U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTS FOR MAY 19, 2014

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

CONTRACTS

ARMY

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Grand Prairie, Texas, was awarded a $212,326,161 modification (P00006) to an indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity foreign military sales contract W31P4Q-13-D-0030 for services to the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Support Center. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. This contract involves foreign military sales to Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Netherlands, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Estimated completion date is Dec. 31, 2017. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal (Missile), Alabama is the contracting activity.
T. L. Wallace Construction, Inc., Columbia, Mississippi, was awarded a $45,000,000 firm-fixed- price contract for emergency temporary roof repairs (residential structures) in support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster response. States affected are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. The estimated completion date is May 31, 2019. Bids were solicited via the Internet, with 11 received. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity (W9128F-14-D-0010).

S&M and Associates Inc.*, Pascagoula, Mississippi, was awarded a $45,000,000 firm-fixed- price contract for emergency temporary roof repairs (residential structures) in support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster response. States affected are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, District Of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. The estimated completion date is May 31, 2019. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 16 received. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity (W9128F-14-D-0011).

Artesian Contracting Company, Inc.*, Albany, Georgia, was awarded a $45,000,000 firm-fixed- price contract for emergency temporary roof repairs (residential structures) in support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster response. States affected are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Funding and work location will be determined with each order. The estimated completion date is May 31, 2019. Bids were solicited via the Internet with seven received. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity (W9128F-14-D-0013).

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

Genentech USA Inc., South San Francisco, California, has been awarded a maximum $56,638,585 modification (P00003) exercising the first option period on a one-year base contract (SPM2D0-13-D-0005) with seven one-year option periods. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for various pharmaceutical products in support of the Corporate Exigency Contract Program. Location of performance is California with a May 19, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 war-stopper funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rochester Optical,* Rochester, New York, has been awarded a maximum $19,080,028 modification (P00005) exercising the fourth option period on a one-year base contract (SPM2DE-10-D-7545) with seven four-year option periods. This is a fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that covers the selection of a manufacturer for the optical electronic catalog program and makes various optical frames available for purchase. Location of performance is New York with a June 2, 2015 performance completion date. Using military services are the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and federal civilian agencies. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2014 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

NAVY

Campbell-Ewald Co., Detroit, Michigan, is being awarded a $55,433,097 modification (P0001) to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00189-09-D-Z040) for advertising and marketing services in support of Navy recruiting for the Navy Recruiting Command, Millington, Tennessee. The modification includes an eight-month base period and four one-month option periods, which, if exercised, would bring the total of the modification to $85,000.000. Work under this contract will be performed in Detroit, Michigan (99 percent) and Millington, Tennessee (one percent). Work is expected to be completed by January 2015; if all options are exercised, performance will end May 2015. No funding will be obligated with the execution of the modification; therefore, none of the funding will expire before the end of the current fiscal year. Funding will be provided on individual task orders issued against the contract during the period of the extension. This requirement was not competitively procured pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c)(1);only one responsible source, as implemented by FAR 6.302-1. NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Liverpool, New York, is being awarded a $31,777,262 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-13-C-6292) to exercise options for the production of nine TB-37/U Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) production units, tow cables, electro-optical slip rings, drogues, and shipping products and the performance of engineering services. The TB-37/U MFTA is the next generation passive and active sonar receiver. It affords several enhancements to the AN/SQR-19 Tactical Towed Array System allowing greater coverage, increased capability/reliability, and reduced obsolescence. The TB-37/U MFTA significantly contributes to the capability of surface ships to detect, localize and prosecute undersea threats and is a critical sensor to a combat systems suite. Work will be performed in Liverpool, New York (66 percent), Millersville, Maryland (33 percent), and Marion, Massachusetts (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by July 2016. Fiscal 2014 other procurement, Navy; fiscal 2014 research, development, test & evaluation; and fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding in the amount of $30,059,740 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

Complete Parachute Solutions, Inc., DeLand, Florida, is being awarded a $21,717,415 firm-fixed-priced contract to provide training and technical support for the Multi-Mission Parachute Course (MMPC). The contractor will train non-military free- fall qualified Marines in military free- fall and parachuting techniques. The MMPC will provide students with the unique knowledge and technical skills needed to safely pack and jump the multi-mission parachute system. Work will be done in Coolidge, Arizona, and is expected to be completed May 2018. Fiscal 2014 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $2,637,910 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is sole-source procurement in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(B); only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Virginia, is the contracting activity (M67854-14-C-1000).
BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair, Norfolk, Virginia, is being awarded a $12,361,701 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-10-C-4308) for USS Mason (DDG 87) fiscal 2014 selected restricted availability. A selected restricted availability includes the planning and execution of depot-level maintenance, alterations, and modifications that will update and improve the ship's military and technical capabilities. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by October 2014. Fiscal 2014 operations & maintenance, Navy contract funds in the amount of $12,361,701 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Norfolk Ship Support Activity, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $9,830,814 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-02-C-3002) to execute Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe for the F-35 air system. Work will be performed in El Segundo, California (35 percent); San Diego, California (35 percent); and Fort Worth, Texas (30 percent), and is expected to be completed in May 2016. No funds are being obligated at time of award. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Entwistle Co., Hudson, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $7,807,698 firm-fixed-price contract for the manufacture of torpedo and submarine wire coils. Work will be performed in Hudson, Massachusetts, and work is expected to be completed by December 2016. Fiscal 2012, 2013, and 2014 weapons procurement Navy funds in the amount of $7,807,698 will be obligated at the time of award. Contract funds in the amount of $1,213,247 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contract was competitively procured, via the Federal Business Opportunities website and the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with one offer received in response to the solicitation. NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00104-14-C-K056).

AIR FORCE

Jacobs Technology, Inc., Bedford, Massachusetts, has been awarded a $21,487,699 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursable contract to provide engineering and technology acquisition support services. These services consist of disciplined systems/specialty engineering and technical/information assurance services, support, and products using established government, contractor, and industry processes. Work will be performed at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, Lackland AFB, Texas, Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2014. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal year 2013 and 2014 research and development, operations and maintenance, and DoD Working Capital funds in the amount of $1,131,751 will be obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/PZM, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (FA8721-14-C-0017).

*Small Business

U.S. CONGRATULATES PEOPLE OF CAMEROON ON THEIR NATIONAL DAY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Cameroon National Day

Press Statement

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Washington, DC

May 19, 2014

---

On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people of Cameroon as you celebrate your national day on May 20.

The United States and Cameroon have enjoyed a productive relationship since we first established diplomatic relations in 1960. Our bond has strengthened over the years, in part through our shared commitment to support peace and stability in central Africa.
Our governments work together on many fronts. We are working to curtail illicit trafficking. We are working to protect the environment. We are working to improve maritime security. We are working to address the threat posed by terrorism. And we are working to support the stabilization of the Central African Republic through the provision of U.S. equipment and training to Cameroonian troops deployed there as peacekeepers.

Our trade and economic relationship continues to grow as U.S. investment in Cameroon steadily rises. As Cameroon prepares to celebrate 42 years of unity, we welcome the opportunity to strengthen our partnership. Together, we can help bring greater security and greater prosperity to the entire continent.

I offer you my best wishes on this important anniversary. The United States looks forward to continued cooperation to promote democracy, human rights, and shared prosperity in Cameroon and across the region.

5 CHINESE MILITARY HACKERS CHARGED FOR CYBER ESPIONAGE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, May 19, 2014

U.S. Charges Five Chinese Military Hackers for Cyber Espionage Against U.S. Corporations and a Labor Organization for Commercial Advantage

First Time Criminal Charges Are Filed Against Known State Actors for Hacking
A grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania (WDPA) indicted five Chinese military hackers for computer hacking, economic espionage and other offenses directed at six American victims in the U.S. nuclear power, metals and solar products industries.

