Attorney General Holder Announces Vanita Gupta to Serve as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division

Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Wednesday that Vanita Gupta will serve as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. 

Gupta succeeds Molly Moran, who will become Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General.

“Vanita has spent her entire career working to ensure that our nation lives up to its promise of equal justice for all,” said Attorney General Holder.  “Even as she has done trailblazing work as a civil rights lawyer, Vanita is also known as a unifier and consensus builder.  She has a knack for bridging differences and building coalitions to drive progress.  I am certain that Vanita will serve as a sound steward of this critical division, continuing the exemplary work that Molly Moran, Jocelyn Samuels and Tom Perez, have so ably led.”

Prior to joining the department, Gupta served as Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union and Director of its Center for Justice.  Previously, she was an attorney for its Racial Justice Program.  Over her career, Gupta has earned a reputation for working closely and collaboratively with law enforcement, departments of corrections and across the political spectrum to advance smart policing and criminal justice reforms.  Through her work with the ACLU, she has been involved in reform initiatives around the country pertaining to federal and state policing, sentencing, drug policy and criminal law.  Her recent work has focused on building a bipartisan consensus to end overreliance on incarceration.

...

The Attorney General also announced that Molly Moran will become Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General in Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart F. Delery’s office. 

“Molly Moran stepped in to lead the Civil Rights Division at my request and she has led the division through some unprecedented challenges,” said Attorney General Holder.  “During a time of transition for the division, Molly provided stability and leadership.  From Ferguson, Missouri to voting rights cases in Texas, North Carolina and beyond, the division has continued its critical work on behalf of the American people with the benefit of Molly’s wise counsel, thoughtful leadership and tireless advocacy.  Fortunately for the country, the department and I will be able to continue to rely on Molly’s talents for the foreseeable future as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General.”

DoD Recognizes Commitment to Prevent Sexual Assault

By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2014 - The Defense Department today honored exceptional groups and individuals from each military component who contributed an innovative idea or approach to positively impact sexual assault prevention and response programs.

The Sexual Assault Prevention Innovation Award recognizes service members and DoD civilians whose work in support of service members has been particularly noteworthy.

Individuals, organizations deserving of recognition

"The 2014 Prevention Innovation awardees deserve recognition for the impact they have made in their military environment by making a personal commitment to eliminate sexual assault," said Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Snow, director of the DoD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.

"Earlier this year," Snow said, "Secretary Hagel provided a road map for the delivery of consistent and effective prevention strategies. These SAPR personnel are leading the way with innovative ways to incorporate core values and shape the environment in which service members live and work."

The 2014 Sexual Assault Prevention Innovation Award awardees are:

-- Air Force Maj. Daniel Giannavola and Air Force 1st Lt. Poonsak Kajonpong, 8th Fighter Wing, Kunsan Air Base, South Korea;

-- Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Debra Blankenbaker, 7th Civil Support Command, U.S. Army, Europe;

-- The Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

-- Navy civilian Tina Carter, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Wallops Island, Virginia;

-- The California Military Department Sexual Assault Review Board, Sacramento, California; and

-- The Coast Guard's Sexual Assault Prevention Council Washington, D.C.

DoD's sexual assault prevention strategy

The sexual assault prevention strategy directs a comprehensive prevention approach across the department. It focuses on training all personnel to intervene in incidents of sexual harassment and assault, and the development of healthy relationship skills through leadership mentoring and role-modeling.

It stresses commanders' renewed attention to healthy command climates, and deterrence and accountability for conduct inconsistent with military values. SAPR personnel encourage all service members to be steadfast participants in creating and sustaining an appropriate culture.

Prevention Innovation awardees developed and delivered targeted initiatives that affected the knowledge, skills and attitudes of service members to uphold standards of behavior and military core values.

The awards are presented by their respective commands in conjunction with October's Crime Prevention Month.

Centcom Designates Ops Against ISIL as 'Inherent Resolve'

Centcom Designates Ops Against ISIL as 'Inherent Resolve'

From a U.S. Central Command News Release

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 15, 2014 - U.S. military operations in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists have been designated as Operation Inherent Resolve, U.S. Central Command officials announced today.

The operation name applies retroactively to all U.S. military actions conducted against ISIL in Iraq and Syria since airstrikes against ISIL began Aug. 8 in Iraq, officials said.

