Thursday, April 2, 2015
MORE AIRSTRIKES REPORTED AGAINST ISIL IN SYRIA, IRAQ
FROM: U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Airstrikes Continue Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 1, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, which took place between 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, local time, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Airstrikes in Syria
Fighter, attack and bomber aircraft conducted seven airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Hasakah, four airstrikes struck four ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Kobani, three airstrikes struck three ISIL tactical units, three ISIL vehicles and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted seven airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Hit in Anbar province, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Kirkuk, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL buildings and two ISIL heavy machine guns.
-- Near Mosul, an airstrike destroyed an ISIL artillery piece.
-- Near Ramadi, two airstrikes struck an ISIL large tactical unit and an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Tal Afar, two airstrikes struck an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL tent shelter.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations.
Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Syria include the United States, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Airstrikes Continue Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 1, 2015 – U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of the latest strikes, which took place between 8 a.m. yesterday and 8 a.m. today, local time, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Airstrikes in Syria
Fighter, attack and bomber aircraft conducted seven airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Hasakah, four airstrikes struck four ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Kobani, three airstrikes struck three ISIL tactical units, three ISIL vehicles and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted seven airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Hit in Anbar province, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Kirkuk, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL buildings and two ISIL heavy machine guns.
-- Near Mosul, an airstrike destroyed an ISIL artillery piece.
-- Near Ramadi, two airstrikes struck an ISIL large tactical unit and an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Tal Afar, two airstrikes struck an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL tent shelter.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations.
Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Syria include the United States, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
SEC FILES ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST COMPANY FOR USING CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS IN VIOLATION OW WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION RULE
FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
04/01/2015 10:45 AM EDT
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced its first enforcement action against a company for using improperly restrictive language in confidentiality agreements with the potential to stifle the whistleblowing process.
The SEC charged Houston-based global technology and engineering firm KBR Inc. with violating whistleblower protection Rule 21F-17 enacted under the Dodd-Frank Act. KBR required witnesses in certain internal investigations interviews to sign confidentiality statements with language warning that they could face discipline and even be fired if they discussed the matters with outside parties without the prior approval of KBR’s legal department. Since these investigations included allegations of possible securities law violations, the SEC found that these terms violated Rule 21F-17, which prohibits companies from taking any action to impede whistleblowers from reporting possible securities violations to the SEC.
KBR agreed to pay a $130,000 penalty to settle the SEC’s charges and the company voluntarily amended its confidentiality statement by adding language making clear that employees are free to report possible violations to the SEC and other federal agencies without KBR approval or fear of retaliation.
“By requiring its employees and former employees to sign confidentiality agreements imposing pre-notification requirements before contacting the SEC, KBR potentially discouraged employees from reporting securities violations to us,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “SEC rules prohibit employers from taking measures through confidentiality, employment, severance, or other type of agreements that may silence potential whistleblowers before they can reach out to the SEC. We will vigorously enforce this provision.”
According to the SEC’s order instituting a settled administrative proceeding, there are no apparent instances in which KBR specifically prevented employees from communicating with the SEC about specific securities law violations. However, any company’s blanket prohibition against witnesses discussing the substance of the interview has a potential chilling effect on whistleblowers’ willingness to report illegal conduct to the SEC.
“KBR changed its agreements to make clear that its current and former employees will not have to fear termination or retribution or seek approval from company lawyers before contacting us.” said Sean McKessy, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. “Other employers should similarly review and amend existing and historical agreements that in word or effect stop their employees from reporting potential violations to the SEC.”
Without admitting or denying the charges, KBR agreed to cease and desist from committing or causing any future violations of Rule 21F-17.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Jim Etri and Rebecca Fike and supervised by David L. Peavler of the Fort Worth Regional Office.
04/01/2015 10:45 AM EDT
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced its first enforcement action against a company for using improperly restrictive language in confidentiality agreements with the potential to stifle the whistleblowing process.
The SEC charged Houston-based global technology and engineering firm KBR Inc. with violating whistleblower protection Rule 21F-17 enacted under the Dodd-Frank Act. KBR required witnesses in certain internal investigations interviews to sign confidentiality statements with language warning that they could face discipline and even be fired if they discussed the matters with outside parties without the prior approval of KBR’s legal department. Since these investigations included allegations of possible securities law violations, the SEC found that these terms violated Rule 21F-17, which prohibits companies from taking any action to impede whistleblowers from reporting possible securities violations to the SEC.
KBR agreed to pay a $130,000 penalty to settle the SEC’s charges and the company voluntarily amended its confidentiality statement by adding language making clear that employees are free to report possible violations to the SEC and other federal agencies without KBR approval or fear of retaliation.
“By requiring its employees and former employees to sign confidentiality agreements imposing pre-notification requirements before contacting the SEC, KBR potentially discouraged employees from reporting securities violations to us,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “SEC rules prohibit employers from taking measures through confidentiality, employment, severance, or other type of agreements that may silence potential whistleblowers before they can reach out to the SEC. We will vigorously enforce this provision.”
According to the SEC’s order instituting a settled administrative proceeding, there are no apparent instances in which KBR specifically prevented employees from communicating with the SEC about specific securities law violations. However, any company’s blanket prohibition against witnesses discussing the substance of the interview has a potential chilling effect on whistleblowers’ willingness to report illegal conduct to the SEC.
“KBR changed its agreements to make clear that its current and former employees will not have to fear termination or retribution or seek approval from company lawyers before contacting us.” said Sean McKessy, Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower. “Other employers should similarly review and amend existing and historical agreements that in word or effect stop their employees from reporting potential violations to the SEC.”
Without admitting or denying the charges, KBR agreed to cease and desist from committing or causing any future violations of Rule 21F-17.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Jim Etri and Rebecca Fike and supervised by David L. Peavler of the Fort Worth Regional Office.
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S LETTER ON BLOCKING PROPERTY REGARDING MALICIOUS CYBER-ENABLED ACTIVITIES
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
April 01, 2015
Letter -- "Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities"
TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
April 1, 2015
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order (the "order") declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by the increasing prevalence and severity of malicious cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States.
The order would block the property and interests in property of:
any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly, cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States that are reasonably likely to result in, or have materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States and that have the purpose or effect of:
harming, or otherwise significantly compromising the provision of services by, a computer or network of computers that support one or more entities in a critical infrastructure sector;
significantly compromising the provision of services by one or more entities in a critical infrastructure sector;
causing a significant disruption to the availability of a computer or network of computers; or causing a significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal identifiers, or financial information for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain; or any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State:
to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, the receipt or use for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain, or by a commercial entity, outside the United States of trade secrets misappropriated through cyber-enabled means, knowing they have been misappropriated, where the misappropriation of such trade secrets is reasonably likely to result in, or has materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States;
to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, certain malicious cyber-enabled activities described in the order or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order;
to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order; orto have attempted to engage in any of the malicious activities described in the order.
In addition, the order suspends entry into the United States of any alien determined to meet one or more of the above criteria.
I have delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the order. All executive agencies are directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of the order.
I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
April 01, 2015
Letter -- "Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities"
TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
April 1, 2015
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order (the "order") declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by the increasing prevalence and severity of malicious cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States.
The order would block the property and interests in property of:
any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly, cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States that are reasonably likely to result in, or have materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States and that have the purpose or effect of:
harming, or otherwise significantly compromising the provision of services by, a computer or network of computers that support one or more entities in a critical infrastructure sector;
significantly compromising the provision of services by one or more entities in a critical infrastructure sector;
causing a significant disruption to the availability of a computer or network of computers; or causing a significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal identifiers, or financial information for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain; or any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State:
to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, the receipt or use for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain, or by a commercial entity, outside the United States of trade secrets misappropriated through cyber-enabled means, knowing they have been misappropriated, where the misappropriation of such trade secrets is reasonably likely to result in, or has materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States;
to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, certain malicious cyber-enabled activities described in the order or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order;
to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to the order; orto have attempted to engage in any of the malicious activities described in the order.
In addition, the order suspends entry into the United States of any alien determined to meet one or more of the above criteria.
I have delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the order. All executive agencies are directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of the order.
I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
VA HAS NEW GRANTS TO HELP HOMELESS VETS
FROM: U.S. VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
VA Announces New Grants to Help End Veteran Homelessness
March 31, 2015, 02:04:00 PM
VA Announces New Grants to Help End Veteran Homelessness
Initiative Targets 45,000 Homeless and At-Risk Vets and Families in High Need Communities
WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald today announced the award of nearly $93 million in Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) 3-year grants that will help approximately 45,000 homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families. The grants will be distributed to 24 non-profit agencies in 15 communities, with $30 million in awards being distributed to the Los Angeles area.
“The Department of Veterans Affairs is committed to using evidence-based approaches such as SSVF to prevent homelessness and produce successful outcomes for Veterans and their families,” said Secretary McDonald. “This is a program that works, because it allows VA staff and local homeless service providers to work together to effectively address the unique challenges that make it difficult for some Veterans and their families to remain stably housed.”
Under the SSVF program, VA is awarding grants to private, non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income Veteran families living in – or transitioning to – permanent housing. The grants announced today will provide additional resources to the fourth year operations of the SSVF program.
“With the addition of these crucial resources, communities across the country continue an historic drive to prevent and end homelessness among Veterans,” said Matthew Doherty, Acting Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “The SSVF program gives Veterans and their families the rapid assistance they need to remain in permanent housing or get back into permanent housing as quickly as possible.”
Through the homeless Veterans initiative, VA committed more than $1 billion in FY 2014 to strengthen programs that prevent and end homelessness among Veterans. VA provides a range of services to homeless Veterans, including health care, housing, job training and education.
VA Announces New Grants to Help End Veteran Homelessness
March 31, 2015, 02:04:00 PM
VA Announces New Grants to Help End Veteran Homelessness
Initiative Targets 45,000 Homeless and At-Risk Vets and Families in High Need Communities
WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald today announced the award of nearly $93 million in Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) 3-year grants that will help approximately 45,000 homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families. The grants will be distributed to 24 non-profit agencies in 15 communities, with $30 million in awards being distributed to the Los Angeles area.
“The Department of Veterans Affairs is committed to using evidence-based approaches such as SSVF to prevent homelessness and produce successful outcomes for Veterans and their families,” said Secretary McDonald. “This is a program that works, because it allows VA staff and local homeless service providers to work together to effectively address the unique challenges that make it difficult for some Veterans and their families to remain stably housed.”