The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to hack into American entities, to maintain unauthorized access to their computers and to steal information from those entities that would be useful to their competitors in China, including state-owned enterprises (SOEs).  In some cases, it alleges, the conspirators stole trade secrets that would have been particularly beneficial to Chinese companies at the time they were stolen.  In other cases, it alleges, the conspirators also stole sensitive, internal communications that would provide a competitor, or an adversary in litigation, with insight into the strategy and vulnerabilities of the American entity.

“This is a case alleging economic espionage by members of the Chinese military and represents the first ever charges against a state actor for this type of hacking,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.  “The range of trade secrets and other sensitive business information stolen in this case is significant and demands an aggressive response.  Success in the global market place should be based solely on a company’s ability to innovate and compete, not on a sponsor government’s ability to spy and steal business secrets.  This Administration will not tolerate actions by any nation that seeks to illegally sabotage American companies and undermine the integrity of fair competition in the operation of the free market.”

“For too long, the Chinese government has blatantly sought to use cyber espionage to obtain economic advantage for its state-owned industries,” said FBI Director James B. Comey.  “The indictment announced today is an important step.  But there are many more victims, and there is much more to be done.  With our unique criminal and national security authorities, we will continue to use all legal tools at our disposal to counter cyber espionage from all sources.”

“State actors engaged in cyber espionage for economic advantage are not immune from the law just because they hack under the shadow of their country’s flag,” said John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.  “Cyber theft is real theft and we will hold state sponsored cyber thieves accountable as we would any other transnational criminal organization that steals our goods and breaks our laws.”

“This 21st century burglary has to stop,” said David Hickton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.  “This prosecution vindicates hard working men and women in Western Pennsylvania and around the world who play by the rules and deserve a fair shot and a level playing field.”

Partial Summary of the Indictment
 Time period : 2006-2014.
Defendants :  Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, who were officers in Unit 61398 of the Third Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).  The indictment alleges that Wang, Sun, and Wen, among others known and unknown to the grand jury, hacked or attempted to hack into U.S. entities named in the indictment, while Huang and Gu supported their conspiracy by, among other things, managing infrastructure (e.g., domain accounts) used for hacking.

Victims : Westinghouse Electric Co. (Westinghouse), U.S. subsidiaries of SolarWorld AG (SolarWorld), United States Steel Corp. (U.S. Steel), Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI), the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW) and Alcoa Inc.


.

NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO STABILIZATION OF IRAQ CONTINUED

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Letter to the Congress -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to the Stabilization of Iraq

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Mr. President:)

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq that was declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, is to continue in effect beyond May 22, 2014.

Obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Accordingly, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq.

Sincerely,

BARACK OBAMA

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT BOSTON COLLEGE'S COMMENCEMENT

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at Boston College's 138th Commencement Ceremony

Remarks

John Kerry

Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

May 19, 2014

---

SECRETARY KERRY: Your Eminence Cardinal O’Malley, Father President Leahy, Father Monan, Father Devino, members of the faculty, my fellow recipients of honorary degrees, parents, siblings, and the distinguished class of 2014: Congratulations to everybody here today.

You know I thought I had a lot to worry about as I was listening to the introduction, between Afghanistan and Iran and so forth. But now I’m worried about where Challenger is. (Laughter.) I will leave here knowing that Boston College liberates eagles. (Laughter.)

It’s a great honor to be with you. You all might remember from English class that the great American novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote that you can’t go home again. Or maybe you know that quote because it’s the same thing that your parents are telling you now. (Laughter.)

Well, Wolfe had obviously never been to Boston College. It is nice to be off an airplane, but my friends, it is great to be home. I am really happy to be here. (Applause and cheers.)

I know that many of you stayed up all night so you could see your last sunrise at BC. (Cheers.) Some of you thought it would never come, graduation that is. I’ve got news for you: Some of your parents and professors didn’t think so either. (Laughter.)
Now, I notice a lot of you are wearing shades. It won’t work, folks. I’ll still hear you snoring. (Laughter.)

I was on the campus of one of your rivals yesterday in New Haven. And while I let them know that they could be proud of their title in men’s hockey last year, I also had to put it in perspective: Yale is still four titles behind BC. (Cheers and applause.)

There are many things actually that Yale and Boston College have in common, but one is probably the most powerful: mutual dislike of Harvard. (Laughter.) Although to be fair, hundreds of schools don’t like Harvard very much.

As Secretary of State, I track many factions and rivalries around the world. BC versus Notre Dame is at the top of my list. Of course, there’s also Alec Baldwin versus the NYPD. (Laughter.) Beyonce’s sister versus Jay Z. (Laughter and cheers.) And then there’s the rivalry: Red Sox and Yankees. (Cheering and applause.) We absolutely loved the last ten years: Yankees – one World Series, and Red Sox – three. That's my kind of rivalry, folks. (Cheers.)

Now BC reminds us today that though rivalries can be overcome, here today you have honored a Holy Cross alumnus, the great Bob Cousy, who, as you heard earlier in his degree presentation, won 117 games at Boston when he was coaching here. Eighty-five years old and the Celtics could have used him this year. (Laughter.)

So we have with us today a great legend, but most importantly an amazing person, an amazing player, and three other extraordinary builders of community, all of whom I am very honored to share degrees with today. Their lives and their selfless service are testimony to the fact that Boston College is an amazing place.

Over the past years, you have all been blessed to experience a special quality that has always defined BC: the welcoming spirit of this community. That has been a distinguishing characteristic of Boston College since its first days, when it opened its doors to Irish immigrants and Catholics who were barred from other schools.

When I came here more than 40 years ago, I want you to know that I felt that welcome firsthand. I had, as you heard, served in war, and when I came home, I worked to end it. It was a turbulent time – for our country, for me personally. It was a time of division and disillusionment.

But because of one thoughtful man of conscience, one member of the Boston College community, I found a home right here.

Many of you today might not even recognize the name of Father Robert Drinan. He was the dean of the Law School and he was running for Congress when I first visited him on the campus.
And what impressed me most about Father Drinan – whether on Chestnut Hill or Capitol Hill – was that he made no apologies for his deep and abiding Catholic commitment to the weak, the helpless, the downtrodden.

“If a person is really a Christian,” Father Drinan would say, “they will be in anguish over global hunger, injustice, over the denial of educational opportunity.”

In fact, it was Father Drinan who encouraged me to study law at BC, even when it wasn’t the obvious path. I had come to law school from a different background than my classmates. I’d served in the Navy, just turned 30, and had a young family.

And because of where I’d been and what I’d seen, I came to Boston College with a set of nagging questions. I had confronted my own mortality head-on during the war, where faith was as much a part of my daily life as the battle itself. In fact, I wore my rosary around my neck hoping for protection.

But on closer examination, I realized my wartime relationship with God was really a dependent one – a “God, get me through this and I’ll be good” kind of relationship. And as I became disillusioned with the war, my faith also was put to test.

There’s something theologians call “the problem of evil.” It’s the difficulty of explaining how terrible and senseless events are, in fact, part of God’s plan. That was a very real test for me. Some of my closest friends were killed. You see things in war that haunt you for the rest of your life.

So coming here to BC Law, reading St. Augustine on the problem of evil, or St. Thomas Aquinas on just war, the letters of St. Paul and thoughts about suffering – this was not an abstract or academic exercise. It was a chance to dig in and really try to understand where and how everything fit, including trying to understand where I fit in. I’m sure a lot of you ask those questions.

It was the compassion, listening, and understanding that I experienced at BC that made me feel welcome, taught me literally how to think critically, how to ask the right questions, and reinforced in me a personal sense of direction.

It would be years before Pope Francis would talk about the responsibility we all have to reach out to those who “stand at the crossroads.” I might not have connected the dots at the time, but that is exactly what BC was doing for me and I hope has done for you.

The people I met here were putting into action the words of the Jesuit motto that you’ve heard already today: “Men and women for others.”

Every institution has a mission or a motto – that’s the easy part. The hard part is ensuring that they’re not just words. We have to make sure that even as our world changes rapidly and in so many ways, we can still, each of us, give new meaning to our values.

Today, I promise you that is one of the greatest challenges of America’s foreign policy: ensuring that even when it’s not popular, even when it’s not easy, America still lives up to our ideals and our responsibilities to lead.

