Friday, August 31, 2012
DRIVE FOR SCHOOL SUPPLIES LED BY SOLDIER
Army Sgt. Johnny Merical puts together a display of donated school supplies at Mae Stevens Elementary School in Copperas Cove, Texas, Aug. 22, 2012. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Richard Wrigley
Face of Defense: Soldier Leads Drive for School Supplies
By Army Sgt. Richard Wrigley
1st Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division
FORT HOOD, Texas, Aug. 29, 2012 - A 1st Cavalry Division soldier here headed a fundraiser to provide school supplies for the Mae Stevens Elementary school in Copperas Cove, Texas.
"It's about giving back to a community that has given so much to you," said Army Sgt. Johnny Merical, a CH-47 Chinook helicopter repairer for Company B, 615th Aviation Support Battalion, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade.
After more than a month of collecting donations, and with help from other soldiers in his platoon, Merical bought school supplies and presented them to the school Aug. 22.
Merical and his fellow soldiers set up a display of the new school supplies in the school's gymnasium, and members of the community -- along with children, parents and faculty members -- came by to hear him explain why he led the drive.
"I've been here almost six years, and have lived here the whole time," he said. "I'm leaving now, but the community has supported me whenever I needed it, and the school district really looked out for my family when they allowed my children to stay in Mae Stevens, even though the rezoning could have forced them to go to a different school."
While this is the biggest volunteer effort Merical has undertaken, he is no stranger to volunteer work, said Army Capt. Nicholaus Cortez, a platoon leader in Company B, 615th ASB.
"He's done a lot of volunteering for the unit and the surrounding community," Cortez said. "When I think of Sergeant Merical, I think of selfless service."
The captain added that Merical's professionalism and work ethic are unparalleled at his level in the platoon.
The school's students and their families were in dire need of the supplies, Merical said. Joe Burns, the superintendent for the Copperas Cove Independent School District, agreed.
"About 63 percent of this campus' student population consists of kids who receive free or reduced lunches," he explained. "This means that a lot of the families that have kids who attend here simply don't have the resources to provide [the children] with all the things they need for school. This donation Sergeant Merical put together ... will go a long, long way to meeting the needs of those families."
Another school district official talked about how donations will benefit the students as they begin this school year.
"Many of these students are used to getting hand-me-down materials," said Rick Kirkpatrick, the deputy superintendent. "Just imagine how happy these students will be to have a brand-new notebook or binder this year."
Merical said he hopes that his and his fellow soldiers' efforts to help will have a lasting impact.
"My family and I are about to leave, but the good that this has done for the community will last much longer than that," he said.
SEC. OF LABOR SOLIS ANNOUNCES $75.7 MILLION IN YOUTHBUILD GRANTS
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABORSecretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announces $75.7 million in YouthBuild grants for programs nationwide
74 programs across 28 states and the District of Columbia receive funding
PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today announced more than $75 million in YouthBuild grants to help out-of-school youth earn a high school or General Educational Development diploma while learning critical occupational skills in construction, health care, information technology and other fields.
"YouthBuild offers young people the opportunity to earn academic and industry-recognized credentials, practice the skills they'll need to succeed at work, and experience what it means to contribute to their own success and that of their communities," said Secretary Solis.
The grants range from $700,000 to $1.1 million each and together will fund 74 YouthBuild programs in 28 states and the District of Columbia. They will help nearly 5,000 young people obtain the certifications and skills necessary to achieve economic self-sufficiency. Including today's grantees, the Labor Department now actively funds 127 YouthBuild programs around the country.
The YouthBuild grants announced today are the first awarded under new program regulations published in February 2012, which expand occupational skills training beyond construction to include fast-growing industries such as health care and information technology. The construction skills training programs funded teach valuable skills to participants who build or rehabilitate housing for low-income or homeless individuals and families in their communities. The non-construction skills training programs funded include leadership development and community service elements to ensure that youth maintain a connection to their communities through service and volunteerism.
YouthBuild is a nonresidential, community-based alternative education program that provides classroom instruction and occupational skills training to at-risk individuals ages 16-24. Many participants have been in the juvenile justice system, are aging out of foster care, have dropped out of high school, or are otherwise at-risk of failing to reach key educational milestones and opportunities that lead to career fulfillment.
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING AUGUST 25, 2012
| FROM: U.S. LABOR DEPARTMENTUNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending August 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 374,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure of 374,000. The 4-week moving average was 370,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 368,750. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending August 18, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 18, was 3,316,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,321,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,321,500, an increase of 9,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,312,500. The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent during the week ending August 18, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,103,455, a decrease of 65,115 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.8 percent and the volume was 3,473,182. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 11 was 5,532,245, a decrease of 62,253 from the previous week. Extended Benefits were only available in Idaho during the week ending August 11. Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,291 in the week ending August 18, an increase of 145 from the prior week. There were 2,611 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 22 from the preceding week. There were 17,558 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending August 11, an increase of 102 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 38,976, an increase of 489 from the prior week. States reported 2,273,317 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending August 11, a decrease of 53,318 from the prior week. There were 3,118,042 persons claiming EUC in the comparable week in 2011. EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity. The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending August 11 were in Puerto Rico (4.4), theVirgin Islands (4.1), Pennsylvania (3.9), New Jersey (3.8), Connecticut (3.6), Alaska (3.6), California (3.4), Rhode Island (3.1), New York (3.0), and Nevada (3.0). The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending August 18 were in Michigan (+2,383), Florida (+1,558), Colorado (+781), South Carolina (+774), and Texas (+517), while the largest decreases were in California (-5,549), Ohio (-1,379), Oregon (-1,098), Wisconsin (-539), and Virginia (-480).