The name Inherent Resolve is intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the U.S. and partner nations in the region and around the globe to eliminate the terrorist group ISIL and the threat they pose to Iraq, the region and the wider international community, Centcom officials explained.

It also symbolizes the willingness and dedication of coalition members to work closely with friends in the region and apply all available dimensions of national power necessary -- diplomatic, informational, military and economic -- to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, officials added.

NASA’s Hubble Telescope Finds Potential Kuiper Belt Targets for New Horizons Pluto Mission

This is an artist’s impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system at a staggering distance of 4 billion miles from the Sun. A HST survey uncovered three KBOs that are potentially reachable by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft after it passes by Pluto in mid-2015

Image Credit: 

NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Peering out to the dim, outer reaches of our solar system, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered three Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) the agency’s New Horizons spacecraft could potentially visit after it flies by Pluto in July 2015.

The KBOs were detected through a dedicated Hubble observing program by a New Horizons search team that was awarded telescope time for this purpose.

“This has been a very challenging search and it’s great that in the end Hubble could accomplish a detection – one NASA mission helping another,” said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission.

The Kuiper Belt is a vast rim of primordial debris encircling our solar system. KBOs belong to a unique class of solar system objects that has never been visited by spacecraft and which contain clues to the origin of our solar system.

The KBOs Hubble found are each about 10 times larger than typical comets, but only about 1-2 percent of the size of Pluto. Unlike asteroids, KBOs have not been heated by the sun and are thought to represent a pristine, well preserved deep-freeze sample of what the outer solar system was like following its birth 4.6 billion years ago. The KBOs found in the Hubble data are thought to be the building blocks of dwarf planets such as Pluto.

The New Horizons team started to look for suitable KBOs in 2011 using some of the largest ground-based telescopes on Earth. They found several dozen KBOs, but none was reachable within the fuel supply available aboard the New Horizons spacecraft.

“We started to get worried that we could not find anything suitable, even with Hubble, but in the end the space telescope came to the rescue,” said New Horizons science team member John Spencer of SwRI. “There was a huge sigh of relief when we found suitable KBOs; we are ‘over the moon’ about this detection.”

Following an initial proof of concept of the Hubble pilot observing program in June, the New Horizons Team was awarded telescope time by the Space Telescope Science Institute for a wider survey in July. When the search was completed in early September, the team identified one KBO that is considered “definitely reachable,” and two other potentially accessible KBOs that will require more tracking over several months to know whether they too are accessible by the New Horizons spacecraft.

This was a needle-in-haystack search for the New Horizons team because the elusive KBOs are extremely small, faint, and difficult to pick out against a myriad background of stars in the constellation Sagittarius, which is in the present direction of Pluto. The three KBOs identified each are a whopping 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. Two of the KBOs are estimated to be as large as 34 miles (55 kilometers) across, and the third is perhaps as small as 15 miles (25 kilometers).

The New Horizons spacecraft, launched in 2006 from Florida, is the first mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. Once a NASA mission completes its prime mission, the agency conducts an extensive science and technical review to determine whether extended operations are warranted. 

The New Horizons team expects to submit such a proposal to NASA in late 2016 for an extended mission to fly by one of the newly identified KBOs. Hurtling across the solar system, the New Horizons spacecraft would reach the distance of 4 billion miles from the sun at its farthest point roughly three to four years after its July 2015 Pluto encounter. Accomplishing such a KBO flyby would substantially increase the science return from the New Horizons mission as laid out by the 2003 Planetary Science Decadal Survey.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, manages the New Horizons mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. APL also built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft.

Ana (Central Pacific)

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Ana on Monday, Oct. 13 at 11:11 UTC (7:11 a.m. EDT) and captured infrared imagery showing some strong thunderstorms and cold cloud tops (purple).

Image Credit: 

NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

NASA's Aqua Satellite Spots Central Pacific's Tropical Storm Ana

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Ana on Monday, Oct. 13 after it formed in the Central Pacific Ocean.

Ana formed on Oct. 13 at 5 p.m. EDT (11 a.m. HST) as Tropical Depression 2-C, about 920 miles (1,480 km) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. By 9 p.m. EDT that day, the depression had strengthened into Tropical Depression Ana.   

