Stateside Predator Operators and Combat Stress, IL Gov. Moves to Reduce Vets' Property Taxes, Female Vets and Sexual Trauma, Free Journal Articles

• AP's Scott Lindlaw reports that even troops shielded and far from the Iraqi combat zone are having similar psychological reactions as those deployed overseas. "The Air National Guardsmen who operate Predator drones over Iraq via remote control, launching missile attacks from the safety of Southern California, 7,000 miles away...[are citing stressors from] the exhaustion that comes with the shift work of this 24-7 assignment; the classified nature of the job that demands silence at the breakfast table; and the images transmitted via video."
  
  
• Illinois has been on the cutting edge when it comes to finding local solutions to problems caused by inadequate federal veterans' benefits systems. Even before the new GI Bill became law, Illinois picked up the college tuition tab for its vets. It offers a PTSD screening program and 24-hour hotline for returning veterans via its Warrior Assistance Program. And now, Gov. Rod Blagojevich is set to use his amendatory veto to exempt thousands of wounded Illinois veterans from having to pay property taxes. The House and Senate must approve it before it can become law next January.
  
  
• Healing Combat Trauma blog has some interesting insights and strong suggestions on the problems some women are facing in the military in "Twice Betrayed: Women Veterans and Military Sexual Trauma."
  
  
• Want to learn more about PTSD? Sage Publications is offering free access to its large collection of psychology, counseling, and psychiatry journals now through the end of September, 2008.