FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Welcoming the Release of Civil Society Activists in Azerbaijan
Press Statement
Jen Psaki
Department Spokesperson
Washington, DC
March 19, 2015
The United States welcomes the March 18 pardon and release of Bashir Suleymanli, the Executive Director of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center in Azerbaijan, as well as three others considered by Azerbaijani NGOs to have been incarcerated for their civic activism. We call on Azerbaijan to take additional positive steps in the months ahead, including the release of others considered to have been incarcerated for their civic activity. Doing so would demonstrate the government’s adherence to OSCE and other international commitments to uphold the fundamental freedoms of all its citizens.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
REPORTED CHEMICAL WEAPONS USED IN SYRIA, SAYS SECRETARY KERRY
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use in Sarmin, Syria
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 19, 2015
The United States is deeply disturbed by reports that the Assad regime used chlorine as a weapon again, this time on March 16 in an attack on the town of Sarmin. We are looking very closely into this matter and considering next steps. While we cannot yet confirm details, if true, this would be only the latest tragic example of the Assad regime's atrocities against the Syrian people, which the entire international community must condemn.
What is clear is that the Assad regime continues to flout international standards and norms, including, if these latest allegations are verified, the Chemical Weapons Convention. The international community cannot turn a blind eye to such barbarism. As has been well documented, the Assad regime continues to terrorize the people of Syria through indiscriminate airstrikes, barrel bombings, arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, murder, and starvation. The Assad regime must be held accountable for such atrocious behavior.
A chemical weapons attack through the use of chlorine would not only be the latest example of the regime’s brutality towards the Syrian people, but also a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2209, which specifically condemned the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon in Syria and made clear such a violation would have consequences. Any and all credible allegations of chemical weapons use, including the use of toxic industrial chemicals, must be investigated, and we continue to support the OPCW Fact Finding Mission in its continuing critical mission.
The Assad regime’s horrifying pattern of using chlorine as a chemical weapon against the Syrian people underscores the importance of investigating this allegation as quickly as possible, holding those who perpetrated such abhorrent acts in violation of international law accountable, and continuing to support the complete elimination chemical weapons in this volatile region.
Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use in Sarmin, Syria
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 19, 2015
The United States is deeply disturbed by reports that the Assad regime used chlorine as a weapon again, this time on March 16 in an attack on the town of Sarmin. We are looking very closely into this matter and considering next steps. While we cannot yet confirm details, if true, this would be only the latest tragic example of the Assad regime's atrocities against the Syrian people, which the entire international community must condemn.
What is clear is that the Assad regime continues to flout international standards and norms, including, if these latest allegations are verified, the Chemical Weapons Convention. The international community cannot turn a blind eye to such barbarism. As has been well documented, the Assad regime continues to terrorize the people of Syria through indiscriminate airstrikes, barrel bombings, arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, murder, and starvation. The Assad regime must be held accountable for such atrocious behavior.
A chemical weapons attack through the use of chlorine would not only be the latest example of the regime’s brutality towards the Syrian people, but also a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2209, which specifically condemned the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon in Syria and made clear such a violation would have consequences. Any and all credible allegations of chemical weapons use, including the use of toxic industrial chemicals, must be investigated, and we continue to support the OPCW Fact Finding Mission in its continuing critical mission.
The Assad regime’s horrifying pattern of using chlorine as a chemical weapon against the Syrian people underscores the importance of investigating this allegation as quickly as possible, holding those who perpetrated such abhorrent acts in violation of international law accountable, and continuing to support the complete elimination chemical weapons in this volatile region.
DOJ, HHS, ANNOUNCE OVER $27.8 BILLION RECOVERED COMBATING HEALTH CARE FRAUD
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services Announce Over $27.8 Billion in Returns from Joint Efforts to Combat Health Care Fraud
Administration Recovers $7.70 for Every Dollar Spent on Health Care-Related Fraud and Abuse
More than $27.8 billion has been returned to the Medicare Trust Fund over the life of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program, Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced today. The government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered $3.3 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud federal health programs, including programs serving seniors, persons with disabilities or those with low incomes. For every dollar spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations in the last three years, the administration recovered $7.70. This is about $2 higher than the average return on investment in the HCFAC program since it was created in 1997. It is also the third highest return on investment in the life of the program.
“As the innovative and collaborative work of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program proceeds, more taxpayer money is being recovered, more criminals are facing justice, and more fraud is being punished, prevented and deterred,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The extraordinary return on investment we've obtained speaks to the skill, the tenacity, and the inspiring success of the hardworking men and women fighting on behalf of the American people. And with these outstanding results, we are sending the unmistakable message that we will not waver in our mission to pursue fraud, to protect vulnerable communities, and to preserve the public trust.”
“Eliminating fraud, waste and abuse is a top priority for the Department of Health and Human Services,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “These impressive recoveries for the American taxpayer demonstrate our continued commitment to this goal and highlight our efforts to prosecute the most egregious instances of health care fraud and prevent future fraud and abuse. New enrollment screening techniques and computer analytics are preventing fraud before money ever goes out the door. And together with the continued support of Congress and our partners at the Department of Justice, we’ve cracked down on tens of thousands health care providers suspected of Medicare fraud – all of which are helping to extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund.”
The recoveries announced today reflect a two-pronged strategy to combat fraud and abuse. Under new authorities granted by the Affordable Care Act, the administration continues to implement programs that move away from “pay and chase” to preventing health care fraud and abuse in the first place. In addition, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), run jointly by the HHS Office of the Inspector General and the Justice Department, is changing how the federal government fights certain types of health care fraud. These cases are being investigated through "real-time" data analysis in lieu of a prolonged subpoena and account analyses, resulting in significantly shorter periods of time between fraud identification, arrest and prosecution.
Increased funding from the administration and Congress has allowed HHS and the Justice Department to build on early successes of the Medicare Strike Force by expanding into nine geographic territories – Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Brooklyn, New York, Southern Louisiana, Tampa, Florida, Chicago and Dallas. Since its inception, Strike Force prosecutors filed more than 963 cases charging more than 2,097 defendants who collectively billed the Medicare program more than $6.5 billion; 1,443 defendants pleaded guilty and 191 others were convicted in jury trials; and 1,197 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for an average term of approximately 47 months. Through the Strike Force and other efforts, in FY 2014 alone, the Justice Department opened 924 new criminal health care fraud investigations. Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges in 496 cases involving 805 defendants. A total of 734 defendants were convicted of health care fraud‑related crimes during the year.
Another powerful tool in the effort to combat health care fraud is the federal False Claims Act. In 2014, the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices obtained $2.3 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered more than $15.2 billion in cases involving health care fraud. These amounts reflect federal losses only. In many of these cases, the department was instrumental in recovering additional billions of dollars for state health care programs. In FY 2014, the department continued its enforcement of the civil False Claims Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and opened 782 new civil health care fraud investigations.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is also adopting a number of preventive measures to combat fraud and abuse. Provider enrollment is the gateway to billing the Medicare program, and CMS has put critical safeguards in place to make sure that only legitimate providers are enrolling in the program. The Affordable Care Act required a CMS revalidation of all existing 1.5 million Medicare suppliers and providers under new screening requirements. CMS will have requested revalidations by March 2015. As a result of this and other proactive initiatives, CMS has deactivated 450,000 enrollments and revoked nearly 27,000 enrollments to prevent certain providers from re-enrolling and billing the Medicare program. Both of these actions immediately stop billing. A provider with deactivated billing privileges can reactivate at any time, and a revoked provider is barred from re-entry into Medicare for a period ranging from one to three years. CMS has also issued a regulation requiring prescribers of Part D drugs to enroll in Medicare and undergo screening.
CMS also continued the fiscal 2014 temporary moratoria on the enrollment of new home health or ambulance service providers in six fraud hot spots: Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Detroit and Philadelphia (which includes some counties in New Jersey). This extension will allow CMS to continue its actions to suspend payments or remove providers from the program before allowing new providers into potentially over-supplied markets.
Similar to the technology used by credit card companies, CMS is using its Fraud Prevention System to apply advanced analytics to all Medicare fee-for-service claims on a streaming, national basis. The Fraud Prevention System identifies aberrant and suspicious billing patterns which in turn trigger actions that can be implemented swiftly to prevent payment of fraudulent claims. In the second year, the system saved $210.7 million, almost double the amount identified during the first year of the program.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services Announce Over $27.8 Billion in Returns from Joint Efforts to Combat Health Care Fraud
Administration Recovers $7.70 for Every Dollar Spent on Health Care-Related Fraud and Abuse
More than $27.8 billion has been returned to the Medicare Trust Fund over the life of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program, Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced today. The government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered $3.3 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud federal health programs, including programs serving seniors, persons with disabilities or those with low incomes. For every dollar spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations in the last three years, the administration recovered $7.70. This is about $2 higher than the average return on investment in the HCFAC program since it was created in 1997. It is also the third highest return on investment in the life of the program.
“As the innovative and collaborative work of the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program proceeds, more taxpayer money is being recovered, more criminals are facing justice, and more fraud is being punished, prevented and deterred,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The extraordinary return on investment we've obtained speaks to the skill, the tenacity, and the inspiring success of the hardworking men and women fighting on behalf of the American people. And with these outstanding results, we are sending the unmistakable message that we will not waver in our mission to pursue fraud, to protect vulnerable communities, and to preserve the public trust.”
“Eliminating fraud, waste and abuse is a top priority for the Department of Health and Human Services,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “These impressive recoveries for the American taxpayer demonstrate our continued commitment to this goal and highlight our efforts to prosecute the most egregious instances of health care fraud and prevent future fraud and abuse. New enrollment screening techniques and computer analytics are preventing fraud before money ever goes out the door. And together with the continued support of Congress and our partners at the Department of Justice, we’ve cracked down on tens of thousands health care providers suspected of Medicare fraud – all of which are helping to extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund.”