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DATA FOR REGULAR STATE PROGRAMS
INITIAL CLAIMS FILED IN FEDERAL PROGRAMS (UNADJUSTED)
PERSONS CLAIMING UI BENEFITS IN ALL PROGRAMS (UNADJUSTED)
FOOTNOTES SA - Seasonally Adjusted Data, NSA - Not Seasonally Adjusted Data 1 - Prior year is comparable to most recent data. 2 - Most recent week used covered employment of 127,495,952 as denominator. 3 - EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity. Tier-specific EUC data can be found here: http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/persons.xls 4 - Information on the EB program can be found here: http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/extenben.asp 5 - Some states maintain additional benefit programs for those claimants who exhaust regular, extended and emergency benefits. Information on states that participate, and the extent of benefits paid, can be found starting on page 4-5 of this link: http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2010/special.pdf 6 - Information on STC/Worksharing can be found starting on page 4-9 of the following link: http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2010/special.pdf |
VIGIALANT EAGLE 12: INTERNATIONAL EXERCISE TO HANDLE TERRORIST HIJACKINGS
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
NORAD, Russia Train to Confront Terrorist HijackingsBy Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30, 2012 - It was a scene unthinkable even 30 years ago as U.S., Canadian and Russian militaries worked together this week at the North American Aerospace Command headquarters to confront a common enemy: terrorist hijackers.
That's exactly what happened during Vigilant Eagle 12, the third exercise of its kind designed to promote collaboration in detecting hijacked aircraft and scrambling military jets to intercept and escort them to safety.
This year's three-day exercise was computer-based, with participants at the NORAD headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; and at two bases in Russia.
The scenario involved commercial airliners on international flights that had been seized by terrorists, Air Force Brig. Gen. Richard W. Scobee, NORAD's deputy operations director, told reporters as the exercise wrapped up yesterday. One simulated hijacking took off from Alaska and was headed for Russian airspace; the other originated in Russia and was bound for the United States.
The scenarios required NORAD – the U.S.-Canada command that safeguards U.S. skies under Operation Noble Eagle -- and the Russian air force to go through the procedures they would use to dispatch fighter jets to investigate and track the aircraft heading toward each other's airspace. At that point, they handed off the missions to the other to complete.
Applying lessons learned during last year's exercise, which involved actual aircraft, the participants worked through escort and handoff procedures using their different communications, command-and-control and air traffic control systems, Scobee explained.
To complicate the scenarios, and to reflect what assets might be available during a real-life hijacking, they had to work without input from the U.S. Air Force's Airborne Warning and Control System or Russia's A-50 Beriev system.
NORAD and Russia share surprisingly similar tactics, techniques and procedures, Scobee said yesterday during a post exercise news conference. "It is remarkable that they are so similar," he said. "Even though we developed them separately, we see the problem similarly."
Subtle differences became transparent during the exercise, Scobee said, because of the "clean handoff" as one command handed the mission and authority over to the other. "It was like a handshake," he said.
The unifying factor, Scobee said, was an understanding that actions taken could mean the difference between life and death for passengers. "That is the No. 1 thing – and the Russian Federation is just like NORAD [and] the United States and Canada," Scobee said. "We want to protect our citizens, and that is our primary goal."
Scobee and Maj. Gen. Sergey Dronov of the Russian air force, who led Russia's delegation in Colorado, praised the professionalism of both the NORAD and Russian militaries and their shared appreciation of the importance of the mission.
"Right now, we have a common enemy, and that is terrorism," Dronov said through an interpreter.
"Our countries are uniquely plagued by terrorism," agreed Scobee. "And this exercise gives us an opportunity to work together, to learn from each other about how we are dealing with those kinds of events."
The goal, he said, is to increase the complexity of the exercises, refining concepts and procedures in simulation, then applying them in the sky the following year.
"Next year, we will go back and use lessons learned from this exercise and apply them to another live-fly exercise," he said. "It will be one of those things where we learn from each other and keep building on the exercises we have."
Future exercises will continue to integrate new curve balls that keep participants on their toes while reflecting how adaptable adversaries operate, Scobee said.
"It is a constant chess game, because just like we don't keep our tactics stagnant, terrorists do the same thing," he said. "They are always thinking of another way to try to get past our systems of control. So we always have to think about adjusting our tactics, our training and our procedures."
Dronov said he was impressed during this year's exercise by how quickly the participants dealt with challenging scenarios thrown their way. "They are also walking away with some priceless experience of interaction with each other," he said. "I am confident that in the future, this cooperation will continue."
The Vigilant Eagle series stems from a 2003 agreement between the U.S. and Russian presidents to promote closer cooperation as they move beyond the Cold War era, Scobee explained. The threat of international hijackers served as a foundation to help advance that effort, resulting in a relevant exercise program that helps address a recognized threat.
"The populations of the United States and Canada and the Russian Federation should hear this loud and clear: We are here to ensure their safety," Scobee said. "Not only do we practice here at NORAD multiple times a day for this to happen, but now we are also practicing with our international partners to ensure that the air systems of all our countries are safe. And then, if something does go wrong, that we are there to take action."
This helps to provide a unified front against terrorist hijackers like those who attacked the United States on 9/11, giving birth to the Noble Eagle mission, he said.
"We will never be helpless again," Scobee added. "[The public] should hear that loud and clear."
SEC CHARGES BROKERS WITH DEFRAUDING BRAZILIAN PUBLIC PENSION FUNDS
FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
SEC Charges Brokers for Defrauding Brazilian Public Pension Funds in Markup SchemeThe Securities and Exchange Commission today filed a civil fraud action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against two former brokers in Miami for overcharging customers approximately $36 million by using hidden markup fees on structured note transactions.