Under the SSVF program, VA is awarding grants to private, non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income Veteran families living in – or transitioning to – permanent housing. The grants announced today will provide additional resources to the fourth year operations of the SSVF program.
“With the addition of these crucial resources, communities across the country continue an historic drive to prevent and end homelessness among Veterans,” said Matthew Doherty, Acting Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “The SSVF program gives Veterans and their families the rapid assistance they need to remain in permanent housing or get back into permanent housing as quickly as possible.”
Through the homeless Veterans initiative, VA committed more than $1 billion in FY 2014 to strengthen programs that prevent and end homelessness among Veterans. VA provides a range of services to homeless Veterans, including health care, housing, job training and education.
NSF SUPPORTS FITNET APP FOR EXERCISE PARTICIPANTS
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Fitness app connects exercisers to experts
NSF-supported Fitnet uses powerful computing and networking infrastructure to enable new capabilities
March 23, 2015
Can advanced networking and next-generation applications help solve some of our nation's most pressing health problems? Can mobile devices and high-speed Internet be used to improve our health and well-being? Showing a commitment that they can, in 2012 the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the US Ignite initiative to demonstrate the power of apps for social good.
One outcome of the program is that today you can go to the Apple or Android app store and download Fitnet, a free exercise app supported by NSF that uses the camera on your phone to automatically assess the quality of the exercise and give you a score. Fitnet can also connect you to an online personal fitness trainer who can track this information and suggest routines to try based on an individual's health goal.
This mobile app is one of many fitness apps that are finding mass audiences of individuals eager to use technology to improve their health and well-being.
But what's unique about Fitnet is that, at the same time it is marketing its current app, it is also looking to a future of faster, programmable gigabit networks, according to Kevin Hill, Fitnet's "data czar".
In 2012, Fitnet (originally called KinectHealth 3D) was one of eight applications given the distinction of "App of the Future" in the brainstorming round of the NSF-supported Mozilla Ignite Challenge, and one of 22 apps whose development was funded through the program.
The idea behind Fitnet was to develop a new kind of tele-fitness app that could leverage deeply programmable and low latency fiber-optic networks. The award from Mozilla Ignite Challenge provided seed funding to build a prototype and to demonstrate a proof of concept.
In 2013, Fitnet received an additional NSF award to advance the project in partnership with Virginia Tech. Fitnet has also worked closely with US Ignite, a public-private partnership that promotes the development and deployment of gigabit applications, to identify critical use cases for its cutting edge technologies.
"Validation from the Mozilla Ignite Challenge, US Ignite and National Science Foundation was critical to this idea becoming a reality," said Bob Summers, chief geek and founder of Fitnet. "Our country has a health problem which advanced sensor, data and communication technology can help solve."
Part of the goal of US Ignite is to advance great ideas from the concept and prototype stage into commercial products, and Fitnet is one of the program's early successes. The app has been downloaded 280,000 times and has thousands of core users in all 50 states and over 200 countries.
Fitnet is one of a handful of fitness apps supported by Chromecast (the streaming media player developed by Google) and was among the first to be integrated into Apple's HealthKit, which allows health and ļ¬tness apps to work together for holistic monitoring.
Two key features differentiate Fitnet from other exercise apps on the market: the use of a phone's camera and image processing capabilities to interpret motion; and the ability to connect to a trainer who can monitor your progress, see how you're performing and personalize your workout plan as needed.
For now, the image processing is done locally on the phone and consequently, the assessments are not as complex as they could be. Likewise, the interactions with the trainer are asynchronous and do not include a live video feed--a function of the fact that most people don't have unfettered access to gigabit networks and unlimited data plans. But Fitnet is exploring improvements to both aspects.
"It would be a gamble to try to start a business that was focused only on gigabit Internet," Hill said. "But at the same time we know that's coming and that there are these great features that could be realized with high speed networks.
"The cool thing about the US Ignite community is the ability to do a little bit of both: to have our consumer-facing side but still push the envelope and do some really cool research."
Pushing the envelope means imagining new and better ways to automatically assess the quality of exercise using the cloud, and creating a network of remote "wired trainers" who can serve an entire community, adding jobs and helping thousands get healthier. They've begun to put the infrastructure together to test these concepts, using Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., as the testbed.
A virtual lab for next-generation networking
Virginia Tech has a unique confluence of resources that make it a great place to base their pilot, Hill says.
"We've got students who want to do exercise, we've got Virginia Tech Rec Sports [Department of Recreational Sports] that is interested in how technology can impact personal trainers, and we've got great computer resources," he said.
The resources Hill is referring to is the Global Environment for Networking Innovations, or GENI, an experimental, ultra-high-speed, programmable networking testbed, begun in 2007, that allows researchers to test new networking ideas at scale. Virginia Tech hosts one of GENI's 180 or so nodes.
"One of the big limits is just how much processing power we have available on today's mobile devices," said Hill. "We think we can make some significant progress by leveraging the power of a centralized server--that's where the GENI rack will be very helpful. With GENI we have access to the computer resources needed to throw the most sophisticated algorithms available at the problem."
The grant from NSF helped build the computing and networking infrastructure required to enable Fitnet and other apps with real-time analysis and interaction to work, and to run the experiment with students and professional trainers at Virginia Tech.
"Just as astronomers band together and build a telescope that the community uses as a discipline-wide research instrument, GENI is the networking equivalent of a national instrument," said Mark Gardner, network research manager in Information Technology at Virginia Tech, and the lead researcher on the GENI grant.
"As we add more nodes to GENI, the instrument becomes more powerful and more capable, and it's set up so that once you get an account on GENI, you can run experiments on hardware scattered across the world."
While GENI sounds a little like superfast Internet service, it's more than that. With GENI, researchers get a slice of network, storage and computing resources on-demand on which to run experiments or do specialized tasks.
"The GENI infrastructure predated clouds and software defined networking and yet it has features of both," Gardner said.
Unlike most clouds, with GENI, the experimenter can program the way the network functions to make sure that the time lag between a client and trainer is low, for instance, or that computations run concurrently on hundreds of virtual machines during times of high traffic.
"And when the fitness guys aren't using GENI, it may be used for some other experiment," Gardner added.
In fact, more than 3000 researchers have run over 100,000 experiments in the eight years since GENI was established.
Adding live interaction and real-time assessments
The future app the Fitnet team is envisioning will work something like this:
As individuals work out, the output of the exercise analysis algorithm, as well as the video of exercises, will be shipped in real-time to the web dashboard of a trainer, a fitness expert at Virginia Tech Rec Sports.
The trainer will work with many individuals at once, doing exercises particular to their needs and interests.
The automated exercise assessment tools will help the trainer figure out who needs help, who is bored and whose heart rate is increasing.
The trainer will use that information to interact with each of the exercisers, judge the impact of the training and make suggestions for future sessions.
In this model, trainers are able to effectively manage and provide feedback to up to 12 people simultaneously, which could lower the price, make the services more available and also make it extremely personalized.
"In a traditional exercise class, all the people need to be doing the exact same thing," Hill said. "Here we can have each person doing a personalized workout routine and the trainer can still manage and interact with all of them."
GENI allows Fitnet, and other apps, to bring these capabilities to life for students at Virginia Tech and eventually for the nation.
Engaged fitness for at-risk populations
As they were developing the Virginia Tech project, the Fitnet team was working with a different set of users: students in the Healthy Hawks treatment program, a comprehensive family-based behavioral program run by University of Kansas Medical Center.
Healthy Hawks helps children, adolescents and their families overcome issues related to weight. The University of Kansas team was interested in being able to interact with families in a digital fashion over the course of their twelve-week program, recalled Hill.
With support from the Mozilla Foundation's Gigabit Community Fund, also funded by NSF, the pilot program provided iPads, cellular data plans, and personalized children's exercise content from local Kansas City trainers to Kansas City families.
"Using Fitnet allowed us to increase our contact time with participating families very easily," said Ann Davis, a pediatric psychologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and director of both the Healthy Hawks program and the Center for Children's Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition project.
Davis and her team not only encouraged the families to use the exercise app in their homes, but when they came to meet as a group, the doctors had information about the students' exercise at their fingertips and were able to give personalized feedback. The app also allowed the group's dedicated trainer to provide coaching prompts in real-time.
"With those features, we've been able to lower the drop out rate, and increase the students' fitness outcomes," Davis said.
The second group of Healthy Hawks is now going through the program, with encouraging results.
"We're excited to work with the Heathy Hawks to be on the leading edge of the mobile-health revolution," Hill said.
Fitnet is considering other possible partnerships too, including with physical therapists and other health professionals.
"We have this disconnected world right now where you've got step counters, heart rate monitors, exercise apps. You can look at that data, but it's very hard to make decisions based on that data," Hill said. "What we hope to do is be able to centralize, organize and pass that information over to experts."
With early access to emerging networking technologies and pilot projects underway with diverse audiences, the Fitnet team believes it will only be a few years before their gigabit app is ready for market--and before the nation's broadband network catches up to the capabilities of Fitnet.
"Applications are the essential driver of new technologies," said Summers. "And health applications such as Fitnet that leverage gigabit technologies are leading the way to answering the key question: 'Why does gig speed matter?'"
-- Aaron Dubrow, NSF
-- Robert Summers, Fitnet
Investigators
Robert Summers
Mark Gardner
Kevin Hill
Related Institutions/Organizations
GENI
US Ignite
Mozilla Foundation
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Fitness app connects exercisers to experts
NSF-supported Fitnet uses powerful computing and networking infrastructure to enable new capabilities
March 23, 2015
Can advanced networking and next-generation applications help solve some of our nation's most pressing health problems? Can mobile devices and high-speed Internet be used to improve our health and well-being? Showing a commitment that they can, in 2012 the National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the US Ignite initiative to demonstrate the power of apps for social good.
One outcome of the program is that today you can go to the Apple or Android app store and download Fitnet, a free exercise app supported by NSF that uses the camera on your phone to automatically assess the quality of the exercise and give you a score. Fitnet can also connect you to an online personal fitness trainer who can track this information and suggest routines to try based on an individual's health goal.
This mobile app is one of many fitness apps that are finding mass audiences of individuals eager to use technology to improve their health and well-being.