Never forget that what makes America different from other nations is not a common religion or a common bloodline or a common ideology or a common heritage. What makes us different is that we are united by an uncommon idea: that we’re all created equal and all endowed with unalienable rights. America is – and I say this without chauvinism or any arrogance whatsoever, but America is not just a country like other countries. America is an idea, and we – all of us, you – get to fill it out over time. (Applause.) So our citizenship is not just a privilege – it is a profound responsibility.

And in a shrinking world, we can’t measure our success just by what we achieve as Americans for Americans, but also by the security and shared prosperity that we build with our partners all over world.

In times of crisis, violence, strife, epidemic, and instability – believe me – the world still looks to the United States of America as a partner of first resort. People aren’t worried about our presence; they’re worried about our leaving. One of the great privileges of being Secretary of State is getting to see that firsthand.

In December, I walked through the devastation left behind by the typhoon in the Philippines. The U.S. military and USAID had arrived on the scene before countries that are much closer than we are.

This month in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I saw how the United States is supporting surgeons and Catholic nuns helping victims of violence and abuse.

And just a few weeks ago in Ethiopia, I saw what our sustained commitment to combatting AIDS is achieving. Local doctors and nurses are making possible the dream of an AIDS-free generation. We’re on the cusp of achieving that.

And what we have done to turn back the armies of defeatism and indifference in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and even polio – this work should give every one of you confidence to confront another cross-border, cross-generational challenge, the challenge of a changing climate. If we’re going to live up to our values, this is a test that we have to meet.
Now look, I know this is hard, because I spent almost 30 years in the United States Senate pushing this issue, trying to get colleagues to move. We got up to maybe 55 votes, couldn’t quite get to 60. And I know it’s hard to feel the urgency. As we sit here on an absolutely beautiful morning in Boston, you might not see climate change as an immediate threat to your job, your community, or your families. But let me tell you, it is.

Two major recent reports, one from the UN and one from retired U.S. military leaders, warn us not just of the crippling consequences to come, but that some of them are already here. Ninety-seven percent of the world’s scientists tell us this is urgent. Why? Because if crops can’t grow, there’ll be food insecurity. If there’s less water because of longer droughts, if there are stronger and more powerful storms, things will change in a hurry and they will change for the worse.
Climate change is directly related to the potential of greater conflict and greater stability – instability. I’m telling you that there are people in parts of the world – in Africa today, they fight each other over water. They kill each over it. And if glaciers are melting and there’s less water available and more people, that is a challenge we have to face. And guess what? It is the poorest and the weakest who face the greatest risk. As Father Drinan would say, we should be in anguish over this. (Applause.)

What’s frustrating is that this challenge is not without a solution. In fact, not one problem I can think of today that we face in this country is without a solution. It’s a question of capacity, willpower. The solution is actually staring us in the face. It is energy policy. Make the right energy policy choices and America can lead a $6 trillion market with 4 billion users today and growing to 9 billion users in the next 50 years.

If we make the necessary efforts to address this challenge – and supposing I’m wrong or scientists are wrong, 97 percent of them all wrong – supposing they are, what’s the worst that can happen? We put millions of people to work transitioning our energy, creating new and renewable and alternative; we make life healthier because we have less particulates in the air and cleaner air and more health; we give ourselves greater security through greater energy independence – that’s the downside. This is not a matter of politics or partisanship; it’s a matter of science and stewardship. And it’s not a matter of capacity; it’s a matter of willpower. (Applause.)

But if we do nothing, and it turns out that the critics and the naysayers and the members of the Flat Earth Society, if it turns out that they’re wrong, then we are risking nothing less than the future of the entire planet. This is not a hard choice, frankly. But still, let me tell you we need the help of every single one of you to make it.

In the end, all of these global challenges – how to defend against extremism, how to eradicate disease, how to provide young people with opportunity, how to protect our planet – all of these questions of whether men and women can live in dignity. What do I mean by dignity? I mean exactly the same thing that Father David Hollenbach taught on this campus and brought to the forefront of Catholic social teaching: That when families have access to clean water and clean power, they can live in dignity. When people have the freedom to choose their government on election day and to engage their fellow citizens every day, they can live in dignity. When all citizens can make their full contribution no matter their ethnicity; no matter who they love or what name they give to God, they can live in dignity.

And this is where you come in: the struggle for dignity. Whether across town or across the world, it makes demands on your own lives. The diploma that you will receive today isn’t just a certificate of accomplishment. It’s a charge to keep. It’s a powerful challenge to every single one of you, because you have already been blessed with a world-class education, and with it comes responsibility. Part of that responsibility is taking to heart the values that you’ve learned here and sharing them with the world beyond BC. That spirit of service is part of the fabric of this school, just as it is part of the fabric of our nation.

I often think of the words of our first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, someone who also founded a prestigious university like yours. Jefferson spoke about the beauty of a simple image: using one candle to light another. And he said that when that happens, both candles gain light and neither candle loses any. He was talking about the contagious quality of shared knowledge. As heirs to the Jesuit tradition, this is an idea that you know well. Two centuries before Jefferson, St. Ignatius Loyola always closed his letters with a simple charge, and it’s one I pass on to you today. St. Ignatius wrote simply, “Set the world aflame.”

So graduates of 2014, pass on your light to others. Set the world aflame with your service. Welcome those who are lost; seek out those at the crossroads. That is how you can fulfill your responsibility as a graduate of this great institution. That is how you can answer the call to be a servant, leader, and that is how you can keep faith with and renew the idea of America, and that is how we all live up to our duty as citizens.

Congratulations to all of you. Good luck and God bless.

ARMED FORCES DAY AT ARLINGTON

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

BATTAGLIA, SENIOR LEADERS PARTICIPATE IN ARMED FORCES DAY AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Members of a joint service honor guard stand at attention during a wreath-laying ceremony to mark Armed Forces Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 17, 2014. DOD photo by Anthony Steele.

The U.S. Army Band performs at the Memorial Amphitheater while service members and civilians listen to Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider to mark Armed Forces Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 17, 2014. DOD photo by Anthony Steele.

U.S.-EU HAVE SUCCESS FIGHTING ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 

US and EU progress in fight against antimicrobial resistance

International collaboration critical for combating global health crisis

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the European Commission released today the first progress report of the Transatlantic Taskforce on Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR).  The report renews the commitment of U.S. and European Union (EU) health authorities to pursue specific goals in their joint battle against antimicrobial resistance, a complex, dynamic and multi-faceted concern not bound by borders.  The report also summarizes the advancements made during the first TATFAR implementation period of 2011-2013.

TATFAR was created following the 2009 U.S.-EU presidential summit with the goal of improving cooperation between the U.S. and the EU in three key areas: (1) appropriate therapeutic use of antimicrobial drugs in medical and veterinary communities, (2) prevention of health care- and community-associated drug-resistant infections, and (3) strategies for improving the pipeline of new antimicrobial drugs.

“The partnership offers a unique perspective to tackle antimicrobial resistance worldwide,” said Jimmy Kolker, HHS Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs.  “We hope that the positive outcomes of this partnership will serve as a global model as we continue to work on this critical issue.”

TATFAR identified and adopted 17 recommendations for collaborations between the U.S. and the EU. Implementation of the recommendations has been carried out through increased communication, regular meetings, joint workshops, and the exchange of information, approaches, and best practices.  Moving forward, one new and 15 existing recommendations will serve as the basis for partner agencies in the U.S. and the EU to focus on areas where common actions can deliver the best results in prevention and control of antimicrobial resistance. In 2013 it was decided to renew TATFAR for another two-year term.

“Antimicrobial resistance is a priority of the European Commission, and international cooperation is key in addressing this serious cross border and global health threat.  I am positive that our renewed commitment to TATFAR can make a tangible contribution in the area of global health security,” said John F. Ryan, Acting Director for Public Health in the European Commission.