According to the SEC's complaint, from 2006 to 2009, Fabrizio Neves conducted the markup scheme while working at the broker-dealer LatAm Investments LLC, which is no longer in business. He was assisted by Jose Luna. The pair defrauded two Brazilian public pension funds and a Colombian institutional investor that purchased from LatAm the structured notes issued by major U.S. and European commercial banks. Instead of purchasing the notes for his customers' accounts for prices around the banks' issuance amounts - which totaled approximately $70 million - in most transactions Neves first traded the notes with one or more accounts in the name of offshore nominee entities that he and Luna controlled. Neves then sold the notes to his customers with undisclosed markups as high as 67 percent. Neves had no reasonable basis to mark up the prices that significantly.
The SEC alleges that to conceal the excessive markups that Neves charged customers, Neves directed Luna to alter the banks' structured note term sheets in half of the transactions by either whiting out or electronically cutting and pasting the markup amounts over the actual price and trade information, and then sending the forged documents to customers.
The SEC further alleges that as a result of the markup scheme, the Brazilian funds overpaid by approximately $24 million and the Colombian institutional investor overpaid by approximately $12 million due to the undisclosed, excessive fees. Neves enjoyed a financial boon from the scheme as LatAm paid him millions of dollars in inflated sales commissions for the structured note transactions that he made at inflated prices. Luna received hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated salary and commissions from LatAm and tens of thousands of dollars in additional compensation from a company that Neves controlled.
As alleged in the SEC's complaint, Neves and Luna violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and aided and abetted LatAm's violations of Section 15(c) of the Exchange Act. The SEC's complaint seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, financial penalties, and injunctive relief against Neves and Luna to enjoin them from future violations of the federal securities laws.
Luna has agreed to the entry of a judgment ordering him to pay disgorgement of $923,704.85, prejudgment interest of $241,643.51, and a penalty amount to be determined. The judgment permanently enjoins him from violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Luna neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC's complaint. Luna also agreed to settle a related SEC administrative proceeding by agreeing to be barred from association with any broker, dealer, investment advisor, municipal securities dealer, municipal advisor, transfer agent, or credit rating agency.
The SEC's investigation was conducted in the Miami Regional Office by Laura R. Smith, Senior Counsel, and Fernando Torres, Senior Regional Accountant, under the supervision of Jason R. Berkowitz, Assistant Regional Director. Edward D. McCutcheon, Senior Trial Counsel, will lead the SEC's litigation.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE PREPAREDNESS
U.S. sailors and Marines aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan load humanitarian assistance supplies onto an HH-60H Seahawk helicopter in the Pacific Ocean, March 19, 2011 in support of support Operation Tomodachi. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Nicholas A. Groesch
Center Strives to Build Humanitarian Assistance Preparedness
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
CAMP SMITH, Hawaii, Aug. 27, 2012 - A unique organization within U.S. Pacific Command is gathering lessons in natural disaster response from around the world and applying them to help nations improve disaster preparedness and resilience.
The Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance stood up here in 1994, two years after Hurricane Iniki – the most powerful hurricane to strike Hawaii in recorded history -- devastated Kauai.
With three subsequent hurricanes and two tropical storms hitting the Hawaiian Islands over a one-year period, the center was established to improve the state, military and interagency responses, Army Col. Phillip Mead, the center's director, told American Forces Press Service.
The center has a unique mission within the Defense Department of focusing solely on improving disaster response, not just within the Pacom area of responsibility, but also around the world.
"Our authorities are to train, educate, conduct research and to disseminate best practices, not only through our organization, but also through partnerships within the Department of Defense and also with our key allies and partners," Mead explained.
Nowhere in the world are natural disasters as prevalent as in the Asia-Pacific region. It sits on the earthquake-prone "Ring of Fire" and is tormented by hurricanes, cyclones, tsunamis, floods and mudslides.
"It is not a matter of if they are going to have the next disaster," Mead said. "It is really when. If there is something common across the [area of responsibility], it is that there is going to be another disaster."
With natural disasters increasing in number as well as magnitude, Mead emphasized the importance of building a response capacity before they strike. "There is a definite need to address this challenge," he said. "There is a need to work together and ... share good ideas and information in order to build resiliency across the region."
That starts with education and information-sharing, which the Center of Excellence staff promotes through forums that bring together officials from across regional governments and their militaries to plan coordinated, effective responses.
Seminars and panel discussions include experts from the United States and regional partners with proven records in dealing with natural disasters.
Several countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, have become experts in preparing for and responding to cyclones and catastrophic flooding, Mead noted. "So they have a tremendous amount of knowledge with regard to building systems, not only within the local government level, but at the national level on how to handle these specific types of natural disasters," he said.
Meanwhile, based on its long history of responding to earthquakes, Japan has emerged as a regional expert in marshaling an effective whole-of-government response. That expertise was on full display in March 2011, when Japan suffered a devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake that triggered a tsunami and nuclear disaster.
Japan, too, has learned through trial and error. When a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Kobe in 1995, Japan's military leaders quickly realized they didn't have the authorities required to launch a speedy response. Japan fixed that, and after the so-called "3/11" triple disaster rocked the country last year, some 10,000 Japanese Self Defense Force troops were able to respond within the first six or eight hours, Mead noted. Within a couple of days, that number had soared to about 80,000.
"That could not have occurred if the Japanese did not learn a lesson and then rectify it," Mead said.
