The 
new chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will seek a 
stay on privacy rules for broadband providers that the agency just passed in 
October.
    FCC 
Chairman Ajit Pai will ask for either a full commission vote on the stay before 
parts of the rules take effect next Thursday, or he will instruct FCC staff to 
delay part of the rules pending a commission vote, a spokesman said today.
    The 
rules, passed when the FCC had a Democratic majority, require broadband 
providers to receive opt-in customer permission to share sensitive personal 
information, including web-browsing history, geolocation, and financial details, 
with third parties. Without the stay, the opt-in requirements were scheduled to 
take effect next week. But critics have complained that the rules only apply to 
ISPs, and not to giant online companies like Google and 
Facebook, that collect huge amounts of personal data. And the FCC rules 
hold ISPs to a higher privacy standard than the case-by-case privacy enforcement 
that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) uses when investigating other 
companies, critics say.
    Supporters 
of the strong ISP privacy rules say broadband providers have huge opportunities 
to collect customers' personal information. And U.S. law gives the FCC little 
authority to regulate the privacy practices of companies that aren't network 
service providers.
    "Chairman 
Pai believes that the best way to protect the online privacy of American 
consumers is through a comprehensive and uniform regulatory framework," an FCC 
spokesman said. "All actors in the online space should be subject to the same 
rules, and the federal government shouldn't favor one set of companies over 
another."
    Republican 
Pai has promised to roll back many of the regulations passed while Democrat Tom 
Wheeler served as FCC chairman. This week, the FCC voted to roll back some net 
neutrality regulations that require broadband providers to inform customers 
about their network management practices.
    Pai's 
decision to stay the privacy rules goes against U.S. law requiring the agency to 
protect customers of telecom networks, said Matt Wood, policy director at 
digital rights group Free Press. "It's a tragedy that Chairman Pai is willing to 
ignore his own statutory mandate and delay rules that protect Internet users 
from cable company abuse, while pretending that he's just chasing after a more 
comprehensive privacy law that's outside of his agency's congressional 
jurisdiction," Wood said. "The race-to-the-bottom mentality that Pai espouses 
may play well to the industries supporting him, but people will understand that 
Pai's fake promise of better rules tomorrow just means stripping away all 
protections today."
    Pai's 
decision, however, earned praise from former U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, a Democrat 
who has criticized FCC regulations in recent years. The stay is "a smart first 
step toward rolling back asymmetrical regulation that is at odds with consumers' 
privacy expectations, deters innovation and causes marketplace distortion," said 
Boucher, now honorary chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, a broadband 
advocacy group. "Applying different privacy rules to the same online data by 
saddling only ISPs with new regulations doesn't make sense," Boucher 
added.
 
U.S. 
Army
    Senegalese 
and American military medical professionals have hosted a closing ceremony 
on the last day of Medical Readiness Training during the 2017 MEDRETE, in 
Vincenza, Italy.
    A  
91 year old World War II veteran is reliving his time in the air by 
tandem jumps with the U.S. Army's Golden Knights at Homestead Air Reserve 
Base, Fla.
    The 
U.S. Army offers both full-time (on active duty) and part-time (Army 
Reserve and Army National Guard) positions. If qualified, you can learn 
specialized training in one of over 150 different job fields.
    Armored 
combat vehicles experts at BAE Systems will provide the U.S. Army with 11 M88A2 
Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift Evacuation System (HERCULES) 
vehicles and related vetronics under terms of a $28.2 million contract announced 
last week.
    Airborne 
soldiers jumped into Alaska's Arctic tundra, on Feb. 22nd, just a few miles from 
the Arctic Ocean in minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures with a windchill 
factor of minus 56 F.
    Simulation 
and training experts at the General Dynamics Corp. will enhance the capabilities 
of a U.S. Army intelligence and electronic warfare (EW) electronic simulator to 
improve the training of U.S. military intelligence analysts.
    Col. 
Nick Johnson, an Illinois Army National Guard detachment commander and civilian 
clinical psychologist, supports soldiers and their families and
helps the 
homeless for one reason only - duty.
    U.S. 
