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The article is a reply to comments about the authors' research methodology in a study of discount points, cost shifting, and housing prices in the United States, which were financed through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or Veteran Administration (VA). The study concluded that a "pad" or spread between asking and selling prices varies with the probability of FHA or VA financing and so does the extent of points shifting. Variables are mentioned such as the likelihood of FHA or VA financing in some neighborhoods and the effect on asking prices and the orthogonality between predictor variables in least squares estimation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the extent to which FHA and VA discount points are shifted by sellers of houses to buyers. Government administrators and industry officials are far from agreement on this issue, and although the academic literature supports the view that discount points are shifted to buyers, there is no empirical evidence available on the subject. Aside from policy implications, this study also sheds light on the extent to which consumers perceive financing charges as part of transactions involving durable goods, a subject not extensively explored in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom has it that in the 1930s fiscal policy did not work because it was not tried. This paper shows that fiscal policy was tried in 1936. The veterans' bonus of 1936 paid 2 percent of GDP to 3.2 million veterans; the typical veteran received a payment equal to per capita income. Multiple sources, including a household consumption survey, show that veterans spent the majority of their bonus. Point estimates of the MPC are between 0.6 and 0.75. Spending was concentrated on cars and housing in particular. (JEL E21, E32, E62, N32, N42) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) has statutory authority--unique among the federal appellate courts--to allow individual judges to decide appeals. As the CAVC completes the first quarter century of operations since its creation, this Article examines the court's use of this authority. Based upon two years of data developed and analyzed by the Authors, this Article concludes that outcome variance in single-judge decisions is a serious problem at the CAVC. Not only is there a substantial difference in the outcomes of appeals assigned to the different judges, but there are clear examples of decisions that violate the court's precedent against deciding novel issues or debatable cases by a single judge. Based upon the more than 4,000 decisions reviewed, it is recommended that substantial changes must be made in how the court exercises single-judge authority. Alternatively, this authority could be abolished altogether so that the CAVC decides all appeals by panel, as is done by the other federal appellate courts. The near-term goal of reform should be to increase the percentage of the CAVC's opinions that are published from the current average o f under 2% to at least 12% (the average for federal courts of appeals). Increasing the number of precedential decisions will not only ensure fairness to all of the veterans appealing to the court, but will also improve the guidance provided to the Department of Veterans Affairs because it would resolve more legal issues and also demonstrate how the court believes the law should be applied to difficult or new fact patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The on-going partnership between the Australian War Memorial, the managers and residents of a Returned Services League retirement village, and the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, University of Melbourne, constitutes an excellent case study of conservation-led student, volunteer and community empowerment. This community-engagement project is focused on gradually developing the museological skills of the volunteers running the retirement village's War Museum, enlisting conservation students to help them establish good museum practices. The students and volunteers acquired new collection care capabilities. The students' appreciation of their positive contribution to stakeholder engagement, community museums and commemorative displays deepened as residents demonstrated the links between their wartime experiences and the collection. With increasing professional activity the museum's public profile expanded, inducing more residents to donate time, objects and stories. The project's beneficial outcomes—educational, personal and community—demonstrate that people learn by solving real problems and can succeed at challenging tasks when the process means something to them, personally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2008 an article was published that suggested an Emerging Storm, relative to veteran entanglement in criminal justice, was approaching (Brown, 2008). Well, that storm appears to have hit land. The actual/ potential damage is likely to depend upon the responses of the legal system and the American public at large. There are many veterans who appear to return to the civilian culture and manage to hold their own without significant problems. Other veterans experience socio-cultural problems, along with psychological issues, but are able to camouflage those problems and issues. Some veterans are less fortunate and they find themselves confronting criminal charges. Some end up behind bars for extended periods of time. This article addresses the complexities associated with understanding why some veterans appear normal while other veterans become entangled in our criminal justice system. Specifically, we will be addressing issues related to sociocultural differences and irregularities between civilian and military cultures, cultural competency in relation to psychology and the court system. The lack of cultural competency within the legal system results in what seems to most veterans as disrespectful and apathetic legal approaches that do not give them the respect they feel they have earned and ignores the discipline and risk to their own life they manifested while serving in war-time. Most often the cultural and core values that they had inculcated in them by military training and experience that ironically resulted in getting caught up in the legal system are simply unrecognized or ignored. It is impossible to understand psychological problems without understanding their social and cultural backgrounds. Conversely, it is also impossible to fully appreciate social or cultural phenomena without an understanding of psychological mechanisms (Fromm, 1941) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP's) Veterans Affairs Department in the organization's campaign against residential segregation. Particular focus is given to the Veterans Affairs Department's campaign against discriminatory loan practices used against black veterans. Details on the NAACP's public relations campaigns against federal agencies upholding policies which encouraged segregation are presented.

