U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT POSTING ON REDUCING GUN VIOLENCE

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Reducing Gun Violence and Preventing Future Tragedies
February 13th, 2013 Posted byTracy Russo
The following post appears courtesy of Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole. It was adapted from recent remarks made to the National District Attorneys Association Winter Conference.

Gun violence has touched every state, county, city and town in America. While we have seen the devastating examples of it over the years, since December’s horrific events in Newtown, Connecticut, the need to address this problem has been center stage. And we at the department — led by the Attorney General – have been working with Vice President Biden and agencies and departments across the Obama Administration to formulate concrete, common-sense recommendations for reducing gun violence and preventing future tragedies.

The Administration has proposed a range of legislative remedies – along with 23 executive actions – to address mass shootings and reduce gun violence. The Department of Justice is working to implement a number of those executive actions.

For example, we are working to strengthen the national background check system by addressing gaps in the federal and state records currently available in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Those gaps significantly hinder the ability of NICS to quickly confirm whether a prospective purchaser is prohibited from acquiring a firearm as a felon.

There are also still 12 states with fewer than 10 mental health records in the system. To help fix this problem, we are providing $25 million in grants to states to assist them in finding ways to make more records available, especially mental health records.

We are also making it possible for local law enforcement officers to run a full NICS background check before returning a firearm to someone after the criminal investigation is finished. For example, when a stolen firearm recovered by police is returned to its original owner, the police need to be sure they are not returning that weapon to a prohibited person.

In addition, the ATF will soon be publishing instructions on how to trace recovered firearms. All it takes is a computer and an internet connection. We encourage local law enforcement officers to do this every time they recover a firearm. ATF will also be publishing an annual report on nationwide lost and stolen gun data. Making this data available gives us a great opportunity for us to work together, at all levels of government to use our limited resources as effectively as possible, to make our communities safer.

We’re also taking a hard look at our federal laws and our enforcement priorities to ensure that we are doing everything possible at the federal level to keep firearms away from traffickers and others who should not have them.

And while most of our efforts will be focused on keeping guns out of the wrong hands, we also want to help those on the ground prevent and mitigate violent situations when they do occur. To this end, the FBI will be providing a new specialized training course for active shooter situations for law enforcement officers, first responders, and school officials.

We recognize that it is not just a federal problem and our law enforcement partners at the state, local and tribal levels are doing some of the hardest and most important work to keep our people safe, and our cities, neighborhoods, and schools secure.

Working together, on these and other efforts, we will help reduce gun violence and prevent future tragedies.

TPC - Videos

TPC - Videos: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs GEN Martin Dempsey presented two public service awards to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

U.S. State Department Daily Press Briefing - February 13, 2013

Daily Press Briefing - February 13, 2013

OUTGOING DEFENSE SECRETARY PANETTA LAUDS MILITARY MEMBERS, BLASTS CONGRESS FOR "MEANNESS"

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta testifies on the Defense Department’s response to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C., Feb. 7, 2013. DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Strong Defense Rests on Strong Congress, Panetta Says
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2013 - The current lack of effective partnership in government is his biggest disappointment as he leaves Washington after 50 years of public service, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today.

Panetta told Pentagon reporters during what he called his final news conference here that his Defense Department team has achieved remarkable things.

"First and foremost, we've kept the country safe," he said. "Secondly, we have ... [dedicated] ourselves to bringing two wars to a conclusion, the war in Iraq and now we're well on the way to bringing the war in Afghanistan, hopefully, to a conclusion, as well."

Military members serving under him have weakened terrorism and strengthened cooperation with their counterparts in intelligence, he added. And together, he said, military and civilian defense leaders crafted and put in place a defense strategy that "really makes good sense for this country, in terms of the force we need for the 21st century."

The secretary added that as the son of Italian immigrants, he's also proud to have led the effort to "expand opportunities for everyone to serve in the military." Panetta's acts as secretary included expanding the number of jobs for servicewomen, and increasing the rights of same-sex couples with military members.

"And I'm proud of the care that we continue to provide for our wounded warriors and for their families," he said. "They are truly deserving of whatever we can provide because of the sacrifices they've made."

