Veterans News Bureau

MINNEAPOLIS – Federal investigators have closed an investigation into the Minneapolis Veterans Home, concluding that care problems there did not violate the civil rights of residents.

An official with the U.S. Department of Justice informed Gov. Tim Pawlenty in a letter dated last Wednesday.

Shanetta Cutlar says the investigation didn’t find a pattern of constitutional lapses at the home.

The letter also congratulates the home’s staff for their efforts to care for residents.

The state-owned home has a troubled history dating back to 2005, including state health inspectors overseeing its management after three deaths followed neglect or medication errors that were reported in 2007.

View Source

Share

AUSTIN – Soldiers who survive combat only to fall into addiction, depression, rage – and, sometimes, criminal behavior – will have their own court in Dallas County, starting next month.

State District Judge Mike Snipes of Dallas attended training in Austin today to handle a new docket devoted to veterans.

If he can, he’s going to get them into a Veterans Administration bed instead of a prison bed.

“The veterans have unique problems that come from their service – not only in Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s still some from Vietnam,” Snipes said.

“We’re seeing more and more examples of people coming out of there with post-traumatic stress disorder, unique mental difficulties that have to do with combat-related issues.”

Snipes, who will add the docket to his other duties, said he hopes to get the first slate of five to 10 veterans’ cases started in April.

The program will include consultations with mental health case workers, counseling, and restitution. Defendants who complete the work could get their criminal record expunged.

Read more

Share

MADISON — A judge has reinstated a whistleblower complaint filed by a former Wisconsin Veterans Home administrator who was laid off after warning that donations were being mismanaged.

Administrative Law Judge Gary Olstad found probable cause the decision to lay off Cathy Leaverton was retaliation for her complaints.

Olstad ordered a hearing to decide the merits of the 2007 case, which started after Leaverton’s job as activities director was eliminated in 2007.

Leaverton warned then-Commandant Bill Crowley the home was not honoring donors’ wishes and putting some donations in the wrong accounts. Another judge had dismissed the complaint in 2008, but Leaverton appealed.

View Source

Share

CASPER, WYOMING – Families of fallen military service members will be able to get gold star license plates starting next year.

The Legislature passed two laws to start the program, making Wyoming the 45th state to offer the plates.

They will be issued starting in January and the Wyoming Veterans Commission will cover the $50 specialty license plate fee for 1 ½ years.

For every plate sold, $20 will go to the veterans commission trust fund. The rest will go to the highway fund.

Parents, grandparents and spouses of military members who died in service or as a result of military service are eligible to receive the plates.

View Source

Share

Alabama is keeping a promise, Max Roberts told a capacity crowd of veterans who met Monday to thank State Sen. Harri Anne Smith and State Rep. Steve Clouse for sponsoring a new vehicle tag honoring military prisoners of war and those missing in action.

Clouse and Smith co-sponsored a bill last year that authorized flying the POW/MIA flag at state facilities. “They have been so supportive of our efforts, and for that we are grateful,” said Roberts, who had approached the legislators with the concept of the vehicle tag. “An idea combined with inspiration and presented to the right people makes things happen,” he said

The bill authorizing the new tag has passed the Alabama House and Senate and is now awaiting Gov. Bob Riley’s signature. Once signed, the bill becomes effective on the first day of the third month after it is signed. Production of the black and white plates bearing the POW/MIA logo and the words “Keeping the Promise” will begin after 1,000 commitments to buy the tag are signed and paid for. Application forms are available at area probate offices. “The fee is only $5, so it’s not a huge amount,” Roberts said.

View Source

Share

A man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Illinois Veterans Home at La Salle for the Dec. 8 death of his father, who reportedly choked to death after being given the wrong food.

Howard Engler filed a four-count lawsuit Thursday in La Salle County Circuit Court, seeking damages as administrator to the estate of his father, 78-year-old Howard A. Engler.

Coroner’s records indicated that the senior Engler choked to death after receiving “the wrong diet which contained regular meat.” In the lawsuit filed by Peru attorney Anthony Raccuglia, the food was “believed to be hamburger.”

“(Engler) was required, on the recommendations of his family doctor, to refrain from receiving any solid foods and was required to have his food pureed so that (he) would be capable of ingesting and/or swallowing the food without consequence,” Raccuglia wrote.

View Source

Share

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service has announced a $2 million grant competition under the Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program to assist eligible veterans by providing employment, training, support services, credentialing and networking information in renewable and sustainable energy.

“We have an obligation to our service men and women to do everything we can to help them transition smoothly into civilian life,” said Secretary Hilda L. Solis. “These grants will not only help our veterans, they will provide an invaluable service to a burgeoning part of our economy. Veterans deserve good jobs, and green jobs are good jobs.”

VWIP grants are intended to provide services to assist in reintegrating eligible veterans into meaningful employment within the labor force and to stimulate the development of effective service delivery systems that will address the complex employability problems facing eligible veterans.

View Source

Share

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An Assembly committee has voted to significantly enhance Wisconsin’s higher education benefits for veterans.

The Assembly’s veterans affairs committee last week approved a plan that would give veterans 128 credits of free tuition after they exhaust federal tuition benefits. The vote came after the committee amended a bill by its chairman, Rep. Steve Hilgenberg, that would have given 64 free credits in the state program.

The plan would cost University of Wisconsin System schools and technical colleges millions of dollars in tuition remissions while benefiting hundreds of veterans. It now goes to the Legislature’s budget committee, which had approved tighter restrictions on the benefits in last year’s state budget.

View Source

Share

BALTIMORE — The father of a Marine killed in Iraq and whose funeral was picketed by anti-gay protesters was ordered to pay the protesters’ appeal costs, his lawyers said Monday.

On Friday, Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered Snyder to pay $16,510 to Fred Phelps. Phelps is the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church, which conducted protests at Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder’s funeral in 2006.

The two-page decision supplied by attorneys for Albert Snyder of York, Pa., offered no details on how the court came to its decision.

Attorneys also said Snyder is struggling to come up with fees associated with filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The decision adds “insult to injury,” said Sean Summers, one of Snyder’s lawyers.

View Source

Additional: American Legion efforts to help pay the fees

Share

Washington, D.C. – House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) announced that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve seven measures this week that would improve benefits and services to veterans provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

• H.R. 4810 – End Veteran Homelessness Act of 2010 (Filner)

This bill increases funding to successful programs for homeless veterans, requires each VA medical center that provides supporting housing services to provide housing counselors, requires housing counselors to conduct landlord research, strengthens permanent housing programs, and pays special interest to the needs of homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.  This bill includes provisions from H.R. 2504 (Teague); H.R. 2559, as amended (Hare); H.R. 2735, as amended (Rodriguez); and H.R. 3906 (Teague).

• H.R. 1879 – National Guard Employment Protection Act of 2009 (Coffman)
• H.J.Res. 80 – Honoring the Blinded Veterans Association on its 65th anniversary (Halvorson)
• H.R. 3976 – Helping Heroes Keep Their Homes Act of 2009 (Perriello)
• H.R. 4667 – Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2010 (Perriello)
• H.R. 4592 – Energy Jobs for Veterans Act (Teague)
• H.R. 4360 – Major Charles R. Soltes, Jr., O.D. Department of Veterans Affairs Blind Rehabilitation Center (Campbell)

Read full press release

Share