Notable outcomes of TATFAR activities during 2011-2013 include:

Adoption of procedures for timely international communication of critical events that might indicate new resistance trends with global public health implications;
Publication of a report on the 2011 workshop, “Challenges and solutions in the development of new diagnostic tests to combat antimicrobial resistance” to the TATFAR website; and Joint presentations to the scientific community to increase awareness about the available funding opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic.
Studies estimate that drug-resistant infections result in at least 25,000 deaths in 29 countries in Europe and 23,000 deaths in the U.S. every year.  In addition to the toll on human life, antimicrobial-resistant infections add considerable and avoidable costs to health care systems.  Antimicrobial resistance costs the EU and the U.S. billions every year in avoidable health care costs and productivity losses.

In the U.S. and in the EU, significant progress in reducing specific types of infections has been made.  However, the global problem of antimicrobial resistance continues to escalate. Therefore, the original mandate of the taskforce that ran through 2013 has been extended for at least two additional years.

Forthcoming publications from the taskforce during 2014 that will provide a foundation for specific joint collaborative actions include:

A report summarizing the strategies hospitals in the U.S. and EU should include as part of their programs to improve antimicrobial prescribing practices;
A joint publication summarizing the existing methods for measuring antimicrobial use in hospital settings;
A joint publication describing the need for new vaccines for healthcare-associated infections (HAIs); and
A joint publication comparing the results of the U.S. and EU point prevalence surveys, which are used to estimate the burden of HAIs in each population.

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY DEVELOPS VIRTUAL SHOOTER

FROM:  DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 

The Virtual Shooter consists of three major components designed to mimic a human firer

Virtual Shooter Technology Tests Ammo and Saves Joints

Firing and testing thousands of rounds of ammunition weekly can challenge the human body—even ones in top physical condition—causing debilitating stress injuries and chronic nerve and joint pain. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), with the help of agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs (OFTP) Armory Operations Branch (AOB), has made an important stride forward in reducing or eliminating these injuries by developing of the “Virtual Shooter.”

“The Armory Operations Branch evaluates most of the department’s ammunition and firearms. This equates to testing more than 200,000 rounds of ammunition and a variety of handguns annually before they are approved for use in the field. This repetitive firing takes a toll on the shooters and results in stressed joints, debilitating pain, and other physical injuries. The Virtual Shooter will go a long way in in reducing, if not eliminating, those injuries,” explained John Price, the S&T First Responder Group (FRG) program manager.

The OFTP assists ICE by providing personnel with firearms, intermediate force weapons, protective equipment, training, guidance, as well as tactical and logistical support while also providing armory services to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Protective Service under shared service agreements. The unit increases safety and improves the tactical proficiency of the armed workforce, while maintaining accountability for property.

“The OFTP AOB mission is to improve the safety of the armed DHS agent,” explained Lowell Johnson, ICE OFTP AOB supervisory engineer. “The Virtual Shooter will benefit us by reducing debilitating injuries to our employees, as well as being an instrument to give us consistent data on firearm and ammunition performance.”

The Virtual Shooter project began June 2012 when OFTP asked FRG for assistance. In March 2014, Price demonstrated the Virtual Shooter at the ICE OFTP’s armory in Altoona, Pa., allowing AOB agents to test multiple weapons and ammunition.

The Virtual Shooter’s mechanical arm and hand replicates major human bone and muscular structure during the firing process.

The prototype consists of three major components designed to mimic a human firer. A mechanical arm and hand mirrors major human bone and muscular structure. Air cylinders simulate the muscles that aim and resist recoil forces in the wrist, forearm, upper arm, and shoulder. Finally, a pressurized backboard mount simulates the shooter’s torso.

FRG developed the Virtual Shooter as part of the Small Business Innovation Research Program initiative and began working to develop a device with designs that simulated the movements and reactions of human firers, while responding to feedback provided by ICE OFTP AOB throughout the development process.

“The AOB told FRG they wanted something they could put a handgun in, and it would fire just like a human would fire, with all the movement, motions, and stresses,” Price said. The Virtual Shooter absorbs the impacts and prevents injuries, and the AOB agents can observe how the weapons and ammunition perform.

At the demonstration in March, Radiance Technologies, FRG’s commercial partner that developed the prototypes, demonstrated single- and a double-armed models that fired multiple handgun and ammunition types. At the conclusion of the demonstration, AOB agents kept the double-armed model because it more closely approximates their firing methods. They will use the prototype until the final product is ready.

“We were very satisfied with the initial prototype. It met all of the original performance specifications in the original SBIR solicitation,” said Johnson. He said he plans to implement the Virtual Shooter into OFTP’s testing process.

Over the next year, Radiance Technologies will develop and deliver the second and final prototype to the ICE OFTP AOB in early 2015. The model will then be available commercially for government and industry use.

LEARNING TO ADAPT WHEN YOU'RE AN ARTIFICIAL BRAIN

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Artificial brains learn to adapt

Neural networks imitate intelligence of biological brains

For every thought or behavior, the brain erupts in a riot of activity, as thousands of cells communicate via electrical and chemical signals. Each nerve cell influences others within an intricate, interconnected neural network. And connections between brain cells change over time in response to our environment.

Despite supercomputer advances, the human brain remains the most flexible, efficient information processing device in the world. Its exceptional performance inspires researchers to study and imitate it as an ideal of computing power.

Artificial neural networks

Computer models built to replicate how the brain processes, memorizes and/or retrieves information are called artificial neural networks. For decades, engineers and computer scientists have used artificial neural networks as an effective tool in many real-world problems involving tasks such as classification, estimation and control.

However, artificial neural networks do not take into consideration some of the basic characteristics of the human brain such as signal transmission delays between neurons, membrane potentials and synaptic currents.

A new generation of neural network models -- called spiking neural networks -- are designed to better model the dynamics of the brain, where neurons initiate signals to other neurons in their networks with a rapid spike in cell voltage. In modeling biological neurons, spiking neural networks may have the potential to mimick brain activities in simulations, enabling researchers to investigate neural networks in a biological context.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Silvia Ferrari of the Laboratory for Intelligent Systems and Controls at Duke University uses a new variation of spiking neural networks to better replicate the behavioral learning processes of mammalian brains.

Behavioral learning involves the use of sensory feedback, such as vision, touch and sound, to improve motor performance and enable people to respond and quickly adapt to their changing environment.

"Although existing engineering systems are very effective at controlling dynamics, they are not yet capable of handling unpredicted damages and failures handled by biological brains," Ferrari said.

How to teach an artificial brain

Ferrari's team is applying the spiking neural network model of learning on the fly to complex, critical engineering systems, such as aircraft and power plants, with the goal of making them safer, more cost-efficient and easier to operate.

The team has constructed an algorithm that teaches spiking neural networks which information is relevant and how important each factor is to the overall goal. Using computer simulations, they've demonstrated the algorithm on aircraft flight control and robot navigation.

They started, however, with an insect.

"Our method has been tested by training a virtual insect to navigate in an unknown terrain and find foods," said Xu Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate who works on training the spiking neural network. "The nervous system was modeled by a large spiking neural network with unknown and random synaptic connections among those neurons."

Having tested their algorithm in computer simulations, they now are in the process of testing it biologically.

To do so, they will use lab-grown brain cells genetically altered to respond to certain types of light. This technique, called optogenetics, allows researchers to control how nerve cells communicate. When the light pattern changes, the neural activity changes.

The researchers hope to observe that the living neural network adapts over time to the light patterns and therefore have the ability to store and retrieve sensory information, just as human neuronal networks do.

Large-scale applications of small-scale findings

Uncovering the fundamental mechanisms responsible for the brain's learning processes can potentially yield insights into how humans learn--and make an everyday difference in people's lives.

Such insights may advance the development of certain artificial devices that can substitute for certain motor, sensory or cognitive abilities, particularly prosthetics that respond to feedback from the user and the environment. People with Parkinson's disease and epilepsy have already benefited from these types of devices.

"One of the most significant challenges in reverse-engineering the brain is to close the knowledge gap that exists between our understanding of biophysical models of neuron-level activity and the synaptic plasticity mechanisms that drive meaningful learning," said Greg Foderaro, a postdoctoral fellow involved the the research.

