From: Wayne Gatewood, Jr 
Subject: Veterans News for Wednesday , June 27, 2012

20.Scout Builds Garden For Veterans.  Erie Times-News  The view on a "patio at the Erie Veterans Affairs Medical Center is lately much improved thanks to prospective Eagle Scout Corey Nadolny, who used pots and a lot of flowering plants to turn the gray concrete slab into a butterfly oasis." Six "large tubs stuffed with butterfly-pleasing plants now decorate the patio adjacent to the facility's southern entrance. A hanging basket of New Guinea impatiens and a hummingbird feeder mark the entrance to the porch. Nadolny also purchased new wrought iron chairs and a matching table sized to accommodate wheelchairs." Edward Bernat, a "World War II veteran and hospital resident, officially opened the new spot on a recent morning with a red-white-and-blue ribbon-cutting."

21."God Bless America" Riders Visit Lebanon VAMC. Lebanon (PA) Daily News An "estimated 250" motorcycles "and their riders thundered into the Lebanon VA Medical Center's State Drive entrance" on Sunday. They were participating in the "17th Annual Operation God Bless America Motorcyclists Ride," which "raised $8,600" for the "veterans of the Lebanon VA Medical Center." They "'rev up the bikes and make plenty of noise so that everyone gets a good look,' said Julie Cameron, public affairs officer for the facility."

24.Liability Claims Drop With EHRs. MedPage Today  "Switching over to electronic health records (EHRs) appears to dramatically cut malpractice suits, according to a small study of insurance claims. The adjusted rate of malpractice claims fell six-fold among physicians in practices that adopted computerized records, Steven R. Simon, MD, MPH, of the VA Boston Healthcare System and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and colleagues found." The findings were "reported in a research letter published online in the Archives of Internal Medicine."

25.Funds Available For Veterans Affected By Flooding. St. Paul Pioneer-Press

26.Still Reliving The Nightmare Of War. Buffalo (NY) News

27.New USF Therapy May Ease PTSD. Tampa (FL) Tribune

1. New Company Focuses On Veterans.  Florida Today

 29.VA / VSO-MSO Hearings as June 27, 2012:

            June 27, 2012.  SVAC Hearing:  Health and Benefits Legislation.10:00 A.M.; 124 Dirksen

June 27, 2012.  HVAC, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will mark up pending legislation.  10:00 A.M.; 334 Cannon 

June 27, 2012.  HVAC, Disability Assistance, Memorial Affairs will mark up pending legislation.  2:00 P.M.; 334 Cannon

            July 25, 2012.  The House Committee on Veterans Affairs and the House Armed Services Committee will hold a joint hearing regarding Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs collaboration and coordination. Time and Location TBD

1. Today in History:

• 1743 – War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Dettingen: On the battlefield in Bavaria, George II personally leads troops into battle. The last time that a British monarch would command troops in the field.
• 1759 – General James Wolfe begins the siege of Quebec.
• 1806 – British forces take Buenos Aires during the first British invasions of the Río de la Plata.
• 1844 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.
• 1895 – The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York, New York, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
• 1905 – Battleship Potemkin uprising: sailors start a mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war.
• 1923 – Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane
• 1927 – Prime Minister of Japan Tanaka Giichi leads a conference to discuss Japan's plans for China; later, a document detailing these plans, the "Tanaka Memorial" is leaked, although it is now considered a forgery.
• 1941 – Romanian governmental forces, allies of Nazi Germany, launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iaşi, (Romania), resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews.
• 1941 – German troops capture the city of Białystok during Operation Barbarossa.
• 1946 – In the Canadian Citizenship Act, the Parliament of Canada establishes the definition of Canadian citizenship.
• 1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
• 1954 – The world's first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
• 1967 – The world's first ATM is installed in Enfield Town, England, United Kingdom.
• 1973 – The President of Uruguay Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament and establishes a dictatorship.
• 1974 – U.S. president Richard Nixon visits the Soviet Union.
• 1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) is hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.
• 1977 – France grants independence to Djibouti.
• 1980 – Italian Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 mysteriously explodes in mid air while in route from Bologna to Palermo, killing all 81 on board. Also known in Italy as the Ustica disaster
• 1981 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issues its "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", laying the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong.
• 1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.
• 1991 – Slovenia, after declaring independence two days before is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft starting the Ten-Day War.
• 2007 – The Brazilian Military Police invades the favelas of Complexo do Alemão in an episode which is remembered as the Complexo do Alemão massacre.
• 2008 – In a highly-scrutizined election President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is re-elected in a landslide after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence against his party's supporters