News of the Force: Friday, January 26, 2018 - Page 1
9 views
Skip to first unread message
newsoft...@aol.com
Jan 26, 2018, 9:55:57 PM1/26/18
to newsoft...@googlegroups.com, no...@yahoogroups.com
NEWS OF THE FORCE: Friday, January 26, 2018 - Page 1
Dozens killed in fire at South Korean hospital
At least 41 have been killed and more than 70 injured in a fire at a hospital in southern South Korea. The fire started this morning at around 7.30 a.m., local time, in the emergency room on the first floor of Sejong Hospital in the city of Miryang.
UK's defense secretary warns of Russian plot against infrastructure
Russia could cause "thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths" by crippling the UK's infrastructure, the defense secretary has warned.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday at a meeting with Muslim clergy that he supported a "revival of Islamic education in Russia" as a way to tackle radicalization and "destructive" ideas.
US would support a reunified Korea - but without nukes
The State Department said yesterday the US could support North Korea's call for reunification of the Korean Peninsula, but denuclearizing the North is the first priority.
South Korea's foreign minister said yesterday the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program must be resolved diplomatically, and she was certain Washington would consult her government first if a military option was considered.
China's chief envoy for North Korean affairs said today the reasons he hasn't visited Pyongyang are "complicated" but that China remains committed to finding a diplomatic solution to tensions over the North's nuclear weapons program.
The US has announced new sanctions aimed at stopping the flow of capital and resources to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The United States slapped sanctions on six North Korean ships, 16 individuals and nine companies that it said had facilitated Pyongyang's weapons programs in a continuing effort to further isolate the regime.
It's not safe - yet - for the Rohnigya to return to Myanmar, UN says
It's not yet safe for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in refugee camps in Bangladesh to begin returning to Myanmar, a senior United Nations official said yesterday.
And veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson has resigned from an international panel set up by Myanmar to advise on the Rohingya crisis, saying the country was conducting a "whitewash."
Is President Trump going in the right direction with Iran?
During the 2016 presidential campaign trail, Donald Trump separated himself from the pack on the issue of the Iran nuclear deal. While then-candidate Trump was immensely critical of the deal, he never said he would rip it up as soon as he got into office.
In less than three months, a major international city will run out of water
In Cape Town, South Africa, they're calling it "Day Zero" - the day when the water taps run dry. A few days ago, city officials had said that day will come on April 22nd.
Dutch intelligence agency spied on Russian hackers
The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD spied on the Russian group believed to be behind the hack of the Democratic Party ahead of the US presidential election.
Uganda's leader says 'I love Trump'
Uganda's long-time President Yoweri Museveni said he loves President Donald Trump and that he should be praised for not mincing words.
US escalates war for annexation of Syria
By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv
In its first National Defense Strategy document issued in over a decade, the Pentagon this month bluntly declared that its nearly two-decade focus on the so-called global war on terror was over, and that it has adopted a new strategic orientation.
Ex-US Secretary of State John Kerry has confided that he may make a second bid for the White House - as he urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to resist President Trump, according to a report.
And US President Donald Trump threatened yesterday to write off the Palestinian leadership and withdraw further US aid if the Palestinians are not serious about negotiating peace with Israel, deepening a diplomatic rift. The leaders of 21 humanitarian aid groups wrote to the Trump administration on Wednesday to object "in the strongest terms" to a decision to withhold $65 million in planned US contributions to the United Nations agency that serves Palestinian refugees.
Couzin Gym's Thought for the Day: Tough times never last, but tough people do.
Homeland insecurity
US Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz informed lawmakers yesterday that he has found the missing five months of text messages between senior FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that the DOJ said were lost due to a technical glitch. In a letter to Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Horowitz wrote: "The OIG has been investigating this matter and, this week, succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices, including text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page that were sent or received between December 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017. That time period covered a number of significant developments in the FBI’s investigation of the Trump Russia allegations and the lead-up to the special counsel, which was convened on May 17, 2017. The DOJ last Friday informed lawmakers that it had lost text messages between Strzok and Page during that time due to the technical glitch." The DOJ’s announcement to Congress from Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd that it lost text messages during that time period raised alarm bells across the nation. Strzok and Page - two senior FBI officials who played major roles on the Clinton email investigation and the FBI’s initial investigation into the Trump campaign and the subsequent special counsel - have come under intense scrutiny for sending hundreds of anti-Trump text messages while they were working on these investigations.