"We believe that by considering the networks at several levels--from computation to cell cultures to brains--we can greatly expand our understanding of the system of sensory and motor functions, as well as making a large step towards understanding the brain as a whole."

-- Sarah Bates,
-- Silvia Ferrari, Duke University
-- Greg Foderaro, Duke University
-- Xu Zhang, Duke University
Investigators
Silvia Ferrari
Pankaj Agarwal
John Albertson
Craig Henriquez
Gabriel Katul
Ronald Parr
Antonius VanDongen
Related Institutions/Organizations
Duke University

U.S. CONGRATULATES COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT IN EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE PEACE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

The United States Welcomes Progress in Efforts To Achieve Peace in Colombia

Press Statement

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Washington, DC

May 18, 2014

---

The United States welcomes the announcement of further progress in efforts to achieve the peace the Colombian people deserve through negotiations.

Resolving the question of narcotics production and trafficking is central to achieving that peace. We congratulate president Santos and the Colombian government for this advance.
The FARC has long been deeply involved in, and profited from, cocaine production and transshipment. Reducing cocaine trafficking, including through eradication and interdiction, helped establish the conditions for the peace process now underway.

In making this announcement, Colombian government officials underlined the importance of maintaining both manual and aerial eradication capabilities.

As this process moves forward, we will engage with our Colombian partners on this important topic.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT YALE COLLEGE CLASS DAY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at Yale College Class Day

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

New Haven, CT

May 18, 2014

---

Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I think Winston Churchill said the only reason people give a standing ovation is they desperately seek an excuse to shift their underwear. (Laughter.) So certainly before I’ve opened my mouth, that’s true. (Laughter.)

Anyway, President Salovey and faculty members, parents, siblings who came here under the false impression there would be free food (laughter); Handsome Dan, wherever you are, probably at some fire hydrant somewhere (laughter); members of the 2013 NCAA champion men’s ice hockey team (cheers and applause); distinguished guests and graduates, graduates of the Class of 2014, I really am privileged to be able to be here and share the celebration of this day with you, especially 48 years after standing up right here as a very intimidated senior wondering what I was going to say.

You are graduating today as the most diverse class in Yale’s long history. Or as they call it in the NBA, Donald Sterling’s worst nightmare. (Laughter and applause.)

Nia and Josh: Thank you for such a generous introduction. What Josh didn’t mention is that he interned for me at the State Department last summer. (Cheers and applause.) Well, hold on a minute now. (Laughter.) I learned that he’s not afraid to talk truth to power, or semi-truth. (Laughter.) On his last day he walked up to me at the State Department and he was brutally honest. He said, “Mr. Secretary, JE sucks.” (Laughter and cheers.)

No, actually, on the last day at the State Department, he asked if I would come here today and deliver a message his classmates really needed to hear. So here it goes: Jarred Phillips, you still owe Josh money from that road trip last fall. (Laughter and applause.)

I have to tell you, it is really fun for me to be back here on the Old Campus. I’m accompanied by a classmate of mine. We were on the soccer team together. We had a lot of fun. He served as ambassador to Italy recently, David Thorne. And my daughter Vanessa graduated in the Class of 1999, so I know what a proud moment this is for your parents. But my friends, the test will be if they still feel this way next May if you live at home. (Laughter.)

Now, I’m really happy you made it back from Myrtle Beach. (Cheers and applause.) As if you hadn’t already logged enough keg time at “Woads”. (Cheers.) Just remember, just remember: 4.0 is a really good GPA, but it’s a lousy blood-alcohol level. (Laughter.)

I love the hats. We didn’t have the hats when I was here. I love the hats. They are outrageous. They’re spectacular. This may well be the only event that Pharrell could crash and go unnoticed. (Laughter and applause.)

I’ve been looking around. I’ve seen a couple of Red Sox, a few Red Sox hats out there. (Cheers.) I’ve also seen a few of those dreaded interlocking N’s and Y’s. (Cheers.) But that’s okay: I said diversity is important. (Laughter.) It’s also an easy way for me to tell who roots for the Yankees and who’s graduating with distinction. (Laughter and cheers.)

So here’s the deal, here’s the deal: I went online and I learned in the Yale Daily comments that I wasn’t everyone’s first choice to be up here. (Laughter.)

When Yale announced that I’d be speaking, someone actually wrote, “I hope they give out Five-Hour Energy to help everyone stay awake.” (Laughter.) Well don’t worry folks: I promise not to be one minute over four hours. (Laughter.)

Someone else wrote I haven’t “screwed up badly as Secretary of State ... yet.” (Laughter.) Well, all I can say is, stay tuned. (Laughter.)

But my favorite comment was this: “I’m really proud that a Yalie is Secretary of State.” I should have stopped reading right there because he or she went on to write, “but he is butt ugly.” (Laughter.) So there go my dreams of being on “Yale’s 50 most beautiful” list. (Cheers and applause.)

It really is a privilege for me to share this celebration with you, though I’m forewarned that no one remembers who delivers their graduation speech. All I really remember about our speaker in 1966 is that he was eloquent, insightful, really good looking. (Laughter.) Anyway, one thing I promise you, one thing I promise you: I will stay away from the tired cliches of commencement, things like “be yourself,” “do what makes you happy,” “don’t use the laundry room in Saybrook”. (Cheers and applause.) That’s about all I’ll say about that. (Laughter.)

So right after we graduated, Time Magazine came out with its famous “Man of the Year” issue. But for 1966, Timedidn’t pick one man or one woman. They picked our entire generation.
And Time expressed a lot of high hopes for us. It not only predicted that we’d cure the common cold, but that we’d cure cancer, too. It predicted that we’d build smog-free cities and that we’d end poverty and war once and for all. I know what you’re thinking – we really crushed it. (Laughter.)

So fair question: Did my generation get lost? Well, that’s actually a conversation for another time. But let me put one theory to rest: It’s not true that everyone in my generation experimented with drugs. Although between Flomax, Lipitor and Viagra, now we do. (Laughter and applause.)
Now, I did have some pretty creative classmates back then. One of my good friends, very close friends in JE – (cheers) – I’m going to set it right for you guys right now. (Laughter.) One of my good friends in JE had at least two hair-brained ideas. The first was a little start-up built on the notion that if people had a choice, they’d pay a little more to mail a package and have it arrive the very next day. Crazy, right? Today that start-up is called FedEx. And by the way, it was created in JE, which therefore means JE rules. (Cheers and applause.)

Now, his other nutty idea was to restart something called the Yale Flying Club. And admittedly, this was more of a scheme to get us out of class and off the campus. So I basically spent my senior year majoring in flying, practicing take-offs and landings out at Tweed Airport. Responsible? No. But I wouldn’t have missed it.

And one of the best lessons I learned here is that Mark Twain was absolutely right: Never let school get in the way of an education.

Now, I didn’t know it at the time, but Yale also taught me to finish what you start. And that’s one thing that clearly separates us from Harvard. (Laughter.) After all, a lot of those guys don’t even graduate. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Damon – what the hell have they ever amounted to? (Laughter.)

For all I ever learned at Yale, I have to tell you truthfully the best piece of advice I ever got was actually one word from my 89-year-old mother. I’ll never forget sitting by her bedside and telling her I had decided to run for President. And she squeezed my hand and she said: “Integrity, John. Integrity. Just remember always, integrity.” And maybe that tells you a lot about what she thought about politics.

But you should know: In a complicated world full of complicated decisions and close calls that could go either way, what keeps you awake at night isn’t so much whether or not you got the decision right or wrong. It’s whether you made your decision for the right reasons: Integrity.
And the single best piece of advice I ever received about diplomacy didn’t come from my international relations class, but it came from my father, who served in the Foreign Service. He told me that diplomacy was really about being able to see the world through the eyes of someone else, to understand their aspirations and assumptions.

And perhaps that’s just another word for empathy. But whatever it is, I will tell you sitting here on one of the most gorgeous afternoons in New Haven as you graduate: Listening makes a difference, not just in foreign ministries but on the streets and in the souks and on the social media network the world over.