Exploiting Australia's National Service lotteries of 1965 to 1972, I estimate the effect of army service on employment outcomes. Population data from military personnel records, tax returns, veterans' compensation records, and the Census facilitate a rich and precise analysis, identified by 53,000 complying conscripts. The estimated employment effect is -12 percentage points (95% CI: -13, -11) overall, -37 for those who served in Vietnam and 0 for those who served only in Australia. It emerged in the 1990s, mirrored by veterans' disability pension effects. These results contrast with those for the United States, possibly reflecting employment disincentives associated with Australia's veterans' compensation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the 2012 Paycheck to Paycheck database which focuses on housing affordability for five jobs available for returning veterans targeted by specialized training programs sponsored by U.S. Department of Labor which are carpenters, electricians, dental assistants, firefighters, and truck drivers. It says that the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans ages 18 to 24 is 30.2%. It talks on the transition of returning veterans to civilian workforce.

When a donor demanded that one of its treasures be returned, the University of Maryland Archives could have become territorial or defensive. Instead, the Archives used the request as an opportunity to work more closely with that donor, recognizing that what the donor really wanted was enhanced access. Out of this potentially difficult situation came the creation of a new student internship program, one which has received widespread positive publicity for its work in creating biographies of alumni veterans who perished in service to their country. These biographies will eventually serve as the foundation for a website that will provide the access that the donor desires. This new form of outreach has also benefitted the Archives by raising its profile on campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: High rates of mental health disorders have been reported in veterans returning from deployment to Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom: OEF) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom: OIF); however, less is known about physical health functioning and its temporal course post-deployment. Therefore, our goal is to study physical health functioning in OEF/OIF veterans after deployment. Methods: We analyzed self-reported physical health functioning as physical component summary (PCS) scores on the Veterans version of the Short Form 36 health survey in 679 OEF/OIF veterans clinically evaluated at a post-deployment health clinic. Veterans were stratified into four groups based on time post-deployment: (1Yr) 0--365 days; (2Yr) 366--730 days; (3Yr) 731--1095 days; and (4Yr+) > 1095 days. To assess the possibility that our effect was specific to a treatment-seeking sample, we also analyzed PCS scores from a separate military community sample of 768 OEF/OIF veterans evaluated pre-deployment and up to one-year post-deployment. Results: In veterans evaluated at our clinic, we observed significantly lower PCS scores as time post-deployment increased (p = 0.018) after adjusting for probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We similarly observed in our community sample that PCS scores were lower both immediately after and one year after return from deployment (p < 0.001) relative to pre-deployment PCS. Further, PCS scores obtained 1-year post-deployment were significantly lower than scores obtained immediately post-deployment (p = 0.02). Conclusion: In our clinical sample, the longer the duration between return from deployment and their visit to our clinic, the worse the Veteran's physical health even after adjusting for PTSD. Additionally, a decline is also present in a military community sample of OEF/OIF veterans. These data suggest that, as time since deployment length increases, physical health may deteriorate for some veterans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

San Francisco State College was uniquely situated adjacent to a vibrant African-American jazz community in the post-World War II years to expand music curriculum to serve musicians professionally matured during the war effort to retrain to be teachers on the G.I. Bill. This article examines the cooperative effort of the College's instructors and veterans to establish the first known college-sanctioned jazz course under an umbrella organization of the campus's Music Federation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the jurisdiction for veterans benefits law that was passed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010. The author mentions that the veterans law includes several developments including the decisions issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans of Affairs (VA). He states that it also includes a dialogue between the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court regarding the law and conclusion on the increased supervision on veterans decision. He asserts that several important cases of veterans which were decided by the Federal Circuit in the same year were also analyzed.

