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Local VA officials shut down a specialized treatment program for veterans just days after its director went public with concerns that suicidal patients are being endangered by inappropriate care at the Phoenix hospital. (Wagner, 4/1)

Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) says more needs to be done to prevent military suicides, following a report that showed a rise in the number of active-duty troops taking their own lives. There were 268 confirmed suicides among active-duty military personnel in 2014, up from 254 in 2013, according to a Defense Department report released Tuesday. While the number of suicides among active-duty troops increased between 2013 and 2014, last year’s totals are less than the 320 active duty suicides confirmed in 2012. (Carney, 4/1)

For the first time in nearly three decades, Seattle’s Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital campus is poised to expand, with construction of a new mental-health and research building set to start later this month amid a booming veteran population seeking treatment. By the time it’s finished in late 2017, the six-story, 219,000-square-foot building will house more than 250 mental-health staff members and 60 researchers and offer improved services for patients, VA officials say. (Kamb, 4/1)