But what's unique about Fitnet is that, at the same time it is marketing its current app, it is also looking to a future of faster, programmable gigabit networks, according to Kevin Hill, Fitnet's "data czar".
In 2012, Fitnet (originally called KinectHealth 3D) was one of eight applications given the distinction of "App of the Future" in the brainstorming round of the NSF-supported Mozilla Ignite Challenge, and one of 22 apps whose development was funded through the program.
The idea behind Fitnet was to develop a new kind of tele-fitness app that could leverage deeply programmable and low latency fiber-optic networks. The award from Mozilla Ignite Challenge provided seed funding to build a prototype and to demonstrate a proof of concept.
In 2013, Fitnet received an additional NSF award to advance the project in partnership with Virginia Tech. Fitnet has also worked closely with US Ignite, a public-private partnership that promotes the development and deployment of gigabit applications, to identify critical use cases for its cutting edge technologies.
"Validation from the Mozilla Ignite Challenge, US Ignite and National Science Foundation was critical to this idea becoming a reality," said Bob Summers, chief geek and founder of Fitnet. "Our country has a health problem which advanced sensor, data and communication technology can help solve."
Part of the goal of US Ignite is to advance great ideas from the concept and prototype stage into commercial products, and Fitnet is one of the program's early successes. The app has been downloaded 280,000 times and has thousands of core users in all 50 states and over 200 countries.
Fitnet is one of a handful of fitness apps supported by Chromecast (the streaming media player developed by Google) and was among the first to be integrated into Apple's HealthKit, which allows health and ļ¬tness apps to work together for holistic monitoring.
Two key features differentiate Fitnet from other exercise apps on the market: the use of a phone's camera and image processing capabilities to interpret motion; and the ability to connect to a trainer who can monitor your progress, see how you're performing and personalize your workout plan as needed.
For now, the image processing is done locally on the phone and consequently, the assessments are not as complex as they could be. Likewise, the interactions with the trainer are asynchronous and do not include a live video feed--a function of the fact that most people don't have unfettered access to gigabit networks and unlimited data plans. But Fitnet is exploring improvements to both aspects.
"It would be a gamble to try to start a business that was focused only on gigabit Internet," Hill said. "But at the same time we know that's coming and that there are these great features that could be realized with high speed networks.
"The cool thing about the US Ignite community is the ability to do a little bit of both: to have our consumer-facing side but still push the envelope and do some really cool research."
Pushing the envelope means imagining new and better ways to automatically assess the quality of exercise using the cloud, and creating a network of remote "wired trainers" who can serve an entire community, adding jobs and helping thousands get healthier. They've begun to put the infrastructure together to test these concepts, using Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., as the testbed.
A virtual lab for next-generation networking
Virginia Tech has a unique confluence of resources that make it a great place to base their pilot, Hill says.
"We've got students who want to do exercise, we've got Virginia Tech Rec Sports [Department of Recreational Sports] that is interested in how technology can impact personal trainers, and we've got great computer resources," he said.
The resources Hill is referring to is the Global Environment for Networking Innovations, or GENI, an experimental, ultra-high-speed, programmable networking testbed, begun in 2007, that allows researchers to test new networking ideas at scale. Virginia Tech hosts one of GENI's 180 or so nodes.
"One of the big limits is just how much processing power we have available on today's mobile devices," said Hill. "We think we can make some significant progress by leveraging the power of a centralized server--that's where the GENI rack will be very helpful. With GENI we have access to the computer resources needed to throw the most sophisticated algorithms available at the problem."
The grant from NSF helped build the computing and networking infrastructure required to enable Fitnet and other apps with real-time analysis and interaction to work, and to run the experiment with students and professional trainers at Virginia Tech.
"Just as astronomers band together and build a telescope that the community uses as a discipline-wide research instrument, GENI is the networking equivalent of a national instrument," said Mark Gardner, network research manager in Information Technology at Virginia Tech, and the lead researcher on the GENI grant.
"As we add more nodes to GENI, the instrument becomes more powerful and more capable, and it's set up so that once you get an account on GENI, you can run experiments on hardware scattered across the world."
While GENI sounds a little like superfast Internet service, it's more than that. With GENI, researchers get a slice of network, storage and computing resources on-demand on which to run experiments or do specialized tasks.
"The GENI infrastructure predated clouds and software defined networking and yet it has features of both," Gardner said.
Unlike most clouds, with GENI, the experimenter can program the way the network functions to make sure that the time lag between a client and trainer is low, for instance, or that computations run concurrently on hundreds of virtual machines during times of high traffic.
"And when the fitness guys aren't using GENI, it may be used for some other experiment," Gardner added.
In fact, more than 3000 researchers have run over 100,000 experiments in the eight years since GENI was established.
Adding live interaction and real-time assessments
The future app the Fitnet team is envisioning will work something like this:
As individuals work out, the output of the exercise analysis algorithm, as well as the video of exercises, will be shipped in real-time to the web dashboard of a trainer, a fitness expert at Virginia Tech Rec Sports.
The trainer will work with many individuals at once, doing exercises particular to their needs and interests.
The automated exercise assessment tools will help the trainer figure out who needs help, who is bored and whose heart rate is increasing.
The trainer will use that information to interact with each of the exercisers, judge the impact of the training and make suggestions for future sessions.
In this model, trainers are able to effectively manage and provide feedback to up to 12 people simultaneously, which could lower the price, make the services more available and also make it extremely personalized.
"In a traditional exercise class, all the people need to be doing the exact same thing," Hill said. "Here we can have each person doing a personalized workout routine and the trainer can still manage and interact with all of them."
GENI allows Fitnet, and other apps, to bring these capabilities to life for students at Virginia Tech and eventually for the nation.
Engaged fitness for at-risk populations
As they were developing the Virginia Tech project, the Fitnet team was working with a different set of users: students in the Healthy Hawks treatment program, a comprehensive family-based behavioral program run by University of Kansas Medical Center.
Healthy Hawks helps children, adolescents and their families overcome issues related to weight. The University of Kansas team was interested in being able to interact with families in a digital fashion over the course of their twelve-week program, recalled Hill.
With support from the Mozilla Foundation's Gigabit Community Fund, also funded by NSF, the pilot program provided iPads, cellular data plans, and personalized children's exercise content from local Kansas City trainers to Kansas City families.
"Using Fitnet allowed us to increase our contact time with participating families very easily," said Ann Davis, a pediatric psychologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and director of both the Healthy Hawks program and the Center for Children's Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition project.
Davis and her team not only encouraged the families to use the exercise app in their homes, but when they came to meet as a group, the doctors had information about the students' exercise at their fingertips and were able to give personalized feedback. The app also allowed the group's dedicated trainer to provide coaching prompts in real-time.
"With those features, we've been able to lower the drop out rate, and increase the students' fitness outcomes," Davis said.
The second group of Healthy Hawks is now going through the program, with encouraging results.
"We're excited to work with the Heathy Hawks to be on the leading edge of the mobile-health revolution," Hill said.
Fitnet is considering other possible partnerships too, including with physical therapists and other health professionals.
"We have this disconnected world right now where you've got step counters, heart rate monitors, exercise apps. You can look at that data, but it's very hard to make decisions based on that data," Hill said. "What we hope to do is be able to centralize, organize and pass that information over to experts."
With early access to emerging networking technologies and pilot projects underway with diverse audiences, the Fitnet team believes it will only be a few years before their gigabit app is ready for market--and before the nation's broadband network catches up to the capabilities of Fitnet.
"Applications are the essential driver of new technologies," said Summers. "And health applications such as Fitnet that leverage gigabit technologies are leading the way to answering the key question: 'Why does gig speed matter?'"
-- Aaron Dubrow, NSF
-- Robert Summers, Fitnet
Investigators
Robert Summers
Mark Gardner
Kevin Hill
Related Institutions/Organizations
GENI
US Ignite
Mozilla Foundation
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
SECRETARY KERRY'S STATEMENT ON U.S. CLIMATE CHANGE SUBMISSION TO UN
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Submission of the U.S. Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 31, 2015
Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation, and the United States is committed to playing a leading role in the global effort to address it.
I was in Beijing with President Obama last November when he outlined the United States’ ambitious post-2020 greenhouse gas emissions target alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping. At a joint press conference, our nations each outlined bold climate change and clean energy objectives. For our part, the United States committed to cut our emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2025 – which would put us on the path to economy-wide reductions of around 80 percent by mid-century.
Today the United States took an important step towards its objective by formally submitting our commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Now it’s time for other nations and come forward with their own targets to help ensure we can reach a global agreement at the UN Climate Conference in Paris later this year.
President Obama has already put in place the most ambitious set of climate change actions that the United States has ever undertaken. We’ve adopted standards to double the fuel efficiency of American cars and trucks, and we also have rules in the works to cut emissions from new and existing power plants. And the target we formalized today will only accelerate these reductions in the future.
We know there is no way the United States--nor any other country--could possibly address climate change alone. This is a global challenge, and an effective solution will require countries around the world to do their part to reduce emissions and bring about a global clean-energy future. That’s the only way we’ll meet this challenge, and it’s the only way we’ll honor our shared responsibility to future generations.
Submission of the U.S. Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 31, 2015
Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation, and the United States is committed to playing a leading role in the global effort to address it.
I was in Beijing with President Obama last November when he outlined the United States’ ambitious post-2020 greenhouse gas emissions target alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping. At a joint press conference, our nations each outlined bold climate change and clean energy objectives. For our part, the United States committed to cut our emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2025 – which would put us on the path to economy-wide reductions of around 80 percent by mid-century.
Today the United States took an important step towards its objective by formally submitting our commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Now it’s time for other nations and come forward with their own targets to help ensure we can reach a global agreement at the UN Climate Conference in Paris later this year.
President Obama has already put in place the most ambitious set of climate change actions that the United States has ever undertaken. We’ve adopted standards to double the fuel efficiency of American cars and trucks, and we also have rules in the works to cut emissions from new and existing power plants. And the target we formalized today will only accelerate these reductions in the future.
We know there is no way the United States--nor any other country--could possibly address climate change alone. This is a global challenge, and an effective solution will require countries around the world to do their part to reduce emissions and bring about a global clean-energy future. That’s the only way we’ll meet this challenge, and it’s the only way we’ll honor our shared responsibility to future generations.
