Veterans group honors Shelley Berkley

Former Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley received the inaugural Jonathan Abbinett Award from the nonprofit Nevada Democratic Veterans and Military Families Caucus during a ceremony Wednesday at the North Las Vegas Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Abbinett, a Vietnam War Army veteran and longtime Las Vegas veterans advocate, died of cancer last year.

“What an incredible soldier he was in the battle to obtain more benefits for our veterans,” said Berkley, a key player in establishing the VA Medical Center that opened in 2012. The award “means everything in the world to me,” she said, adding the medical center “has exceeded all my expectations.”