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Category: Americas

  • MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth and Fellow Veterans’ Affairs Committee Democrats Demand Immediate Answers on VA Secretary Collins’ Disastrous Plan to Cut 83,000 VA Jobs

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth

    March 06, 2025

    [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC)—joined SVAC Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), all other SVAC Democrats and House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-CA-39) in demanding immediate answers from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins regarding the disastrous impact of the Trump Administration’s plans to cut more than 80,000 VA employees this year—including at least 20,000 Veterans. The lawmakers’ bicameral letter comes after an internal memo leaked earlier this week detailed a plan to slash VA’s workforce to fiscal year 2019 levels.

    The lawmakers expressed their extreme concern with the impact this massive reduction in force plan will have on Veterans—despite Collins’ unsupported claims that scaling back VA’s workforce by at least 15% will have no impact on VA care or benefits: “This planned [Reduction in Force] and [Reorganization Plan], coupled with the ongoing hiring freeze and illegal terminations of probationary employees, will be catastrophic for the agency; its workforce; and for the veterans, caregivers, and survivors it serves… You have promised on several occasions that any reductions in the VA workforce will not impact delivery of care and benefits to veterans. It defies logic and reason that the agency could cut an additional  83,000 employees, beyond the 2,400 or more you have already terminated, without healthcare and benefits being interrupted.”

    The lawmakers emphasized the harm in reducing VA’s workforce back to pre-PACT Act levels: “Congress passed the Honoring Our PACT Act in 2022, which authorized the largest expansion of veterans’ benefits in decades. Millions of veterans either became newly eligible for VA benefits or saw their benefits increase due to authorities in the PACT Act. To meet the growth in demand and to deliver the care and benefits veterans earned, Congress included provisions in the legislation that allowed VA to grow its workforce across the system…These new hires made the Department more efficient and productive, and the reduction in claims processing turnaround can be directly attributed to the growth in the workforce. Returning to pre-PACT levels explicitly goes against Congressional intent.”

    The lawmakers concluded their letter by demanding immediate answers to a series of questions and requests for documentation, including:

    • A full and unredacted copy of the memo leaked this week including attachments referenced;
    • Full and unredacted copies of the information gathered and submitted by Administrations and Staff Offices that is due by March 10, 2025, as referenced in the memo;
    • The names, jobs titles, job duties and onboarding dates of the “DOGE leads” and “VA liaisons to DOGE” referenced in the memo;
    • A detailed list of VA Administration and Staff Office personnel who will be detailed to support the Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plan efforts referenced in the memo;
    • A detailed timeline of the proposed Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plan;
    • A list of the designated senior leaders who will serve as central points of contact for time sensitive issues designated by Administration and Staff Offices as referenced in the memo;
    • What future objectives related to any RIFs or adjustments to VA staffing levels are being contemplated or planned; and
    • To confirm the exact data and goals the Secretary is referencing to implement these plans. 

    Along with Duckworth, the letter was co-signed in the Senate by SVAC Ranking Member Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Angus King (I-ME), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI).

    In the House, the letter is also co-signed by House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-CA) and numerous House Democratic Committee members.

    The full text of the letter is available on the Committee Democrats’ website and below.

    Dear Secretary Collins:

    We write to express our extreme concern regarding reports that through Agency Reductions in Force (RIF) and Reorganization Plan (ARRP), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to cut its staff by an estimated 83,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year. VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek stated in a March 4, 2025, memorandum to key VA officials that the “initial objective” at the agency will be to reduce the VA workforce to end of fiscal year 2019 levels. This planned RIF and ARRP, coupled with the ongoing hiring freeze and illegal terminations of probationary employees, will be catastrophic for the agency; its workforce; and for the veterans, caregivers, and survivors it serves.

    Congress passed the Honoring Our PACT Act in 2022, which authorized the largest expansion of veterans’ benefits in decades. Millions of veterans either became newly eligible for VA benefits or saw their benefits increase due to authorities in the PACT Act. To meet the growth in demand and to deliver the care and benefits veterans earned, Congress included provisions in the legislation that allowed VA to grow its workforce across the system. Those new hires were not limited to clinicians who provide direct care. Claims processors, benefits counselors, IT professionals, and essential support staff were also onboarded to ensure veterans could access their earned disability compensation and programs like the G.I. Bill and Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E). These new hires made the Department more efficient and productive, and the reduction in claims processing turnaround can be directly attributed to the growth in the workforce. Returning to pre-PACT levels explicitly goes against Congressional intent.

    You have promised on several occasions that any reductions in the VA workforce will not impact delivery of care and benefits to veterans. It defies logic and reason that the agency could cut an additional 83,000 employees, beyond the 2,400 or more you have already terminated, without healthcare and benefits being interrupted. To that end and due to the urgency of this matter, we request answers to the following questions by March 14, 2025. We also request our staff be briefed on these RIF and ARRP plans by March 12, 2025.