ACTING AG DELERY'S REMARKS ON FIRST RESOLUTION IN SWISS BANK PROGRAM
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery Delivers Remarks at Pen and Pad Announcing First Resolution in Swiss Bank Program
Washington, DCUnited States ~ Monday, March 30, 2015
Good morning and thank you for joining us. I am here with Caroline Ciraolo, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division, to announce a major step in the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts to prevent offshore tax evasion.
According to a 2008 Senate report, the use of secret offshore accounts to evade U.S. taxes costs the Treasury at least $100 billion each year. In 2013, the Attorney General created the Swiss Bank Program as an innovative way to get the financial institutions that facilitated this massive fraud on the American tax system to come forward with information about their wrongdoing – and to ensure that they are held responsible for it.
To participate in the program, a bank cannot already be under investigation for its tax-related conduct. It must make a complete and accurate disclosure of its cross-border activities, and provide detailed information on an account-by-account basis for every account it has in which a U.S. taxpayer has a direct or indirect interest. It must assist the department in its continuing work to identify and respond to offshore tax evasion, by providing detailed information as to other banks that transferred funds into secret accounts or that accepted funds when the secret accounts were closed, and by cooperating in treaty requests. And it must pay a meaningful penalty for its wrongdoing.
Today, I am proud to announce a resolution between the department and BSI SA that makes clear that the Swiss Bank Program is working. BSI, one of the 10 largest banks in Switzerland, has agreed to pay a $211 million penalty for its actions that helped facilitate tax evasion. It has agreed to a robust statement of facts that describes the sham entities, bogus financial insurance products and other methods of concealing funds that BSI provided for its clients. It has agreed to provide information and cooperate in any related criminal or civil proceedings. And it has agreed to implement controls to stop misconduct involving undeclared U.S. accounts.
Before I turn things over to Caroline, who can provide more detail about this resolution, I want to highlight three key features of the department's efforts in the fight against offshore tax crime.
First, BSI is the first bank to sign a non-prosecution agreement under the Swiss Bank Program, but it will not be the last. The success of this effort to get financial institutions to come in on their own and admit to their wrongdoing is a reflection on our commitment over the past six years to aggressively and systematically attack offshore tax avoidance schemes. Since 2009, the department has charged numerous financial institutions, facilitators and more than 100 offshore bank account holders. Our enforcement efforts have reached far beyond Switzerland, as evidenced by actions involving banking activities in India, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Israel and the Caribbean. And as we look forward, the program will continue to assist the department’s efforts to investigate and prosecute U.S. taxpayers who, when faced with the risk of detection, chose to move funds away from banks under investigation to banks that they believed might be better havens for tax secrecy.
Second, as we have seen for some time now, the Swiss Bank Program, along with our aggressive investigations, has changed the way Swiss banks do business. Due to the increased technical sophistication of financial instruments and the widespread use of the Internet, it is now easier than ever to move money around the world. But we have made sure that those trends won’t make it easier for wealthy Americans to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Since it became public that the department was actively investigating offshore tax evasion in Switzerland, many financial institutions have adopted policies against setting up secret accounts and illegal tax avoidance schemes, and have put in place robust compliance programs to ensure that the policies are followed. This is an example of the department’s actions having a real deterrent effect.
Third, we’re grateful for the positive working relationship we have had with the Swiss government. They have encouraged their banks to participate in the program and accommodated our legitimate needs for information relevant to violations of American law. I thank them and look forward to a continued strong partnership.
With that, I’d like to welcome Caroline Ciraolo, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. Thank you.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
U.S. WISHES PRINCESS MAHA CHAKRI SIRINDHORN HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Her Majesty Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's 60th Birthday
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 1, 2015
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, it is with great pleasure that I wish Her Majesty Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn a joyous 60th birthday.
Her Majesty has admirably devoted her life to the service of the Thai people. She is a generous patron of her country’s poor, supporting development projects in education, health, hygiene, water resources, and agriculture. She is also an accomplished scholar, and for much of her life has been a dedicated teacher of history for her country’s emerging leaders.
We wish Her Majesty all the very best on this auspicious occasion, and reaffirm our friendship and express our support for the Thai people.
Her Majesty Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's 60th Birthday
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 1, 2015
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, it is with great pleasure that I wish Her Majesty Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn a joyous 60th birthday.
Her Majesty has admirably devoted her life to the service of the Thai people. She is a generous patron of her country’s poor, supporting development projects in education, health, hygiene, water resources, and agriculture. She is also an accomplished scholar, and for much of her life has been a dedicated teacher of history for her country’s emerging leaders.
We wish Her Majesty all the very best on this auspicious occasion, and reaffirm our friendship and express our support for the Thai people.
SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS ON NIGERIAN ELECTION RESULTS
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
On Nigerian Election Results
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 1, 2015
The United States congratulates the people of Nigeria and the Nigerian Government on historic and largely peaceful elections the weekend of March 28. We especially applaud all voters who showed patience and demonstrated their commitment to participate in the democratic process.
The United States commends Nigeria’s Independent National Election Commission (INEC) and its Chairman, Attahiru Jega, on the generally orderly vote, on the use of technology such as card readers to increase the credibility and transparency of the electoral process, and on prompt communication of the results. While we note reports of logistical problems, such incidents did not undermine the overall outcome of the election.
In January, I traveled personally to Nigeria and met with both President Jonathan and now President-Elect Buhari. At that time, I emphasized that for the United States, Nigeria is an increasingly important strategic partner and that Nigeria has a critical role to play in the security and prosperity of this continent and beyond.
I also said that it was imperative that these elections are an improvement over past elections and that they need to set a new standard for this democracy. That means that Nigerians needed to not only reject violence but actually promote peace.
We laud both President Jonathan and General Buhari for their public commitments to the Abuja Accord signed in January and reaffirmed March 26, respecting the official results, and encouraging their supporters to do the same. We commend President Jonathan for his years of service and for having acted in the best interest of his country. We welcome President Jonathan’s calls for unity and calm during this transition period.
Finally, we extend our congratulations to President-elect Buhari. The United States reiterates its commitment to working with the newly elected government that emerges from this democratic process.
On Nigerian Election Results
Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 1, 2015
The United States congratulates the people of Nigeria and the Nigerian Government on historic and largely peaceful elections the weekend of March 28. We especially applaud all voters who showed patience and demonstrated their commitment to participate in the democratic process.
The United States commends Nigeria’s Independent National Election Commission (INEC) and its Chairman, Attahiru Jega, on the generally orderly vote, on the use of technology such as card readers to increase the credibility and transparency of the electoral process, and on prompt communication of the results. While we note reports of logistical problems, such incidents did not undermine the overall outcome of the election.
In January, I traveled personally to Nigeria and met with both President Jonathan and now President-Elect Buhari. At that time, I emphasized that for the United States, Nigeria is an increasingly important strategic partner and that Nigeria has a critical role to play in the security and prosperity of this continent and beyond.
I also said that it was imperative that these elections are an improvement over past elections and that they need to set a new standard for this democracy. That means that Nigerians needed to not only reject violence but actually promote peace.
We laud both President Jonathan and General Buhari for their public commitments to the Abuja Accord signed in January and reaffirmed March 26, respecting the official results, and encouraging their supporters to do the same. We commend President Jonathan for his years of service and for having acted in the best interest of his country. We welcome President Jonathan’s calls for unity and calm during this transition period.
Finally, we extend our congratulations to President-elect Buhari. The United States reiterates its commitment to working with the newly elected government that emerges from this democratic process.
PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS MEMORANDUM OF DISAPPROVAL REGARDING SENATE AND HOUSE PROPOSAL ON LABOR
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE PRESIDENT
March 31, 2015
Remarks by the President Before Signing Memorandum of Disapproval Regarding S.J. Res.8
Oval Office
12:08 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Well, I am about to sign a memorandum of disapproval. A while back, the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB, put forward some common-sense, modest changes to streamline the voting process for folks who wanted to join a union. And unfortunately, the Republican Senate and House decided to put forward a proposal to reverse those changes. I think that’s a bad idea.
Unions historically have been at the forefront of establishing things like the 40-hour work week, the weekend, elimination of child labor laws, establishing fair benefits and decent wages. And one of the freedoms of folks here in the United States is, is that if they choose to join a union, they should be able to do so. And we shouldn’t be making it impossible for that to happen.
So not only am I going to be signing this memorandum of disapproval; I also want to announce that in the fall we’re going to host a summit on increasing the voice and the rights of workers here in the United States. We’ve had a terrific economic recovery. We’re got more work to do. We’re finally seeing wages being to tick up after many consecutive years of job growth. Nevertheless, what’s true is, is that we’ve got record corporate profits. Folks at the very top are doing very well. Middle-class families and folks trying to work their way into the middle class still have some big difficulties.
And part of what we want to do is to make sure that we give workers the capacity to have their voices heard, to have some influence in the workplace, to make sure that they’re partners in building up the U.S. economy, and that growth is broad-based, and that everybody is benefitting just as everybody is contributing. So that’s something that I’m very much looking forward to. We’ll have a wide range of voices from the business community, from small businesses, from the workers in a wide range of fields -- academics, organizers. Because I think that everybody here in America wants to make sure that even as the economy is growing, everybody is playing a part in that growth and everybody is sharing and contributing to that success.
So with that, let me sign this memorandum of disapproval. Thank you very much, everybody.
END
12:11 P.M. EDT
March 31, 2015
Remarks by the President Before Signing Memorandum of Disapproval Regarding S.J. Res.8
Oval Office
12:08 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Well, I am about to sign a memorandum of disapproval. A while back, the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB, put forward some common-sense, modest changes to streamline the voting process for folks who wanted to join a union. And unfortunately, the Republican Senate and House decided to put forward a proposal to reverse those changes. I think that’s a bad idea.
Unions historically have been at the forefront of establishing things like the 40-hour work week, the weekend, elimination of child labor laws, establishing fair benefits and decent wages. And one of the freedoms of folks here in the United States is, is that if they choose to join a union, they should be able to do so. And we shouldn’t be making it impossible for that to happen.
So not only am I going to be signing this memorandum of disapproval; I also want to announce that in the fall we’re going to host a summit on increasing the voice and the rights of workers here in the United States. We’ve had a terrific economic recovery. We’re got more work to do. We’re finally seeing wages being to tick up after many consecutive years of job growth. Nevertheless, what’s true is, is that we’ve got record corporate profits. Folks at the very top are doing very well. Middle-class families and folks trying to work their way into the middle class still have some big difficulties.