The recoveries announced today reflect a two-pronged strategy to combat fraud and abuse. Under new authorities granted by the Affordable Care Act, the administration continues to implement programs that move away from “pay and chase” to preventing health care fraud and abuse in the first place. In addition, the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), run jointly by the HHS Office of the Inspector General and the Justice Department, is changing how the federal government fights certain types of health care fraud. These cases are being investigated through "real-time" data analysis in lieu of a prolonged subpoena and account analyses, resulting in significantly shorter periods of time between fraud identification, arrest and prosecution.
Increased funding from the administration and Congress has allowed HHS and the Justice Department to build on early successes of the Medicare Strike Force by expanding into nine geographic territories – Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Brooklyn, New York, Southern Louisiana, Tampa, Florida, Chicago and Dallas. Since its inception, Strike Force prosecutors filed more than 963 cases charging more than 2,097 defendants who collectively billed the Medicare program more than $6.5 billion; 1,443 defendants pleaded guilty and 191 others were convicted in jury trials; and 1,197 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for an average term of approximately 47 months. Through the Strike Force and other efforts, in FY 2014 alone, the Justice Department opened 924 new criminal health care fraud investigations. Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges in 496 cases involving 805 defendants. A total of 734 defendants were convicted of health care fraud‑related crimes during the year.
Another powerful tool in the effort to combat health care fraud is the federal False Claims Act. In 2014, the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices obtained $2.3 billion in settlements and judgments from civil cases involving fraud and false claims against federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered more than $15.2 billion in cases involving health care fraud. These amounts reflect federal losses only. In many of these cases, the department was instrumental in recovering additional billions of dollars for state health care programs. In FY 2014, the department continued its enforcement of the civil False Claims Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and opened 782 new civil health care fraud investigations.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is also adopting a number of preventive measures to combat fraud and abuse. Provider enrollment is the gateway to billing the Medicare program, and CMS has put critical safeguards in place to make sure that only legitimate providers are enrolling in the program. The Affordable Care Act required a CMS revalidation of all existing 1.5 million Medicare suppliers and providers under new screening requirements. CMS will have requested revalidations by March 2015. As a result of this and other proactive initiatives, CMS has deactivated 450,000 enrollments and revoked nearly 27,000 enrollments to prevent certain providers from re-enrolling and billing the Medicare program. Both of these actions immediately stop billing. A provider with deactivated billing privileges can reactivate at any time, and a revoked provider is barred from re-entry into Medicare for a period ranging from one to three years. CMS has also issued a regulation requiring prescribers of Part D drugs to enroll in Medicare and undergo screening.
CMS also continued the fiscal 2014 temporary moratoria on the enrollment of new home health or ambulance service providers in six fraud hot spots: Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Detroit and Philadelphia (which includes some counties in New Jersey). This extension will allow CMS to continue its actions to suspend payments or remove providers from the program before allowing new providers into potentially over-supplied markets.
Similar to the technology used by credit card companies, CMS is using its Fraud Prevention System to apply advanced analytics to all Medicare fee-for-service claims on a streaming, national basis. The Fraud Prevention System identifies aberrant and suspicious billing patterns which in turn trigger actions that can be implemented swiftly to prevent payment of fraudulent claims. In the second year, the system saved $210.7 million, almost double the amount identified during the first year of the program.
CASSINI LOOKS AT SATURN'S RING STRUCTURE
FROM: NASA
U.S. DEFENSE TO MOVE AGGRESSIVELY TO MODERNIZE WEAPONS AND CAPABILITIES
Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work speaks at the McAleese/Credit Suisse Defense Programs Conference held at the Newseum in Washington, March 17, 2015. Photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz.
DoD to Boost Modernization of Weapons, Capabilities
By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2015 – This year, the Defense Department will move aggressively to reverse the trend of chronic underinvestment in weapons and capabilities, the deputy defense secretary said here today.
Bob Work spoke this morning about defense modernization and the department’s proposed fiscal year 2016 budget before an audience attending the McAleese/Credit Suisse Defense Programs Conference.
The bottom line, he said in prepared remarks, is that “because of budget uncertainty and restrictions imposed by Congress, and because of our unrelenting focus on the readiness of forward deployed forces, we're chronically underinvesting in new weapons and capabilities.”
Work added, “That should give all of us pause because our technological dominance is no longer assured.”
Modernization = Technological Superiority
The U.S. military’s technological superiority is directly related to its modernization accounts, the deputy secretary said, so this year the department is moving to redress the long-deferred modernization to stay ahead of competitors and potential aggressor nations.
Work said the White House has helped by approving about $21 billion in added requirements over the Future Years Defense Program.
“This came with added funding, which has allowed us to make targeted investments in space control and launch capabilities, missile defense, cyber, and advanced sensors, communications, and munitions -– all of which are critical for power projection in contested environments,” he said.
The White House also added funding to help the department modernize its aging nuclear deterrent force, Work said.
Supporting Ongoing Operations
The department’s fiscal 2016 base budget request is $534 billion, or $36 billion above the FY16 sequestration caps, he said, adding that it’s “only the first year of a five-year Future Years Defense Program. When considering fiscal years 2016 through 2020, our planned program is approximately $154 billion over the sequestration caps.”
The department also is asking for $51 billion in overseas contingency operations funding, Work said, “to support our campaign against the extremist [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant], ongoing operations in Afghanistan, and other operations in the Central Command area of responsibility.”
The global demand for U.S. forces remains high, particularly for deployable headquarters units, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, missile defense, and naval and aerospace forces. The global operating tempo also remains high, he added.
Together, the deputy secretary said, these requests provide funding needed to recover readiness over the next several years, invest in long-deferred recapitalization and modernization, and meet global demands placed on the military by the National Security Strategy.
The Ragged Edge
“The leaders of this department believe firmly that any significant reduction in funding below what is in the president's budget, or a broad denial of the reform initiatives that we have proposed to Congress, would mean the risks to our defense strategy would become unmanageable,” the deputy secretary said.
“Quite frankly,” he added, “we’re at the ragged edge of what is manageable.”
Adding to the pressure on defense systems, potential competitors are developing capabilities that challenge the U.S. military in all domains that put space assets and the command and control system at risk, Work said.
“We see several nations developing capabilities that threaten to erode our long-assured technological overmatch and our ability to project power,” he added.
These include new and advanced anti-ship and anti-air missiles, and new counter-space, cyber, electronic warfare, undersea and air attack capabilities, Work said.
Erosion of Technical Superiority
In some areas, he added, “we see levels of new weapons development that we haven’t seen since the mid-1980s, near the peak of the Soviet Union’s surge in Cold War defense spending.”
The department, Work said, is addressing the erosion of U.S. technological superiority through the Defense Innovation Initiative, a broad effort to improve business operations and find innovative ways to sustain and advance America’s military dominance for the 21st century.
“The DII’s leading focus is to identify, develop and field breakthrough technologies and systems,” he said, “and to develop innovative operational concepts to help us use our current capabilities in new and creative ways.”
The ultimate aim is to help craft a third offset strategy, he added.
Third Offset Strategy
After World War II the United States used nuclear weapons development to offset Soviet numerical and geographic advantage in the central front, and again changed the game in the 1970s and 1980s with networked precision strike, stealth and surveillance for conventional forces, Work explained.
Now, he said, “we will seek to identify new technologies and concepts that will keep the operational advantage firmly in the hands of America’s conventional forces, today and in the future.”
Central to the effort is a new Long-Range Research & Development Planning Program, the deputy secretary said.
The LRRDP was created to identify weapons and systems in the force that can be used in more innovative ways, promising technologies that can be pulled forward and long-range science and technology investments that can be made now for a future payoff.
Invitation to the Table
Technologies that might be associated with a new offset strategy are being driven by the commercial sector, he said.
These include robotics; autonomous operating, guidance and control systems; visualization; biotechnology; miniaturization; advanced computing and big data; and additive manufacturing like 3-D printing.
“The third offset strategy is an open invitation for everyone to come to the table … to creatively disrupt our defense ecosystem. Because we'll either creatively disrupt ourselves or be disrupted by someone else,” Work said.
Game-changing New Technologies
Funding dedicated to the effort includes the department’s annual $12 billion in science and technology accounts, and the FY 2016 budget request creates a reserve account to resource projects expected to emerge from the DII, he said.
“The FY 2016 budget submission also invests in some fantastic, potentially game-changing new technologies that we can more quickly get into the force,” Work added, “as well as longer-range research efforts.”
Over the Future Years Defense Program, for example, the department is investing $149 million in unmanned undersea vehicles, $77 million in advanced sea mines, $473 million in high-speed strike weapons, $706 million in rail gun technology, and $239 million in high-energy lasers.
And, he said, a new Aerospace Innovation Initiative will bring people together to develop a wide range of advanced aeronautical capabilities to maintain U.S. military air dominance.
Solving Operational Challenges
Work said the department’s innovation must be “broad-based and rooted in realistic war gaming –- a big priority of mine -– more experimentation, and new concept and leadership development to enable our people to adapt to situations we can’t yet imagine.”
The third offset strategy is looking to solve specific operational challenges, the deputy secretary said, using the electromagnetic spectrum as an example.
“Electronic Warfare is often regarded as a combat enabler, but more and more it is at the actual forefront of any conflict,” he said. “To ensure we remain ahead in this increasingly important space, today I’m signing out a memo that establishes an Electronic Warfare, or EW, Programs Council.”
Electronic Warfare Programs Council
The senior-level oversight council will have the lead in establishing and coordinating DoD’s EW policy and will be co-chaired by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., he said.
Compared to the platforms that carry EW suites, the deputy secretary added, it is a relatively small investment but has the potential for a very high payoff.
“Our potential competitors seek to contest the EW space, an area where we retain a decided lead,” Work said. “But that lead is tenuous, and we believe that there has been insufficient focus on EW across the department.”
JOHN ALLEN'S REMARKS ON STABILIZING IRAQI TERRITORIES
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Stabilizing Iraqi Territories
Remarks
John Allen
Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition To Counter ISIL
Prime Minister's Guest House
Baghdad, Iraq
March 16, 2015
It is good to be back in Baghdad and to see so many familiar faces. I want to thank the Prime Minister and COMSEC for hosting us today. I also want to thank the Iraqi deputy ministers, Dr. Hamid, Dr. Turki, German Charge Milan Simandl and leaders who have come together to discuss a series of efforts that are vital to the peaceful and prosperous future of Iraq.