    1. Please provide a full and unredacted copy of the March 4, 2025, memorandum from the VA Chief of Staff to key Administration officials, “Department of Veterans Affairs Agency Reduction in Force (RIF) and Reorganization Plan (ARRP)” including “Attachment 1”. 
    2. Please provide full and unredacted copies of the information gathered and submitted by Administrations and Staff Offices that is due by March 10, 2025, as referenced in the March 4, 2025 memorandum related to the proposed RIF and ARRP. 
    3. Please provide the names, jobs titles, job duties, and onboarding dates of the “DOGE leads” and “VA liaisons to DOGE” referenced in the March 4, 2025 memorandum. 
    4. Please provide a detailed list of VA Administration and Staff Office personnel who will be detailed to support the RIF and ARRP efforts, as referenced in the March 4, 2025, memorandum. Please include the following data: name, occupation, job description, work experience, job location, and other relevant information. 
    5. Please provide a detailed timeline of the proposed RIF and ARRP plans, including all due dates for information from VA Administrations and Staff Offices and dates on which each step in the RIF and ARRP plan will be executed. 
    6. Please provide a list of the designated senior leaders who will serve as central points of contact for time sensitive issues designated by Administration and Staff Offices as referenced in the March 4, 2025 memorandum. 
    7. Please provide a list of Under Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, other Key Officials, Senior Advisors, DOGE liaisons, and any other personnel who will serve on the Executive Review Group (ERG) referenced in the March 4, 2025 memorandum. 
    8. Please provide a list of participants and a detailed summary of the initial senior level meeting chaired by the Secretary that is planned for March 5, 2025 as referenced in the March 4, 2025 memorandum. 
    9. In the March 4, 2025 memorandum, the VA Chief of Staff states, “…the Department’s initial objective is to return to 2019 end-strength numbers of 399, 957 employees.” What future objectives related to any RIFs or adjustments to VA staffing levels are being contemplated or planned? 
    10. In the March 4, 2025 memorandum, the Chief of Staff refers to 2019 numbers as 399,957 employees, but according to data reported as required by Section 505 of Public Law 115-82, the MISSION Act, the Department’s numbers were below that level until 2020. Please confirm the exact data and goals you’ll be referencing as you implement these plans.

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Crapo: Faulkender Highly Qualified to Serve as Deputy Treasury Secretary

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo

    Washington, D.C.–During a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Michael Faulkender to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) praised Mr. Faulkender’s qualifications, saying, in part, “Based upon your public and private sector experience, academic credentials and areas of focus and training, you are highly qualified to serve as Deputy Treasury Secretary in this Administration,” adding that he looked forward to supporting his nomination.   

    During the hearing, Chairman Crapo underscored the importance of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending.  Mr. Faulkender outlined ongoing initiatives aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of financial systems, modernizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to better serve taxpayers and strengthening federal accountability measures. 

    Watch Senator Crapo’s opening statement here and line of questioning here.

    On President Trump’s efforts to improve government efficiency

    Crapo: I am sure you have noticed the daily news on President Trump’s efforts to improve the efficiency of the federal government and get rid of waste, fraud and abuse.  Though I understand you have a very limited role currently in advising Secretary Bessent on these issues, I would like to give you an opportunity to provide your perspective on these efforts.  For example: what is your understanding of the focus of the President’s efforts?  How does one ensure that taxpayer money is well spent? 

    Faulkender: . . . It’s my understanding that the objective is to improve the effectiveness of those systems and provide modern levels of customer service, privacy and collections at the IRS. . . . The purpose of [these improvements] is to help departments’ matrices better understand how money is being spent and be more accountable to Congress and the American people for those funds.

    On IRS modernization

    Crapo: . . .  I understand the President and Treasury Secretary Bessent are interested in taking a different approach at the IRS, both by trimming waste and also planning for and investing in real technological change.  I also understand that all evaluation and modernization work will be undertaken using usual and customary safeguards, including not exposing any taxpayer’s personally identifiable information.  I also understand Secretary Bessent is fully committed to ensuring tax filing season will not be disrupted by these processes.  Can you confirm my understanding and provide additional detail about efficiency and modernization activities at the IRS? 

    Faulkender: Yes, Mr. Chairman, the Secretary’s objective is to ensure that the American people realize a “2025 experience” when they interact with the IRS, and he has prioritized collection, customer service and privacy.  The challenge that we have is that both Democrat and Republican Administrations have recognized that the technology at the IRS is built on top of 1960s systems. . . . What we’re doing is asking for a review of what systems are being built at the IRS.  We have people who have worked with financial institutions and technology companies who understand how to build modern systems architecture . . .  to ensure that the right systems architecture is being created to provide that level of 2025 service to the American people.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Jonathan Cook: Yes, Trump is vulgar. But the US global shakedown is the same one as ever

    Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. –

    ANALYSIS: By Jonathan Cook

    If there is one thing we can thank US President Donald Trump for, it is this: he has decisively stripped away the ridiculous notion, long cultivated by Western media, that the United States is a benign global policeman enforcing a “rules-based order”.

    Washington is better understood as the head of a gangster empire, embracing 800 military bases around the world. Since the end of the Cold War, it has been aggressively seeking “global full-spectrum domination”, as the Pentagon doctrine politely terms it.