The Center of Excellence staff, which served as advisors both from its headquarters here and embedded with U.S. Forces Japan during the Operation Tomodachi response, is compiling lessons learned about that and other disaster responses in a new developmental repository that Mead hopes will improve future responses.
The repository, once complete, will include input from throughout the region. "I believe that, as we capture lessons learned from a U.S. perspective, that there is also a tremendous amount of lessons learned within our allies and partners across South and Southeast Asia, as well as Northeast Asia, that we need to capture and disseminate," Mead said.
In support of that effort, the center will publish a journal in October on civil-military lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake, he said. Among the authors are representatives of the Japanese government, including the Defense Ministry, as well as from the United Nations and partner nations that responded to the crisis.
While marshaling regional preparedness, the Center for Excellence also is working to build relationships with interagency and nongovernmental entities that would be part of a disaster response.
Pacom recently agreed to partner with U.S. business interests and nongovernmental organizations to support disaster preparedness and coordinate responses. The agreement, signed in November at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, joins the command with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Ford Foundation, the University of Hawaii and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other groups in the effort.
Meanwhile, to ensure joint force commanders and their staffs are prepared if called on to lead a real-life response, the Center of Excellence staff incorporates disaster scenarios and role players into Pacific Command's exercise program.
The idea, Mead said, is for them to work through the challenges – equipment interoperability, communications and information-sharing, both within U.S. staffs and with partner nations – before a real crisis.
"We develop events that get injected during the exercises to stress out the joint force commander and staff, forcing them to go through a very deliberate decision process," he said. "And all those issues you work during the exercise will be leveraged during a regional response to a natural disaster."
By helping to build regional resilience, the Center of Excellence staff hopes to improve partners' ability to respond to all but the most devastating disasters themselves, or with help from their neighbors.
That, Mead said, reduces their need for Defense Department support, enabling DOD and manpower to remain fixed on their primary security mission.
Using the past year as a gauge, Mead said the effort appears to be paying off. Of 80 declared disasters in the Pacific area of responsibility during the past 12 months, the U.S. military was called in to support just three.
"When [regional nations] are successful in coming together to support each other, it is a win-win for the state that is affected, a win-win for their partners that are able to their neighbors, and it is also a win for DOD," he said.
DROUGHT DISASTER 2012: ASSISTANCE TO AGRIBUSINESSES
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Extends Emergency Grazing to Assist Ranchers Impacted by Drought
Secretary Designates 128 Additional Counties Due to Drought
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2012-As the Obama Administration continues to support farmers and businesses impacted by the drought, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced a two-month extension for emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres, freeing up forage and feed for ranchers as they look to recover from this challenging time. This flexibility for ranchers marks the latest action by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide assistance to producers impacted by the drought, which has included opening CRP and other conservation acres to emergency haying and grazing, lowering the interest rate for emergency loans, and working with crop insurance companies to provide flexibility to farmers.
"The Obama Administration is committed to helping the thousands of farm families and businesses who continue to struggle with this historic drought," said Vilsack. "It is also important that our farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses have the tools they need to be successful in the long term. That's why President Obama and I continue calling on Congress to pass a comprehensive, multi-year Food, Farm and Jobs Bill that will continue to strengthen American agriculture in the years to come, ensure comprehensive disaster assistance for livestock, dairy and specialty crop producers, and provide certainty for farmers and ranchers."
The Secretary today also designated 147 additional counties in 14 states as natural disaster areas-128 counties in 10 states due to drought. In the past seven weeks, USDA has designated 1,892 unduplicated counties in 38 states as disaster areas-1,820 due to drought-while USDA officials have fanned out to more than a dozen drought-affected states as part of a total U.S. government effort to offer support and assistance to those in need.
To assist producers, USDA is permitting farmers and ranchers in drought stricken states that have been approved for emergency grazing to extend grazing on CRP land through Nov. 30, 2012, without incurring an additional CRP rental payment reduction. The period normally allowed for emergency grazing lasts through Sept. 30. The extension applies to general CRP practices (details below) and producers must submit a request to their Farm Service Agency county office indicating the acreage to be grazed. USDA's continuing efforts to add feed to the marketplace benefits all livestock producers, including dairy, during this drought. Expanded haying and grazing on CRP acres, along with usage of cover crops as outlined last week by the Secretary, has begun providing much needed feed to benefit all livestock, including dairy.
At the direction of the President, Secretary Vilsack is helping coordinate an Administration-wide response that has included: the National Credit Union Administration's increased capacity for lending to customers including farmers; the U.S. Department of Transportation's emergency waivers for federal truck weight regulations and hours of service requirements to get help to drought-stricken communities; and the Small Business Administration's issuance of 71 agency declarations in 32 states covering 1,636 counties, providing a pathway for small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives and non-farm small businesses that are economically affected by the drought in their community to apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). President Obama also stressed the need for the entire Administration to continue to look at further steps it can take to ease the pain of this historic drought.
Over the past seven weeks, USDA has announced:
Intent to purchase up to $170 million of pork, lamb, chicken, and catfish for federal food nutrition assistance programs, including food banks, to help relieve pressure on American livestock producers and bring the nation's meat supply in line with demand. Allowed emergency loans to be made earlier in the season. Intent to file special provisions with the federal crop insurance program to allow haying or grazing of cover crops without impacting the insurability of planted 2013 spring crops. Authorized up to $5 million in grants to evaluate and demonstrate agricultural practices that help farmers and ranchers adapt to drought. Granted a temporary variance from the National Organic Program's pasture practice standards for organic ruminant livestock producers in 16 states in 2012. Authorized $16 million in existing funds from its Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to target states experiencing exceptional and extreme drought. Initiated transfer of $14 million in unobligated program funds into the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) to help farmers and ranchers rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters and for carrying out emergency water conservation measures in periods of severe drought. Authorized haying and grazing of Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) easement areas in drought-affected areas where haying and grazing is consistent with conservation of wildlife habitat and wetlands. Lowered the reduction in the annual rental payment to producers on CRP acres used for emergency haying or grazing from 25 percent to 10 percent in 2012. Simplified the Secretarial disaster designation process and reduced the time it takes to designate counties affected by disasters by 40 percent.