The secretary said he has put a lot of burdens on the military in working through tough decisions.

"And, you know, they always responded. They responded ... [with] dedication to country and dedication to the military. We've been able to do some historic things as a result of that," he said.

In turning to what threatens those achievements, Panetta expressed some frustration.

"I'm sorry about this, but I've got to say it," he said. "All of the work that we do here to try to make this country strong and develop a strong defense" depends on a strong partnership with Congress, the secretary said.

"What should be and what our forefathers, I think, envisioned as a strong bond between an administration, an executive branch, and a legislative branch ... is not as strong as it should be," he said. "Oftentimes, I feel like I don't have a full partnership with my former colleagues on the Hill in trying to do what's right for this country."

When he served in the House as a representative from California, Panetta said, there was a customary form of speech between members who disagreed: "With the greatest respect, I disagree with my friend."

What makes Congress work is that it's a place to fully debate political and ideological differences, he said.

"That's the whole purpose of our forefathers fashioning that legislative branch, to debate fully those differences," the secretary added. "But there are also some lines that are there that make that process work."

Without mutual respect and courtesy among those seeking to resolve differences, those lines break down, Panetta said.

"Everybody's got legitimate points, but there's a way to express it in a way that complements our democracy, doesn't demean our democracy," he said. "And I think, you know, what you see on display is too much meanness."

Panetta said he has spoken to leaders around the world during his extensive travels as secretary. Leaders everywhere, he said, see the United States as a nation with strong values and a strong military.

"I think what they worry about is what I worry about, which is whether or not ... we can govern and whether or not we can face the tough decisions that have to be made," he said.

Panetta noted he repeatedly has said the biggest threat to U.S. national security "is that budget uncertainty and that inability to govern and find solutions."

As a step toward better government and a better world perception of the nation, he said, "somehow the members both in the House and Senate side have to get back to a point where they really do respect the institution that they're a part of."

PRESIDENT OBAMA OUTLINES GOALS FOR EDUCATION

Education was one of the main themes in President Obama's State of the Union address. Official White House photo by Pete Souza.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

In a State of the Union address focused on growing a strong middle class, President Obama outlined a series of bold proposals that will increase access to high-quality education. Among them were initiatives to make quality early education accessible to every child, to tame the spiraling cost of college, and redesign the country’s high schools to meet the needs of the real world. The President called for a new College Scorecard to show parents and students "where you can get the most bang for your educational buck."

These proposals complemented other efforts to strengthen the middle class, including calls to raise the minimum wage and reform immigration. Education was one of the major themes of the President’s annual speech delivered to Congress and the country.


Educators and students were also well represented as guests to First Lady Michelle Obama. Here are the education excerpts from the speech:

Early Learning
Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime.
In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.
Building the Skills that Lead to High-Quality, High-Wage Jobs
Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.
In the President’s Plan for a Strong Middle Class & A Strong America, released in conjunction with the address, the President is calling on Congress to commit new resources to create a STEM Master Teacher Corps, enlisting 10,000 of America’s best science and math teachers to improve STEM education. The President continued by saying,
Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy.
We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future.
Holding Colleges Accountable for Cost, Value and Quality
Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education. It’s a simple fact: the more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job and work your way into the middle class. But today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddle them with unsustainable debt.
Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure they do.
Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid. And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new "College Scorecard" that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.

Rebuilding our Schools

The President also proposed a "Fix-It-First" program that would focus on urgent infrastructure repairs, which included schools.
And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children.

RHINO SMUGGLING RING MEMBERS ARRESTED

Photo Credit:  U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service 

FROM: U.S DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Members of Rhino Smuggling Ring Arrested and Charged
Chinese Business Executive Arrested After Allegedly Offering Bribe

Three people have been charged this week in Newark, Miami and New York City with wildlife smuggling and related charges for their alleged roles in an international rhino horn smuggling ring, the Justice Department announced today. The arrests and charges are the result of "Operation Crash", a nationwide effort led by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute those involved in the black market trade of endangered rhinoceros horns.