And part of what we want to do is to make sure that we give workers the capacity to have their voices heard, to have some influence in the workplace, to make sure that they’re partners in building up the U.S. economy, and that growth is broad-based, and that everybody is benefitting just as everybody is contributing. So that’s something that I’m very much looking forward to. We’ll have a wide range of voices from the business community, from small businesses, from the workers in a wide range of fields -- academics, organizers. Because I think that everybody here in America wants to make sure that even as the economy is growing, everybody is playing a part in that growth and everybody is sharing and contributing to that success.
So with that, let me sign this memorandum of disapproval. Thank you very much, everybody.
END
12:11 P.M. EDT
VA SAYS GAINS MADE IN DISABILITY CLAIMS PROCESSING SPEED
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
VA Makes Gains in Faster Disability Claims Processing
March 30, 2015, 03:18:00 PM
VA Makes Gains in Faster Disability Claims Processing
Backlog Reduced 67 Percent Under New Automation and Process Improvements
Washington – The federal initiative to provide timely decisions on disability payments to Veterans has crossed a major milestone in its final sprint to eliminate the backlog of Veterans’ benefits claims.
The major transformation effort to apply new technology and process solutions has paid off at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It reduced its inventory of backlogged claims from a high of 611,000 claims in March of 2013 to fewer than 200,000 this week, while at the same time improving decision quality.
“Make no mistake, we’re not slowing down short of the finish line,” said Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey. “Our goal is to eliminate the claims backlog by the end of 2015 – meaning all Veterans will receive timely and accurate decisions on their disability claims.”
Hickey credited a combination of factors for the 67-percent drop in backlog: first, the extra hours of work put in by dedicated benefits claims processors across the nation, who have worked evenings, Saturdays and Sundays to drive the backlog down; as well as procedural efficiencies backed by powerful automation tools and paperless claims processing. In addition, she cited the transformation of Veterans Benefits Administration’s training and quality assurance programs resulting in steady increases in the accuracy of decisions.
Just a few years ago, claims processors handled 5,000 tons of paper annually, an amount equivalent to 200 Empire State Buildings. In less than two years, VA converted claims processing to a 21st Century digital environment where claims for VA benefits and services can be submitted and processed, and benefits delivered, online.
VA Makes Gains in Faster Disability Claims Processing
March 30, 2015, 03:18:00 PM
VA Makes Gains in Faster Disability Claims Processing
Backlog Reduced 67 Percent Under New Automation and Process Improvements
Washington – The federal initiative to provide timely decisions on disability payments to Veterans has crossed a major milestone in its final sprint to eliminate the backlog of Veterans’ benefits claims.
The major transformation effort to apply new technology and process solutions has paid off at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It reduced its inventory of backlogged claims from a high of 611,000 claims in March of 2013 to fewer than 200,000 this week, while at the same time improving decision quality.
“Make no mistake, we’re not slowing down short of the finish line,” said Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey. “Our goal is to eliminate the claims backlog by the end of 2015 – meaning all Veterans will receive timely and accurate decisions on their disability claims.”
Hickey credited a combination of factors for the 67-percent drop in backlog: first, the extra hours of work put in by dedicated benefits claims processors across the nation, who have worked evenings, Saturdays and Sundays to drive the backlog down; as well as procedural efficiencies backed by powerful automation tools and paperless claims processing. In addition, she cited the transformation of Veterans Benefits Administration’s training and quality assurance programs resulting in steady increases in the accuracy of decisions.
Just a few years ago, claims processors handled 5,000 tons of paper annually, an amount equivalent to 200 Empire State Buildings. In less than two years, VA converted claims processing to a 21st Century digital environment where claims for VA benefits and services can be submitted and processed, and benefits delivered, online.
NSF FUNDS STUDYING ECO-EPIDEMOLOGY OF LEPTOSPIROSIS
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Field fever, harvest fever, rat catcher's yellows: Leptospirosis by any name is a serious disease
Infection is more prevalent in lower-income tropical areas
Rat catcher's yellows, field fever, harvest fever, black jaundice.
All are names for the same disease, leptospirosis, an infection caused by corkscrew-shaped bacteria called Leptospira.
Symptoms range from mild--headaches, muscle aches, fever--to more severe conditions, such as meningitis and bleeding from the lungs.
Looking for leptospirosis
"Leptospira bacteria are maintained through a complex transmission cycle," write scientist Claudia Munoz-Zanzi of the University of Minnesota and colleagues in a 2014 paper in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine.
"Humans and other mammals, domestic and wild, become infected after contact with urine from an infected host, or Leptospira-contaminated water or damp soil."
Some 7 to 10 million people contract leptospirosis each year. The disease is most prevalent in tropical areas, but may be found almost anywhere that's warm and wet.
In the developed world, leptospirosis occurs in people involved in outdoor activities, such as canoeing and kayaking in warm places. In developing countries, the disease largely happens to farmers and poorer people who live in cities.
Infection with Leptospira is linked with agricultural practices, fouling of household or recreational water, poor housing and waste disposal, and changes in the density or proximity of infected animals such as rodents, domestic animals like dogs and wildlife.
Rodents most common carriers
Rodents are the most common reservoirs of Leptospira, says Munoz-Zanzi.
With a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)-National Institutes of Health-U.S. Department of Agriculture Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) program, Munoz-Zanzi is studying the eco-epidemiology of leptospirosis.
Awards through the EEID program fund scientists to study how large-scale environmental events--such as habitat destruction and climate variability--alter the risks of viral, parasitic and bacterial diseases.
Munoz-Zanzi's goal is to improve knowledge of the social, epidemiological and ecological factors influencing leptospirosis in South America. She and colleagues are working to identify intervention strategies to reduce the disease's effect on the health of humans and other animals.
South-central Chile: a perfect home for Leptospira?
The study is taking place in the Los Rios region of south-central Chile. The area's climate is moderate, with an economy that's based on farming, agriculture, forestry and tourism.
Most of the region's human population is concentrated in a few urban centers, with the rest scattered in small towns or villages and farm areas.
Munoz-Zanzi's research involves contrasting leptospirosis in three community types: urban slums, rural villages, and farms.
Initial findings from the research showed that 20 percent of leptospirosis starts with rodents, including rats and mice, inside households and in other environments in populated areas.
Leptospira-carrying rodents turned out to be more abundant in rural villages than slums and farms.
"Social factors can be important causes of diseases," says Sam Scheiner, NSF EEID program director. "This study shows that the type of community can determine the presence of rats and mice that are disease-carriers. The results have implications for the control of many infectious diseases."
Danger in a puddle
"Because Leptospira live in water and soil," Munoz-Zanzi says, "the environment plays a key role in transmission in household pets, farm animals and people."
When the scientists collected water from puddles, containers, animal troughs, rivers, canals and drinking water, all showed contamination with Leptospira.
In households where puddles were found along with signs of rodent infestations, leptospirosis was common.
"However," says Munoz-Zanzi, "that was true only in lower income houses."
Some 19 percent of samples from these households--most from locations with warmer temperatures, and many with dogs as pets--tested positive.
Community setting important
The scientists are now examining leptospirosis in dogs and livestock, as well as in humans. They're integrating molecular, epidemiological and other data to gain insights into patterns of infection in various community types.
"The more we understand about this disease," says Munoz-Zanzi, "the more we realize the importance of the local community setting."
Ongoing efforts, she says, include the use of mathematical models to develop recommendations for disease control that's locally relevant. The scientists hope to provide people living in the most affected areas with tools to decrease the effects of leptospirosis.
In the meantime, how can people avoid contracting the disease?
"Wear protective equipment to prevent contact with potentially infected animals and environments," says Munoz-Zanzi, "wash after any such contact, and reduce rodents in places where people live and work."
Crowded tropical conditions where rats and mice freely run from house to house may herald another unwanted guest: Leptospira.
-- Cheryl Dybas, NSF
FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT RECEIVES 10 YEAR PRISON SENTENCE FOR BRIBERY, OBSTRUCTION
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, March 30, 2015
Former FBI Special Agent Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Bribery And Obstruction Scheme
Co-Conspirators Sentenced to 24 Months and 13 Months in Prison for Their Roles
A former FBI special agent was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $70,000 for soliciting and accepting bribes to obstruct a federal grand jury investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving a defense contractor, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen of the District of Utah and Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz.
“FBI agents—like all federal law enforcement—must be above reproach, but former Special Agent Lustyik sold his badge and position of public trust to the highest bidder,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “This sentence serves as a stark reminder that no one is above the law. Corrupt officials who break the law and breach their oaths will be prosecuted and sent to prison, even if they come from within the ranks of federal law enforcement.”
“These three defendants attempted to thwart a significant criminal investigation in Utah,” said U.S. Attorney Christensen. “Two of these defendants were entrusted with protecting our citizens and upholding the law. Their conduct, in particular, stands in stark contrast to the integrity and sacrifice of the men and women in our military and law enforcement ranks and their sentences today send a powerful message that no one is above the law.”
“Today’s sentencings represent important steps toward justice in this case,” said Inspector General Horowitz. “Department of Justice employees and their associates must be held accountable when they abuse their authority and betray the public’s trust.”
Robert G. Lustyik Jr., 52, of Sleepy Hollow, New York, a 24-year veteran of the FBI, pleaded guilty to all charges in an 11-count indictment on Sept. 29, 2014. Specifically, Lustyik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and obstruction, eight counts of honest services wire fraud, obstruction of a grand jury investigation and obstruction of an agency proceeding.
Lustyik’s co-defendants, Michael L. Taylor, 54, of Harvard, Massachusetts, and Johannes W. Thaler, 51, of New Fairfield, Connecticut, were also sentenced today to 24 months in prison and 13 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in this scheme. Thaler was also ordered to forfeit $70,000, joint and several with Lustyik. U.S. District Senior Judge Tena Campbell of the District of Utah imposed all three sentences.
Lustyik and Thaler both pleaded guilty for their involvement in a similar bribery scheme in the Southern District of New York. Thaler was sentenced to 30 months in prison in that case, and will serve the two sentences consecutively. Lustyik is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, 2015, in the Southern District of New York.
