Michigan Legion Media Room

CQ NEWS June 29, 2015 – 5:33 p.m. VA Moves to Expand Same-Sex Benefits After Court Ruling By Connor O'Brien, CQ Roll Call The Department of Veterans » Affairs is moving to expand access to benefits for same-sex couples who may not have been eligible prior to last week's Supreme Court ruling. Prior to the court's decision in Obergefell v Hodges, « veterans » benefits for same-sex couples had been withheld in states where marriages between people of the same gender are not legally recognized. The ruling, which was handed down on Friday, struck down those state laws and cleared the path for VA's decision to recognize all same-sex marriages, which it announced Monday. "VA may recognize the same-sex marriage of all « Veterans » , where the « Veteran » or the « Veteran » 's spouse resided anywhere in the United States or its territories at the time of the marriage or at the time of application for benefits," the department sai...

Court of Appeals Grants State of Michigan's Request for Immediate Effect of Rules On Thursday, June 25, 2015, the Court of Appeals granted the State of Michigan and the Michigan Gaming Control Board's request for the rules to be given immediate effect. This means that, pursuant to the Court of Appeals recent 2-1 decision , the rules promulgated in May 2014 (to which MiCGA and other plaintiffs were successful in the Court of Claims at receiving injunctive relief from) have taken immediate effect . The former rules that organizations had been operating under (with the exception of some of the compromised emergency rules from Fall 2014) can be viewed here . The rules effective June 25, 2015, can be viewed here . As a benefit to our MiCGA members, we have prepared a document t...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE   Legion to VA: Find the Missing $54 Million Documentation    WASHINGTON (June16, 2015) -  "Unbelievable," was how American Legion National Commander Michael D. Helm described a report that  more than $54.4 million of prosthetics were purchased by VA employees in the Bronx using government credit cards.   "Nothing here passes the smell test," Helm said. "Each time the government cards were used for this purpose, it was for $24,999.  This is just under the limit for the contracting guidelines. It's either a remarkable coincidence or an orchestrated effort to get around contracting requirements. The president promised to preside over 'the most transparent administration in history.' Apparently VA didn't get the memo."   Helm pointed out that for the total to be so high, the Bronx VA must be providing an extraordinarily high amount of prosthetics. "By my math it comes out to 2,177 transactions.  More...

Listed below are the events I have for the next 14 days here in the Metro Detroit area, of which there are many! Things are picking up since this event listing which has 5 new items! You can also go to the Legion 328 website to download any flyer for these future events.  http://www.legionpost328.org/events.html    You can get a monthly view of events by going to: http://www.michiganveteranresources.com/Events.aspx You can also find many other veteran events & information for Veterans on the State of MI Veterans website & Detroit Public Televisions' new Veterans website: http://www.michiganveterans.com/home/Calendar.aspx http://www.veterans.dptv.org/all-events ANNOUNCEMENTS! "Metro Airport Freedom Center Needs Volunteers" Freedom Center military lounge at Detroit Metro Airport is looking for 50 - 75 new volunteers. The new volunteers will primarily s...

    Veterans AFFAIRS                 VA News Release         VA Expands Disability Benefits for Air Force Personnel Exposed to Contaminated C-123 Aircraft 06/18/2015 10:35 AM EDT     VA Expands Disability Benefits for Air Force Personnel Exposed to Contaminated C-123 Aircraft WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today published a new regulation that expands eligibility for some benefits for a select group of Air Force Veterans and Air Force Reserve personnel who were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange through regular and repeated contact with contaminated C-123 aircraft that had been used in Vietnam as part of Operation Ranch Hand (ORH). VA published this regulation as an interim final rule so that it could immediately begin providing benefits to eligible Air Force veterans and Air Force Reserve personnel who submit a disability compensation claim for any of the 14 medical conditions that have been determined by VA to be related to exposure to Agent Orange. Secretary...

Listed below are the events I have for the next 14 days here in the Metro Detroit area, of which there are many! Things are picking up since this event listing which has 6 new items! You can also go to the Legion 328 website to download any flyer for these future events.  http://www.legionpost328.org/events.html    You can get a monthly view of events by going to: http://www.michiganveteranresources.com/Events.aspx You can also find many other veteran events & information for Veterans on the State of MI Veterans website & Detroit Public Televisions' new Veterans website: http://www.michiganveterans.com/home/Calendar.aspx http://www.veterans.dptv.org/all-events ANNOUNCEMENTS! "Metro Airport Freedom Center Needs Volunteers" Freedom Center military lounge at Detroit Metro Airport is looking for 50 - 75 new volunteers. The new volunteers will primarily ...

Listed below are the events I have for the next 14 days here in the Metro Detroit area, of which there are many! Things are picking up since this event listing which has 4 new items! You can also go to the Legion 328 website to download any flyer for these future events.  http://www.legionpost328.org/events.html    You can get a monthly view of events by going to: http://www.michiganveteranresources.com/Events.aspx You can also find many other veteran events & information for Veterans on the State of MI Veterans website & Detroit Public Televisions' new Veterans website: http://www.michiganveterans.com/home/Calendar.aspx http://www.veterans.dptv.org/all-events ANNOUNCEMENTS! "Buddy-2-Buddy Job Fairs" See attached for a complete listing of the B2B job fairs in Michigan for the month of June . "Founding of the Vietnam Veterans of America ...