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Ana on Monday, Oct. 13 at 11:11 UTC (7:11 a.m. EDT) and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument gathered infrared data that showed some strong thunderstorms and cold cloud tops had developed around the center of circulation.

At 500 am HST, 1500 UTC, Ana's maximum sustained winds were near 50 mph (85 kph) and gradual strengthening is expected through early Thursday morning. The center of Tropical Storm Ana was located near latitude 13.4 north, longitude 143.3 west. That's about 895 miles (1,440 km) east-southeast of Hilo Hawaii.  Ana is moving toward the northwest near 5 mph (7 kph) and this motion is expected to continue through early Thursday morning. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1000 millibars.

Currently, NOAA's Central Pacific Hurricane Center has no watches or warnings in effect. However, Ana is forecast to move to the west-northwest and strengthen into a hurricane over the next couple of days, approaching the big island of Hawaii by Sunday, Oct. 19. For updated forecasts, visit:http://www.prh.noaa.gov.

Pacific Pathways Increases Readiness Through Partnership

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2014 - The "Pacific Pathways" concept is an innovative and experimental approach to increasing Army readiness through partnership, the commander of U.S. Army Pacific said here yesterday.

Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks explained the concept during a panel discussion at the annual Association of the United States Army symposium at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

"This is an innovation in large measure," Brooks said. "It's a new way of doing something we have been doing already. We have already been participating in exercises around the region."

The Pacific Pathways concept

The Pacific Pathways concept involves joining multinational partners to conduct a three-part series of military exercises intended to increase Army readiness through additional training and strengthened partner-force relationships. Brooks said that as a senior officer he views exercises differently now than he has previously.

"Exercises are really an agreement between countries for foreign troops to be on sovereign soil," he said. "So if you begin to think about it that way, we've used ... these agreements for U.S. troops as foreign troops to be present in a sovereign country, as the basis upon which we designed the Pacific Pathways."

The first iteration or proof of concept for Pacific Pathways -- which involves Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan -- is just ending, the general said, with command and control and support provided by U.S. Army Pacific elements 1st Corps, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, and Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division.

Innovation of Pacific Pathways

The innovation of this concept, Brooks said, is how the Army goes to those designated places, and how it organizes itself for it.

"We're doing what the Army has always done," he added. "We're going to move units and equipment -- we've put them on ships, just as we did in 1898, and we move into the place we're going to go."

Now, a century later, "we've started using aircraft to join the troops themselves with the equipment," Brooks said. Projecting from home bases to participate in not just one of the exercises, but rather in a series of exercises, is new, the general said.

As a result of doing that, Brooks said, engagement with others, such as the State Department and the Defense Department, has come in a different way.

"We engage with regional partners where the exercise is going to occur in a different way," he said, "because configuration might be different than the previous year's exercise. And it has to be tailored to what that country can accept. It is different in that it brings together an enterprise approach to projecting ourselves from home stations abroad over the great expanses of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region."

It also has been transformative in many ways, he said, based on how the Army projects itself in a tailored structure around the region while building readiness into the deployed force.

"There's experimentation that happens here, also," Brooks said. "We find that as we're doing this we can experiment with different operating concepts."

It also allows experimentation with different technologies, he said, as industry and others find opportunities to shake something out in a tremendous battle lab that's on the move.

Key points

The general shared three key points of emphasis on Pacific Pathways. First, he said, it is an operational deployment -- everything that goes into operational deployments anywhere goes into this operation. The planning, preparation, execution, ordering of craft to move troops, and planning for security all are included, he added.

"There are some additional dimensions, too, like passport planning [and] visa planning, that aren't like our traditional deployments," Brooks said. "But it is a deployment, nevertheless, and an operation."

Brooks' second point was Pacific Pathways is "part of our engagement structure and strategy."

"This is not the limit of what we're doing," he said. "It is a part -- a very important part -- because of its innovation, transformation [and] experimentation characteristics."

Additionally, Brooks noted, it is economical, as he anticipated it would be.

"It really requires an enterprise approach to do this, and that is an enterprise that organizes from top to bottom from department level to executing unit," he said. It's also an enterprise approach in terms of contributing capabilities that make it possible to employ the concept, Brooks said, lauding supporting elements such as Military Sealift Command, Army Materiel Command and all of the U.S. Army's components.