We also have a team today from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the UN, and the EU to learn from you today. We will bring your message back to the other Coalition partners who will meet in Berlin on Wednesday.
When I was here last, Prime Minister Abadi and I spoke about the importance of planning for Stabilization Operations. I have come to Baghdad today with a team of experts because we agreed that Stabilization planning must begin in earnest. Today and tomorrow our team will learn and understand how the Coalition can best support the Iraqi plan for stabilizing territories your country will take back from Daesh.
As Daesh is defeated in population centers and the military forces must move on to other objectives, there will be an immediate need for policing and public security efforts to set the conditions for essential service delivery. Populations that have fled the fighting will need shelter, assistance, and security, until they can return home. In many cases facilities will have been destroyed or made insecure by IEDs. Providers will need to rapidly assess and respond with basic medical care, water, electricity and other municipal services. All first responders, whether civil or military, should be sensitized to the special needs of those who’ve suffered under Daesh, especially women and girls.
A successful stabilization effort begins with fair treatment during military operations. We applaud Iraqi leaders, including His Eminence Ayatollah Sistani, who publicly called for the protection of civilians and warned against acts of revenge, recrimination, or abuse against civilians or prisoners. It also means protecting the schools, hospitals, water treatment facilities and securing antiquities and, libraries. These measures begin the process of reunifying Iraq and building trust between liberated communities and the Government of Iraq.
It is also critical for military and civilian ministries to work together from the beginning. Military forces need to understand how civilian stabilization operations will follow military operations. As part of our team today, we have experts on the provision of health services, restoring water and electricity, on policing and civilian-military planning, and on addressing the specific needs of women, children and vulnerable populations. Over the next two days they will work with you to identify how to synchronize civilian and military plans, and identify how the Coalition can work with you.
As I see it, there are four components to the counter-offensive that must be synchronized.
First, is the clearing element when the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces remove Daesh from a town or city.
Second is the security and policing element that deals with crime and provides general security so life can return to normal. This will likely come from a combination of PMF units, local tribes, and police.
Third is restoring local governance which will be difficult because many officials are in exile, were killed, or cooperated with Daesh.
Fourth, is providing for essential services including short-term restoration of services such as health, water, electricity, and rebuilding critical infrastructure.
These four components will be applied differently to the circumstances found in each liberated area. It is important that you plan uniquely for each city and town, and prepare the necessary resources.
Several Coalition partners have expressed a specific interest in offering technical and planning support to assist Iraq by filling any gaps in implementing Iraqi-led stabilization efforts. We will look to the leadership of Dr. Hamid and Dr. Turki to identify where assistance is needed and to communicate the Iraqi stabilization plan to the Coalition partners.
After this visit to Baghdad I will go to Berlin, where Germany and the United Arab Emirates will launch the Coalition Stabilization Working Group. This Working Group will work with the Government of Iraq to organize Coalition support to stabilization operations and identify resources.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of these critical activities. The stabilization effort will be the most important signal of the intentions of this government towards any and all Iraqi’s who have been victims of Daesh and those who have been driven from their homes. Iraq’s future as a unified nation depends upon how the liberating force treats those living under Daesh rule.
Stabilization operations can be expensive and require dedicated resources. We applaud the inclusion in the budget of $2 billion for recovery funding and support of displaced Iraqis. It will be essential to move resources quickly to the liberated areas most in need. As you continue to clarify stabilization and recovery needs, we will work with the United Nations to further develop the concept of a trust fund and find appropriate support. The Coalition does not have the resources to resource all of Iraq’s needs. We will work together to assist and support Iraq as we are able.
The recovery of Iraqis from under Daesh’s control is now beginning in earnest. We are already seeing the results of your early work in Diyala, and hopefully soon in Tikrit. Today, we want to hear from you about what you have seen to date, what lessons we can learn from the last few months, and what you anticipate the requirements are to stabilize liberated areas.
I look forward to learning more about Iraq’s efforts to bring stability to liberated areas from today’s conversation and to identify future actions necessary to ensure success in the days and months to come.
And now I would like to hand it over to my German partner, Charge Milan Simandl, whose nation is energetically engaged in this important effort.
Stabilizing Iraqi Territories
Remarks
John Allen
Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition To Counter ISIL
Prime Minister's Guest House
Baghdad, Iraq
March 16, 2015
It is good to be back in Baghdad and to see so many familiar faces. I want to thank the Prime Minister and COMSEC for hosting us today. I also want to thank the Iraqi deputy ministers, Dr. Hamid, Dr. Turki, German Charge Milan Simandl and leaders who have come together to discuss a series of efforts that are vital to the peaceful and prosperous future of Iraq.
We also have a team today from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the UN, and the EU to learn from you today. We will bring your message back to the other Coalition partners who will meet in Berlin on Wednesday.
When I was here last, Prime Minister Abadi and I spoke about the importance of planning for Stabilization Operations. I have come to Baghdad today with a team of experts because we agreed that Stabilization planning must begin in earnest. Today and tomorrow our team will learn and understand how the Coalition can best support the Iraqi plan for stabilizing territories your country will take back from Daesh.
As Daesh is defeated in population centers and the military forces must move on to other objectives, there will be an immediate need for policing and public security efforts to set the conditions for essential service delivery. Populations that have fled the fighting will need shelter, assistance, and security, until they can return home. In many cases facilities will have been destroyed or made insecure by IEDs. Providers will need to rapidly assess and respond with basic medical care, water, electricity and other municipal services. All first responders, whether civil or military, should be sensitized to the special needs of those who’ve suffered under Daesh, especially women and girls.
A successful stabilization effort begins with fair treatment during military operations. We applaud Iraqi leaders, including His Eminence Ayatollah Sistani, who publicly called for the protection of civilians and warned against acts of revenge, recrimination, or abuse against civilians or prisoners. It also means protecting the schools, hospitals, water treatment facilities and securing antiquities and, libraries. These measures begin the process of reunifying Iraq and building trust between liberated communities and the Government of Iraq.
It is also critical for military and civilian ministries to work together from the beginning. Military forces need to understand how civilian stabilization operations will follow military operations. As part of our team today, we have experts on the provision of health services, restoring water and electricity, on policing and civilian-military planning, and on addressing the specific needs of women, children and vulnerable populations. Over the next two days they will work with you to identify how to synchronize civilian and military plans, and identify how the Coalition can work with you.
As I see it, there are four components to the counter-offensive that must be synchronized.
First, is the clearing element when the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces remove Daesh from a town or city.
Second is the security and policing element that deals with crime and provides general security so life can return to normal. This will likely come from a combination of PMF units, local tribes, and police.
Third is restoring local governance which will be difficult because many officials are in exile, were killed, or cooperated with Daesh.
Fourth, is providing for essential services including short-term restoration of services such as health, water, electricity, and rebuilding critical infrastructure.
These four components will be applied differently to the circumstances found in each liberated area. It is important that you plan uniquely for each city and town, and prepare the necessary resources.
Several Coalition partners have expressed a specific interest in offering technical and planning support to assist Iraq by filling any gaps in implementing Iraqi-led stabilization efforts. We will look to the leadership of Dr. Hamid and Dr. Turki to identify where assistance is needed and to communicate the Iraqi stabilization plan to the Coalition partners.
After this visit to Baghdad I will go to Berlin, where Germany and the United Arab Emirates will launch the Coalition Stabilization Working Group. This Working Group will work with the Government of Iraq to organize Coalition support to stabilization operations and identify resources.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of these critical activities. The stabilization effort will be the most important signal of the intentions of this government towards any and all Iraqi’s who have been victims of Daesh and those who have been driven from their homes. Iraq’s future as a unified nation depends upon how the liberating force treats those living under Daesh rule.
Stabilization operations can be expensive and require dedicated resources. We applaud the inclusion in the budget of $2 billion for recovery funding and support of displaced Iraqis. It will be essential to move resources quickly to the liberated areas most in need. As you continue to clarify stabilization and recovery needs, we will work with the United Nations to further develop the concept of a trust fund and find appropriate support. The Coalition does not have the resources to resource all of Iraq’s needs. We will work together to assist and support Iraq as we are able.
The recovery of Iraqis from under Daesh’s control is now beginning in earnest. We are already seeing the results of your early work in Diyala, and hopefully soon in Tikrit. Today, we want to hear from you about what you have seen to date, what lessons we can learn from the last few months, and what you anticipate the requirements are to stabilize liberated areas.
I look forward to learning more about Iraq’s efforts to bring stability to liberated areas from today’s conversation and to identify future actions necessary to ensure success in the days and months to come.
And now I would like to hand it over to my German partner, Charge Milan Simandl, whose nation is energetically engaged in this important effort.
LIFE BENEATH THE SEAFLOOR
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
No limit to life in deep sediment of ocean's "deadest" region
Marine scientists find microbes from seafloor to igneous basement below
"Who in his wildest dreams could have imagined that, beneath the crust of our Earth, there could exist a real ocean...a sea that has given shelter to species unknown?"
So wrote Jules Verne almost 150 years ago in A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
He was correct: Ocean deeps are anything but dead.
Now, scientists have found oxygen and oxygen-breathing microbes all the way through the sediment from the seafloor to the igneous basement at seven sites in the South Pacific gyre, considered the "deadest" location in the ocean.
Findings contrast with previous studies
Their findings contrast with previous discoveries that oxygen was absent from all but the top few millimeters to decimeters of sediment in biologically productive regions of the ocean.
The results are published today in a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.
"Our objective was to understand the microbial community and microbial habitability of sediment in the deadest part of the ocean," said scientist Steven D'Hondt of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, lead author of the paper.
"Our results overturn a 60-year-old conclusion that the depth limit to life is in the sediment just meters below the seafloor in such regions.
"We found that there is no limit to life in this sediment. Oxygen and aerobic microbes hang in there all the way to the igneous basement, to at least 75 meters below the seafloor."