    You either pay fealty to the Don or you get dumped in the river. Last Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was presented with a pair of designer concrete boots at the White House.

    The US president looked like a gangster as he roughed up Zelensky. But he wasn’t the one who stoked a war that’s killed huge numbers of Ukrainians and Russians. Image: www.jonathan-cook.net

    The innovation was that it all happened in front of the Western press corps, in the Oval Office, rather than in a back room, out of sight. It made for great television, Trump crowed.

    Pundits have been quick to reassure us that the shouting match was some kind of weird Trumpian thing. As though being inhospitable to state leaders, and disrespectful to the countries they head, is unique to this administration.

    Take just the example of Iraq. The administration of Bill Clinton thought it “worth it” – as his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, infamously put it — to kill an estimated half a million Iraqi children by imposing draconian sanctions through the 1990s.

    Under Clinton’s successor, George W Bush, the US then waged an illegal war in 2003, on entirely phoney grounds, that killed around half a million Iraqis, according to post-war estimates, and made four million homeless.

    Those worrying about the White House publicly humiliating Zelensky might be better advised to save their concern for the hundreds of thousands of mostly Ukrainian and Russian men killed or wounded fighting an entirely unnecessary war — one, as we shall see, Washington carefully engineered through Nato over the preceding two decades.

    Henchman Zelensky
     All those casualties served the same goal as they did in Iraq: to remind the world who is boss.

    Uniquely, Western publics don’t understand this simple point because they live inside a disinformation bubble, created for them by the Western establishment media.

    Henry Kissinger, the long-time steward of US foreign policy, famously said: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”

    Zelensky just found that out the hard way. Gangster empires are just as fickle as the gangsters we know from Hollywood movies. Under the previous Joe Biden administration, Zelensky had been recruited as a henchman to do Washington’s bidding on Moscow’s doorstep.

    The background — the one Western media have kept largely out of view — is that, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US tore up treaties crucial to reassuring Russia of Nato’s good intent.

    Viewed from Moscow, and given Washington’s track record, Nato’s European security umbrella must have looked more like preparation for an ambush.

    Keen though Trump now is to rewrite history and cast himself as peacemaker, he was central to the escalating tensions that led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    In 2019, he unilaterally withdrew from the 1987 Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces. That opened the door to the US launching a potential first strike on Russia, using missiles stationed in nearby Nato members Romania and Poland.

    He also sent Javelin anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, a move avoided by his predecessor, Barack Obama, for fear it would be seen as provocative.

    Repeatedly, Nato vowed to bring Ukraine into its fold, despite Russia’s warnings that the step was viewed as an existential threat, that Moscow could not allow Washington to place missiles on its border, any more than the US accepted Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba back in the early 1960s.

    Washington pressed ahead anyway, even assisting in a colour revolution-style coup in 2014 against the elected government in Kyiv, whose crime was being a little too sympathetic to Moscow.

    With the country in crisis, Zelensky was himself elected by Ukrainians as a peace candidate, there to end a brutal civil war — sparked by that coup — between anti-Russian, “nationalistic” forces in the country’s west and ethnic Russian populations in the east. The Ukrainian President soon broke that promise.

    Trump has accused Zelensky of being a “dictator”. But if he is, it is only because Washington wanted him that way, ignoring the wishes of the majority of Ukrainians.

    Reddest of red lines
     Zelensky’s job was to play a game of chicken with Moscow. The assumption was that the US would win whatever the outcome.

    Either Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bluff would be called. Ukraine would be welcomed into Nato, becoming the most forward of the alliance’s forward bases against Russia, allowing nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to be stationed minutes from Moscow.

    Or Putin would finally make good on his years of threats to invade his neighbour to stop Nato crossing the reddest of red lines he had set over Ukraine.

    Washington could then cry “self-defence” on Ukraine’s behalf, and ludicrously fearmonger Western publics about Putin eyeing Poland, Germany, France and Britain next.

    Those were the pretexts for arming Kyiv to the hilt, rather than seeking a rapid peace deal. And so began a proxy war of attrition against Russia, using Ukrainian men as cannon fodder.

    The aim was to wear Russia down militarily and economically, and bring about Putin’s overthrow.

    Zelensky did precisely what was demanded of him. When he appeared to waver early on, and considered signing a peace deal with Moscow, Britain’s prime minister of the time, Boris Johnson, was dispatched with a message from Washington: keep fighting.

    That is the same Boris Johnson who now breezily admits that the West is fighting a “proxy war” against Russia.

    His comments have generated precisely no controversy. That is particularly strange, given that critics who pointed this very obvious fact out three years ago were instantly denounced for spreading “Putin disinformation” and Kremlin “talking points”.

    For his obedience, Zelensky was feted a hero, the defender of Europe against Russian imperialism. His every “demand” — demands that originated in Washington — was met.

    Ukraine has received at least $250 billion worth of guns, tanks, fighter jets, training for his troops, Western intelligence on Russia, and other forms of aid.

    Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian men have paid with their lives — as have the families they leave behind.

    Mafia etiquette
     Now the old Don in Washington is gone. The new Don has decided Zelensky has been an expensive failure. Russia isn’t lethally wounded. It’s stronger than ever. Time for a new strategy.

    Zelensky, still imagining he was Washington’s favourite henchman, arrived at the Oval Office only to be taught a harsh lesson in mafia etiquette.

    Trump is spinning his stab in the back as a “peace agreement”. And in some sense, it is. Rightly, Trump has concluded that Russia has won — unless the West is ready to fight World War III and risk a potential nuclear war.

    Trump has faced up to the reality of the situation, even if Zelensky and Europe are still struggling to.


    Trump’s overt ‘genocidal’ warning over Gaza.   Video: TRT World News

    But his plan for Ukraine is actually just a variation of his other peace plan — the one for Gaza. There he wants to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population and, on the bodies of the enclave’s many thousands of dead children, build the “Riviera of the Middle East” — or “Trump Gaza” as it is being called in a surreal video he shared on social media.

    Similarly, Trump now sees Ukraine not as a military battlefield but as an economic one where, through clever deal-making, he can leverage riches for himself and his billionaire pals.

    He has put a gun to Zelensky and Europe’s head. Make a deal with Russia to end the war, or you are on your own against a far superior military power. See if the Europeans can help you without a supply of Washington’s weapons.

    Not surprisingly, Zelensky, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron huddled together at the weekend to find a deal that would appease Trump. All Starmer has revealed so far is that the plan will “stop the fighting”.

    That is a good thing. But the fighting could have been stopped, and should have been stopped, three years ago.

    Money, not peace
     It is deeply unwise to be lulled into tribalism by all this — the very tribalism Western elites seek to cultivate among their publics to keep us treating international affairs no differently from a high-stakes football match.

    No one here has behaved, or is behaving, honourably.

    A ceasefire in Ukraine is not about peace. It’s about money, just as the earlier war was. As all wars are, ultimately.

    An acceptable ceasefire for Trump, as well as for Putin, will involve a carve-up of Ukraine’s goodies. Rare earth minerals, land, agricultural production will be the real currency driving the agreement.

    Zelensky now understands this. He knows that he, and the people of Ukraine, have been scammed. That is what tends to happen when you cosy up to the mafia.

    If anyone doubts Washington’s insincerity over Ukraine, look to Palestine for clarity.

    In his earlier presidency, Trump tried to bring about what he termed the peace “deal of the century” whose centrepiece was the annexation of much of the Occupied West Bank.

    The hope was that the Gulf states would ultimately fund an incentivisation programme — the carrot to Israel’s stick — to encourage Palestinians to make a new life in a giant, purpose-built industrial zone in Sinai, next to Gaza.

    That plan is still simmering away in the background. At the weekend, Israel received a green light from Washington to revive its genocidal starvation of Gaza’s population, after Israel refused to negotiate the second phase of the original ceasefire agreement.

    The Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are now spinning their own bad faith as Hamas “rejectionism”.

    They and the echo chamber that is the Western media are blaming the Palestinian group for refusing to be gulled into an “extension” of what was never more than a phoney ceasefire — Israel’s fire never ceased. Israel wants all the hostages back, without having to leave Gaza, so that Hamas has no leverage to stop Israel reviving the full genocide.

    The people of Gaza are still being fed into the Washington mafia’s meatgrinder, just as the Ukrainian people have been.

    Trump wants them out of the way so he can develop a Mediterranean playground for the rich, paid for with Gulf oil money and the so-far untapped natural gas reserves just off Gaza’s coast.

    Unlike his predecessors, Trump doesn’t pretend that Ukraine and Gaza are anything more than geostrategic real estate for Washington.

    The big shakedown
     Zelensky’s shakedown did not come out of the blue. Trump and his officials had been flagging it well in advance.

    Two weeks ago, the industrial correspondent for Britain’s Daily Telegraph wrote an article headlined “Here’s why Trump wants to make Ukraine a US economic colony”.

    Trump’s team believes that Ukraine may have rare-earth minerals under the ground worth some $15 trillion — a treasure trove that will be critical to the development of the next generation of technology.

    In their view, controlling the exploration and extraction of those minerals will be as important as control over the Middle East’s oil reserves was more than a century ago.

    And most important of all, the US wants China, its chief economic — if not military — rival excluded from the plunder. China currently has an effective monopoly on many of these critical minerals.

    Or as the Telegraph puts it, Ukraine’s “minerals offer a tantalising promise: the ability for the US to break its dependence on Chinese supplies of critical minerals that go into everything from wind turbines to iPhones and stealth fighter jets”.

    A draft of the plan seen by the Telegraph would, in its words, “amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity”.

    Washington wants first refusal on all deposits within the country.

    At their Oval Office confrontation, Trump reiterated this goal: “So we’re going to be using that [Ukraine’s rare earth minerals], taking it, using it for all of the things we do, including AI, and including weapons, and the military. And it’s really going to very much satisfy our needs.”