"The enterprise approach, from top to bottom, and horizontally as well, is essential to this," he added.

Brooks' final point was that Pacific Pathways is shaped by the countries involved in the exercises in conjunction with the State Department.

NASA Airborne Campaigns Focus on Climate Impacts in the Arctic

This red plane is a DHC-3 Otter, the plane flown in NASA's Operation IceBridge-Alaska surveys of mountain glaciers in Alaska. Over the past few decades, average global temperatures have been on the rise, and this warming is happening two to three times faster in the Arctic. As the region’s summer comes to a close, NASA is hard at work studying how rising temperatures are affecting the Arctic. NASA researchers this summer and fall are carrying out three Alaska-based airborne research campaigns aimed at measuring greenhouse gas concentrations near Earth’s surface, monitoring Alaskan glaciers, and collecting data on Arctic sea ice and clouds. Observations from these NASA campaigns will give researchers a better understanding of how the Arctic is responding to rising temperatures. The Arctic Radiation – IceBridge Sea and Ice Experiment, or ARISE, is a new NASA airborne campaign to collect data on thinning sea ice and measure cloud and atmospheric properties in the Arctic. The campaign was designed to address questions about the relationship between retreating sea ice and the Arctic climate.  Image Credit: NASA/Chris Larsen, University of Alaska-Fairbanks

Powerful, Pulsating Core of Star

Text SizeShare on facebook7Share on twitterShare on google_plusone_shareShare on pinterest_shareShare on emailShare on printMore Sharing Services57

Powerful, Pulsating Core of Star

The blue dot in this image marks the spot of an energetic pulsar -- the magnetic, spinning core of star that blew up in a supernova explosion. NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, discovered the pulsar by identifying its telltale pulse -- a rotating beam of X-rays, that like a cosmic lighthouse, intersects Earth every 0.2 seconds.

The pulsar, called PSR J1640-4631, lies in our inner Milky Way galaxy about 42,000 light-years away. It was originally identified by as an intense source of gamma rays by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in Namibia. NuSTAR helped pin down the source of the gamma rays to a pulsar.

The other pink dots in this picture show low-energy X-rays detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

In this image, NuSTAR data is blue and shows high-energy X-rays with 3 to 79 kiloelectron volts; Chandra data is pink and shows X-rays with 0.5 to 10 kiloeletron volts.

The background image shows infrared light and was captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAO

Airstrikes Continue Against ISIL Targets in Iraq, Syria

From a U.S. Central Command News Release

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 15, 2014 - U.S. military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists yesterday and today, conducting five airstrikes in Iraq and 18 airstrikes in Syria, U.S. Central Command officials reported.

In Iraq, an airstrike near Haditha Dam destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle and an ISIL guard shack. Four airstrikes near Bayji destroyed an ISIL building, an ISIL Humvee, and an ISIL machine gun, and damaged an ISIL artillery piece.

To conduct these strikes, U.S. forces used attack and fighter aircraft deployed to the Centcom area of operations, officials said.

In Syria, U.S. bomber and fighter aircraft deployed to the Centcom area of operations conducted 18 airstrikes near Kobani. The strikes destroyed multiple ISIL fighting positions, officials said, and successfully struck 16 ISIL-occupied buildings.

All aircraft departed the strike areas in Iraq and Syria safely, officials added.

Wiseman and Wilmore Spacewalk Preparations

Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman (right) and Barry Wilmore spent most of the day on Tuesday, Oct. 14 completing preparations for their 6 ½-hour Oct. 15 spacewalk. The two astronauts set up their spacesuits and tools in the equipment lock of the Quest airlock. Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, who is coordinating spacewalk activities from inside the station, joined Wiseman and Wilmore for a review of spacewalk procedures.

During today’s spacewalk, the astronauts will venture out to the starboard truss of the station to remove and replace a power regulator known as a sequential shunt unit, which failed back in mid-May. The two spacewalkers also will move TV and camera equipment in preparation for the relocation of the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module to accommodate the installation of new docking adapters for future commercial crew vehicles.

This photo was taken on Oct. 1, 2014.

