Hundreds of veterans packed VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on Thursday to find resources available to them, especially for suicide prevention.

Veterans whom the government declares incapable of managing their own affairs would have easier access to firearms under spending legislation expected to be signed by President Joe Biden in the coming days.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says many of the most crucial benefits and services offered by the VA will still be available if there is a government shutdown.

A woman who has worked for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for more than 19 years turned herself in Friday on a federal arrest warrant that accuses her of stealing money from the VA.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans have received additional benefits in the past year after President Joe Biden signed legislation expanding coverage for conditions connected to burn pits that were used to destroy trash and potentially toxic materials.

All Department of Veterans Affairs police officers will begin using body cameras and dash cameras that will automatically start recording if an officer’s firearm is drawn or if emergency lights are activated by the end of the year.

The federal government wrote duplicate checks to doctors who provided care for veterans, costing taxpayers as much as $128 million in extra payments, according to a new watchdog report out this week.

Enrollment will open Jan. 1, 2023, and veterans will be able to complete their application online and receive instant decisions.

Military veterans battling cancer because they were exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances, will have their benefits claims expedited to ensure they get “timely access to care and benefits.”

A 55-year-old St. Marys, Georgia, dive shop operator pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in connection with a scheme to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Justice announced last week.

Veterans, service members and families: What you are feeling watching Afghanistan fall to the enemy America fought for nearly 20 years is normal and there is help for you to get through it.

Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t want Florida businesses to require customers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations to get served or to enter establishments, so he swayed lawmakers this spring to pass legislation banning “vaccine passports.” Now, the governor says he also doesn’t support hospitals requiring their staff members to get vaccinated.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin processing disability claims Aug. 2 for asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis on a presumptive basis based on presumed particulate matter exposures during military service in Southwest Asia and certain other areas — if these conditions manifested within 10 years of a qualifying period of military service.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for all the federal agency’s health care personnel and is imposing a two-month deadline for those employees to get vaccinated.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has became the first major federal agency to require health care workers to get COVID-19 vaccines.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In two years, the Department of Veterans Affairs will open a new medical center on Jacksonville’s Northside. The new facility, near River City Marketplace, will replace two smaller VA centers. Crews have started clearing the land, which will turn into a new outpatient medical center on Max Leggett Parkway. “The Duval County Jacksonville market is our largest area, most densely populated area, for veterans,” said Chad Adams, VA’s Lake City Medical Center Associate Director. “We will offer primary care, mental health care, imaging, specialty medical care as well as having 30 beds residential rehab on site which is unique to the area,” said Adams.

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2020 file photo, former national security adviser Susan Rice takes part in a discussion on global leadership at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. President-elect Joe Biden is naming Susan Rice as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. The move marks a surprising shift for Rice, a longtime Democratic foreign policy expert who served as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser and U.N. ambassador. In selecting Rice and McDonough, Biden is continuing to stockpile his administration with prominent members of the Obama administration. In choosing Rice to oversee the White House council, advisers said Biden is signaling the importance of domestic policy in his early agenda. McDonough was previously Obama’s deputy national security adviser, including during the Navy SEAL raid in 2011 that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and was a longtime congressional staffer.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The Department of Veterans Affairs' new outpatient clinic in St. Johns County is expected to be named after Pvt. First Class Leo C. Chase Jr., the first man from St. Johns County to be killed in the Vietnam War. This new VA outpatient clinic located on County Road 207 at Deerfield Preserve Boulevard is expected to open before the end of the year. Chase was killed on Nov. 15, 1965, in the Ia Drang battle dramatized in the book and film, We Were Soldiers. “At 23 years old Private Chase was killed while serving with an Airmobile unit in Vietnam just five days before he would have gone home.

The VA is not the same VA as four years ago, insisted acting VA deputy secretary Pam Powers, pointing to increased outreach to women and improved trust ratings in the VA from employees and patients alike according to internal polling. His effort seeks to reinforce a call by top Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week for a faster timeline. About 1 in 3 VA employees said they witnessed an act of sexual harassment. Overall, an estimated 26% of female and 14% of male VA employees experienced harassment during the two-year period. A study released by the VA last year found 1 in 4 women veterans using VA health care reported inappropriate comments by male veterans on VA grounds, raising concerns they may delay or miss their treatments.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON President Donald Trump is unveiling a long-awaited national plan Wednesday to stem a persistently high number of veteran suicides, with wide-ranging initiatives from firearm safety and wellness programs at workplaces to added barriers near railroads and bridges. Still, it remained unclear how much of the plan could result in immediate concrete action, especially in a presidential election year. Much of the effort will need congressional action as well as cooperation from governors and local groups juggling priorities of public safety and health in a pandemic. Currently, about 20 veterans die by suicide each day, about 1.5 times higher than those who havent served in the military. In particular, younger veterans and women generally were more skeptical of Trump, who received multiple draft deferments to avoid going to Vietnam.

FILE - In this March 27, 2019, file photo Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, left, speaks with Veterans Health Administration Executive in Charge, Dr. Richard Stone, second from left, before a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. To handle a possible second wave of COVID-19, it would need a six-month supply. A future pandemic wave may test all of us in our preparation, Stone told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The Associated Press previously reported that VA health care facilities struggled with shortages of workers and protective equipment, forcing employees to reuse masks for days or weeks, even as VA leaders denied that it lacked adequate supplies. As of Tuesday, VA had 1,665 staff cases of COVID-19, including 133 that were considered active. At least 33 VA employees have died of the virus, according to VA data.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)WASHINGTON Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said Thursday that his department has all but stopped use of an unproven malaria drug on veterans with COVID-19. Major veterans organizations had called on the VA to explain its use of hydroxychloroquine after an analysis of VA hospital data was published month showing hundreds of veterans who took the drug saw no benefit for COVID-19. They remained at higher levels before tapering off in late April amid backlash over results of the VA hospital analysis and as remdesivir emerged as a form of treatment. The Food and Drug Administration has warned against the drug and said hydroxychloroquine should only be used for the coronavirus in formal studies. The VA has said it prescribed the drug only when medically appropriate, after full discussion between doctor and patient about the risks.

Still, it acknowledged that VA Secretary Robert Wilkie had wrongly asserted publicly without evidence that the drug had been shown to benefit younger veterans. In the first week of May, 17 patients had received the drug for COVID-19, according to VA data obtained by the AP. VA has not endorsed nor discouraged the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients and has left those decisions to providers and their patients, the VA said. The Food and Drug Administration has warned against the drug combination and said hydroxychloroquine should only be used for the coronavirus in formal studies. The analysis of VA hospital data, done by independent researchers at two universities with VA approval, was not a rigorous experiment.

(CNN) - Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie issued new policies Wednesday allowing religious symbols to be publicly displayed in VA facilities nationwide. According to the VA, the new policies will:Allow the inclusion in appropriate circumstances of religious content in publicly accessible displays at VA facilities. Allow patients and their guests to request and be provided religious literature, symbols and sacred texts during visits to VA chapels and during their treatment at VA. Allow VA to accept donations of religious literature, cards and symbols at its facilities and distribute them to VA patrons under appropriate circumstances or to a patron who requests them. But while the court ruled in favor of the cross, it did not reach agreement on how to more broadly address the issue of religious symbols on public property.