    All of this means that Trump has a keen incentive to get the war finished as quickly as possible, and Russia’s territorial advance halted. The more territory Moscow seizes, the less territory is left for the US to plunder.

    Self-sabotage
     The battle against China over rare-earth minerals isn’t a Trump innovation either — and adds an additional layer of context for why Washington and Nato have been so keen over the past two decades to prise Ukraine away from Russia.

    Last summer, a Congressional select committee on competition with China announced the formation of a working group to counter Beijing’s “dominance of critical minerals”.

    The chairman of the committee, John Moolenaar, noted that the current US dependence on China for these minerals “would quickly become an existential vulnerability in the event of a conflict”.

    Another committee member, Rob Wittman, observed: “Dominance over global supply chains for critical mineral and rare earth elements is the next stage of great power competition.”

    What Trump appears to appreciate is that Nato’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has, by default, driven Moscow deeper into Beijing’s embrace. It has been self-sabotage on a grand scale.

    Together, China and Russia are a formidable opponent, and one at the centre of the ever-growing Brics group — comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They have been seeking to expand their alliance by adding emerging powers to become a counterweight to Washington and Nato’s bullying global agenda.

    But a deal with Putin over Ukraine would provide an opportunity for Washington to build a new security architecture in Europe — one more useful to the US — that places Russia inside the tent rather than outside it.

    That would leave China isolated — a long-time Pentagon goal.

    And it would also leave Europe less central to the projection of US power, which is why European leaders — led by Keir Starmer — have been looking and sounding so unnerved over the past few weeks.

    The danger is that Trump’s “peacemaking” in Ukraine simply becomes a prelude to the fomenting of a war against China, using Taiwan as the pretext in the same way Ukraine was used against Russia.

    As Moolenaar implied, US control over critical minerals — in Ukraine and elsewhere — would ensure the US was no longer vulnerable in the event of a war with China to losing access to the minerals it would need to continue the war. It would free Washington’s hand.

    Trump may be behaving in a vulgar manner. But the gangster empire he now heads is conducting the same global shakedown as ever.

    Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist. He was based in Nazareth, Israel, for 20 years and returned to the UK in 2021. He is the author of three books on the Israel-Palestine conflict, including Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (2008). In 2011, Cook was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism for his work on Palestine and Israel. This article was first published in Middle East Eye and is republished with the author’s permission.

    This article was first published on Café Pacific.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: Trump: Tariffs on Mexico paused until April 2

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press conference at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Feb. 13, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media Thursday that tariffs on Mexico will be paused until April 2, applying to anything covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

    “After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd,” Trump said in a post on “Truth Social.”

    “I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” Trump said, noting that “our relationship has been a very good one.”

    Earlier that day, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC that more one-month tariff exemptions under USMCA are “likely.”

    “It’s likely that it will cover all USMCA compliant goods and services, so that which is part of President Trump’s deal with Canada and Mexico are likely to get an exemption from these tariffs,” Lutnick said.

    Trump’s latest announcement on Mexico tariffs came one day after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president is granting a one-month exemption to three major automakers from the newly imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

    The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a trade agreement negotiated, signed, and ultimately enacted during Trump’s first term, aimed at replacing the former North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

    On Feb. 1, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25 percent tariff on products imported from Mexico and Canada, with a 10 percent tariff increase on Canadian energy products. On Feb. 3, Trump announced a 30-day delay in implementing the tariffs on both countries and continued negotiations. According to this decision, the relevant tariff measures took effect on March 4.

    Canada has announced retaliatory measures, while Mexico has signaled its intent to implement tariffs and other economic countermeasures. Businesses are increasingly concerned about the rising costs due to these tariffs, which could drive up consumer prices and contribute to an economic slowdown.

    The stock market has shown significant volatility in response to the new tariffs, with investor uncertainty mounting as fears of potential economic repercussions grow.

    The escalating tensions and economic uncertainties might have prompted Trump to reassess his trade policies.

    Trump has yet to make announcement on an overall pause on Canada tariffs. In a post on Truth Social Thursday, he accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of using the tariff problem to further his reelection bid.

    Trudeau, meanwhile, said on Thursday that Canada will continue to be in a trade war with the United States for the foreseeable future.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Volcano Watch — When have lava fountains formed on Kīlauea and what are their hazards?

    Source: US Geological Survey

    Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists and affiliates.

    Lava fountains during the 1959 Kīlauea Iki eruption (upper left), 1969 Maunulu eruption (upper right), 1983 Puʻuʻōʻō eruption (lower left), and the ongoing summit eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu (lower right). USGS images. 

    Even more recently, fissure 8 of the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption exhibited a continuous lava fountain for over two months. However, the lava fountain at fissure 8 differed from episodic lava fountains occurring recently at Kīlauea summit. The continuous fissure 8 lava fountains were primarily driven by a pressure gradient as magma moved from storage chambers beneath the summit to erupt out of the low-elevation vent on the flank of the volcano. 

