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Military.com
From Haiti to Houston, veterans find a new mission in life with Team Rubicon as they help people affected by natural disasters.
"We've got 236 boots on the ground in Texas saving people and pets," says Jake Wood, former Marine sniper, founder and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based veteran service organization dedicated to disaster response. "We have an additional 495 volunteers around the country providing logistics and communications support," he added. "We're a lean but mighty team."
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Aug. 15 and 22 survey results: Are you concerned about the current political climate involving North Korea and the potential of World War III?
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Veterans Association of America wants to know...
Do you think the Trump Administration is effectively helping veterans acquire their disability compensation?
- Yes, I'm certain they are at this point.
- No, I'm not really sure this is what was expected.
- I think there's much confusion on how to assess each veteran's claim appropriately.
- A complete overhaul of the disability compensation assessment needs to be done.
Please provide your unique response as we take each them very seriously..
As a reminder, we assess all answers with the utmost of care and consideration. Survey results revealed in next week's VAA Dispatch.
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U.S. Department of Defense
The Defense Department released guidance to clarify the liberal consideration given to veterans who request upgrades of their discharge saying they had mental health conditions or were victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment. The policy is meant to ease the burden on veterans and give them a reasonable opportunity to establish the extenuating circumstances of their discharge.
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Defense News
Now that Congress is back in town, White House officials are hopeful lawmakers will continue the same blitz of confirmations that they started just before summer recess. Recently, the administration forwarded 42 nominations to the Senate, the longest list of would-be political appointees so far this year.
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Four month average turn around with the VA’s Pension with Aid and Attendance
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Fox News
Once every 72 minutes.
That's how often U.S. military veterans kill themselves. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, around 20 veterans committed suicide per day in 2014 — the most recently available statistics.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has labeled the figure "an unacceptable statistic," according to The Hill. "We're reaching out to community groups, to academic groups," Shulkin was quoted as saying. "We're doing research in this area. We're trying new therapies and treatments. And I certainly hope that we can have a big impact on this problem."
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Newsweek
With some Republicans and Democrats lining up to pass a legislative version of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — the Obama-era program that protects young children of immigrants from deportation — many are forgetting about a group now more at risk due to the Trump administration's policies: veterans.
Though many don't know it, hundreds of immigrants— — most from Mexico and the Philippines — serve in our nation's armed forces. None are promised citizenship in exchange for their service.
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Inc.
When Starbucks announced recently it was shutting down all Teavana stores in the United States, a lot of people were disappointed. This is a story about a military veteran turned entrepreneur who had a different reaction.
Meet Brandon Friedman, founder and CEO of startup Rakkasan Tea Company, which grew indirectly from his service as a U.S. Army infantry officer in Afghanistan and Iraq. "My business partner and I started kicking around ideas and realized we're both big loose-leaf tea drinkers. I got into it when I served in Iraq and Afghanistan and I've been drinking it ever since," said Friedman. "So I basically said, 'Hey, why don't we import tea from countries that are recovering from war?'"
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WOWT-TV
Beginning next year the new Forever GI Bill will go into effect. It allows recent veterans to pursue education for life — instead of the current use-it-or-lose rules.
There's one place where many veterans are coming together in this next chapter of their life.
"I'm in the system networking administration program," said Air Force veteran Ben Kerns.
"I'm hoping to one day open a restaurant here in Bellevue [Nebraska]," said Marines veteran Blake Rogers. Blake Rogers and Ben Kerns have two things in common. They're both veterans who are starting college after serving in the military.
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BetaNews
We've seen quite a bit recently about the difficulties of recruiting cybersecurity personnel, and how the skills needed for the role have changed.
In a new initiative, IBM in the U.K. is teaming up with ex-forces employment specialist SaluteMyJob and nonprofit education body the Corsham Institute to offer a free cybersecurity training course for military veterans.
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Inc.
When most people think of fast-growing startups, they tend to think of the startups of Silicon Valley and the dynamic entrepreneurial hubs that have sprouted up in cities like Seattle, Austin and New York City. But the fact is that veteran-owned startups are becoming one of the fastest-growing segments of the entrepreneurial world, as veterans returning home from conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan decide to launch their own businesses. And that's happening in places that you wouldn't at first expect — in cities across the heartland and in small communities near military bases.
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University of Missouri via Phys.org
Military veterans currently account for 8 percent of the national prison and jail population, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. However, it is unclear how many veterans are under community supervision or involved community-intervention programs, and little data exist that illustrates how veterans enter the criminal justice system. Now, new research from the University of Missouri establishes that alcohol and drug use, difficulty adjusting to civilian life, and economic disadvantages are main contributors to criminal justice involvement for veterans.
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