With sunrises as beautiful as this one, it’s easy to get up...

With sunrises as beautiful as this one, it’s easy to get up early at Acadia National Park in Maine. As one of the eastern-most points in the U.S., Acadia has breathtaking sunrises that are best witnessed atop Cadillac Mountain.

Photo by Melissa Machonis 

IN-FLIGHT DISCUSSIONS

10/15/2014 10:03 AM CDT

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, speaks with reporters during a flight back to Washington, D.C., after attending the 11th Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas in Arequipa, Peru, Oct. 14, 2014.

Latina Procurement & Small Business Summit

The Latino Coalition’s Latina Procurement & Small Business Summit Highlights Commitment to Building Communities and Partnerships for a Stronger America

Event draws top speakers and leaders including U.S. Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard (D-CA), Comcast Corp. Executive VP David L. Cohen, Secretary of the California Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency Anna Caballero, Senior VP and Managing Director of Herbalife’s North America Region Ibi Fleming and Director of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission Pamela Gibbs

Washington, DC [CapitalWirePR] October 15, 2014 - The Latino Coalition(TLC), one of the largest membership and advocacy organizations for Latino-owned small businesses, in conjunction with the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce (LALCC) held the Latina Procurement & Small Business Summitlast week at the City Club Los Angeles.  Attracting over 200 entrepreneurs and high-profile speakers, the event honored women in the Hispanic business community, discussed the evolution of small businesses today and established key partnerships with leading groups.

“The Latina Procurement & Small Business Summit was a huge success showcasing Latina innovation, expertise and influence at its best,” said The Latino Coalition Chairman and former U.S. Small Business Administrator Hector Barreto.  “The interactive environment of the summit provided the small business community of California with access to key industry leaders, networking opportunities and great insight from informative breakout sessions.”

The event attracted both national and international business executives as well as California government leaders, including U.S. Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard (D-CA), Comcast Corp. Executive VP David L. Cohen, Secretary of the California Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency Anna Caballero, Senior VP and Managing Director of Herbalife’s North America Region Ibi Fleming and Director of the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission Pamela Gibbs.

Panels during the conference highlighted: Latina’s Success in Business, E-Commerce Solutions, Procurement, Energy and Healthcare/Regulations.  The Latina Fireside Chat gave an in-depth look at how women-owned businesses in this country have been increasing at a dramatic rate and how they are leveraging professional gains in a competitive workforce.  The high-impact sessions emphasized the Hispanic community’s influence in small business and provided attendees with groundbreaking strategies to help grow businesses, access capital and seek new opportunities.

The Latino Coalition presented the “Sanchez to Sanchez to Smith Award” to Antonio Leaño del Castillo, Vice-President of the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG), for his leadership and significant contributions to the Latino community.  UAG has graduated more than 15,000 practicing U.S. physicians and has promoted our critical bi-lateral relationship between the United States and Mexico.

A new partnership agreement was formalized with the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce and the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.  The LALCC and the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce join The Latino Coalition’s national network of 65+ organizations working to enhance the overall business, economic and social development of small and mid-sized businesses.

“The partnership of LALCC and The Latino Coalition will help empower our members by expanding their network and helping them gain further access to critical resources necessary to succeed in small business today,” said Theresa Martinez, CEO, of the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce.  “We look forward to collaborating with TLC and building a relationship to foster and grow entrepreneurial efforts.”

Evidenced in successful conferences such as the annual America’s Small Business Summit and the Latina Procurement & Small Business Summit, TLC has been providing valuable and beneficial resources to the small business sector nationwide for over two decades.  The Latino Coalition recognizes that Hispanic Americans are a major force in this sector with 3 million plus Latino-owned companies and over $500 billion in revenue. 

“The Latino Coalition understands that small business is the backbone of this nation,” Barreto added.  “Anticipating our 20 year Anniversary in 2015, TLC will continue to expand its national footprint in the Latino small business community by meeting the diverse needs of this productive group of entrepreneurs and advocating for improved policies to help Latino business owners prosper and grow the U.S. economy.”