According to court documents, from October 2011 to September 2012, Lustyik and Thaler conspired to use Lustyik’s official position as an FBI counterintelligence special agent to obstruct a criminal investigation into Taylor, a businessman who owned and operated American International Security Corporation. Taylor was under investigation for allegedly paying kickbacks to obtain a series of contracts from the Department of Defense worth approximately $54 million. Taylor promised Lustyik and Thaler that, in exchange for their help, he would provide them cash and multimillion dollar business contracts. In an email message, Taylor told the two men, “I’ll make you guys more money than you can believe, provided they don’t think I’m a bad guy and put me in jail.”
According to court documents, Lustyik attempted to obstruct the investigation into Taylor by identifying Taylor as an official FBI confidential source in an effort to persuade the FBI, the Justice Department and the prosecutors and law enforcement agents in Utah that Taylor’s usefulness to the government outweighed the government’s interest in prosecuting him. Indeed, Lustyik emphasized that indicting Taylor would threaten the nation’s security. Lustyik also sought to take steps to directly intervene in the investigation by interviewing key witnesses.
According to court documents, the defendants boasted about the success of their scheme. In one email message, Lustyik wrote to Taylor, “The rate this is going. I will be indicted way before u ever are !!” Lustyik wrote separately to Thaler, “I can leave [the FBI] in June. But I’m afraid to if [Taylor] gets indicted n I’m not an agent I’m no help. Has he mentioned giving me‐u a salary?”
Taylor admitted at his plea hearing that, as part of this conspiracy, he offered Lustyik a six-figure salary and a share of the proceeds from various multi-million dollar business deals he was pursuing. Acknowledging this, Lustyik wrote to Taylor, “Let’s just get Utah over with and get stinking rich,” to which Taylor replied, “Getting stinking rick [sic], we are well on the way with that so I have the ball.”
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Peter Koski and Trial Attorney Maria Lerner of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Trial Attorney Ann Marie Blaylock of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Trial Attorney Scott Ferber of the National Security Division’s Counterespionage Section also assisted in the prosecution.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Former FBI Special Agent Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Bribery And Obstruction Scheme
Co-Conspirators Sentenced to 24 Months and 13 Months in Prison for Their Roles
A former FBI special agent was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $70,000 for soliciting and accepting bribes to obstruct a federal grand jury investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving a defense contractor, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen of the District of Utah and Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz.
“FBI agents—like all federal law enforcement—must be above reproach, but former Special Agent Lustyik sold his badge and position of public trust to the highest bidder,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “This sentence serves as a stark reminder that no one is above the law. Corrupt officials who break the law and breach their oaths will be prosecuted and sent to prison, even if they come from within the ranks of federal law enforcement.”
“These three defendants attempted to thwart a significant criminal investigation in Utah,” said U.S. Attorney Christensen. “Two of these defendants were entrusted with protecting our citizens and upholding the law. Their conduct, in particular, stands in stark contrast to the integrity and sacrifice of the men and women in our military and law enforcement ranks and their sentences today send a powerful message that no one is above the law.”
“Today’s sentencings represent important steps toward justice in this case,” said Inspector General Horowitz. “Department of Justice employees and their associates must be held accountable when they abuse their authority and betray the public’s trust.”
Robert G. Lustyik Jr., 52, of Sleepy Hollow, New York, a 24-year veteran of the FBI, pleaded guilty to all charges in an 11-count indictment on Sept. 29, 2014. Specifically, Lustyik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and obstruction, eight counts of honest services wire fraud, obstruction of a grand jury investigation and obstruction of an agency proceeding.
Lustyik’s co-defendants, Michael L. Taylor, 54, of Harvard, Massachusetts, and Johannes W. Thaler, 51, of New Fairfield, Connecticut, were also sentenced today to 24 months in prison and 13 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in this scheme. Thaler was also ordered to forfeit $70,000, joint and several with Lustyik. U.S. District Senior Judge Tena Campbell of the District of Utah imposed all three sentences.
Lustyik and Thaler both pleaded guilty for their involvement in a similar bribery scheme in the Southern District of New York. Thaler was sentenced to 30 months in prison in that case, and will serve the two sentences consecutively. Lustyik is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, 2015, in the Southern District of New York.
According to court documents, from October 2011 to September 2012, Lustyik and Thaler conspired to use Lustyik’s official position as an FBI counterintelligence special agent to obstruct a criminal investigation into Taylor, a businessman who owned and operated American International Security Corporation. Taylor was under investigation for allegedly paying kickbacks to obtain a series of contracts from the Department of Defense worth approximately $54 million. Taylor promised Lustyik and Thaler that, in exchange for their help, he would provide them cash and multimillion dollar business contracts. In an email message, Taylor told the two men, “I’ll make you guys more money than you can believe, provided they don’t think I’m a bad guy and put me in jail.”
According to court documents, Lustyik attempted to obstruct the investigation into Taylor by identifying Taylor as an official FBI confidential source in an effort to persuade the FBI, the Justice Department and the prosecutors and law enforcement agents in Utah that Taylor’s usefulness to the government outweighed the government’s interest in prosecuting him. Indeed, Lustyik emphasized that indicting Taylor would threaten the nation’s security. Lustyik also sought to take steps to directly intervene in the investigation by interviewing key witnesses.
According to court documents, the defendants boasted about the success of their scheme. In one email message, Lustyik wrote to Taylor, “The rate this is going. I will be indicted way before u ever are !!” Lustyik wrote separately to Thaler, “I can leave [the FBI] in June. But I’m afraid to if [Taylor] gets indicted n I’m not an agent I’m no help. Has he mentioned giving me‐u a salary?”
Taylor admitted at his plea hearing that, as part of this conspiracy, he offered Lustyik a six-figure salary and a share of the proceeds from various multi-million dollar business deals he was pursuing. Acknowledging this, Lustyik wrote to Taylor, “Let’s just get Utah over with and get stinking rich,” to which Taylor replied, “Getting stinking rick [sic], we are well on the way with that so I have the ball.”
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Peter Koski and Trial Attorney Maria Lerner of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Trial Attorney Ann Marie Blaylock of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Trial Attorney Scott Ferber of the National Security Division’s Counterespionage Section also assisted in the prosecution.
AMBASSADOR SEPULVEDA'S REMARKS ON THE DIGITAL ECONOMY OPPORTUNITIES FOR U.S. AND JAPAN
FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
03/30/2015 02:35 PM EDT
Trade and the Digital Economy: Opportunities for U.S.-Japan Global Leadership
Remarks
Ambassador Daniel A. Sepulveda
Deputy Assistant Secretary and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
Brookings Institute
Washington, DC
March 30, 2015
As prepared
Three billion people are connected to the Internet today. And trillions of devices are set up to join them in the Internet of Things. Together, those connections and the data and economic activity that they generate constitute the global digital economy. Our trade policy and other bilateral efforts can and should enable its growth.
America and Japan are leaders in the global digital economy, not just as producers and consumers, but as advocates for the policies that enable its existence and continued development. Our partnership is strong because we both believe that promoting continued global connectivity, with as little friction as possible injected into the transfer of ideas and information, holds the potential to help lift people out of poverty, formalize the informal economy around the world, increase the efficiency of supply chains, increase the productivity of workers, raise wages, and improve people’s lives.
We both believe that the promotion of the global digital economy is an enabler of human progress. It forms a foundational platform for broadly shared prosperity.
So what does that mean for our trade policy and why should advocates for the global Internet support our work in this space, including Trade Promotion Authority and the TPP? The answer is this: the value that trade agreements can add to the strengthening of the global Internet as a platform for progress lies in language that America and Japan are championing. The goal is to establish a joint commitment among signatories to policy that encourages private sector investments in the networks that enable the transmission of data across borders by protecting cloud computing against data localization for example and provisions preserving the free flow of information over the communications networks that connect people and nations. These are two critical elements to the future of the Internet.
Those provisions applied to as many markets as an agreement like the TPP will cover can create the certainty of a safe space for the Internet to continue to grow that covers millions of people and can set an example for the rest of the world to follow.
Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, has made the argument that, "America’s trade negotiating objectives must reflect the fact that the Internet represents the shipping lane for 21st Century goods and services… Trade in digital goods and services is growing and driving economic growth and job creation all around the country. U.S digital exports are beating imports by large margins, but outdated trade rules threaten this growth by providing opportunities for protectionist policies overseas. The U.S. has the opportunity to establish new trade rules that preserve the Internet as a platform to share ideas and for expanding commerce..."
Senator Wyden is absolutely correct. He is widely acknowledged as one of the strongest champions for the open Internet in our Congress and his work on trade is consistent with that body of work.
Our pending agreements with nations in the Pacific community will establish rules for the preservation of those virtual shipping lanes as enablers of the transport of services and ideas, allowing startups and the voices of everyday people to challenge incumbent power in markets and ideas.
We know that both old and new American businesses, small and large alike, are dependent on the global Internet as the enabler of access to previously unreachable consumers. In the U.S. alone, American Internet companies and their global community of users contribute over $141 billion in annual revenue to the overall U.S. GDP, simultaneously employing 6.6 million people. And the Internet is not simply about the World Wide Web, it is the communications platform for managing global supply chains, distributing services, and acquiring the market information necessary to succeed anywhere.
As Ambassador Froman has said, “Trade, done right, is part of the solution, not part of the problem.” It is, when done right, an enabler of the values America holds dear. And that idea is neither new nor partisan.
It was Woodrow Wilson who said, “The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this” and he listed his fourteen points. Among them was number three: “The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.”
It was Franklin Roosevelt who asked the New Deal Congress for the first grant of trade negotiating authority.
In his remarks at the signing of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, it was JFK who said, “Increased economic activity resulting from increased trade will provide more job opportunities for our workers. Our industry, our agriculture, our mining will benefit from increased export opportunities as other nations agree to lower their tariffs. Increased exports and imports will benefit our ports, steamship lines, and airlines as they handle an increased amount of trade. Lowering of our tariffs will provide an increased flow of goods for our American consumers. Our industries will be stimulated by increased export opportunities and by freer competition with the industries of other nations for an even greater effort to develop an efficient, economic, and productive system. The results can bring a dynamic new era of growth.”
If he were alive today, he would have also cited what increased trade could do for the global Internet.
It is fully consistent with the sentiments of these giants in our tradition, from Wilson to Kennedy, that President Obama most recently stated, “Twenty-first century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas. Today, our businesses export more than ever, and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages. But as we speak, China wants to write the rules for the world’s fastest-growing region. That would put our workers and our businesses at a disadvantage. Why would we let that happen? We should write those rules. We should level the playing field. That’s why I’m asking both parties to give me trade promotion authority to protect American workers, with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that aren’t just free, but are also fair. It’s the right thing to do.”