Under the seafloor, life all the way down
Based on the researchers' predictive model and core samples they collected in 2010 from the research drillship JOIDES Resolution, they believe that oxygen and aerobic microbes occur throughout the sediment in up to 37 percent of the world's oceans and 44 percent of the Pacific Ocean.
They found that the best indicators of oxygen penetration to the igneous basement are a low sedimentation accumulation rate and a relatively thin sediment layer.
Sediment accumulates at just a few decimeters to meters per million years in the regions where the core samples were collected.
In the remaining 63 percent of the ocean, most of the sediment beneath the seafloor is expected to lack dissolved oxygen and to contain anaerobic communities.
While the researchers found evidence of life throughout the sediment, they did not detect a great deal of it.
Life in the slow lane
The team found extremely slow rates of respiration and approximately 1,000 cells per cubic centimeter of subseafloor sediment in the South Pacific gyre--rates and quantities that had been nearly undetectable.
"It's really hard to find life when it's not very active and is in extremely low concentrations," said D'Hondt.
According to D'Hondt and co-author Fumio Inagaki of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the discovery of oxygen throughout the sediment may have significant implications for Earth's chemical evolution.
The oxidized sediment is likely carried into the mantle at subduction zones, regions of the seafloor where tectonic plates collide, forcing one plate beneath the other.
"Subduction of these big regions where oxygen penetrates through the sediment and into the igneous basement introduces oxidized minerals to the mantle, which may affect the chemistry of the upper mantle and the long-term evolution of Earth's surface oxidation," D'Hondt said.
Holistic approach to study of subseafloor biosphere
The principal research funders were the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
"We take a holistic approach to the subseafloor biosphere," said Rick Murray, co-author of the paper. Murray is on leave from Boston University, currently serving as director of the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences.
"Our team includes microbiologists, geochemists, sedimentologists, physical properties specialists and others--a hallmark of interdisciplinary research."
The research involved 35 scientists from 12 countries.
The project is part of the NSF-funded Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI), which explores life beneath the seafloor.
The research is also part of the Deep Carbon Observatory, a decade-long international science initiative to investigate the 90 percent of Earth's carbon located deep inside the planet.
The Nature Geoscience paper is available online.
-NSF-
No limit to life in deep sediment of ocean's "deadest" region
Marine scientists find microbes from seafloor to igneous basement below
"Who in his wildest dreams could have imagined that, beneath the crust of our Earth, there could exist a real ocean...a sea that has given shelter to species unknown?"
So wrote Jules Verne almost 150 years ago in A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
He was correct: Ocean deeps are anything but dead.
Now, scientists have found oxygen and oxygen-breathing microbes all the way through the sediment from the seafloor to the igneous basement at seven sites in the South Pacific gyre, considered the "deadest" location in the ocean.
Findings contrast with previous studies
Their findings contrast with previous discoveries that oxygen was absent from all but the top few millimeters to decimeters of sediment in biologically productive regions of the ocean.
The results are published today in a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.
"Our objective was to understand the microbial community and microbial habitability of sediment in the deadest part of the ocean," said scientist Steven D'Hondt of the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, lead author of the paper.
"Our results overturn a 60-year-old conclusion that the depth limit to life is in the sediment just meters below the seafloor in such regions.
"We found that there is no limit to life in this sediment. Oxygen and aerobic microbes hang in there all the way to the igneous basement, to at least 75 meters below the seafloor."
Under the seafloor, life all the way down
Based on the researchers' predictive model and core samples they collected in 2010 from the research drillship JOIDES Resolution, they believe that oxygen and aerobic microbes occur throughout the sediment in up to 37 percent of the world's oceans and 44 percent of the Pacific Ocean.
They found that the best indicators of oxygen penetration to the igneous basement are a low sedimentation accumulation rate and a relatively thin sediment layer.
Sediment accumulates at just a few decimeters to meters per million years in the regions where the core samples were collected.
In the remaining 63 percent of the ocean, most of the sediment beneath the seafloor is expected to lack dissolved oxygen and to contain anaerobic communities.
While the researchers found evidence of life throughout the sediment, they did not detect a great deal of it.
Life in the slow lane
The team found extremely slow rates of respiration and approximately 1,000 cells per cubic centimeter of subseafloor sediment in the South Pacific gyre--rates and quantities that had been nearly undetectable.
"It's really hard to find life when it's not very active and is in extremely low concentrations," said D'Hondt.
According to D'Hondt and co-author Fumio Inagaki of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the discovery of oxygen throughout the sediment may have significant implications for Earth's chemical evolution.
The oxidized sediment is likely carried into the mantle at subduction zones, regions of the seafloor where tectonic plates collide, forcing one plate beneath the other.
"Subduction of these big regions where oxygen penetrates through the sediment and into the igneous basement introduces oxidized minerals to the mantle, which may affect the chemistry of the upper mantle and the long-term evolution of Earth's surface oxidation," D'Hondt said.
Holistic approach to study of subseafloor biosphere
The principal research funders were the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
"We take a holistic approach to the subseafloor biosphere," said Rick Murray, co-author of the paper. Murray is on leave from Boston University, currently serving as director of the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences.
"Our team includes microbiologists, geochemists, sedimentologists, physical properties specialists and others--a hallmark of interdisciplinary research."
The research involved 35 scientists from 12 countries.
The project is part of the NSF-funded Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI), which explores life beneath the seafloor.
The research is also part of the Deep Carbon Observatory, a decade-long international science initiative to investigate the 90 percent of Earth's carbon located deep inside the planet.
The Nature Geoscience paper is available online.
-NSF-
NET WORTH NO LONGER ELIGIBILITY FACTOR FOR VET HEALTH CARE SAYS VA
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
VA Eliminates Net Worth as Health Care Eligibility Factor
March 17, 2015, 02:01:00 PM
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VA Eliminates Net Worth as Health Care Eligibility Factor
Elimination of Net Worth Makes More Veterans Eligible for Health Care
Washington – The Department of Veterans Affairs is updating the way it determines eligibility for VA health care, a change that will result in more Veterans having access to the health care benefits they’ve earned and deserve.
Effective 2015, VA eliminated the use of net worth as a determining factor for both health care programs and copayment responsibilities. This change makes VA health care benefits more accessible to lower-income Veterans and brings VA policies in line with Secretary Robert A. McDonald’s MyVA initiative which reorients VA around Veterans’ needs.
“Everything that we do and every decision we make has to be focused on the Veterans we serve,” said VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald. “We are working every day to earn their trust. Changing the way we determine eligibility to make the process easier for Veterans is part of our promise to our Veterans.”
Instead of combining the sum of Veterans’ income with their assets to determine eligibility for medical care and copayment obligations, VA will now only consider a Veteran’s gross household income and deductible expenses from the previous year. Elimination of the consideration of net worth for VA health care enrollment means that certain lower-income, non-service-connected Veterans will have less out-of- pocket costs. Over a 5-year period, it is estimated that 190,000 Veterans will become eligible for reduced costs of their health care services.
In March 2014, VA eliminated the annual requirement for updated financial information. VA now uses information from the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration to automatically match individual Veterans’ income information which reduces the burden on Veterans to keep their healthcare eligibility up to date. That change better aligned VA’s health care financial assessment program with other federal health care organizations.
VA Eliminates Net Worth as Health Care Eligibility Factor
March 17, 2015, 02:01:00 PM
Printable Version
Need Viewer Software?
VA Eliminates Net Worth as Health Care Eligibility Factor
Elimination of Net Worth Makes More Veterans Eligible for Health Care
Washington – The Department of Veterans Affairs is updating the way it determines eligibility for VA health care, a change that will result in more Veterans having access to the health care benefits they’ve earned and deserve.
Effective 2015, VA eliminated the use of net worth as a determining factor for both health care programs and copayment responsibilities. This change makes VA health care benefits more accessible to lower-income Veterans and brings VA policies in line with Secretary Robert A. McDonald’s MyVA initiative which reorients VA around Veterans’ needs.
“Everything that we do and every decision we make has to be focused on the Veterans we serve,” said VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald. “We are working every day to earn their trust. Changing the way we determine eligibility to make the process easier for Veterans is part of our promise to our Veterans.”
Instead of combining the sum of Veterans’ income with their assets to determine eligibility for medical care and copayment obligations, VA will now only consider a Veteran’s gross household income and deductible expenses from the previous year. Elimination of the consideration of net worth for VA health care enrollment means that certain lower-income, non-service-connected Veterans will have less out-of- pocket costs. Over a 5-year period, it is estimated that 190,000 Veterans will become eligible for reduced costs of their health care services.
In March 2014, VA eliminated the annual requirement for updated financial information. VA now uses information from the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration to automatically match individual Veterans’ income information which reduces the burden on Veterans to keep their healthcare eligibility up to date. That change better aligned VA’s health care financial assessment program with other federal health care organizations.
VICE CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS SAYS NATION AT GREATER RISK IF BUDGET CUT
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Winnefeld Gives Blunt Assessment of Budget Options
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2015 – The U.S. defense budget is strategy driven and the nation will be at greater risk if the budget is cut or if sequestration is triggered this year, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.
Speaking at the McAleese/Credit Suisse Defense Programs Conference held at the Newseum, Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr. said the president’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal allows the DoD to defend America’s national interests.
The budget request is $35 billion more than envisioned under sequestration, a law requiring major spending cuts that will take effect in October unless Congress changes it. Even at that number, the department will be at the edge of acceptable risk, the admiral said.
Winnefeld delineated the strategic necessities of the United States and their priority. “Such a list enables a more meaningful discussion about strategy because it’s a powerful way to support the recommendations we are expected to make referenc[ing] allocations of scarce resources, assessing risk and the use of force,” he said. “It’s especially valuable because it is prioritized, which some people in this town don’t like, because that unlocks the door to very difficult decisions.”
The difference between threats and the ability to mitigate them is called risk, Winnefeld said. “Clearly we want to keep risk lowest in the most highly ranked security interests,” he said. “It’s a simple concept, but it’s very difficult to apply in the daily press of daily crises.”
Balancing Priorities
The first national security interest is the survival of the United States. This means the DoD must maintain a safe, reliable and effective strategic deterrent.
