Sign-up is open for free agritourism training series for U.S. veterans and active military

Mural painter Pamela Kellough gave this barn a patriotic makeover. 
(Photo by Pamela Kellough, Successful Farming)

Veterans and active U.S. military interested in farming agritourism can sign up now to attend the in-person, hybrid or online training series: "Serving the Land: A Veteran's Guide to Farm Stays and Outdoor Experiences."

The training includes "five live online sessions held each Monday evening in March, with topics including budgeting, risk management, goal setting, taxes and recordkeeping, and digital marketing," reports Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming. "On-demand online classes on zoning, insurance, and agritourism laws can be taken anytime."

Cost: Free for active military service members and military veterans
When: March through August
Where: Online and participating farm stay locations across Nebraska (to be announced). Online tours will be provided for participants who can't attend in person.
Registration required by March 16: Click here to register.
Questions/assistance with registering: Contact Kirstin Bailey, kirstinb@cfra.org or 402.870.2390, or Deborah Solie, deborahs@cfra.org or 402.870.1133

Kirstin Bailey, senior project manager with the center, told Prater, "Participants will learn directly from farmers and agritourism leaders about the business of hosting guests on working farms. They will also receive practical tools, examples, and worksheets to help prepare them for launching or expanding guest-based agritourism enterprises."

Stipends are available to cover approved expenses, such as travel, meals and child care. Individuals are welcome to attend with family members. 

This program is sponsored by the Center of Rural Affairs, a nonprofit focused on cultivating strong communities through social and economic efforts and environmental stewardship.

Trump says funds will be paid to active military members during shutdown

Photo by Sonder Bridge Photography, Unsplash

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that active military members will be paid during the government shutdown, Deepa Shivaram and Luke Garrett reported for NPR.

The funds are expected to come from around $8 billion of “unused research and development funding from last year,” Shivaram and Garrett wrote.

A bill called the “Pay Our Troops Act” also has been introduced in Congress to address growing concerns of military members who are unable to feed their families. No action has been taken on the bill.

“Military families deserve better than to have our livelihoods tied to political stalemates,” Besa Pinchotti, CEO of the National Military Family Association said in a statement.

The current stalemate is largely caused by disagreements on funding for health care policies such as Medicaid. Congress must pass an appropriations bill, which is a bill that would fund the government, to end the shutdown.

Many other federal workers are also facing financial burdens and layoffs due to the shutdown. Members of Congress, however, still receive paychecks, though some have refused to take their pay because they believe it is wrong to do so while the military and other federal workers are not getting paid.

Military doctors try to replace therapy for PTSD with 'combat cocktails.' The practice has been linked to suicide risk.

Veterans are 50% more likely to commit suicide than civilian 
adults. (Medication-Induced Suicide Prevention graphic)

Although there is no data to support the practice, many military doctors prescribe "combat cocktails" to veterans with Post- traumatic stress disorder. "The practice, known as 'polypharmacy,' can tranquilize patients to the point of numbness, cause weight gain and increase suicidal thoughts when it involves pharmaceuticals that target the central nervous system," report Shalini Ramachandran and Betsy McKay of The Wall Street Journal. Because roughly a third of military veterans live in rural areas, the post-combat treatment may have a disproportionate impact on rural families and communities.

Medical guidelines for the Department of Veterans Affairs don't recommend giving patients simultaneous mixes of psychiatric medications, and the Food and Drug Administration warns against the practice. And yet, "prescribing cocktails of such drugs is one of the VA’s most common treatments for veterans with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)," the Journal reports. "And the number of veterans on multiple psychiatric drugs is a growing concern at the agency."

Polypharmacy definitions vary, but "the VA defines it as taking five or more medications at the same time," Ramachandran and McKay explain. A growing number of VA physicians and researchers believes such dosing can have disastrous results, because powerful drugs can interact with patients' nervous systems and each other in unpredictable ways.

While talk therapy is considered the best PTSD treatment, therapists are often in short supply, so medical providers have turned to medicine to treat PTSD symptoms. "Nearly 60% of VA patients with PTSD were taking two or more central nervous system drugs at the same time in 2019," the Journal reports. "The VA declined requests from The Wall Street Journal to provide more recent polypharmacy numbers for veterans in its care."

Given that suicide rates among veterans are much higher than those of civilian adults, how the VA treats PTSD is under scrutiny from Congress, advocacy groups and veterans. "Studies by VA researchers link the simultaneous use of multiple psychiatric drugs to suicide risk among veterans," Ramachandran and McKay write. "Yet the agency has been slow to mandate changes."

Department of Veterans Affairs reverses course on mass layoffs after pushback

Veterans make up about 30% of the federal civilian 
workforce. (Gallup photo)

Faced with bipartisan pushback and anger from military veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs is backtracking on its plan to shed more than 80,000 employees. Eric Katz of Government Executive reports, "VA previously told top-level staff it would utilize widespread reductions in force to cut its workforce back to the level it employed in fiscal 2019, leading to a reduction of more than 80,000 employees."