The Latino Coalition would like to thank the following Title Sponsors: Lucrazon and Wal-Mart.  In addition, TLC acknowledges: Intuit, Google, Herbalife, MasterCard, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, PG&E, mywireless.org, Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, American Express Open, Comcast Universal, ConvergenceHealth, AltaMed, Vanir, Honda, Verizon, DSS Staffing, Opt4, The Libre Initiative, Conexion, 305 Communications, Southern California Edison and CapitalWirePR.

Rollercoaster Science

The world’s largest aircraft for weightless research, the ‘Zero-G’ Airbus A300, took its 61st and last trip for ESA recently.

In its 17 years of service, the aircraft has hosted about 450 ESA experiments during 3500 parabolas totalling 20 hours of weightlessness, equivalent to 13 orbits of Earth on the International Space Station.

On a parabolic flight, researchers can conduct hands-on investigations in microgravity for up to 20 seconds at a time without going into space. And by changing the rate of ascent and descent, the pilots can even simulate different gravity levels.

To commemorate the aircraft’s retirement, ESA’s parabolic flight campaign manager Vladimir Pletser chose five notable experiments performed in varying levels of gravity.

Flag Officer Assignments

The Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert announced today the following assignments:

Rear Adm. (lower half) John P. Polowczyk will be assigned as director, logistics programs and business operations division, N41, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, District of Columbia. Polowczyk is currently serving as director, fleet ordnance and supply, and fleet supply officer, N41, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Virginia.

Rear Adm. (lower half) Paul J. Verrastro will be assigned as director, fleet ordnance and supply, and fleet supply officer, N41, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Virginia. Verrastro is currently serving as director, logistics programs and business operations division, N41, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, District of Columbia. 

Face of Defense: Soldier Pulls Grenade From Man's Leg

By Walter Ham
20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Command

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct. 15, 2014 - An explosive ordnance disposal soldier removed a grenade from a man's leg in an ambulance outside of the University of Alabama Hospital here Oct. 11.

Army Staff Sgt. David Mensink removed a grenade from a man's leg in an ambulance outside of the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., Oct. 11, 2014. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Army Staff Sgt. David Mensink from the 789th EOD Company, based at Fort Benning, Georgia, received a call from the Birmingham Police Department bomb squad around 1 a.m.

The police sought Mensink's advice to determine what kind of explosive item was stuck in the man's leg.

"From the initial X-ray, it looked like a 40mm grenade," said Mensink, a 27-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan veteran from Seale, Alabama.

Explosive was a military round

Once the police discovered that the explosive was a military round, Mensink and his EOD team were called to support a team of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies on scene. The agencies involved included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the FBI; Alabama State Bureau of Investigations; and the police departments of Birmingham and the Jasper, Alabama.

Escorted by Alabama state troopers from the Georgia-Alabama state line, the team left Fort Benning at 4:15 a.m. and arrived at the hospital two hours later. The man was isolated inside the ambulance behind barricades more than 30 feet from the hospital with two paramedics who volunteered to stay with him.

On his first trip into the ambulance, Mensink discovered that the grenade was lodged so deeply in the man's thigh that it exposed his femoral artery.

Mensink returned to the ambulance with a doctor who volunteered to make an incision in the man's leg, while a paramedic stood by with tourniquet in case the man's artery was damaged. Another paramedic monitored his vital signs.

Mensink then carefully removed the grenade from his leg. Paramedics rushed the man into the hospital. Officials said the man had no permanent damage.

Priming charge could have been fatal

The explosive turned out to be an M713 red-smoke grenade. According to Mensink, the priming charge on the smoke grenade could have been fatal if it had detonated.

The man told authorities that the grenade activated and fired into his thigh while he was dismantling it. He initially sought treatment at the Walker Baptist Medical Center in Jasper, and later was taken to the hospital in Birmingham, a Level 1 trauma center.

In addition to Mensink, the 789th EOD Company Team consisted of Army Sgt. Johnny Lowthorpe from Columbus, Georgia, and Army Spc. Brandon Fair from Daytona Beach, Florida. The team was accompanied by Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyron Mathews from Royal, Florida, senior EOD officer.

The EOD team was part of the 789th EOD Company, 184th EOD Battalion, 52nd EOD Group, 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Command.

The 20th CBRNE Command combats chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive hazards around the globe. Stationed on 19 posts in 16 states and headquartered on Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, 20th CBRNE is the Defense Department's only standing multifunctional formation focused on conducting defense support to civil law enforcement agency missions.

