When it comes to thanking U.S. military veterans, Americans have many ways to show appreciation

Thanking military veterans can be in-person or through
advocacy. (Photo by Wesley Tingey, Unsplash)

The list of things most Americans can agree on might seem short sometimes. But surveys show it includes an affection for U.S. postal workers, pride in our National Park Service and a shared belief that our military veterans deserve good jobs and health care upon retirement. And while Veteran's Day is in November, the entire month can be a time for Americans to express their appreciation and care for military veterans.

One way civilians can support veterans is by getting to know their backgrounds and thanking them in person when possible. For instance, roughly 20% of the U.S. military hail from rural America and many experience homesickness. While serving in the U.S., most military personnel live on bases across the country. Here is a list of where you can find them. Thanking your serviceman or woman can begin with asking where home is or what branch they served in and where.

Another way to assist current veterans is to help them find viable employment as they re-enter civilian life. To that end, every November, Forbes magazine teams up with market research firm Statista to "survey more than 24,000 veterans (those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, the Reserves or the National Guard) working for companies with more than 1,000 employees in the U.S.," reports Rachel Rabkin Peachman of Forbes. Respondents are asked to rate and review their employers "on criteria ranging from work atmosphere and salary to health benefits, career development opportunities, and programs tailored to veterans." Forbes' full list of "Best Employers for Veterans" is here.

Providing medical and mental health care for veterans also needs civilian advocacy. Since 20% of the U.S. military call rural America home, it makes sense that around a quarter of all retired military live in rural places, which can be peaceful and scenic, but can also make getting to and from health care providers challenging. Supporting rural telehealth and broadband expansion can be another way to help veterans thrive.

For people looking for more hands-on ideas that make veterans know they are appreciated, the Wounded Warrior Project has more suggestions here.

Weekly editors' group sends sympathy to Capital-Gazette; GoFundMe account set up to help journalists at daily

Most of the paper's front page today

The president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors has sent a letter to the daily Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., where five staffers were shot to death yesterday by a gunman angered at the newspaper's coverage of his legal troubles. (Staffers had been warned to call police if they saw him, The Wall Street Journal reports.)

"Our thoughts are with you and your staff," Steve Ranson wrote. "All journalists including our community editors, general managers and publishers — both active and retired — are family during this time of sorrow, and we all feel the pain from this senseless act."

Ranson, editor emeritus of the Lahontan Valley News in Fallon, Nev., added a localized note: "This community has considered ourselves as an unofficial sister city of Annapolis because of the many Navy pilots who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and are either assigned or have trained at Naval Air Station Fallon and the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center. Our community also sends its heartfelt thoughts to both the Capital Gazette family and residents of Annapolis."

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help journalists at the newspaper, which is owned by the Baltimore Sun Media Group.

W.Va. town is for sale for $1 million; part of NSA base that allegedly collected cellphone data

If you have a cool $1 million sitting around, a rural West Virginia town three hours outside Washington, D.C., could be yours for the taking. Sugar Grove, W.Va, which includes "80 homes on 122 acres, together with a gym, full-size basketball court, bowling alley, soccer field, and police and fire stations," is on the market for $1 million, Lori Aratani reports for The Washington Post. Keeping up the extensive grounds costs the federal government about $4.6 million per year.

The town, which also includes 12 guest cabins, is "nestled between the Allegheny Mountains and the South Fork of the Potomac River," Aratani writes. It's seven miles from George Washington National Forest "in the midst of a 13,000-square-mile area of the U.S. known as the National Radio Quiet Zone. All radio communications in the area are restricted." Online bidding began in February, but has yet to receive any takers.

The town's lifeblood was the Sugar Grove Station naval base, which closed in September, leading to mass layoffs, Aratani writes. One problem is the secrecy of the base's nature. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the base was "one of 10 'signals-intelligence activity designators' used by the National Security Agency to collect international cellphone location information and other data. An array of giant parabolic dishes obscured by thick forest cover are housed on a mountain ridge just over a mile southeast of the main property. These, however, are not part of the sale. The NSA, through a spokeswoman, had no comment on the matter."

"For nearly a half-century, the base served as an anchor for the tiny towns that dot rural Pendleton County—7,471 residents spread out over nearly 700 square miles. In an area where good jobs are hard to come by or require a one-hour trip over winding mountain roads, the loss of civilian jobs with their benefits and health coverage was deeply felt," Aratani writes. William Smith Jr. is the only employee on the base, hired to take care of the property until an owner can be found. When asked by a prospective buyer the nature of the base, he responds, “Don’t know. And if I did, I don’t know that I could tell you.”

Weekly's photographer detained by MPs for taking pictures from public place; gets apology

The Defense Department has apologized for twice detaining weekly newspaper photographer Nic Coury for taking photos, while on public property, of the exterior of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. (One of those photos shows the school's entrance.)

Coury, of the Monterey County Weekly, was taking photos from a public sidewalk April 2, then again April 4, when he was stopped, questioned, and told to delete his pictures, Mary Duan writes for the paper. "Coury asked if he was being detained and the officers told him 'no,' but when asked if he was free to leave, they also said, 'no,'" Duan writes. The second time he was detained, when he asked "under what specific law or authority the Department of Defense officers were operating, Deputy Chief of Police Shayne Gardner told him: 'We can arrest you and you can find out the interpretation in court if you want to go that route.'"

The department admitted that its police were in the wrong, but despite the fact that its deputy chief was involved, blamed the incident on a training issue. A school spokesman told the paper in an email, "While the security personnel thought they were performing their duties appropriately, they acted beyond their actual authority. We have no authority to detain personnel outside the base on public property." (Read more)