The second priority is the prevention of catastrophic attacks on the U.S. “This implies protection from a major terrorist attack or a rogue state’s nuclear weapon or a cyberattack on our infrastructure,” the vice chairman explained.
Winnefeld said the third priority is protection of the global economic system. This means providing security for the physical flow of goods and services and the virtual flow of information. “We rank it highly because it is the driver of American prosperity and a key foundation of American power,” he said.
Fourth is maintaining secure, confident and reliable partners and allies. The United States has the most extensive system of allies and partners in history, the admiral said, and they count on American leadership and support.
“Our power and prosperity are deeply linked with theirs,” he added. “In protecting our allies against potential mischief, we’ve always counted on the overmatch on capability and capacity to offset the challenges we have in initiative and distance. We aren’t going to start a fight and we have a long way to go to get to one.
Winnefeld noted that the overmatch is now narrowing, as potential adversaries invest in new capabilities and additional capacities.
The next interest is looking after the security of American citizens abroad, he said.
Finally, “we believe we have a role in protecting international boundaries,” he said. “In a rules-based international order, these are fundamental to who we are as a nation. A great deal of our moral power is derived from our continued support and adherence to these values, even if some of our competitors don’t seem to do the same.”
Aligning Resources With Important Interests
These priorities maintain the overall goal of maintaining American leadership and freedom of action across the globe, he said.
The problem comes with the budget. “We can’t buy all the capability, capacity and readiness we need to perfectly protect all of these interests all at once,” the admiral said.
The Defense Department is facing a trillion dollar budget cut over 10 years, and leaders can turn to this list to make choices to ensure resource decisions are aligned with the most important security interests, Winnefeld said.
“Under the president’s budget submission we can do all of this under manageable risk –- but we’re on the edge,” he said. “Anything less than that –- and I’m not talking about sequester, I’m talking about anything less than our budget submission – and we will have to make tough choices.”
Defense leaders will not compromise on protecting the homeland or conducting counterterror operations, he said.
“But our forward presence is either going to have to be at the same level in fewer regions, or at a lower level in the same regions,” the admiral said.
“If you look at a chart depicting almost any force element we own alongside our daily demand and our surge demand, you will see gaps are beginning to open between supply and demand,” he said. “The military ends of our strategy … are going to have to change if we go below the president’s budget submission and even more if we go to sequestration.”
Winnefeld Gives Blunt Assessment of Budget Options
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2015 – The U.S. defense budget is strategy driven and the nation will be at greater risk if the budget is cut or if sequestration is triggered this year, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.
Speaking at the McAleese/Credit Suisse Defense Programs Conference held at the Newseum, Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr. said the president’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal allows the DoD to defend America’s national interests.
The budget request is $35 billion more than envisioned under sequestration, a law requiring major spending cuts that will take effect in October unless Congress changes it. Even at that number, the department will be at the edge of acceptable risk, the admiral said.
Winnefeld delineated the strategic necessities of the United States and their priority. “Such a list enables a more meaningful discussion about strategy because it’s a powerful way to support the recommendations we are expected to make referenc[ing] allocations of scarce resources, assessing risk and the use of force,” he said. “It’s especially valuable because it is prioritized, which some people in this town don’t like, because that unlocks the door to very difficult decisions.”
The difference between threats and the ability to mitigate them is called risk, Winnefeld said. “Clearly we want to keep risk lowest in the most highly ranked security interests,” he said. “It’s a simple concept, but it’s very difficult to apply in the daily press of daily crises.”
Balancing Priorities
The first national security interest is the survival of the United States. This means the DoD must maintain a safe, reliable and effective strategic deterrent.
The second priority is the prevention of catastrophic attacks on the U.S. “This implies protection from a major terrorist attack or a rogue state’s nuclear weapon or a cyberattack on our infrastructure,” the vice chairman explained.
Winnefeld said the third priority is protection of the global economic system. This means providing security for the physical flow of goods and services and the virtual flow of information. “We rank it highly because it is the driver of American prosperity and a key foundation of American power,” he said.
Fourth is maintaining secure, confident and reliable partners and allies. The United States has the most extensive system of allies and partners in history, the admiral said, and they count on American leadership and support.
“Our power and prosperity are deeply linked with theirs,” he added. “In protecting our allies against potential mischief, we’ve always counted on the overmatch on capability and capacity to offset the challenges we have in initiative and distance. We aren’t going to start a fight and we have a long way to go to get to one.
Winnefeld noted that the overmatch is now narrowing, as potential adversaries invest in new capabilities and additional capacities.
The next interest is looking after the security of American citizens abroad, he said.
Finally, “we believe we have a role in protecting international boundaries,” he said. “In a rules-based international order, these are fundamental to who we are as a nation. A great deal of our moral power is derived from our continued support and adherence to these values, even if some of our competitors don’t seem to do the same.”
Aligning Resources With Important Interests
These priorities maintain the overall goal of maintaining American leadership and freedom of action across the globe, he said.
The problem comes with the budget. “We can’t buy all the capability, capacity and readiness we need to perfectly protect all of these interests all at once,” the admiral said.
The Defense Department is facing a trillion dollar budget cut over 10 years, and leaders can turn to this list to make choices to ensure resource decisions are aligned with the most important security interests, Winnefeld said.
“Under the president’s budget submission we can do all of this under manageable risk –- but we’re on the edge,” he said. “Anything less than that –- and I’m not talking about sequester, I’m talking about anything less than our budget submission – and we will have to make tough choices.”
Defense leaders will not compromise on protecting the homeland or conducting counterterror operations, he said.
“But our forward presence is either going to have to be at the same level in fewer regions, or at a lower level in the same regions,” the admiral said.
“If you look at a chart depicting almost any force element we own alongside our daily demand and our surge demand, you will see gaps are beginning to open between supply and demand,” he said. “The military ends of our strategy … are going to have to change if we go below the president’s budget submission and even more if we go to sequestration.”
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS ON ATTACK IN TUNIS, TUNISIA
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 18, 2015
The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s deadly terrorist attack at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, where gunmen killed 19 people and wounded more than 20 others. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to the victims’ families and loved ones. We commend Tunisian authorities’ rapid response to today’s wanton violence and their efforts to resolve the hostage situation and restore calm. The United States stands with the Tunisian people at this difficult time and continues to support the Tunisian government’s efforts to advance a secure, prosperous, and democratic Tunisia.
Attack on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 18, 2015
The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms today’s deadly terrorist attack at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, where gunmen killed 19 people and wounded more than 20 others. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to the victims’ families and loved ones. We commend Tunisian authorities’ rapid response to today’s wanton violence and their efforts to resolve the hostage situation and restore calm. The United States stands with the Tunisian people at this difficult time and continues to support the Tunisian government’s efforts to advance a secure, prosperous, and democratic Tunisia.
LISA KUBISKE MAKES REMARKS ON U.S. INVESTMENT TREATIES
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Investment Treaties: Working For Investors and Government
Remarks
Lisa J. Kubiske
Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Finance and Development, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
OECD Conference Center
Paris, France
March 16, 2015
As prepared
I thank the OECD for hosting this workshop on international investment agreements and treaties, and am pleased to share the U.S. experience with you. I’ll make three points.
The first is that we use our international investment agreements both to promote fair treatment for investors, and to leverage investment to support economic growth.
Taking the latter (growth) first, we know that investment is vital to the global economy. OECD research shows that multinational enterprises employ nearly 80 million people worldwide and their global sales are roughly double world exports. A third of global trade is intra-firm trade. Approximately 18 percent of U.S. merchandise exports are sent by U.S. parent companies to their foreign affiliates.
Investment also supports sustainable development. I am involved in the US Government’s preparation for the UN Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa in July. A key focus will be mobilizing international resources for development, including foreign direct investment and other private investment flows. This is critical, because official development assistance alone cannot meet all the challenges facing the developing world.
Strong investment agreements help create a healthy investment environment. They contain core investor protections that help countries compete for foreign direct investment by supporting transparency, predictability, and openness to investment. Businessmen tell us they consider these factors when deciding where and how much to invest. This healthy environment creates opportunity and broadly shared prosperity. Remember the 80 million jobs?
Also, in our experience, investment agreements often complement countries’ efforts toward economic reform.
A key aspect of ensuring the fair treatment of investors is having strong investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions, which allows for the fair and efficient resolution of disputes. In the days before BITs, disputes frequently became tense bilateral diplomatic issues. ISDS has served to depoliticize investment disputes.
The United States now has 50 investment agreements in place, and we are actively negotiating new ones, including a BIT with China, and investment chapters in TPP and TTIP.
My second point is that it is possible to strike a balance in investment agreements between investor interests and governments’ regulatory ones.
Stakeholders have raised some valid concerns with certain provisions of some BITs.
We have held extensive public consultations to develop our current – 2012 – model BIT. These consultations were further informed by the experiences of our U.S. investors abroad, our efforts to attract investment into the United States, and what we have learned to date as a State defending ourselves against arbitration claims.
Our current model includes several important innovations that help improve the ISDS process and avoid inappropriate claims. For example:
We provide greater clarification of key obligations, such as “fair & equitable treatment” and “expropriation;”
We build in mechanisms to dismiss frivolous claims early in the process;
There also are mechanisms for the Parties to help ensure that tribunals interpret the treaty correctly;
We provide for full transparency of ISDS proceedings, requiring public documents and open hearings, and affording the opportunity for outside parties to submit amicus curiae submissions.
These advancements are intended to create a process that investors can rely on, and also one that is transparent and not subject to abuse.
Third and final point: there are various ways to manage the existing network of investment treaties/agreements to ensure that both investor and government interests are preserved. We can, for example:
Improve countries’ capacity to meet their international obligations,
Monitor developments in investor-State arbitration, and
Foster dialogue and mutual understanding on key issues.
We value open, inclusive, and multilateral dialogue on investment rules – such as we are having today.
Thank you.
U.S. Investment Treaties: Working For Investors and Government
Remarks
Lisa J. Kubiske
Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Finance and Development, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
OECD Conference Center
Paris, France
March 16, 2015
As prepared
I thank the OECD for hosting this workshop on international investment agreements and treaties, and am pleased to share the U.S. experience with you. I’ll make three points.
