Veterans Benefits

Scott Lowe enlisted in the infantry -- the "dirtiest job there is" in the Army, he says -- completing two Iraqi tours in which he dug up weapons caches, found improvised explosive devices and rounded up insurgents. "No better way to serve your country," said Lowe, 27. "Most of us lost friends over there, had close calls. . . . Now it's time to catch up."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs may paint a rosy picture of improving healthcare for veterans, but the agency has systematically denied benefits to sick veterans and delayed claims so long that many of them commit suicide, a lawyer for two advocacy groups argued in federal court Monday. "The court faces an agency that is in denial and a healthcare system and an adjudication system that are broken down and in crisis," said Gordon P.

The House on Thursday approved a new GI Bill, with a significant expansion of veterans' education benefits, as part of a war-spending measure that will pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next year and also provide aid for the jobless.

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that although the Department of Veterans Affairs might have provided inadequate care or benefits to some veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, the department had not done so systematically. Veterans had sought a court order to compel the VA to improve services. U.S.

President Bush signed an emergency spending measure Monday that funds military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next year, along with an expansion of veterans benefits and an extension of jobless aid. The measure:h.r.02642:, enacted at a time when the troubled economy tops many voters' concerns, provides up to 13 extra weeks of unemployment assistance for people who have lost their jobs and have exhausted their typical 26 weeks of state benefits.

Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq -- by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries.

In a stinging ruling, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ripped into the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday for its continued resistance to paying benefits to veterans suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia because of their exposure to Agent Orange. Thursday's 3-0 decision marked the sixth major ruling against the government by the appeals court or a federal trial judge in a case that started in 1986.

The former mayor of Atlantic City pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to enhance his veterans benefits, a crime that played a role in his three-week disappearance starting in late September. Making his first public appearance since resigning Oct. 10, Democrat Robert Levy admitted he had falsely claimed to have been awarded two military medals and had embellished his military record in order to increase his Veterans Affairs disability benefits.

They are sometimes called the invisible veterans -- soldiers who defied death fighting for the United States, only to be denied U.S. benefits at war's end. Now in their 80s, these Filipino veterans, effectively drafted in World War II to fight alongside the U.S. military against Japan, are dying, about 10 a day, while they still hope to win veterans benefits for their service. Their number has dwindled to about 6,000 in the United States and 12,000 in the Philippines.

President Bush said Saturday that Congress' Democratic leaders should celebrate Veterans Day by passing a spending bill covering programs for veterans. "Congressional leaders let the fiscal year end without passing this bill they know our veterans need," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "The time to act is running out. . . . The best way members of Congress can give thanks to our veterans is to send me a clean bill that I can sign into law."