More than 2,000 explosive mitigation missions

During fiscal year 2014, 20th CBRNE Command EOD technicians completed more than 2,000 explosive mitigation missions across the nation.

Capt. Ryan M. Plemmons, commander of the 789th EOD Company, said the incident was the most unusual mission his company had accomplished during his time in command.

"It definitely shows why I have such confidence in my soldiers," said Plemmons, a Reno, Nevada native who served in Afghanistan. "Everybody worked together well to make sure that we completed the mission."

Mensink said he became an EOD technician "because of its challenging mission set."

"Explosive ordnance disposal technicians directly defeat our current enemy's weapon of choice," said Mensink, a 9-year U.S. Army veteran who previously served as an infantry soldier.

Out of the 180 EOD missions Mensink has been involved in, both at home and in Afghanistan, he said, none were as unusual as removing a grenade from man's thigh.

"It was definitely a first," he said.

Texas Photo ID: Appeals Court Wrong to Overturn ID Decision

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned last week’s decision blocking Texas’s restrictive photo ID requirement from being in effect for the November election.

This Court of Appeals ruling, if it stands, will make it harder for African Americans and Latinos to cast ballots this fall. Plaintiffs will file an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On October 9, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramosstruck down Texas’s harsh photo ID law, ruling after a lengthy trial that the Texas legislature enacted the law to purposely discriminate against minority voters. Moreover, Judge Ramos found the ID requirement violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution by effectively denying African Americans and Latinos the same opportunity as white voters to cast a ballot and imposing burdens on the right to vote. She also found approximately 608,470 registered voters do not have the kind of photo ID required under Texas’s law. Texas appealed the ruling, and today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Ramos’ decision.

The ruling comes as many Americans face an ever-shifting voting landscape before heading to the polls this November. Texas is one of seven states with a major lawsuit challenging voting restrictions ahead of the 2014 election. The Supreme Court recently blocked implementation of Wisconsin’s strict photo ID law, but allowed restrictions to remain in place in North Carolina and Ohio. Since the 2010 election, new restrictions are slated to be in place in 22 states, 15 for the first time this year.

The Texas State Conference of the NAACP and Mexican American Legislative Caucus of the Texas House of Representatives (MALC) challenged the Texas law in September 2013. That case and other similar cases were consolidated as Veasey v. Perry. The attorneys representing the groups include Dechert LLP, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, PotterBledsoe L.L.P., the Law Offices of Jose Garza, the national office of the NAACP, the Law Office of Robert S. Notzon, and the Covich Law Firm, P.C.

“The Court of Appeals’ decision is very unfortunate because it allows Texas to go forward with the most restrictive voter ID law in the country, which the district court found in a careful and detailed decision to have an unconstitutional racially discriminatory purpose,” saidBob Kengle, co-director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Minority voters in Texas should not have to go to the Supreme Court to vindicate their fundamental constitutional rights in this election.”

“Today’s decision shocks the conscience of good people everywhere because it has the clear consequence of denying access to the ballot to many people of color, the elderly, and young persons,” stated Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP and an attorney with PotterBledsoe. “Texas’s voter ID law is the most extreme in the country, and is designed to swing elections such as the one that is upcoming. For all who believe in democracy, this is unconscionable. As has so often been the case, minorities must now look up north to the U.S. Supreme Court to be accorded their rights of citizenship.”

“Protecting the rights of minorities to participate in elections is critical to our democracy. This voter ID law abridges that right,” said Ezra D. Rosenberg of Dechert LLP,pro bono counsel for the NAACP Texas State Conference and MALC. “We are disappointed in today’s decision, but will continue working with this team to secure voting rights for all.”

“The Supreme Court must stand up for voters and block this harsh photo ID requirement,” said Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center. “This discriminatory law will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of voters, many of whom are minorities, to make their voices heard this November.”

 

Background

A federal court in Washington, D.C. blocked Texas’s voter ID law in 2012 under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, finding that the law would make it significantly more difficult for minority citizens in Texas to vote on Election Day. In June 2013, however, the U.S. Supreme Court (in a separate case) ruled that the formula used in the Act for specifying the states covered by Section 5 is unconstitutional. As a result, Texas is not currently required to comply with the Section 5 pre-clearance provision. Just hours after the Supreme Court’s decision, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced the state would implement the voter ID law.

