Blog Post

IAVA Daily News Brief 08.07.12
Posted by Gretchen Andersen on August 7 2012

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings that IAVA is tracking. Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking? Follow us on Twitter @IAVAPressRoom and click here to get the News Brief delivered to your inbox every morning.

MUST READS

1.) Obama Signs Law Giving Health Care to Camp Lejeune Tainted Water Victims

Yesterday President Obama signed the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012. The legislation provides health care to victims of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. According to the article, coverage will be offered for 15 diseases and illnesses that resulted from the contaminated water, including several cancers, female infertility and scleroderma, a group of diseases that causes skin and internal organs to become hard and tight. The law also bans protesting within 300 feet of military funerals.   

2.) New VA Hospital Offering Simplified, Expanded Services is Completed

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki attended the dedication of the new VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System Las Vegas Medical Center. The Las Vegas Sun reports the six-story hospital, costing $600 million to build, is the first-ever VA hospital in Southern Nevada and the first such facility to open in nearly 20 years. The hospital will have a staff of about 1,800 medical professionals and administrators who will provide surgery, specialty care, mental health services, rehabilitation and extended care. The hospital will start taking patients August 14.

3.) U.S. Military Athletes Take Over London Olympics

The Danger Room zeroes in on eight military athletes competing in the London Olympics. According to the Danger Room, 21 athletes and coaches participating in the Olympic Games are on active duty in the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. 

AFGHANISTAN

• A US service member was killed when two gunmen wearing Afghan National Army uniforms turned their weapons on NATO troops.
• Nine bus passengers were killed when a bomb went off in Kabul from a remote-controlled device. Three other people were wounded from the blast.
• The Afghan defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, resigned today after receiving a no-confidence vote from parliament on Saturday.

IRAQ

• The UN said about 22,300 Iraqi refugees who fled to Syria within the past few years have now returned to Iraq to escape violence across the border.
• Four people were killed in a minibus when a sticky bomb, attached to the underside of the bus, exploded.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

• General Peter Chiarelli, the former vice chief of staff for the U.S. Army, discuss the challenges of diagnosing and curing traumatic brain injury on NPR. Chiarelli now works at One Mind Research.
• The At War blog discusses gays and lesbians  in the military with interviews from service members. Although Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has been repealed since last September, some in the service still aren’t comfortable. IAVA Member Thomas Brennan, a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps interviewed 20 active duty service members for the piece.

THE NEW GREATEST GENERATION

• TIME Battleland blog reports a study found current suicide rates in the U.S. military are probably two to three times higher than those documented during the Civil War.
• A monument will be built in Buffalo in honor of Western New York veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Fifty-seven men and one woman have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from Western New York.
• Watch the Daily Beast’s video of Roman Baca, Iraq war veteran turned ballet dancer.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

• As part of the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 that President Obama signed yesterday, protests must be held at least 300 feet from military funerals and are prohibited two hours before or after a service.
• In a campaign ad for Senate, former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp describes her support for the Heroes Health Card, a new program that would allow vets in areas underserved by the Veterans Administration (VA) to visit doctors in their own communities.
• The trailer for the new movie about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, “Zero Dark Thirty,” has been released. Watch here.
• Gov. Mary Fallin has called for an audit of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs.

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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