Blog Post

IAVA Daily Brief 3.29.11
Posted by Blake Henderson on March 29 2011

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking? Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom or subscribe at IAVA.org/DailyNewsBrief.

MUST READS

1) Baucus bill would provide tax break for hiring veterans

Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are finding it difficult to land a job, but a bipartisan bill on Capitol Hill would give businesses a financial incentive to hire them.  Led by Senator Max Baucus, the Veterans Employment Transition Act would provide employers with a tax credit of $2,400 for every veteran who has left the service within the past five years, reinstating a tax break that expired at the end of 2010.  Baucus spoke about the bill and hiring veterans at a Congressional briefing hosted by IAVA.

2) Bill would make DoD keep sexual assault records

Four female senators have joined forces to sponsor legislation ordering the military to forever retain records about sexual harassment, assaults or rape.  Keeping the documents would make it easier for victims to later receive veterans benefits and health care related to post-sexual trauma or other service-connected disabilities.  It would also help a victim pursue legal action, and could provide evidence against a perpetrator who is later accused of another crime.

3) War widow blogs the next chapter of her life

Katie Wade was married at 18 and a war widow at 20.  Her blog, “Starting our New Lives Together: The Wades,” created so she and her husband, Cpl. Chad Wade, could one day look back on their early years of marriage, turned into an outlet for her grief.  Since a roadside bomb in Afghanistan killed Chad on Dec. 1, Katie has shared with the world her trials of widowhood in a raw, confessional diary.  She is one of many in this generation of war widows who have carved a slice of the internet to vent as they cope with the loss of their husbands.

AFGHANISTAN

Zhari district, where Mohammed Omar founded the Taliban movement in the 1990s, could prove a key testing ground as insurgents launch an expected spring offensive in coming weeks.

A team of suicide bombers shot their way into the compound of a road construction company in eastern Afghanistan and detonated a truck loaded with explosives, killing 23 people and wounding about 60.

IRAQ

On a day when the prime minister of Turkey arrived to promote business ties between his country and Iraq, a spate of attacks, including roadside bombings, jewelry heists and the slaughter of six women and a man in Mosul rippled across the country.

A US Marine has been sentenced to five years’ probation for accepting a $25,000 bribe to award $1 million in contracts in Iraq to a Lebanese company.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service is mum about what will happen to military and civilian pay if the government shuts down at midnight on April 8- but they are not promising people will be paid on time.

Two US Navy landing craft carrying Marines and Sailors with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and Amphibious Squadron 11, as well as disaster relief supplies and Japanese electrical utility trucks arrived in Oshima Island.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Congress returns to Washington this week to confront a scenario few lawmakers envisioned when they left town less than 10 days ago: a third US war in the Arab world.

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles. These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.

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