Army officials are choosing nine U.S. information technology (IT) companies to 
provide the U.S. Army's computer users with a wide variety of IT equipment over 
the next decade under terms of a $2.5 billion contract.
    There's 
a common bond of empathy and understanding between spouses who have experienced 
the deployment of a loved one to combat. While service members are trained to 
use their skills in war, there's no formal training for those who stay behind 
and manage the home front when military members are hundreds of miles away. 
Barbara Livingston, the wife of Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. 
Livingston, Jr., the adjutant general for South Carolina, welcomed two spouses 
of officers in the Colombian Air Force during a South Carolina 
National Guard State Partnership Program 
engagement held at her home in Gaston, S.C., on Feb. 21st. Yuli 
Nunez de Bueno, wife of Colombian Air Force commander Gen. Carlos Eduardo Bueno 
Vargas, and Monica Ochoa de Rueda, wife of Colombia Air Force Col. Juan Carlos 
Rueda Cartagena, joined Livingston to share ways they managed and held their 
families together when their spouses were away on missions. "One 
thing my husband and I have always made a priority was to be honest with 
ourselves about his deployment and how it affected us and share these 
experiences with others," Livingston said. "It's important for our soldiers, 
airmen, and families to understand that it is normal to have difficulty and it 
takes time." Livingston's husband deployed for 18 months to 
Afghanistan in 2007, leaving her with their four grown children and a business 
to run. Her husband, as a National Guard soldier and now the adjutant general 
for South Carolina, has also supported multiple state response missions during 
their over 30-year marriage, including Hurricane Hugo, the statewide flood of 
2015, and Hurricane Matthew. "During the devastating flood, I did 
not want to tell him our driveway was underwater," Livingston said. "I didn't 
want to add any distractions for him while he took care of the state and kept 
telling him things were fine at home." Bueno and Rueda said that 
their country is transitioning to peace after more than 50 years of war and many 
policies and changes for service members are still being worked through. Bueno 
added that in her role as a military wife, she and other wives focus on helping 
others in the community. "Supporting those who work in our 
hospitals is important," Bueno said. "We have functions to support our elders, 
which includes veterans, as well as military supporters. We also volunteer to 
help those in need with items such as clothing." Bueno said that 
the Colombian military has variations to the length of time a military member 
may be away or in combat, as well as the family accommodations on different 
bases where they may not be able to stay. She said the military supports the 
wives with special programs to enable them to meet up with their service member 
for weekends on a designated base. Livingston shared with 
Bueno and Rueda a handout that they give spouses that showcases the "5 F" 
philosophy of a healthy marriage and lifestyle and that is to focus on faith, 
family, friends, fitness, and finance. "As wives and mothers, we 
stay strong for our children," Rueda said. "I found my faith in God and through 
prayer has helped us get through." "Even though our countries have 
experienced different types of separations from our military spouses during 
combat operations, we share that commonality of needing balance in our lives to 
make it work," Livingston said. "We can't lose sight of other things that are 
important. Having grandbabies has really reminded us how precious family time is 
and how quickly the years pass."
    U.S. 
Army Reserve forces, which are part of the overall AERF contingency forces, are 
part of the Army's plan to provide a force that can deploy on short 
notice.
    The 
Army Reserve's "Operation Cold Steel" exercise begins next month at Ft. McCoy, 
Wis.
    The 
Total Army philosophy encompasses active duty Army, Army Reserve and Army 
National Guard troops as a Total Army force.
    And 
members of the Arkansas National Guard are one step closer to attending college 
for free as a bill allowing that advances through the state's 
Legislature.
 
Homeland 
insecurity
    U.S. 
Homeland Security chief John Kelly says there will be no use of military forces 
to help with, and there will be no, "mass" deportations.
    During 
a visit to Guatemala, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly contradicted 
deportation plans made public by the Trump administration. President Trump 
declared yesterday that his immigration clampdown was a “military 
operation” - although his homeland security secretary said 
it's not.
    And 
new Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Paul Penzone is asking for guidance 
from the director of the Department of Homeland Security about "courtesy 
detainers" for illegal aliens.