On Jan. 13th, the state of Hawaii spent 38 minutes in terror after a text alert mistakenly warned of an incoming nuclear missile attack. If you heard about the mistake and wondered what you would or should do if you learned a nuclear bomb was heading your way, you're not alone. It has been more than 30 years since schools in the United States had "duck and cover" drills for schoolchildren, and preparing for a nuclear attack isn't something most people are familiar with. Today, nuclear threats are more likely from rogue states and terrorists, not the Soviet Union. But we should still be worried about nuclear threats we're facing - and, with a president promising to rain down "fire and fury," the threats we're making. So if an attack is imminent, what do you do? If you're unlucky (or lucky) enough to be at ground zero, your troubles would be over almost instantly. Anyone at or near the center of a nuclear explosion would be killed immediately by the fireball, searing radiation or the blast wave. Otherwise, what you should do depends on how far away you are from the explosion.
The NAACP has sued the US Department of Homeland Security, citing President Donald Trump's disparaging comments about immigrants and their home countries as evidence of racial discrimination influencing his administration's decision to end protections for roughly 60,000 Haitians.
And the state employee who sent Hawaii's false missile alert is refusing to cooperate with the FCC's investigation. "We are disappointed that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert, is refusing to cooperate with our investigation," said Lisa Fowlkes, bureau chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
US Coast Guard
In response to increased Arctic shipping traffic, the United States and the Russian Federation have proposed a system of two-way routes for vessels to follow in the Bering Strait and Bering Sea. The nations jointly developed and submitted the proposal to the International Maritime Organization to establish six two-way routes and six precautionary areas. Located in US and Russian Federation territorial waters off the coasts of Alaska and Russia’s Chukotskiy Peninsula, the routes are being recommended to help ships avoid the numerous shoals, reefs and islands outside the routes and to reduce the potential for marine casualties and environmental disasters. The proposed two-way routes will be voluntary for all domestic and international ships. No additional aids to navigation are being proposed to mark the recommended two-way routes and the routing measures do not limit commercial fishing or subsistence activities. "Over the past decade, the US and Russia have both observed a steady increase in Arctic shipping activity," said Mike Sollosi, the chief of the US Coast Guard's Navigation Standards Division. Increased commercial and recreational traffic bring the increased risk of maritime casualties, Sollosi said, and the bilateral proposal for routing measures is designed to reduce that risk. "The US Coast Guard is engaging international and interagency partners across borders in developing joint proposals for ship routes in waterways that we share," he said.
US Coast Guard cutters and boats have seized 47,000 pounds of cocaine in the Pacific since November - most of it off the coasts of Central and South America. The massive amount of drugs was displayed aboard USCGC Stratton yesterday in San Diego, Calif., before it was unloaded.
US Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) helmed USCGC Pendant briefly yesterday as he spun her wheel port and starboard on the Connecticut River, driving the tug into huge floes of ice in an effort to clear the channel.
A new memorial is honoring the men who died when USCGC Tampa was torpedoed by a German submarine during World War I. The ship sank to the bottom of Great Britain's Bristol Channel in three minutes on the night of Sept. 26, 1918, killing all 24 crewmen aboard.
The US Coast Guard says it has mitigated 36 pollution incidents and removed 14,030 gallons of oily water since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last September.
In San Diego, Calif., NBC 7 TV's Liberty Zabala has shared images of a new type of vessel being intercepted off of our coasts by US Coast Guard ships. The drug-running vessels are faster and designed to blend in with the ocean.
The Coast Guard is working local authorities on pollution response for a partially sunken tugboat that leaked oil into Skiffes Creek, near Newport News Va. Coast Guard officials says a passing tugboat captain reported the submerged boat on Jan. 20th. The boat was leaking black oil.
The Coast Guard and local agencies responded to a vessel fire at mile marker 390 on the lower Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Miss., yesterday.
And United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 59 in Stuart, Fla., has elected a new flotilla commander and vice commander for 2018. Flotilla Commander Marc Kiriakow will serve as the flotilla commander for another year, and Darrel Graziani will serve as vice commander.
The FBI
A recent case of sextortion that resulted in a Georgia man receiving a 10-year prison term illustrates the online threat to vulnerable young people on social media sites, the FBI says.
US Air Force
The US Air Force is searching for a new company to rebuild wings on the A-10 ground-attack plane after ending an arrangement with the Boeing Co., officials said. The Air Force confirmed last year that it could have to retire as many as three of its nine A-10 squadrons unless Congress funded new wings for about 109 aircraft. Although a 2018 spending bill has not been passed, the defense committees have been supportive of a $103 million unfunded requirement.