Early 2025 cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency and the VA have already taken a disproportionate toll on veterans' post-service employment, because they make up roughly 30% of the U.S. federal civilian workforce. "The VA has already shed 17,000 employees since January, and plans to cut another 12,000 through additional attrition and separation incentives," Katz explains. "While VA said it would not implement a 'large-scale' or 'department-wide' Reduction in Force, it did not rule out using more targeted layoffs."

Reducing VA staff is framed as a reorganization effort to improve the VA, rather than a way to cut jobs. VA Secretary Doug Collins told Katz, "Since March, we’ve been conducting a holistic review of the department centered on reducing bureaucracy and improving services to veterans. . . . A department-wide RIF is off the table, but that doesn’t mean we’re done improving VA."

The VA has until Monday to "keep its plans under wraps, requiring all of those working on it to take the unusual step of signing a non-disclosure agreement," Katz reports. 

While Collins and some lawmakers said the reversal of mass layoffs was always a possibility, the American Federation of Government Employees council, which represents employees in VA’s central office, "suggested that the change was a direct result of outcry and pushback," Katz adds. "The group said the change in plans was not 'a coincidence, it was a response.' The union added significant damage has been done to the VA workforce."

OPINION: Veterans should not have to prove poverty to 'qualify' for disability payments

Carroll Davis Jr. is a U.S. Marine Corp veteran and adjutant with the Disabled American Veterans Department of Mississippi. A new budget might change his benefits. (Photo by R. Solis, AP Via DY) 

As Congress searches for ways to pay for the massive tax cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill, the Congressional Budget Office has proposed cutting disability payments to U.S. Veterans who make too much money. "America is inching toward means-testing for disabled veterans benefits," writes Christy White in her opinion for The Daily Yonder. "We shouldn’t treat our honorably discharged military personnel like beggars."

Current VA guidelines for disability benefits do not consider a veteran's finances. "Benefits are a direct result of a service-related illness or injury," White writes. Means-testing would examine a veteran's "wages and other income to be considered eligible. … If the government determines they have the 'means' to pay for necessities … they don’t get the benefit."

She believes changes to disability payments could upend veteran income and trickle down to economic difficulties for rural regions. White explains, "There are almost five million disabled U.S. military veterans, and roughly two million of them are Appalachian residents. … How many of our kin folk may be affected by harmful means-testing? Encouraging financial success among veterans should be the goal, not penalizing them for achieving it."

White says asking veterans to prove a "lack of means" to receive military disability payments fails to honor the relationship the U.S. government has with its servicemen and women. She writes, "The suggestion that 'wealthier' veterans should not receive full compensation fails to acknowledge the contractual obligation between them and the U.S. Government; that when they sign up to serve, they are told they’ll be taken care of."

Even as the CBO argues that means-testing veterans’ benefits saves taxpayer dollars, it "ignores the fundamental nature of disability compensation — that it is a payment for service-related injuries, not a poverty relief measure," White writes. "Russell Vought is the director of the OMB. . . . [He] believes that disabled veterans should not be compensated for negative health effects caused by exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan."

WSJ EDITORIAL: Ukraine's drone attack is a 'wake-up call' to U.S. about potential vulnerability

Will an increase in defense spending enable the U.S. to close 
the gap in the drone market? (WSJ video snapshot)

Ukraine's recent drone strike battering of some 40 Russian aircraft, sitting unprotected deep inside that country's borders, serves as a warning to the U.S. about the vulnerability of American military bases and the homeland, writes The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

At least 77 U.S. military installations are strategically placed in rural towns and more are in cities with less than 40,000 residents. The editorial suggests that rural communities may want to pay particular attention to military discussions about international drone warfare, domestic missile protections and U.S. drone production problems.

"The details about Ukraine’s daring operation are few, but Kyiv managed to sneak cheap drones across the border and use them to destroy costly Russian military assets," the editorial states. "The bang for Ukraine’s buck was considerable. You don’t have to be a fan of thrillers to imagine a similar scenario in the United States."

In light Ukraine's drone attack success, President Trump’s Golden Dome missile-defense shield idea doesn't sound so outlandish, the WSJ board concluded. "The headlines are preoccupied with space-based interceptors. But the U.S. is exposed to many threats besides ballistic missiles — from drones and spy blimps to cruise missiles launched off submarines."

In 2023, the bipartisan Strategic Posture Commission "warned that the U.S. needs better integrated air and missile defenses against 'coercive attacks' from Russia and China, and such an attack could come from conventional weapons," writes the board. "In a crisis over the Taiwan Strait, Xi Jinping might threaten the Commander in Chief: Stay out of the Western Pacific or you never know what might happen to your pricey F-22s in Alaska."