 
Another 
hard-won victory for gun rights
    On 
Wednesday, Gov. Chris Sununu signed SB 12 into law. The governor's signature makes New Hampshire the 13th 
Constitutional Carry state in the union. This means Granite Staters will no longer be forced to 
seek permission to carry concealed or be registered like sex offenders before 
exercising their right to protect themselves.
    The battle to enter New Hampshire 
into the Constitutional Carry Club was a long, hard 
campaign.
 
Adm. Rogers discusses near future of the U.S. 
Cyber Command
    U,S. Navy Adm. Mike Rogers, 
the chief of U.S. Cyber Command, discussed the 
command’s future over the next five to 10 years yesterday at West 2017, a sea 
services event in San Diego, Calif., co-sponsored by AFCEA International 
and the U.S. Naval Institute.
    The AFCEA is 
the international information technology, communications and electronics 
association for professionals in government, industry and 
academia.
    Rogers, also 
director of the National Security Agency, fielded 
questions from moderator retired Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, who’s now dean of 
the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He’s also chairman 
of the board of the U.S. Naval Institute and a senior fellow at the Johns 
Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. Topics included 
integrating cyber at the tactical level of warfare, modeling Cybercom after the 
structure used by the Special Operations Command, the Cybercom workforce, and 
the relationship between Cybercom and the private sector, all in the five-to 
10-year horizon. "Here's what we need to build toward - in the 
immediate near term, elevating Cyber Command to a combatant command," Rogers 
said, adding, "I think the potential for that happening in the near term is 
high." (Cybercom today is a component of the U.S. 
Strategic Command.)
    Over the next 
five to 10 years, the admiral said, he would like to see cyber integrated 
offensively and defensively "down to the operational tactical 
level."
    Offensive 
cyber in some ways is treated like nuclear weapons, he added, "in the sense that 
their application outside a defined area of hostilities is controlled at the 
chief-executive level and is not delegated down."
    Rogers said he 
hopes that over the next five to 10 years Cybercom can engender enough 
confidence in decision makers and policymakers that they feel comfortable 
pushing offensive cyber activities to the tactical 
level.
    "We should be 
integrating cyber into the strike group and on the amphibious expeditionary 
side. We should view this as another toolkit that's available as a commander is 
coming up with a broad schema of maneuver to achieve a desired outcome or end 
state. That’s what I hope," the admiral said.
    Rogers and 
Stavridis likened the journey of cyber to that of the special forces, whose 
members in earlier times were called in only for special occasions and their use 
was highly controlled. Today, they said, combatant commanders have component 
commands from each service and from special 
operations.
    "I would 
create Cyber Command much in the image of the U.S. Special 
Operations Command,” Rogers said. "Give it that broad set of 
responsibilities where it not only is taking forces fielded by the services and 
employing them; it's articulating the requirement and the vision and you're 
giving it the resources to create the capacity and then employ it." 
SOF also provides a theater special operations commander across all 
nine combatant commands, said Rogers, adding, that’s "a model I think we should 
drive to."
    The cyber 
force, based on Cybercom billet structure, is about 80 percent military, 20 
percent civilian, Rogers said. On the NSA side, he added, it’s 60 percent 
civilian, 40 percent military. Recruiting and retention, he said, is "a little 
bit harder on the civilian side."
    On the 
military side, the Cybercom leadership is finding that what motivates a young 
man or woman to be a Marine Corps rifleman, to work the flightline in the Air 
Force or to be a deck seaman in the Navy also motivates cyber warriors. 
They want to be part of something bigger than themselves, they like 
the ethos and culture of the military, he said. "That's a real 
selling point for us right now," the admiral said. "The self-image of this 
workforce is that they are the digital warriors of the 21st century. The way 
they look at themselves - we're in the future, we're the cutting edge, we're 
doing something new, we're blazing a path." As a leader, Rogers 
said, "you cannot underestimate the value of that."
    Rogers says he 
reminds recruits that as cyber warriors they'll be able to do things in uniform, 
within the defense and Law of Armed Conflict application, that they can't do 
anywhere else, and they'll gain responsibility as they show proficiency in the 
job. "Everybody responds well to that," he said. "Retention is good 
right now."
