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. 

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. 

Connecticut-based veterans hoping to enroll in an university may now find the process a little bit easier. 

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced this week an executive order that would allow veterans to receive college credit for the skills they learned during service, the Connecticut Post reports. The order mandates that state agencies must allow military education and skills to be considered and orders the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education, which oversees the state's community colleges and public universities, to convert military education to college credit through in a smoother manner, the news source reports. 

"These are people with special training, skills and education who, upon returning to civilian life, are ready, willing and more than qualified to enter our workforce," Malloy said in a statement. 

According to the news source, Connecticut is home to 250,000 veterans and 9,000 active-duty servicemembers. Currently, veterans living in The Constitution State can attend any state-run college or university on the G.I. Bill, which covers the tuition for veterans attending a public higher-education institution. The Connecticut Department of Veteran Affairs also provides a 50 percent tuition waiver for veterans taking extension or summer courses at a state-run school. 

A replica of the iconic Vietnam War memorial has been making its way around the country, granting those who have never been to Washington, D.C. a chance to view it.

The pop-up memorial, which is a 250-foot version of the one at the nation's capital, just arrived this week in Elgin, Illinois, a city located about 40 miles northwest of The Windy City. Chicago's Daily Herald reports that it will open to the public Thursday, Sep. 19 at the city's Civic Center Plaza. 

Called "The Wall that Heals," the memorial features the names of the 58,200 soldiers that died during the Vietnam War, the traveling replica is part of a project by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. According to the organization's website, the exhibit began in 1996 and has visited roughly 350 cities. 

Barbara Dobek, the organization's site manager, told the news source that she has journeyed around the country for the last 3 years with the memorial. She believes it's a great homage to Vietnam veterans who risked their lives more than 40 years ago. 

"This gives (veterans) the chance to be welcomed home, for those who didn't get that honor," Dobek said. 

In addition to the 250-foot memorial, the exhibit also includes various photographs, documents and a map of Vietnam complete with a war timeline. 

The traveling memorial has a busy schedule. This year, it will stop in 29 separate sites throughout the nation. It's next destination is Auburn, Wash. 

Students and alumni of the Syracuse University College of Law will provide pro-bono legal and financial advice to military veterans through their Sep. 28 Valor Day initiative. 

After receiving resounding feedback from participants for its first Valor Day last March, students at the law school decided to continue serving veterans and military families through partnerships with professional alumni and local volunteers. Even organizers hope the Valor Day initiative, which has already helped more than 80 veterans, will turn the law school into a major advocate and resource for Syracuse's growing veteran population.

According to event organizer and third-year law student Marine Corps 1st Lt. Josh Keefe, most of the students, alumni and volunteers involved are either veterans or have previous military connections. He reiterated that this is not a money-making opportunity for lawyers, but a day of volunteer service.

"By no means are attendees entering into an attorney-client relationship or binding relationship with the lawyers," Keefe told the news source. 

Legal advice, vocational counseling and resume critiques are among the provided services. A veterans information fair will also be held that day, offering resources from more than 20 veterans and government organizations. 

Syracuse University currently ranks first in the state of New York and 17th in the nation in veteran enrollment, according to the school's veterans resource center. 

Following a recent testimony from an American Legion official that revealed major failings at the Veterans Affairs Baltimore office, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., has delivered an ultimatum to the VA.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Mikulski, who oversees federal government funds as the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent a letter to the Baltimore VA branch Monday expressing her disappointment in its handling of the disability claims backlog. The embattled veterans office recently came under fire after a congressional testimony from Verna Jones, a director at the American Legion, alleged that the Baltimore office was tossing out more veterans the claims they processed, the news source reported last week.

Jones also said that the office was ignoring the newly implemented fast-track program, which would speed up the claims process in order to clear out the ongoing disability backlog. 

"We cannot continue to allow the Baltimore office to perform at a level that puts our commitment to veterans in jeopardy," Mikulski wrote. 

The Senator is giving the Baltimore office 10 days to develop an improvement plan, and called for special leadership and processing training to be led by the Indianapolis VA office, which is one of the most successful branches in the country. 