The editorial cites a January report from Thomas Shugart and Timothy Walton at the Hudson Institute that criticized Air Force plans to protect new B-21 bombers with what they referred to as "sunshades." The report points out that a lack of structural protection "could leave aircraft 'exposed to threats, including lethal' unmanned aerial vehicles," the board adds.

Beyond the tragedy of Sept. 11, Americans are used to wars "fought far from home. . . but everyone in the U.S. will be on the front lines of the next conflict," the editorial states. "Political leaders could be doing much more to educate the country about this vulnerability, rather than boasting that the U.S. military is the best it has ever been. It isn’t."

Watch the entire WSJ video on China's drone dominance, here.

Federal layoffs leave many military veterans unemployed. If firings continue, the 'burden will only grow on veterans.'

Veterans make up roughly 30% of federal civilian
employees. (Adobe Stock photo)

U.S. veterans are losing their jobs as the Trump administration continues to terminate federal employees to cut costs. "From layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs to a Pentagon purge of archives that documented diversity in the military, veterans have been acutely affected by Trump’s actions," reports Stephen Groves of The Associated Press. "The burden will only grow on veterans, who make up roughly 30% of the over 2 million civilians who work for the federal government."

Even though more than half of all military veterans voted for Trump, many openly reject his current money-saving tactics. "At a series of town halls last week, veterans angrily confronted Republican members as they defended the cuts made under Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency," Groves writes. Most Republican lawmakers have continued back Trump's approach to saving dollars, even if it cost veterans jobs.

While Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson "advised his members to skip the town halls and claimed that they were being filled with paid protesters, some Republicans were still holding them and trying to respond to the criticism," Groves explains. "At a town hall, Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw told the audience, 'We’re learning about this stuff at the speed of light, the way you are. I think there’s been some babies thrown out with the bath water here, but we’re still gathering information on it.'"

Some terminated veterans "have now been put on administrative leave, but a sense of dread and confusion is still hanging over much of the federal workforce," Groves reports. "Other [veterans] are angry they have been portrayed as deadweight and cut from jobs they felt played a direct role in helping veterans get health care."

Democrats see veteran firings as a way to recast their image and "have zeroed in on the cause of protecting veterans," Groves writes. "In both the House and the Senate, Democrats have introduced legislation to shield veterans from the mass layoffs. And when Trump spoke to Congress this month, many lawmakers invited veterans as their guests."

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who is an Iraq War veteran and former assistant secretary at the VA, told Groves, “They said Donald Trump promised to watch out for them. And the first thing he does is fire them.”

Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, who is also a veteran, was unsure if the firings would shift  veteran political alliances but said the terminations give Democrats an opportunity to "hammer home a message," Groves reports. He told Groves, “Elon Musk and his buddies would rather just deal with the bottom line and try to save billions of dollars so they can have more tax cuts at the expense of veterans.”

Changes at the VA cause chaos and confusion. Some VA officials are scrambling to roll back cuts.

The VA treats 9.1 million veterans, and almost a quarter
live in rural America. (Adobe Stock photo)

A ripple effect from staff firings and hiring freezes at the Department of Veterans Affairs has already impacted veteran care and medical research. Some worry what deeper cuts could bring, report Roni Caryn Rabin and Nicholas Nehamas of The New York Times. The swift changes pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have "disrupted studies involving patients awaiting experimental treatments, forced some facilities to fire support staff and created uncertainty."

Despite the Trump administration's promise to "preserve core patient services," DOGE fired employees who provide basic services, including "workers who purchase medical supplies, schedule appointments and arrange rides for patients to see their doctors. Many are veterans themselves," the Times reports. "All were 'probationary' employees, meaning they were relatively new on the job and had fewer legal protections."

The promised "much deeper round of cuts — eliminating some 80,000 jobs and reviewing tens of thousands of contracts" has some Republicans worried, Rabin and Nehamas explain. "The V.A. is one of the most politically sensitive departments in the government, serving a constituency courted heavily by Republicans, including Trump." Almost a quarter of the 9.1 million veterans the VA serves live in rural America, a segment of the population that also favored Trump in the 2024 election.

The VA's long history of waste and questionable spending make it an unsurprising DOGE target. "A report by the agency’s inspector general’s office noted 'improper and unknown' payments totaling $3.2 billion in fiscal year 2023," the Times reports."In an initial push, the V.A. tried to cancel roughly 875 contracts [which included] services like sterilizing medical equipment, maintaining boilers and generators, filling prescriptions. . . .V.A. officials were soon making frantic appeals to roll some of [the cuts] back."