Federal grand juries in Newark, N.J., and Miami have indicted Zhifei Li, in the international smuggling of rhinoceros horns. Shusen Wei, a 44 year old Chinese business executive and an associate of Li, has also been charged with offering to bribe a federal agent in the Li case. Qing Wang was charged today in a related criminal complaint in federal court in the Southern District of New York for his role in smuggling libation cups carved from rhinoceros horns from New York to Li via Hong Kong.

According to the indictment filed in Newark on Feb. 11, 2013, Li, a 28 year-old Chinese national, conspired to smuggle more than 20 raw rhinoceros horns from the United States to Hong Kong in 2011 and 2012. Li wired hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least a year to a co-conspirator in the United States to fund purchases of rhinoceros horns. Li’s co-conspirator smuggled the rhino horns in porcelain vases and mailed them to Hong Kong and China to a person other than Li, in an effort to evade detection by U.S. officials. Li and his co-conspirator bought many of the horns in New Jersey from other members of the conspiracy. Li was arrested in January on charges previously filed in New Jersey.

Li also was indicted on Feb. 12, 2013, in Miami on wildlife trafficking and smuggling charges. According to court records and government statements made in court, shortly after arriving in Florida in January 2013 for the Original Miami Beach Antique Show, Li purchased two endangered black rhinoceros horns from an undercover U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service agent in a Miami Beach hotel room for $59,000. Li asked if the undercover officer could procure additional rhinoceros horns and mail them to his company in Hong Kong.

Also arrested on a related criminal complaint filed in Miami was Shusen Wei, a Chinese business executive, who also was attending the antique show and sharing a hotel room with Li. According to documents filed in court in Miami, Wei was interviewed by agents after Li’s arrest and admitted to knowing about Li’s smuggling activities and to purchasing rhinoceros carvings from Li that apparently had been purchased in and smuggled from the United States. After being served with a grand jury subpoena to appear in New Jersey, Wei left Miami for New York en route to China. Prior to leaving Miami, Wei allegedly asked an undercover informant to invite a FWS special agent out to dinner in Miami and offer her money to assist Li. After a series of recorded phone calls and text messages, Wei was arrested as he attempted to board a flight bound for China at JFK International Airport in New York on Saturday, Feb. 3, 2013, on charges of bribing a federal official. According to documents filed in court, Wei proposed that the undercover informant offer the agent as much as $10,000.

Qing Wang is scheduled to appear in court today to face charges in a criminal complaint in the Southern District of New York for his role in smuggling libation cups carved from rhinoceros horns from New York to Li in Hong Kong. According to documents unsealed today, Wang was one of several that purchased items in the United States for Li. In China, there is a tradition dating back centuries of intricately carved rhinoceros horn cups . Drinking from such a cup was believed to bring good health and such carvings are highly prized by collectors. Wang is alleged to have been smuggling rhinoceros horn cups as well as ivory carvings to Li in Hong Kong.

An indictment or criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

Rhinoceros are an herbivore species of prehistoric origin and one of the largest remaining mega-fauna on earth. They have no known predators other than humans. All species of rhinoceros are protected under United States and international law, and all black rhinoceros species are endangered. Since 1976, trade in rhinoceros horn has been regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty signed by more than 175 countries around the world to protect fish, wildlife and plants that are or may become imperiled due to the demands of international markets. Nevertheless, the demand for rhinoceros horn and black market prices have skyrocketed in recent years due to the value that some cultures have placed on ornamental carvings, good luck charms or alleged medicinal purposes, leading to a decimation of the global rhinoceros population. As a result, rhino populations have declined by more than 90 percent since 1970. South Africa, for example, has witnessed a rapid escalation in poaching of live animals, rising from 13 in 2007 to more than 618 in 2012.

Operation Crash (named for the term used to describe a herd of rhinoceros) is an ongoing multi-agency effort to detect, deter and prosecute those engaged in the illegal killing of rhinoceros and the unlawful trafficking of rhinoceros horns. The investigation resulting in the charges announced today has been conducted by the Special Investigations Unit of the FWS Office of Law Enforcement, with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security. The Li case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of New Jersey by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen O’Leary. The Wei case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Watts-FitzGerald in the Southern District of Florida. The Wang case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Janis Echenberg in the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York. Senior Trial Attorney Richard A. Udell of the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice is assisting in and coordinating all of the prosecutions. Additional support has been provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.