    Episodic lava fountains are driven by changes in pressurization, related to new magma being supplied. As new magma accumulates, the amount of pressure builds. Eventually, lava erupts and de-pressurizes the system. As magma rises to the surface, magmatic gas rapidly exsolves as bubbles—just like when you open a bottle of soda or champagne.  This gas is a major driving force of the lava fountaining, and the pieces of lava found around the crater rim are filled with bubbles, resembling a stiff foam. 

    Many people remember the 1983–2018 middle East Rift Zone of eruption of Puʻuʻōʻō for the accessible lava flows on the coastal plain and ocean entries. But the first three years of the Puʻuʻōʻō eruption were characterized by 44 lava fountaining episodes that built a prominent cinder- and spatter-cone vent standing 835 feet (255 meters) above the surrounding landscape. Lava fountaining episodes during this eruption occurred every 3–4 weeks and lasted about a day.  Reaching heights up to 1,500 feet (460 meters), the lava fountains fed lava flows that traveled downslope. Some of the lava flows reached the Royal Gardens subdivision and destroyed several houses. 

    At the start of the Maunaulu eruption in 1969, twelve lava fountaining episodes occurred in the upper East Rift Zone. Each lava fountaining episode generally lasted for several hours, slowly building in height until a maximum height was reached, after which the fountains died within minutes. Fountains from Maunaulu reached up to 1,770 feet (540 meters). Lava flows fed by Maunaulu fountains traveled downslope, once going more than 12 miles (7.5 kilometers) to eventually enter the ocean. 

    The short but spectacular Kīlauea Iki eruption occurred in the crater just northeast of Kaluapele, the summit caldera. From November 14 to December 20, 1959, there were 17 episodes of lava fountaining that filled in the Kīlauea Iki Crater with 440 feet (135 meters) of lava. The longest episode was 6 days and episode 15 of the eruption included the highest lava fountains yet measured on Kīlauea, reaching staggering heights of 1,900 feet (580 meters). These high lava fountains built the prominent Puʻupuaʻi cinder cone, which you can view on the Devastation Trail in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. 

    Hazards associated with lava fountaining include the fallout materials (termed tephra), volcanic gas emissions, and lava flows. Tephra generally accumulates in the area immediately downwind of the vent and can build features such as cinder cones. Changes in wind direction and speeds can result in these particles being wafted greater distances to impact nearby communities. Like all eruptions, increased volcanic gas emissions associated with lava fountains creates volcanic air pollution (vog), which affects regions downwind.  When lava fountain events occur on the flanks, they feed lava flows that travel downslope, and destroy everything in their path. 

    The ongoing eruption is occurring within Halemaʻumaʻu, with lava flows contained in the summit caldera. Trade winds transport tephra and gas emissions to the southwest, away from the closest communities, but changes in wind conditions may result in Pele’s Hair and vog in areas that include Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and nearby communities. 

    Lava fountains in the ongoing Kīlauea summit eruption haven’t reached “high” fountain heights of over 1,000 feet (305 meters). So far, there have been 12 episodes of lava fountaining in the ongoing Kīlauea summit eruption—the same number as Maunaulu. Continuing inflation suggests this eruption will likely continue, but whether it catches up to Kīlauea Iki or Puʻuʻōʻō, in terms of the number of episodes or fountain heights, remains to be seen. 

    Volcano Activity Updates

    Kīlauea has been erupting episodically within the summit caldera since December 23, 2024. Its USGS Volcano Alert level is WATCH.

    The summit eruption at Kīlauea volcano that began in Halemaʻumaʻu crater on December 23 continued over the past week, with one eruptive episode. Episode 12 was active from the morning of March 4 until the morning of March 5. Kīlauea summit has been inflating since episode 11 ended, suggesting that another eruptive episode is possible. Sulfur dioxide emission rates are elevated in the summit region during active eruption episodes. No unusual activity has been noted along Kīlauea’s East Rift Zone or Southwest Rift Zone. 

    Mauna Loa is not erupting. Its USGS Volcano Alert Level is at NORMAL.

    Four earthquakes were reported felt in the Hawaiian Islands during the past week: a M3.2 earthquake 11 km (6 mi) S of Hala‘ula at 20 km (12 mi) depth on March 4 at 3:00 p.m. HST, a M3.0 earthquake 6 km (3 mi) ENE of Honoka‘a at -1 km (0 mi) depth on March 2 at 4:25 a.m. HST, a M3.6 earthquake 31 km (19 mi) SSW of Hana at 29 km (18 mi) depth on March 1 at 7:34 p.m. HST, and a M3.0 earthquake 12 km (7 mi) SSE of Fern Forest at 7 km (4 mi) depth on March 1 at 7:19 p.m. HST.

    HVO continues to closely monitor Kīlauea and Mauna Loa.

    Please visit HVO’s website for past Volcano Watch articles, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa updates, volcano photos, maps, recent earthquake information, and more. Email questions to askHVO@usgs.gov.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Canada to halt 2nd wave of tariffs on US goods until April 2

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced on Thursday that Canada will halt the second wave of tariffs on U.S. goods until April 2.