Military members discharged for not getting Covid vaccine can now be reinstated with full benefits

Some soldiers can be reinstated
with full rank and pay. (Unsplash image)

More than 8,000 military troops were discharged between 2021 and 2023 due to “their refusal to get a mandated Covid-19 shot,” reports Nathaniel Weixel for The Hill. However, those discharged soldiers may be eligible to be reinstated to their full former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonuses or other compensation, according to a January White House executive order.

The order made it clear that it would only apply to soldiers who request to be reinstated.

Weixel reported, “The Pentagon allowed dismissed soldiers to reapply once the mandate was rescinded in 2023, but only 43 chose to do so, according to federal statistics.”

In 2021, the Department of Defense added Covid-19 vaccines to the list of required vaccinations for its enlisted members.

Despite the vaccine's endorsement from the Food and Drug Administration, many military members voiced concern and confusion about the vaccine -- particularly its use of new mRNA technology -- and refused to receive it.

The executive order said it would allow “service members who provide a written and sworn attestation that they voluntarily left the service or allowed their service to lapse according to appropriate procedures, rather than be vaccinated under the vaccine mandate, to return to service with no impact on their service status, rank, or pay.”

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.

Military community needs more access to the great outdoors; a new report explores obstacles and solutions

Yosemite National Park
(Photo by Johannes Andersson, Unsplash)

Spending time exploring nature has proven especially important for the U.S. military community's mental and physical health, which is why the Sierra Club Military Outdoors campaign and the University of Kentucky’s Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky have been investigating how to make the outdoors more accessible for all armed services members, their families and veterans.

The partnership just released its initial report and will host a virtual briefing at 1 p.m., E.T., on Wednesday, Aug. 28, to go through the report, provide community reactions to the findings and offer a space for questions. Register for the briefing at https://sc.org/SCMOReportBriefing.

Particularly for veterans, spending time outside walking or participating in activities can supplement treatment for injuries and disabilities, including post-traumatic stress disorder. However, safely accessing the outdoors is not always easy for the military community, and barriers such as cost, transportation, experience level and mobility can interfere. These obstacles and how plans could be enacted to remove them prompted the report.

To research outdoor uses and accessibility, the SCMO conducted a series of in-person listening sessions in California, Florida and Georgia, as well as a virtual listening session for women veterans and a nationwide online survey that drew respondents from 48 states. The report combines research from the listening sessions and survey results.

Overall, the report's recommendations include improving equitable access with a new grant program supporting outdoor access programs focusing on underserved veteran populations, establishing an Office of Outdoor Recreation that would coordinate and support efforts around outdoor access for veterans and military, and expand and fund the new Military Families Outdoors Program, which generates programming and initiatives on public lands to improve the health of the military community.

Companies aren't the only ones that spread the use of 'forever chemicals;' the U.S. military is also responsible

Firefighting foam was created in the 1960s.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Commercial product companies aren't the only ones to blame for PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," making their way into U.S. soil and drinking water. Through its extensive use of firefighting foam, the U.S. military has also contributed to the slowly degrading and noxious chemicals spreading across the country, reports Sachi Kitajima Mulkey of Grist. "The Department of Defense is among the nation's biggest users of firefighting foam and says 80% of active and decommissioned bases require cleanup."

The Environmental Protection Agency doesn't consider any exposure to PFOA and PFOS, two of the most toxic PFAS, safe. In mid-April, the agency also "designated these two compounds' hazardous substances' under the federal Superfund law, making it easier to force polluters to shoulder the costs of cleaning them up," Mulkey explains. "Meeting these regulations means that almost all of the 715 military sites and surrounding communities under Defense Department investigation for contamination will likely require remediation."

The history of PFAS chemicals dates back to a 1930s lab accident, but their extensive commercial use in products began in the 1950s and 60s. Mulkey reports, "In the 1960s, the Defense Department worked with 3M, one of the largest manufacturers of PFAS chemicals, to develop a foam called AFFF that can extinguish high-temperature fires. The PFAS act as a surfactant, helping the material spread more quickly. By the 1970s, every military base, Navy ship, civilian airport, and fire station regularly used AFFF."

From that point, PFAS chemicals were used in everything from cookware to raincoats to carpets. It would take decades for government agencies and communities to realize that these human-made, fluorine-based chemicals were harmful to animals and humans. Once their harmfulness came to light, another set of problems evolved — how to remove the chemicals from the environment, which research has proven is both expensive and difficult to accomplish.

Today, military sites have some of the most extensive cleanup work. "Congress ordered the department to publish the findings of drinking and groundwater tests on and around bases," Mulkey reports. "Results showed nearly 50 sites with extremely high levels of contamination and hundreds more with levels above what was then the EPA's health advisory. Following further congressional pressure, the military announced plans to implement interim cleanup measures at three dozen locations."

"Nationwide, the Environmental Working Group found unsafe water in wells near 63 military bases in 29 states."