NSF SUPPORTS DIVERSITY WITH ASTRONOMY PROGRAM

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Making stars

Astronomy program provides tools, support to enhance diversity

October 7, 2014

Like so many other children, Fabienne Bastien did not like to go to sleep at bedtime.

She recalls her mother lying alongside her, telling her to look out her window into the night sky because her guardian angel was there. And as she searched for this elusive guardian angel, what she found instead was the moon and stars, among other astronomical delights.

Despite Washington, D.C., metro-area light pollution that can restrict one's view of the cosmos, Bastien pinpoints that moment as the one when she got hooked on astronomy, knowing it held her future, if not an actual guardian angel.

Many astronomers and astrophysicists speak of that same source of inspiration. But, while our solar system's immensity and beauty have an almost universal appeal, the astronomy and astrophysics career field has had very little representation from minority populations.

In a study done by the American Astronomical Society, which includes most professionals and many students in these fields, only 21 percent of its members is female, which is light-years ahead of the representation of African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos--1 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

Not surprisingly, those numbers have prompted a call for diversity within the astro community.

In 2008, the National Science Foundation (NSF) started a program called Partnerships in Astronomy and Astrophysics Research and Education (PAARE, pronounced "pair"). Its goal was to identify and explore ways to repair "leaks" in the astronomy/astrophysics career pipeline for minority students. In many cases, minority students would start out studying astronomy, but they weren't making it all the way through the pipeline to pursue science careers.

When Bastien finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, she too wasn't sure whether she was appropriately prepared for the rigors of a grad school education in astronomy.

"I was petrified of grad school," she said. "I hadn't taken advantage of research opportunities as an undergrad largely due to personal challenges. But also because our department was so big, I fell between the cracks there."

PAARE aimed to make the face of astronomy more inclusive by seeing that minority students like Bastien got the right mix of resources, mentoring and encouragement. The partnership found that this required a multi-faceted approach that could target those pipeline points where "leaks" were most likely and "pair" some strong astronomy programs with schools that have more diverse populations, providing mentoring and support.

In Bastien's case, the PAARE Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program proved to be one where she not only got her Ph.D., but had the opportunity to analyze stellar variability data, which led to a paper in Nature, being named a Hubble fellow and to her current postdoctoral work at Penn State.

The leaky pipeline

"We currently fund several highly complementary PAARE partnerships, which attack the leaky pipeline at different stages," said Dan Evans, the NSF program director who manages PAARE funding for the Division of Astronomical Sciences. "We're deeply concerned about the underrepresentation of minority students in astronomy and are massively proud of the successes of the students and staff who have participated in PAARE. We are exposing students to cutting-edge research. We are providing important new opportunities. And mentoring is utterly critical."

Though the partnerships target different points in the pipeline, they all emphasize mentoring, access to research opportunities and resources early on. They also emphasize an infrastructure that can address both academic and personal issues that might hinder progress.

"Queens is the most diverse county in the country," said Tim Paglione, director of AstroCom NYC, a partnership between astronomers at the City Universities of New York (CUNY), the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University. Of the current PAARE partnerships, this is the only one that focuses exclusively on undergraduate students, targeting freshmen and sophomores. It also has the added challenge of CUNY being located throughout New York City, creating unique transportation issues that can deter students who feel inadequately prepared or supported.

That's why this program only accepts four new students each year. It supports students with summer fellowships, school scholarships, transportation stipends and program-provided laptops. It also provides long-term career mentors, research mentors, travel to observatories and professional meetings and membership in the American Astronomical Society.

"The problem is gigantic, but our astronomy field is also small," Paglione said. "That means even with our little program, we can have an impact. If we graduated two students each year from underrepresented groups who then went onto graduate school, we would be one of the leading programs in the country."

Keivan Stassun started a PAARE-like partnership even before PAARE existed, using funding from his NSF CAREER award in 2003 to develop the Fisk-Vanderbilt program, which focused on the potential pipeline leak at this juncture.

"That CAREER award gave me seed funding to do things like develop a website and recruit a couple of students as research assistants," Stassun said. "The CAREER grant got the whole thing going, both in terms of cash and caché as I got buy-in from both universities."

Broader than just astronomy, Stassun' s program has admitted 78 students in physics, biology, chemistry, materials science and astronomy, with the belief that they can impact these STEM disciplines as well. "This felt like the perfect program for me," Bastien recalled. "The extra encouragement helped. I was immediately working on real science--on rare eruptive young stars--because they serendipitously had these data they needed analyzed."

Another potential leak in this pipeline comes right after college, and South Carolina State University (SCSU) partnered with the NSF-funded National Optical Astronomy Observatory and Clemson University to address the loss of minority astronomy students at this stage of their education.

"We hoped to mirror Keivan's success at Vanderbilt," said Don Walter, who started the Partnership in Observational and Computational Astronomy, based on an undergraduate physics curriculum at SCSU. "We overestimated the number of students we'd get involved, so we haven't yet seen the numbers at the grad program that we hoped for, but the momentum is there, and we believe we have the right supports in place."

The SCSU partnership admittedly has had different obstacles and issues. It doesn't have full-time researchers because SCSU is a predominantly undergraduate school. The astrophysics portion of the curriculum is a concentration, not a degree. And the STEM graduate programs are a few hours away at Clemson, not nearby.

Mentoring makes the difference

"We try to spend a lot of time with our students as soon as possible. Because they don't take their first physics courses until their second year, it would be easy for them to get lost," Walter said. "I'll ask them to come by to make sure we connect early on--even waiting outside their classrooms if my emails don't bring them in. Students need early interaction."

This is a common theme throughout PAARE partnerships. Interaction with other students at the same and more advanced levels, as well as faculty, seems critical to success.

"We've added a number of mentoring layers," Stassun said about the Fisk-Vanderbilt program. "We assign to all incoming students a pair of peer mentors known as 'bridge buddies' who are students just one year ahead, and another mentor who is a few years further ahead. That way, they can see their future in front of them. We now also have a postdocs association, where the postdocs spend three-quarters of their time on their own research, but also a quarter of their time mentoring. They hold office hours, so students can talk to them, which offers a different perspective from faculty advisers."

At SCSU, one of the biggest challenges actually has been personal and financial problems that interfere with students staying in school.

"Some good students have had major personal or family issues," he said. "Money is tight, and many students find it too difficult to balance school life with demands in their personal lives. One female student in our physics program was an A-B student, but in the middle of the semester, her parents asked her to return home to care for a sick brother. She would have been a good undergraduate student and good graduate student."

Success determined by grit?

Interestingly enough, the admissions process for these PAARE partnerships has gone beyond evaluating just grades and test scores.

Stassun referred to a Nature article that he published this year with colleague Casey Miller about the Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, gender and ethnic bias that was discovered using published data from the Educational Testing Service that makes those tests. Their study found that women score approximately 80 points lower than men on the test's math section; and African Americans, approximately 200 points lower than Whites and Asians, on average.

For that reason, Stassun and his team put together a different set of metrics to measure something he refers to as "grit" or performance character.

"We found that the most successful students weren't necessarily the ones with the highest test scores," he said. "Graduate school is about persistence, so it makes sense to try and determine a candidate's capacity for being persistent. Consequently, we have achieved a very large, diverse program with a 90-percent Ph.D. persistence rate versus the national rate which is barely better than 50 percent." In other words, 90 percent of the students at Fisk-Vanderbilt are getting their doctoral degrees. He credits that success to careful, yet diverse selection and smart mentoring.

"PAARE funding makes a difference," Walter said. "In the August American Institute of Physics newsletter, SCSU was tied for eighth position nationally in terms of African American physics bachelors of science degree graduates during the five-year period, 2008-2012. We'd only graduated 12, but because the pool is so small, we're one of the top schools. PAARE helped us provide our students with meaningful internships at places like the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which keeps their interest alive while giving them important experience."

Ariel Diaz, who attends the CUNY program, is a PAARE student who has benefitted from those experiences and demonstrated his "grit." A former Marine, he lives in New York City with his ailing father, whom he cares for. His astronomy interest was piqued in an introductory class that was far from the "easy A" he thought it would be. However, he found he really enjoyed the class, and Paglione's team recognized a student who had the wherewithal to succeed. Today, Diaz sifts through X-ray data from Chandra Observatory, looking for signals that could indicate black holes or other astronomical events.

"He's grown as a student. He's building a vision of himself in this career," Paglione said. "And honestly, that's what we want to do here. We want our students to see that future in themselves."

-- Ivy F. Kupec
Investigators
Donald Walter
Keivan Stassun
Timothy Paglione
Related Institutions/Organizations
Fisk University
CUNY York College
University of Texas at El Paso
South Carolina State University

WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE ACTIONS TO IMPROVE CARE FOR MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

October 06, 2014

FACT SHEET: Administration Announces New Executive Actions to Improve Quality of Care for Medicare Beneficiaries

Today, the Administration announced new executive actions and the President signed into law legislation that will improve the quality of care for nursing home and home health patients. The President signed the Improving Medicare Post Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act), bipartisan legislation that puts in place new and streamlined quality measures for nursing homes, home health agencies, and other post-acute care providers participating in Medicare. The Administration also took additional steps to improve care for nursing home and home health patients through new executive actions that will:

Expand and strengthen Medicare’s widely-used Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes, also known as Nursing Home Compare.
Improve quality home health care received by Medicare beneficiaries through a proposed rule that strengthens patient rights, improves communication, and focuses on patient well-being.
Actions to Improve Medicare’s Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes

Today, the Administration announced plans to expand and strengthen Medicare’s widely-used Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes, also known as Nursing Home Compare.  The rating system is a consumer service that offers useful information to the public about the quality of care in the 15,800 nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid.  Users may sort through nursing homes in their area through an online tool at CMS’ Nursing Home Compare website.