MAMMAL DIVERSITY AFTER THE DINOSAURS

Newborn Boston Terrior.  Credit:  Wikimedia Commons.

FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Placental Mammal Diversity Blossomed After Age of Dinosaurs
Scientists build new 'tree of life' for placentals, visualize common ancestor

Scientists have reconstructed the common ancestor of placental mammals--an extremely diverse group including animals ranging from rodents to whales to humans--using the world's largest dataset of both genetic and physical traits.

In research results published today in the journal Science, the scientists reveal that, contrary to a commonly held theory, placental mammals did not diversify into their present-day lineages until after the extinction event that eliminated non-avian dinosaurs and about 70 percent of all species on Earth, some 65 million years ago.

This finding and the visualization of the placental ancestor, a small, insect-eating animal, was made with the help of a powerful cloud-based and publicly accessible database called MorphoBank.

The Science paper is the result of a multi-year collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Assembling the Tree of Life initiative.

"Molecular clock estimates and the fossil record do not agree on the time of origin and diversification of many modern and extinct biotic groups," said H. Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences, which co-funded the research with NSF's Division of Environmental Biology. "Data from the NSF-supported Assembling the Tree of Life initiative have been the key to these conclusions."

Analysis of this massive dataset shows that placental mammals didn't originate during the Mesozoic Era, according to the paper's lead author, Maureen O'Leary of Stony Brook University and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

"Species like rodents and primates did not share the Earth with non-avian dinosaurs but arose from a common ancestor--a small, insect-eating, scampering animal--shortly after the dinosaurs' demise."

There are two major types of data for building evolutionary trees of life: phenomic data, which includes observational traits such as anatomy and behavior, and genomic data encoded by DNA.

Some researchers have argued that integration of both is necessary for robust tree-building because examining only one type of data leaves out significant information.

The evolutionary history of placental mammals, for example, has been interpreted in very different ways depending on the data analyzed.

"This discovery about the diversification of placental mammals is remarkable, highlighting that resolution of the complete tree of life requires data from both molecules and morphology," said Robb Brumfield, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology. "In this case, the inclusion of fossils was a key to understanding timing and branching history deep in the tree."

One leading analysis based on genomic data alone predicted that a number of placental mammal lineages existed in the Late Cretaceous and survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) extinction that occurred about 66 million years ago.

Other analyses place the start of placental mammals near this boundary, and still others set their origin after this event.

"There are more than 5,100 living placental species and they exhibit enormous diversity, varying greatly in size, locomotor ability and brain size," said Nancy Simmons of the AMNH and a paper co-author.

"Given this diversity, it's of great interest to know when and how this clade first began evolving and diversifying."

The new study combines genomic and phenomic data in a simultaneous analysis for a more complete picture of the tree of life.

"Despite the considerable contributions of DNA sequence data to the study of species relationships, phenomic data have a major role in the direct reconstruction of trees," said Michael Novacek, a paleontologist at the AMNH and paper co-author.

"Such data include features preserved in fossils where DNA recovery may be impossible. The mammalian record is notably enriched with well-preserved fossils, and we don't want to build trees without using the direct evidence these fossils contribute."

"Discovering the tree of life is like piecing together a crime scene," said O'Leary.

"It's a story that happened in the past that you can't repeat. Just like with a crime scene, the new tools of DNA add important information, but so do other physical clues like a body or, in the scientific realm, fossils and anatomy. Combining all the evidence produces the most informed reconstruction of a past event."

The tree of life produced in this study shows that placental mammals arose rapidly after the KPg extinction, with the original ancestor speciating 200,000-400,000 years after the event.

"This is about 36 million years later than the prediction based on purely genetic data," said Marcelo Weksler, also a co-author and a researcher at the National Museum of Brazil.