    In its work 
with the private sector over the next five to 10 years, Rogers said he would 
like to see Cybercom and tech companies "get to a level of integration where we 
have actual physical collocation with each other." The admiral says 
that in his military experience, "when we create command-and-control] 
structures, when we create analytic and command-and-control nodes, we try to 
bring all together as much data, as many different perspectives and as many 
different elements in the broad enterprise that are necessary to achieve the 
outcome. I think we need to do the same thing" with the tech 
sector.
    Rogers said 
he'd like to see Cybercom, for one thing, take advantage of the sector 
constructs that are in place for the 16 segments in private industry that 
Presidential Policy Directive 21 designates as infrastructure critical to the 
nation. These sectors are chemicals, commercial facilities, 
communications, critical manufacturing, dams, the defense industrial base, 
emergency services, energy, financial services, food and agriculture, government 
facilities, health care and public health, information technology, nuclear 
reactors and materials, transportation systems and water and 
wastewater.
    "How do we 
take advantage of that and integrate at that level? Because as an execution guy, 
my experience teaches me that you want to train, you want to exercise, you want 
to simulate as many conditions as you can before you actually come into contact 
with an opponent," Rogers said.
    On the cyber 
defense side, the admiral said, he'd like help from the technology sector to get 
to machine learning at speed and automation, and through this technology to help 
Cybercom free-up human capital. He'd also like the sector’s help with human 
capital development. "People love to talk about the technology, but 
our greatest edge isn't technology; our greatest edge is that motivated man or 
woman with the intellectual capacity to anticipate, to be innovative and to be 
agile," Rogers said. "Because what we're dealing with is driven by a man or 
woman somewhere in the world sitting at a keyboard. There's a human dimension in 
all of this. It's not just about the machine."
    On the 
offensive side - speaking for himself rather than the department, he said - 
there are things Rogers is trying to come to grips with. "In the 
application of kinetic functionality - weapons - we go to the private sector and 
say, 'Build this thing we call a joint directed-attack munition, a Tomahawk 
land-attack munition.’ Fill in the blank," he said. "On the 
offensive side, to date, we have done almost all of our weapons development 
internally," Rogers said. "And part of me goes - five to 10 years from now is 
that a long-term sustainable model? Does that enable you to access fully the 
capabilities resident in the private sector? I'm still trying to work my way 
through that, intellectually."
 
News from the U.S. Marshals 
Service
    The U.S. Marshals Service 
in Omaha, Neb., is warning the public about a telephone scam involving a 
man posing as a U.S. Marshal.
    A 31-year-old man wanted on 
a parole violation was shot during an attempted arrest by the U.S. Marshals 
Fugitive Task Force in Detroit, Mich., on Tuesday. Authorities say the 
fugitive is expected to survive.
    The U.S. Marshals Fugitive 
Task Force captured Andre Steward in Baton Rouge, La., earlier today. 
Steward is a prison escapee.
    Savannah, Ga., Mayor 
Eddie DeLoach has presented the widow of a fallen U.S. Marshal with a 
special proclamation in his honor.
    Two fugitives wanted by the 
police in separate Erie, Ohio, homicides were apprehended together by 
the U.S. Marshals on Wednesday night at a residence in 
northeast Detroit, Mich.
    Kevin Glenn Carter, 52, 
wanted for kidnapping and rape, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals 
after being found hiding in a closet of a Durham, N.C., residence yesterday 
afternoon.
    Kelly Powell,  a 
man police believe is bringing drugs into Oakland County, Mich., is wanted 
for murder and the U.S. Marshals are asking for your help finding 
him.
    And a wanted Steuben 
County, Ohio, sex offender has been caught in Texas by the U.S. 
Marshals.
 
U.S. Air 
Force
    This month, members 
of the Iowa Air National Guard's 185th Air Refueling Wing, based in Sioux City, 
Iowa, are refueling NATO Airborne Warning and Control System 
(AWACS) aircraft while assigned to NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany. 