The article discusses the issues concerning the case for concurrent veterans benefits, as exemplified through the experienced of army staff sergeant James Sursely. It states that the veterans service organizations permitted the receipt of some duplicative benefits in limited incidence including the triple-amputee Sursely, who receives two annual clothing allowances. Moreover, it notes that each benefit serves a different objective and where a veteran qualifies for multiple and distinct programs.

The article examines how organized interests affect the implementation of eligibility-based programs using data from the Veterans' Disability Compensation (VDC) program in the U.S. It notes that the bureaucracy has a profound impact on the direction of policy when it determines eligibility for a variety of government programs. The study emphasizes the dual role of many organized interests as both traditional advocacy groups and service providers, and use insight from the interest group and third-party service provider literature to formulate hypotheses. It shows that veterans' groups affect variables capturing demand for, access to, and effective implementation of the VDC program, although effects for every measure of implementation included in the study were not found.

An unintended consequence of making access to college an entitlement readily available to all high school graduates is that serious study in high school has become optional—even for those intending to apply for college admission. Without an incentive to study diligently, many students are disengaged in high school and, as a result, underprepared for college. Some freshmen arrive at college thinking that having fun is the main reason they are at college and that the pursuit of knowledge should be available for when they have nothing better to do. Before World War II academically excellent students from families unable to finance college for them could apply for competitive scholarships. Scholarships mutated into “financial aid” when the GI Bill of Rights financed college for discharged veterans of World War II. Pell grants should continue to be available to youngsters who want to go to college even if they are mediocre students—provided they can persuade a college to admit them. Mediocre students are being given a chance to become “late bloomers.” Loans, however, are expected to be repaid, and mediocre high school students with bad credit ratings are likely to default on their loans, causing serious financial problems for themselves and financial complications for the American economy. Targeting loans to students with good prospects for repaying them is more prudent financially and makes more sense educationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first 10 years of my nursing practice with the Department of Veterans Affairs I was unsympathetic to Vietnam Veterans who were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. My reluctance to try to understand these veterans was not unique. This essay presents the narrative of my coming to understand and to appreciate the depth of trauma that many Vietnam Veterans experienced during their tour of duty and the lingering effects of guilt that they hold over their participation in brutality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of the G.I. Bill towards its beneficiaries and after the World War II in the U.S. The bill offers education, training and loans for returning veterans for home ownership and start a business. The author expresses that the bill has created opportunities for civic reinvigoration and reengagement in the postwar period. G.I is characterized as the law which modernized the country because it fosters social mobility, democratization of elite institutions and active and engaged citizenry.