At the September 2014 trial, the Texas NAACP and MALC, among others, presented evidence showing the state’s ID requirement would erect discriminatory barriers to voting. At trial, experts testified that 1.2 million eligible Texas voters lack a form of government-issued photo ID that would have been accepted under the new law — and minorities would be hit the hardest. For example, the district court credited testimony that African-American registered voters are 305 percent more likely and Hispanic registered voters 195 percent more likely than white registered voters to lack photo ID that can be used to vote.

Obama: Fight Against ISIL 'Long-term Campaign'

By Lisa Ferdinando
Army News Service

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md., Oct. 14, 2014 - The fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists will be a "long-term campaign," President Barack Obama said today.

President Barack Obama meets with U.S. military leaders and representatives from 21 foreign nations to discuss strategy employed against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists during a conference at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Oct 14, 2014. DoD photo by D. Myles Cullen  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Obama spoke here at a meeting hosted by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey that featured participation by 21 foreign chiefs of defense. The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate strategies in the efforts against ISIL.

There are no "quick fixes" in the battle against ISIL, Obama said. But with some 60 nations contributing to the coalition, he added, the world is united against the terrorist group.

United 'to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL'

"We are united in our goal to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL so that it's no longer a threat to Iraq, to the region, or the international community," the president said.

The foreign nations represented at the meeting included Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

There have been "important successes" in the coalition's efforts, Obama said, such as stopping ISIL's advance on Irbil, saving civilians from massacres on Mount Sinjar, retaking the Mosul Dam, and destroying ISIL targets and fighters across Iraq and Syria.

"We're also focused on the fighting that is taking place in Iraq's Anbar Province, and we're deeply concerned about the situation in and around the Syrian town of Kobani, which underscores the threat that ISIL poses in both Iraq and Syria," the president said.

Coalition airstrikes will continue in both these areas, he said.

"As with any military effort, there will be days of progress and there are going to be periods of setback, but our coalition is united behind this long-term effort," Obama said.

The situation is not a "classic" conflict in which the enemy is defeated in the battlefield and surrenders, he said.

Coalition battling 'an ideological strain of extremism'

"What we're also fighting is an ideological strain of extremism that has taken root in too many parts of the region," Obama said.

Other U.S. defense participants included Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command; Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel III, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command and Navy Vice Adm. Frank C. Pandolfe, the director for the Joint Staff's Strategic Plans and Policy directorate at the, Pentagon.

"One of the interesting things to hear from our military leadership is the recognition that this cannot simply be a military campaign," said Obama, noting the effort must include all the "dimensions of our power" that bolster economic and political stability in the region.

ISIL poses a "significant threat" to the people of Iraq and Syria and to the surrounding countries and beyond, including the United States and Europe, Obama said. Australia, he said, has already seen terrorist networks trying to "infiltrate and impact population centers."

An important aspect in the campaign against ISIL is continuing humanitarian aid to all populations that have been impacted, Obama said. He pointed out that Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey have been bearing an "extraordinary burden" due to the situation with displaced persons that began with the civil war in Syria.

While some of the countries represented in the room are "really stepping up" and doing what is necessary to contain the Ebola epidemic, the "world as a whole is not doing enough," Obama said.

Nations will have to do more, he said, because unless the disease is contained at the source, it will continue to threaten "hundreds of thousands of lives," and could lead to economic and political destabilization down the road.

U.S. military assists Ebola fight in West Africa

He pledged that the United States will continue its efforts to fight Ebola. He said "enormous strides" have been made in standing up a U.S. military operation in Western Africa to build supply lines and bring supplies, equipment and workers into Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In the United States, the administration is "surging" resources into Dallas, he said, after a nurse contracted the disease after treating a man who had the disease and has since died.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with her and all the courageous health care workers around the country who put themselves in challenging situations in treating this disease," Obama said.

The lessons learned in Dallas will be applied to hospitals and health care centers throughout the country, he said. He noted, however, that an outbreak in the United States is unlikely because of the nation's strong health care infrastructure.