The US Air Force's AC-130J Ghostrider's 30-mm cannon has "performed inconsistently" and aggressively shaked when firing. The AC-130J Ghostrider's other weapons, like the 105-mm howitzer, are reportedly operating properly. It's been called "a bomb truck with guns on it."
Air liaison officers and tactical air control party operators will soon see new career field-specific physical testing as the Air Force expands physical training. All other ALO and TACP personnel must continue to take the Tier 1 Air Force Fitness Assessment Test.
A University of Georgia research laboratory led by a group of undergraduate students is one of only two university research programs chosen by the United States Air Force to build and launch satellites into space.
A seven-month deployment is officially over for the members of the 908th Airlift Wing out of Montgomery, Ala. Thirty airmen arrived at Montgomery Regional Airport on Wednesday to be greeted by family and friends. The group was deployed to southwest Asia. The 908th is Alabama's only Air Force Reserve unit.
NORAD will be conducting flight exercises in the D.C. area. The exercises began last night will run through Sunday. Flights are scheduled to take place in the Northern Capitol Region beginning at midnight, through 5 a.m. each day. The exercise, "Falcon Virgo 18-04," is designed to train personnel, test a warning system, as well as "hone NORAD’s intercept and identification operations," NORAD said in a statement. Aircraft enthusiasts can keep an eye out for Air Force C-21 aircraft, Civil Air Patrol C-182 aircraft, and a US Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter, which will all be participating in the exercise. These types of exercises have been conducted since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, NORAD’s response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
And Day of Race packet pick-up will begin at 7 a.m. tomorrow at the Civil Air Patrol building at Florida's Naples Municipal Airport. The race begins at 8 a.m. Pets are welcome to participate with their guardians, but must be leashed (non- retractable leash), up-to-date with vaccinations and cannot interfere with other animals.
Cyber warfare takes front seat in US military operations
The nation's cyber warriors have been elevated to a unified combatant command to rank on the same plane of importance as the US Strategic Command, the US Special Operations Command and the US Transportation Command.
US Army
South Dakota voters could decide this year whether to grant women membership into an archaic state military force that was established when South Dakota was still a territory. The South Dakota Constitution currently requires that all "able-bodied male persons" between 18 and 45 constitute the militia of the state of South Dakota. An amendment proposal would ask voters to change the language to include all able-bodied adults living in South Dakota, striking males and the age requirement. Militias were composed of regular citizens and were the military backbone of pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary America. As new states gained admittance into the United States, many of them had provisions in their constitutions establishing state militias which could be called upon in times of war or crisis. State militias were called into action during the Spanish American War in 1898, but because they performed poorly, the federal government created the Militia Act of 1903, said Steven Bucklin, a professor of history at the University of South Dakota. The Militia Act repealed federal laws on militias that were passed in the 1790s. "What the Militia Act really sought to do was professionalize the state units," Bucklin said. The act gave birth to the modern National Guard and reserve units typically associated with state military units today, Bucklin said. State militias fell into disuse. Despite the creation of the National Guard, states continued to carry provisions about militias in their constitutions. In South Dakota, voters rejected efforts in 1974 and 1976 to strip militias from the state Constitution. Sen. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton, said the provision should be reflective of the fact that women currently serve in the armed forces. Nelson served in the Marine Corps with women and his daughter is currently in the Navy. "Definitely, women are more than capable," he said. The provision would also eliminate the current age restriction of 18-45. Nelson said that people live longer today and are in better health, and there is no reason to restrict older people who are able bodied. If it passes the Legislature, voters would see the proposed amendment on this year’s ballot.
The US Army has begun fitting new directional infrared countermeasures to its AH-64E Apaches, giving the gunships added protection against heat-seeking missiles. Now, a review of the effort from the Pentagon's central testing office reveals those systems do not always work properly.
A key official from the US Army command that oversees all cadet training programs at the high school and college levels will visit the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps department at Walla Walla High School, in Washington state, at 2 p.m., PT, on Monday.
US Army Alaska is conducting a major deployment readiness exercise across the state. It aims to test the capabilities of the Army and Air Force to work together with supporting state agencies. Exercise Arctic Thrust is an exercise used to validate US Army Alaska's command ability to rapidly deploy multiple battalion-sized force packages quickly. The exercise began on Tuesday with two infantry battalions from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, who were alerted at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
China or Russia could all too easily detect and destroy US Army missile defenses, exposing American forces to devastating attacks, a forthcoming study finds. Patriot and THAAD units are big groups of big objects - launchers, radars, command posts - that emit lots of heat.
