Transitionnews for Monday, December 23th 2013:

Good news story of the day

There’s no place like a home in Burrillville for wounded warrior / Gallery  (Providence Journal)  “It takes hands to build a house, but it takes hearts to build a home,” a dress-uniformed Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jonathan Braca told a crowd Saturday.

Transition

Making a smooth transition to a post-military career  (Huron Daily Review)  Leaving the military is like leaving home for the first time. Upon discharge, service members are faced with the question of: “What’s next?”

AT&T hiring in Tennessee; Military Veterans Sought  (Clarksville Online)  AT&T* has announced that the company is seeking applicants to fill more than 130 jobs in the Tennessee, including nearly 50 new jobs.

Firms step up efforts to hire veterans  (The Detroit News)  It took Francisco “Frank” Miranda, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, about three years to find a job in the civilian world that was a good fit. Since August, Miranda has been working at Home Depot in Totowa, N.J., where he and two fellow vet employees refer to each other by their former military ranks.

JBLM: DOL Awards $5.5 Million for Transitioning Servicemembers at JBLM   (PoliticalNews.me)  Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) applauded the announcement by the U.S. Department of Labor of a $5,586,385 National Emergency Grant (NEG) to assist approximately 900 transitioning military personnel at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM).

Veterans

New VA dental program could benefit thousands of Gaston vets  (Gaston Gazette)  For all the virtues of the Veterans Affairs health care system, its approach to dental services has caused many people to grind their teeth.

ANN ARBOR: WCC to receive $250,000 from Masco to benefit Veterans Center  (Ann Arbor Journal)  The Masco Corporation Foundation has made a corporate gift of $250,000 to Washtenaw Community College, the largest corporate gift the college has received to date.

A misunderstood statistic: 22 military veteran suicides a day  (The Los Angeles Times)  In most discussions of suicide and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — including the online buzz that followed publication of a Times analysis on how young California veterans die — one statistic gets repeated most: 22 veterans kill themselves each day.

Phoenix: No more homeless veterans  (The Denver Post)  Phoenix says it has eradicated chronic veteran homelessness.

Burial Space In Demand For Veterans  (The Wall Street Journal)  As interments of veterans and their dependents climb to a record level, the Department of Veterans Affairs is rushing to add burial space at the fastest rate since the Civil War.

Veterans Affairs

VA Is Pressed on Lobotomies  (The Wall Street Journal)  Senior House lawmakers are pressing the Veterans Administration to track down veterans still living who underwent lobotomies at VA hospitals during and after World War II.

Audit faults Michigan on handling of veterans’ benefits  (the Detroit News)  Michigan’s department overseeing veterans’ benefits — reorganized this year — did a poor job choosing people to run its programs during the prior decade, according to a new state audit.

New VA dental program could benefit thousands of Gaston vets  (The Gaston Gazette)  For all the virtues of the Veterans Affairs health care system, its approach to dental services has caused many people to grind their teeth.

Blount County Veterans Affairs Office bring cheer to local vets  (The Daily Times)  The Blount County Veterans Affairs Office has helped bring a little Christmas cheer to local vets by giving them holiday cards from across the nation and world.

Audit: Michigan veterans department lacked accountability, failed to ensure vets receive maximum benefits  (Michigan Live)  For nearly two decades the Michigan military and veterans affairs department has failed to track performance or spending by organizations receiving state grants to help vets access benefits and other assistance.

McAuliffe names retired Adm. John C. Harvey Jr. to be veterans affairs secretary  (The Washington Post)  Virginia Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe continued to fill out his Cabinet on Friday, nominating a retired four-star Navy admiral to serve as secretary of veterans affairs and homeland security.

Benefits

Hagel Promises More Military Pay, Benefits Cuts  (Military.com)  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel pledged Thursday to continue efforts to cut the growth rate of military pay and benefits despite deals in Congress that eased the Pentagon’s budget crunch.

Lawmakers renew push to prevent military pension cuts  (Fox News)  A group of Republican lawmakers has renewed an effort to undo pension cuts to military retirees included in the recently passed budget agreement and offset the costs by reining in an IRS credit that illegal immigrants have claimed.

For troops, commissaries are still a valued benefit  (Army Times)   Even with the increasing encroachment of low-cost “big box” stores, commissaries remain a highly valued benefit for active-duty members — especially enlisted troops — and their shopping habits bear that out, according to a subscriber survey conducted by Military Times.

Special ops vets slam military benefit cuts  (The Washington Times)  Former members of U.S. special operations forces on Thursday demanded President Obama veto the budget bill Congress just passed, saying that the cuts to military retirement benefits — which even the bill’s authors now admit were a partial mistake — are an insult to veterans.

Benishek bill would help protect military retirees’pensions  (The Mining Journal)  U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Crystal Falls, helped introduce legislation last week that would repeal a section of the recently passed bipartisan Ryan-Murray budget deal affecting military retirees.

Finnegan’s veterans assistance program continues to grow  (The Washington Post)  There are not many things that copyright law and veterans’ benefits have in common — but Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner is one of them.

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Have a great day!