The Five Star Quality Rating System offers the most comprehensive overview of nursing home quality in the U.S., in an easy to understand format, based on data from onsite inspections conducted by trained, objective surveyors from state public health departments and CMS; Quality Measures submitted by the nursing homes is used to calculate certain quality measures, such as the prevalence of pressure ulcers, use of restraints, and the extent of injurious falls; and information about the staffing levels in nursing homes.

While the onsite inspections form the core of the rating system, CMS has been concerned that the quality measures and information about staffing levels rely on self-reported data from nursing homes that have been difficult to verify.

Beginning in January 2015 CMS will initiate the following steps to improve the reliability and utility of data displayed on Nursing Home Compare as well as to help nursing homes improve:

Nationwide Focused Survey Inspections:  In FY 2014 CMS piloted special surveys of nursing homes that focused on verifying performance on resident assessments and the data set that is used in the quality measures.  Effective January 2015, CMS and states will implement these focused survey inspections nationwide for a sample of nursing homes nationwide.  Expansion of these inspections will enable better verification of both the staffing and quality measure information that is part of the Five-Star Quality Rating System.

Payroll-Based Staffing Reporting: Using new funding provided by the IMPACT Act of 2014, signed by the President today, CMS will implement a system of quarterly electronic reporting that is auditable back to payrolls to verify staffing information.  This new system will increase accuracy, improve the timeliness of the data, and allow for the calculation of quality measures for staff turnover, retention, types of staffing, and levels of different types of staffing.  This data will not only allow for better information available to the public, but may equip nursing homes with better data by which to improve staffing and quality of care.  CMS expects that pilot testing will occur in fiscal year (FY) 2015, with nationwide reporting by all nursing homes by the end of FY2016.

Improved Scoring Methodology: CMS will revise the scoring methodology by which we calculate each facility’s Five Star rating. The revised scoring methods will place more emphasis on data that is verified by independent sources rather than data that is self-reported by nursing homes.
Timely and Complete Inspection Data: CMS will also strengthen requirements to ensure that states complete inspections of nursing homes in a timely and accurate manner, and maintain a user-friendly website for public viewing.
Additional Quality Measures: CMS will increase both the number and type of quality measures used in Nursing Home Compare.  The first additional measure starting January 2015 in the ratings system will be the extent to which anti-psychotic medications are in use. More measures will be added later, including data on re-hospitalization and rates of returning beneficiaries to home that use Medicare claims as the source of information.
Actions to Improve Quality Home Health Care Received by Medicare Beneficiaries

In conjunction with today’s efforts to improve the quality of care received by Medicare beneficiaries in nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today issued a proposed rule that strengthens patient rights, improves communication, and focuses on patient well-being. These rules are designed to improve the quality of home health services for Medicare beneficiaries.

These updates to home health agency conditions of participation (CoPs) make substantial revisions to the existing CoPs.  They focus on the care needs of patients and will clarify the operational and quality expectations for the approximately 12,500 home health agencies participating in Medicare. There are more than five million people with Medicare and Medicaid benefits who receive home health care services each year.

The proposed regulation, will include these proposed updates:

A clear explanation of patient rights, including a requirement to communicate with patients in a language and manner that they understand, and a requirement that home health agencies must take measures to assure and protect those rights.
An expanded comprehensive patient assessment requirement that focuses on all aspects of patient well-being.

An integrated communication system, increasingly enabled by health information technology, that ensures that patient needs are identified and addressed, care is coordinated among all disciplines, and that there is active, timely, needs-based communication between the home health agency and the physician.
A data-driven, agency-wide quality assessment and performance improvement program that continually evaluates and improves agency care for patients.
An expanded patient care coordination requirement that makes a licensed clinician responsible for all patient care services, such as coordinating referrals and assuring that plans of care meet each patient’s needs at all times.
Comments and feedback are requested to inform final rulemaking in 2015.

IMPACT Act

The President signed the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014, bipartisan legislation that puts in place new and streamlined quality measures for nursing homes, home health agencies, and other post-acute care providers participating in Medicare.

The Act will facilitate patients comparing outcomes across different care settings, supporting better choices and better outcomes for patients. In addition, the IMPACT Act funds a key improvement to nursing home oversight, the collection of staffing data. Nursing and other staffing levels are closely correlated with quality in nursing homes and current data collection efforts have produced data of uneven reliability. The IMPACT Act also institutes more routine surveys of hospice providers, ensuring program standards are met for the benefit and safety of patients.

TWO PEOPLE SENTENCED FOR FILING FALSE TAX RETURNS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

JUSTICE NEWS

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, October 6, 2014

Two Michigan Men Sentenced to Prison for Filing False Claims Against Internal Revenue Service

Two Detroit area men were sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for conspiracy and filing $3.4 million in false claims against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Justice Department and IRS announced.

Jason McGuire, 38, of Detroit, was sentenced to serve 63 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and to pay $1.675 million in restitution.  Delvin Davis, 37, of Saint Clair Shores, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 42 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and to pay $1.146 million in restitution.

On Jan. 30, McGuire and Davis were found guilty by a jury in Detroit of conspiracy to file false claims in the form of false individual income tax returns and false trust tax returns.  The defendants were also found guilty of filing or aiding and abetting in the filing of false, fictitious and fraudulent claims; McGuire was found guilty of 18 such counts and Davis was found guilty of five counts.  Witness testimony revealed that the defendants attended the same high school in Detroit and started the scheme in 2008.  Prior to that time, McGuire had worked as a mechanic and Davis had worked as a mortgage broker and operated a credit repair business.

According to court documents and evidence introduced at trial, McGuire and Davis recruited individuals from the Detroit area with whom they had existing, long-standing business and personal relationships to sign fraudulent trust and income tax returns.  McGuire had the taxpayers sign blank trust return forms, and the taxpayers never saw the filled-out forms before they were filed.  McGuire attached bogus forms to the income tax returns.  McGuire included fictitious withholdings in both types of return forms which resulted in the taxpayers receiving large refunds.  The defendants recruited at least nine different taxpayers to participate in the fraudulent scheme.  The IRS received returns requesting more than $3.4 million in false refunds and paid more than $1.5 million in false refunds as a result of the fraudulent scheme.  Several taxpayers testified at trial that they were required to pay fines and interest to the IRS as a result of the false tax returns that the defendants submitted.

This case was investigated by special agents from IRS – Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Stafford for the Eastern District of Michigan and Trial Attorney Mark McDonald of the Tax Division.

DOJ ANNOUNCES INDICTMENTS IN IMITATION PRESCRIPTION DRUG SMUGGLING CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, October 6, 2014

Three Indicted in Prescription Drug Smuggling Ring

The Department of Justice announced today that three Athens, Texas, residents have been indicted on charges associated with their alleged smuggling of imitation, unapproved, and misbranded prescription drugs from China.

Wanda Hollis, 63, Tom Giddens, 57, and Catherine Nix, 41, were each charged with one felony count of conspiracy to smuggle merchandise into the United States, seven counts of causing the introduction of misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead, seven counts of smuggling and one count of tampering with a witness.  Giddens was also charged with two additional counts of tampering and Nix was charged with one additional tampering count.  The defendants were also charged with misdemeanor counts of causing misbranded imitation drugs to be introduced into interstate commerce.  Nix was arrested on October 2 in Athens.  Giddens and Hollis surrendered this morning.

According to the indictment, the defendants conspired to smuggle at least 30 known shipments, totaling approximately 100,000 pills, from China to Texas.  As alleged in the indictment, the shipments contained bogus imitations of Xanax, Valium, sibutramine, Cialis, Viagra and Stilnox, which is marketed in the United States as Ambien.  None of the pills seized and tested were legitimate, and all either contained incorrect active ingredients or were sub-potent.  The defendants also attempted to conceal their smuggling by using shipping labels that concealed the contents of their shipments, including customs declarations falsely describing the contents as “gifts” or “toys” with low declared monetary values, and by using multiple addresses in an effort to reduce the likelihood of seizures by U.S. Customs authorities.  Additionally, the indictment states that the defendants instructed family members to destroy evidence once they became aware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was investigating them.

“The smuggling and sale of counterfeit prescription drugs puts the public's health and safety at risk,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joyce R. Branda for the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “Consumers should know that the drugs they are buying are what they purported to be and not misbranded to look like name-brand products that could ultimately do them more harm than good.”

“A key element of FDA’s mission to protect the public’s health is to ensure that safe and effective prescription drugs are properly distributed via the supply chain and dispensed to the ultimate consumer, and that includes ensuring that those prescription drugs contain the treatments that patients expect,” said Acting Director Philip J. Walsky of the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations.  “We will continue to pursue and bring to justice those who would put the public’s health at risk by introducing illegal prescription drugs.”