Miss USA 2016, Army Reserve Capt. Deshauna Barber, was welcomed to The Clubs at Quantico on Jan. 23rd for the 7th Annual Salute to the Armed Forces lunch hosted by the Prince William County, Va., Chamber of Commerce (PWCC)'s Veterans Council.
The 13th Annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions, presented by the Army National Guard, passed through Alabama on Friday, Jan. 19th, to honor Hoover (Ala.) High School and its football team for winning the AHSAA Class 7A state football championship, and earning a high ranking nationally.
Military officials say Central Coast residents can expect to see increased activity around Camp Roberts, the California Army National Guard post that straddles the border of Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, adjacent to Highway 101.
NOAA news
If you're a college student and interested in applying for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s scholarship program, you'd best hurry: The application deadline is fast approaching. If you're one of the lucky ones chosen, the Hollings Scholarship Program will provide the awards.
NOAA will hold a media teleconference on Feb. 1st at 1:00 p.m., ET, to discuss the upcoming launch of GOES-S, the second satellite in the GOES-R series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The launch itself is scheduled for March 1st at 5:02 p.m., ET.
A federal investigation is under way to assess the potential damage from the discharge of millions of gallons of raw sewage into California's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Special Agent Don Tanner has confirmed.
For 75 years, NOAA's Weather Prediction Center (WPC), in College Park, Md., has delivered lifesaving weather forecasts for significant events that involve precipitation such as rain, sleet, and hail and that produce flash floods, tropical cyclones and extreme snowfall.
And removing the Hunters Pond Dam in Scituate, Mass., fixed a safety hazard and reopened habitat to migratory fish for the first time more than 200 years, NOAA says.
Page 1
Dozens killed in fire at South Korean hospital
At least 41 have been killed and more than 70 injured in a fire at a hospital in southern South Korea. The fire started this morning at around 7.30 a.m., local time, in the emergency room on the first floor of Sejong Hospital in the city of Miryang.
UK's defense secretary warns of Russian plot against infrastructure
Russia could cause "thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths" by crippling the UK's infrastructure, the defense secretary has warned.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday at a meeting with Muslim clergy that he supported a "revival of Islamic education in Russia" as a way to tackle radicalization and "destructive" ideas.
US would support a reunified Korea - but without nukes
The State Department said yesterday the US could support North Korea's call for reunification of the Korean Peninsula, but denuclearizing the North is the first priority.
South Korea's foreign minister said yesterday the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program must be resolved diplomatically, and she was certain Washington would consult her government first if a military option was considered.
China's chief envoy for North Korean affairs said today the reasons he hasn't visited Pyongyang are "complicated" but that China remains committed to finding a diplomatic solution to tensions over the North's nuclear weapons program.
The US has announced new sanctions aimed at stopping the flow of capital and resources to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The United States slapped sanctions on six North Korean ships, 16 individuals and nine companies that it said had facilitated Pyongyang's weapons programs in a continuing effort to further isolate the regime.
It's not safe - yet - for the Rohnigya to return to Myanmar, UN says
It's not yet safe for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims living in refugee camps in Bangladesh to begin returning to Myanmar, a senior United Nations official said yesterday.
And veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson has resigned from an international panel set up by Myanmar to advise on the Rohingya crisis, saying the country was conducting a "whitewash."
Is President Trump going in the right direction with Iran?
During the 2016 presidential campaign trail, Donald Trump separated himself from the pack on the issue of the Iran nuclear deal. While then-candidate Trump was immensely critical of the deal, he never said he would rip it up as soon as he got into office.
In less than three months, a major international city will run out of water
In Cape Town, South Africa, they're calling it "Day Zero" - the day when the water taps run dry. A few days ago, city officials had said that day will come on April 22nd.
Dutch intelligence agency spied on Russian hackers
The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD spied on the Russian group believed to be behind the hack of the Democratic Party ahead of the US presidential election.
Uganda's leader says 'I love Trump'
Uganda's long-time President Yoweri Museveni said he loves President Donald Trump and that he should be praised for not mincing words.
US escalates war for annexation of Syria
By Lisa Levine, News of the Force Tel Aviv
In its first National Defense Strategy document issued in over a decade, the Pentagon this month bluntly declared that its nearly two-decade focus on the so-called global war on terror was over, and that it has adopted a new strategic orientation.