The finding also contradicts a genomics-based model called the "Cretaceous-Terrestrial Revolution" that argues that the impetus for placental mammal speciation was the fragmentation of supercontinent Gondwana during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, millions of years earlier than the KPg event.

"The new tree indicates that the fragmentation of Gondwana came well before the origin of placental mammals and is an unrelated event," said John Wible of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and paper co-author.

As part of the study, researchers used MorphoBank, an initiative funded primarily by NSF, with additional support from Stony Brook University, the American Museum of Natural History and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to record phenomic traits for 86 placental mammal species, of which 40 were fossil species.

The resulting dataset has more than 4,500 traits detailing characteristics such as the presence or absence of wings, teeth, certain bones, type of hair cover and structures found in the brain, as well as more than 12,000 supporting images, all publicly available online.

The dataset is 10 times larger than what has previously been used for studies of mammal relationships.

Because phenomic datasets are built on physical objects like fossils that are limited in number and take time to excavate, prepare and analyze, evolutionary trees based on anatomy usually don't exceed several hundred traits.

Large-scale collection of such data for tree-building is now being called "phylophenomics."

"Cyberinfrastructure for organizing molecular biology has historically outstripped infrastructure for phenomic data, but new technologies like MorphoBank allow scientists working with phenomic data to produce larger and more complex projects, and to enrich these databases with images, references and comments," said Andrea Cirranello, paper co-author and researcher at Stony Brook University and the AMNH.

The team reconstructed the anatomy of the placental common ancestor by mapping traits onto the tree most strongly supported by the combined phenomic and genomic data and comparing the features in placental mammals with those seen in their closest relatives.

This method, known as optimization, allowed the researchers to determine what features first appeared in the common ancestor of placental mammals, and also what traits were retained unchanged from more distant ancestors.

The researchers conclude that the common ancestor had features such as a two-horned uterus, a brain with a convoluted cerebral cortex and a placenta in which the maternal blood came in close contact with the membranes surrounding the fetus, as in humans.

In addition, the study reveals that a branch of the placental mammal tree called Afrotheria, whose living members include animals -- ranging from elephants to aardvarks-- that live in Africa today, did not originate on that continent but rather in the Americas.

"Determining how these animals first made it to Africa is now an important research question, along with many others that can be addressed using MorphoBank and the phylophenomic tree produced in this study," said co-author Fernando Perini of Minas Gerais Federal University in Brazil.

Added co-author Mary Silcox, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto Scarborough, "this project exposes a way forward to collect data on other phenomic systems and other species."

-NSF-

PRESIDENT OBAMA SAYS 34,000 TROOPS TO BE CUT FROM AFGHANISTAN

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Obama Announces 34,000 Cut to U.S. Force in Afghanistan
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2013 - U.S. troops in Afghanistan will decrease by 34,000 over the coming year, President Barack Obama announced tonight in his annual State of the Union address.

"After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home," he said early in his remarks to a joint session of Congress. Later in the speech, the commander in chief outlined his plan for troops in Afghanistan, now numbering about 66,000.

"Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women," he said. "This spring, our forces will move into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead. Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan. This drawdown will continue. And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over."

The president credited "the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. Because of them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan, and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al-Qaida."

America's commitment to a unified and sovereign Afghanistan will endure beyond 2014, Obama said, but the nature of that commitment will change.

"We're negotiating an agreement with the Afghan government that focuses on two missions: training and equipping Afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and counter-terrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al Qaeda and their affiliates," he noted.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, in a statement, said he welcomes the commander in chief's announcement. The figure was based, he said, on Marine Corps Gen. John Allen's strategic recommendation of a phased approach to decreasing the force, now numbering about 62,000.

Allen turned over command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force and U.S. forces in Afghanistan to Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. during a Feb. 10 ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The secretary said in his statement that in consultations with the president and his national security team, "I strongly supported General Allen's recommendation and I believe the president's decision puts us on the right path to succeed in Afghanistan."

Panetta said he is confident Dunford will have the combat power he needs to protect coalition forces, continue building up Afghan forces, and "achieve the goal of this campaign to deny al Qaeda a safe haven to attack our homeland."