The first is that we use our international investment agreements both to promote fair treatment for investors, and to leverage investment to support economic growth.
Taking the latter (growth) first, we know that investment is vital to the global economy. OECD research shows that multinational enterprises employ nearly 80 million people worldwide and their global sales are roughly double world exports. A third of global trade is intra-firm trade. Approximately 18 percent of U.S. merchandise exports are sent by U.S. parent companies to their foreign affiliates.
Investment also supports sustainable development. I am involved in the US Government’s preparation for the UN Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa in July. A key focus will be mobilizing international resources for development, including foreign direct investment and other private investment flows. This is critical, because official development assistance alone cannot meet all the challenges facing the developing world.
Strong investment agreements help create a healthy investment environment. They contain core investor protections that help countries compete for foreign direct investment by supporting transparency, predictability, and openness to investment. Businessmen tell us they consider these factors when deciding where and how much to invest. This healthy environment creates opportunity and broadly shared prosperity. Remember the 80 million jobs?
Also, in our experience, investment agreements often complement countries’ efforts toward economic reform.
A key aspect of ensuring the fair treatment of investors is having strong investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions, which allows for the fair and efficient resolution of disputes. In the days before BITs, disputes frequently became tense bilateral diplomatic issues. ISDS has served to depoliticize investment disputes.
The United States now has 50 investment agreements in place, and we are actively negotiating new ones, including a BIT with China, and investment chapters in TPP and TTIP.
My second point is that it is possible to strike a balance in investment agreements between investor interests and governments’ regulatory ones.
Stakeholders have raised some valid concerns with certain provisions of some BITs.
We have held extensive public consultations to develop our current – 2012 – model BIT. These consultations were further informed by the experiences of our U.S. investors abroad, our efforts to attract investment into the United States, and what we have learned to date as a State defending ourselves against arbitration claims.
Our current model includes several important innovations that help improve the ISDS process and avoid inappropriate claims. For example:
We provide greater clarification of key obligations, such as “fair & equitable treatment” and “expropriation;”
We build in mechanisms to dismiss frivolous claims early in the process;
There also are mechanisms for the Parties to help ensure that tribunals interpret the treaty correctly;
We provide for full transparency of ISDS proceedings, requiring public documents and open hearings, and affording the opportunity for outside parties to submit amicus curiae submissions.
These advancements are intended to create a process that investors can rely on, and also one that is transparent and not subject to abuse.
Third and final point: there are various ways to manage the existing network of investment treaties/agreements to ensure that both investor and government interests are preserved. We can, for example:
Improve countries’ capacity to meet their international obligations,
Monitor developments in investor-State arbitration, and
Foster dialogue and mutual understanding on key issues.
We value open, inclusive, and multilateral dialogue on investment rules – such as we are having today.
Thank you.
AG HOLDER'S REMARKS ON MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Attorney General Holder Delivers Remarks on My Brother's Keeper at the Center for American Progress
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Remarks as prepared for delivery
Thank you, Neera [Tanden], for that kind introduction. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today, and a privilege to join so many passionate citizens, committed public servants and dedicated advocates as we mark the one-year anniversary of the president’s groundbreaking My Brother’s Keeper initiative. There is no place I would rather be in my closing days as Attorney General than with all of you. Or, at least, these should be my closing days. Given the Senate’s delays in scheduling Loretta Lynch’s nomination for a vote, it’s almost as if the Republicans in Congress have discovered a new fondness for me. Where was all this affection the last six years?
But seriously, it’s fitting that one of my final events as Attorney General will be about My Brother’s Keeper because it speaks to issues that have been at the forefront of my work and at the center of my thoughts throughout my professional career.
During my time as a judge on the Superior Court in Washington, D.C., I saw how people who were convicted of crimes too often had been previously trapped in a cycle of poverty, familial instability, juvenile criminality and adult incarceration. I observed how this cycle could weaken communities, tear already weak family structures apart and ultimately destroy individual lives. And day after day, I watched lines of young people—most often young men of color—stream through my courtroom. I began to recognize their faces, and to recall their too-common and recurring stories, because too many of the people I sentenced served their time, were released from prison, and sooner or later returned to the same behavior that had led them to my courtroom in the first place.
Many of these individuals were not fundamentally different from me, or from the people I grew up with in East Elmhurst, in Queens, New York City—friends, classmates, neighbors and peers—some of whom didn’t catch the same breaks, made mistakes or poor choices, and got involved in the criminal justice system with no real ability to reclaim their lives or recast their futures. So when I returned to the Department of Justice, I insisted on doing my part to make our criminal justice system more efficient, more effective and more fair—as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, as Deputy Attorney General and, for the last six years, as Attorney General of the United States.
During my tenure in the Obama Administration, particularly through the Smart on Crime initiative, we have worked to reform our criminal justice system at every level. Our primary responsibility—which we have never lost sight of—is public safety and individual accountability. But we have reduced our reliance on draconian mandatory minimum sentencing, increased our use of rehabilitation programs like drug courts and veterans courts, and expanded assistance for formerly incarcerated individuals as they re-enter society.
These are important improvements, and all available results demonstrate that our approach has been extremely effective. But in addition to modifying the way we charge, sentence and release men and women who are involved in crimes, we also have a vital role to play in preventing people from coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place. That means ending the school-to-prison pipeline that sends too many children on a well-worn path from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse. It means employing a developmentally-informed approach to prevent violence against children and to alleviate the devastating harm that comes from abuse. And it means addressing persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper and ensuring that all our young people can reach their full potential.
The fundamental idea behind this initiative is that every child in America should have the opportunity to grow, to succeed, and to contribute to their community and their country. Because it is clear that, despite our best efforts, some children still face significant opportunity gaps that put them at a disadvantage—that make them less likely to graduate from high school; less likely to get a well-paying job; and less likely to join the middle class. It makes them more likely to slip below the poverty line, or to stay there; more likely to suffer violence and abuse; and more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system.
The My Brother’s Keeper initiative is designed to support the progress of these individuals—with mentorships, with support networks and with public-private partnerships that help our young people develop the skills they need to find a good job, to go to college, to raise a family and to succeed. Most importantly, on a fundamental level, My Brother’s Keeper sends a message that these young people matter to us. They matter to their country. They matter to their president. And they matter to me—an Attorney General who is so much like them. We as a nation will never give up on them—and we must refuse to let them give up on themselves.
Over the last year, we have made significant progress. We have joined with cities and towns, businesses, and foundations that are taking steps to connect young people to the resources they need to get a good education, to improve their lives and to work their way into the middle class. We have launched the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge—an important call for communities to implement long-term strategies for improving the life outcomes of all young people. And we have established the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice—a nationwide program designed to enhance procedural justice, reduce implicit bias and support racial reconciliation.
Just last week, I was proud to announce six cities selected to serve as pilot sites under this initiative—to develop programs that will work to dispel the mistrust that plagues too many neighborhoods, and to create innovative new efforts that will help build and maintain the bonds between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve, wherever those bonds have been broken. Those six cities—Birmingham, Alabama; Stockton, California; Gary, Indiana; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Fort Worth, Texas—will stand on the front lines of this effort. And by helping to develop programs that serve their own diverse experiences, these cities will provide trailblazing insight and essential information for our ongoing efforts to confront pressing, similar issues in other communities across the country.
As you know, these are not abstract concepts—they are vital steps that we must take to improve our communities, to strengthen our public safety programs and to save lives. Recently, we’ve received painful reminders about the importance of initiatives like this one. We’ve endured sudden, rancorous challenges to the idea that we are one united people. And we’ve seen how quickly and how easily a split-second local incident can give way to enduring national strife and tragedy—to parents who are left without their children; to young people forever deprived of a role model; to brave officers killed while serving their communities; and to citizens across the country who fear walking their neighborhoods and cops who fear patrolling their beats.
That is a reality that is incompatible with the spirit of this country—a country founded on the notion of brotherhood; of shared vision and common effort. A country that views “we the people” as a declaration of the inextricable links that connect us to one another. As then-State Senator Obama said in a convention hall in Boston just over a decade ago, “it is that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper—that makes this country work.”
Now, our society has not always lived up to that promise. America has been sorely tested—by long-ago injustices that nearly split our Union, and by systemic biases that still fester in too many institutions today. But over nearly 250 years of debate, of argument and of slow and deliberate progress, there can be no doubt that we have moved closer to our highest ideals; that we have advanced toward a brighter horizon; and that we have bent the arc of the moral universe—haltingly, but with great determination and clarity of purpose—toward justice.
From revolution to emancipation; from the suffragists to the Freedom Riders; from Selma to Stonewall, countless men, women and children of strong character and enduring faith have pulled this country forward, toward a new day when all Americans can succeed no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter where they’re from, and no matter whom they love—whether they are rich or poor, young or old, gay or straight, famous or unknown. Whether they are an individual born with all the advantages this country has to offer, or a young man of color faced with difficult choices and an uncertain future. We’re not there yet. But today—right now—it is up to all of us to take up that challenge, to continue that effort and to resume the march that so many have sacrificed so much to advance.
I know that this work will not always be simple. Longstanding inequities will not be easily corrected, historic divides will not be healed overnight, and leaders in government, no matter how committed, cannot do this work alone. That is why the private partnerships being forged in response to My Brother’s Keeper are so crucial, and why I have been proud to work with—and in some cases, to help establish—extraordinary nonprofit organizations that extend a hand to at-risk youth across the country—organizations like the See Forever Foundation, Safe Shores, and The Alliance for Concerned Men.
In conversations with public safety officers, community and business leaders, activists, and young people across the country—in Atlanta, Cleveland, Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, and San Francisco—I have found broad agreement that we can work together to create safer, more prosperous communities. I have encountered an overriding desire to collaborate toward that end. And I have been struck not by our divisions, but by our common interest in creating the more just society that all Americans deserve.
As I look around this room today—at the dedicated citizens who have a hand in this country’s direction and the young people who will guide it for years to come—I cannot help being optimistic. I cannot help anticipating that brighter day. And I cannot help feeling confident about all that we will achieve together.