Ex-US Secretary of State John Kerry has confided that he may make a second bid for the White House - as he urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to resist President Trump, according to a report.
And US President Donald Trump threatened yesterday to write off the Palestinian leadership and withdraw further US aid if the Palestinians are not serious about negotiating peace with Israel, deepening a diplomatic rift. The leaders of 21 humanitarian aid groups wrote to the Trump administration on Wednesday to object "in the strongest terms" to a decision to withhold $65 million in planned US contributions to the United Nations agency that serves Palestinian refugees.
Couzin Gym's Thought for the Day: Tough times never last, but tough people do.
Homeland insecurity
US Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz informed lawmakers yesterday that he has found the missing five months of text messages between senior FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that the DOJ said were lost due to a technical glitch. In a letter to Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Horowitz wrote: "The OIG has been investigating this matter and, this week, succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices, including text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page that were sent or received between December 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017. That time period covered a number of significant developments in the FBI’s investigation of the Trump Russia allegations and the lead-up to the special counsel, which was convened on May 17, 2017. The DOJ last Friday informed lawmakers that it had lost text messages between Strzok and Page during that time due to the technical glitch." The DOJ’s announcement to Congress from Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd that it lost text messages during that time period raised alarm bells across the nation. Strzok and Page - two senior FBI officials who played major roles on the Clinton email investigation and the FBI’s initial investigation into the Trump campaign and the subsequent special counsel - have come under intense scrutiny for sending hundreds of anti-Trump text messages while they were working on these investigations.
On Jan. 13th, the state of Hawaii spent 38 minutes in terror after a text alert mistakenly warned of an incoming nuclear missile attack. If you heard about the mistake and wondered what you would or should do if you learned a nuclear bomb was heading your way, you're not alone. It has been more than 30 years since schools in the United States had "duck and cover" drills for schoolchildren, and preparing for a nuclear attack isn't something most people are familiar with. Today, nuclear threats are more likely from rogue states and terrorists, not the Soviet Union. But we should still be worried about nuclear threats we're facing - and, with a president promising to rain down "fire and fury," the threats we're making. So if an attack is imminent, what do you do? If you're unlucky (or lucky) enough to be at ground zero, your troubles would be over almost instantly. Anyone at or near the center of a nuclear explosion would be killed immediately by the fireball, searing radiation or the blast wave. Otherwise, what you should do depends on how far away you are from the explosion.
"If you see a flash that's brighter than anything else that you've ever seen
and it feels like the sun, that's probably a nuclear explosion. There aren't
that many things that fit that category," says nuclear historian Alex
Wellerstein of the Stevens Institute of Technology. "Don't stand there and look
dumbfounded because you may have about 10 to 15 seconds to do something. And
what you do in that 10 to 15 seconds may actually save your life. According to the Department of Homeland Security, if you can see the nuclear
flash or if you have enough warning beforehand, take shelter immediately. Even a
blast shelter would not be able to keep you safe from a direct hit by a nuclear
weapon. But if you're far enough away from the center of the explosion,
sheltering in place can keep you shielded from flying glass or falling objects.
If you're not in immediate danger, Wellerstein says the next thing to do is to
move to a sheltered space or as far underground as you can, because after the
explosion comes the fallout. During a nuclear explosion, dirt, debris and other particles are forced
upward into the atmosphere in a giant cloud. As wind pushes the cloud away from
the blast site, radioactive ash falls out of the cloud. Fallout can arrive at
ground zero within an hour and it's most dangerous within the first 48 hours of
detonation. But its radiation decays exponentially, which means it loses its
intensity fairly rapidly. After two weeks, the radiation from the explosion is
about 1 percent of its initial level. It's important to take shelter immediately
to keep yourself from being exposed to high doses of radiation at the beginning
of the explosion. When most people think about a nuclear explosion, they probably imagine a
global wasteland and the end of life as we know it. If one, or even two nuclear
bombs were to be detonated in the US, it would be one of the worst things to
happen to this country - but it could still recover. Government response would
look a lot like the natural disaster response you see from FEMA, which is what
the office of Civil Defense Administration from the 1950s was folded
into.