The U.S. Drought Monitor indicates that 63 percent of the nation's hay acreage is in an area experiencing drought, while approximately 72 percent of the nation's cattle acreage is in an area experiencing drought. Approximately 86 percent of the U.S. corn is within an area experiencing drought, down from a peak of 89 percent on July 24, and 83 percent of the U.S. soybeans are in a drought area, down from a high of 88 percent on July 24. During the week ending August 26, USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service reported that 52 percent of U.S. corn and 38 percent of the soybeans were rated in very poor to poor condition, while rangeland and pastures rated very poor to poor remained at 59 percent for the fourth consecutive week.
ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER'S STATEMENT ON VOTER ID LAW COURT RULING
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICEThursday, August 30, 2012
Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on Decision in Texas v. Holder
The Attorney General released the following statement on the ruling today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Texas v. Holder, the state’s proposed voter ID law:
"The court’s decision today and the decision earlier this week on the Texas redistricting plans not only reaffirm - but help protect - the vital role the Voting Rights Act plays in our society to ensure that every American has the right to vote and to have that vote counted.
"The Department of Justice opposed preclearance of the Texas voter ID law because of the harm it would cause minority voters across the state of Texas. Under the proposed law, many of those without the required voter identification would be forced to travel great distances to get one – and some would have to pay for the documents they might need to do so. The legislature rejected reasonable efforts to mitigate these burdens. We are pleased with the court's decision to deny preclearance because of these racially discriminatory effects.
"The Justice Department’s efforts to uphold and enforce voting rights will remain aggressive and even-handed. When a jurisdiction meets its burden of proving that a proposed voting change would not have a racially discriminatory purpose or effect, the Department will not oppose that change -- when a jurisdiction fails to meet that burden, we will object."
ISAF NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN FOR AUGUST 30, 2012
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Helicopter Crash Kills 2 ISAF Members in Afghanistan
Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30, 2012 - Two International Security Assistance Force service members died following a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan today, military officials reported.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, officials said.
According to operational reporting, there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash. It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
In operations today around Afghanistan:
-- An Afghan and coalition security force detained two suspected insurgents during an operation to arrest a Taliban insurgent in the Hisarak district of Nangarhar province.
-- A combined force detained several suspects during a search for a Taliban leader in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province. The sought-after Taliban leader organizes insurgent operations against Afghan and coalition forces throughout the district.
-- In the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, an Afghan-led, coalition-supported force detained numerous suspects and seized multiple weapons during an operation to arrest a Taliban explosives supplier.
-- Also in the Panjwai district, a combined force detained several suspects during a search for a Taliban facilitator who provides improvised explosive devices and weapons to insurgents.
-- A combined force detained several suspects during a search for a Taliban leader in the Andar district of Ghazni province. The sought-after Taliban leader directs IED attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN FORECLOSURE RESCUE SCAM
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Las Vegas Man Pleads Guilty to Foreclosure Rescue Scam and Theft of Government Funds
WASHINGTON – A Las Vegas man pleaded guilty today to operating a foreclosure rescue scam that defrauded distressed homeowners who were struggling to pay their mortgages, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Alex P. Soria, 65, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Lloyd D. George in the District of Nevada to one count of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds in connection with a scheme to defraud homeowners who were behind on their mortgages.
According to court documents, Soria identified homeowners whose mortgage debt exceeded the value of their homes and charged them a fee purportedly to reduce the principal balance of their mortgages using money from the Department of the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Soria admitted in court that he lied to homeowners about his affiliation with several mortgage lenders and that he provided victims with fraudulent letters stating they had been approved for loans. Soria also admitted he falsely told victims that his loan program had been successful in the past and charged homeowners for loan modifications he knew he could not deliver. Court documents show that Soria concealed from homeowners the fact that the state of Nevada had issued a cease and desist order which legally prohibited him from working in the mortgage industry. Soria collected more than $100,000 in fees from distressed homeowners, many of whom lost their homes to foreclosure after Soria failed to deliver the loan modifications he promised.
As part of the same case, Soria also pleaded guilty to continuing to collect Social Security Disability Insurance benefits while at the same time receiving income from his foreclosure rescue operation. The Social Security Disability Insurance program is a federal program that replaces the wages of individuals who become unable to work due to a disability. Soria admitted to collecting more than $200,000 in disability benefits from 1990 to 2010 while at the same time receiving income that he concealed from the Social Security Administration.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Brian R. Young and Mary Ann McCarthy of the Justice Department Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by the Offices of Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Social Security Administration. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada assisted with the investigation and prosecution of this case.
RESULTS ANNOUNCED FROM MINE SAFETY INSPECTIONS
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
MSHA announces results of July impact inspections
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced that federal inspectors issued 262 citations, 19 orders and three safeguards during special impact inspections conducted at eight coal mines and five metal/nonmetal mines last month.The monthly inspections, which began in force in April 2010 following the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine, involve mines that merit increased agency attention and enforcement due to their poor compliance history or particular compliance concerns, including high numbers of violations or closure orders; frequent hazard complaints or hotline calls; plan compliance issues; inadequate workplace examinations; a high number of accidents, injuries or illnesses; fatalities; and adverse conditions such as increased methane liberation, faulty roof conditions and inadequate ventilation.