So Class of 2014, as corny as it may sound, remember that your parents aren’t just here today as spectators. They’re also here as teachers – and even if counter-intuitive, it’s not a bad idea to stay enrolled in their course as long as you can.

Now for my part, I am grateful to Yale because I did learn a lot here in all of the ways that a great university can teach. But there is one phrase from one class above all that for some reason was indelibly stamped into my consciousness. Perhaps it’s because I spent almost 30 years in the United States Senate seeing it applied again and again.

One morning in the Law School Auditorium, my Professor, John Morton Blum, said simply: “All politics is a reaction to felt needs.” What I thought he meant is that things only get done in public life when the people who want something demand nothing less and the people who make it happen decide tht they can do nothing less.

Those “felt needs” have driven every movement and decision that I’ve witnessed in politics since – from South Africa a couple of decades ago to the Arab Spring a few years ago to our own communities, where same-sex couples refuse to be told by their government who they can love.

In 1963, I remember walking out of Dwight Hall one evening after an activist named Allard Lowenstein gave the impassioned and eloquent plea that I had ever heard. He compelled us to feel the need to engage in the struggle for civil rights right here in our own country.
And that’s why, just steps from here, right over there on High Street, we lined up buses that drove students from Yale and elsewhere south to be part of the Mississippi Voter Registration Drive and help break the back of Jim Crow. Ultimately we forced Washington to ensure through the law that our values were not mere words. We saw Congress respond to this “felt need” and pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and life in America did change.
Not only did landmark civil rights advances grow out of the sit-ins and marches, but we saw the EPA and the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act and all of it come out of Earth Day in 1970. We saw women refusing to take a back-seat, force institutions to respond, producing Title IX and a Yale University that quickly transformed from a male bastion of 1966. Citizens, including veterans of the war, spoke up and brought our troops home from Vietnam.

The fact is that what leaps out at me now is the contrast between those heady days and today. Right or wrong, and like it or not – and certainly some people certainly didn’t like it – back then institutions were hard pressed to avoid addressing the felt needs of our country.
Indeed, none of what I’ve talked about happened overnight. The pace of change was different from today. The same fall that my class walked in as freshmen, Nelson Mandela walked into prison. It wasn’t until 30 years later, when my daughter walked through these gates for the first time, that Mandela was his country’s president.

When I was a senior, the debate over the growing war in Vietnam was becoming all consuming. But it took another seven years before combat ended for our country, and more than 25,000 lives. And it wasn’t until the year 2000 that we finally made peace and normalized relations. Now, amazingly, we have more Vietnamese studying in America – including some in your class – than from almost any other country in the world.

What’s notable is this daring journey of progress played out over years, decades, and even generations. But today, the felt needs are growing at a faster pace than ever before, piling up on top of each other, while the response in legislatures or foreign capitals seems nonexistent or frozen.

It’s not that the needs aren’t felt. It’s that people around the world seem to have grown used to seeing systems or institutions failing to respond. And the result is an obvious deepening frustration if not exasperation with institutional governance.

The problem is today’s institutions are simply not keeping up or even catching up to the felt needs of our time. Right before our eyes, difficult decisions are deferred or avoided altogether. Some people even give up before they try because they just don’t believe that they can make a difference. And the sum total of all of this inaction is stealing the future from all of us.

Just a few examples, from little to big: a train between Washington and New York that can go 150 miles-per-hour – but, lacking modern infrastructure, goes that fast for only 18 miles of the trip; an outdated American energy grid which can’t sell energy from one end of the country to the other; climate change growing more urgent by the day, with 97 percent of scientists telling us for years of the imperative to act. The solution is staring us in the face: Make energy policy choices that will allow America to lead a $6 trillion market. Yet still we remain gridlocked; immigration reform urgently needed to unleash the power – the full power of millions who live here and make our laws in doing so both sensible and fair.

And on the world stage, you will not escape it – even more urgency. We see huge, growing populations of young people in places that offer little education, little economic or political opportunity. In countries from North Africa to East Asia, you are older than half their population. Forty percent of their population is younger than Yale’s next incoming class.

If we can’t galvanize action to recognize their felt needs – if we don’t do more to coordinate an attack on extreme poverty, provide education, opportunity, and jobs, we invite instability. And I promise you, radical extremism is all too ready to fill the vacuum left behind.

What should be clear to everyone – and it’s perhaps what makes our current predicament, frankly, so frustrating – is that none of our problems are without solutions. None of them. But neither will they solve themselves. So for all of us, it’s really a question of willpower, not capacity. It’s a matter of refusing to fall prey to the cynicism and apathy that have always been the mortal enemies of progress. And it requires keeping faith with the ability of institutions – of America – to do big things when the moment demands it. Remember what Nelson Mandela said when confronted by pessimism in the long march to freedom: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”

One thing I know for sure – these and other felt needs will never be addressed if you, we fall victim to the slow suffocation of conventional wisdom.

On Tuesday I sat in the State Department with some young Foreign Service officers at the State Department, and one of them said something to me that I’ve been thinking about, frankly, all week. He wasn’t much older than any of you. He said: “We’ve gone from an era where power lived in hierarchies to an era where power lives in networks – and now we’re wrestling with the fact that those hierarchies are unsettled by the new power.”

Every one of you and your parents have mobile devices here today. They represent a lot more than your ability to put a picture on Facebook or Instagram. They are one of the powerful new instruments of change that makes hierarchies uncomfortable because you can communicate with everybody, anywhere, all the time – and that’s how you beat conventional wisdom.
That’s what makes me certain that felt needs are not just problems. They are opportunities. And I am convinced if you are willing to challenge the conventional wisdom, which you should be after this education, you can avoid the dangerous byproducts of indifference, hopelessness, and my least favorite: cynicism.

It is indifference that says our problems are so great, let’s not even try. We have to reject that. It’s hopelessness that says that our best days are behind us. I couldn’t disagree more.
It’s cynicism that says we’re powerless to effect real change, and that the era of American leadership is over. I don’t believe that for a second, and neither does President Obama. We refuse to limit our vision of the possibilities for our country, and so should you. Together we have to all refuse to accept the downsizing of America’s role in a very complicated world.
I happen to love T.S. Eliot’s "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” one of my favorite poems. And I respectfully challenge you to never wind up fretfully musing as Prufrock did: “Do I dare disturb the universe? In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” Class of 2014: Your job is to disturb the universe.

You have to reject the notion that the problems are too big and too complicated so don’t wade in. You don’t have the luxury of just checking out. And it doesn’t matter what profession you wind up in, what community you live in, where you are, what you’re doing, you do not have that luxury.
One of the greatest rewards of being Secretary of State is getting to see with my own eyes how much good news there actually is in the world – how many good people there are out there every single day courageously fighting back. The truth is that everywhere I go I see or hear about an extraordinary number of individual acts of courage and bravery, all of which defy the odds – all by people who simply refuse to give up, and who start with a lot less opportunity than you do.

You can see this in the lonely human rights activist who struggles against tyranny and against a dictator until they are defeated. You see it in the democracy activist who goes to jail trying to ensure an election is free and transparent. You see it in the civil rights lawyer who suffers scorn and isolation for standing against bigotry, racism, and intolerance.

I am literally in awe of the courage that ordinary, anonymous people demonstrate in the most difficult circumstances imaginable – in a dank African jail, a North Korean gulag, a prison in Syria or Central Asia, facing the cruelest persecution and lonely isolation.

Many of these people just quietly disappear. They lose their lives. They never become an international cause or a global hero. Courage is not a strong enough word for what they do every day, and all of us need to think about that.

What all these people have in common – and what I hope they have in common with you – is that they refuse to be complacent and indifferent to what is going on around them or to what should be going on around them.