Preservation of these ideals is and should remain a bipartisan and broadly held goal. It is critical to our future and contained within the language we are asking Congress to approve.
Beyond trade policy and the critical provisions in the TPP for the future of the Internet, America and Japan can and are working together to ensure that our domestic digital initiatives are both enabling the digital economy and leveraging it for positive purposes. We conduct annual dialogues on the subject and share information and ideas on issues ranging from how we use communications for disaster response, how we encourage competition, and how we are working to sensibly construct rules for the collection, use, and distribution of data in our markets in a way that protects privacy while enabling innovation.
In the multilateral space and of most direct relevance to the work of my office, American and Japan are strong partners in multilateral forums and negotiations where we work together to ensure that we preserve the decentralized, multistakeholder system of Internet governance. Last year, our two governments partnered at the International Telecommunication Union’s Plenipotentiary treaty conference to protect the Internet’s existing system of voluntary protocols and multistakeholder-led governance against initiatives by other nations to centralize control over the Internet in the hands of governments at the UN. At the same time we partnered at the NETMundial conference in Brazil, the Internet Governance Forum, and other institutions and gatherings in an effort to encourage and facilitate greater participation and representation from the developing world in the multistakeholder system of Internet governance.
Together, we will continue to focus the world on expanding connectivity, keeping digital trade routes open, and ensuring that we continue to expand the digital economy and make it more inclusive. These are valuable, long term efforts and we have the kinds of bonds between friends and allies that will help us succeed.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.
03/30/2015 02:35 PM EDT
Trade and the Digital Economy: Opportunities for U.S.-Japan Global Leadership
Remarks
Ambassador Daniel A. Sepulveda
Deputy Assistant Secretary and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
Brookings Institute
Washington, DC
March 30, 2015
As prepared
Three billion people are connected to the Internet today. And trillions of devices are set up to join them in the Internet of Things. Together, those connections and the data and economic activity that they generate constitute the global digital economy. Our trade policy and other bilateral efforts can and should enable its growth.
America and Japan are leaders in the global digital economy, not just as producers and consumers, but as advocates for the policies that enable its existence and continued development. Our partnership is strong because we both believe that promoting continued global connectivity, with as little friction as possible injected into the transfer of ideas and information, holds the potential to help lift people out of poverty, formalize the informal economy around the world, increase the efficiency of supply chains, increase the productivity of workers, raise wages, and improve people’s lives.
We both believe that the promotion of the global digital economy is an enabler of human progress. It forms a foundational platform for broadly shared prosperity.
So what does that mean for our trade policy and why should advocates for the global Internet support our work in this space, including Trade Promotion Authority and the TPP? The answer is this: the value that trade agreements can add to the strengthening of the global Internet as a platform for progress lies in language that America and Japan are championing. The goal is to establish a joint commitment among signatories to policy that encourages private sector investments in the networks that enable the transmission of data across borders by protecting cloud computing against data localization for example and provisions preserving the free flow of information over the communications networks that connect people and nations. These are two critical elements to the future of the Internet.
Those provisions applied to as many markets as an agreement like the TPP will cover can create the certainty of a safe space for the Internet to continue to grow that covers millions of people and can set an example for the rest of the world to follow.
Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, has made the argument that, "America’s trade negotiating objectives must reflect the fact that the Internet represents the shipping lane for 21st Century goods and services… Trade in digital goods and services is growing and driving economic growth and job creation all around the country. U.S digital exports are beating imports by large margins, but outdated trade rules threaten this growth by providing opportunities for protectionist policies overseas. The U.S. has the opportunity to establish new trade rules that preserve the Internet as a platform to share ideas and for expanding commerce..."
Senator Wyden is absolutely correct. He is widely acknowledged as one of the strongest champions for the open Internet in our Congress and his work on trade is consistent with that body of work.
Our pending agreements with nations in the Pacific community will establish rules for the preservation of those virtual shipping lanes as enablers of the transport of services and ideas, allowing startups and the voices of everyday people to challenge incumbent power in markets and ideas.
We know that both old and new American businesses, small and large alike, are dependent on the global Internet as the enabler of access to previously unreachable consumers. In the U.S. alone, American Internet companies and their global community of users contribute over $141 billion in annual revenue to the overall U.S. GDP, simultaneously employing 6.6 million people. And the Internet is not simply about the World Wide Web, it is the communications platform for managing global supply chains, distributing services, and acquiring the market information necessary to succeed anywhere.
As Ambassador Froman has said, “Trade, done right, is part of the solution, not part of the problem.” It is, when done right, an enabler of the values America holds dear. And that idea is neither new nor partisan.
It was Woodrow Wilson who said, “The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this” and he listed his fourteen points. Among them was number three: “The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.”
It was Franklin Roosevelt who asked the New Deal Congress for the first grant of trade negotiating authority.
In his remarks at the signing of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, it was JFK who said, “Increased economic activity resulting from increased trade will provide more job opportunities for our workers. Our industry, our agriculture, our mining will benefit from increased export opportunities as other nations agree to lower their tariffs. Increased exports and imports will benefit our ports, steamship lines, and airlines as they handle an increased amount of trade. Lowering of our tariffs will provide an increased flow of goods for our American consumers. Our industries will be stimulated by increased export opportunities and by freer competition with the industries of other nations for an even greater effort to develop an efficient, economic, and productive system. The results can bring a dynamic new era of growth.”
If he were alive today, he would have also cited what increased trade could do for the global Internet.
It is fully consistent with the sentiments of these giants in our tradition, from Wilson to Kennedy, that President Obama most recently stated, “Twenty-first century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas. Today, our businesses export more than ever, and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages. But as we speak, China wants to write the rules for the world’s fastest-growing region. That would put our workers and our businesses at a disadvantage. Why would we let that happen? We should write those rules. We should level the playing field. That’s why I’m asking both parties to give me trade promotion authority to protect American workers, with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that aren’t just free, but are also fair. It’s the right thing to do.”
Preservation of these ideals is and should remain a bipartisan and broadly held goal. It is critical to our future and contained within the language we are asking Congress to approve.
Beyond trade policy and the critical provisions in the TPP for the future of the Internet, America and Japan can and are working together to ensure that our domestic digital initiatives are both enabling the digital economy and leveraging it for positive purposes. We conduct annual dialogues on the subject and share information and ideas on issues ranging from how we use communications for disaster response, how we encourage competition, and how we are working to sensibly construct rules for the collection, use, and distribution of data in our markets in a way that protects privacy while enabling innovation.
In the multilateral space and of most direct relevance to the work of my office, American and Japan are strong partners in multilateral forums and negotiations where we work together to ensure that we preserve the decentralized, multistakeholder system of Internet governance. Last year, our two governments partnered at the International Telecommunication Union’s Plenipotentiary treaty conference to protect the Internet’s existing system of voluntary protocols and multistakeholder-led governance against initiatives by other nations to centralize control over the Internet in the hands of governments at the UN. At the same time we partnered at the NETMundial conference in Brazil, the Internet Governance Forum, and other institutions and gatherings in an effort to encourage and facilitate greater participation and representation from the developing world in the multistakeholder system of Internet governance.
Together, we will continue to focus the world on expanding connectivity, keeping digital trade routes open, and ensuring that we continue to expand the digital economy and make it more inclusive. These are valuable, long term efforts and we have the kinds of bonds between friends and allies that will help us succeed.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.
HAROON ASWAT, ABU HAMZA CO-CONSPIRATOR PLEADS GUILTY TO TERRORISM
FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Monday, March 30, 2015
Haroon Aswat, Abu Hamza Co-Conspirator, Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Charges in Federal Court
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York announced that Haroon Aswat pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to terrorism charges related to Aswat’s efforts to establish a terrorist training camp in the United States. Aswat was arrested in Zambia in July 2005, and in August 2005, Aswat was deported from Zambia to the United Kingdom, where he was arrested pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant that was issued in response to a request by the U.S. government in connection with this case. Aswat was extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom on Oct. 21, 2014. Aswat pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, and one count of providing material support to al Qaeda.
“With this guilty plea, Haroon Aswat is being held accountable for his provision of material support to al Qaeda and his role in a plot to establish a terrorist training camp on American soil,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “Aswat was arrested almost 10 years ago, and his guilty plea is a testament to our determination to bring to justice all those who wish to harm the United States, whether at home or abroad, no matter how long it takes. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of the many agents, analysts and prosecutors whose dedication and persistence made possible the guilty plea in this case.”
“Haroon Aswat fought his extradition to the United States for almost 10 years,” said U.S. Attorney Bharara. “He then pled guilty to material support charges within just six months of arriving here, showing again our legal system’s capacity for swift justice. For providing support to al Qaeda, Aswat now comes face-to-face with justice and faces up to 20 years in prison, and after the completion of his term he will be deported.”
According to the allegations contained in the indictment, statements made at related court proceedings including today’s guilty plea, and evidence presented at prior trials:
In late 1999, Aswat, along with co-defendants Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, aka Abu Hamza, Ouassama Kassir and Earnest James Ujaama, attempted to create a terrorist training camp in the United States to support al Qaeda, which has been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization. Aswat conspired with Abu Hamza, Kassir and Ujaama to establish the terrorist training camp on a rural parcel of property located in Bly, Oregon. The purpose of the Bly camp was for Muslims to receive various types of training – including military-style jihad training – in preparation to fight jihad in Afghanistan. As used by the conspirators in this case, the term “jihad” meant defending Islam against purported enemies through violence and armed aggression, including, by using murder to rid Muslim holy lands of non-believers in Islam.
In a letter faxed from Ujaama, who was in the United States, to Abu Hamza in the United Kingdom, the property in Bly was described as a place that “looks just like Afghanistan,” and the letter noted that the men at Bly were “stock-piling weapons and ammunition.” In late 1999, after transmission of the faxed letter, Abu Hamza directed Aswat and Kassir, both of whom resided in London and attended Abu Hamza’s mosque there, to travel to Oregon to assist in establishing the camp. On Nov. 26, 1999, Aswat and Kassir arrived in New York, and then traveled to Bly.