Approximately 40 members from the 185th are in Germany for two 
weeks supporting NATO missions. The AWACS involves multifaceted 
radar equipped aircraft that provide surveillance and command and control for 
NATO areas of responsibility. Onboard aircraft crews provide communications and 
control for U.S. and partner nations, while also keeping a close eye on 
potential adversaries. These missions require long flight times and in-flight 
refueling provided by Air Guard units like the 185th. According to 
Royal Netherlands Air Force Capt. André Bongers, a public affairs officer 
stationed at Geilenkirchen, the long-standing partnership with the Air Guard is 
important to maintaining stability in the 
region.
    Congressional 
inaction on a permanent budget may be the top threat to the Air Force, 
Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein has indicated. "There is no enemy on the 
planet than can do more damage to the United States Air Force 
than us not getting a budget," he said.
    The Tutor Perini 
Corp. (TPC) has been awarded a design-build contract by the U.S. Air Force to 
design and construct facilities in support of the Royal Saudi Air 
Force.
    The French Air Force 
is sending to the U.S. its crack flying display team, Patrouille de France, to 
visit with the U.S. Air Force.
    Cadets from the Air 
Force Academy have attended an Air Liaison Officers Aptitude 
course.
    Air Force officials 
released details on the fiscal year 2017 Selective Re-enlistment Bonus program, 
yesterday.
    The U.S. Air Force is 
trying to get permission to use an area off of the north of Kauai, Hawaii, as a 
test spot to drop 100 bombs each year.
    The 733rd 
Logistics Readiness Squadron's Vehicle Management Flight at Joint Base 
Langley-Eustis, Va., was chosen to participate in a 12-month-long 
experimental testing of a new bio-based grease to lessen the base's impact on 
the environment. The 441st Vehicle Support Chain Operations 
Squadron and representatives from the Defense Logistics 
Agency (DLA) briefed the vehicle management flight about the 
impact of the bio-based grease on the three vehicles chosen to test the grease 
on Jan. 31st. Members of the 441st VSCOS will also partner 
with the Navy, Marine Corps, NASA and the Kennedy 
Space Center to test the bio-based grease in their 
vehicles.
    Rachel Guy and 
her husband, Major Darrell Guy, hugged and kissed prior to his deployment to 
Southwest Asia with the North Carolina Air National Guard 
this week. With this deployment, the 145th Airlift Wing is deploying its C-130s 
for the last time.
    The Ohio 
Air National Guard is getting 20 new Black Hawk helicopters. They're headed to 
Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base between now and the end of 
2018.
    Astronauts 
deployed to the International Space Station (ISS) received a special 
package yesterday, shipped straight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, 
Fla.
    Forty-five 
members of the New York Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing are heading to 
Hawaii on Feb. 27th to participate in a joint NASA and Defense Department 
mission to evaluate recovery techniques and gear that will be used to recover 
NASA's Orion spacecraft, the next generation of American space 
vehicles. The team of 45 airmen is made up of para-rescuemen; 
combat rescue officers; survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists; 
and other support airmen assigned to the 106th Rescue Wing's 103rd Rescue 
Squadron, based at Gabreski Air National Guard Base, N.Y. 
Pararescuemen are trained to rescue downed aviators behind enemy 
lines and from land and water environments. Each pararescue airman undergoes two 
years of training that includes extensive medical training as well as training 
in parachute jumping, scuba diving and survival skills. The 
para-rescuemen are experienced in dropping fully stocked rescue boats to recover 
personnel. The New York Air National Guard members will work 
with experts from NASA, the Air Force and the Department of Defense's Human 
Spaceflight Support Office in developing techniques for air-dropping gear needed 
to recover the crew from an Orion screw module and fit the floating spacecraft 
with special equipment. The New York airmen will conduct airdrops 
and practice helping astronauts out of the spacecraft, providing medical 
assistance if necessary. The jumps will help NASA and the military test a number 
of systems and procedures for future 
launches.
    And Lt. Col. 
Darin Ninness, of Concord, has assumed command of the Civil Air 
Patrol's Concord Composite Squadron in Concord, 
N.H.
 
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