    “The United States has agreed to suspend tariffs on CUSMA (Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement)-compliant exports from Canada until April 2nd,” LeBlanc said in his social media account shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the tariff delay.

    “As a result, Canada will not proceed with the second wave of tariffs on 125 billion Canadian dollars of U.S. products until April 2, while we continue to work for the removal of all tariffs.”

    Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Canada’s retaliatory measures remain, even after Trump’s latest move to delay tariffs on some Canadian and Mexican goods until April 2.

    According to local media, more than half of Canadian imports aren’t covered and would likely still face the new tariffs because they’re not USMCA compliant.

    “As long as the threat remains, the pressure stays on,” Champagne was quoted as saying in CTV News. “The Prime Minister has been clear on that. The only way you make that work is to keep the pressure.”

    On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order to delay tariffs on goods covered under the CUSMA.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cortez Masto Leads Bipartisan Legislation to Ban Foreign Adversaries from Buying American Farmland

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) reintroduced the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act, bipartisan legislation to ban individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from purchasing agricultural land and businesses located near U.S. military installations or sensitive sites. The PASS Act is cosponsored by Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).
    “Nevada is home to many sensitive sites that are critical to our national security,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “It is common sense that we should not allow our foreign adversaries to buy agricultural land next to these locations. This bipartisan bill will keep Nevadans safe and protect American national security.”
    “Our near-peer adversaries such as China are looking for any possible opportunity to surveil our nation’s capabilities and resources,” said Senator Rounds. “One example occurred in 2021 when the Fufeng Group purchased 300 acres of land in North Dakota, located near the Grand Forks Air Force Base. We can’t risk this happening again. The PASS Act would prevent entities of foreign adversaries from purchasing agricultural land and businesses near our military bases and sensitive sites. I am hopeful that with President Trump’s recent National Security Presidential Memorandum on this issue, we can finally get it across the finish line.”
    Specifically, the PASS Act would:
    Ban purchases of agricultural land near military installations and sensitive sites by individuals/entities controlled by North Korea, China, Russia and Iran.
    Make the Secretary of Agriculture a voting member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for transactions involving the purchase of agricultural land, biotechnology, and any other transaction related to the agriculture industry in the United States.
    Give the U.S. Department of Agriculture the ability to refer cases to CFIUS for review if there is reason to believe an agriculture land transaction may raise a national security concern.
    The full text of the bill can be found here.
    Senator Cortez Masto has consistently advocated for strengthening American national security and standing up to our foreign adversaries. She recently introduced legislation to promote innovative businesses in direct competition with Communist China. Earlier this year, she introduced the HONOR Act to prevent businesses from claiming a foreign tax credit or deduction against taxes paid to fund the Russian government’s war machine. Cortez Masto has also led legislation to strengthen American partnership with Pacific Island nations to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cortez Masto, Colleagues Demand Trump Administration Ensures Legal Representation for Vulnerable Children in Immigration System

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
    Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined 31 of her Senate colleagues in a letter led by Senators Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum demanding that they continue legal services for unaccompanied children caught up in the immigration system as required by law.
    Earlier this month, the Trump Administration issued a stop work order to organizations that provide legal services for unaccompanied children. Last week, following public pressure, the order was rescinded.
    “Pausing or terminating the provision of legal services to unaccompanied children under this contract runs directly counter to the requirements of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and places 26,000 unaccompanied children at increased risk of trafficking, exploitation, and other harm,” wrote the Senators. “The TVPRA, passed by Congress in 2008 on a bipartisan basis, requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure, to the greatest extent practicable, that all unaccompanied children have counsel to represent them in legal proceedings and protect them from mistreatment, exploitation, and trafficking.”
    According to a report by the Guardian this month, the organizations affected by the previous stop work order provide legal counsel for around 26,000 unaccompanied minors.
    “Cutting off access to legal services makes it more likely that the government will lose track of unaccompanied children, given the challenges such children would face in independently appearing for immigration court hearings, submitting address updates, or otherwise communicating with immigration authorities,” continued the Senators. “Not only will this make children more vulnerable to trafficking, but it will also create further inefficiencies in an already backlogged immigration court system.”
    Read the full letter here.
    The first and only Latina senator, Senator Cortez Masto has consistently supported immigrant communities in Nevada, calling on both administrations to protect TPS holders and other immigrants, as well as leading commonsense legislation to fix our broken immigration system. Cortez Masto joined Senator Rosen (D-Nev.) in introducing the Born in the USA Act to effectively block the implementation of President Trump’s unconstitutional Executive Order attempting to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States. She has worked to pass meaningful immigration reform that balances critical border security measures with a path to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders, and essential workers, and she’s pushed legislation to allow Dreamers and TPS holders to work in Congress.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Reed Cries ‘Fowl’ Over Big Corporate Egg Producers Padding Profits & Stock Buybacks at the Expense of Consumers & Taxpayers