This case was investigated by the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney John W.M. Claud of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Hurst for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas.



Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

DARPRA DEMONSTRATES FIVE NEW TECHNOLOGIES UNDER DEVELOPMENT

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

DARPA Officials Show Hagel Technologies Under Development

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2014 – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program personnel demonstrated five technologies under development to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in the secretary's conference room yesterday.
DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar provided the secretary with a demonstration of the agency's latest prosthetics technology.

The wounded warrior demonstrating the device was Fred Downs Jr., an old friend of Hagel's who lost an arm in a landmine explosion while fighting in Vietnam. Hagel hugged him and shook his mechanical hand, with Downs joking, "I don't want to hurt you."

"He and I worked together many years ago," said Hagel, who earned two Purple Hearts during his service as an enlisted soldier in Vietnam. "How you doing, Fred? How's your family?"

Downs demonstrated how he controls movements of the arm, which appeared to be partly covered in translucent white plastic, with two accelerometers strapped to his feet. Through a combination of foot movements, he's able to control the elbow, wrist and fingers in a variety of movements, including the “thumbs-up” sign he gave Hagel.

It took only a few hours to learn to control the arm, Downs said.
"It's the first time in 45 years, since Vietnam, I'm able to use my left hand, which was a very emotional time," he said.

Dr. Justin Sanchez, a medical doctor and program manager at DARPA who works with prosthetics and brain-related technology, told Hagel that DARPA's arm is designed to mimic the shape, size and weight of a human arm. It's modular too, so it can replace a lost hand, lower arm or a complete arm.
Hagel said such technology would have a major impact on the lives of injured troops.

"This is transformational," he said. "We've never seen anything like this before."
Next, Sanchez showed Hagel a video of a patient whose brain had been implanted with a sensor at the University of Pittsburgh, allowing her to control an arm with her thoughts.

Matt Johannes, an engineer from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, showed Hagel a shiny black hand and arm that responds to brain impulses. The next step is to put sensors in the fingers that can send sensations back to the brain.

"If you don't have line of sight on something you're trying to grab onto, you can use that sensory information to assist with that task," Johannes said.
The tactile feedback system should be operational within a few months, he said.
"People said it would be 50 years before we saw this technology in humans," Sanchez said. "We did it in a few years."

Next, officials gave Hagel an overview of the DARPA Robotic Challenge, a competition to develop a robot for rescue and disaster response that was inspired by the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident in Japan.

Virginia Tech University's entrant in the contest, the hulking 6-foot-2-inch Atlas robot developed by Boston Dynamics, stood in the background as Hagel was shown a video of robots walking over uneven ground and carrying things.

Brad Tousley, head of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, explained to Hagel that Hollywood creates unrealistic expectations of robotic capability. In fact, he said, building human-like robots capable of autonomously doing things such as climbing ladders, opening doors and carrying things requires major feats of engineering and computer science.

Journalists were escorted out before the remaining three technologies could be demonstrated because of classified concerns. A defense official speaking on background told reporters that Hagel was brought up to date on the progress of three other DARPA programs:

-- Plan X, a foundational cyberwarfare program to develop platforms for the Defense Department to plan for, conduct and assess cyberwarfare in a manner similar to kinetic warfare;

-- Persistent close air support, a system to, among other things, link up joint tactical air controllers with close air support aircraft using commercially available tablets; and

-- A long-range anti-ship missile, planned to reduce dependence on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, network links and GPS navigation in electronic warfare environments. Autonomous guidance algorithms should allow the LRASM to use less-precise target cueing data to pinpoint specific targets in the contested domain, the official said. The program also focuses on innovative terminal survivability approaches and precision lethality in the face of advanced countermeasures.

(From a pool report.)

10/6/14: White House Press Briefing

AIRSTRIKES CONTINUE IN IRAQ, SYRIA

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

Airstrikes Pound ISIL in Syria, Iraq

From a U.S. Central Command News Release

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 7, 2014 – U.S. and partner-nation military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria yesterday and today, using attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft to conduct nine airstrikes, U.S. Central Command officials reported.

Separately, officials added, U.S. military forces used attack and remotely piloted aircraft to conduct four airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq.

In Syria, two airstrikes west of Hasakah successfully struck multiple ISIL buildings, including an air observation building and staging areas, officials said, and another airstrike northeast of Dayr az Zawr successfully struck an ISIL staging area and an IED production facility.

An airstrike south of Kobani destroyed three ISIL armed vehicles and damaged another, and another strike southeast of Kobani destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle carrying anti-aircraft artillery. Two airstrikes southwest of Kobani damaged an ISIL tank, and another strike south of Kobani destroyed an ISIL unit.

In addition, an airstrike southwest of Rabiyah struck a small group of ISIL fighters.

U.S. forces employed Air Force attack, fighter and bomber aircraft deployed to the Centcom area of operations. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also participated in these airstrikes, Centcom officials said, and all aircraft safely left the strike areas.

In Iraq, an airstrike destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle firing on Kurdish Peshmerga forces northeast of Sinjar. Three more airstrikes northeast of Sinjar destroyed three ISIL armed vehicles and struck a small group of ISIL fighters.
To conduct these strikes, U.S. forces employed Air Force attack and remotely piloted aircraft deployed to the Centcom area of operations, officials said. Belgium also participated in these airstrikes, officials added, and all aircraft left the strike areas safely.

PRESIDENT OBAMA PROVIDES AN UPDATE ON THE EBOLA OUTBREAK

NSF VIDEO: HIGH-TECH HARVEST ENGINEERING AGRICULTURE'S FUTURE

AG HOLDER CALLS CUTS TO EARLY VOTING CUTS IN OHIO "A MAJOR STEP BACKWARD"

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, October 6, 2014

Attorney General Holder Calls Cuts to Early Voting a 'Step Backward' as Restrictions Take Effect in Ohio, Elsewhere

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision late last month to allow Ohio’s new voting law to go into effect, Attorney General Eric Holder criticized the law’s restrictions on early voting, which he said were “heavily used” by African-American voters.

“It is a major step backward to allow these reductions to early voting to go into effect,” the Attorney General said in a video message posted on the Justice Department’s website.  “Early voting is about much more than making it more convenient for people to exercise their civic responsibilities.  It’s about preserving access and openness for every eligible voter, not just those who can afford to miss work or who can afford to pay for childcare.”

The Ohio law has been the subject of a lawsuit by civil rights groups and the Justice Department filed a brief in the case in July.  A federal judge ruled that the law violated the Voting Rights Act and blocked it from taking effect.  A federal appeals court judge upheld that ruling, but the Supreme Court disagreed and ruled the law should go into effect immediately. Absent the Court’s ruling, early voting would have begun in Ohio last Tuesday.

In North Carolina, the Justice Department has directly challenged a state law that cuts back on early voting and eliminates same-day registration.  While no ruling on the merits has been issued yet in that case, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week to allow much of the law—including the reductions to early voting—to go into effect in the meantime.

The complete text of the Attorney General’s video message appears below.

“One of the Justice Department’s most solemn responsibilities is ensuring access to the ballot box for every eligible citizen.  And over the last six years, my colleagues and I have taken robust action to protect the voting rights of all Americans – including communities that have been too long overlooked and too often underserved.

“Before the Shelby County case was wrongly decided, we successfully challenged efforts in Texas and Florida that would have disproportionately disenfranchised citizens of color in those states, and South Carolina had to make changes to its voting restrictions.  It should not be lost on us that almost as soon as the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County was handed down, the state of Texas implemented a photo ID law that the courts had previously blocked, and that North Carolina implemented sweeping restrictions on voting rights.  The Department of Justice has now been forced to challenge those discriminatory laws in court.

“Our work has taken us to other parts of our nation as well.  We have worked to protect the voting rights of servicemembers, and to ensure accessible polling places throughout Indian Country and Alaska Native communities.  And we have fought back against discriminatory redistricting proposals that may make it more difficult for many Americans to make their voices heard.

“Despite these efforts, in some places, we’ve continued to see troubling new measures that unnecessarily restrict the ability of particular Americans to participate in the democratic process.  Ohio, for example, has imposed new restrictions that significantly reduce opportunities for early voting – opportunities that had in the past been heavily used by African-American voters.

“The early voting times targeted for cancellation – including weeknight and Sunday hours – previously provided critical opportunities for many people to get to the polls.  In 2012, tens of thousands of Ohio voters cast their ballots during the voting days that Ohio has now eliminated.  And studies suggest that these restrictions will disproportionately affect people with childcare responsibilities, hourly salaries, and reduced access to transportation – people who may have difficulty getting to the polls at any other time, and who are much more likely to be low-income or minority individuals.