Panetta noted the United States, NATO and the Afghan government agreed in Lisbon in 2010, and affirmed in Chicago in 2012, that Afghanistan will assume full responsibility for its security by the end of 2014.

"We are on track for that goal," he said, "and we will maintain a long-term commitment to Afghanistan including through the continued training and equipping of Afghan forces and counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda and their affiliates."

The American people should never forget 9/11 is the reason their men and women are fighting in Afghanistan, Panetta said.

"After more than a decade of great sacrifice and hard-fought progress, we are now on a path to an Afghanistan that cannot be used as a launching pad for attacks against our nation," the secretary said.

"Our troops on the ground will continue to be in a tough fight, and they will continue to face real challenges, but our fundamental goal is now within sight," he concluded. "Thanks to their continued dedication and sacrifice, I believe we will prevail."

YELLOWSTONE ECOSYSTEM: NATURAL RELATIONSHIPS

Photo:  Yellowstone Beaver.  Credit: National Park Service.

FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Yellowstone Ecosystem Needs Wolves and Willows, Elk and...Beavers?
Scientists plot crucial links among Yellowstone plant and animal species

Wolves and Yellowstone. In the public mind, and in nature, the two are inextricably linked.

Now, it turns out, they aren't alone on the ecological dance floor.

Elk and willows play a critical role in wolves' success in the Yellowstone ecosystem, willows serving as browse for elk--and elk as food for wolves.

But there's another species involved, one that's instrumental to these well-choreographed steps: the beaver.

"Beavers are the missing piece in this ecosystem," says ecologist Tom Hobbs of Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins.

No wolves, no beavers

The loss of wolves caused far-reaching changes in the Yellowstone ecosystem: more elk and fewer willows. With no willows to slow stream flow, creeks flowed faster and faster. Beavers prefer slow-moving waters, so they disappeared with the willows.

"Putting wolves back isn't enough to reverse the extensive changes caused by their long absence," Hobbs and other scientists discovered in a decade-long research project.

The ecologists published results of their study this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In addition to Hobbs, co-authors are Kristin Marshall, formerly of CSU and now of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and David Cooper of CSU. Marshall is the paper's lead author.

"This research illustrates the value of long-term ecological experiments to understanding how species interactions cascade through food webs to determine ecosystem resilience," says Alan Tessier, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

"The results have immediate practical applications in restoring and protecting ecosystems such as that of Yellowstone."

Wolves aren't enough

Scientists had thought that the return of the wolf, leading to a cutback on elk numbers and willow-browsing, was central to restoring the Yellowstone ecosystem. "But Yellowstone also needs beavers," says Hobbs.

That's why bringing back wolves didn't work to quickly restore the ecosystem, the researchers believe.

Wolves hunted elk and brought down numbers of these ungulates. But removing elk-browsing wasn't enough for the willows. They needed the sluggish streams created by beavers. But the beavers were gone.

Streams: the missing link

Once, beavers had been abundant anywhere streams flowed through Yellowstone. And that was almost everywhere.

In the past, dams made by beavers were ubiquitous features of Yellowstone's stream network. A third of mainstream reaches show evidence of sediment deposition as a result of beaver dams, a process that's happened for millennia. That sediment offered willows a place to take root.

In the spring of 1921, scientist Edward Warren of the Roosevelt Wild Life Forest Experiment Station in Syracuse, N. Y., conducted a study of beavers in Yellowstone. Warren found beavers and their ponds scattered throughout the park.

Near the Elk Creek Bench Colony, for example, Warren spotted "a group of beaver ponds which present interesting features," he stated in a report published in the 1920s.

"The water supply is a small brook originating from springs in a boggy tract of several acres. The brook flows through a flat depression in a ridge, and it is in the swampy, springy ground just below the woods that most of the ponds are located."

It's a rare if not non-existent sight in Yellowstone today, especially on the park's northern range where Hobbs' team conducted its research.

"Excessive browsing of willows [by elk after wolves were gone] was implicated in the disappearance of beavers from streams during the twentieth century," Marshall, Hobbs and Cooper write in their paper. "The loss of beaver ponds from the stream network...compressed the area of bare, moist substrate needed for willow establishment."