As an example from last month, MSHA conducted an impact inspection on July 17 at Rebco Coal Inc.'s Valley Mine No. 1 during the day shift. MSHA personnel captured and monitored the communication systems to prevent advance notification of the inspection. MSHA issued 54 citations and nine orders on the day of the inspection, followed by five more 104(b) withdrawal orders for the operator's failure to abate the outstanding violations.
Inspectors found violations related to inadequate examinations, the mine's ventilation plan and the maintenance of electric equipment. The operator failed to conduct pre-shift examinations of the belt conveyor entry prior to miners working and traveling in the area, as well as adequate on-shift examinations of the belt conveyor entries. Inspectors also found that the operator did not properly maintain electric face equipment and failed to conduct adequate electrical examinations. These cited conditions were extensive, having existed over several weekly electrical examinations, and posed serious dangers to miners.
The continuous mining machine was found cutting coal on the wrong side in conflict with the approved ventilation plan, and the area had only a third of the required amount of ventilation. Several water sprays on the machine were functioning with only half of the required water pressure, and the ventilation curtain used was not properly placed. Proper ventilation and controls for methane and respirable coal mine dust must be in place to prevent mine explosions and black lung disease.
Inspectors issued a failure-to-abate order during the impact inspection because the operator had not removed accumulations of combustible materials such as empty rock dust bags, empty wooden pallets, garbage in three crosscuts along the intake roadway and small trash piles at various crosscuts along the intake. The accumulation of the combustible materials standard has been cited 24 times in a two-year period at this mine. Five other failure-to-abate orders were issued because the operator had not corrected violations on the roof bolting machine's automated temporary roof support systems, section power center, roof bolter and fire suppression systems. Inspectors also observed two faulty circuit breakers and a broken receptacle latch on the power center, and six defects on the roof bolter. This impact inspection was the second conducted by MSHA at this mine which, effective Aug. 10, entered into nonproducing status.
"Mine operators have an obligation under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act to conduct thorough examinations of workplaces and equipment to find and fix hazards to protect miners," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "A failure to do so can expose miners to injury, illness and death. MSHA takes these failures to comply seriously and, on Aug. 6, issued new rules requiring more thorough operator examinations."
As a second example from last month, MSHA conducted another impact inspection on July 17 at Cobalt Coal Corp. Mining Inc.'s Westchester Mine in McDowell County, W.Va. The inspection party captured the phones to prevent advance notice of the inspection. Inspectors issued 47 enforcement actions, including one imminent danger order, 39 citations, six unwarrantable failure orders and one safeguard. This impact inspection was the mine's first.
An imminent danger order was issued when stray electrical current was detected on the frame of the section power center and the no. 2 shuttle car. The operator was cited for failing to maintain the underground electrical system in a safe operating condition. In total, 15 citations and orders were issued for not maintaining face equipment in permissible condition, as well as violations relating to electric equipment, trailing cables, grounding and underground high voltage distribution. The stray electrical current and other cited hazards could have electrocuted or seriously injured miners.
Westchester Mine also failed to conduct weekly examinations on the roof bolter, complete the examination of the conveyor belt in its entirety, and perform adequate examinations of the alternate escapeway between the belt drive and the working section. The inspectors observed hazardous conditions on the directional lifeline and tripping/stumbling hazards in the walkway directly under the lifeline. These conditions should have been discovered during examinations and then corrected to provide miners with safe passage in the alternate escapeway during a mine emergency and while working underground.
The operator also was cited for violations of standards covering roof and rib control, fire suppression and ventilation. Of 17 ventilation violations, one was not following the approved ventilation/methane dust control plan where the air quantity in the last open crosscut was approximately one-fourth of what is required. Inspectors found water accumulation up to 11 inches deep in the primary intake escapeway for a distance of 40 feet in an area with a mining height of 58 inches. These conditions, if left uncorrected, affect the effectiveness of the mine's ventilation system to control and remove methane, respirable dust and other contaminants from the miners' working environment.
Since April 2010, MSHA has conducted 477 impact inspections, which have resulted in a total of 8,545 citations, 852 orders and 36 safeguards.
GEN. MARTIN E. DEMPSEY LEADS DELEGATION TO THE PARALYMPICS IN LONDON
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSEChairman Leads U.S. Delegation for Opening of Paralympic Games
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service
LONDON, Aug. 29, 2012 - A U.S. delegation led by Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived here yesterday ahead of opening ceremonies for the 2012 Paralympic Games and visited today with Paralympic athletes.
Members of the delegation toured the Sports Dock at the University of East London campus, viewing one of the facilities athletes are using to prepare for the games.
"The biggest thing that we're doing is we're here to support our athletes," said Kareem Dale, special assistant to President Barack Obama for disability policy. "The president and the entire administration are behind them, rooting for them and cheering them on."
Dale, who is blind, had a message for the 227 U.S. Paralympians competing here.
"The message that not only I would send, but the president would send, is that we know, given the opportunity, our ... Paralympic athletes can achieve anything that they desire," he said. "And for those aspiring Paralympians, they should know that their country supports [them, too]. The people of America support you, and we believe in you."
Dale noted the current group of wounded warriors and other athletes with disabilities who are Paralympians already are achieving great things. Wounded warriors served their country extremely well, he added, so Americans need to make sure they are serving them.
"Certainly, one of the ways is sports," Dale said. "[It] is such a great tool so that people can get back in the swing of life, feel useful, feel productive and continue building on that team spirit that they learn in the military. It's just a great way for people to rehab and to get back into the swing of life.