“It is a major step backward to allow these reductions to early voting to go into effect.  The public should be demanding the state officials who seek to impose these restrictions to justify—clearly, factually, and empirically—why they are necessary.  Early voting is about much more than making it more convenient for people to exercise their civic responsibilities.  It’s about preserving access and openness for every eligible voter, not just those who can afford to miss work or who can afford to pay for childcare.  That’s why a number of states have expanded early voting in recent years.  Throughout our nation’s history, we’ve repeatedly seen that there is simply no good reason – no good reason – to reduce voting access.  Indeed, the arc of our nation’s history has, until recently, been to expand access to the ballot.  Restricting voting hours in ways that would disproportionately impact minority communities is not only unnecessary and unwarranted – it is out of step with our history of continually expanding the franchise.  It is contrary to our fundamental values of equality, opportunity, and inclusion.  And it is an affront to millions who have marched, and fought, and too often died to make real America’s most basic promise.  Three brave young men gave their lives in 1964, as did a courageous Detroit mother of five in 1965, so that others might be able to vote and be truly free.  Are we now to turn our back on those ultimate sacrifices?

“We at the Department of Justice will never rest in our efforts to ensure the right to vote.  Nor will I.  And today, I’m calling on election officials and other public servants at every level across the country – men and women who are charged with upholding America’s highest ideals – to consider their responsibilities not to political constituencies, but to the country we all serve.  To think about the deep unfairness of curtailing voting opportunities.  And to reflect on their place in the history of this country to which they are potentially consigning themselves.

“In a great nation governed both by and for the people, our advances have always been of our own making.  And going forward, it will be up to all of us to ensure that engagement in that democratic process remains the responsibility and the birthright of every American.”

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT ON EXPORT DATA RELEASE

FROM:  U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANK 

Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred P. Hochberg Statement on the Release of Export Data from the Commerce Department

U.S. Exports Reach A Record-High $198.5 Billion in August

Washington, D.C. – Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg issued the following statement with respect to August’s record-high export data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Commerce Department. According to BEA, the United States exported $198.5 billion of goods and services in August 2014, the highest mark for any month ever recorded.

“These numbers are another clear demonstration that the global demand for products stamped ‘Made in America’ continues to grow. Ex-Im Bank is proud to support U.S. exporters and their workers as they expand their sales in the global marketplace, and create quality, middle class jobs here at home.”

Exports of goods and services over the last twelve months totaled $2.3 trillion, which is 47.1 percent above 2009 levels, and have been growing at an annualized rate of 8.6 percent over the last five years.

DOJ SAYS IT WILL NOT CHALLENGED TruSTAR PLATFORM

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Friday, October 3, 2014

Department of Justice Will Not Challenge Proposed Cyber Intelligence Data-Sharing Platform

The Department of Justice announced that it will not challenge a proposal by CyberPoint International LLC to offer a cyber intelligence data-sharing platform known as TruSTAR.   The TruSTAR platform allows members to share threat and incident data along with attack information and develop remediation solutions to help define more effective strategies across industries to prevent successful cyber attacks.

The department’s position was stated in a business review letter to counsel for CyberPoint, from Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

CyberPoint’s proposed information sharing system is designed to address shortfalls in conventional, legacy information sharing services, while operating within the framework set forth in the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission’s Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cybersecurity Information.[1]  Assistant Attorney General Baer cited to the department’s April policy statement with the Federal Trade Commission to underscore that “the federal antitrust agencies recognize the important role that information sharing plays in securing the nation’s IT infrastructure.”  He further said that “[t]he antitrust laws are not an impediment to legitimate private-sector initiatives to share specific information about cyber incidents and mitigation techniques in order to defend against cyber attacks.”  In approving the proposed TruSTAR platform, he concluded that the operation of the TruSTAR platform, as proposed, would be unlikely to facilitate price or other competitive coordination.

CyberPoint is a privately held company that provides security products, services and solutions to commercial and government customers.  The TruSTAR platform is designed to collect incident reports that include specific and highly technical cyber-threat information, including current attack actors, targets of attack, contextual information regarding threats, and remediation solutions.  An important component of the TruSTAR platform is that members are able to submit incident reports with complete anonymity.  The TruSTAR platform also provides a community forum for members to anonymously collaborate with their peers on cyber threats and techniques for responding to them.  Before they are permitted to use the system, all members who participate in any aspect of information sharing on the TruSTAR platform must agree not to share competitively sensitive information.

Under the department’s business review procedure, an organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement as to whether the division currently intends to challenge the action under the antitrust laws based on the information provided.  The department reserves the right to challenge the proposed action under the antitrust laws if it produces anticompetitive effects.

A file containing the business review request and the department’s response may be examined in the Antitrust Documents Group of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 1010, Washington, D.C. 20530.  After a 30-day waiting period, the documents supporting the business review will be added to the file, unless a basis for their exclusion for reasons of confidentiality has been established under the business review procedure.

[1] See Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission:  Antitrust Policy Statement on Sharing of Cyber Security Information (April 10, 2014) (“DOJ and FTC Antitrust Policy Statement”).

FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT PLEADS GUILTY IN BRIBERY TO OBSTRUCT A GRAND JURY CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Former FBI Special Agent and Co-Defendant Plead Guilty to Conspiracy, Bribery, and Obstruction of Justice Scheme

A former FBI special agent and a conspirator pleaded guilty in the District of Utah yesterday and today to participating in a bribery scheme to obstruct a grand jury investigation in exchange for the promise of cash and multimillion dollar business contracts offered by a businessman under investigation.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen of the District of Utah and Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz made the announcement after the guilty pleas were accepted by U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell.

“No one is above the law, no matter what rank or badge a person might hold,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “Corruption by those entrusted to enforce the law strikes at the heart of our criminal justice system, and it will not be tolerated.  This case lays bare a disgraceful attempt by a veteran FBI agent to get rich by thwarting an ongoing investigation.  The Justice Department will fight corruption wherever we find it, even within the ranks of federal law enforcement.”

“These plea agreements demonstrate that Federal law enforcement officers who sell their badges for cash and frustrate the administration of justice will be held accountable for their actions,” said Inspector General Horowitz.  “Department employees are held to the highest standards, and we cannot permit our criminal justice system to be stained by such bribery and corruption.”

“When a law enforcement officer violates his oath and the public’s trust by breaking the law, he must be held accountable,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Christensen.  “In this case, former Agent Lustyik’s decision to enter into a conspiracy to obstruct a significant fraud investigation in Utah is a troubling reminder that corruption may exist even among those we entrust with protecting our citizens and upholding our laws.”

A 24-year veteran of the FBI, Robert Lustyik Jr., 51, of Sleepy Hollow, New York, pleaded guilty on Sept. 30, 2014, to an 11-count indictment charging him with conspiracy, eight counts of honest services wire fraud, obstruction of a grand jury proceeding, and obstruction of an agency proceeding.  A childhood friend of Lustyik, Johannes Thaler, 50, of New Fairfield, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bribery, obstruction of a grand jury proceeding and obstruction of an agency proceeding.  Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2015.

In court documents and at the plea hearings, Lustyik and Thaler admitted that from October 2011 to September 2012, Lustyik, while employed as an FBI counterintelligence special agent, and Thaler conspired to use Lustyik’s official position to obstruct a criminal investigation into Michael Taylor, a businessman who owned and operated American International Security Corporation and was under investigation for paying kickbacks to obtain a series of contracts from the Department of Defense worth approximately $54 million.  Taylor promised Lustyik and Thaler that in exchange for their help, he would provide them cash and multimillion dollar business contracts.  Taylor told the two men: “I’ll make you guys more money than you can believe, provided they don’t think I’m a bad guy and put me in jail.”

Court documents state that Lustyik attempted to obstruct the investigation into Taylor by opening Taylor as an official FBI source in an effort to persuade the FBI, the Justice Department and the prosecutors and law enforcement agents investigating Taylor that Taylor’s usefulness as a source outweighed the government’s interest in prosecuting him.  Lustyik also advocated on Taylor’s behalf directly to the prosecutors and law enforcement agents, urging them to use Taylor as a cooperating witness and emphasizing that indicting Taylor would threaten the nation’s security.

According to court documents, while Lustyik was obstructing the investigation into Taylor, Lustyik suggested that Thaler “blatantly” ask Taylor for money, emphasizing “he knows we are keeping him outta jail.”  Lustyik explained to Thaler that on his upcoming trip to meet Taylor in Lebanon, “Taylor is gonna hand you cash in Lebanon,” “[l]ike 150 gs.”  When Thaler asked Lustyik how he was supposed to bring that much cash back to the United States, Lustyik instructed him “[i]n your pants.  Or wire it?  They won’t stop 2 white guys at customs without a reason, [o]r I meet you at customs at JFK and cred you in.”

Court records state that during the conspiracy, Lustyik and Thaler acknowledged that Taylor was probably guilty, but they boasted about their success in using Lustyik’s official position to obstruct the investigation into Taylor, with Lustyik texting Thaler, “at this point IF he is indicted there is NO WAY he gets convicted even though he Prob did it.”  During the conspiracy, Lustyik texted Thaler, “I think we are rich by Christmas!!”  When Thaler asked why, Lustyik responded, “he [Taylor] is gonna be free!!!!!!!!”

Taylor pleaded guilty in the District of Utah to honest services wire fraud for his role in the scheme on Nov. 27, 2013.  He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 5, 2015.

The investigation was conducted by Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tom Hopkins of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General.  The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Peter Koski and Trial Attorney Maria Lerner of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and Trial Attorney Ann Marie Blaylock of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section.  Scott Ferber of the Counterespionage Section of the National Security Division also assisted in the prosecution.

10/6/14: White House Press Briefing

CYBER SECURITY CHIEF DISCUSSES CHALLENGES

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
DARPA Director Discusses Cyber Security Challenges
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

FORT MEADE, Md., Oct. 1, 2014 – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working on new ways to protect information and systems that use the Internet, said Arati Prabhakar, the agency’s director.

The current mode of protection – “patch and pray” – really doesn’t work anymore, Prabhakar told the Washington Post’s Cybersecurity Summit today.
DARPA is working to improve cyber security, and Prabhakar discussed the historical background as National Cyber Security Awareness Month kicked off.

The Agency’s early days

The agency formed after the Soviet Union shocked the world with the launch of the world’s first satellite in 1957. Many Americans believed the United States had lost the space race and Soviet domination of space threatened the existence of the free world.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower created DARPA in response to this threat. The agency mission was not to develop the next technology, but to leap ahead to a whole new generation of technology.

And the agency has been successful. DARPA developed what became the Internet and the first information began flowing on it in 1969. The Pentagon agency has been working on cyber security ever since.

Current projects

One of the agency’s projects is to build software that is not hackable. “What that means is there is a mathematical proof that this particular function can’t be hacked from a pathway that wasn’t intended,” Prabhakar said in response to a reporter’s question. “That won’t solve the entire problem, but it might make it more manageable.”

The idea, she said, is to reduce the attack surface hackers can approach.
DARPA is also plumbing the dark depths of the Internet to find those who want to do harm. “You start by creating a different way to look at this vast information environment,” she said. A current project was based on the thesis that law enforcement might find a way to detect hidden networks that relate with hidden trafficking.

“We worked with law enforcement and found that the way they looked at the information space was the same way you or I would look at it,” she said. “You know: a Google search, a single-threaded walk through this environment.”
Finding patterns

DARPA tools dig deep holes through the Web to find patterns and linkages among sites.

“We were able to find a set of phone numbers that were very heavily linked to each other in back page ads where the sex trade is advertised,” she said. The agency gave 600 phone numbers to law enforcement, and they found “466 numbers that tied to criminal violations and they also found numbers that tied to fund transfers in the region around North Korea and they are working to find a human trafficking network.”

New moon shot

One of the hardest challenges for cyber is maintaining web security while the information explosion continues. There are 3 billion people already on the Internet, and that will only increase, Prabhakar said. She feels the same pressure for solutions as the DARPA director who helped with the moon shot in the 1960s.

“The moon shot for cyber security, in my view, is to find techniques that scale faster than the explosion in information,” she said.

It will not be a silver bullet, she said, but a combination of advancements where the cyber security problem will be manageable.

Incredible challenges

This movement is already underway, Prabhakar said. “The most critical systems get the most critical focused attention, whether in DoD or throughout our economy. It is incredibly challenging technically and very challenging from a practical and policy perspective.”

Prabhakar noted security would be absolute if the Internet was sealed off and only select people could use it.

“The power of information technology, and the reason we put up with all these problems, is that it is phenomenally capable for all the things that change how we live and how we work and how create national security,” she said. “You don’t want to cut out any of that capability off in the process of building cyber security.”

MAN ARRESTED BY FBI FOR TRYING TO SUPPORT OVERSEAS TERRORISM

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, October 6, 2014

FBI Arrests Suburban Chicago Man for Allegedly Attempting to Support Terrorism Overseas

A southwest suburban Bolingbrook man was arrested Saturday night for allegedly attempting to travel overseas to join a foreign terrorist organization operating inside Iraq and Syria, federal law enforcement officials announced today.  The defendant, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, a U.S. citizen, was charged with attempting to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Khan was taken into custody without incident at O’Hare International Airport by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force before he attempted to fly to Vienna, Austria, on his way to Istanbul, Turkey.

Khan was charged in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.  He appeared this morning in U.S. District Court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox, and remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

According to the complaint affidavit, a roundtrip ticket was purchased for Khan on Sept. 26 to travel from Chicago to Istanbul, departing on Saturday, and returning later this week.

Law enforcement agents observed Khan passing through the security screening checkpoint Saturday afternoon at O’Hare’s international terminal.  Federal agents then executed a search warrant at Khan’s residence and recovered multiple handwritten documents that appeared to be drafted by Khan and/or others, which expressed support for ISIL, the affidavit alleges.  Some of those documents, including travel plans and materials referencing ISIL and jihad, are described in the complaint affidavit.

Khan was initially approached by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and was later interviewed later by FBI agents at the airport.

Attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The JTTF is comprised of Special Agents of the FBI, officers of the Chicago Police Department, and representatives from an additional 20 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.  The Justice Department’s National Security Division assisted in the investigation.  U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Illinois State Police also provided significant assistance.

The arrest and complaint were announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The investigation is continuing, they said.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Hiller and Angel Krull.

The public is reminded that a complaint contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.      

14-1092
National Security Division (NSD)
National Security Division

President Obama Speaks at the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial

FORMER STATE OF ALABAMA EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING IDENTITIES FROM STATE DATA BASES

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Former Alabama State Employee Pleads Guilty to Stealing Identities from State Databases Used to Request over $7 Million in Tax Refunds

Today, Tamika Floyd pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of aggravated identity theft for her involvement in a Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Scheme (SIRF), announced Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ronald A. Cimino for the Justice Department's Tax Division and U.S. Attorney George L. Beck Jr. for the Middle District of Alabama.

According to the court documents, between 2006 and 2014, Floyd worked at the State of Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama Department of Human Resources, both located in Opelika, Alabama.  At both jobs, she had access to the identification information of individuals.   Beginning in 2012, Floyd was approached to obtain names from her employer that would be used to file false tax returns.  Floyd agreed to steal the names and in turn provided them to her co-conspirator.  Most of the names stolen belonged to teenagers.  Floyd’s co-conspirators used the names she provided to file more than 3,000 fraudulent federal income tax returns that claimed more than $7.5 million in refunds.

A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

The case was investigated by special agents of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation.  Trial Attorney Michael Boteler of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Brown for the Middle District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.

WHITE HOUSE FACT SHEET ON MANUFACTURING INNOVATION INSTITUTE COMPETITION

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

October 03, 2014

FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces New Manufacturing Innovation Institute Competition

On National Manufacturing Day, The President and His Cabinet Will Visit Manufacturers Across the Country

U.S. manufacturing is central to the foundation of our economy, and the U.S. manufacturing sector is as competitive as it has been in decades for new jobs and investment.  As the President said in his remarks at Northwestern University, “…with dedicated, persistent effort, we have been laying the cornerstones of this new foundation for growth and prosperity. The first cornerstone is new investments in the energy and technologies that make America a magnet for good, middle-class jobs”.

As part of the effort to build on the progress made and highlight the need for continued investment in American manufacturing, the President is announcing today a new competition to award more than $200 million in public and private investment to create an Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute, led by the Department of Defense, and the second of four new institute competitions to be launched this year.

Tomorrow, the President will travel to Princeton, Indiana where he will tour Millennium Steel and discuss the importance of continuing to invest in American manufacturing. Members of his Cabinet are also traveling across the country to take part in National Manufacturing Day as more than 1,600 U.S. manufacturers open their factories to members of the public. Supported by the Department of Commerce and manufacturing industry associations, the third annual Manufacturing Day will be the largest to date.  Working with schools, local governments, and communities, manufacturers are welcoming more than 50,000 people into American factories to experience the strong future of American manufacturing and to excite young people about the promising careers in manufacturing and engineering.

Since February 2010, American manufacturing has added 700,000 jobs, the fastest pace of job growth since the 1990s.  The sector has grown at nearly twice the rate of the economy overall, the longest period of outpacing the economy since the 1960s. While we’ve made considerable progress in bolstering American manufacturing since the Great Recession, the President continues to believe there is still more we can do to support middle class jobs and help businesses expand in this vital sector.  In order to continue strengthening American manufacturing, the President has called for investments that directly support innovations in manufacturing, like investments in research and development, but also investments in education and worker training that will continue to ensure America’s manufacturing sector is fueled by the best-trained, most highly skilled workforce in the world. To further these goals, he is announcing new resources and tools to spur growth in the American manufacturing sector, create jobs, and support opportunities for the middle class.

Strengthening U.S. Manufacturing and Laying the Foundations for Lasting Competitiveness

“When our manufacturing base is strong, our entire economy is strong. Today, we continue our work to bolster the industry at the heart of our Nation. With grit and resolve, we can create new jobs and widen the circle of opportunity for more Americans.”

– President Barack Obama, National Manufacturing Day Proclamation

Ø  Launching a New Manufacturing Innovation Institute Competition:  The President is announcing a new competition, led by the Department of Defense, to award more than $200 million in public and private investment to create an Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute, the second of four new institute competitions to be launched this year.

Ø  Releasing a “Digital Tour of American Manufacturing”:  The White House and the Department of Commerce are releasing a new digital report that highlights the central role of manufacturing in laying the foundation for a new American economy.

Ø  Helping Manufacturers Choose to Locate in the United States:  The Department of Commerce is releasing a new resource for manufacturers to help them locate in the United States by better evaluating and avoiding the hidden costs of off-shoring.  The new inventory costs tool will be used across Commerce’s manufacturing extension centers, which already support more than 30,000 small and medium manufacturers each year.

A Competition for the Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute

The Department of Defense is launching a competition to award more than $100 million in federal investment matched by $100 million or more in private investment to the winning consortia to build a new Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IMI) focused on Integrated Photonics.  This Institute will focus on developing an end-to-end photonics ‘ecosystem’ in the U.S., including domestic foundry access, integrated design tools, automated packaging, assembly and test, and workforce development.

Each manufacturing innovation institute serves as a regional hub, bridging the gap between applied research and product development by bringing together companies, universities and other academic and training institutions, and Federal agencies to co-invest in key technology areas that encourage investment and production in the U.S.  This type of “teaching factory” provides a unique opportunity for education and training of students and workers at all levels, while providing the shared assets to help companies, most importantly small manufacturers, access the cutting-edge capabilities and equipment to design, test, and pilot new products and manufacturing processes.

Photonics, the use of light for applications as diverse as lasers and telecommunications, powers the Internet as we know it today. Integrated Photonics manufacturing, the next generation of this extremely important technology, has the potential to revolutionize the carrying capacity of internet networks and to transport information at far greater densities and much lower costs than can be attained today. Beyond the Internet and telecommunications, integrated photonics can revolutionize medical technology – from the development of “needleless” technologies for monitoring diabetics’ blood sugar levels to tiny cameras smaller than pills that can travel within arteries. Integrated Photonics are expected to bring the sequencing of human genomes rapidly down the cost curve, making genome sequencing possible for less than $1,000 as compared to $5,000 today.  And in national defense, the potential applications of integrated photonics range from improving battlefield imaging to dramatic advances in radar.

The Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute  - with over $200 million in public and private resources - is expected to comprise the largest Federal investment to date, reflecting the complexity of this technology, its importance to national security, and its revolutionary potential. See Manufacturing.gov for more information.

A “Digital Tour of American Manufacturing”

The White House and the Department of Commerce are releasing a Digital Tour of American Manufacturing, highlighting how our manufacturing sector is central to making America a magnet for good, middle-class jobs and for generating durable economic growth, both today and tomorrow:

If U.S. manufacturing were its own country, it would be the ninth largest economy in the world, as big as Russia and bigger than Italy and Spain.
Manufacturing fuels American innovation, accounting for three-quarters of private sector R&D and the vast majority of all patents issued.
Manufacturing supports more than more than 17 million U.S. jobs in manufacturing and its supply chains, more than 1 in 7 private sector jobs.
Manufacturing creates good, middle-class jobs – incumbent manufacturing workers earn 22 percent more than similar workers in other sectors, and new hires in manufacturing earn 38 percent more than new hires in other sectors.
Thanks to the determined work of communities and business, combined with the decisions made by the Administration, U.S. manufacturing is more competitive than it has been in decades.

Due to the productivity of American workers, abundant and low-cost energy, and unparalleled access to innovation, it is more competitive to manufacture in the United States than in any other advanced economy.  And we have seen the results - last year the United States global share of exports grew faster than that of any country in the world except for China.
In 2012, 37 percent of manufacturing executives said they were actively considering relocating production from China to the U.S.  By 2013, that figure had grown to 54 percent.
American manufacturing is doing better than it has in decades – we have added over 700,000 new jobs, the first period of sustained job growth since the 1990s.
Manufacturing wages and manufacturing exports are up, growing twice as fast today as they were last decade, and we are opening new factories at the fastest rate in over twenty years.
Helping Manufacturers Choose to Locate in the United States

The Department of Commerce and its partners are announcing new resources to help more manufacturers quantify the advantages of locating in America. Through the Assess Costs Everywhere portal manufacturers can access a comprehensive set of resources to evaluate the advantages of locating in the United States. And, with the new inventory costs calculator introduced this week and developed in partnership with experts at Lausanne University, manufacturers can directly quantify the often hidden costs of lengthy, overseas supply chains.  Using this tool, many manufacturers will find that the long times to transport a product from overseas to the United States, can increase their costs by 20-30 percent compared to manufacturing in the United States.

Oct 3rd National Manufacturing Day

On National Manufacturing Day, over 1,600 manufacturers and affiliates spread across all fifty states will host tours and events for students and families in their communities to showcase careers and opportunities in 21st century manufacturing.  U.S. manufacturing is on the rise and manufacturing jobs present promising pathways into the middle class for millions of Americans. But too few workers and youth recognize what modern manufacturing can mean for them.

Organized by the Department of Commerce’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership and its industry partners, this year National Manufacturing Day will nearly double the number of manufacturers compared to last year holding tours for the future generation of manufacturing workers and their communities.

Manufacturers across the country are going to considerable lengths to inspire youth to pursue careers in manufacturing. For instance, Alcoa and the Alcoa Foundation , in addition to hosting events at four of its factories including a tour for more than 1,000 students at the factory in Davenport, IA that builds the wings for Air Force One, have teamed up with Discovery Education to host “Manufacture Your Future” a live virtual field trip  of Alcoa’s factories.   Caterpillar, whose giant trucks and construction equipment capture the imaginations of America’s children, is hosting community tours at 200 different locations across the country. Manufacturers in Portland, Oregon are hosting a School to Work Manufacturing Bus Tour taking students to thirteen small and medium sized manufacturers across the city. And Maker spaces across the country, including The Forge Maker’s Space in North Carolina, are open up their shops for students.

ARKANSAS STATE OFFICIAL PLEADS GUILTY IN BRIBERY CASE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Former Deputy Director of the Largest State Agency in Arkansas Pleads Guilty to Bribery Scheme

A former deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (ADHS), a multi-billion dollar state agency, pleaded guilty today for providing official assistance in exchange for bribes from the owner of two mental health companies.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and First Assistant United States Attorney Patrick C. Harris of the Eastern District of Arkansas made the announcement.

Steven B. Jones, 49, of Marion, Arkansas, pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging him with conspiracy and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.  A sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 2, 2015, before U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson of the Eastern District of Arkansas.

According to his plea agreement, Jones served as deputy director of ADHS from approximately April 2007 until July 2013.  While serving in that capacity, Jones solicited and accepted multiple cash payments and other things of value from the owner of two businesses that provided inpatient and outpatient mental health services to juveniles.  This individual provided the cash payments and other things of value to Jones through the use of two intermediaries, a local pastor and a former county probation officer and city councilman.

As part of his plea, Jones admitted that in return for the bribes, he provided official assistance, including providing internal ADHS information about the individual’s businesses.  Jones further admitted that he and other members of the conspiracy concealed their dealings by, among other things, holding meetings at restaurants in Memphis, Tennessee, or rural Arkansas, where they would not be easily recognized; funneling the cash payments through the pastor’s church; providing the bribe payments in cash so that the transactions would not be easily traceable; and speaking in code during telephone conversations.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Little Rock Field Office, and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Edward P. Sullivan of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patricia S. Harris and Angela S. Jegley of the Eastern District of Arkansas.

COURT ORDERS MAN TO PAY $1.56 MILLION FOR ATTEMPTING TO MANIPULATE WHEAT FUTURES MARKET

FROM:  U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION 

October 1, 2014

Federal Court Orders Eric Moncada to Pay $1.56 Million Penalty for Attempting to Manipulate the Wheat Futures Market

Order Finds that on Multiple Trading Days, Moncada Entered and Canceled Orders He Never Intended to Fill

Washington, DC — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it obtained a federal court Consent Order against Defendant Eric Moncada, finding that Moncada attempted to manipulate the wheat futures markets on numerous occasions and imposing a $1.56 million civil monetary penalty and trading and registration restrictions. In July 2014, the court had issued an Order granting the CFTC summary judgment on charges that Moncada entered into fictitious sales and non-competitive transactions (see Order under Related Links).

The Court’s Orders arise out of the CFTC enforcement Complaint, filed on December 4, 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charging Moncada and proprietary trading firms, BES Capital LLC (BES) and Serdika LLC (Serdika), with attempting to manipulate the price of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) #2 Soft Red Winter Wheat Futures Contract on eight days in October 2009 and with entering into fictitious sales and non-competitive transactions on four days in October 2009 (see CFTC Press Release and Complaint 6441-12).

CFTC Director of Enforcement Aitan Goelman stated: “The Commission remains committed to protecting the integrity of the markets by prosecuting manipulative conduct of all forms, including the type of conduct engaged in by Moncada – the wholesale entering and cancelling of orders without the intent to actually fill the orders.”

According to the Consent Order, Moncada’s scheme was to electronically enter and immediately cancel numerous large-lot orders for CBOT wheat futures that he did not intend to fill. By such activity, Moncada intended to create a misleading impression of rising liquidity in the marketplace. The Order further finds that Moncada would then seek to take advantage of any price movements that may have resulted from this manipulative scheme by placing smaller orders, which he hoped to fill at prices beneficial to him, on the opposite side of market from his large-lot cancelled orders.

Specifically, in addition to the civil monetary penalty, the Order prohibits Moncada from trading any wheat futures products for a period of five years and prohibits Moncada from trading in any futures product or registering in any capacity with the CFTC for a period of one year.

On March 5, 2014, the court entered a default judgment Order against BES and Serdika, which included civil monetary penalties totaling $32.24 million and permanent trading and registration bans (see Order under Related Links).

