1.      Shinseki Addresses WWII Veterans At Pearl Harbor. Japan's Kyodo News (9/4) reports, "Gathered on a battleship in Pearl Harbor, some 800 veterans on Thursday marked the 65th anniversary of Japan's formal surrender ending World War II. 'All great leaders know the mightiest undertakings succeed because of the strength and courage, determination and sacrifice, of men and women whose names will never be recorded in history books or memorialized in museums,' said US Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, a retired US Army four-star general and third-generation Japanese-American born in Hawaii."

2.      Shinseki Addresses Rural Veterans' Concerns In Minnesota. The Minneapolis Star Tribune (9/4, Brunswick) reports, "US Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki traveled to Mankato earlier this week to tour facilities dedicated to rural veterans' healthcare and homelessness prevention. Accompanied by First District US Rep. Tim Walz, Shinseki stopped at the VA's Mankato Community-Based Outpatient Clinic, which currently does not provide primary care services to veterans. The VA is trying to expand the clinic to include those services. Right now, the Mankato clinic provides only mental healthcare. Veterans seeking primary medical care still need to make the 90-minute drive to the Minneapolis VA, which is difficult for older vets struggling with mobility and for younger vets juggling work, school and families."

3.      Connecticut Veterans Commissioner Touts Stand Down. The Bristol (CT) Press (9/3, Whipple) reports, "To State Commissioner of Veterans Affairs Linda S. Schwartz, 'Stand Down' is a special event. This year's Stand Down is Sept. 10. The event is a day-long program of support services to help Connecticut's homeless and needy veterans regain their independence in the community. ... 'We want to get the word out to veterans, their friends and families who may be in need,' Schwartz said."

4.      Michigan Troops Care Package Effort Noted. The Detroit Free Press (9/4, Brintley) reports, "White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery and Michigan Military Moms are working together to provide 'a little bit of home and comfort' to overseas military troops. The organizations will be conducting a drive to collect items for care packages that provide entertainment and hard-to-get snacks that troops might ordinarily find in their homes back in Michigan."

5.      Event Spreads Information On West Virginia Veterans Services. The Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail (9/4, Umstead) reports, "Between 1,200 and 1,500 West Virginia National Guard members are helping with the Thunder Over the Blue Ridge Open House and Air Show this weekend at Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport, spokesman Lt. Col. Michael O. Cadle said. From traffic control to parking and security, Cadle said Friday that uniformed guard members with the West Virginia Air National Guard's 167th  

Airlift Wing and 200 to 300 Army National Guard members from units elsewhere in the state were assigned to help with the event. ... The static display surrounds about 30 information booths about veterans' services as part of the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center's 2010 Welcome Home American Heroes Celebration."

6.      Boy Scout Cleans Up Connecticut Veterans Cemetery. The Hartford (CT) Courant (9/4, Drury) reports, "Nick Chapman is just 14 but he has the instincts of a seasoned professional for the art of marketing. A member of Boy Scout Troop 203, Nick learned that many of the weathered marble headstones at the Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery needed sprucing up. So the Eagle Scout candidate started recruiting Windsor High School classmates, family, friends and other volunteers to spend a day cleaning the headstones."

7.      New Mexico Groups Help Veterans Transition To Workforce.  KOAT-TV Albuquerque, NM (9/3) reports on its website, "Now that combat operations have ended in Iraq, soldiers are returning home in large numbers. Several organizations in New Mexico want to make sure returning soliders don't fall through the cracks. ... Capt. Michael Kozeliski with Marine for Life said a new program will help returning soldiers get job training and mentoring, as well as find a job. 'What we've found is that a lot of Marines and military that are transitioning out, over 60 percent of the employers are saying they cannot write a resume, have trouble interviewing, need basic computer training,' Kozeliski said."

8.      New Veterans Treatment Court Established In Texas. The San Antonio Business Journal (9/3) reports, "Bexar County officials will establish a Veterans Treatment Court that will hear misdemeanor criminal cases that will take into account the mental health needs of combat veterans. The Texas Legislature authorized county commissioners throughout the state to establish Veterans Treatment Courts. ... The Veterans Treatment Court will have the support of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Benefits Administration, the Bexar County Veterans Services Office and veterans family support organizations."
     The San Antonio (TX) Express-News (9/4) adds, "As officials prepare today to announce plans for a veterans court in Bexar County, the statewide Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans legal services program is already thriving in San Antonio, State Bar of Texas President Terry Tottenham said."

9.      VA CIO Touts New GI Bill Processing System.  Nextgov (9/3, Brewin) reports, "The Veterans Affairs Department has deployed a fully automated system to process benefits for veterans attending college under the 2008 GI bill just in time to manage the enrollment for the 2010 fall semester, top VA officials said during a press briefing on Thursday. Roger Baker, chief information officer at VA, said the new system, developed in partnership with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, went live on Aug. 23 and relies on rules engine software to increase the number of claims an examiner can process from 2,000 a day to 10,000."
     Federal Computer Week (9/3, Lipowicz) adds, "The VA now is processing about 10,000 GI Bill claims per day, compared with 2,000 claims per day a year ago, Keith Wilson, VA's education service director, said in a recent conference call with reporters. ... The VA is gearing up for an anticipated surge in enrollments under the Post 9/11 GI Bill, from 157,000 last year to 206,000 so far in 2010, Wilson said."