Returning to a favorite cause for President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department has escalated a struggle with two dozen so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, demanding records proving they are cooperating with immigration enforcement agencies. The department sent letters to 23 states, cities and counties, including California, Los Angeles and Chicago, demanding records showing whether law enforcement officers are sharing information with federal agents on the immigration status of people in their custody. If the local jurisdictions don’t comply, the department says it will issue subpoenas or possibly cut off certain federal grant funds. A crackdown on sanctuary jurisdictions was one of the first measures ordered by Trump a year ago, and Sessions has repeatedly focused on the policies, which he says are a hazard to public safety. But little concrete has happened. The administration has faced fierce opposition from many cities and setbacks in the federal courts. Last fall, federal judges in San Francisco and Chicago issued rulings that reined in the administration’s attempts to tie the awarding of grants to immigration enforcement policies. In spite of those rulings, the department still insists that cities and counties have an obligation to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an undocumented person is about to be released from jail. Officials in some of those cities argue that those policies can hurt public safety by making immigrants afraid to talk to police. "Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law," Sessions said in a statement on Wednesday. "We have seen too many examples of the threat to public safety represented by jurisdictions that actively thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement - enough is enough." The letters seek all documents "reflecting any orders, directives, instructions, or guidance to your law enforcement employees" related to how they may share information with federal agencies. As leverage, the department is using about $380 million of justice assistance grants that fund programs including drug treatment or prisoner reentry. Trump’s threats to withhold other federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions have been blocked by the courts. The governments that received the letters include the states of California, Illinois and Oregon; Chicago and Cook County, Illinois; New York; Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, Calif.; San Francisco and San Francisco County, Calif.; Monterey, Sacramento and Sonoma counties; and the cities of Berkeley, Fremont and Watsonville, Calif.
President Trump has a plan to offer citizenship to 1.8 million illegal immigrants. The
president is ready to sign a plan that would open a path to citizenship for
"Dreamers" in exchange for border wall funding, officials said yesterday.Returning to a favorite cause for President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department has escalated a struggle with two dozen so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, demanding records proving they are cooperating with immigration enforcement agencies. The department sent letters to 23 states, cities and counties, including California, Los Angeles and Chicago, demanding records showing whether law enforcement officers are sharing information with federal agents on the immigration status of people in their custody. If the local jurisdictions don’t comply, the department says it will issue subpoenas or possibly cut off certain federal grant funds. A crackdown on sanctuary jurisdictions was one of the first measures ordered by Trump a year ago, and Sessions has repeatedly focused on the policies, which he says are a hazard to public safety. But little concrete has happened. The administration has faced fierce opposition from many cities and setbacks in the federal courts. Last fall, federal judges in San Francisco and Chicago issued rulings that reined in the administration’s attempts to tie the awarding of grants to immigration enforcement policies. In spite of those rulings, the department still insists that cities and counties have an obligation to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an undocumented person is about to be released from jail. Officials in some of those cities argue that those policies can hurt public safety by making immigrants afraid to talk to police. "Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law," Sessions said in a statement on Wednesday. "We have seen too many examples of the threat to public safety represented by jurisdictions that actively thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement - enough is enough." The letters seek all documents "reflecting any orders, directives, instructions, or guidance to your law enforcement employees" related to how they may share information with federal agencies. As leverage, the department is using about $380 million of justice assistance grants that fund programs including drug treatment or prisoner reentry. Trump’s threats to withhold other federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions have been blocked by the courts. The governments that received the letters include the states of California, Illinois and Oregon; Chicago and Cook County, Illinois; New York; Los Angeles and Los Angeles County, Calif.; San Francisco and San Francisco County, Calif.; Monterey, Sacramento and Sonoma counties; and the cities of Berkeley, Fremont and Watsonville, Calif.
The NAACP has sued the US Department of Homeland Security, citing President Donald Trump's disparaging comments about immigrants and their home countries as evidence of racial discrimination influencing his administration's decision to end protections for roughly 60,000 Haitians.
And the state employee who sent Hawaii's false missile alert is refusing to cooperate with the FCC's investigation. "We are disappointed that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert, is refusing to cooperate with our investigation," said Lisa Fowlkes, bureau chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
US Coast Guard
In response to increased Arctic shipping traffic, the United States and the Russian Federation have proposed a system of two-way routes for vessels to follow in the Bering Strait and Bering Sea. The nations jointly developed and submitted the proposal to the International Maritime Organization to establish six two-way routes and six precautionary areas. Located in US and Russian Federation territorial waters off the coasts of Alaska and Russia’s Chukotskiy Peninsula, the routes are being recommended to help ships avoid the numerous shoals, reefs and islands outside the routes and to reduce the potential for marine casualties and environmental disasters. The proposed two-way routes will be voluntary for all domestic and international ships. No additional aids to navigation are being proposed to mark the recommended two-way routes and the routing measures do not limit commercial fishing or subsistence activities. "Over the past decade, the US and Russia have both observed a steady increase in Arctic shipping activity," said Mike Sollosi, the chief of the US Coast Guard's Navigation Standards Division. Increased commercial and recreational traffic bring the increased risk of maritime casualties, Sollosi said, and the bilateral proposal for routing measures is designed to reduce that risk. "The US Coast Guard is engaging international and interagency partners across borders in developing joint proposals for ship routes in waterways that we share," he said.
