The John Marshall Law School in Chicago held a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week to celebrate the new home of its legal clinic exclusively for veterans.
Located in the Windy City's downtown area, the John Marshall Law School Veterans Legal Support Center provides legal assistance to veterans trying to navigate their military benefits, CBS Chicago reports. The center launched in 2006 and expanded in 2010 after receiving a grant from the Department of Justice.
Brian Clauss, executive director of the center, told the news source that a majority of the counsel's current cases are Veterans Affairs benefits appeals, stemming from the VA's on-going backlog of disability claims.
In a spacious new headquarters measuring over 5,000 square-feet, the center also helps Chicago-area veterans with other services, ranging from criminal cases to family matters, Clauss said. Students and practicing attorneys work side-by-side, educating veterans about important military issues and providing additional resources. However, the attorneys do not represent veterans in criminal matters, according to a statement on the center's website.
Several students working at the center, such as Michael Hoffman, are veterans who know firsthand the difficulties former servicemembers face when trying to sort out their military benefits.
"I went through the veterans' benefit system myself. It was very difficult, very long," Hoffman told the news outlet.
Newly released data from the Pentagon reveals that mental illness hospitalized the most servicemembers and veterans at military medical centers in 2012. Post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and other mental illnesses were among the leading causes for the hospitalizations.
USA Today reports that some servicemembers suffering from mental illness remained in a military hospital for more than a month. The only patients who reported longer stays were amputees. Pentagon data also reveals that servicemembers coping with severe mental illness account for the most lost workdays than any other disease or injury, the news source reports.
About 20 percent of Iraq and 11 percent of Afghanistan veterans currently suffer from PTSD, according to the National Institute of Health. The PTSD rate is highest among Gulf War-era II veterans, though about 30 percent of Vietnam servicemembers are afflicted with the mental illness.
The institution also states that PTSD is often linked to mild or moderate traumatic brain injury, which is triggered by blast waves rattling the brain inside the skull. According to data compiled by the Department of Defense, more than 30,000 servicemembers were diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury in 2012.
Defense officials stated to USA Today that both the decade-long wars and the stigma of mental illness are the most likely causes for the high hospitalization rates.
"The increase in mental health hospitalizations is most likely influenced by exposure of servicemembers to stressful events associated with deployment," Army Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson, a spokeswoman for Pentagon health affairs, told the news outlet.
A group of wounded warriors took a ride through the historic streets of Concord, Mass. last weekend, finding a calming peace of mind through cycling in solidarity.
The Boston Globe reports that 50 disabled veterans participated in Soldier Ride, a biking event sponsored by the national nonprofit Wounded Warriors Project. Most of the veterans who participated suffered from traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder, or were amputees. Event organizers expected to raise more than $100,000 for the Wounded Warriors Project through the event.
Beginning near the Old North Bridge, the location where the "shot heard 'round the world" jump-started the American Revolution, participants rode as a group throughout the 22-mile course, the news source reports. The veterans were also joined by 400 civilians, including former New England Patriots linebacker Steve Nelson.
For most of the veterans, the ride was a milestone in their long road to recovery.
"When you're in a bike, you're free, you're outside, and it's liberating," Iraq war veteran Kathleen White told the news outlet. White suffered a traumatic brain injury during her 2004 tour in the Army National Guard. It took her years to recuperate from the experience.
"I never thought I'd be in the place I am now," she added.
Female servicemembers are stepping into more small-business roles with the help of new initiatives, the New York Post reports.
Launched in 2011, Veterans as Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship trains women veterans and military spouses in business and marketing strategies through a 15-day online course. Once the participants finish the course, they attend a three-day conference held in various cities throughout the nation, where they meet other like-minded women veterans who have found success in operating small businesses.
According to the news source, the program already has roughly 900 graduates. Tina Kapral, director of educational programs at the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, where the program is currently administered, told the Post that nearly 60 percent of the graduates have successfully founded their own small business.
Why are women veterans naturally able to helm their own businesses? Kapral claims it's because they already have beneficial skills in key areas.
"[The veterans] already have a built-in mentality for bootstrapping and key leadership characteristics," Kapral told the news outlet. "They're used to being in situations in which they take calculated risk and they know how to work out a contingency plan as backup."
Currently, only 4 percent of the 3 million veteran-owned small business are led by women, according to data provided by the Small Business Association. But as the unemployment rate of female veterans continues to drop, Kapral hopes it will encourage more women servicemembers to jump into entrepreneurship.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted for massive cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program last week, shaving $40 billion off the budget for the next 10 years, the Washington Times reports. These cuts might pose a major threat to the low-income veterans who rely on food stamps to live.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, approximately 900,00 low-income veterans receive benefits from SNAP each month. An estimated 170,000 of those veterans might be negatively affected by two key sections of the House's budget bill.
About 120,000 veterans might lose their benefits due to the "Southerland" provision, which eliminates assistance to non-elderly unemployed adults who were unable to secure employment through a job program, according to the source. An additional 50,000 veterans might be at-risk under the second provision, which cuts food assistance to people ages 18 to 50 living in areas of high unemployment. The source also states that veterans might lose their benefits due to other cuts targeting low-income families with high child-care costs.
Supporters of the bill claim its intent is not to eradicate SNAP but to cut down on fraud and abuse within the system, the Washington Times reports. However, the news outlet states that millions of unemployed citizens will lose their benefits if the bill is passed.
Are military veterans startups on the rise? Forbes seems to think so.