10.    Massachusetts Veterans' Advocate Defends VA Medical Care. The Walpole (MA) Times (9/4, Wagner) reports, "Shortly after his discharge from the US Marine Corps in 1965 and early on in his business career, Stan Spear of Wellesley remembers how local veterans of World War II went out of their way to help him. Now, he is returning the favor as the new veterans agent for the town of Weston. ... Addressing the sometimes shocking reports of healthcare lapses in the Veterans Administration's medical facilities, Spear said that the VA system is 'one of the best in the world as I understand it. When you hear about problems with soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I think they mostly stem from the backlog of trying to get them into the pipeline. At one point, that backlog was allowed to grow, and it's hard to catch up. Right now, Eric Shinseki, secretary of Veterans Affairs, has made this issue a priority. It will take time, of course, and money, but he's committed to the goal.'"

11.    VA Publishes Final Rules On Agent Orange-Linked Diseases. Tom Philpott, in his column for Stars And Stripes (9/4), writes, "The Department of Veterans Affairs published its final regulation Aug. 31 for compensating Vietnam veterans with ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease or B-cell leukemia, or their surviving spouses. Veterans diagnosed with these diseases only will have to show they stepped foot in Vietnam sometime from Jan. 9, 1962 through May 7, 1975, to qualify for service-connected disability ratings and compensation. The first batch of payments will be made immediately after Oct. 30, when a required 60-day review period for Congress will expire. As many as 93,000 veterans and survivors who filed claims previously for these conditions are in line for retroactive payments. Another 60,000 claims have been filed since Oct. 13, when VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced that these diseases would be added to the list of ailments VA presumes are caused by wartime exposure to Agent Orange. VA projects that at least 150,000 more claims will be filed over the next 12 to 18 months."

12.    American Legion National Commander Praises VA Regulation On Agent Orange.  News-Medical.Net (9/4) reports that American Legion National Commander Clarence Hill hailed the VA's recent decision on Agent Orange. Hill said that the regulation "will really help ease the difficult process for them, and in the long run, will help VA process these claims much more quickly than they have in the past. VA is doing the right thing, and this is really going to be a great help to the many Vietnam veterans who've struggled for years to get recognition and treatment for these disorders." He made the comments while in Milwaukee for the Legion's national convention.

13.    VA's Suicide Prevention Assistance Noted.  KWES-TV Odessa, TX (9/3, Ruiz) reports on its website, "For American service members, who have returned home from combat, the transition to day-to-day life can be a struggle. For some it's so difficult, they take their own lives but the VA hospital in Big Spring is working to help veterans of war. ... 'Suicidal thoughts are often something that people want to keep inside them. They don't understand and they want to stay in silence because they are embarrassed but they need to talk to someone about it,' Jesse F. Burgard, Chief of Mental Health Services at the VA, said."

14.    Lawn Services Told Their VA Center Bids Were Too Low.  KCCI-TV Des Moines, IA (9/3) reports on its website, "Another lawn mowing company has filed a complaint against the VA Medical Center in Knoxville. Several firms that wanted to mow the grounds at the VA Hospital are upset after they were turned down because they were told their bids were too low. They claim they could do the job for a half million dollars less than the company the government chose."

15.    Waco VA Medical Center Undergoing Improvements. The Waco (TX) Tribune-Herald (9/4, Dennis) reports that construction at the Waco VA Medical Center "has meant shuffling staff and programs around and redirecting visitors." Various projects around the center are thanks to $49 million approved by Congress in 2007, with an additional $7.9 million allocated by the Stimulus Act. The center's building one "will be converted to a medical tower with various clinics." Energy efficiency projects have already been completed. Road improvements have also been made. Other work includes the complete remodel of other outpatient buildings.

16.    Clinic Renovations Almost Complete In Michigan. The Huron (MI) Daily Tribune (9/4, Hessling) reports, "Huron County commissioners said renovations for the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) community-based outpatient clinic, housed in a section of the health department, should be almost wrapped up by the end of the week. 'The nice thing is we have more than fulfilled our obligations,' said Huron County Commissioner Steve Vaughan, who chairs the Properties Committee, during a special board meeting Tuesday. Local officials will meet with VA representatives to discuss minor punch list items next week, Vaughan said. Regarding a turnover date, he said it will be after the inlay of the VA logo for the lobby of the floor is delivered on Sept. 16."

17.    Site Of WWII-Era Explosion Now A National Park. The Los Angeles Times (9/4, Reynolds) reports, "The bombs erupted along Pier No. 1, thousands of them, about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco. And 66 years later, you can still spot a few twisted hunks of metal near water's edge, an American flag snapping in the wind overhead. This is Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, the newest unit in the national park system and the scene of the bloodiest 20th century California war story that millions of Californians have never heard."

18.    Veterans Memorial Bench To Be Dedicated At Minnesota Park. The Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin (9/4) reports, "A Prisoner of War/Missing in Action bench recently installed at the Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial in Rochester will be dedicated Monday." A dedication "program will begin at 11:30 a.m. on the east side of the Memorial near the two cannons and will remember the National POW/MIA Dayj. ... Included in the program will be the dedication of the last 546 pavers, which were ordered over the past two years and are now in place."

19.    Veteran Recalls Evacuation To VA Center In Miami After Katrina. The Alexandria (LA) Town Talk (9/4, Sharkey) profiles air force veteran Bill Morgan, 77, who has resettled in Alexandria, LA after Hurricane Katrina. During the hurricane, Morgan had a "brush with death" and was eventually rescued from his roof. During the hurricane, Bill lived in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. After spending "few days on a stretcher" at a local hospital in the hurricane's aftermath, Morgan was evacuated to a VA center in Miami for treatment. Morgan still utilizes the VA for kidney and diabetes problems unrelated to the storm.

20.    Veterans Will Sponsor Freedom Walk For First Responders On September 11. The Macomb (MI) Daily (9/4, May) reports, "On Sept. 11, veterans groups and patriotic biker groups will support all first-responders with a Ride to Remember, and mark the events of Sept. 11, 2001, with a Freedom Walk."