And that’s the most important lesson I hope you will take with you when you leave Yale. The fact is that for those of you who have loans are not the only burden you graduate with today. You have had the privilege of a Yale education. No matter where you come from, no matter where you’re going next, the four years that you’ve spent here are an introduction to responsibility. And your education requires something more of you than serving yourself. It calls on you to give back, in whatever way you can. It requires you to serve the world around you and, yes, to make a difference. That is what has always set America apart: our generosity, our humanity, our idealism.

Last year I walked through the devastation of the typhoon that hit the Philippines. The U.S. military and USAID and regular volunteers got there before countries that lived a lot closer. We went there without being asked and without asking for anything in return. And today Americans are helping to bring that community back to life.

In Nigeria, when Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of girls, the government didn’t turn to other powerful countries for help – and by the way, they’re not offering.

As Josh and Nia mentioned, it was my privilege to stand here 48 years ago at Class Day. Before coming here, I did re-read that speech. A lot of it was about Vietnam, but one line jumped out at me. In 1966 I suggested, “an excess of isolation had led to an excess of interventionism.” Today we hear a different tune from some in Congress and even on some campuses and we face the opposite concern. We cannot allow a hangover from the excessive interventionism of the last decade to lead now to an excess of isolationism in this decade.
I can tell you for certain, most of the rest of the world doesn’t lie awake at night worrying about America’s presence – they worry about what would happen in our absence.

Without arrogance, without chauvinism, never forget that what makes America different from other nations is not a common bloodline or a common religion or a common ideology or a common heritage – what makes us different is that we are united by an uncommon idea: that we’re all created equal and all endowed with unalienable rights. America is not just a country like other countries. America is an idea and we – all of us, you – get to fill it out over time.
Tomorrow, when President Salovey grants you those diplomas, listen to what he says. He won’t say what is said at most schools – that your degree admits you to all its “rights and privileges.” At Yale, we say your degree admits you to all its “rights and responsibilities.” It means we need to renew that responsibility over and over again every day. It’s not a one-time decision. Participation is the best antidote to pessimism and ultimately cynicism.

So I ask you today on a celebratory afternoon as you think about the future: Remember what happened when the Founding Fathers had finished their hard work at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and Ben Franklin, tired, end of day, walked down at night, down the steps of the hall. A woman called to him. She said, “Tell us Dr. Franklin: What do we have, a monarchy or a republic?” And he answered: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Class of 2014: We know what you have – a world-class education – if you will use it.
Congratulations to you, good luck, and God bless. (Cheers and applause.)

READOUT: PRESIDENT OBAMA'S CALL WITH OUTGOING PRIME MINISTER SINGH OF INDIA

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Readout of the President’s Call with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India

The President called outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to express his gratitude for Dr. Singh’s tenure as Prime Minister and his critical role in transforming and deepening the U.S.-India strategic partnership and our cooperation on global challenges.  The President conveyed his appreciation for Dr. Singh’s friendship, noting that he looked forward to further expanding the strong relationship between the United States and India with Prime Minister-Elect Narendra Modi.

DOD PHOTOS OF TOMAHAWK WILDFIRE NEAR MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

The Tomahawk wildfire inches closer to buildings on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., May 15, 2014. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Joshua Murray.

The Tomahawk wildfire burns through a wooded area near Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., May 15, 2014. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Joshua Murray.

DEFENSE SECRETARY HAGEL SAYS U.S. COMMITTED TO ISRAEL'S SECURITY

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement in Jerusalem, May 16, 2014. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo  

Hagel Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Israel’s Security
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2014 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security during a joint statement to reporters with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a meeting between the two leaders in Jerusalem.

“As you said in the United States earlier this year,” Hagel said to Netanyahu, “America's support for Israel is at an all-time high, and it is. And that applies especially to our defense relationship. Our defense relationship is strong, as we both know, and I think the people of Israel and the United States know it's strong because it's about a lot more than defense.

“The United States support for Israel is anchored in our nation's commitment to democracy and freedom and rights for our people,” Hagel continued. “America's commitment to Israel's security is resolute.”

The secretary noted to Netanyahu that the Juniper Cobra 14 military exercise he visited yesterday with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon demonstrates that commitment completely.

“It also demonstrates the cutting-edge work our nations are doing together on rocket and missile defense,” he added, “and I appreciate your comments on that point -- work that had strengthened Israel's security and saved lives.”
In his remarks, Netanyahu said that foremost among the topics he and Hagel would discuss is the danger posed to their countries and to world peace by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Hagel said the United States will do what it must to live up to its commitment to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.

The meeting also would touch on how to advance genuine peace and how to advance solid security in a region that is fraught with instability and insecurity, the prime minister said. “And I think that one of the things that creates an anchor of security is the close relationship between Israel and the United States, a relationship that is based both on value and a common determination to uphold our joint security,” he added.

FLORIDA COMPANY CHARGED WITH MAKING ILLEGAL, OFF-EXCHANGE PRECIOUS METALS TRANSACTIONS

FROM:  COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

CFTC Charges Florida-Based Palm Beach Capital LLC and Lawrence Scott Spain with Engaging in Illegal, Off-Exchange Precious Metals Transactions

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it filed a civil injunctive enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Defendants Palm Beach Capital LLC (PBC) of Palm Beach, Florida, and its owner and manager, Lawrence Scott Spain, of Boca Raton, Florida. The CFTC Complaint charges the Defendants with engaging in illegal, off-exchange transactions in precious metals with retail customers on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis. The Complaint further alleges that Spain, as controlling person for PBC, is liable for PBC’s violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).

According to the Complaint, since at least July 16, 2011 and continuing through at least August 2012, PBC, by and through its employees including Spain, solicited retail customers by telephone and on PBC’s website, to engage in leveraged, margined, or financed precious metals (including gold, silver, platinum and palladium) transactions. During that period, the Complaint alleges, approximately 39 of PBC’s customers paid at least $1.35 million to PBC in connection with precious metals transactions. The Complaint alleges that these customers lost at least $1.25 million of these funds to trading losses, commissions, fees, and other charges by PBC and other companies. PBC received commissions and fees totaling at least $526,000 in connection with these precious metals transactions, according to the Complaint.

Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, leveraged, margined, or financed transactions such as those conducted by PBC, are illegal off-exchange transactions unless they result in actual delivery of metal within 28 days. The Complaint alleges that metals were never actually delivered in connection with the leveraged, margined, or financed precious metals transactions made on behalf of PBC’s customers.

The Complaint further alleges that PBC executed the illegal precious metals transactions through Lloyds Commodities, LLC and associated entities (collectively, Lloyds Commodities) and Hunter Wise, LLC and associated entities (collectively, Hunter Wise). The CFTC filed enforcement actions against, among others, Lloyds Commodities and Hunter Wise in December 2012, charging both Lloyds Commodities and Hunter Wise with engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions, and charging Hunter Wise with fraud and other violations (see CFTC Press Release 6447-12). On February 5, 2014, in a consent order resolving the Commission’s claims against Lloyds Commodities, the District Court found that the CFTC had jurisdiction over the transactions at issue pursuant to Section 2(c)(2)(D) of the CEA and ordered Lloyds Commodities to pay over $5 million in restitution and penalties (see CFTC Press Release 6850-14).

On February 19, 2014, the District Court found that Hunter Wise had no actual metal to deliver to customers and held that Hunter Wise engaged in illegal precious metals transactions and was required to register as a futures commission merchant but did not do so and therefore violated Sections 4(a) and 4d of the CEA (see CFTC v. Hunter Wise Commodities, LLC, et al., 12-81311-CIV (Order on the Parties’ Motions for Summary Judgment). A bench trial against Hunter Wise on remaining charges, which allege fraud, was concluded on March 3, 2014, and the parties are awaiting the court’s final judgment. And on April 15, 2014, in CFTC v. Hunter Wise Commodities, LLC, et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s issuance of a preliminary injunction and held that the Commission’s jurisdiction under Section 2(c)(2)(D) of the CEA extends to the precious metals transactions at issue in the case and that no exception to the Commission’s jurisdiction applied.