US Coast Guard cutters and boats have seized 47,000 pounds of cocaine in the Pacific since November - most of it off the coasts of Central and South America. The massive amount of drugs was displayed aboard USCGC Stratton yesterday in San Diego, Calif., before it was unloaded.
US Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) helmed USCGC Pendant briefly yesterday as he spun her wheel port and starboard on the Connecticut River, driving the tug into huge floes of ice in an effort to clear the channel.
A new memorial is honoring the men who died when USCGC Tampa was torpedoed by a German submarine during World War I. The ship sank to the bottom of Great Britain's Bristol Channel in three minutes on the night of Sept. 26, 1918, killing all 24 crewmen aboard.
The US Coast Guard says it has mitigated 36 pollution incidents and removed 14,030 gallons of oily water since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last September.
In San Diego, Calif., NBC 7 TV's Liberty Zabala has shared images of a new type of vessel being intercepted off of our coasts by US Coast Guard ships. The drug-running vessels are faster and designed to blend in with the ocean.
The Coast Guard is working local authorities on pollution response for a partially sunken tugboat that leaked oil into Skiffes Creek, near Newport News Va. Coast Guard officials says a passing tugboat captain reported the submerged boat on Jan. 20th. The boat was leaking black oil.
The Coast Guard and local agencies responded to a vessel fire at mile marker 390 on the lower Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Miss., yesterday.
And United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 59 in Stuart, Fla., has elected a new flotilla commander and vice commander for 2018. Flotilla Commander Marc Kiriakow will serve as the flotilla commander for another year, and Darrel Graziani will serve as vice commander.
The FBI
A recent case of sextortion that resulted in a Georgia man receiving a 10-year prison term illustrates the online threat to vulnerable young people on social media sites, the FBI says.
US Air Force
The US Air Force is searching for a new company to rebuild wings on the A-10 ground-attack plane after ending an arrangement with the Boeing Co., officials said. The Air Force confirmed last year that it could have to retire as many as three of its nine A-10 squadrons unless Congress funded new wings for about 109 aircraft. Although a 2018 spending bill has not been passed, the defense committees have been supportive of a $103 million unfunded requirement.
The US Air Force's AC-130J Ghostrider's 30-mm cannon has "performed inconsistently" and aggressively shaked when firing. The AC-130J Ghostrider's other weapons, like the 105-mm howitzer, are reportedly operating properly. It's been called "a bomb truck with guns on it."
Air liaison officers and tactical air control party operators will soon see new career field-specific physical testing as the Air Force expands physical training. All other ALO and TACP personnel must continue to take the Tier 1 Air Force Fitness Assessment Test.
A University of Georgia research laboratory led by a group of undergraduate students is one of only two university research programs chosen by the United States Air Force to build and launch satellites into space.
A seven-month deployment is officially over for the members of the 908th Airlift Wing out of Montgomery, Ala. Thirty airmen arrived at Montgomery Regional Airport on Wednesday to be greeted by family and friends. The group was deployed to southwest Asia. The 908th is Alabama's only Air Force Reserve unit.
NORAD will be conducting flight exercises in the D.C. area. The exercises began last night will run through Sunday. Flights are scheduled to take place in the Northern Capitol Region beginning at midnight, through 5 a.m. each day. The exercise, "Falcon Virgo 18-04," is designed to train personnel, test a warning system, as well as "hone NORAD’s intercept and identification operations," NORAD said in a statement. Aircraft enthusiasts can keep an eye out for Air Force C-21 aircraft, Civil Air Patrol C-182 aircraft, and a US Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter, which will all be participating in the exercise. These types of exercises have been conducted since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, NORAD’s response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
And Day of Race packet pick-up will begin at 7 a.m. tomorrow at the Civil Air Patrol building at Florida's Naples Municipal Airport. The race begins at 8 a.m. Pets are welcome to participate with their guardians, but must be leashed (non- retractable leash), up-to-date with vaccinations and cannot interfere with other animals.