In the coming days, my tenure as Attorney General of the United States will come to an end. But whenever I do depart the Obama Administration, I will never leave this work. I will never abandon this mission. And I will never relinquish this effort to help build the more equal country—and the more just society—that all Americans deserve. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you as we seek to make our Union more perfect.
Attorney General Holder Delivers Remarks on My Brother's Keeper at the Center for American Progress
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Remarks as prepared for delivery
Thank you, Neera [Tanden], for that kind introduction. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today, and a privilege to join so many passionate citizens, committed public servants and dedicated advocates as we mark the one-year anniversary of the president’s groundbreaking My Brother’s Keeper initiative. There is no place I would rather be in my closing days as Attorney General than with all of you. Or, at least, these should be my closing days. Given the Senate’s delays in scheduling Loretta Lynch’s nomination for a vote, it’s almost as if the Republicans in Congress have discovered a new fondness for me. Where was all this affection the last six years?
But seriously, it’s fitting that one of my final events as Attorney General will be about My Brother’s Keeper because it speaks to issues that have been at the forefront of my work and at the center of my thoughts throughout my professional career.
During my time as a judge on the Superior Court in Washington, D.C., I saw how people who were convicted of crimes too often had been previously trapped in a cycle of poverty, familial instability, juvenile criminality and adult incarceration. I observed how this cycle could weaken communities, tear already weak family structures apart and ultimately destroy individual lives. And day after day, I watched lines of young people—most often young men of color—stream through my courtroom. I began to recognize their faces, and to recall their too-common and recurring stories, because too many of the people I sentenced served their time, were released from prison, and sooner or later returned to the same behavior that had led them to my courtroom in the first place.
Many of these individuals were not fundamentally different from me, or from the people I grew up with in East Elmhurst, in Queens, New York City—friends, classmates, neighbors and peers—some of whom didn’t catch the same breaks, made mistakes or poor choices, and got involved in the criminal justice system with no real ability to reclaim their lives or recast their futures. So when I returned to the Department of Justice, I insisted on doing my part to make our criminal justice system more efficient, more effective and more fair—as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, as Deputy Attorney General and, for the last six years, as Attorney General of the United States.
During my tenure in the Obama Administration, particularly through the Smart on Crime initiative, we have worked to reform our criminal justice system at every level. Our primary responsibility—which we have never lost sight of—is public safety and individual accountability. But we have reduced our reliance on draconian mandatory minimum sentencing, increased our use of rehabilitation programs like drug courts and veterans courts, and expanded assistance for formerly incarcerated individuals as they re-enter society.
These are important improvements, and all available results demonstrate that our approach has been extremely effective. But in addition to modifying the way we charge, sentence and release men and women who are involved in crimes, we also have a vital role to play in preventing people from coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place. That means ending the school-to-prison pipeline that sends too many children on a well-worn path from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse. It means employing a developmentally-informed approach to prevent violence against children and to alleviate the devastating harm that comes from abuse. And it means addressing persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color through initiatives like My Brother’s Keeper and ensuring that all our young people can reach their full potential.
The fundamental idea behind this initiative is that every child in America should have the opportunity to grow, to succeed, and to contribute to their community and their country. Because it is clear that, despite our best efforts, some children still face significant opportunity gaps that put them at a disadvantage—that make them less likely to graduate from high school; less likely to get a well-paying job; and less likely to join the middle class. It makes them more likely to slip below the poverty line, or to stay there; more likely to suffer violence and abuse; and more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system.
The My Brother’s Keeper initiative is designed to support the progress of these individuals—with mentorships, with support networks and with public-private partnerships that help our young people develop the skills they need to find a good job, to go to college, to raise a family and to succeed. Most importantly, on a fundamental level, My Brother’s Keeper sends a message that these young people matter to us. They matter to their country. They matter to their president. And they matter to me—an Attorney General who is so much like them. We as a nation will never give up on them—and we must refuse to let them give up on themselves.
Over the last year, we have made significant progress. We have joined with cities and towns, businesses, and foundations that are taking steps to connect young people to the resources they need to get a good education, to improve their lives and to work their way into the middle class. We have launched the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge—an important call for communities to implement long-term strategies for improving the life outcomes of all young people. And we have established the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice—a nationwide program designed to enhance procedural justice, reduce implicit bias and support racial reconciliation.
Just last week, I was proud to announce six cities selected to serve as pilot sites under this initiative—to develop programs that will work to dispel the mistrust that plagues too many neighborhoods, and to create innovative new efforts that will help build and maintain the bonds between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve, wherever those bonds have been broken. Those six cities—Birmingham, Alabama; Stockton, California; Gary, Indiana; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Fort Worth, Texas—will stand on the front lines of this effort. And by helping to develop programs that serve their own diverse experiences, these cities will provide trailblazing insight and essential information for our ongoing efforts to confront pressing, similar issues in other communities across the country.
As you know, these are not abstract concepts—they are vital steps that we must take to improve our communities, to strengthen our public safety programs and to save lives. Recently, we’ve received painful reminders about the importance of initiatives like this one. We’ve endured sudden, rancorous challenges to the idea that we are one united people. And we’ve seen how quickly and how easily a split-second local incident can give way to enduring national strife and tragedy—to parents who are left without their children; to young people forever deprived of a role model; to brave officers killed while serving their communities; and to citizens across the country who fear walking their neighborhoods and cops who fear patrolling their beats.
That is a reality that is incompatible with the spirit of this country—a country founded on the notion of brotherhood; of shared vision and common effort. A country that views “we the people” as a declaration of the inextricable links that connect us to one another. As then-State Senator Obama said in a convention hall in Boston just over a decade ago, “it is that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper—that makes this country work.”
Now, our society has not always lived up to that promise. America has been sorely tested—by long-ago injustices that nearly split our Union, and by systemic biases that still fester in too many institutions today. But over nearly 250 years of debate, of argument and of slow and deliberate progress, there can be no doubt that we have moved closer to our highest ideals; that we have advanced toward a brighter horizon; and that we have bent the arc of the moral universe—haltingly, but with great determination and clarity of purpose—toward justice.
From revolution to emancipation; from the suffragists to the Freedom Riders; from Selma to Stonewall, countless men, women and children of strong character and enduring faith have pulled this country forward, toward a new day when all Americans can succeed no matter who they are, no matter what they look like, no matter where they’re from, and no matter whom they love—whether they are rich or poor, young or old, gay or straight, famous or unknown. Whether they are an individual born with all the advantages this country has to offer, or a young man of color faced with difficult choices and an uncertain future. We’re not there yet. But today—right now—it is up to all of us to take up that challenge, to continue that effort and to resume the march that so many have sacrificed so much to advance.
I know that this work will not always be simple. Longstanding inequities will not be easily corrected, historic divides will not be healed overnight, and leaders in government, no matter how committed, cannot do this work alone. That is why the private partnerships being forged in response to My Brother’s Keeper are so crucial, and why I have been proud to work with—and in some cases, to help establish—extraordinary nonprofit organizations that extend a hand to at-risk youth across the country—organizations like the See Forever Foundation, Safe Shores, and The Alliance for Concerned Men.
In conversations with public safety officers, community and business leaders, activists, and young people across the country—in Atlanta, Cleveland, Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland, and San Francisco—I have found broad agreement that we can work together to create safer, more prosperous communities. I have encountered an overriding desire to collaborate toward that end. And I have been struck not by our divisions, but by our common interest in creating the more just society that all Americans deserve.
As I look around this room today—at the dedicated citizens who have a hand in this country’s direction and the young people who will guide it for years to come—I cannot help being optimistic. I cannot help anticipating that brighter day. And I cannot help feeling confident about all that we will achieve together.
In the coming days, my tenure as Attorney General of the United States will come to an end. But whenever I do depart the Obama Administration, I will never leave this work. I will never abandon this mission. And I will never relinquish this effort to help build the more equal country—and the more just society—that all Americans deserve. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you as we seek to make our Union more perfect.
REFUND CHECKS SENT TO PERSONS WHO LOST MONEY BUYING ADVACAL CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT
FROM: U.S. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
FTC Sending Refund Checks Totaling Nearly $955,000 to Consumers Who Lost Money Buying Lane Labs’ AdvaCAL Calcium Supplement
More Than 17,600 Checks Are Being Mailed Starting Today
FOR RELEASE
March 18, 2015
The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 17,606 refund checks totaling $954,828.31 starting today to consumers who lost money buying a supposedly superior calcium supplement marketed by Lane Labs-USA Inc. and its president Andrew Lane. The amount each consumer receives will vary based on how much they lost.
The refunds are being made from money collected under a 2010 U.S. Court of Appeals ruling and 2011 district court decision finding Lane Labs in contempt of a 2000 order, based on the company’s false and unsubstantiated claims for its calcium supplement, AdvaCAL. Lane Labs claimed that AdvaCAL was the only calcium supplement that could increase bone density, and was on par or superior to prescription drugs used to treat osteoporosis.
Gilardi & Co., LLC, the redress administrator for this matter, will mail refund checks to eligible consumers beginning today. The checks must be cashed by May 18, 2015 or they will become void. Recipients should note that the FTC never requires consumers to pay money or provide information before redress checks can be cashed.
The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook (link is external), follow us on Twitter (link is external), and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
FTC Sending Refund Checks Totaling Nearly $955,000 to Consumers Who Lost Money Buying Lane Labs’ AdvaCAL Calcium Supplement
More Than 17,600 Checks Are Being Mailed Starting Today
FOR RELEASE
March 18, 2015
The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 17,606 refund checks totaling $954,828.31 starting today to consumers who lost money buying a supposedly superior calcium supplement marketed by Lane Labs-USA Inc. and its president Andrew Lane. The amount each consumer receives will vary based on how much they lost.
The refunds are being made from money collected under a 2010 U.S. Court of Appeals ruling and 2011 district court decision finding Lane Labs in contempt of a 2000 order, based on the company’s false and unsubstantiated claims for its calcium supplement, AdvaCAL. Lane Labs claimed that AdvaCAL was the only calcium supplement that could increase bone density, and was on par or superior to prescription drugs used to treat osteoporosis.