In its continuing litigation against PBC and Spain, the CFTC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, restitution for the benefit of customers, civil monetary penalties, permanent registration and trading bans, and a permanent injunction from future violations of the CEA, as charged.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this action are R. Stephen Painter, Jr., Michael C. McLaughlin, David W. MacGregor, Lenel Hickson, Jr., and Manal M. Sultan.

AG HOLDER'S REMARK'S ON 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Attorney General Holder Delivers Remarks at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund for the 60th Anniversary of Brown V. Board of Education

~ Friday, May 16, 2014

Thank you, President [Sherrilyn] Ifill, for those kind words – and thank you all for such a warm welcome.  It’s a pleasure to be here today.  And it’s a privilege to join dedicated public servants like Governor [Deval] Patrick and Governor [Doug] Wilder – along with trailblazers like Charlayne Hunter-Gault – in celebrating the work of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; in commemorating the victory this organization helped to secure 60 years ago tomorrow; and in recommitting ourselves to the critical work that still lies before us.

 I’d like to thank our hosts at the National Press Club, and every member and supporter of LDF, for making this important observance possible.  It’s a tremendous honor to take part in this celebration – and to stand with lawyers who participated in the Brown case; the families of courageous plaintiffs who made this landmark decision possible; and with Mrs. Cissy Marshall, wife of the late Thurgood Marshall – one of our nation’s greatest civil rights pioneers – who helped found this organization nearly three quarters of a century ago.

Since 1940, LDF has performed critical work to rally Americans from all backgrounds to the unifying cause of justice – standing on the front lines of our fight to guarantee security, advance opportunity, and ensure equal treatment under law.  Your enduring legacy is written not only in the words of seminal legal opinions, but in the remarkable, once-unimaginable progress that so many of us have witnessed even within our own lifetimes.  The fact that I serve in an administration led by another African American bears witness to that progress.  Your actions, alongside those of countless citizens whose names may be unknown to us – but whose contributions and sacrifices endure – have forever altered the course of our great nation's history.

 Decades ago, brave individuals from across the country – sustained by the strength of their convictions, fueled by their desire for change, and represented by lawyers from this eminent organization – including visionary attorneys like Thurgood Marshall, Robert Carter, and Jack Greenberg – embarked on a dangerous, long and grueling march that culminated on May 17, 1954, at the United States Supreme Court.

It was a march that led through difficult and uncertain terrain – from the injustice of Plessy v. Ferguson to the dark days of Jim Crow and slavery by another name; from the discrimination and violence and the strange fruit that ultimately gave rise to a unified Civil Rights Movement and to the founding and growth of LDF.  It was a march that tested the soul of this country – and questioned, as President Abraham Lincoln once asked, whether a nation dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal “could long endure.”  And it was a march that was immeasurably strengthened by the transformative power of a single Court decision, when nine jurists came together – led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, with the eyes of the world upon them – to unanimously declare that separate was inherently unequal.

I was just three years old in 1954, when Brown was decided.  Thanks to some of the pioneers in this room, my generation was the first to grow up in a world in which “separate but equal” was no longer the law of the land.  Even as a child growing up in New York City, I understood, as I learned about the decision, that its impact was truly groundbreaking – bringing the law in line with the fundamental truth of the equality of our humanity.

Yet, although Brown marked a major victory, like anyone old enough to remember the turbulence of the 1960s, I also knew – and saw firsthand – that this country wouldn’t automatically translate the words of Brown into substantive change.  The integration of our schools – a process that was halting, confrontational, and at times even bloody – did not by itself put an end to the beliefs and attitudes that had given rise to the underlying inequity in the first place.  The outlawing of institutional segregation did not by itself soften the enmity – and alleviate the vicious bias – that had been directed against African-American people and communities for generations.  And the rejection, in its clearest form by our highest court, of legal discrimination could not – by itself – wash away the hostility that would, for years, fuel new, perversely innovative attempts to keep “separate but equal” in place.

These markers of progress could not forestall the “Massive Resistance” policies that followed in states across the country, in which public schools were closed and private academies were opened for white children only.  They could not avert the protests that greeted the Little Rock Nine – brave young students who required the protection of the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to enroll in an all-white high school.  And they could not prevent Alabama Governor George Wallace from making his infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”  in 1963 – nine years after Brown – when two courageous African-American students – one of whom, Vivian Malone, would much later become my sister-in-law – attempted to register for classes at the University of Alabama.

But thanks to Brown – and to the developments that followed – on the day when Vivian and her classmate James Hood walked into that university, they were protected not only by the power of their convictions; not only by the strength of the National Guard and the authority of the United States Department of Justice; but by the force of binding law. When those nine students entered Little Rock Central High School, they were supported by all nine members of a resolute Supreme Court.  And when millions of civil rights advocates and supporters began to rally, to march, to stand up – and even to sit in – in order to eradicate the discrimination they continued to face in schools and other public accommodations, they stood not only on the side of equality – and on the side of that which was right – but on the side of settled justice.

This was the sea change that Brown v. Board of Education signaled.  And this was the progress it made possible.  It did not instantaneously – or painlessly – tear down the walls that divided so much of the nation.  But it did unlock the gates.  And it continues to guide LDF’s work, and the Justice Department’s civil rights enforcement efforts, as we work to end the divisions and disparities that persist even today.  After all, as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said recently – in an insightful dissent in the Michigan college admissions case – we must not “wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society. …The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race.”  And, I would add, to act, to act, to eradicate the existence of still too persistent inequalities.

I want to assure you – as we mark this historic anniversary – that my colleagues and I remain as committed to this cause as ever before.  While the number of school districts that remain under desegregation court orders has decreased significantly in just the past decade, the Department continues to actively enforce and monitor nearly 200 desegregation cases where school districts have not yet fulfilled their legal obligation to eliminate segregation “root and branch.”  In those cases, we work to ensure that all students have the building blocks of educational success – from access to advanced placement classes, to facilities without crumbling walls and old technology, to safe and positive learning environments.   We’re partnering with the Department of Education to reform school discipline policies that fuel the “school-to-prison pipeline” – and that have resulted in students of color facing suspensions and expulsions at a rate three times higher than that of their white peers.  And we are moving in a variety of ways to dismantle racial barriers and promote inclusion, from America’s classrooms, to our boardrooms, to our voting booths – and far beyond.

So long as I have the privilege of serving as Attorney General of the United States, this Justice Department will never stop working to expand the promise of a nation where everyone has the same opportunity to grow, to contribute, and to succeed.  By calling for new voting protections – and by challenging unjust restrictions that discriminate against vulnerable populations or communities of color – we’ll keep striving to ensure the free exercise of every citizen’s most fundamental rights.  By leading implementation of another landmark Supreme Court ruling – in United States v. Windsor – we’ll ensure that lawfully married same-sex couples can receive the federal benefits and protections they deserve.  And by fighting for comprehensive immigration reform – that includes an earned path to citizenship, so that men and women who are Americans in everything but name can step out of the shadows and take their place in society – we’ll make certain that children who have always called America home can build bright futures in, and enrich, the country they love without fear.

 In these and other efforts, there are undoubtedly difficult times ahead.  Challenges, old and new, remain before us.  There are too many wedded to the past and who irrationally fear the new America that is emerging.  They misconstrue our past: America has been at its best when we have acted to embrace, and make positive, the changes we have been forced to confront.  And so it must be again.

Government will never be able to surmount the obstacles we face on its own.  But, especially on days like today, I am reminded of the extraordinary courage that – since 1940 – has led seemingly-ordinary citizens and LDF leaders to stand together, to transform the power of individual voices into the strength of collective action, and to bring about historic changes like the one we gather to celebrate: changes that pull this nation closer to its founding promise.  Changes that make real the blessings of our Constitution.  And changes that codify self-evident truths into settled law.

As I look around this room, and with great faith in the American people, I cannot help but feel optimistic about our ability to build on the progress we celebrate this week.  And I have no doubt that, with your continued leadership, with your boundless passion, and with your unyielding courage, we can continue the legacy that’s been entrusted to us.  We can extend the promise that Brown, and those who made it possible, worked so hard to secure.  And we can build that more just society that everyone in this nation deserves.

 Thank you.