Applying for disability benefits from the VA can be complicated. After months of tracking down documents, forwarding additional paperwork and presenting your best, most complete application to the VA, it can be incredibly frustrating to find out your claim has been denied or you have been underrated. Thankfully, you don’t have to take that for an answer. Veterans have …

A recent NPR story examines the connection between veteran suicides and access to guns. Recent trends dramatize the urgency of the issue, but taking any action is controversial. Suicide rates have been rising in the US, and veterans now have a higher rate than civilians for the first time in history. The situation is especially alarming for women. Female veterans have a …

One of the most divisive challenges our country faces is spreading intolerance and the use of hate campaigns to target vulnerable people. Since the last presidential election, instances of both individual and group sponsored hate attacks have been multiplying across America. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been a leader in teaching tolerance and tracking hate movements in this country since …

 The US took a trusteeship role over Micronesia in 1946, a large group of islands in the Pacific, and five days later those islands became the Pacific Proving Ground. The islanders were moved off and the US spent nearly twenty years detonating nuclear bombs on the islands, then left them, covered with plutonium and other radioactive waste blowing in the …

Health insurance does not play a role in eligibility for health care at a Veterans Administration facility.  The VA will ask if a veteran has insurance to provide the information. Providing insurance information does not impact eligibility for benefits at the VA nor does it impact your insurance benefits. The VA is required by law to bill your insurance company for …

Ecstasy, according to the National Institute for Drug Abuse, is a synthetic drug that alters mood and perception. Because the drug, also called MDMA, causes a feeling of euphoria as well as very damaging side effects and addiction, it has been classified by the government as illegal since 1985. This decision was made despite the fact that MDMA was used as …

The recent Boston Marathon attacks are believed to have resulted in several amputation injuries. However, for these victims, life with a prosthetic device is likely to be much easier, than has been the case in the past. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to tremendous advances in prosthetics technology, and today, veterans, as well as civilians, have access …

Any California veterans benefits lawyer knows that processing of benefits claims can take months. Unfortunately, in too many cases, the delays are so long that the claim processing is completed only after the veteran’s death. According to a new report, cases in which the claim is processed only after the veteran’s death are becoming increasingly common. The report has been …

The Pentagon is investing more than $100 million in new efforts to fight both traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. The announcement of the new initiatives was made to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, which triggered off the 2 wars that have resulted in thousands of veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and brain …

According to new data, American veterans recently crossed a chilling new milestone. California veteran benefits lawyers wonder if the military will take these new statistics seriously. For the first time, the number of veterans committing suicide is higher than the number of veterans being killed as a result of automobile accidents. For years now, automobile accidents have been the number …