Cyber warfare takes front seat in US military operations
The nation's cyber warriors have been elevated to a unified combatant command to rank on the same plane of importance as the US Strategic Command, the US Special Operations Command and the US Transportation Command.
US Army
South Dakota voters could decide this year whether to grant women membership into an archaic state military force that was established when South Dakota was still a territory. The South Dakota Constitution currently requires that all "able-bodied male persons" between 18 and 45 constitute the militia of the state of South Dakota. An amendment proposal would ask voters to change the language to include all able-bodied adults living in South Dakota, striking males and the age requirement. Militias were composed of regular citizens and were the military backbone of pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary America. As new states gained admittance into the United States, many of them had provisions in their constitutions establishing state militias which could be called upon in times of war or crisis. State militias were called into action during the Spanish American War in 1898, but because they performed poorly, the federal government created the Militia Act of 1903, said Steven Bucklin, a professor of history at the University of South Dakota. The Militia Act repealed federal laws on militias that were passed in the 1790s. "What the Militia Act really sought to do was professionalize the state units," Bucklin said. The act gave birth to the modern National Guard and reserve units typically associated with state military units today, Bucklin said. State militias fell into disuse. Despite the creation of the National Guard, states continued to carry provisions about militias in their constitutions. In South Dakota, voters rejected efforts in 1974 and 1976 to strip militias from the state Constitution. Sen. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton, said the provision should be reflective of the fact that women currently serve in the armed forces. Nelson served in the Marine Corps with women and his daughter is currently in the Navy. "Definitely, women are more than capable," he said. The provision would also eliminate the current age restriction of 18-45. Nelson said that people live longer today and are in better health, and there is no reason to restrict older people who are able bodied. If it passes the Legislature, voters would see the proposed amendment on this year’s ballot.
The US Army has begun fitting new directional infrared countermeasures to its AH-64E Apaches, giving the gunships added protection against heat-seeking missiles. Now, a review of the effort from the Pentagon's central testing office reveals those systems do not always work properly.
A key official from the US Army command that oversees all cadet training programs at the high school and college levels will visit the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps department at Walla Walla High School, in Washington state, at 2 p.m., PT, on Monday.
US Army Alaska is conducting a major deployment readiness exercise across the state. It aims to test the capabilities of the Army and Air Force to work together with supporting state agencies. Exercise Arctic Thrust is an exercise used to validate US Army Alaska's command ability to rapidly deploy multiple battalion-sized force packages quickly. The exercise began on Tuesday with two infantry battalions from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, who were alerted at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
China or Russia could all too easily detect and destroy US Army missile defenses, exposing American forces to devastating attacks, a forthcoming study finds. Patriot and THAAD units are big groups of big objects - launchers, radars, command posts - that emit lots of heat.
Miss USA 2016, Army Reserve Capt. Deshauna Barber, was welcomed to The Clubs at Quantico on Jan. 23rd for the 7th Annual Salute to the Armed Forces lunch hosted by the Prince William County, Va., Chamber of Commerce (PWCC)'s Veterans Council.
The 13th Annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions, presented by the Army National Guard, passed through Alabama on Friday, Jan. 19th, to honor Hoover (Ala.) High School and its football team for winning the AHSAA Class 7A state football championship, and earning a high ranking nationally.
Military officials say Central Coast residents can expect to see increased activity around Camp Roberts, the California Army National Guard post that straddles the border of Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, adjacent to Highway 101.
NOAA news
If you're a college student and interested in applying for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s scholarship program, you'd best hurry: The application deadline is fast approaching. If you're one of the lucky ones chosen, the Hollings Scholarship Program will provide the awards.
NOAA will hold a media teleconference on Feb. 1st at 1:00 p.m., ET, to discuss the upcoming launch of GOES-S, the second satellite in the GOES-R series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The launch itself is scheduled for March 1st at 5:02 p.m., ET.
A federal investigation is under way to assess the potential damage from the discharge of millions of gallons of raw sewage into California's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Special Agent Don Tanner has confirmed.
For 75 years, NOAA's Weather Prediction Center (WPC), in College Park, Md., has delivered lifesaving weather forecasts for significant events that involve precipitation such as rain, sleet, and hail and that produce flash floods, tropical cyclones and extreme snowfall.
And removing the Hunters Pond Dam in Scituate, Mass., fixed a safety hazard and reopened habitat to migratory fish for the first time more than 200 years, NOAA says.
Page 1
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages