FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Michigan Home Health Agency Owner Pleads Guilty in Connection with $2.6 Million Home Health Care Scheme
The owner of a greater Detroit-area home health care agency pleaded guilty today to fraud and money laundering charges in connection with her role in a $2.6 million home health care scheme.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Paul M. Abbate of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office and Special Agent in Charge Jarod Koopman of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement.
Rahmat Begum, 49, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, pleaded guilty today – during the second day of her trial – to all charges in a six-count indictment, including one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of making false statements relating to health care matters, one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute and three counts of money laundering. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 18, 2015, before U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman of the Eastern District of Michigan.
According to admissions made as part of her guilty plea, Begum conspired to submit falsified claims to Medicare where the claims were based upon referrals obtained through illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters and physicians. Begum also admitted to conspiring to pay illegal kickbacks to patient recruiters and physicians and to making a false statement to Medicare pledging not to pay kickbacks, when in fact she was paying them. Finally, Begum admitted to laundering the proceeds of the wire fraud conspiracy.
This case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG and IRS-CI and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Niall M. O’Donnell and James P. McDonald of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,100 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6.5 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
Monday, April 20, 2015
CDC REPORTS DEATHS INVOLVING OPIOID ANALGESICS IN NEW YORK STATE
FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Poisoning Deaths Involving Opioid Analgesics — New York, 2003 – 2012
The increase in opioid-analgesics-related mortality across all demographic categories is a serious public health threat in New York State, as it is in the rest of the nation. Statewide efforts are needed to prevent the abuse of prescription medications. As in the United States as a whole, deaths involving opioid analgesics in New York state have dramatically increased over the last decade, from 179 deaths (0.93 per 100,000) in 2003 to 883 (4.51 per 100,000) in 2012. Rates of deaths involving opioid analgesics increased among all groups examined and were consistently highest among men, whites, those ages 45-64 years, and Medicaid enrollees. Multiple drug involvement is characteristic of these deaths. In 2012, 70.7% of deaths involving opioid analgesics also involved at least one other drug, most frequently a benzodiazepine.
Poisoning Deaths Involving Opioid Analgesics — New York, 2003 – 2012
The increase in opioid-analgesics-related mortality across all demographic categories is a serious public health threat in New York State, as it is in the rest of the nation. Statewide efforts are needed to prevent the abuse of prescription medications. As in the United States as a whole, deaths involving opioid analgesics in New York state have dramatically increased over the last decade, from 179 deaths (0.93 per 100,000) in 2003 to 883 (4.51 per 100,000) in 2012. Rates of deaths involving opioid analgesics increased among all groups examined and were consistently highest among men, whites, those ages 45-64 years, and Medicaid enrollees. Multiple drug involvement is characteristic of these deaths. In 2012, 70.7% of deaths involving opioid analgesics also involved at least one other drug, most frequently a benzodiazepine.
U.S. AMBASSADOR POWER'S REMARKS ON SYRIA'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
April 16, 2015
AS DELIVERED
Thank you all for coming out. The first thing I want to do is to encourage you to, later this afternoon, have the experience that the Council just had, which is to listen to three remarkable individuals who testified to the experiences that they have had inside Syria, related to Syrian chemical weapons use – chlorine use most recently. And in the case of Qusai Zakarya, his experience of being left for dead in August 2013 in the chemical weapons attack in Moadamiya.
What the Council heard were testimonies from Dr. Tennari, who is a Syrian Arab Red Crescent-affiliated physician in the town of Sarmin, who dealt with the chlorine attacks that occurred in March – at great risk to himself and the other medical professionals he was working with tried to resuscitate and care for the people who came to his hospital, his impromptu field clinic, you might say, and were in desperate need of help. They were choking, they were vomiting and they bore all of the tell-tale signs of chemical weapons use. None of them, as he’ll describe, had fragments, shell fragments, or any of the kinds of injuries you would expect from conventional weapons use, or even from conventional barrel bombs use – if you can put it that way.
So Dr. Tennari described the horror of being in a situation where you can’t help everyone who comes to you: when parents are bringing their children and you are trying to resuscitate them and you cannot because you don’t have the medical supplies and because the toxic chemicals are so overpowering. We also heard from Dr. Zaher Sahloul who is the President of the Syrian-American Medical Society, who has made innumerable medical missions to Syria, who raises money here in this country and elsewhere to try to fund medical supplies, to try to care for people who suffer all injuries and ailments. And Zaher is just back from a medical mission where he talked to and saw the doctors and the survivors of the Sarmin attack, as well as others.
In terms of the Council, we held this meeting – we brought the Council members together with these remarkable individuals because the Security Council has come together to pass Security Council resolution 2118, which has come a long way in dismantling Assad’s declared chemical weapons program. But that resolution, which was a resolution – unusual for Syria that all members of the council were able to agree upon, and very much the product of U.S.-Russian cooperation in dismantling the Syrian chemical weapons program – has not resulted in the end of chemical weapons use in Syria. And the council, as you know, came together again recently in resolution 2209 to make very clear that chlorine use is a form of Syrian chemical weapons use. It’s not what people think of necessarily. They think of it being a household product. But when you stick it in a barrel bomb and you turn it into a toxic weapon, it is prohibited by the chemical weapons convention, it is prohibited by resolution 2118 and it is made very clear that it is utterly condemned and prohibited by resolution 2209.
So what we’ve done today is brought individuals who can testify to what happened; brought the facts to the council in as rapid and moving a way as we could do, and it is now in our view, incumbent on the Council to go further than we have been able to come to this point, to get past the old divisions, to draw on the unity that we have managed to show on the single issue of chemical weapons, and stop these attacks from happening. Now the form that that takes, of course, getting everything through 15 members of the Security Council is extremely challenging – there were 4 vetoes issued on Syria, on attempted Syrian resolutions in the past – but we feel as though anybody who witnessed what we just witnessed, and what you will hear from these individuals later today I hope, can’t be anything but changed, can’t be anything but motivated. And we need an attribution mechanism so we know precisely who carried out these attacks; all of the evidence of course shows that they come from helicopters, only the Assad regime has helicopters; that’s very clear to us. But we need to move forward in a manner that also makes it very clear to all Council members, and then those people responsible for these attacks have to be held accountable.
The very last thing I’d say, because I know there’s a lot of skepticism about accountability, because of the veto that we experienced when we put forward, with our partners, a referral of the crimes in Syria to the ICC: it is true that we failed to secure an ICC referral out of the Security Council, but it is not true that that means that accountability will not happen in Syria. Individuals who are responsible for attacks like that will be held accountable, and the documentary record is being built, the testimonies are being gathered and the long arm of justice is taking more time than any of us would wish right now, but this documentary record will be used at some point in a court of law and the perpetrators of these crimes need to bear that in mind.
Reporter: Ambassador, can you describe to us what the atmosphere was like in the room when you saw and heard this evidence?
Ambassador Power: The only analogue I can come up with is the experience of seeing the Caesar photos. I mean, the video, in particular, of the attempts to resuscitate the children – if there was a dry eye in the room, I didn’t see it. It was – it’s just devastating to see the facts of what this regime is doing. So people were visibly moved, people had questions, very fair questions, about “how do you know this?” and “what are the symptoms?” But for the most part, almost every Council member prefaced what they said by saying, “forgive me if I don’t use diplomatic language, but I am so moved and so overwhelmed by what I have seen,” and then they proceeded with their comments. It was an extremely unusual and very, very emotional meeting.
Reporter: How do you see an attribution mechanism – you mentioned an attribution mechanism?
Ambassador Power: You know, we have to work through the modalities on this. Traditionally, criminal responsibility is best established in a criminal tribunal, which is why we and so many Council members supported an ICC referral. But in this instance, that has not proven possible at this point. And of course, the Syrian authorities are in no positon to judge themselves, given that they are gassing their own people and dropping barrel bombs on civilian neighborhoods. So we need to think through what are the right modalities for an attribution mechanism. The OPCW already, as you know, has fact-finding missions that it has dispatched and they have produced very important layers and layers of testimonies and eyewitness reports and have shown, and reported with high confidence, that chlorine is being used as a chemical weapon in Syria,
systematically. But what the OPCW has never done is point the finger and establish attribution. And that has not been in their mandate up until this point. Bear in mind, again, that the traditional model for OPCW is parties to the chemical weapons convention who want the OPCW’s help getting rid of their chemical weapons stockpile or monitoring it – we haven’t had a circumstance like this where we have a party to the chemical weapons convention that is still prepared to use chemical weapons. And so OPCW and the UN Security Council have to come together and deal with a devastating and grotesque historical anomaly.
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
New York, NY
April 16, 2015
AS DELIVERED
Thank you all for coming out. The first thing I want to do is to encourage you to, later this afternoon, have the experience that the Council just had, which is to listen to three remarkable individuals who testified to the experiences that they have had inside Syria, related to Syrian chemical weapons use – chlorine use most recently. And in the case of Qusai Zakarya, his experience of being left for dead in August 2013 in the chemical weapons attack in Moadamiya.
What the Council heard were testimonies from Dr. Tennari, who is a Syrian Arab Red Crescent-affiliated physician in the town of Sarmin, who dealt with the chlorine attacks that occurred in March – at great risk to himself and the other medical professionals he was working with tried to resuscitate and care for the people who came to his hospital, his impromptu field clinic, you might say, and were in desperate need of help. They were choking, they were vomiting and they bore all of the tell-tale signs of chemical weapons use. None of them, as he’ll describe, had fragments, shell fragments, or any of the kinds of injuries you would expect from conventional weapons use, or even from conventional barrel bombs use – if you can put it that way.
So Dr. Tennari described the horror of being in a situation where you can’t help everyone who comes to you: when parents are bringing their children and you are trying to resuscitate them and you cannot because you don’t have the medical supplies and because the toxic chemicals are so overpowering. We also heard from Dr. Zaher Sahloul who is the President of the Syrian-American Medical Society, who has made innumerable medical missions to Syria, who raises money here in this country and elsewhere to try to fund medical supplies, to try to care for people who suffer all injuries and ailments. And Zaher is just back from a medical mission where he talked to and saw the doctors and the survivors of the Sarmin attack, as well as others.
In terms of the Council, we held this meeting – we brought the Council members together with these remarkable individuals because the Security Council has come together to pass Security Council resolution 2118, which has come a long way in dismantling Assad’s declared chemical weapons program. But that resolution, which was a resolution – unusual for Syria that all members of the council were able to agree upon, and very much the product of U.S.-Russian cooperation in dismantling the Syrian chemical weapons program – has not resulted in the end of chemical weapons use in Syria. And the council, as you know, came together again recently in resolution 2209 to make very clear that chlorine use is a form of Syrian chemical weapons use. It’s not what people think of necessarily. They think of it being a household product. But when you stick it in a barrel bomb and you turn it into a toxic weapon, it is prohibited by the chemical weapons convention, it is prohibited by resolution 2118 and it is made very clear that it is utterly condemned and prohibited by resolution 2209.
So what we’ve done today is brought individuals who can testify to what happened; brought the facts to the council in as rapid and moving a way as we could do, and it is now in our view, incumbent on the Council to go further than we have been able to come to this point, to get past the old divisions, to draw on the unity that we have managed to show on the single issue of chemical weapons, and stop these attacks from happening. Now the form that that takes, of course, getting everything through 15 members of the Security Council is extremely challenging – there were 4 vetoes issued on Syria, on attempted Syrian resolutions in the past – but we feel as though anybody who witnessed what we just witnessed, and what you will hear from these individuals later today I hope, can’t be anything but changed, can’t be anything but motivated. And we need an attribution mechanism so we know precisely who carried out these attacks; all of the evidence of course shows that they come from helicopters, only the Assad regime has helicopters; that’s very clear to us. But we need to move forward in a manner that also makes it very clear to all Council members, and then those people responsible for these attacks have to be held accountable.
The very last thing I’d say, because I know there’s a lot of skepticism about accountability, because of the veto that we experienced when we put forward, with our partners, a referral of the crimes in Syria to the ICC: it is true that we failed to secure an ICC referral out of the Security Council, but it is not true that that means that accountability will not happen in Syria. Individuals who are responsible for attacks like that will be held accountable, and the documentary record is being built, the testimonies are being gathered and the long arm of justice is taking more time than any of us would wish right now, but this documentary record will be used at some point in a court of law and the perpetrators of these crimes need to bear that in mind.
Reporter: Ambassador, can you describe to us what the atmosphere was like in the room when you saw and heard this evidence?
Ambassador Power: The only analogue I can come up with is the experience of seeing the Caesar photos. I mean, the video, in particular, of the attempts to resuscitate the children – if there was a dry eye in the room, I didn’t see it. It was – it’s just devastating to see the facts of what this regime is doing. So people were visibly moved, people had questions, very fair questions, about “how do you know this?” and “what are the symptoms?” But for the most part, almost every Council member prefaced what they said by saying, “forgive me if I don’t use diplomatic language, but I am so moved and so overwhelmed by what I have seen,” and then they proceeded with their comments. It was an extremely unusual and very, very emotional meeting.
Reporter: How do you see an attribution mechanism – you mentioned an attribution mechanism?
Ambassador Power: You know, we have to work through the modalities on this. Traditionally, criminal responsibility is best established in a criminal tribunal, which is why we and so many Council members supported an ICC referral. But in this instance, that has not proven possible at this point. And of course, the Syrian authorities are in no positon to judge themselves, given that they are gassing their own people and dropping barrel bombs on civilian neighborhoods. So we need to think through what are the right modalities for an attribution mechanism. The OPCW already, as you know, has fact-finding missions that it has dispatched and they have produced very important layers and layers of testimonies and eyewitness reports and have shown, and reported with high confidence, that chlorine is being used as a chemical weapon in Syria,
systematically. But what the OPCW has never done is point the finger and establish attribution. And that has not been in their mandate up until this point. Bear in mind, again, that the traditional model for OPCW is parties to the chemical weapons convention who want the OPCW’s help getting rid of their chemical weapons stockpile or monitoring it – we haven’t had a circumstance like this where we have a party to the chemical weapons convention that is still prepared to use chemical weapons. And so OPCW and the UN Security Council have to come together and deal with a devastating and grotesque historical anomaly.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
NSF REPORTS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING GRAD SCHOOL ENROLLMENT UP
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Science and engineering graduate school enrollment increases
Rise largely fueled by influx of foreign students
After remaining essentially flat for the past two years, the number of full-time graduate students enrolled in science and engineering programs rose by 2.4 percent in 2013, to nearly 425,000 students, according to a new InfoBrief from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).
NCSES found the increase was largely due to a 7.9 percent rise in full-time enrollment of foreign graduate students on temporary visas. Foreign enrollment hit an all-time high of 168,297 students in 2013, or 39.6 percent of the full-time science and engineering graduate student population--up from 35.9 percent in 2008.
In contrast, full-time enrollment for U.S. science and engineering graduate students fell for the third year in a row. But while overall enrollment by U.S. citizens and permanent residents declined, the number of U.S. students of Hispanic or Latino descent has climbed steadily since 2008, resulting in 25.8 percent in growth.
NCSES found that among U.S. graduate students, enrollment continued to become more diverse. Of the total students enrolled in science and engineering graduate programs:
8.9 percent were Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders.
8.6 percent were Hispanic or Latino.
8.1 percent were Black or African American.
2.1 percent reported they were more than one race.
0.6 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native.
Those groups made up 28 percent of total graduate enrollments in science and engineering, including U.S. and foreign students. In 2008, they accounted for less than a quarter of students who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
The study also found that a decade-long decline continued in postdocs conducting research in the sciences. Between 2010 and 2013, the number of postdocs in science fields dropped by 2.8 percent, with the largest decreases in the two biggest science fields: biological sciences and physical sciences. Over the same period, the number of postdocs in engineering fields rose by 2 percent, with the largest increases in chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and electrical engineering.
Science and engineering graduate school enrollment increases
Rise largely fueled by influx of foreign students
After remaining essentially flat for the past two years, the number of full-time graduate students enrolled in science and engineering programs rose by 2.4 percent in 2013, to nearly 425,000 students, according to a new InfoBrief from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).
NCSES found the increase was largely due to a 7.9 percent rise in full-time enrollment of foreign graduate students on temporary visas. Foreign enrollment hit an all-time high of 168,297 students in 2013, or 39.6 percent of the full-time science and engineering graduate student population--up from 35.9 percent in 2008.
In contrast, full-time enrollment for U.S. science and engineering graduate students fell for the third year in a row. But while overall enrollment by U.S. citizens and permanent residents declined, the number of U.S. students of Hispanic or Latino descent has climbed steadily since 2008, resulting in 25.8 percent in growth.
NCSES found that among U.S. graduate students, enrollment continued to become more diverse. Of the total students enrolled in science and engineering graduate programs:
8.9 percent were Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders.
8.6 percent were Hispanic or Latino.
8.1 percent were Black or African American.
2.1 percent reported they were more than one race.
0.6 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native.
Those groups made up 28 percent of total graduate enrollments in science and engineering, including U.S. and foreign students. In 2008, they accounted for less than a quarter of students who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
The study also found that a decade-long decline continued in postdocs conducting research in the sciences. Between 2010 and 2013, the number of postdocs in science fields dropped by 2.8 percent, with the largest decreases in the two biggest science fields: biological sciences and physical sciences. Over the same period, the number of postdocs in engineering fields rose by 2 percent, with the largest increases in chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and electrical engineering.
CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS SAYS IRAQ TRENDING IN RIGHT DIRECTION
Right: Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left, and Defense Secretary Ash Carter conduct a news conference at the Pentagon, April 16, 2015. DoD photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Clydell Kinchen.
Trends in Iraq Moving in Right Direction, Dempsey Says
By Terri Moon Cronk
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, April 16, 2015 – The Iraqi government has made gains, and trends there are moving in the right direction, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at a Pentagon news conference today.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey met with reporters alongside Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
Hard work remains to be done to integrate Iraq’s militias under state command and control as Iraq continues to prepare its forces to sustain momentum against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the general said.
Iraq’s efforts during the Tikrit offensive are a good step, the chairman said, adding that the United States will continue consulting with Iraq's leadership as it plans and conducts operations. Dempsey also noted that Iraq has helped in its fight against ISIL.
Encouraged by Coalition’s Commitment
“I'm encouraged by the commitment of the coalition,” Dempsey said. “There's been an addition of 300 Australian troops and 100 New Zealand troops to the training mission, and that will certainly contribute to the outcomes we all seek.”
Those forces join the international partnership capacity mission, which includes the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States, he added.
The chairman briefly outlined the military offensive going north of Baghdad through Diyala and into Tikrit, Beiji, and eventually up near Kirkuk from Anbar province.
“The offensive north of Baghdad has been deliberate, measured, steady progress,” he said. “Al Anbar has always been pockets of Iraqi security forces and pockets of ISIL. [The] latest attack on Ramadi is yet another indication that what the government of Iraq needs to do is connect these ink blots … of their legitimate security forces, so that there isn't this constant back and forth.”
Iraq’s Oil Infrastructure
Beiji, part of the Iraqi oil infrastructure, remains a contested area, the chairman said. “[But] when the Iraqis have full control of Beiji,” he added, “they will control all of their oil infrastructure, both north and south, and deny ISIL the ability to generate revenue through oil.”
The ISIL threat to the refinery is serious, Dempsey said, because the extremist group penetrated the outer perimeter.
“It's an extraordinarily large expanse of facility,” he said. “The refinery itself is at no risk right now, and we're focusing a lot of our [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and air support there.”
Overall, the chairman said, the security environment in Iraq remains as dynamic as it's ever been. “And we remain focused on ensuring that our troops have the leadership, the training, and the resources to accomplish the tasks we ask of them,” he added.
DOL REPORTS ON HIRING FORMER INMATES IN DETROIT
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
In Detroit, Hiring Former Inmates Is Beneficial for Businesses
For too many Americans who have been caught up in the criminal justice system, finding a path to career and economic stability can be challenging. Studies have shown that lack of job opportunities is a factor in high rates of recidivism. In Detroit on April 15, Secretary Perez met with employers who are playing leading roles in breaking down barriers for formerly incarcerated individuals to help stop the cycle of crime and incarceration. Joined by Mayor Mike Duggan and U.S.
Attorneys Barb McQuade and Patrick Miles, Perez toured the Sakthi Automotive Group, an India-based parts supplier for General Motors. Sakthi has committed to hiring at least two former inmates from Detroit each month as the company ramps up operations in the United States. Following his tour, Perez led a roundtable discussion with other local employers — Detroit Manufacturing Systems and Total Construction and Renovation — that found hiring former inmates has been beneficial to their businesses. Perez's visit came on the heels of several recent grant announcements that will fund job training and employment services for formerly incarcerated individuals seeking marketable skills and good jobs.
In Detroit, Hiring Former Inmates Is Beneficial for Businesses
For too many Americans who have been caught up in the criminal justice system, finding a path to career and economic stability can be challenging. Studies have shown that lack of job opportunities is a factor in high rates of recidivism. In Detroit on April 15, Secretary Perez met with employers who are playing leading roles in breaking down barriers for formerly incarcerated individuals to help stop the cycle of crime and incarceration. Joined by Mayor Mike Duggan and U.S.
Attorneys Barb McQuade and Patrick Miles, Perez toured the Sakthi Automotive Group, an India-based parts supplier for General Motors. Sakthi has committed to hiring at least two former inmates from Detroit each month as the company ramps up operations in the United States. Following his tour, Perez led a roundtable discussion with other local employers — Detroit Manufacturing Systems and Total Construction and Renovation — that found hiring former inmates has been beneficial to their businesses. Perez's visit came on the heels of several recent grant announcements that will fund job training and employment services for formerly incarcerated individuals seeking marketable skills and good jobs.
CALIFORNIA DOCTOR INDICTED FOR ROLE IN $6.5 MILLION MEDICARE FRAUD
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Valencia, California, Doctor Indicted in $6.5 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme
An indictment was unsealed today charging a doctor from Valencia, California, with operating a $6.5 million scheme to defraud the Medicare program by billing Medicare for medical services that were not actually provided.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge David Bowdich of the FBI’s Los Angeles Division and Special Agent in Charge Glenn R. Ferry of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Los Angeles Region made the announcement.
Gary J. Ordog, 60, of Valencia, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Central District of California on March 27, 2015, for nine counts of health care fraud. The indictment alleges that Ordog billed Medicare for services that were not actually provided to the Medicare beneficiaries.
According to allegations in the indictment, Ordog was a physician who purportedly assisted beneficiaries with various toxicological symptoms, including those related to mold and chemical exposures. Ordog would allegedly see a beneficiary at least once in connection with the potential evaluation and management of his or her conditions. Subsequently, often several years after the last time he saw a particular beneficiary, Ordog would allegedly submit false claims to Medicare for purported additional visits with the same beneficiary, when the visits never actually occurred. In certain instances, Ordog allegedly billed Medicare for services provided to beneficiaries who were deceased as of the claimed date of service.
The charges contained in an indictment are merely accusations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This case is being investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ritesh Srivastava of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,100 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6.5 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
In Detroit, Hiring Former Inmates Is Beneficial for Businesses
For too many Americans who have been caught up in the criminal justice system, finding a path to career and economic stability can be challenging. Studies have shown that lack of job opportunities is a factor in high rates of recidivism. In Detroit on April 15, Secretary Perez met with employers who are playing leading roles in breaking down barriers for formerly incarcerated individuals to help stop the cycle of crime and incarceration. Joined by Mayor Mike Duggan and U.S. Attorneys Barb McQuade and Patrick Miles, Perez toured the Sakthi Automotive Group, an India-based parts supplier for General Motors. Sakthi has committed to hiring at least two former inmates from Detroit each month as the company ramps up operations in the United States. Following his tour, Perez led a roundtable discussion with other local employers — Detroit Manufacturing Systems and Total Construction and Renovation — that found hiring former inmates has been beneficial to their businesses. Perez's visit came on the heels of several recent grant announcements that will fund job training and employment services for formerly incarcerated individuals seeking marketable skills and good jobs.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Valencia, California, Doctor Indicted in $6.5 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme
An indictment was unsealed today charging a doctor from Valencia, California, with operating a $6.5 million scheme to defraud the Medicare program by billing Medicare for medical services that were not actually provided.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge David Bowdich of the FBI’s Los Angeles Division and Special Agent in Charge Glenn R. Ferry of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Los Angeles Region made the announcement.
Gary J. Ordog, 60, of Valencia, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Central District of California on March 27, 2015, for nine counts of health care fraud. The indictment alleges that Ordog billed Medicare for services that were not actually provided to the Medicare beneficiaries.
According to allegations in the indictment, Ordog was a physician who purportedly assisted beneficiaries with various toxicological symptoms, including those related to mold and chemical exposures. Ordog would allegedly see a beneficiary at least once in connection with the potential evaluation and management of his or her conditions. Subsequently, often several years after the last time he saw a particular beneficiary, Ordog would allegedly submit false claims to Medicare for purported additional visits with the same beneficiary, when the visits never actually occurred. In certain instances, Ordog allegedly billed Medicare for services provided to beneficiaries who were deceased as of the claimed date of service.
The charges contained in an indictment are merely accusations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This case is being investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI, and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ritesh Srivastava of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now operating in nine cities across the country, has charged nearly 2,100 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $6.5 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.
In Detroit, Hiring Former Inmates Is Beneficial for Businesses
For too many Americans who have been caught up in the criminal justice system, finding a path to career and economic stability can be challenging. Studies have shown that lack of job opportunities is a factor in high rates of recidivism. In Detroit on April 15, Secretary Perez met with employers who are playing leading roles in breaking down barriers for formerly incarcerated individuals to help stop the cycle of crime and incarceration. Joined by Mayor Mike Duggan and U.S. Attorneys Barb McQuade and Patrick Miles, Perez toured the Sakthi Automotive Group, an India-based parts supplier for General Motors. Sakthi has committed to hiring at least two former inmates from Detroit each month as the company ramps up operations in the United States. Following his tour, Perez led a roundtable discussion with other local employers — Detroit Manufacturing Systems and Total Construction and Renovation — that found hiring former inmates has been beneficial to their businesses. Perez's visit came on the heels of several recent grant announcements that will fund job training and employment services for formerly incarcerated individuals seeking marketable skills and good jobs.
NAVY OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY TO BRIBERY CHARGES IN EXPANDING PROBE
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
U.S. Navy Officer Pleads Guilty to Selling Classified Ship Schedules as Part of Expanding Navy Bribery Probe
A lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy pleaded guilty to bribery charges in federal court today, admitting that he accepted cash, hotel expenses and the services of a prostitute in return for providing classified U.S. Navy ship schedules and other internal Navy information to an executive of a defense contracting firm.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy of the Southern District of California, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations James B. Burch of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Director Andrew L. Traver of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and Director Anita Bales of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) made the announcement.
“Another Navy officer has now pleaded guilty and admitted to taking bribes to reveal classified military information to a major supplier,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “It is both troubling and disappointing how many Navy officers we have exposed as willingly falling prey to GDMA’s corruption, and our investigation remains active and ongoing. Those who serve in our nation’s military must uphold the public’s trust or pay the consequences for their crimes.”
“The receipt of envelopes of cash and lavish hotel stays by our public officials at whatever level erodes the public’s trust in our institutions and our government,” said U.S. Attorney Duffy. “Today’s guilty plea reflects the next step in our ongoing effort to regain that public trust.”
Todd Dale Malaki, 44, of San Diego, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mitchell D. Dembin of the Southern District of California to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 6, 2015.
As part of his guilty plea, Malaki admitted that in 2006, while he was working as a supply officer for the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, he began a corrupt relationship with Leonard Glenn Francis, the former president and chief executive officer of Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), a company that provided services to the U.S. Navy. As part of the scheme, Malaki provided Francis with classified U.S. Navy ship schedules and proprietary invoicing information about GDMA’s competitors. In exchange, Malaki admitted that Francis provided him with luxury hotel stays in Singapore, Hong Kong and the island of Tonga, as well as envelopes of cash, entertainment expenses and the services of a prostitute. Malaki admitted that the total value of the benefits he received was approximately $15,000.
Malaki is the eighth individual to plead guilty in this expanding probe into corruption and fraud in the U.S. Navy. GDMA pleaded guilty in January. Two other individuals, Paul Simpkins, formerly a Department of Defense (DOD) contracting officer, and Michael Misiewicz, a Captain-select in the U.S. Navy, have been charged and entered pleas of not guilty.
The ongoing investigation is being conducted by NCIS and DCIS, with substantial assistance from the DCAA. The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Brian R. Young of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark W. Pletcher and Robert S. Huie of the Southern District of California.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
U.S. Navy Officer Pleads Guilty to Selling Classified Ship Schedules as Part of Expanding Navy Bribery Probe
A lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy pleaded guilty to bribery charges in federal court today, admitting that he accepted cash, hotel expenses and the services of a prostitute in return for providing classified U.S. Navy ship schedules and other internal Navy information to an executive of a defense contracting firm.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy of the Southern District of California, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations James B. Burch of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Director Andrew L. Traver of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and Director Anita Bales of the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) made the announcement.
“Another Navy officer has now pleaded guilty and admitted to taking bribes to reveal classified military information to a major supplier,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “It is both troubling and disappointing how many Navy officers we have exposed as willingly falling prey to GDMA’s corruption, and our investigation remains active and ongoing. Those who serve in our nation’s military must uphold the public’s trust or pay the consequences for their crimes.”
“The receipt of envelopes of cash and lavish hotel stays by our public officials at whatever level erodes the public’s trust in our institutions and our government,” said U.S. Attorney Duffy. “Today’s guilty plea reflects the next step in our ongoing effort to regain that public trust.”
Todd Dale Malaki, 44, of San Diego, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mitchell D. Dembin of the Southern District of California to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 6, 2015.
As part of his guilty plea, Malaki admitted that in 2006, while he was working as a supply officer for the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, he began a corrupt relationship with Leonard Glenn Francis, the former president and chief executive officer of Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA), a company that provided services to the U.S. Navy. As part of the scheme, Malaki provided Francis with classified U.S. Navy ship schedules and proprietary invoicing information about GDMA’s competitors. In exchange, Malaki admitted that Francis provided him with luxury hotel stays in Singapore, Hong Kong and the island of Tonga, as well as envelopes of cash, entertainment expenses and the services of a prostitute. Malaki admitted that the total value of the benefits he received was approximately $15,000.
Malaki is the eighth individual to plead guilty in this expanding probe into corruption and fraud in the U.S. Navy. GDMA pleaded guilty in January. Two other individuals, Paul Simpkins, formerly a Department of Defense (DOD) contracting officer, and Michael Misiewicz, a Captain-select in the U.S. Navy, have been charged and entered pleas of not guilty.
The ongoing investigation is being conducted by NCIS and DCIS, with substantial assistance from the DCAA. The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Brian R. Young of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark W. Pletcher and Robert S. Huie of the Southern District of California.
FRANK ROSE MAKES REMARKS ON USING DIPLOMACY TO ADVANCE SECURITY IN OUTER SPACE
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Using Diplomacy to Advance the Long-term Sustainability and Security of the Outer Space Environment
Remarks
Frank A. Rose
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance
31st Space Symposium
Colorado Springs, CO
April 16, 2015
As prepared
Introduction
Thank you for your kind introduction and the opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Frank Rose, and I am the Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. It’s a pleasure to be back at the Space Symposium, and I’d like to thank Elliot Pulham and all the sponsors for inviting me back again.
By way of introduction, while I am the Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, my work at the State Department is focused on enhancing strategic stability around the world. Arms control, verification and compliance are some of the tools we use to enhance strategic stability and reassure our allies and partners that we will meet our security commitments. Given the importance of outer space to our national security, we also work on efforts to ensure the long term sustainability and security of the outer space environment.
This morning I would like to discuss steps the United States is taking diplomatically, in concert with international partners to address the growing threats to space security.
Threats to the Space Environment
First, the threat to outer space is real and growing. As Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in his recent Congressional testimony,
“Threats to U.S. space systems and services will increase during 2015 and beyond as potential adversaries pursue disruptive and destructive counterspace capabilities. Chinese and Russian military leaders understand the unique information advantages afforded by space systems and services and are developing capabilities to deny access in a conflict.”
In particular, China’s continued development of anti-satellite weapons remains a major challenge to the outer space environment. China’s 2007 anti-satellite test left thousands of pieces of debris in orbit that continues to threaten the space systems of all nations.
The 2010 U.S. National Space Policy makes it clear that it is not in the interest of anyone for armed conflict to extend into space. It states,
“The United States considers the space systems of all nations to have the rights of passage through, and conduct of operations in, space without interference. Purposeful interference with space systems, including supporting infrastructure, will be considered an infringement of a nation’s rights.”
It also states that,
“the United States will employ a variety of measures to help assure the use of space for all responsible parties, and consistent with the inherent right of self-defense, deter others from interference and attack, defend our space systems and contribute to the defense of allies space systems, and if deterrence fails, defeat efforts to attack them.”
It is not in the international community’s interest to engage in a space weapons arms race. Such a race would not bode well for the long-term sustainability of the space environment.
Indeed, protecting U.S. national security by preventing conflict from extending into space in the first place is a major goal of our diplomatic engagements. In that regard, we work to prevent conflict from extending into space via two diplomatic tracks; strengthening our deterrent posture, and encouraging responsible behavior to prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and the chances of miscalculation.
Strengthening Our Deterrent Posture
First, we use diplomacy to gain the support of our allies and friends. We have established numerous space security dialogues with our Allies and Partners. These dialogues help them understand the threat, as well as our diplomatic and national security goals, which is critical in persuading them to stand by our side, often in the face of tremendous pressure from our adversaries. Not only have I made numerous trips to meet with our allies in Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific, I have also visited India (where we held our first space security dialogue this March), South Africa, and elsewhere in Africa to raise U.S. concerns about the threats to space systems and to discuss the way forward diplomatically. Furthermore, our Department’s leadership has also carried our message in numerous bilateral and multilateral dialogues.
Diplomacy also prepares the way for closer military-to-military cooperation and allied investment in capabilities compatible with U.S. systems. We work very closely with our interagency colleagues in the Department of Defense to make sure our efforts are synchronized so that investments by our allies and friends contribute to strengthening the resilience of our space architectures and contribute to Space Mission Assurance. The resulting deterrent effect created by such a web of integrated capabilities is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
For example, the Department of State works closely with the Department of Defense on Space Situational Awareness (or SSA) information sharing agreements with foreign partners. The United States has found international cooperation on SSA to be important, as international partnerships bring the resources, capabilities, and geographical advantages. We have also worked to strengthen military-to-military cooperation in satellite communications and space-based maritime domain awareness.
Promoting the Responsible Use of Outer Space
Second, we use diplomacy to promote the responsible use of outer space and especially strategic restraint in the development of anti-satellite weapons.
Diplomacy has an important role in responding to the development of anti-satellite weapons developments that threaten the outer space environment. Responding both privately and publicly to tests of anti-satellite systems is a critical component of our diplomatic strategy.
For example, in 2007, China faced tremendous international pressure following its destructive ASAT test, and this response from the international community appears to have been a factor in China changing its approach. We have not seen a destructive ASAT test since then, although China did conduct a non-destructive test of this system in July 2014. I have not been shy about expressing the U.S. Governments concerns about Chinese anti-satellite tests directly to our Chinese counterparts. We need to continue to call out the disruptive actions of countries like Russia and China both publicly and in cooperation with our allies and partners.
The Department of State is also using diplomacy to reduce the chances for conflict extending into space through the promotion of responsible international norms of behavior, both bilaterally and multilaterally. Norms matter because they help define boundaries and distinguish good behavior from bad behavior.
For example, we have discussed preventing mishaps and reducing potentially destabilizing misperceptions or miscalculations with China.
In addition, and very importantly, through bilateral and multilateral dialogue and diplomatic engagement we seek to identify areas of mutual interest and hopefully reach agreement on how to prevent those interests from being harmed in peacetime, and in conflict.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union found many areas of mutual interest in avoiding potentially destabilizing actions. The 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, started a fifty-plus-year string of bilateral arms control treaties and agreements with the Soviet Union, and later the Russian Federation. We also came to agreement in many other realms, including chemical and biological weapons.
Simply stated, if the United States and the Soviet Union could find areas of mutual interest in the realm of nuclear deterrence and chemical weapons -- with the tensions and stakes as high as they were -- then in today’s climate we should be able to find areas of mutual interest among all space-faring nations regarding space security.
Indeed, I would argue that it is reasonable to assume that most nations, if not all nations, would find it to be in their national interest to prevent conflict from extending into space, knowing that such conflict would degrade the sustainability of the space environment, hinder future space-based scientific activities, and potentially reduce the quality of life for everybody on Earth if the benefits of space-based applications were eroded. Convincing other nations, including China and Russia, of this objective is the role of diplomacy.
The United States and China have already implemented some bilateral transparency and confidence building measures (or TCBMs) to prevent the generation of additional debris in space. As part of the 2014 U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, we reached agreement on the establishment of e-mail contact between China and the United States for the transmission of space object conjunction warnings. Not only does this communication help prevent collision between objects in space, it will help to develop trust and understanding between the United States and China.
Over the past few years the United States has also supported a number of multilateral initiatives that should reduce the chances of mishaps, misperceptions and potential miscalculations. Multilateral TCBMs are means by which governments can address challenges and share information with the aim of creating mutual understanding and reducing tensions. Through TCBMs we can increase familiarity and trust and encourage openness among space actors.
One of the key efforts that we have been pursuing is working with the European Union to advance a non-legally binding International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. The Code would establish guidelines to reduce the risks of debris-generating events and to strengthen the long-term sustainability and security of the space environment. Among the draft Code’s most important provisions is a commitment for the subscribing States to refrain from any action -- unless such action is justified by exceptions spelled out in the draft Code -- that brings about, directly or indirectly, damage or destruction of space objects. We view the draft Code as a potential first step in establishing TCBMs for space.
The State Department is also leading U.S. efforts in the framework of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) to move forward in the development of a draft set of guidelines for sustainable space operations to include ways to prevent the generation of space debris.
Another important recent effort was the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) study of outer space transparency and confidence-building measures. That UN group, for which I served as the U.S. expert, published a consensus report in July 2013 endorsing voluntary, non-legally binding TCBMs to strengthen sustainability and security in space. The United States subsequently co-sponsored a resolution with Russia and China referring the GGE report’s recommendations for consideration by the relevant entities and organizations of the United Nations system.
These diplomatic efforts contribute to reducing misperceptions and miscalculations and help lower the chance of conflict extending into space.
I would like to add one more thought for your consideration. If we do not lead with active diplomacy on international space security issues, it is more likely that others will seek to fill the diplomatic vacuum with initiatives that meet their own national interests without regard for the broader interests of the international community.
The United States has focused on TCBMs over the last several years because these can make a real difference in the near term. Such measures can lead to greater mutual understanding and reduce tensions.
In contrast, Russia’s and China’s diplomatic efforts to pursue legally binding treaties and other measures do not reduce the chances for mishaps, misunderstanding or miscalculation and provide little or no verification capability to make sure that everyone is playing by the same rules. Moreover, their diplomatic efforts do not address very real, near-term space security threats such as terrestrial-based anti-satellite weapons like the one China tested in 2007.
To be more specific, Russia and China continue to press for a “Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects,” known as the PPWT. Russia also is making concerted diplomatic efforts to gain adherents to its pledge of “No First Placement” of weapons in outer space. These two documents are fundamentally flawed. They do not address the threat of terrestrially-based ASAT capabilities, and they contain no verification provisions. Yet, at the same time, these proposals may gain some support internationally because many countries are attracted, naturally, to the idea of preventing the weaponization of space. As a diplomat, it is my job to explain why support for these Russian and Chinese proposals is misplaced and may even be counterproductive, while offering pragmatic alternatives, such as TCBMs, which demonstrate U.S. leadership and help shape the international space security agenda.
Conclusion
If conflict extends into space, the right to explore and use space for peaceful purposes would be threatened.
If diplomacy fails, and the use of force does extend to space, the United States must be prepared to protect our space capabilities and prevail in conflict. That is absolutely clear.
The goal of our diplomacy, however, is to prevent conflict from extending into space in the first place.
Diplomacy can help strengthen U.S. and allied deterrent posture and help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust among nations.
These two diplomatic tracks, supported by other instruments of U.S. national power and the support of our allies and friends, will hopefully persuade any potential adversary that attacking the United States in space would not be in its best interests.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Using Diplomacy to Advance the Long-term Sustainability and Security of the Outer Space Environment
Remarks
Frank A. Rose
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance
31st Space Symposium
Colorado Springs, CO
April 16, 2015
As prepared
Introduction
Thank you for your kind introduction and the opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Frank Rose, and I am the Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. It’s a pleasure to be back at the Space Symposium, and I’d like to thank Elliot Pulham and all the sponsors for inviting me back again.
By way of introduction, while I am the Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, my work at the State Department is focused on enhancing strategic stability around the world. Arms control, verification and compliance are some of the tools we use to enhance strategic stability and reassure our allies and partners that we will meet our security commitments. Given the importance of outer space to our national security, we also work on efforts to ensure the long term sustainability and security of the outer space environment.
This morning I would like to discuss steps the United States is taking diplomatically, in concert with international partners to address the growing threats to space security.
Threats to the Space Environment
First, the threat to outer space is real and growing. As Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in his recent Congressional testimony,
“Threats to U.S. space systems and services will increase during 2015 and beyond as potential adversaries pursue disruptive and destructive counterspace capabilities. Chinese and Russian military leaders understand the unique information advantages afforded by space systems and services and are developing capabilities to deny access in a conflict.”
In particular, China’s continued development of anti-satellite weapons remains a major challenge to the outer space environment. China’s 2007 anti-satellite test left thousands of pieces of debris in orbit that continues to threaten the space systems of all nations.
The 2010 U.S. National Space Policy makes it clear that it is not in the interest of anyone for armed conflict to extend into space. It states,
“The United States considers the space systems of all nations to have the rights of passage through, and conduct of operations in, space without interference. Purposeful interference with space systems, including supporting infrastructure, will be considered an infringement of a nation’s rights.”
It also states that,
“the United States will employ a variety of measures to help assure the use of space for all responsible parties, and consistent with the inherent right of self-defense, deter others from interference and attack, defend our space systems and contribute to the defense of allies space systems, and if deterrence fails, defeat efforts to attack them.”
It is not in the international community’s interest to engage in a space weapons arms race. Such a race would not bode well for the long-term sustainability of the space environment.
Indeed, protecting U.S. national security by preventing conflict from extending into space in the first place is a major goal of our diplomatic engagements. In that regard, we work to prevent conflict from extending into space via two diplomatic tracks; strengthening our deterrent posture, and encouraging responsible behavior to prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and the chances of miscalculation.
Strengthening Our Deterrent Posture
First, we use diplomacy to gain the support of our allies and friends. We have established numerous space security dialogues with our Allies and Partners. These dialogues help them understand the threat, as well as our diplomatic and national security goals, which is critical in persuading them to stand by our side, often in the face of tremendous pressure from our adversaries. Not only have I made numerous trips to meet with our allies in Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific, I have also visited India (where we held our first space security dialogue this March), South Africa, and elsewhere in Africa to raise U.S. concerns about the threats to space systems and to discuss the way forward diplomatically. Furthermore, our Department’s leadership has also carried our message in numerous bilateral and multilateral dialogues.
Diplomacy also prepares the way for closer military-to-military cooperation and allied investment in capabilities compatible with U.S. systems. We work very closely with our interagency colleagues in the Department of Defense to make sure our efforts are synchronized so that investments by our allies and friends contribute to strengthening the resilience of our space architectures and contribute to Space Mission Assurance. The resulting deterrent effect created by such a web of integrated capabilities is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
For example, the Department of State works closely with the Department of Defense on Space Situational Awareness (or SSA) information sharing agreements with foreign partners. The United States has found international cooperation on SSA to be important, as international partnerships bring the resources, capabilities, and geographical advantages. We have also worked to strengthen military-to-military cooperation in satellite communications and space-based maritime domain awareness.
Promoting the Responsible Use of Outer Space
Second, we use diplomacy to promote the responsible use of outer space and especially strategic restraint in the development of anti-satellite weapons.
Diplomacy has an important role in responding to the development of anti-satellite weapons developments that threaten the outer space environment. Responding both privately and publicly to tests of anti-satellite systems is a critical component of our diplomatic strategy.
For example, in 2007, China faced tremendous international pressure following its destructive ASAT test, and this response from the international community appears to have been a factor in China changing its approach. We have not seen a destructive ASAT test since then, although China did conduct a non-destructive test of this system in July 2014. I have not been shy about expressing the U.S. Governments concerns about Chinese anti-satellite tests directly to our Chinese counterparts. We need to continue to call out the disruptive actions of countries like Russia and China both publicly and in cooperation with our allies and partners.
The Department of State is also using diplomacy to reduce the chances for conflict extending into space through the promotion of responsible international norms of behavior, both bilaterally and multilaterally. Norms matter because they help define boundaries and distinguish good behavior from bad behavior.
For example, we have discussed preventing mishaps and reducing potentially destabilizing misperceptions or miscalculations with China.
In addition, and very importantly, through bilateral and multilateral dialogue and diplomatic engagement we seek to identify areas of mutual interest and hopefully reach agreement on how to prevent those interests from being harmed in peacetime, and in conflict.
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union found many areas of mutual interest in avoiding potentially destabilizing actions. The 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, started a fifty-plus-year string of bilateral arms control treaties and agreements with the Soviet Union, and later the Russian Federation. We also came to agreement in many other realms, including chemical and biological weapons.
Simply stated, if the United States and the Soviet Union could find areas of mutual interest in the realm of nuclear deterrence and chemical weapons -- with the tensions and stakes as high as they were -- then in today’s climate we should be able to find areas of mutual interest among all space-faring nations regarding space security.
Indeed, I would argue that it is reasonable to assume that most nations, if not all nations, would find it to be in their national interest to prevent conflict from extending into space, knowing that such conflict would degrade the sustainability of the space environment, hinder future space-based scientific activities, and potentially reduce the quality of life for everybody on Earth if the benefits of space-based applications were eroded. Convincing other nations, including China and Russia, of this objective is the role of diplomacy.
The United States and China have already implemented some bilateral transparency and confidence building measures (or TCBMs) to prevent the generation of additional debris in space. As part of the 2014 U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, we reached agreement on the establishment of e-mail contact between China and the United States for the transmission of space object conjunction warnings. Not only does this communication help prevent collision between objects in space, it will help to develop trust and understanding between the United States and China.
Over the past few years the United States has also supported a number of multilateral initiatives that should reduce the chances of mishaps, misperceptions and potential miscalculations. Multilateral TCBMs are means by which governments can address challenges and share information with the aim of creating mutual understanding and reducing tensions. Through TCBMs we can increase familiarity and trust and encourage openness among space actors.
One of the key efforts that we have been pursuing is working with the European Union to advance a non-legally binding International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. The Code would establish guidelines to reduce the risks of debris-generating events and to strengthen the long-term sustainability and security of the space environment. Among the draft Code’s most important provisions is a commitment for the subscribing States to refrain from any action -- unless such action is justified by exceptions spelled out in the draft Code -- that brings about, directly or indirectly, damage or destruction of space objects. We view the draft Code as a potential first step in establishing TCBMs for space.
The State Department is also leading U.S. efforts in the framework of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) to move forward in the development of a draft set of guidelines for sustainable space operations to include ways to prevent the generation of space debris.
Another important recent effort was the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) study of outer space transparency and confidence-building measures. That UN group, for which I served as the U.S. expert, published a consensus report in July 2013 endorsing voluntary, non-legally binding TCBMs to strengthen sustainability and security in space. The United States subsequently co-sponsored a resolution with Russia and China referring the GGE report’s recommendations for consideration by the relevant entities and organizations of the United Nations system.
These diplomatic efforts contribute to reducing misperceptions and miscalculations and help lower the chance of conflict extending into space.
I would like to add one more thought for your consideration. If we do not lead with active diplomacy on international space security issues, it is more likely that others will seek to fill the diplomatic vacuum with initiatives that meet their own national interests without regard for the broader interests of the international community.
The United States has focused on TCBMs over the last several years because these can make a real difference in the near term. Such measures can lead to greater mutual understanding and reduce tensions.
In contrast, Russia’s and China’s diplomatic efforts to pursue legally binding treaties and other measures do not reduce the chances for mishaps, misunderstanding or miscalculation and provide little or no verification capability to make sure that everyone is playing by the same rules. Moreover, their diplomatic efforts do not address very real, near-term space security threats such as terrestrial-based anti-satellite weapons like the one China tested in 2007.
To be more specific, Russia and China continue to press for a “Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects,” known as the PPWT. Russia also is making concerted diplomatic efforts to gain adherents to its pledge of “No First Placement” of weapons in outer space. These two documents are fundamentally flawed. They do not address the threat of terrestrially-based ASAT capabilities, and they contain no verification provisions. Yet, at the same time, these proposals may gain some support internationally because many countries are attracted, naturally, to the idea of preventing the weaponization of space. As a diplomat, it is my job to explain why support for these Russian and Chinese proposals is misplaced and may even be counterproductive, while offering pragmatic alternatives, such as TCBMs, which demonstrate U.S. leadership and help shape the international space security agenda.
Conclusion
If conflict extends into space, the right to explore and use space for peaceful purposes would be threatened.
If diplomacy fails, and the use of force does extend to space, the United States must be prepared to protect our space capabilities and prevail in conflict. That is absolutely clear.
The goal of our diplomacy, however, is to prevent conflict from extending into space in the first place.
Diplomacy can help strengthen U.S. and allied deterrent posture and help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust among nations.
These two diplomatic tracks, supported by other instruments of U.S. national power and the support of our allies and friends, will hopefully persuade any potential adversary that attacking the United States in space would not be in its best interests.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
ADVANCING AEROSERVOELATIC TECHNOLOGY
FROM NASA
 |
| The X-56A Multi-Utility Technology Testbed (MUTT) is greeted on an Edwards Air Force Base runway by a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) team member. NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center and the AFRL, along with participants from Langley Research Center and Glenn Research Center, and support from Lockheed Martin, are using the second X-56A (dubbed “Buckeye”) to check out aircraft systems, evaluate handling qualities, characterize and expand the airplane’s performance envelope, and verify pre-flight predictions regarding aircraft behavior. The 20-minute flight marked the beginning of a research effort designed to yield significant advances in aeroservoelastic technology using a low-cost, modular, remotely piloted aerial vehicle. Image Credit: NASA-Ken Ulbrich. |
THREE ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED ROLES IN SYNTHETIC DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATION
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Three Members of International Synthetic Drug-Trafficking Organization Arrested in Los Angeles
Three members of an international synthetic drug-trafficking organization—responsible for selling synthetic drugs with brand names like Twilite, Passion Sense, Stoopid, Black Diamond, and Platinum—were arrested in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The federal charges were unsealed in the Northern District of New York today. According to documents also unsealed in the Southern District of Indiana today, a leader of the organization has already pleaded guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian of the Northern District of New York and U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler of the Southern District of Indiana made the announcement.
“The manufacture and distribution of synthetic narcotics is a growing problem that is especially dangerous to the young people of our communities,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “Drug traffickers peddle these illegal synthetic drugs with harmless sounding names to impressionable youth who are typically unaware of the harmful chemicals they actually are ingesting. The Criminal Division will continue to partner with local and federal law enforcement around the nation to stem the flow of these unsafe and illegal substances and bring the traffickers to justice.”
“Despite the efforts of these drug traffickers to evade prosecution through the creation of synthetic drugs, these indictments demonstrate the ability of law enforcement to effectively respond to those who market these dangerous substances,” said U.S. Attorney Hartunian. “We will continue to use all our resources to combat this national problem.”
“Synthetic narcotics are not the harmless product traffickers and users make them out to be,” said U.S. Attorney Minkler. “They are mind-altering substances that cause psychosis and even death with our nation’s youth.”
Andrew Raymond, 36, Brian Requena, 37, and Zefren Michael, 35, all of Los Angeles, California, were indicted in the Northern District of New York for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute controlled substance analogues, intending that those analogues be used for human consumption. Raymond and Requena were also charged with a money laundering conspiracy.
In a related case, Roger Upchurch, 66, of Indianapolis, Indiana, pleaded guilty on March 11, 2015, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young in the Southern District of Indiana, to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance analogue and money laundering. Upchurch also forfeited over $2 million in cash and other assets obtained from his illegal activities, including a house, two cars and a Sweetwater pontoon boat. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
As part of his guilty plea, Upchurch admitted that he was a leading member of the international drug-trafficking organization, working in the Los Angeles-area, to produce and distribute thousands of kilograms of smokable synthetic cannabinoids (SSCs) with brand names such as Twilite, Passion Sense, Stoopid, Black Diamond and Platinum. SSCs, also popularly known as “Spice,” are smokable drugs that are designed to mimic marijuana. The synthetic chemicals used to produce these SSCs were imported from China, then applied to a plant-like substance and sold like marijuana in a smokable form.
According to allegations in the indictment, Raymond, Requena, Michaels, and others conspired with Upchurch to manufacture SSCs for distribution throughout the United States. In an effort to avoid detection and prosecution by law enforcement, the drug-trafficking organization allegedly mislabeled and fraudulently labeled packages with “not for human consumption” and other false statements, including falsely marketing their products as potpourri, incense or aroma.
The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This investigation is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, and these cases were supported under the DEA Special Operations Division’s Project Synergy. These cases are the result of investigative efforts led by the DEA’s Indianapolis Field Office, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
The case in the Southern District of Indiana is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Brian Sardelli of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Brookman and Debra Richards of the Southern District of Indianapolis. The case pending in the Northern District of New York is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Three Members of International Synthetic Drug-Trafficking Organization Arrested in Los Angeles
Three members of an international synthetic drug-trafficking organization—responsible for selling synthetic drugs with brand names like Twilite, Passion Sense, Stoopid, Black Diamond, and Platinum—were arrested in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The federal charges were unsealed in the Northern District of New York today. According to documents also unsealed in the Southern District of Indiana today, a leader of the organization has already pleaded guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian of the Northern District of New York and U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler of the Southern District of Indiana made the announcement.
“The manufacture and distribution of synthetic narcotics is a growing problem that is especially dangerous to the young people of our communities,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “Drug traffickers peddle these illegal synthetic drugs with harmless sounding names to impressionable youth who are typically unaware of the harmful chemicals they actually are ingesting. The Criminal Division will continue to partner with local and federal law enforcement around the nation to stem the flow of these unsafe and illegal substances and bring the traffickers to justice.”
“Despite the efforts of these drug traffickers to evade prosecution through the creation of synthetic drugs, these indictments demonstrate the ability of law enforcement to effectively respond to those who market these dangerous substances,” said U.S. Attorney Hartunian. “We will continue to use all our resources to combat this national problem.”
“Synthetic narcotics are not the harmless product traffickers and users make them out to be,” said U.S. Attorney Minkler. “They are mind-altering substances that cause psychosis and even death with our nation’s youth.”
Andrew Raymond, 36, Brian Requena, 37, and Zefren Michael, 35, all of Los Angeles, California, were indicted in the Northern District of New York for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute controlled substance analogues, intending that those analogues be used for human consumption. Raymond and Requena were also charged with a money laundering conspiracy.
In a related case, Roger Upchurch, 66, of Indianapolis, Indiana, pleaded guilty on March 11, 2015, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young in the Southern District of Indiana, to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance analogue and money laundering. Upchurch also forfeited over $2 million in cash and other assets obtained from his illegal activities, including a house, two cars and a Sweetwater pontoon boat. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
As part of his guilty plea, Upchurch admitted that he was a leading member of the international drug-trafficking organization, working in the Los Angeles-area, to produce and distribute thousands of kilograms of smokable synthetic cannabinoids (SSCs) with brand names such as Twilite, Passion Sense, Stoopid, Black Diamond and Platinum. SSCs, also popularly known as “Spice,” are smokable drugs that are designed to mimic marijuana. The synthetic chemicals used to produce these SSCs were imported from China, then applied to a plant-like substance and sold like marijuana in a smokable form.
According to allegations in the indictment, Raymond, Requena, Michaels, and others conspired with Upchurch to manufacture SSCs for distribution throughout the United States. In an effort to avoid detection and prosecution by law enforcement, the drug-trafficking organization allegedly mislabeled and fraudulently labeled packages with “not for human consumption” and other false statements, including falsely marketing their products as potpourri, incense or aroma.
The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This investigation is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, and these cases were supported under the DEA Special Operations Division’s Project Synergy. These cases are the result of investigative efforts led by the DEA’s Indianapolis Field Office, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
The case in the Southern District of Indiana is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Brian Sardelli of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Brookman and Debra Richards of the Southern District of Indianapolis. The case pending in the Northern District of New York is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman.
CDC REPORTS EBOLA LINK TO SINGLE FUNERAL CEREMONY IN GUINEA
FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Ebola Transmission Linked to a Single Traditional Funeral Ceremony — Kissidougou, Guinea, December, 2014–January 2015
Hygienic burial of corpses infected with Ebola and community acceptance of culturally sensitive safe burial practices are important components of successful management and prevention of Ebola. During December 1, 2014 ─ January 10, 2015, the Guinean Ministry of Health requested assistance from CDC, the World Health Organization, and other partners to investigate an Ebola outbreak in Kissidougou, a prefecture in southeastern Guinea where Ebola was first reported in West Africa in March of 2014. Interventions included active identification and isolation of cases, assessing transmission chains, and implementation of control measures. Lessons learned from this outbreak were employed in planning for subsequent outbreaks in rural communities, developing improved protocols for safe burial practices, and creating health-communication messages in local languages.
Ebola Transmission Linked to a Single Traditional Funeral Ceremony — Kissidougou, Guinea, December, 2014–January 2015
Hygienic burial of corpses infected with Ebola and community acceptance of culturally sensitive safe burial practices are important components of successful management and prevention of Ebola. During December 1, 2014 ─ January 10, 2015, the Guinean Ministry of Health requested assistance from CDC, the World Health Organization, and other partners to investigate an Ebola outbreak in Kissidougou, a prefecture in southeastern Guinea where Ebola was first reported in West Africa in March of 2014. Interventions included active identification and isolation of cases, assessing transmission chains, and implementation of control measures. Lessons learned from this outbreak were employed in planning for subsequent outbreaks in rural communities, developing improved protocols for safe burial practices, and creating health-communication messages in local languages.
OVER 7100 CRIMINALS OFF STREETS DUE TO OPERATION VIOLENCE REDUCTION 7 SAYS U.S. MARSHALS SERVICE SAYS
FROM: U.S. MARSHALS SERVICE
Operation Violence Reduction7 Targets Most Dangerous Criminals
Camden, NJ – More than 7,100 fugitives, gang members, sex offenders and violent criminals are off the streets as a result of Operation Violence Reduction7 (VR7), a six-week long U.S. Marshals-led enforcement initiative conducted across the country to reduce violent crime.
“The purpose of Operation VR7 was to protect our communities by removing the most dangerous criminals from the streets,” said U.S. Marshals Service Director Stacia Hylton. “The operation utilized a strategic approach to identify and arrest the most violent wanted felony fugitives quickly in order to see the greatest impact on public safety.”
The narrow criteria for cases adopted and investigated during Operation VR7 included fugitives wanted for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, abduction/kidnapping, sexual assault and child molestation. Additionally, VR7 investigators focused on apprehending fugitives with three or more prior felony arrests for violent crimes and wanted for narcotics, weapons offenses, assault/battery and threats. Gang members and sex offenders received high-priority for apprehension.
The U.S. Marshals strategically focused its approach through use of the agency’s multi-jurisdictional investigative authority and its fugitive task force networks at the regional and local level. The operation was concentrated in seven high density regions and core cities where the U.S. Marshals have established counter gang units. These units provided real time, ground level intelligence on criminal activity.
“Our counter gang units along with our federal, state, and local partners were able to hone in on areas with numerous outstanding warrants, and ensure that apprehension measures were deliberate and effective,” said Chief Inspector John “Buck” Smith, Operation VR7 Commander.
Between March 2 and April 10, Operation VR7 resulted in 7,127 arrests, including 750 gang members, and the seizure of 383 firearms and more than 69 kilograms of illegal narcotics. Individual charges included 519 for homicide; 922 for weapons; 1,888 for assault; 583 for sexual assault; 1,093 for robbery; and 2,654 for narcotics.
“By taking these dangerous fugitives off the streets, we hope people feel safer in their communities,” said Hylton. “Many of these fugitives we arrested were repeat offenders, who average eight prior arrests and three prior convictions for violent crimes.”
Additionally, in its ongoing support to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Marshals Service recovered 10 missing children during Operation VR7.
The impact of the operation also benefited surrounding cities and small rural areas outside the targeted regions that faced difficulties dealing with criminal activity perpetrated by these violent offenders.
“A focus of this operation was deploying manpower and resources to address law enforcement needs normally overwhelmed or limited,” said Hylton.
The concept behind interagency law enforcement operations such as Operation VR7 evolved largely from regional and district task forces. Historically local, state and federal agencies have worked closely together to find and apprehend dangerous fugitives. The U.S. Marshals adopted interagency teamwork in the early 1980s, when they combined their resources and expertise in fugitive apprehension with local law enforcement to capitalize on their knowledge and unique insight of the street level crime and violence, and the offenders responsible for it. Operation VR7 continues this tradition.
"The U.S. Marshals Service supports the criminal justice system by apprehending violent felony fugitives, with our law enforcement partners at all levels of government,” said Hylton. “The success of Operation VR7 affirmed the commitment of the men and women who are sworn to protect and serve. I am proud to serve with them as they make our communities safer.”
Operation Violence Reduction7 Targets Most Dangerous Criminals
Camden, NJ – More than 7,100 fugitives, gang members, sex offenders and violent criminals are off the streets as a result of Operation Violence Reduction7 (VR7), a six-week long U.S. Marshals-led enforcement initiative conducted across the country to reduce violent crime.
“The purpose of Operation VR7 was to protect our communities by removing the most dangerous criminals from the streets,” said U.S. Marshals Service Director Stacia Hylton. “The operation utilized a strategic approach to identify and arrest the most violent wanted felony fugitives quickly in order to see the greatest impact on public safety.”
The narrow criteria for cases adopted and investigated during Operation VR7 included fugitives wanted for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, abduction/kidnapping, sexual assault and child molestation. Additionally, VR7 investigators focused on apprehending fugitives with three or more prior felony arrests for violent crimes and wanted for narcotics, weapons offenses, assault/battery and threats. Gang members and sex offenders received high-priority for apprehension.
The U.S. Marshals strategically focused its approach through use of the agency’s multi-jurisdictional investigative authority and its fugitive task force networks at the regional and local level. The operation was concentrated in seven high density regions and core cities where the U.S. Marshals have established counter gang units. These units provided real time, ground level intelligence on criminal activity.
“Our counter gang units along with our federal, state, and local partners were able to hone in on areas with numerous outstanding warrants, and ensure that apprehension measures were deliberate and effective,” said Chief Inspector John “Buck” Smith, Operation VR7 Commander.
Between March 2 and April 10, Operation VR7 resulted in 7,127 arrests, including 750 gang members, and the seizure of 383 firearms and more than 69 kilograms of illegal narcotics. Individual charges included 519 for homicide; 922 for weapons; 1,888 for assault; 583 for sexual assault; 1,093 for robbery; and 2,654 for narcotics.
“By taking these dangerous fugitives off the streets, we hope people feel safer in their communities,” said Hylton. “Many of these fugitives we arrested were repeat offenders, who average eight prior arrests and three prior convictions for violent crimes.”
Additionally, in its ongoing support to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Marshals Service recovered 10 missing children during Operation VR7.
The impact of the operation also benefited surrounding cities and small rural areas outside the targeted regions that faced difficulties dealing with criminal activity perpetrated by these violent offenders.
“A focus of this operation was deploying manpower and resources to address law enforcement needs normally overwhelmed or limited,” said Hylton.
The concept behind interagency law enforcement operations such as Operation VR7 evolved largely from regional and district task forces. Historically local, state and federal agencies have worked closely together to find and apprehend dangerous fugitives. The U.S. Marshals adopted interagency teamwork in the early 1980s, when they combined their resources and expertise in fugitive apprehension with local law enforcement to capitalize on their knowledge and unique insight of the street level crime and violence, and the offenders responsible for it. Operation VR7 continues this tradition.
"The U.S. Marshals Service supports the criminal justice system by apprehending violent felony fugitives, with our law enforcement partners at all levels of government,” said Hylton. “The success of Operation VR7 affirmed the commitment of the men and women who are sworn to protect and serve. I am proud to serve with them as they make our communities safer.”
CDC SAYS USE OF E-CIGARETTES TRIPLES AMONG MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
E-cigarette use triples among middle and high school students in just one year
Current e-cigarette use among middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show that current e-cigarette use (use on at least 1 day in the past 30 days) among high school students increased from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014, rising from approximately 660,000 to 2 million students. Among middle school students, current e-cigarette use more than tripled from 1.1 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014—an increase from approximately 120,000 to 450,000 students.
This is the first time since the survey started collecting data on e-cigarettes in 2011 that current e-cigarette use has surpassed current use of every other tobacco product overall, including conventional cigarettes. E-cigarettes were the most used tobacco product for non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic other race while cigars were the most commonly used product among non-Hispanic blacks.
“We want parents to know that nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age, whether it’s an e-cigarette, hookah, cigarette or cigar,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Adolescence is a critical time for brain development. Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use.”
Hookah smoking roughly doubled for middle and high school students, while cigarette use declined among high school students and remained unchanged for middle school students. Among high school students, current hookah use rose from 5.2 percent in 2013 (about 770,000 students) to 9.4 percent in 2014 (about 1.3 million students). Among middle school students, current hookah use rose from 1.1 percent in 2013 (120,000 students) to 2.5 percent in 2014 (280,000 students).
The increases in e-cigarette and hookah use offset declines in use of more traditional products such as cigarettes and cigars. There was no decline in overall tobacco use between 2011 and 2014. Overall rates of any tobacco product use were 24.6 percent for high school students and 7.7 percent for middle school students in 2014.
In 2014, the products most commonly used by high school students were e-cigarettes (13.4 percent), hookah (9.4 percent), cigarettes (9.2 percent), cigars (8.2 percent), smokeless tobacco (5.5 percent), snus (1.9 percent) and pipes (1.5 percent). Use of multiple tobacco products was common; nearly half of all middle and high school students who were current tobacco users used two or more types of tobacco products. The products most commonly used by middle school students were e-cigarettes (3.9 percent), hookah (2.5 percent), cigarettes (2.5 percent), cigars (1.9 percent), smokeless tobacco (1.6 percent), and pipes (0.6 percent).
Cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco are currently subject to FDA’s tobacco control authority. The agency currently is finalizing the rule to bring additional tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, hookahs and some or all cigars under that same authority. Several states have passed laws establishing a minimum age for purchase of e-cigarettes or extending smoke-free laws to include e-cigarettes, both of which could help further prevent youth use and initiation.
“In today’s rapidly evolving tobacco marketplace, the surge in youth use of novel products like e-cigarettes forces us to confront the reality that the progress we have made in reducing youth cigarette smoking rates is being threatened,” said Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “These staggering increases in such a short time underscore why FDA intends to regulate these additional products to protect public health.”
Today’s report concludes that further reducing youth tobacco use and initiation is achievable through regulation of the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products coupled with proven strategies. These strategies included funding tobacco control programs at CDC-recommended levels, increasing prices of tobacco products, implementing and enforcing comprehensive smoke-free laws, and sustaining hard-hitting media campaigns. The report also concludes that because the use of e-cigarettes and hookahs is on the rise among high and middle school students, it is critical that comprehensive tobacco control and prevention strategies for youth focus on all tobacco products, and not just cigarettes.
The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is a school-based, self-administered questionnaire given annually to middle and high-school students in both public and private schools. NYTS, which surveyed 22,000 students in 2014, is a nationally representative survey.
The 2012 Surgeon General’s Report found that about 90 percent of all smokers first tried cigarettes as teens; and that about three of every four teen smokers continue into adulthood.
E-cigarette use triples among middle and high school students in just one year
Current e-cigarette use among middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show that current e-cigarette use (use on at least 1 day in the past 30 days) among high school students increased from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014, rising from approximately 660,000 to 2 million students. Among middle school students, current e-cigarette use more than tripled from 1.1 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014—an increase from approximately 120,000 to 450,000 students.
This is the first time since the survey started collecting data on e-cigarettes in 2011 that current e-cigarette use has surpassed current use of every other tobacco product overall, including conventional cigarettes. E-cigarettes were the most used tobacco product for non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic other race while cigars were the most commonly used product among non-Hispanic blacks.
“We want parents to know that nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age, whether it’s an e-cigarette, hookah, cigarette or cigar,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Adolescence is a critical time for brain development. Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use.”
Hookah smoking roughly doubled for middle and high school students, while cigarette use declined among high school students and remained unchanged for middle school students. Among high school students, current hookah use rose from 5.2 percent in 2013 (about 770,000 students) to 9.4 percent in 2014 (about 1.3 million students). Among middle school students, current hookah use rose from 1.1 percent in 2013 (120,000 students) to 2.5 percent in 2014 (280,000 students).
The increases in e-cigarette and hookah use offset declines in use of more traditional products such as cigarettes and cigars. There was no decline in overall tobacco use between 2011 and 2014. Overall rates of any tobacco product use were 24.6 percent for high school students and 7.7 percent for middle school students in 2014.
In 2014, the products most commonly used by high school students were e-cigarettes (13.4 percent), hookah (9.4 percent), cigarettes (9.2 percent), cigars (8.2 percent), smokeless tobacco (5.5 percent), snus (1.9 percent) and pipes (1.5 percent). Use of multiple tobacco products was common; nearly half of all middle and high school students who were current tobacco users used two or more types of tobacco products. The products most commonly used by middle school students were e-cigarettes (3.9 percent), hookah (2.5 percent), cigarettes (2.5 percent), cigars (1.9 percent), smokeless tobacco (1.6 percent), and pipes (0.6 percent).
Cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco are currently subject to FDA’s tobacco control authority. The agency currently is finalizing the rule to bring additional tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, hookahs and some or all cigars under that same authority. Several states have passed laws establishing a minimum age for purchase of e-cigarettes or extending smoke-free laws to include e-cigarettes, both of which could help further prevent youth use and initiation.
“In today’s rapidly evolving tobacco marketplace, the surge in youth use of novel products like e-cigarettes forces us to confront the reality that the progress we have made in reducing youth cigarette smoking rates is being threatened,” said Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “These staggering increases in such a short time underscore why FDA intends to regulate these additional products to protect public health.”
Today’s report concludes that further reducing youth tobacco use and initiation is achievable through regulation of the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products coupled with proven strategies. These strategies included funding tobacco control programs at CDC-recommended levels, increasing prices of tobacco products, implementing and enforcing comprehensive smoke-free laws, and sustaining hard-hitting media campaigns. The report also concludes that because the use of e-cigarettes and hookahs is on the rise among high and middle school students, it is critical that comprehensive tobacco control and prevention strategies for youth focus on all tobacco products, and not just cigarettes.
The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is a school-based, self-administered questionnaire given annually to middle and high-school students in both public and private schools. NYTS, which surveyed 22,000 students in 2014, is a nationally representative survey.
The 2012 Surgeon General’s Report found that about 90 percent of all smokers first tried cigarettes as teens; and that about three of every four teen smokers continue into adulthood.
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S REMARKS AT WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT SOLDIER RIDE EVENT
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
April 16, 2015
Remarks by the President at the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride Event
South Lawn
11:24 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody! (Applause.) What a gorgeous day. I will just point out, it is always beautiful at this particular event. It is gorgeous every single day. And I want to thank Vice President Biden and VA Secretary Bob McDonald for being here.
This is the sixth time that we’ve welcomed the Soldier Ride to the White House. It’s one of our favorite events of the year. You all know the story. Over 10 years ago, a young Long Island bartender, a civilian named Chris Carney, dreamed up the idea of biking coast-to-coast to raise money and support for our wounded warriors. And back then, he probably would not have predicted how far the Soldier Ride would go; how thousands of Americans would join the cause; how a nation would be inspired by all of you.
We’ve got a number of folks here who are currently serving or have served in uniform. We’ve got Army. (Hooah!) We’ve got Navy. (Applause.) Air Force. (Applause.) We’ve got Marines. (Oorah!) And we’ve got some Coast Guard.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah! (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That’s it, man. (Applause.)
We’ve got some extraordinary military families who support you every single mile. (Applause.) So we are among heroes here today -- all the riders, I just had a chance to say hi to them, and they look great. Don’t get too comfortable, though -- you’ve got a lot of miles ahead. This is just a pit stop so we can all cheer you on.
Just to give you some sense of who these riders are -- we’ve got heroes like Sergeant William Armstrong. Where’s William? There he is in the back. (Applause.) William was 24 years old and serving in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb tore the ligaments in his knee and broke the bones in his leg. As a lifelong distance runner, he was devastated that he might never run again. But he didn’t give up. His caretakers at Walter Reed got him a bike so he could get into shape. After a lot of surgeries and months of physical therapy, two weeks ago, William ran a marathon. (Applause.) And I want to quote what William said here. He said, “This Army put me back together,” he says. But it was being “with people with similar life experiences… that exhilarated and motivated me.” Thank you, William, for your incredible service. (Applause.)
We’ve got Specialist Teresa Ann Jackson. Where’s Teresa? There she is right there. (Applause.) Two years ago, while serving as a medic at Fort Campbell, Teresa fell ill with a rare disease that affected her arteries. Doctors had to amputate both her feet. She remembers the shock and isolation she and her husband felt afterwards. And again, I want to quote her: “I wasn’t expecting to be in a wheelchair at 30,” she says. And at first, her -- at her first Wounded Warrior event, she found a community of people who welcomed her, who understood what she was going through, who continue to support her today through her recovery. And today, Teresa wants to study to be a social worker so that she can give back to others. Teresa, we thank you. (Applause.)
And we’ve got Captain Vincent Cerchione. Where’s Vincent? There he is right there. (Applause.) In 2003, Vincent led a dozen soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division into battle in Iraq, taking rocket fire on a daily basis. He served two tours there, and then came home with the kind of wound you can’t always see -- post-traumatic stress. But with courage and the support of his wife, Vincent reached out for help, which is what we want all of our warriors to do. He says that when he found the Wounded Warrior Project -- and I’m quoting here -- “It was the first time since I returned that I’d ever talked to anybody and felt like I wasn’t alone.” Vincent, you are never alone. And because of your service, we also know that we are never alone and we’re always safe. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done. (Applause.)
So that’s what these riders represent here today -- that sense of community and support and love for each other. And that’s what binds everyone who serves proudly under our flag and all the Americans who cheer you on. It’s our chance to say to all our returning heroes that you’re not alone, that we’ve got your back, we’re going to be with you every step of the way. We will be with you all that long journey that it often takes to recover every single mile.
You and all the men and women of our Armed Forces represent what’s best in America. And for me and Michelle and the girls, for Joe Biden and Jill, and I know Bob and his family, time with you has been some of the most inspiring parts of our jobs. We could not be prouder of you or more grateful to you and your families for everything you’ve done to protect our freedom.
And that’s why, as Commander-in-Chief, I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to make sure that we serve you as well as you serve us. That means getting you the care and benefits that you deserve and have earned, including wounds like traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. It means making sure our veterans have the education and the jobs and opportunities that you have to have in order to get your shot at the American Dream that you helped to defend. It means recognizing and supporting the incredible families and caregivers who sacrifice so much. They serve as well. We’ve got to be there for those families.
So I want to encourage every American along the route to get out and cheer for these men and women. And I want all of our riders -- and all those that you’re riding for, including some who were left behind on the field of battle -- we want all of you to know that we’re not just going to be with you for three days and these 60 miles. As a nation, as Americans grateful for your sacrifices, we’re going to be with you on all the roads of your life ahead.
So God bless you and your families, all who serve. God bless America. With that, I’m going to do my favorite part which is blow the horn. (Laughter.) Let’s get this ride started. (Applause.)
END
11:30 A.M. EST
April 16, 2015
Remarks by the President at the Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride Event
South Lawn
11:24 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody! (Applause.) What a gorgeous day. I will just point out, it is always beautiful at this particular event. It is gorgeous every single day. And I want to thank Vice President Biden and VA Secretary Bob McDonald for being here.
This is the sixth time that we’ve welcomed the Soldier Ride to the White House. It’s one of our favorite events of the year. You all know the story. Over 10 years ago, a young Long Island bartender, a civilian named Chris Carney, dreamed up the idea of biking coast-to-coast to raise money and support for our wounded warriors. And back then, he probably would not have predicted how far the Soldier Ride would go; how thousands of Americans would join the cause; how a nation would be inspired by all of you.
We’ve got a number of folks here who are currently serving or have served in uniform. We’ve got Army. (Hooah!) We’ve got Navy. (Applause.) Air Force. (Applause.) We’ve got Marines. (Oorah!) And we’ve got some Coast Guard.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah! (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That’s it, man. (Applause.)
We’ve got some extraordinary military families who support you every single mile. (Applause.) So we are among heroes here today -- all the riders, I just had a chance to say hi to them, and they look great. Don’t get too comfortable, though -- you’ve got a lot of miles ahead. This is just a pit stop so we can all cheer you on.
Just to give you some sense of who these riders are -- we’ve got heroes like Sergeant William Armstrong. Where’s William? There he is in the back. (Applause.) William was 24 years old and serving in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb tore the ligaments in his knee and broke the bones in his leg. As a lifelong distance runner, he was devastated that he might never run again. But he didn’t give up. His caretakers at Walter Reed got him a bike so he could get into shape. After a lot of surgeries and months of physical therapy, two weeks ago, William ran a marathon. (Applause.) And I want to quote what William said here. He said, “This Army put me back together,” he says. But it was being “with people with similar life experiences… that exhilarated and motivated me.” Thank you, William, for your incredible service. (Applause.)
We’ve got Specialist Teresa Ann Jackson. Where’s Teresa? There she is right there. (Applause.) Two years ago, while serving as a medic at Fort Campbell, Teresa fell ill with a rare disease that affected her arteries. Doctors had to amputate both her feet. She remembers the shock and isolation she and her husband felt afterwards. And again, I want to quote her: “I wasn’t expecting to be in a wheelchair at 30,” she says. And at first, her -- at her first Wounded Warrior event, she found a community of people who welcomed her, who understood what she was going through, who continue to support her today through her recovery. And today, Teresa wants to study to be a social worker so that she can give back to others. Teresa, we thank you. (Applause.)
And we’ve got Captain Vincent Cerchione. Where’s Vincent? There he is right there. (Applause.) In 2003, Vincent led a dozen soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division into battle in Iraq, taking rocket fire on a daily basis. He served two tours there, and then came home with the kind of wound you can’t always see -- post-traumatic stress. But with courage and the support of his wife, Vincent reached out for help, which is what we want all of our warriors to do. He says that when he found the Wounded Warrior Project -- and I’m quoting here -- “It was the first time since I returned that I’d ever talked to anybody and felt like I wasn’t alone.” Vincent, you are never alone. And because of your service, we also know that we are never alone and we’re always safe. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done. (Applause.)
So that’s what these riders represent here today -- that sense of community and support and love for each other. And that’s what binds everyone who serves proudly under our flag and all the Americans who cheer you on. It’s our chance to say to all our returning heroes that you’re not alone, that we’ve got your back, we’re going to be with you every step of the way. We will be with you all that long journey that it often takes to recover every single mile.
You and all the men and women of our Armed Forces represent what’s best in America. And for me and Michelle and the girls, for Joe Biden and Jill, and I know Bob and his family, time with you has been some of the most inspiring parts of our jobs. We could not be prouder of you or more grateful to you and your families for everything you’ve done to protect our freedom.
And that’s why, as Commander-in-Chief, I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to make sure that we serve you as well as you serve us. That means getting you the care and benefits that you deserve and have earned, including wounds like traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. It means making sure our veterans have the education and the jobs and opportunities that you have to have in order to get your shot at the American Dream that you helped to defend. It means recognizing and supporting the incredible families and caregivers who sacrifice so much. They serve as well. We’ve got to be there for those families.
So I want to encourage every American along the route to get out and cheer for these men and women. And I want all of our riders -- and all those that you’re riding for, including some who were left behind on the field of battle -- we want all of you to know that we’re not just going to be with you for three days and these 60 miles. As a nation, as Americans grateful for your sacrifices, we’re going to be with you on all the roads of your life ahead.
So God bless you and your families, all who serve. God bless America. With that, I’m going to do my favorite part which is blow the horn. (Laughter.) Let’s get this ride started. (Applause.)
END
11:30 A.M. EST
Friday, April 17, 2015
U.S. CONGRATULATES PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE ON THEIR INDEPENDENCE DAY
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
On the Occasion of the Republic of Zimbabwe's National Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 17, 2015
On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people of Zimbabwe as you mark 35 years of independence on April 18.
The United States is a steadfast friend of the Zimbabwean people. We are proud to work with you toward a future that is healthy, prosperous, and democratic for all your citizens.
I look forward to our continued engagement in areas of common interest over the coming year.
On the Occasion of the Republic of Zimbabwe's National Day
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 17, 2015
On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people of Zimbabwe as you mark 35 years of independence on April 18.
The United States is a steadfast friend of the Zimbabwean people. We are proud to work with you toward a future that is healthy, prosperous, and democratic for all your citizens.
I look forward to our continued engagement in areas of common interest over the coming year.
DOD REPORTS: ONGOING AIRSTRIKES AGAINST ISIL
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Coalition Continues Airstrikes Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq
Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Releases
SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 16, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, which took place between 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, local time, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Airstrikes in Syria
Attack and fighter aircraft conducted six airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Hasakah, two airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units, destroyed six ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle bomb, an ISIL tunnel and an ISIL bunker.
-- Near Kobani, four airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed six ISIL fighting positions.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Fighter, attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Beiji, nine airstrikes struck two large and six smaller tactical units, destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Fallujah, two airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL bunker.
-- Near Mosul, an airstrike struck an ISIL staging area.
-- Near Ramadi, three airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL armored personnel carrier.
-- Near Sinjar, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroyed an ISIL building, an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Tal Afar, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL fighting position.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.
Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Syria include the United States, Bahrain, Canada, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Coalition Continues Airstrikes Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq
Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Releases
SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 16, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, which took place between 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, local time, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Airstrikes in Syria
Attack and fighter aircraft conducted six airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Hasakah, two airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units, destroyed six ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle bomb, an ISIL tunnel and an ISIL bunker.
-- Near Kobani, four airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed six ISIL fighting positions.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Fighter, attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Beiji, nine airstrikes struck two large and six smaller tactical units, destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Fallujah, two airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL bunker.
-- Near Mosul, an airstrike struck an ISIL staging area.
-- Near Ramadi, three airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL armored personnel carrier.
-- Near Sinjar, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroyed an ISIL building, an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Tal Afar, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL fighting position.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.
Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Syria include the United States, Bahrain, Canada, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
FACING CHALLENGES: THE U.S. DOD SHIFT TO ASIA-PACIFIC
Right: Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks with Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III at U.S. Pacific Command headquarters at Camp Smith, Hawaii April 12, 2015. Three days later, Locklear joined other Defense Department leaders on Capitol Hill for a hearing on maintaining the U.S. military’s technological edge. DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Sean Hurt.
Asia-Pacific Shift Creates Opportunities, Security Needs
By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, April 15, 2015 – The Defense Department’s ongoing rebalance to the thriving Asia-Pacific region comes with many opportunities and a few pressing requirements: to upgrade security relationships, maintain specific military capabilities and redouble efforts to boost U.S. technological superiority, defense officials said today.
Christine Wormuth, undersecretary of defense for policy, testified before the House Armed Services Committee on implications for aspects of the department’s Asia-Pacific rebalance of losing military technological superiority.
Joining the undersecretary were Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, and Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. Forces Korea.
The past seven years have been a time of tremendous change and opportunity for the Asia-Pacific region, Wormuth told the panel.
“As nations there rise and become more prosperous,” she said, “it's created a lot of opportunity at the same time that dynamism in the region has created a much more complex security environment in which we are now operating.”
Challenges in the Region
The department faces several challenges in the region, including those that come from China, she said.
“China's very rapid military modernization, its opaque defense budget, its actions in space and cyberspace and its behavior in places like the East and South China Seas,” she added, raise serious questions for the department.
China's expanding interests are a natural part of its rise, Wormuth said, but its behavior in the maritime domain, for example, has created friction for its neighbors.
“The government's efforts to incrementally advance its claims in the East and South China Seas and its extensive land reclamation activities, particularly the prospect of further militarizing those outposts, are very concerning to us,” she said.
China and North Korea
The United States and China are not allies, but they don’t have to be adversaries, Wormuth added, noting that the department is speaking with China about its concerning actions and about activities to improve understanding, especially through military-to-military engagement with the People’s Liberation Army.
Elsewhere in the region, she said, DoD’s greatest concern is North Korea's pursuit of ballistic missiles and its weapons of mass destruction program.
Other challenges in the region, Wormuth told the panel, “are magnified by a growing range of nontraditional threats, such as the increased flow of foreign fighters both to and from Asia, the trafficking of illegal goods and people, and devastating natural disasters such as the cyclone we saw last month in Vanuatu.”
DoD is focused on the rebalance along several lines of effort, Wormuth said.
Strengthening Security Relationships
These include strengthening security relationships with allies and partners, including Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines, and strengthening new relationships in South and Southeast Asia. These include Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
The department also is investing in its partnership with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which leads an effort to build a more robust regional security architecture, the undersecretary said. The U.S-India relationship also is an important partnership, she added.
The department is updating its forward presence, putting more assets into the region and using its assets in new ways, Wormuth said.
“We've developed a more distributed model for our Marine Corps that is reducing our concentrated presence in Okinawa [by] relocating Marines to Australia, Guam, Hawaii and mainland Japan,” she added.
Sustaining the U.S. Technological Edge
The Navy is working on its rotational-presence concept, including being on track to have four littoral combat ships rotating through Singapore by 2017. Two ships are already there, the undersecretary said.
And the Army will initiate its first rotational deployment of a brigade combat team to the Korean Peninsula later this spring.
“We're making significant investments to sustain our American technological edge into the future in the air, land, sea and undersea domains,” Wormuth added, investing in precision munitions and working on new capabilities for operating freely in space and cyberspace.
In his remarks to the panel, Locklear said that the United States is a Pacific nation, but also an island nation.
“We rely very heavily on power projection, which means we have to be able to get the forces forward [and] sustain them forward,” he said.
U.S. forces “rely heavily on systems that several decades ago weren't even known about or thought about too much, and that exist now in the cyber world and in the space world,” Locklear said.
Dominant Military Power
Such systems also could reveal vulnerabilities that the department will have to pace with technological advancements, the admiral said.
“It's my assessment that we remain the most dominant military power in the world in all aspects,” Locklear said. “And I think that not a country in the world would disagree with that today, even though I think they would recognize that … the relative gap between how good we are versus how some of the other forces may be developing is shrinking.”
But Locklear said he believes the United States clearly has the best ships, the best submarines, the best aircraft carriers, “and the best people running them in the world.”
He added, “What’s important to me is making sure that the force we have, number one, is dominant … and it needs to be technologically superior across multiple domains.”
Relevant in All Domains
From space to cyber to air to integrated air and missile defense, to sea, maritime, subsurface maritime, the admiral said, there are technological challenges as all the militaries of the world get better in these domains. “We must continue apace to be relevant in the domains that allow us to project U.S. power in defense of U.S. interests,” he said.
In his remarks, Scaparrotti focused on the Korean Peninsula.
The North Koreans are developing asymmetric capabilities, he said, “and specifically orienting on what they consider to be some of our vulnerabilities, and through their development they are trying to close our dominance.”
Specific asymmetric capabilities that Scaparrotti said he thinks about most are North Korea’s ballistic missile capability and the continued ability to counter it, along with its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
Maintaining Dominance
“Many of our adversaries are becoming more proficient in determining how to work inside our capabilities -- our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities -- and also how to use deception and other means in order to limit the advantage we have today,” the general said.
The Defense Department has to continue to develop its capabilities, to change its posture, its concepts and its employment to ensure that we maintain dominance, Scaparrotti added.
“My top concern is that we will have little to no warning of a North Korean asymmetric provocation, which could start a cycle of action and counteraction leading to unintended escalation,” Scaparrotti said.
This underscores the need for the alliance to maintain a high level of readiness and vigilance, he added, noting that last year the alliance took significant steps to improve its capabilities and capacities to deter aggression and reduce operational risk.
Steadfast Strategic Partner
“But our work is not done,” the general said. “In 2015, we will maintain this momentum by focusing on my top priority -- sustaining and strengthening the alliance -- with an emphasis on our combined readiness.”
Strengthening the alliance includes ensuring the rapid flow of ready forces into Korea in the early phases of hostilities, he said, and improving ISR capabilities and critical munitions.
Based on both nations’ national security strategies, Scaparrotti said, the United States will continue to be a steadfast strategic partner to South Korea, “and South Korea is poised to be a long-lasting and important ally to America.”
DEPUTY DEFENSE SECRETARY WORK SPEAKS ABOUT SPACE DOMAIN
Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command, right, and Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, center, greet Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work as he arrives at the Scitor Complex to attend and speak at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 15, 2015. DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz.
Work: Space Domain Presents Challenges, Threats
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, April 16, 2015 – In a candid and passionate speech, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work yesterday asked members of the space community to help the United States maintain its edge in the space domain in the 21st century.
Work spoke to more than 200 people from industry and government at the annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The space domain is an increasingly important area for the U.S. military, the U.S. government and the American people, the deputy secretary said.
‘Space Architecture Faces Increasing Risks’
“Space architecture faces increasing threats and together we must think about those challenges,” Work said in his speech.
The world is seeing a reemergence of strategic competition, which was dormant since the end of the Cold War, a senior defense official said, speaking on background.
Since the end of the Cold War, space has been a relatively benign environment, but that has changed, the official said. China, for example, tested an anti-satellite capability in January 2007, destroying one of its weather satellites as it traveled more than 500 miles above the Earth, the official said.
Russia also has capabilities that could reach into space, and the United States can no longer assume that space will not be contested, the official added.
Work stressed that the U.S. national security space architecture is resilient, but it is facing increasing threats, and America must think about and act on those challenges.
‘Space is Deeply Enmeshed in Our Force Structure’
“Space is deeply enmeshed in our force structure and is central to our way of deterring, assuring and warfighting,” the deputy secretary said.
The U.S. military cannot be complacent and must emphasize space control as challenges arise, he said.
Officials said that to maintain dominance in space, the United States “must consider all space assets, both classified and unclassified, as part of single constellation. And if an adversary tries to deny us the capability, we must be able to respond in an integrated, coordinated fashion.”
The deputy secretary stated the ultimate goal for the United States is to maintain space capabilities, through all phases of conflict, regardless of actions to deny the ultimate high ground.
The symposium was a perfect place for such a candid talk, the official said on background. Those in the space industry know they are important to the nation, “but it was a call for them to think hard about the future of national security in space.”
Work asked the audience to look at how the nation thinks of deterrence and stability in this emerging world where space assets might be held at risk.
“It was a really positive and candid interchange,” the official said. “It was not your average bureaucratic speech. [Work] was very animated and passionate about this issue. Space, cyber, [and] nuclear are core issues for us as a nation.”
Protecting Space Assets
In an environment where space assets are at risk, “you want to be able to be sure that the [space] community is thinking about how to protect them and the services they provide,” the official said. Industry and government must work together on the design and architecture of space systems, the official said, to make them perform better and make them less vulnerable.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Work have consistently stimulated strategic thinking in the department, and this has cut across all domains, the official said, noting a common factor in the domains is the contribution from space.
“You can’t be serious about strategic thinking and about deterrence in the 21st century if you are not talking about space,” the official said.
Looking at the core elements of what DoD does to defend America, its allies and its interests, it is clear that space is increasingly important, according to the official.
“Strategy dictates that if something is getting more important to core objectives it has to place higher on your hierarchy of needs,” the official said. “It’s important that we manage it in the right way.”
CDC REPORT SHOWS PUERTO RICO AS HAVING LOWER RATES OF NEW LUNG, BREAST CANCER
FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Puerto Rico has lower rates of new cases of lung and breast cancer than the rest of US
Puerto Rico has the lowest incidence rate of new lung cancer compared with all other races and ethnic groups in the United States, according to a study published today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report also shows that Puerto Rico has a lower incidence rate of female breast cancer compared with U.S. non-Hispanic white and black women.
The report presents for the first time invasive cancer incidence rates for 2007–2011 among Puerto Rican residents by sex, age, cancer site, and region using U.S. Cancer Statistics data. Puerto Rico has similar incidence rates to U.S. populations for cancer of the colon and rectum. Cancers of the prostate (152 cases per 100,000 men), female breast (84 cases per 100,000 women), and colon and rectum (43 cases per 100,000 persons) are the most common cancer sites among Puerto Rico residents.
"These data underscore the importance of Puerto Ricans getting proper screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer to identify them early when they are most treatable," said Guillermo Tortolero-Luna, M.D., Ph.D., director of Cancer Control and Populations Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico and a co-author of the paper.
The differences in reported cancer incidence rates between U.S. and Puerto Rican residents may be partly explained by differences in health behaviors and risk factors associated with cancers. For example, Puerto Rico has lower smoking rates than all American states (with the exception of Utah), which could explain the lower rates of lung cancer.
"We are encouraged to see lower lung cancer incidence rates in Puerto Rico than the rest of the U.S. However, we must remain diligent in our cancer control efforts to continue progress," said Blythe Ryerson, Ph.D., M.P.H., a lead epidemiologist in CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and an author of the paper. "We recommend all smokers quit for good."
Puerto Rico has lower rates of new cases of lung and breast cancer than the rest of US
Puerto Rico has the lowest incidence rate of new lung cancer compared with all other races and ethnic groups in the United States, according to a study published today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report also shows that Puerto Rico has a lower incidence rate of female breast cancer compared with U.S. non-Hispanic white and black women.
The report presents for the first time invasive cancer incidence rates for 2007–2011 among Puerto Rican residents by sex, age, cancer site, and region using U.S. Cancer Statistics data. Puerto Rico has similar incidence rates to U.S. populations for cancer of the colon and rectum. Cancers of the prostate (152 cases per 100,000 men), female breast (84 cases per 100,000 women), and colon and rectum (43 cases per 100,000 persons) are the most common cancer sites among Puerto Rico residents.
"These data underscore the importance of Puerto Ricans getting proper screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer to identify them early when they are most treatable," said Guillermo Tortolero-Luna, M.D., Ph.D., director of Cancer Control and Populations Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico and a co-author of the paper.
The differences in reported cancer incidence rates between U.S. and Puerto Rican residents may be partly explained by differences in health behaviors and risk factors associated with cancers. For example, Puerto Rico has lower smoking rates than all American states (with the exception of Utah), which could explain the lower rates of lung cancer.
"We are encouraged to see lower lung cancer incidence rates in Puerto Rico than the rest of the U.S. However, we must remain diligent in our cancer control efforts to continue progress," said Blythe Ryerson, Ph.D., M.P.H., a lead epidemiologist in CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and an author of the paper. "We recommend all smokers quit for good."
SEC ALLEGES NEW YORK CITY-BASED FINANCIAL ADVISOR STOLE AT LEAST $20 MILLION
FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
04/16/2015 02:55 PM EDT
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a New York City-based financial advisor accused of stealing at least $20 million from customers to fund his own brokerage accounts and then squandering the bulk of the money in highly unprofitable options trading.
The SEC alleges that Michael J. Oppenheim abused his position as a private client advisor at a global bank and persuaded some customers to withdraw millions of dollars out of their accounts by promising he would purchase safe and secure municipal bonds on their behalf. Instead, Oppenheim bought himself cashier’s checks and deposited them into his own brokerage account or his wife’s account that he controlled. Almost immediately after each theft and deposit, Oppenheim allegedly embarked on sizeable trading of stocks and options including Tesla, Apple, Google, and Netflix. Oppenheim typically lost the entire amount of each deposit, and his brokerage accounts currently show minimal cash balances. On occasions when his accounts did have positive cash balances, he allegedly wired money to bank accounts in his or his wife’s name. At least one outgoing wire was used to pay off a portion of his mortgage.
“We allege that Oppenheim promised his customers that he would invest their money in safe and secure investments, but he seized their funds and aggressively played the stock market in his own accounts,” said Amelia A. Cottrell, Associate Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York today announced criminal charges against Oppenheim.
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, Oppenheim took illicit steps to conceal his fraud. For instance, Oppenheim created false account statements when a customer asked for a statement reflecting his municipal bond holdings. Oppenheim simply pasted the customer’s name onto an account statement reflecting the holdings of another customer, and provided the fabricated statement to convince the customer that he had purchased the municipal bonds for his account as promised. In another instance, Oppenheim transferred money from one customer to another to replenish the amounts he had stolen earlier.
The SEC’s complaint charges Oppenheim, who lives in Livingston, N.J., with violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 as well as Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC’s complaint seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest and financial penalties as well as permanent injunctions barring future violations. The SEC’s complaint against Oppenheim names his wife Alexandra Oppenheim as a relief defendant for the purpose of recovering any customer funds transferred to her.
The SEC’s investigation, which is continuing, is being conducted by William Martin, Nancy Brown, Neil Hendelman, and Charles Riely of the New York Regional Office. The case is being supervised by Amelia A. Cottrell, and the SEC’s litigation will be led by Nancy Brown and William Martin. The New York Regional Office’s broker-dealer examination team of Michael Kress, Jennifer Fournier, and Ronald Sukhu assisted the investigation. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
04/16/2015 02:55 PM EDT
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against a New York City-based financial advisor accused of stealing at least $20 million from customers to fund his own brokerage accounts and then squandering the bulk of the money in highly unprofitable options trading.