This study examined marital adjustment and relations among couples where husbands had been a prisoner-of-war (i.e., POW) and couples where husbands were veterans, but not POWs. The study also examined the relative contribution of the husband's post-traumatic stress disorder (i.e., PTSD) and POW experience to both spouses' marital adjustment. Results from 157 couples (85 former POWs and spouses as well as 72 veterans but not POWs and their spouses as controls) indicated that former POW couples had lower marital adjustment, sexual satisfaction, and self-disclosure, and higher verbal abuse than the control couples. Captivity indirectly influenced the husband's marital adjustment through his PTSD. In turn, PTSD had an indirect effect on both spouses' marital adjustment, fully mediated through marital relations variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that beginning in October 2008, Medicare will no longer reimburse hospitals for the costs of treating injuries from several preventable conditions, including inpatient falls resulting in hip fracture. If hospitals try to shift this care to other payers, elderly veterans who are dually eligible for care in Medicare and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities may be adversely affected. As health care provided for a hip fracture can be substantial, the goal of this research was to calculate Medicare payments for a national cohort of elderly veterans with hip fractures, beginning with the first inpatient admission and continuing through one year. Methods: This was a retrospective, secondary data analysis of national VHA-eligible Medicare beneficiaries. The study population was 43,104 veterans with a hip fracture first admitted to a Medicare-eligible facility during 1999–2002. The estimation method was an ordinary least squares regression model of Medicare payments to providers for hip fracture patients over 4 time periods, up to 1 year after discharge, controlling for age, gender, inpatient length of stay, 1-year mortality, and selected Elixhauser comorbidities. Results: Medicare reimbursed providers for nearly $3 billion of health care for hip fracture patients the first year of injury. Approximately 71.4% ($49,544) of the total annual Medicare payments (for all services) occurred within the first 30 days of hospital admission. Inpatient and carrier (physician) providers received the majority of the payments. The average annual payment per individual was $69,389 (99% confidence interval: $68,539–$70,239). Almost 7 in 10 hip fracture patients obtained care in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) during the year, with these providers comprising only 12% of total annual Medicare payments. In this elderly veteran cohort, hip fracture patients with renal failure, diabetes, lymphoma, and metastatic cancer generated the highest payments. Conclusion: This analysis provides proxy cost estimates for hip fracture patients useful for the forthcoming CMS reimbursement policy changes for inpatient fall-related injuries. The VHA and dually eligible elderly veterans could be disproportionately exposed to the economic consequences of the new CMS policy change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Exposure to traumatic events is common among individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), although not all go on to develop PTSD. We compared SUD treatment outcomes and relapse features in three groups of male veterans receiving SUD treatment: (1) those without trauma exposure (SUD-only; n =68), (2) those with PTSD (SUD-PTSD; n =32), and (3) those with trauma exposure but no PTSD (SUD-trauma; n =34). Veterans were assessed regarding psychiatric symptoms, substance use, and relapse features quarterly for 1 year. The groups did not differ on length of abstinence, relapse prevalence or severity. SUD-PTSD and SUD-trauma reported more depression, anxiety, PTSD, and total psychiatric symptoms prior to relapse than SUD-only. SUD-PTSD and SUD-trauma also endorsed more PTSD, and total symptoms following relapse than SUD-only. PTSD symptoms were associated with greater risk of relapse in intrapersonal and negative physiological contexts. Understanding relapse contexts for those experiencing PTSD symptoms can help us to understand one mechanism whereby those with both PTSD and SUD have a poorer clinical course. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: A debate exists whether obesity is a risk factor for operative mortality after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). The contradictory findings in the literature may largely be attributable to the variety of methodological approaches used to model the association between body mass index (BMI) and post-CABG outcomes. This study aims to investigate this association, and to uncover possible explanations for the lack of consensus across prior studies. Methods: Data were prospectively collected on 80,792 patients who underwent a CABG procedure during a 14-year period at the 45 Department of Veterans Affairs cardiac surgery programs. Generalized additive models were used to estimate the relationship of BMI and outcomes after a CABG procedure. Results: We found that the relationship of BMI with post-CABG mortality and morbidity is U-shaped with the minimum risk located around a BMI of 30 kg/m2, indicating that patients classified as overweight have the lowest risk, and those in the lower end of the obese range do not have seriously elevated risk. This U-shape relationship is significantly nonlinear and robust to adjustment for other risk factors. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that BMI is an independent predictor of mortality and morbidity after CABG surgery. Previous studies that model BMI linearly or as categories cannot accurately capture this U-shaped relationship and are unlikely to find a significant contribution by including BMI. Further research is needed to determine the mechanisms of risk for patients with low and high BMI and whether interventions to modify BMI may improve patient outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]