Gilardi & Co., LLC, the redress administrator for this matter, will mail refund checks to eligible consumers beginning today. The checks must be cashed by May 18, 2015 or they will become void. Recipients should note that the FTC never requires consumers to pay money or provide information before redress checks can be cashed.
The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook (link is external), follow us on Twitter (link is external), and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT: THIS WEEK AT INTERIOR MARCH 13, 2015
FROM: U.S. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT
This Week at Interior March 13, 2015
March 13, 2015
Interior is now closer to its goal of one million volunteers on public lands, thanks to a $5m donation from American Express; Secretary Jewell releases the 2015 fire season strategy to protect and restore sagebrush lands in the west; and bat researchers at USGS, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service are honored for their conservation efforts.Transcript
THIS WEEK AT INTERIOR...
BIG NEWS IN THE BIG APPLE THIS WEEK… INTERIOR IS NOW ONE STEP CLOSER TO ITS GOAL OF GETTING ONE MILLION VOLUNTEERS ON AMERICA’S PUBLIC LANDS ANNUALLY, THANKS TO A NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICAN EXPRESS. THE COMPANY IS INVESTING FIVE MILLION DOLLARS THAT WILL GO TOWARD BUILDING COALITIONS IN 50 CITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY… PART OF A GOAL TO *TRIPLE* THE NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS CURRENTLY CARING FOR PARKS AND OTHER PUBLIC LANDS. COMPANY AND NEW YORK CITY OFFICIALS JOINED SECRETARY JEWELL AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT CEREMONY AT THE CASTLE CLINTON NATIONAL MONUMENT IN BATTERY PARK.
WE WON’T HAVE ADVOCACY FOR OUR PUBLIC LANDS AND OUR OPEN SPACES IF OUR CITIZENRY DOESN’T VALUE THEM, IF THE FUTURE MAYORS AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AND COMMISSIONERS AREN’T AWARE, BECAUSE THERE WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH MONEY TO GO AROUND.
VOLUNTEER SERVICE IS CRITICAL TO ENSURING A VIABLE FUTURE FOR OUR NATIONAL PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS. AND WE WANT TO HELP PRESERVE THESE TREASURES AND AMERICA’S RICH CULTURAL HERITAGE.
AFTER THE CEREMONY THE SECRETARY JOINED VOLUNTEERS FOR A SERVICE PROJECT AT THE CASTLE CLINTON GARDENS OF REMEMBRANCE. NEW YORK CITY WAS SELECTED AS THE FIRST OF 50 CITIES FOR THIS NEW NATIONWIDE EFFORT. THE SECRETARY THEN TRAVELED TO MIAMI AND ATLANTA, THE NEXT TWO CITIES TO BE IDENTIFIED FOR THE VOLUNTEER NETWORK. THE SECRETARY ALSO ANNOUNCED THAT BOSTON, WASHINGTON, DC, DENVER, LOS ANGELES, MINNEAPOLIS, SAN FRANCISCO, ST. LOUIS AND ST. PAUL HAVE ALSO BEEN IDENTIFIED AND WILL RECEIVE A CITY COORDINATOR TO HELP THESE EFFORTS . STAY TUNED FOR ADDITIONAL CITIES TO BE SELECTED LATER THIS YEAR… FIND OUT MORE AT DOI.GOV.
SECRETARY JEWELL THIS WEEK RELEASED A STRATEGY TO PROTECT AND RESTORE SAGEBRUSH LANDS FOR THE 2015 FIRE SEASON… THE REPORT ADVANCES WORK WITH FEDERAL, STATE, TRIBAL AND NON GOVERNMENT PARTNERS, TO PROTECT ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND WILDLIFE HABITAT VITAL TO THE WAY OF LIFE IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES… THE SECRETARY SAYS THE RECOMMENDED ACTIONS WILL HELP ENSURE OUR PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY AS THE FIRE SEASON APPROACHES… YOU CAN SEE THE COMPLETE REPORT AT DOI.GOV
AND USGS, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, AND FISH AND WILDLIFE BAT CONSERVATION RESEARCHERS AND THEIR PARTNERS WERE RECOGNIZED THIS WEEK BY THE U-S FOREST SERVICE… THE BAT TEAM RECEIVED THE SERVICE’S *WINGS ACROSS THE AMERICAS RESEARCH AWARD* FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NORTH AMERICAN BAT MONITORING PROGRAM. USGS SAYS BAT RESEARCH IS NOT ONLY VITAL TO THE WELL-BEING OF THESE NIGHT FLYING MAMMALS AND THE ECOSYSTEM THEY SERVE… IT’S ALSO VITAL TO THE ENVIRONMENT, WHEN YOU FACTOR IN THE KEY ROLE BATS PLAY IN PEST CONTROL AND PLANT POLLINATION.
THATS THIS WEEK, AT INTERIOR.
AG HOLDER MAKES COMMENTS ON RIGHT TO COUNSEL SETTLEMENT WITH NEW YORK STATE
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, March 16, 2015
Attorney General Holder Applauds Settlement to Improve Right to Counsel in New York State
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday hailed the outcome in a lawsuit challenging the lack of funding for public defender programs in five counties in New York State, calling the finalized settlement in the case a “major step forward.”
In September 2014, the Justice Department had filed a statement of interest in the case, known as Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York. This represented the first time the department addressed the constructive denial of counsel in state courts. After extensive negotiations, the parties reached a settlement, which Judge Gerald Connolly of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Albany County, has now signed. The settlement agreement, which applies to five New York counties, guarantees that indigent criminal defendants will have legal counsel at arraignment, establishes and implements caseload and workload standards for public defenders, provides for effective supervision and training of public defenders and sets new indigency standards for determining whether a defendant is entitled to public counsel.
“This settlement marks a major step forward in the safeguarding of the essential right to effective legal representation, which stands at the core of America’s criminal justice system,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “It is simply unacceptable that, today – more than half a century after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainright affirmed the right to counsel for low-income defendants – America’s indigent defense systems continue to exist in a state of crisis, and inequities remain all too common. That’s why, especially in recent years, the Department of Justice has fought tirelessly to ensure effective representation for all who are charged with crimes. With this settlement, we send a clear message that this fight will continue. And we will never waver in our commitment to ensuring that all Americans receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled.”
“This important settlement agreement is a model, not just for the five counties named in the case, but for all of New York State, and for the country,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “The right to counsel is one of the core guarantees of the Bill of Rights, and yet, as countless cases and studies show, indigent defense systems across the county are facing significant challenges in meeting their Sixth Amendment obligations.”
In Hurrell-Harring the plaintiffs alleged that a lack of funding for indigent defense deprives public defenders of the time or resources to prepare cases or meaningfully represent their clients and amounts to the denial of counsel in violation of Gideon v. Wainwright and the Sixth Amendment. In its statement of interest, the department advised the court that under resourcing public defense may force even otherwise competent and well-intentioned public defenders into a position where they are, in effect, a lawyer in name only. The statement of interest added that if the court finds that the plaintiffs have been constructively denied the right to counsel on a systemic basis, the court has broad injunctive authority to remedy those constitutional violations.
The Hurrell-Harring case was filed in 2007 and brought by former indigent defendants who faced criminal charges in Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington counties in the state of New York.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Attorney General Holder Applauds Settlement to Improve Right to Counsel in New York State
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday hailed the outcome in a lawsuit challenging the lack of funding for public defender programs in five counties in New York State, calling the finalized settlement in the case a “major step forward.”
In September 2014, the Justice Department had filed a statement of interest in the case, known as Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York. This represented the first time the department addressed the constructive denial of counsel in state courts. After extensive negotiations, the parties reached a settlement, which Judge Gerald Connolly of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Albany County, has now signed. The settlement agreement, which applies to five New York counties, guarantees that indigent criminal defendants will have legal counsel at arraignment, establishes and implements caseload and workload standards for public defenders, provides for effective supervision and training of public defenders and sets new indigency standards for determining whether a defendant is entitled to public counsel.
“This settlement marks a major step forward in the safeguarding of the essential right to effective legal representation, which stands at the core of America’s criminal justice system,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “It is simply unacceptable that, today – more than half a century after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainright affirmed the right to counsel for low-income defendants – America’s indigent defense systems continue to exist in a state of crisis, and inequities remain all too common. That’s why, especially in recent years, the Department of Justice has fought tirelessly to ensure effective representation for all who are charged with crimes. With this settlement, we send a clear message that this fight will continue. And we will never waver in our commitment to ensuring that all Americans receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled.”
“This important settlement agreement is a model, not just for the five counties named in the case, but for all of New York State, and for the country,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “The right to counsel is one of the core guarantees of the Bill of Rights, and yet, as countless cases and studies show, indigent defense systems across the county are facing significant challenges in meeting their Sixth Amendment obligations.”
In Hurrell-Harring the plaintiffs alleged that a lack of funding for indigent defense deprives public defenders of the time or resources to prepare cases or meaningfully represent their clients and amounts to the denial of counsel in violation of Gideon v. Wainwright and the Sixth Amendment. In its statement of interest, the department advised the court that under resourcing public defense may force even otherwise competent and well-intentioned public defenders into a position where they are, in effect, a lawyer in name only. The statement of interest added that if the court finds that the plaintiffs have been constructively denied the right to counsel on a systemic basis, the court has broad injunctive authority to remedy those constitutional violations.
The Hurrell-Harring case was filed in 2007 and brought by former indigent defendants who faced criminal charges in Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington counties in the state of New York.
VANGUARD I SATELLITE
FROM: NASA
 |
| One of the Vanguard satellites is checked out at Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1958. Vanguard 1, the world’s first solar-powered satellite, launched on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) 1958. It was designed to test the launch capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle and the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit. Vanguard 1 was the second U.S. satellite in orbit, following Explorer 1, and remains the oldest artificial object orbiting Earth to this day. Vanguard began as a program at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington and transferred over to NASA (along with many of its personnel) after the agency was founded by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. Image Credit: NASA. |
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