"So for our wounded warriors," he continued, "we're going to continue to support them when they come home." Opportunities like the Paralympics help wounded warriors integrate back into society, he added.
Lisa Jackson, administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, also is part of the U.S. delegation. "It's an incredible honor to be able to represent the administration and all folks back home who would love to be here to cheer on our men and women," she said.
Jackson said she is excited to be able to support all the U.S. athletes.
"I will be in the stands cheering our athletes on when they enter the stadium, and be able to witness firsthand the excitement that comes with the anticipation of letting them get out and do what they do best, which is compete and represent our country."
STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL REMARKS ON THE INFORMATION AGE AND ARMS CONTROL
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Arms Control in the Information Age: Harnessing "Sisu"
Remarks
Rose Gottemoeller
Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security
Finnish Institute for International Affairs
Helsinki, Finland
August 29, 2012
Thank you for inviting me to speak here at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs. This is my first visit to Finland and it is an absolutely lovely place. This nation has been a strong partner for the United States in pushing for a safer, more secure world, whether through diplomacy, peacekeeping or arms control efforts.
I would like to start out by saying that this is not a policy speech; this is an ideas speech. The United States has an ambitious arms control agenda and as such, we are doing some big thinking. I know Finns are no strangers to big thinking, so I think I am in the right place to discuss arms control in the information age.
The Challenges Ahead
It has been over 3 years since President Obama made his now-famous speech in Prague, in which he stated that the United States would seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. That speech was not just a rhetorical gesture; the Prague Agenda is a step by step path to the elimination of nuclear weapons. For the first two years of my service in the Administration, I worked on one step in that path – the New START Treaty. I am happy to report that Treaty has now been in force for over 18 months and its implementation is going very well. Both the United States and Russia are benefitting from the enhanced predictability it provides, which in turn enhances security for both nations and the world.
In the context of moving the President’s overall nuclear policy agenda forward, the entry into force of New START is just the beginning. In order to reach our goals, we are going to have to think bigger and bolder. Indeed, persistence, determination and willpower will be important to the next steps in arms control. I believe the Finns have the perfect term for what it will take: "sisu."
As we look towards the next steps in reductions, it is clear that there will be new challenges facing us. We have not tried to limit non-deployed or non-strategic weapons before, which President Obama called for the day he signed New START. We are thinking about how we would verify reductions in those categories and people have different ideas about what terms like ‘non-strategic’ even mean. Even more complicated: the lower the numbers of nuclear weapons and the smaller the components, the harder it will be to effectively verify compliance.
New Concepts
With this is mind, I have been challenging myself to think about how we use the knowledge from our past together with the new tools of the information age. The seed of an idea was planted in my mind in Geneva during the New START negotiations. As we considered verification mechanisms for New START, it occurred to me that, by and large, we were still thinking about verification through the lens of the 1970’s. The advancements in technology since then have been nothing short of revolutionary, but it wasn’t quite clear how to incorporate these advancements into an effective verification regime.
It was actually a conversation with my two tech-guru sons over the dinner table that helped to further develop my thoughts on the subject. We discussed the incorporation of open source technologies – including social networking – into the verification of arms control and nonproliferation treaties.
Our new reality is a smaller, increasingly-networked world where the average citizen connects to other citizens in cyberspace hundreds of times each day. These people exchange and share ideas on a wide variety of topics: why not put this vast problem-solving entity to good use?
Today, any event, anywhere on the planet, could be broadcast globally in seconds. That means it is harder to hide things. When it is harder to hide things, it is easier to be caught. The neighborhood gaze is a powerful tool, and it can help us make sure that countries are following the rules of arms control treaties and agreements.
I look out at a crowd like you and realize that I don’t need to convince you that the technologies of the 21st century are changing the world as we know it. Finland has been a leading force in innovation in the information age. Over 95% of Finns have access to the internet and broadband access is now considered a legal right. It was not too many generations ago that Finland was a primarily agrarian state and now it is an economic powerhouse, with cutting-edge research and development. I am always amazed that Nokia went from making rubber boots to revolutionizing the communications world with its inexpensive and efficient cellular phones. It is this kind of creativity and adaptability that will be needed as we think about how to verify reductions going forward.
Of course, I should caveat that this is not actually a new idea. Renowned physicist and Nobel-laureate Joseph Rotblat proposed the concept of involving everyday citizens in the verification of arms control agreements back in the 1960’s. But without the tools to "crowd-source" verification, the idea languished. In the 1990s, Joseph Rotblat revived the idea of establishing an international system for public reporting and whistle-blowing as a complement to technological verification. Rotblat termed this concept "societal verification," to reflect the idea that entire communities of non-experts could be involved. While Rotblat and others saw that the new global political conditions could be fertile ground for cultivating societal verification, there was still a need for technical tools. Today, we may finally have those tools.
New Possibilities
So now, armed with an idea and technological capacity, we can start to think about the possibilities.
Social verification can take place on a scale that moves from active participation, like public reporting and crowd-sourced mapping and analysis, or to passive participation, like ubiquitous sensing or data mining and analytics.
On this scale, the open source information technologies in use can improve arms control verification in at least two ways: either by generating new information, or by analyzing information that already is out there.
Let me give you some examples, to give you an idea what I’m talking about.