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this action are Andrew Ridenour, Jennifer Diamond, Jessica Harris, Erica Bodin, Elizabeth Davis, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner, as well as former Division of Enforcement staff Kenneth McCracken and Brian Walsh.

WHITE HOUSE VIDEO: SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS HOLD BRIEFING ON GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO EBOLA

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE SUN-SHIELD DEPLOYMENT TEST

HHS RELEASES INFORMATION ON EBOLA FACTS

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

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first confirmed case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States in a person who traveled from West Africa.

There’s all the difference in the world between the U.S. and parts of Africa where Ebola is spreading. The United States is prepared, and has a strong health care system and public health professionals who will make sure this case does not threaten our communities. As CDC Director Dr. Frieden has said, "I have no doubt that we will control this case of Ebola, so that it does not spread widely in this country."

Although Ebola is a highly destructive disease, it is not a highly contagious disease.

Here are the facts you should know about Ebola:
What is Ebola? Ebola virus is the cause of a viral hemorrhagic fever disease. Symptoms include: fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, lack of appetite, and abnormal bleeding. Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to ebolavirus though 8-10 days is most common.

How is Ebola transmitted? Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected symptomatic person or though exposure to objects (such as needles) that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Can Ebola be transmitted through the air? No. Ebola is not a respiratory disease like the flu, so it is not transmitted through the air.

Can I get Ebola from contaminated food or water? No. Ebola is not transmitted through food in the United States. It is not transmitted through water.

Can I get Ebola from a person who is infected but doesn’t have any symptoms? No. Individuals who are not symptomatic are not contagious. In order for the virus to be transmitted, an individual would have to have direct contact with an individual who is experiencing symptoms or has died of the disease.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT U.S.-ASEAN BUSINESS COUNCIL GALA RECEPTION

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at the U.S-ASEAN Business Council 30th Anniversary Gala Reception

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Four Seasons Hotel

Washington, DC

October 2, 2014

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you so much, Evan. Thank you. Wow, thank you. I didn’t know I was going to be interrupting cocktails. (Laughter.) I feel entirely guilty. It’s okay if you don’t eat, but not drinking is really serious. (Laughter.)
Thank you very, very much. It’s sort of complicated to parachute in like this and then race off. And I think I’m hearing music accompanying my speech, which is interesting. (Laughter.) Beg your pardon?

PARTICIPANT: The heavenly choir.

SECRETARY KERRY: Beg your pardon?

PARTICIPANT: The heavenly choir.

SECRETARY KERRY: That’s fine by me, so long as it’s not calling me somewhere. (Laughter.)

But I’m really grateful. Evan, thank you so much for a very generous introduction. And I know I’m all that stands between all of you and dinner, so I will be – try to be respectful of that. On the other hand, this is an important gathering for an important effort, and I want to be very clear to everybody about why that is. Let me start by thanking the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council. I want to congratulate you on an extraordinary 30 years. To get an understanding of why this organization has been so successful, you only have to look to your right, look to your left, look at the leadership of the businesses of that are represented here. I just came from a small reception of a number of the folks who’re sponsoring it. But Evan, Alex Feldman, the president, CEO, others – US-ABC has some of the best and brightest businesses that are participating in – not just this evening, but in the ongoing enterprise of ASEAN efforts. And I thank all of you for your partnership over the years.

It’s also a pleasure to be among a lot of familiar faces. I was walking around, and from where I’m standing there’s – a whole bunch of the State Department is here. (Laughter.) Fair warning, I don’t care how much champagne you drink tonight, you’ve just got to be at work tomorrow morning. (Laughter.) Let me just quickly take this opportunity, if I can, to embarrass somebody who’s in the audience tonight, and he’s one of the most important people on my team. And I’m talking about Assistant Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Danny Russel, who’s standing right over here. (Applause.) When I first became Secretary, President Obama and I sat down to talk about his priorities, among them the Asia rebalance. And we realized that we really needed somebody who had the respect of people in the region and knew the region intimately and had the relationships which are a critical part of any kind of effort in East Asia, as all of you know. And there was never a doubt in President Obama’s mind or my mind who that person had to be. He had worked very closely with Danny in the White House – the President had – and Danny was actually one of the architects of the rebalance.

So before too long, I got to know Danny a lot better. I’d only known him parenthetically. But I’ll tell you, there are few people who understand the region better than he does. He lives it and he breathes it. It’s a mantle that he wears on his shoulders and carries with him all the time, and he loves it. And a year or two ago, just to prove this, I was walking through the White House one day and I passed the Situation Room and I saw Danny sitting across from Henry Kissinger. So I pop my head in and I say, “Henry, you’re giving Danny a briefing on Asia. That’s great.” And he turned to me and said, “No, John. Danny’s the one briefing me.” (Laughter.) Very, very – and it’s true, actually. That’s Danny, and there’s nobody better to drive our policy forward.

I’m also very, very delighted that tonight there are so many members of the diplomatic corps who are here. Thank you all for coming. I met with a number of the ambassadors just as I walked in and others – our ASEAN partner nations – are here in the audience. And I had an opportunity just the other day in New York at this massive speed dating exercise we get involved in in New York called UNGA, the UN General Assembly. So I met with all of the foreign ministers from the region there. We had a session in the evening, several hours. And I also met with our terrific U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN Nina Hachigian, and I think she’s here somewhere. Nina, why don’t you raise your hand? There she is. Our new ambassador right here, folks. (Applause.) She’s got a brother she’s marrying off, and the minute she got rid of him she’s heading out there, right? All right.

As I told everybody on Friday, ASEAN really is front and center in the region’s multilateral architecture, and we want it to remain there. ASEAN is central to upholding the rules-based system throughout the Asia Pacific and is the best way to ensure that countries big and small are going to have a voice as we work together to address the challenges that maritime security present, climate change presents, food security presents, not to mention just working our way through the complicated differentials between countries and barriers, non-tariff barriers, the different impediments to doing business. And it’s critical, because this group actually is creating significant economic opportunities, and the members who are here are helping to foster a very different playing field, which is critical. And I thank all of you for your partnership in that effort.

Lastly, I’m particularly excited to be among a lot of America’s elite business leaders heading up some of the most innovative and exciting businesses in the world. And that includes our own Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Charlie Rivkin, who I saw somewhere. There he is right there. We actually had to call Charlie back from Paris where he had been serving as ambassador for a number of years so he could focus fulltime with me on advancing our economic agenda. And the reason we picked Charlie to lead our efforts and to promote American business abroad is very simple: Not a lot of assistant secretaries have been CEO of a billion-dollar company and a U.S. ambassador at the same time overseeing a bilateral relationship that clears one billion in business transactions every day. I might add that diplomacy is also in his blood, because his father, William Rivkin, was one of our finest ambassadors. He served in Luxembourg and Senegal. And Charlie has proven himself more than worthy of his father’s legacy, and we couldn’t be happier than to have him part of our team. So Charlie, thank you for taking on this job. (Applause.)

And the team includes Under Secretary Cathy Novelli, who also came from the private sector, from Apple; and Ambassador David Thorne, who became an ambassador from the private sector; and Scott Nathan, who has been a finance – who’s been engaged in finance, in funds – very, very successful in Boston, and who has joined our team. So we have a team that understands your challenges. They understand what it means to try to start a business, grow a business, open more opportunities, and get your decisions rapidly and get government out of the way as you try to do that, except to the degree that government can help you move forward.

So with so much focus on the challenges that are confronting us today, from ISIL to Ebola to Ukraine to Iran to Syria, and you can run the list, Afghanistan, it can be easy to miss the fact that there are also unprecedented opportunities staring us in the face at this moment, particularly when it comes to business and economic growth. And each and every business leader in this room would tell you that few regions in the world are as ripe for those opportunities as Southeast Asia.

Many of you have been involved initiative his region for decades. US-ABC includes some of the very first American businesses to open up shop in the ASEAN states. So you know better than anybody how dramatic the region’s transformation has been. I will personally never forget my first visit back to Vietnam as a civilian and as a senator in 1991. And I watched with great excitement because I was down in the south of Vietnam in prior years, never in the north. The north we looked at with great sort of trepidation, except for the pilots who obviously flew over it.

And as I flew into Hanoi, I looked down and I could see all kinds of craters from bombs that had been dropped. This is in 1991. And I noticed the streets as I drove in along the river, it was a very narrow road. The main highway had not yet been built. There was some construction going on. The streets were filled, chock-a-block full of bicycles, bicycles, and bicycles. No cars. Very few cars. There were few motorcycles, very few tall buildings. Not a stoplight worked in the entire city when I set foot there, not one stoplight. And it was just a massive constant mesh of bikes that somehow made it across and made it through.

And it was a place that had literally been frozen in time. I was back in Vietnam last year for maybe my 20-something trip over the last 30 years. And I’m sure many of you have experienced this as well. It just stuns you how far things have moved in this span of time.

The energy in Vietnam today is absolutely remarkable, and the transformation is nothing short of amazing. In the years since we lifted the embargo and normalized relations, Vietnam has become a modern nation and an important partner of the United States. And when you talk to the young people in Vietnam, you can feel the enthusiasm for the potential of the future: 65 percent under the age of 35.