Not only is the Baltimore VA office the slowest in the nation at processing claims, but also has the highest rate of error, according to VA data. 

The G.I. Bill might allocate enough tuition money for veterans to attend public universities, but an increasing number of former servicemembers are struggling to pay for room and board at out-of-state tuition prices due to a lack of benefits. 

According to an analysis from News21's post-9/11 veterans project, 29 states have policies that force veterans to empty their pockets on public schools outside their state of residency. Although the G.I. Bill currently covers all tuition, fees and room and board, the exorbitant out-of-state tuition prices typically exceed the higher-education benefits. 

While the easiest way to avoid these tuition costs would be to stay in your home state, that is not always an option. California, for instance, has the highest number of servicemembers in the nation, and after years of service, many military members call the Golden State home. However, the state also requires veterans to live within its border for a full year prior to qualifying for in-state tuition. Military service does not count as residency. 

Thousands of veterans, including 31-year-old  Brian Oller, enroll in the University of California system only to discover that they are not covered by their veteran benefits. 

''I didn't know about the out-of-state tuition until the day I showed up," Oller told The Kitsap Sun. 

Fortunately, veterans can alleviate their tuition costs through benefits such as the Yellow Ribbon Program, a subset of the Department of Veterans Affairs that reimburses schools with high tuition costs, the news outlet reports. A total of 21 states also have policies that eliminate residency requirements for veterans. 

As the disability claims backlog continues to plague the Department of Veteran Affairs, new reports out of Baltimore unearth growing tensions between the VA and other military agencies. 

While testifying before a House subcommittee this week, director of the American Legion's Veteran Affairs and Rehabilitation Division Verna Jones revealed that VA officials in Baltimore were "aggressively excluding" Maryland servicemembers from a program that would accelerate their disability claims, The Baltimore Sun reported. Jones also alleged that the American Legion, which promised last year to work with the VA faced an "obstructionist attitude" from the Baltimore office. 

According to the news outlet, the Baltimore VA is not only the slowest-moving claims-processing office in the nation, taking six months to process a disability claim. By comparison, the national average for disability claims processing is four months. 

A March visit to the Baltimore office revealed that the workers were spending more time throwing out veterans than processing their cases, Jones told the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. However, regional office director Michael Scheibel said that several of these claims were thrown out because they were missing necessary documents or the veterans refused to cooperate. 

The VA is currently under fire for its mishandling of disability claims, which peaked at 611,000 pending claims last March. The current number of stalled claims cases lingers around 751,000, and more than 400,000 of those claims were filed in the last 125 days, which the VA gives as a standard for correspondence, the Los Angeles Times reported this week. Though the figures remain high, they do show a slight increase for the embattled government agency. 

Hundred of job-seeking veterans found a new hope in the workforce Wednesday at the "Putting America Back to Work" event in Plantation, Fla. Radio host and TV personality Geraldo Rivera made a special appearance that afternoon, handing out advice to the job hunters before broadcasting his national show live from the event.

Sponsored by local radio station WFTL-AM, the job fair mainly targeted veterans who are transitioning into civilian work, though more than half of the attendees were non-military. 

The companies that attended, such as AutoNation, preferred hiring workers with military experience because of the qualities they possessed, the Sun Sentinel reported.

"They're disciplined, willing to work long hours and are looking for opportunity," said AutoNation spokesman Marc Cannon. He told the news source that the company has hired more than 200 military veterans since 2011. 

Seminole Gaming, a casino company with headquarters in Hollywood, Fla., also showed its support for veterans. Seminole spokesman Gary Bitner told the news outlet that nearly 650 veterans have been hired at the company's Florida casinos since 2010. 

Although the unemployment rate for veterans is continuing to decline, the numbers remain higher than the unemployment rates for the general population. The unemployment rate for all veterans in August 2013 was 7.7 percent, compared to 7.3 for the general population. However, Gulf War-era II veterans, or those who served as active- duty since 2001, have the highest unemployment rate among veterans at 10.3 percent. By comparison, 7.8 percent of World War II, Korean War and Vietnam-era are unemployed, while Gulf War-era I veterans fared better at 7.1 percent.