Yellowstone ecosystem questions: answered by beavers?

Restoring an ecologically complete ecosystem in Yellowstone requires the return of willows--and with them, beavers.

There's a clear threshold for ecosystem recovery. Willow stands must be more than six feet tall, the scientists found. That height is important, says Marshall. Then willows are beyond the reach of browsing elk, and can serve as seed sources for new young willows.

Once willows have returned, beavers will gnaw down a certain number of them to build dams. The dams will further slow stream flow, allowing yet more willows to grow.

The results offer new insights on the role of wolf-driven trophic cascades in the Yellowstone ecosystem, says Hobbs.

Trophic cascades like that in Yellowstone occur when predators--or the lack thereof--in an ecosystem change the abundance or alter traits of their prey, in turn affecting the next lower trophic level.

"The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone has contributed to improvements in the park's ecology, but clearly that ecology is a complicated one," says Marshall. "The take-home message is that we have to be careful not to remove predators in the first place."

First Meeting of the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI) Advisory Committee

First Meeting of the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI) Advisory Committee

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dempsey to honor former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dempsey to honor former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Open for Questions: The State of the Union and the Economy | The White House

Open for Questions: The State of the Union and the Economy | The White House

Press Briefing by Secretary Panetta from the Pentagon

Press Briefing by Secretary Panetta from the Pentagon

CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP PUSHES THROUGH "NO BUDGET NO PAY ACT" FOR CONGRESS

FROM: CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP'S WEBSITE

Last week, the President signed into law the "No Budget No Pay Act," authored by Congressman Dave Camp (R-Midland) and Congresswoman Candice Miller (R-Harrison Twp.). The Act’s purpose is simple: if Members of Congress don’t do their jobs to produce a federal budget, they don’t get paid.

For the last two years the House of Representatives has passed a federal budget. However, the Senate has failed to do so for four years in a row – more than 1,300 days have passed without any budget from the Senate. It is time for both chambers of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate – to make the tough choices necessary to get Washington spending under control. If employees don’t do their jobs, their employer won’t pay them. It’s time for Congress to start living by that same simple rule.

BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM HAS A POSITIVE TEST

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE,
Aegis Missile Defense System Intercepts Target in Test
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2013 - The Missile Defense Agency and sailors aboard the USS Lake Erie conducted a successful flight test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system today, resulting in the intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean by a Standard Missile-3 Block IA guided missile.

At 4:10 a.m. EST, a unitary medium-range ballistic missile target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The target flew northwest toward a broad area of the Pacific Ocean.

The in-orbit Space Tracking and Surveillance System-Demonstrators, or STSS-D, detected and tracked the target, and forwarded track data to the USS Lake Erie. The ship, equipped with the second-generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense weapon system, used "Launch on Remote" doctrine to engage the target.

The ship developed a fire control solution from the STSS-D track and launched the SM-3 Block IA guided missile about five minutes after target launch. The SM-3 maneuvered to a point in space and released its kinetic warhead. The warhead acquired the target re-entry vehicle, diverted into its path, and, using only the force of a direct impact, engaged and destroyed the target.

Initial indications are that all components performed as designed, officials said. Program officials will assess and evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test, they added.

Today's event, designated Flight Test Standard Missile-20, or FTM-20, was a demonstration of the ability of space-based assets to provide mid-course fire control quality data to an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ship, extending the battle space, providing the ability for longer-range intercepts and defense of larger areas, officials said.

FTM-20 is the 24th successful intercept in 30 flight test attempts for the Aegis BMD program since flight testing began in 2002. Across all Ballistic Missile Defense System programs, this is the 58th successful hit-to-kill intercept in 73 flight tests since 2001.

Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense is the sea-based component of the Missile Defense Agency's Ballistic Missile Defense System. The Aegis BMD engagement capability defeats short- to intermediate-range, unitary and separating, midcourse-phase ballistic missile threats with the SM-3, as well as short-range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase with the SM-2 Block IV missile.