Forbes contributor Shaun So recently reported that veteran-founded startups, as well as veteran-focused investment groups and veteran-only incubators, are the newest trend to hit the digital sphere. After the mentorship-focused company TechStars initiated its first Rising Stars Patriots Boot Camp, which provided training to a select group of former servicemembers, two years ago, veterans have been taking the Internet startup reins.
RideScout, which launched this week in Washington, D.C, Unite Us and HirePurpose are among the new companies created by veterans. Although most of them are still in their early stages, the companies have already secured financial backing in the six-figure range.
Another recently launched startup, Mid-Atlantic angel group Hivers and Strivers, only invests in Internet ventures founded by graduates of U.S. military academies.
According to the news outlet, a growing number of organizations and investment groups alike want to get into the game. The National Defense University Foundation just partnered with the Angel Investor Forum to create the Veteran's Venture Forum, with the goal of helping veterans pitch their business ideas to potential backers, the news source reports. The Veteran's Venture Forum will feature monthly boot camp sessions at Fort McNair, where servicemembers and ventures can discuss their project with more than 80 season investors.
Three boot camp sessions are still open for registration, So writes, adding that veterans and their experiences are beneficial to leading a company in "a scrappy start-up environment."
Gulf War II-era veterans have joined the fight to protect military shopping benefits and base commissaries, which are increasingly under pressure to close due to reduced defense budgets.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a veterans association with more than 270,000 members nationwide, has teamed up with The Coalition to Save Our Military Shopping Benefits, a military advocacy group composed of 1.9 million members devoted to maintaining shopping and exchange credits for servicemembers, veterans and military families, the Herald Online reports. The two organizations are currently fighting cuts to commissary subsidies, which offer servicemembers and veterans a 30 percent discount for various household goods and products.
"Commissaries and exchanges are a key part of the military community, connecting the youngest service members to military families and even local retired veterans," IAVA Chief of Staff Derek Bennett said in a statement. "Protecting this benefit will ensure that veterans and their families have access to discounted, quality groceries and products."
According to the National Military Family Association, commissaries do not make a profit, and the cost of running a commissary is subsidized by the federal government. However, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has voted in the past to eliminate the federal subsidy of commissaries and combine the commissaries with military exchanges, the organization states on its website.
The sequester and impending government shutdown might jeopardize the future of military commissaries, the Herald Online reports. The closing of commissaries and exchanges might also affect the stability of the military, the news outlet adds, since it is the largest employer of veterans in the nation.
The fight over full military benefits for National Guard members in same-sex relationships continues despite the Department of Defense's shift in policy last July. Oklahoma just became the latest state to block military benefits to its gay Guard members on the grounds that it violates its state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, the Associated Press reports.
As the Sooner State joins Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi in the legal fight against military benefits for same-sex Guard members, ABC News looked into whether the blockades work or simply create a nuisance for Guard members.
According to the news source, DoD officials insist that same-sex servicemembers can still receive their benefits regardless of state law.
"All federal military installations (in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana) will issue IDs to all those who provide a valid marriage certificate from a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage," Pentagon spokesman Nathan Christensen told the news source.
However, the news outlet reports that same-sex military couples are forced to travel longer distances to obtain their promised benefits. For example, Texas National Guard spouse Alicia Butler told ABC News that she will have to drive 120 miles round-trip to a federal military installation – a trip she can not make with her current job and 6-month-old child.
"This is an ominous signal Texas is giving," Butler said.
National security think tank the Stimson Center presented a 27-point budget plan for the Department of Defense this week, Military Times reports. The guideline will help the DoD stay within its financial limits set by the 2011 Budget Control Act, cutting roughly $50 billion from the annual defense budget through a new defense strategy called "Strategic Agility."
The report recommends saving $22.4 billion in management reforms by eliminating excess civilian and military personnel at federal defense agencies, limiting centralized training, cutting funding for inessential commissaries and exchanges, and further reforms to veterans benefits.
Changes in force structure, including cuts to active-duty troops, will result in a savings of $24.1 billion, according to the report. An additional $5.7 billion can also be shaved off from modernization costs, such as slowing the purchases of ballistic submarines and F-35s and halting CONUS missile defenses. However, the report states that the long-range strike bomber program can remain untouched.
According to the report, this new budget plan builds on several legacies of the U.S. military, including its superiority in air and naval power and the strength of its special operations and ground forces.
"We hope that consensus can show there is a way to move forward," the report states.
Since the G.I. Bill changed its policy in 2011, many veterans wishing to return to school after military service are finding it harder to find colleges they can afford. Now, students at Florida State University are advocating for more affordable options for its out-of-state student veterans.
The Tallahassee Democrat reports that student veterans of FSU, along with university president Eric Barron, held a press conference Monday to address the current financial challenges affecting student veterans. Prior to the 2011 change, the G.I. Bill covered all tuition costs for veterans at public schools. Now, the bill is limited to in-state tuition costs. Veterans who are enrolling at out-of-state public institutions must pay the difference themselves.
"All of a sudden I was told student loans were my only option, so I did what every veteran does when faced with adversity," Air Force veteran Andrew Sloan said during the press conference. "I continued on with the mission. I held my head high and my shoulders back."
Sloan, a member of FSU's Collegiate Veterans Association, is advocating for state legislation that waives out-of-state tuition for veterans at Florida's public colleges and universities, no matter the veterans' official residencies. The bill, HB 35, was designed and co-sponsored by state Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-South Pasadena, who's hopeful that it will succeed in the state legislature this year, the news source reports.
According to the news outlet, 17 states have already passed similar legislation.