The SEC alleges that Michael J. Oppenheim abused his position as a private client advisor at a global bank and persuaded some customers to withdraw millions of dollars out of their accounts by promising he would purchase safe and secure municipal bonds on their behalf. Instead, Oppenheim bought himself cashier’s checks and deposited them into his own brokerage account or his wife’s account that he controlled. Almost immediately after each theft and deposit, Oppenheim allegedly embarked on sizeable trading of stocks and options including Tesla, Apple, Google, and Netflix. Oppenheim typically lost the entire amount of each deposit, and his brokerage accounts currently show minimal cash balances. On occasions when his accounts did have positive cash balances, he allegedly wired money to bank accounts in his or his wife’s name. At least one outgoing wire was used to pay off a portion of his mortgage.
“We allege that Oppenheim promised his customers that he would invest their money in safe and secure investments, but he seized their funds and aggressively played the stock market in his own accounts,” said Amelia A. Cottrell, Associate Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York today announced criminal charges against Oppenheim.
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, Oppenheim took illicit steps to conceal his fraud. For instance, Oppenheim created false account statements when a customer asked for a statement reflecting his municipal bond holdings. Oppenheim simply pasted the customer’s name onto an account statement reflecting the holdings of another customer, and provided the fabricated statement to convince the customer that he had purchased the municipal bonds for his account as promised. In another instance, Oppenheim transferred money from one customer to another to replenish the amounts he had stolen earlier.
The SEC’s complaint charges Oppenheim, who lives in Livingston, N.J., with violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 as well as Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC’s complaint seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest and financial penalties as well as permanent injunctions barring future violations. The SEC’s complaint against Oppenheim names his wife Alexandra Oppenheim as a relief defendant for the purpose of recovering any customer funds transferred to her.
The SEC’s investigation, which is continuing, is being conducted by William Martin, Nancy Brown, Neil Hendelman, and Charles Riely of the New York Regional Office. The case is being supervised by Amelia A. Cottrell, and the SEC’s litigation will be led by Nancy Brown and William Martin. The New York Regional Office’s broker-dealer examination team of Michael Kress, Jennifer Fournier, and Ronald Sukhu assisted the investigation. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
NSF ARTICLE ON PROBLEMS WITH SOME GREEN LAKES AND RIVERS
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Earth Day is on the horizon. But is 'greener' always better?
Not when it's the bright green waters of algae-fouled lakes and rivers
Going green. On Earth Day and every day, being "greener" is linked with good things like lowering your carbon footprint and eating locally-grown foods.
But not when it comes to drinking or swimming in the bright green waters of lakes fouled by algae, says Hans Paerl, an environmental scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In freshwater lakes around the world, such algae blooms often result from an overabundance of what's known as cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.
Cyanobacteria form widespread, very visible blooms that look like blue-green paint or scum floating on the water. They may be toxic to humans and other animals.
These filamentous bacteria clump into mats that cover a lake's surface from one shore to the other, using up oxygen in the water and eventually turning the lake's depths into a dead zone.
From Lake Taihu, China, to Lake Erie in the U.S.
It was June 2007, and water spouting from kitchen faucets in Wuxi, China, was pea-soup green. The water came from Taihu, China's third largest lake.
Cyanobacteria obscured the surface of the 900-square-mile lake and quickly overwhelmed the intake plant for the city of Wuxi's drinking water.
Chinese officials scooped 6,000 tons of algae from Taihu and diverted water from the Yangtze River to flush the lake. However, says Paerl, the bloom persisted. "It was fall when it finally abated."
Two weeks into the bloom, Paerl was in China, leaning over the side of a small boat to take samples of Taihu's scum.
He discovered that the algae is similar to that found in blooms in North Carolina's ponds, rivers and estuaries, and in many larger bodies of water such as Lake Erie, Lake Victoria and the Baltic Sea.
"Nowhere are the blooms worse than on Taihu, however," says Paerl, whose work is funded by an NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity grant. "Habitat for fish, crabs and other aquatic species is becoming endangered."
Ten million people also depend on Taihu for drinking water, fisheries and tourism.
Lake Erie on the border of the United States and Canada faces the same challenges.
In 2011, a record-breaking bloom of similar cyanobacteria to the species that plagued Taihu smothered Lake Erie, turning it a bright-green that showed up on satellite images.
At the bloom's peak in October, it expanded to more than 1,930 square miles, three times larger than any Lake Erie bloom on record.
New "recipe" for controlling algae blooms
The "recipe" for controlling the problem, says Paerl, "has been to reduce phosphorus finding its way into lakes from sources on land like fertilizers. That's based on the long-standing paradigm that phosphorus is the key nutrient limiting freshwater algae blooms."
But another element, nitrogen, flowing into lakes and rivers is increasing more rapidly than phosphorus. "It's led researchers to question whether both nitrogen and phosphorus should be controlled to stem the tide of proliferating algae blooms," says Paerl.
Lake Taihu, he says, is a "looking glass" for addressing such nutrient overenrichment and toxic algae blooms.
"Our NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity project is determining what roles specific nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus play in the frequency and extent of algae blooms in lakes, and how they affect these ecosystems."
Data from experiments on the relationship between nutrients and algae blooms are being used to formulate a nutrient reduction management strategy. Scientists hope it will lead to the control of blooms in Taihu and other lakes.
The goal, Paerl says, is to find new ways of ensuring sustainable uses of lakes prone to blooms.
Other scientists involved in the research are Wayne Gardner of the University of Texas, Ferdi Hellweger of Northeastern University and Steven Wilhelm of the University of Tennessee.
"Harmful cyanobacteria blooms caused by excessive phosphorus and nitrogen are threatening freshwater lakes worldwide," says Simon Malcomber, lead NSF program director for Dimensions of Biodiversity, which is supported by NSF's Directorates for Biological Sciences and Geosciences.
"This research shows the importance of taking a holistic approach to understanding harmful cyanobacteria blooms," says Malcomber. "Only with an ecosystems approach can long-term successful sustainability strategies be formulated."
Chain of events links land and lake
The complex chain that leads to algae blooms in freshwater begins not in lakes but on land.
Farmers often overfertilize their fields. The excess fertilizer, laden with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, washes into creeks and rivers, where it's eventually carried to lakes.
"Nitrogen is necessary for increasing crop yields," says Paerl, "but plants are inefficient at taking it up. More fertilizer is often added than plants need."
Only a fraction of the nitrogen applied to soils ends up in crops; in some regions, it's less than 20 percent. The rest is on the loose.
When the excess eventually reaches freshwater, it fertilizes aquatic algae such as cyanobacteria--just as it encourages plants on land to grow. The algae proliferate, becoming massive blooms.
As the algae die, they fall to the lake's bottom and are digested by microorganisms. The process removes oxygen from the water, creating low-oxygen "dead zones," fish kills and tainted waters.
Extreme algae blooms: The new normal?
Are algae blooms in lakes around the world a new normal?
Scientists are working to find answers.
"This important work is linking the diversity and identity of algae with nitrogen cycling and harmful algal blooms in heavily affected freshwater lakes," says Mike Sieracki, Dimensions of Biodiversity program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.
This week at an NSF-funded workshop--Global Solutions to Regional Problems: Collecting Global Expertise to Address the Problem of Harmful Algal Blooms--researchers discussed the current science on algae blooms, and identified knowledge gaps in bloom prevention and mitigation.
"We hope that this workshop will lead to strategies to mitigate future blooms in waterbodies in the U.S. and around the world," says Bill Cooper, program director in NSF's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems.
Meeting topics included the biology of bloom-forming species, environmental factors underlying bloom formation, sensor development in bloom detection, prediction of blooms, and best practices for control.
"New nutrient reduction strategies," wrote Paerl and colleagues in the journal Science in October 2014, "should incorporate point and non-point sources, including nitrogen removal in wastewaters, optimization of fertilizer application, and erosion controls.
"An investment in joint phosphorus and nitrogen controls will counter the very high costs of harmful algal bloom events and the losses of freshwater resources worldwide."
It's the only way, Paerl says, to keep blooms of cyanobacteria and other algae in check. When it comes to lakes and rivers, streams and ponds, "going green" means anything but.
-- Cheryl Dybas, NSF
Earth Day is on the horizon. But is 'greener' always better?
Not when it's the bright green waters of algae-fouled lakes and rivers
Going green. On Earth Day and every day, being "greener" is linked with good things like lowering your carbon footprint and eating locally-grown foods.
But not when it comes to drinking or swimming in the bright green waters of lakes fouled by algae, says Hans Paerl, an environmental scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In freshwater lakes around the world, such algae blooms often result from an overabundance of what's known as cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.
Cyanobacteria form widespread, very visible blooms that look like blue-green paint or scum floating on the water. They may be toxic to humans and other animals.
These filamentous bacteria clump into mats that cover a lake's surface from one shore to the other, using up oxygen in the water and eventually turning the lake's depths into a dead zone.
From Lake Taihu, China, to Lake Erie in the U.S.
It was June 2007, and water spouting from kitchen faucets in Wuxi, China, was pea-soup green. The water came from Taihu, China's third largest lake.
Cyanobacteria obscured the surface of the 900-square-mile lake and quickly overwhelmed the intake plant for the city of Wuxi's drinking water.
Chinese officials scooped 6,000 tons of algae from Taihu and diverted water from the Yangtze River to flush the lake. However, says Paerl, the bloom persisted. "It was fall when it finally abated."
Two weeks into the bloom, Paerl was in China, leaning over the side of a small boat to take samples of Taihu's scum.
He discovered that the algae is similar to that found in blooms in North Carolina's ponds, rivers and estuaries, and in many larger bodies of water such as Lake Erie, Lake Victoria and the Baltic Sea.
"Nowhere are the blooms worse than on Taihu, however," says Paerl, whose work is funded by an NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity grant. "Habitat for fish, crabs and other aquatic species is becoming endangered."
Ten million people also depend on Taihu for drinking water, fisheries and tourism.
Lake Erie on the border of the United States and Canada faces the same challenges.
In 2011, a record-breaking bloom of similar cyanobacteria to the species that plagued Taihu smothered Lake Erie, turning it a bright-green that showed up on satellite images.
At the bloom's peak in October, it expanded to more than 1,930 square miles, three times larger than any Lake Erie bloom on record.
New "recipe" for controlling algae blooms
The "recipe" for controlling the problem, says Paerl, "has been to reduce phosphorus finding its way into lakes from sources on land like fertilizers. That's based on the long-standing paradigm that phosphorus is the key nutrient limiting freshwater algae blooms."
But another element, nitrogen, flowing into lakes and rivers is increasing more rapidly than phosphorus. "It's led researchers to question whether both nitrogen and phosphorus should be controlled to stem the tide of proliferating algae blooms," says Paerl.
Lake Taihu, he says, is a "looking glass" for addressing such nutrient overenrichment and toxic algae blooms.
"Our NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity project is determining what roles specific nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus play in the frequency and extent of algae blooms in lakes, and how they affect these ecosystems."
Data from experiments on the relationship between nutrients and algae blooms are being used to formulate a nutrient reduction management strategy. Scientists hope it will lead to the control of blooms in Taihu and other lakes.
The goal, Paerl says, is to find new ways of ensuring sustainable uses of lakes prone to blooms.
Other scientists involved in the research are Wayne Gardner of the University of Texas, Ferdi Hellweger of Northeastern University and Steven Wilhelm of the University of Tennessee.
"Harmful cyanobacteria blooms caused by excessive phosphorus and nitrogen are threatening freshwater lakes worldwide," says Simon Malcomber, lead NSF program director for Dimensions of Biodiversity, which is supported by NSF's Directorates for Biological Sciences and Geosciences.
"This research shows the importance of taking a holistic approach to understanding harmful cyanobacteria blooms," says Malcomber. "Only with an ecosystems approach can long-term successful sustainability strategies be formulated."
Chain of events links land and lake
The complex chain that leads to algae blooms in freshwater begins not in lakes but on land.
Farmers often overfertilize their fields. The excess fertilizer, laden with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, washes into creeks and rivers, where it's eventually carried to lakes.
"Nitrogen is necessary for increasing crop yields," says Paerl, "but plants are inefficient at taking it up. More fertilizer is often added than plants need."
Only a fraction of the nitrogen applied to soils ends up in crops; in some regions, it's less than 20 percent. The rest is on the loose.
When the excess eventually reaches freshwater, it fertilizes aquatic algae such as cyanobacteria--just as it encourages plants on land to grow. The algae proliferate, becoming massive blooms.
As the algae die, they fall to the lake's bottom and are digested by microorganisms. The process removes oxygen from the water, creating low-oxygen "dead zones," fish kills and tainted waters.
Extreme algae blooms: The new normal?
Are algae blooms in lakes around the world a new normal?
Scientists are working to find answers.
"This important work is linking the diversity and identity of algae with nitrogen cycling and harmful algal blooms in heavily affected freshwater lakes," says Mike Sieracki, Dimensions of Biodiversity program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.
This week at an NSF-funded workshop--Global Solutions to Regional Problems: Collecting Global Expertise to Address the Problem of Harmful Algal Blooms--researchers discussed the current science on algae blooms, and identified knowledge gaps in bloom prevention and mitigation.
"We hope that this workshop will lead to strategies to mitigate future blooms in waterbodies in the U.S. and around the world," says Bill Cooper, program director in NSF's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems.
Meeting topics included the biology of bloom-forming species, environmental factors underlying bloom formation, sensor development in bloom detection, prediction of blooms, and best practices for control.
"New nutrient reduction strategies," wrote Paerl and colleagues in the journal Science in October 2014, "should incorporate point and non-point sources, including nitrogen removal in wastewaters, optimization of fertilizer application, and erosion controls.
"An investment in joint phosphorus and nitrogen controls will counter the very high costs of harmful algal bloom events and the losses of freshwater resources worldwide."
It's the only way, Paerl says, to keep blooms of cyanobacteria and other algae in check. When it comes to lakes and rivers, streams and ponds, "going green" means anything but.
-- Cheryl Dybas, NSF
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