The MDA and the Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD program.

NEWS FROM AFGHANISTAN FOR FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Partoling Afghanistan.  Credit:  U.S. Army.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Combined Force Kills Taliban Leader in Nangarhar Province
From an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Release

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 13, 2013 - A combined Afghan and coalition force killed a Taliban leader in the Khugyani district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province today, military officials reported.

Mojib, also known as Mansoor, conducted direct-fire attacks against Afghan government officials and Afghan and coalition forces. He was directly associated with Taliban senior leadership operating in Khugyani district and procured rocket-propelled grenades to be used in an attack on a coalition aircraft, officials said.

The security force seized assault rifles with associated gear as well as several grenades and a pistol in the operation.

Also today, a combined force in Khost province's Terayzai district arrested a Haqqani network leader who is accused of conducting attacks and kidnappings.

The security force also detained two suspected insurgents and seized grenades, an assault rifle with associated ammunition, an Afghan army uniform and two Afghan army identification cards in the operation.

In Afghanistan operations yesterday:

-- Afghan and coalition forces called in a precision airstrike in Helmand province's Nad-e Ali district that killed a Taliban leader responsible for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He also helped insurgents obtain heavy weapons. A post-strike assessment determined no civilians were harmed and no property was damaged in the operation.

-- A combined force called in a precision strike that killed two insurgents in Kunar province's Ghaziabad district. A post-operation assessment determined no civilians were harmed and no civilian property was damaged in the operation.

-- In Kandahar province's Maiwand district, a combined force arrested a Taliban facilitator believed responsible for coordinating and conducting insurgent operations.

Remarks With Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh After Their Meeting

Remarks With Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh After Their Meeting

LANDSAT DATA CONTINUITY MISSION PRELAUNCH

FROM: NASA
Landsat Data Continuity Mission Prelaunch
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft onboard is seen on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) mission is a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that will continue the Landsat program's 40-year data record of monitoring the Earth's landscapes from space. The spacecraft launched Feb. 11.

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

MAN GETS 30 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR SMUGGLING KICKBACK PROCEEDS FROM AFGHANISTAN

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Former Department of Defense Contractor Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Smuggling Kickback Proceeds from Afghanistan to the United States

Former employee of a Department of Defense contracting company at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for attempting to smuggle $150,000 in kickback proceeds he received for steering U.S. government subcontracts to an Afghan company, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom of the District of Kansas.

Donald Gene Garst, 51, of Topeka, Kan., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson in Topeka. In addition to his prison term, Garst was sentenced to serve one year of supervised release and was ordered to pay a fine of $52,117. The department previously forfeited the $150,000 Garst had attempted to smuggle into the United States.

Garst pleaded guilty on Nov. 9, 2012, to a one-count information charging him with bulk cash smuggling. According to court documents, Garst was employed by a private U.S. company that was contracted by the U.S. government and its armed forces at Bagram Airfield from January 2009 to May 2011. Garst was involved in identifying, evaluating and monitoring subcontracts awarded to Afghan companies by his employer, and he used his position to meet executives of an Afghan construction company called Somo Logistics. Garst then entered into an agreement with the Afghans under which he would receive kickback payments on a contract-by-contract basis in return for treating Somo Logisitcs favorably in the contracting process.

In December 2010, Garst accepted a kickback for $60,000 on the first subcontract awarded to Somo Logistics. The subcontract was for the term lease of heavy equipment meant to be used for construction on Bagram Airfield. Garst hand-carried approximately $20,000 of the kickback proceeds into the United States, and he received the remainder via a series of structured wire transfers from Somo Logistics executives.

In May 2011, Garst accepted a $150,000 kickback for a second subcontract for the lease of heavy construction equipment. Garst shipped the $150,000 in cash to the United States, and his failure to declare the value of the shipment was discovered by law enforcement.

Garst had further agreed to receive $400,000 on a third subcontract, but his scheme was discovered by law enforcement before he could receive that payment.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Maag and Trial Attorney Wade Weems of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. The case was investigated by Special Agents with the Army Criminal Investigations Division and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, with assistance from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction and the FBI.

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