Aswat and Kassir traveled to Bly for the purpose of training men to fight jihad. Kassir told witnesses that he supported Usama Bin Laden and al Qaeda, and that he had previously received jihad training in Pakistan. Kassir also possessed a compact disc that contained instructions on how to make bombs and poisons. After leaving Bly, Aswat and Kassir traveled to Seattle, where they resided at a mosque for approximately two months. While in Seattle, Kassir, in Aswat’s presence, provided men from the mosque with additional terrorist training lessons – including instructions on different types of weapons, how to construct a homemade silencer for a firearm, how to assemble and disassemble an AK-47 and how an AK-47 could be altered to be fully automatic and to launch a grenade. On another occasion, with Aswat sitting by his side, Kassir announced to the men in Seattle that he had come to the United States for martyrdom and to destroy, and he informed his audience that some of them could die or get hurt.
A ledger recovered in September 2002 from an al Qaeda safe house in Karachi, Pakistan, listed a number of individuals associated with al Qaeda, including ASWAT. The al Qaeda safe house was used by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al Qaeda’s chief operational planner and the alleged planner of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
* * *
Aswat pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, each of which carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison. The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
Abu Hamza and Kassir were previously convicted for their roles in attempting to establish a terrorist training camp in the United States. On May 12, 2009, after a four-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York, Kassir was found guilty of charges relating to his efforts to establish the terrorist training camp in Bly and his operation of several terrorist websites. On Sept. 15, 2009, U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan of the Southern District of New York sentenced Kassir to life in prison.
On May 19, 2014, after a four-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York, Abu Hamza was found guilty of charges relating to his role in the conspiracy to establish the terrorist training camp in Bly, as well as his role in a hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998 that resulted in four deaths and his support of violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001. On Jan. 9, 2015, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York sentenced Abu Hamza to life in prison.
Assistant Attorney General Carlin joins U.S. Attorney Bharara in praising the outstanding efforts of the FBI’s Manhattan-based Joint Terrorism Task Force, which principally consists of agents of the FBI and detectives of the New York City Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Metropolitan Police Department of London. Assistant Attorney General Carlin and U.S. Attorney Bharara also thanked the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs for their ongoing assistance.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John P. Cronan, Ian McGinley and Shane T. Stansbury of the Southern District of New York, and Trial Attorney Erin Creegan of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Haroon Aswat, Abu Hamza Co-Conspirator, Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Charges in Federal Court
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York announced that Haroon Aswat pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to terrorism charges related to Aswat’s efforts to establish a terrorist training camp in the United States. Aswat was arrested in Zambia in July 2005, and in August 2005, Aswat was deported from Zambia to the United Kingdom, where he was arrested pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant that was issued in response to a request by the U.S. government in connection with this case. Aswat was extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom on Oct. 21, 2014. Aswat pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, and one count of providing material support to al Qaeda.
“With this guilty plea, Haroon Aswat is being held accountable for his provision of material support to al Qaeda and his role in a plot to establish a terrorist training camp on American soil,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “Aswat was arrested almost 10 years ago, and his guilty plea is a testament to our determination to bring to justice all those who wish to harm the United States, whether at home or abroad, no matter how long it takes. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of the many agents, analysts and prosecutors whose dedication and persistence made possible the guilty plea in this case.”
“Haroon Aswat fought his extradition to the United States for almost 10 years,” said U.S. Attorney Bharara. “He then pled guilty to material support charges within just six months of arriving here, showing again our legal system’s capacity for swift justice. For providing support to al Qaeda, Aswat now comes face-to-face with justice and faces up to 20 years in prison, and after the completion of his term he will be deported.”
According to the allegations contained in the indictment, statements made at related court proceedings including today’s guilty plea, and evidence presented at prior trials:
In late 1999, Aswat, along with co-defendants Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, aka Abu Hamza, Ouassama Kassir and Earnest James Ujaama, attempted to create a terrorist training camp in the United States to support al Qaeda, which has been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization. Aswat conspired with Abu Hamza, Kassir and Ujaama to establish the terrorist training camp on a rural parcel of property located in Bly, Oregon. The purpose of the Bly camp was for Muslims to receive various types of training – including military-style jihad training – in preparation to fight jihad in Afghanistan. As used by the conspirators in this case, the term “jihad” meant defending Islam against purported enemies through violence and armed aggression, including, by using murder to rid Muslim holy lands of non-believers in Islam.
In a letter faxed from Ujaama, who was in the United States, to Abu Hamza in the United Kingdom, the property in Bly was described as a place that “looks just like Afghanistan,” and the letter noted that the men at Bly were “stock-piling weapons and ammunition.” In late 1999, after transmission of the faxed letter, Abu Hamza directed Aswat and Kassir, both of whom resided in London and attended Abu Hamza’s mosque there, to travel to Oregon to assist in establishing the camp. On Nov. 26, 1999, Aswat and Kassir arrived in New York, and then traveled to Bly.
Aswat and Kassir traveled to Bly for the purpose of training men to fight jihad. Kassir told witnesses that he supported Usama Bin Laden and al Qaeda, and that he had previously received jihad training in Pakistan. Kassir also possessed a compact disc that contained instructions on how to make bombs and poisons. After leaving Bly, Aswat and Kassir traveled to Seattle, where they resided at a mosque for approximately two months. While in Seattle, Kassir, in Aswat’s presence, provided men from the mosque with additional terrorist training lessons – including instructions on different types of weapons, how to construct a homemade silencer for a firearm, how to assemble and disassemble an AK-47 and how an AK-47 could be altered to be fully automatic and to launch a grenade. On another occasion, with Aswat sitting by his side, Kassir announced to the men in Seattle that he had come to the United States for martyrdom and to destroy, and he informed his audience that some of them could die or get hurt.
A ledger recovered in September 2002 from an al Qaeda safe house in Karachi, Pakistan, listed a number of individuals associated with al Qaeda, including ASWAT. The al Qaeda safe house was used by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al Qaeda’s chief operational planner and the alleged planner of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
* * *
Aswat pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, each of which carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison. The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
Abu Hamza and Kassir were previously convicted for their roles in attempting to establish a terrorist training camp in the United States. On May 12, 2009, after a four-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York, Kassir was found guilty of charges relating to his efforts to establish the terrorist training camp in Bly and his operation of several terrorist websites. On Sept. 15, 2009, U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan of the Southern District of New York sentenced Kassir to life in prison.
On May 19, 2014, after a four-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York, Abu Hamza was found guilty of charges relating to his role in the conspiracy to establish the terrorist training camp in Bly, as well as his role in a hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998 that resulted in four deaths and his support of violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001. On Jan. 9, 2015, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York sentenced Abu Hamza to life in prison.
Assistant Attorney General Carlin joins U.S. Attorney Bharara in praising the outstanding efforts of the FBI’s Manhattan-based Joint Terrorism Task Force, which principally consists of agents of the FBI and detectives of the New York City Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Metropolitan Police Department of London. Assistant Attorney General Carlin and U.S. Attorney Bharara also thanked the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs for their ongoing assistance.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John P. Cronan, Ian McGinley and Shane T. Stansbury of the Southern District of New York, and Trial Attorney Erin Creegan of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
READOUT: PRESIDENT OBAMA'S CALL WITH PRESIDENT AL-SISI OF EGYPT
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
March 31, 2015
Readout of the President’s Call with President al-Sisi of Egypt
President Obama spoke with Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi today regarding the U.S.-Egyptian military assistance relationship and regional developments, including in Libya and Yemen. President Obama informed President al-Sisi that he will lift executive holds that have been in place since October 2013 on the delivery of F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles, and M1A1 tank kits. The President also advised President al-Sisi that he will continue to request an annual $1.3 billion in military assistance for Egypt. Beginning in fiscal year 2018, the President noted that we will channel U.S. security assistance for Egypt to four categories – counterterrorism, border security, Sinai security, and maritime security – and for sustainment of weapons systems already in Egypt’s arsenal.
The President explained that these and other steps will help refine our military assistance relationship so that it is better positioned to address the shared challenges to U.S. and Egyptian interests in an unstable region, consistent with the longstanding strategic partnership between our two countries. President Obama also reiterated U.S. concerns about Egypt’s continued imprisonment of non-violent activists and mass trials. He encouraged increased respect for freedom of speech and assembly and emphasized that these issues remain a focus for the United States. The two leaders agreed to stay in touch in the weeks and months ahead.
March 31, 2015
Readout of the President’s Call with President al-Sisi of Egypt
President Obama spoke with Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi today regarding the U.S.-Egyptian military assistance relationship and regional developments, including in Libya and Yemen. President Obama informed President al-Sisi that he will lift executive holds that have been in place since October 2013 on the delivery of F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles, and M1A1 tank kits. The President also advised President al-Sisi that he will continue to request an annual $1.3 billion in military assistance for Egypt. Beginning in fiscal year 2018, the President noted that we will channel U.S. security assistance for Egypt to four categories – counterterrorism, border security, Sinai security, and maritime security – and for sustainment of weapons systems already in Egypt’s arsenal.
The President explained that these and other steps will help refine our military assistance relationship so that it is better positioned to address the shared challenges to U.S. and Egyptian interests in an unstable region, consistent with the longstanding strategic partnership between our two countries. President Obama also reiterated U.S. concerns about Egypt’s continued imprisonment of non-violent activists and mass trials. He encouraged increased respect for freedom of speech and assembly and emphasized that these issues remain a focus for the United States. The two leaders agreed to stay in touch in the weeks and months ahead.
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S LETTER ON CONTINUATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO SOUTH SUDAN
FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
March 31, 2015
Letter -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to South Sudan
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 of April 3, 2014, with respect to South Sudan is to continue in effect beyond April 3, 2015.
The situation in and in relation to South Sudan, which has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan and the surrounding region, including widespread violence and atrocities, human rights abuses, recruitment and use of child soldiers, attacks on peacekeepers, and obstruction of humanitarian operations, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 with respect to South Sudan.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
March 31, 2015
Letter -- Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to South Sudan
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 of April 3, 2014, with respect to South Sudan is to continue in effect beyond April 3, 2015.
The situation in and in relation to South Sudan, which has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, or stability of South Sudan and the surrounding region, including widespread violence and atrocities, human rights abuses, recruitment and use of child soldiers, attacks on peacekeepers, and obstruction of humanitarian operations, continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13664 with respect to South Sudan.
Sincerely,
BARACK OBAMA
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