In 2009, in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the Internet, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held a competition where 10 red weather balloons were moored at visible fixed locations around the continental United States. The first team to identify the location of all 10 balloons won a sizable cash prize--$40,000. Over 4,300 teams composed of an estimated 2 million people from 25 countries took part in the challenge. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won the challenge, identifying all of the balloon locations in an astonishing time of 8 hours and 52 minutes. Of course, to win in such a short time or complete the challenge at all, the MIT team did not "find" the balloons themselves. They tapped into social networks using a unique incentive structure that not only incentivized people to identify a balloon location, but also incentivized people to recruit others to the team. Their win showed the enormous potential of social networking, and also demonstrated how incentives can motivate large populations to work toward a common goal.
Social networking is already being incorporated into local safety systems. RAVEN911—the Regional Asset Verification & Emergency Network—is a multilayer mapping tool that supports emergency first response in Cincinnati, Ohio. RAVEN911 uses live data feeds and intelligence gathered through Twitter to provide details that cannot be given on an everyday geographic map, such as the location of downed electric power lines and flooded roads. Authorities are cooperating with communities in Southwestern Ohio, Southeastern Indiana and Northern Kentucky to develop and implement this emergency management system, in order to help fire departments assess the risks and potential dangers before arriving on the scene of an accident. This open source system gives emergency responders a common operating picture, to better execute time-critical activities, such as choosing evacuation routes out of flooded areas.
In addition to collecting useful data, the ability to identify patterns and trends in social networks could aid the arms control verification process. In the most basic sense, social media can draw attention to both routine and abnormal events. We may be able to mine Twitter data to understand where strange effluents are flowing, to recognize if a country has an illegal chemical weapons program or to recognize unexpected patterns of industrial activity at a missile production plant. In this way, we may be able to ensure better compliance with existing arms control treaties and regimes, such as the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Now, how could approaches such as this work, specifically in the arms control context?
Let’s just imagine that a country, to establish its bona fides in a deep nuclear reduction environment, wishes to open itself to a verification challenge, recruiting its citizens and their iPhones to help prove that it is not stashing extra missiles in the woods, for example, or a fissile material production reactor in the desert. Of course, some form of international supervision would likely be required, to ensure the legitimacy of the challenge and its procedures. And we would have to consider whether such a challenge could cope with especially covert environments, such as caves or deep underground facilities.
Sound far-fetched? Just consider that even today, tablets such as your iPad have tiny accelerometers installed – that’s what tells the tablet which way is up. But the accelerometers also have the capability to detect small shakes, like an earth tremor.
Now, imagine a whole community of tablet users, all containing an "earth shake" app, dispersed randomly around the country, and connected into a centralized network node. An individual shake could be something as simple as bumping your iPad on a table. But a whole network of tablets, all shaking at virtually the same time? That tells you that something happened; knowing where all the tablets are and the exact time they started shaking can help you to geo-locate the event. It could be an earthquake, or it could be an illegal nuclear test. Of course, other sensors and analysis would have to be brought to bear to figure out the difference.
This is called "ubiquitous sensing," that is, collecting data and basic analysis through sensors on smartphones and other mobile-computing devices. These sensors would allow citizens to contribute to detecting potential treaty violations, and could build a bridge to a stronger private-public partnership in the realm of treaty verification.
The Challenges Ahead
Of course, for any of this to work, there are technical, legal and political barriers ahead that would need to be overcome—no easy feat to be sure.
On the technical front, it would be necessary to work together to make sure nations cannot spoof or manipulate the public verification challenges that they devise. We also have to bear in mind there could be limitations based on the freedoms available to the citizens of a given country.
On the legal front, there are many questions that must be confronted about active vs. passive participation. How can we prevent governments from extracting information from citizens without their knowledge, or manipulating results collected in databases? Further, in some circumstances, how can active participants be sheltered from reproach by authorities? It may be possible, through careful handling and management, to mask sources, even if locations are public.
On the political front, we cannot assume that information will always be so readily available. As nations and private entities continue to debate the line between privacy and security, it is possible to imagine that we are living in a golden age of open source information that will be harder to take advantage of in future. In the end, the goal of using open source information technology and social networks should be to add to our existing arms control monitoring and verification capabilities, not to supersede them.
Joining Forces
Even with great ideas and fool-proof planning, another issue that we have to consider is: how do we create, organize and, when necessary, fund efforts such as these? Developing partnerships among governments, civil society groups, philanthropic organizations and private businesses will be the key to moving ahead.
We are just now starting to think about how governments can actively enlist their publics to help prove that they are in compliance with their arms control and nonproliferation obligations. To this end, on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of State launched the "Innovation in Arms Control Challenge" asking, "How Can the Crowd Support Arms Control Transparency Efforts?" We want to get ideas on if and how the everyday citizen can help support arms control transparency efforts. While the contest can only be won by U.S. citizens or permanent residents, we encourage anyone who is interested in the subject to participate.
The Future
As I said at the outset, this is not about policy; this is about coming up with the bold ideas that will shape policy in the future. As governments around the world work to enhance and expand our arms control and nonproliferation efforts, we will need your help to find new ways to use the amazing information tools at our disposal. It is increasingly apparent that we are going to need every tool we have, and many we have not yet developed or perhaps even thought of, to fulfill the Prague Agenda. We will need "sisu".
Thank you again for inviting me here to speak. I would now love to take some questions.
TRITON, NEPTUNE'S LARGEST MOON
FROM: NASA PHOTOS
Montage: Neptune and Triton
This computer generated montage shows Neptune as it would appear from a spacecraft approaching Triton, Neptune's largest moon. The wind and sublimation eroded south polar cap of Triton is shown at the bottom of the Triton image, a cryovolcanic terrain at the upper right, and the enigmatic "cantaloupe terrain" at the upper left. Voyager 2 flew by Triton and Neptune on Aug. 29, 1989.
Credit: NASA
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