This isn’t just Vietnam’s story. This dynamism, energy, transformation – similar stories can be told throughout Southeast Asia. I was at the Malaysian entrepreneurial fair that they had last year, summit, and it was just stunning: 15,000 kids cheering like at a rock concert, excited about entrepreneurial activity and possibilities. And the year – in 1984 – that was the year that the US-ABC was founded – the annual GDP of the 10 countries that are now ASEAN was about $220 billion in today’s dollars. Today, that GDP has grown more than 10 times over to more than $2.4 trillion.

Now, it’s not a coincidence that President Obama and the Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Represent Mike Froman and I have all individually made a trip to one or more of the ASEAN states just within the past six months. Roughly $100 billion of exports to Southeast Asia every year, and every year that supports millions of jobs both there in the region as well as right here on our own shores.

Now, I don’t need to convince you probably – most of the leaders here – of these enormous opportunities. But for the folks who are tuning in tonight to understand what this is about, I want them to understand that enormous business opportunities exist throughout ASEAN, and all of you here are already the choir, so I don’t need to preach further.

I don’t need to remind you also that our embassies are there to help you, and I want you to understand that, from the ambassadors on down. We have a number of the ambassadors here tonight representing the countries of ASEAN. I know many of your businesses work with our ambassadors every single day. We’ve worked to bring about a billion dollars in business deals throughout the ASEAN region, including the largest – in billions, multiple billions – which we have been working towards, including the largest single commercial aircraft sale in Boeing’s history to Indonesia’s Lion Air. And our then-ambassador Scot Marciel played a critical role in helping Boeing to secure that deal which ultimately is worth almost $23 billion.

So what we need to focus on today is how do we make sure this growth continues. As you sit around your tables tonight, as you enjoy this dinner, as you think about the next years, think about that, because it’s not a given. There are still many places in the region where steep tariffs and unclear rules of the road breed uncertainty and stifle the flow of goods and ideas. And that will tampen down the capacity to keep on keeping on what we’re doing.

There are places where businesses don’t have access to the financing that they need to get off the ground, where infrastructure challenges like crumbling roads and inadequate internet and inconsistent power grids prevent businesses from reaching markets. Now, we can’t – I certainly can’t and I don’t know anybody here who can – just wave a magic wand and address all of these challenges tomorrow. But there are steps that we can take together in order to help bring about a more prosperous future for both the United States and our ASEAN partners, and I’ll be very, very quick.

First and foremost, as any business leader would agree, freer markets create more opportunity, more competition, more growth, more dynamism, and more innovation. And we need to do more to open up trade and investment in every corner of the globe, and particularly in that region. Every one of you knows the enormous difference that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement – one that includes a number of ASEAN countries – could make. Just this afternoon, I hosted a lunch with Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, and we spoke at length about the potential of this agreement and how urgently we need to get it off the ground, and he agreed. The TPP is a state-of-the-art, 21st century trade agreement that will connect more than 40 percent of the global GDP and one-third of global trade, and it raises the standards. It brings everybody up, not a race to the bottom. It’s consistent with our shared economic interests and our shared strategic interests, and it’s rooted in our shared values.

And it’s about promoting stability in this dynamic region and also establishing a fair and transparent framework that enables countries throughout the region to deepen their economic integration and grow in harmony. We need to make it happen, folks, and we can’t do it without you. We need you to help make the case for TPP with the Congress and with the American people, and we need you to make the phone calls and set up the meetings and do all you can to get Capitol Hill on board. And this is a battle we need to prepare for and it’s a battle we absolutely need to win.

Second, we need to make sure that the leaders of the future are getting the training and the education that they need in order to thrive in a growing economy. About 65 percent, as I said, of the population of ASEAN region is under the age of 35, and these young people are innovative, creative, and they’re eager to contribute their ideas, energy, to improve not only their own lives but the lives of others in their communities and their country. I’ve seen this firsthand in Malaysia and the Philippines and Indonesia on every trip I’ve taken to Southeast Asia. And that’s why we are investing in programs like President Obama’s Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, the YSEALI, as it’s known. Through YSEALI, every year we bring young men and women from Southeast Asia to universities in the United States where they can receive training, deepen their knowledge about regional issues and experience and perspectives. This year’s YSEALI class includes women like Sovan Srun from Cambodia. She’s an aspiring social entrepreneur who coauthored a handbook for high school graduates to plan for their career paths, in hopes that she will help her community become more self-sufficient and less dependent on foreign aid. She’s a remarkable young woman, and we need to make sure that others like Sovan have the opportunities they need to make the mark on their communities and that their energy is harnessed in a completely positive way.

Third – and this is especially important – we need to do more at the State Department to make sure that the U.S. Government and the U.S. business community are working with one another, not against one another. I tell every Foreign Service officer that they are, each and every one of them, an economic officer, no kidding. That’s how we have to think. And we need to show the world that the State Department means business, literally. We’re planning to do this by expanding what we call detail opportunities with the private sector. Department employees spend a year working with our private sector partners so they can get a better understanding of the business world and what’s needed from government for when they return. And we’re developing similar programs that will bring folks from the private sector to the State Department on detail as well so the bureaucracy can benefit from their entrepreneurial world view.

But all of us in government and business alike have to keep in mind that the true measure of our success is going to be whether our economies continue – is not whether they continue to grow, but it’s how they grow. If we make the correct choices in the months and years to come, U.S. trade and investment has the potential to create shared prosperity up and down the food chain: growth that’s sustainable and environmentally friendly, wealth that lifts up communities and creates opportunity, and enormous amounts of jobs for the United States and for all of our partner nations. And on top of that, if we commit high standards when it comes to business practices, we absolutely encourage this race to the top, which I think every one of you understands with globalization is at risk. So we need a race to the top from companies all around the world, and I think that’s a race that we can win.

So all of us at the State Department know well that in the 21st century a nation’s interests and the well-being of its people are advanced not just by troops and diplomats but also by entrepreneurs and executives in ways that are really quite significantly different from prior centuries. It is happening by virtue of the businesses that they build and the workers that they employ and the students that they train, and ultimately, the shared prosperity that they create. I say it all the time. I said it in the first days of my nomination to be Secretary. I said it in my opening statement to the committee: Economic policy is foreign policy, and foreign policy is economic policy. And the fact is that American businesses are some of the best ambassadors our country has. Just think about it. US-ABC businesses collectively represent more than 6 trillion in annual revenue. Your businesses support more than 13 million employees worldwide, and you do it all the time while wearing America’s jersey, so to speak.

And I underscore this: The reason we are so grateful to have such a capable and influential group of ambassadors throughout America’s business community is not simply because you do well, but also because you do good. And that’s particularly true in the ASEAN states. I’ve seen it firsthand in the factories I’ve been into, in the people I’ve talked to and the businesses they work for. American businesses have been the number one investor in ASEAN economies for decades. In fact, U.S. investments are larger than Chinese investments, Japanese investments, and Korean investments combined.

And it’s not just about the quantity of our investments; it’s about the quality. When we invest in countries, we actually do it differently. When businesses from some countries enter new markets, they bring in their own workers, their own tradesmen. We, on the other hand, hire local employees. And guess what – we train them as well. Some businesses in the world recklessly pollute the environment, knowing full well that it’ll be difficult to hold them accountable. But so many of our businesses make a point of investing in clean energy and environmental solutions in order to accompany their facilities abroad. And businesses that come in from other nations have been known to promote corruption instead of working to stop it, not held to account by our Foreign Corrupt Businesses Act. But we take every step we can to end corrupt practices abroad or elsewhere, because we know that when we eliminate corruption we’re able to build the long-term relationships that will withstand the test of time and make the environment safer for new businesses to be able to invest in.

So we do all of this because business doing right is part of the American brand. It’s part of our what our companies stand for and it’s part of the proposition of how we attract more investment to follow. What I’m talking about is more than agreeing to abide by a set of principles or guidelines. It’s really rolling up your sleeves and taking action to integrate responsible investment and objective corporate management decision making.

Now, there are a lot of other things that we could go on to say. I’m going to – I said I wouldn’t – I’ve gone on longer than I meant to. But I want to just emphasize to everybody here that the real excitement that comes with this is watching these countries go through these amazing transformations. I am nothing less than stunned by what has happened, the transformation taking place. I have absolute confidence, and as we go forward in these next years the differences between our nations, even as we respect cultures and history, but differences will evaporate in the way that people have fears and that they suspect people from abroad. There’ll be a unity because everything in the world is different today. Today’s kids all have smartphones; they all talk to each other. They’re talking to everybody in the world all the time about everything. And it changes everything in life. Politics is different. Building consensus is different. Getting your market share is different. Holding onto it is different. We’re living in a very, very different time, and nowhere are the possibilities more evident than in the transformations taking place throughout Southeast Asia.

So I think you all are onto something, and I profoundly say congratulations to ABC. We’re going to be in Burma. The President and I are going to be there a month from now. We’re looking forward to being in China, likewise, in November for the APEC conference. We’ll be there for the East Asia Summit. We are front and center and present because we’ve been a Pacific nation all of our history and we will never turn away from that.

So I thank those of you who have been the pioneers. I thank those of you who are on the front lines today. I say congratulations to all of you. Celebrate well tonight and tomorrow we all get back to work and continue on the road. Thank you all very, very much. (Applause.)