By Leo Shane III
Published: September 7, 2012

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs researchers are finding that battle buddies can help save lives, even when it comes to fighting obesity.

Dr. Michele Heisler, a VA physician and director at the Michigan Center for Diabetes Translation Research, said officials have found that veterans struggling with obesity and diabetes are more likely to follow physicians’ advice, stick to their diets and stay on their medications if they engage in support groups with other veterans. Now outside researchers are looking to see if the same lessons can be applied to civilian populations.

Triumphing over the lingering wounds of war

By Thomas James Brennan
Published: September 5, 2012

Matthew Brown

A year earlier, Matthew Brown was a Marine fighting in Iraq.

Now he sat at home, a veteran with an endless prescription for pain pills and a new habit of crushing the pills and snorting them as he drank one beer after another. He’d started to cut his forearms with a serrated pocket knife. Feeling otherwise numb, he cut himself to feel something. Anything.

NFL research grant could help veterans, troops with brain injuries

By Leo Shane III
Published: September 5, 2012

Cornerback Troy Vincent tackles Atlanta Falcons running back Warrick Dunn in a 2003 NFL game. Vincent, now the NFL's vice president of player engagement, says he was concussed seven times during his NFL career.

Michael Perez/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT

WASHINGTON – Officials at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday that the National Football League has donated $30 million to study the long-term effects of head injuries and other blunt-force trauma, with the goal of finding helping both athletes and the general population.

That includes military personnel and veterans, many of whom suffer the same concussive brain injuries and resulting mental disorders as professional football players.

Romney schedules convention break to see vets

By Leo Shane III
Published: August 27, 2012

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hosts a small-business roundtable during a campaign stop at Endural LLC, on July 23, 2012, in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Jason Redmond/AP

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney and his party have a host of pre-election work to do this week in Florida, but the Republican presidential nominee will be taking a 1,000-mile campaign detour to Indianapolis on Wednesday to address the American Legion’s annual veterans convention.

Last month Romney and President Barack Obama delivered stump speeches before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno. Obama has taped a message for the American Legion convention, but Romney’s campaign hopes the in-person Indianapolis appearance will give him an edge with the 2.4 million Legion members and the 22 million veterans nationwide.

Pricey VA conferences included $52,000 'Patton' parody video

By Leo Shane III
Published: August 22, 2012

WASHINGTON – House Veterans Affairs Committee officials today posted online the $52,000 parody video of the movie “Patton” used at a pair of expensive, controversial Department of Veterans Affairs conventions in Florida last summer. The events – and their $5 million price tag – are under investigation by Congress and the department’s inspector general.

About 1,800 VA employees attended the four-day events, held in July and August 2011 in Orlando. Officials from the inspector general’s office have said that the conferences were for legitimate training purposes, but appear to have included excessive spending.

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