The lifestyle center at Fort Lewis is still attracting a lot of attention. It's a proposed 600,000-square-foot open-air shopping area, complete with fountains, sidewalk cafes and national-chain vendors.

I wrote about the Army & Air Force Exchange Service's plans for the center, and my colleague, columnist Dan Voelpel, offered his opinion.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce today posted the PowerPoint and video an AAFES official presented to the Military Affairs Committee earlier this month. Check it out here.

It's been up for a little while, but in case you've missed it, there's an official Web site for Joint Base Lewis-McChord. It's pretty chock-full of information -- like everything from how joint basing works to the effect on the proposed cross-base highway -- and worth a glance.

It also features videos, interactive maps and news articles.

Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base public affairs officials have been working on the month for more than three months. The neighboring installations will become a joint base in January 2010, as mandated by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

The Census Bureau is out with some statistics on the country’s veteran population. Check ’em out, by the numbers:

Total
23.6 million: Number of veterans in the United States

Gender
1.8 million: Number of female veterans
16 percent: Percentage of Gulf War veterans who were females

Race
18.8 million: Number of non-Hispanic white veterans
2.4 million: Number of black veterans
1.1 million: Number of Hispanic veterans
278,000: Number of Asian veterans
165,000: Number of American Indian or Alaska Native veterans
27,000: Number of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander veterans

Age
9.3 million: Number of veterans 65 or older
1.9 million: Number of veterans younger than 35

Era
2.9 million: Number of living veterans serving during World War II
3 million: Number of living veterans serving during the Korean War
7.9 million: Number of living Vietnam War-era veterans
358,000: Number of living veterans who served during both Vietnam and the Gulf War eras
315,000: Number of living veterans who served during both the Korean and Vietnam wars
69,000: Number of living veterans who served during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War
33 percent: Percentage of living veterans who served during the Vietnam era

A symposium on veterans and transportation that organizers are billing as the first of its kind in the country is coming tomorrow to American Lake.

The meeting should attract veteran service organizations, federal and state officials and community and public transportation providers. According to a press release from the Community Transportation Association of America, the symposium has three goals: identify programs in Washington providing transportation to veterans, identify needs and gaps in transportation services and develop a veterans’ transportation demonstration project to improve access to necessary health care.

The symposium will be held at Building 9 of the VA’s American Lake Campus from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Veterans and members of the public are invited.