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Rhode Island Jack Reed
    WASHINGTON, DC – The top five egg producing companies in the U.S. own almost half of all egg-laying commercial hens. 
    While consumers and small businesses are feeling the pain from high egg prices at restaurants and supermarkets, the largest egg conglomerates are doing remarkably well.  One egg company which produces one in every five eggs eaten in the U.S. has seen profits soar to record heights and is issuing exponentially higher shareholder dividends than it did before the outbreak and egg price increases.
    U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) says something smells rotten and wants the Trump Administration to ensure the biggest corporate egg producers in the highly concentrated egg industry aren’t unfairly padding their profits, contributing to inflated prices, and then turning around and feathering their C suites with stock buybacks that are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers and windfall profits. 
    Reed, who has led efforts to crack down on egg price gouging since 2023, is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) “to ensure that taxpayer funding intended to fight the avian flu outbreak is used responsibly to eradicate the disease and lower the cost of eggs, and does not go to publicly traded companies that are conducting stock buybacks.” 
    Senator Reed sent a letter today to the head of the USDA expressing deep concern about the impact that the avian flu outbreak is having on the price of eggs and American consumers.  Reed noted USDA has exacerbated this problem by recently laying off key workers on the frontlines of combating avian: “Since President Trump took office, the price of a dozen eggs has nearly doubled, and the Administration fired several employees working to combat avian flu.  While the Administration has since announced a new effort to rehire those employees and invest in solutions, it must do better to coordinate an effective response that actually results in lower prices for Americans.”
    The avian flu outbreak has proven to be incredibly profitable for Cal-Maine Foods Inc., the nation’s largest egg producer and distributor.  Due to the fact that Cal-Maine Foods Inc. is a publicly-traded egg producer, it must report basic financial data.  Last month, Cal-Maine reported price hikes have been good for business: generating over $350 million in gross quarterly profits, a fourfold increase from a year prior.  With the excess profits, Cal-Maine executives announced a $500 million stock buyback program, which enriches corporate executives and wealthy investors while consumers continue paying record prices.
    Stock buybacks are a controversial financial maneuver by large corporations that remove shares from the market and enable a company to increase its share price and earnings per share and offset dilution when executives exercise stock options or when insiders want to sell their shares. Until 1982, buybacks were uncommon and generally considered a form of market manipulation. But during the Reagan Administration, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted rule 10b-18 that year, it gave large companies a “safe harbor” to buy back stock.
    Despite its tremendous profits, and the fact that Cal-Maine has 75 percent more hens than the next largest company, Cal-Maine received $44 million in USDA indemnity payments to compensate for bird deaths due to the avian flu outbreak.
    Reed’s letter states that USDA“should ensure the funding it does make available for the avian flu response is used effectively to help producers who need it most – not highly-profitable companies.  A company that has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars of cash on-hand and expected earnings for stock buybacks also has the resources to recover from losses and implement biosecurity measures without taxpayer assistance.” 
    While USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins outlined a plan to invest $1 billion in curbing avian flu, that figure represents about half of what the Biden Administration was spending to tackle the problem.  And coupled with the USDA layoffs, the Trump Administration’s inadequate attention to the problem is exacerbating the situation.
    “Donald Trump said he’d bring down egg prices on day one.  Since he took office, the price of a dozen eggs has nearly doubled.  I guess the “yolk” is on every consumer and business who are now paying a higher price,” said Senator Reed.  “Trump finds time to bully America’s allies and trading partners, but he chickens out when it comes to antitrust enforcement and special interests.  He won’t take five minutes to call the top egg producers together to ensure consumers are getting a fair deal and egg prices aren’t manipulated to artificially high levels.”
    Full text of the letter follows:
    March 6, 2025
    The Honorable Brooke Rollins, Secretary
    U.S. Department of Agriculture
    1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
    Washington, DC 20250
    Dear Secretary Rollins:
    I write to urge you to ensure that taxpayer funding intended to fight the avian flu outbreak is used responsibly to eradicate the disease and lower the cost of eggs, and does not go to publicly traded companies that are conducting stock buybacks. 
    As I wrote to you before your confirmation, I am deeply concerned about the impact that the avian flu outbreak is having on the price of eggs and American consumers.  I am also concerned about the effects of possible price gouging by large egg producers, which I expressed in a previous letter to the Biden Administration.  Since President Trump took office, the price of a dozen eggs has nearly doubled, and the Administration fired several employees working to combat avian flu.  While the Administration has since announced a new effort to rehire those employees and invest in solutions, it must do better to coordinate an effective response that actually results in lower prices for Americans.
    A key piece of this effort includes ensuring taxpayer dollars are invested wisely and effectively.  In your first two weeks on the job, you visited a Cal-Maine Foods facility in Bogata, Texas to view the company’s implementation of biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of avian flu.  You may know that Cal-Maine Foods is the largest U.S. egg producer and recently announced in a SEC filing that it is spending up to $500 million to buy back shares for the benefit of the founder’s family.  Cal-Maine last month also reported over $350 million in gross quarterly profits, a fourfold increase from a year prior.  Despite its tremendous profits, last year the company received $44 million in USDA indemnity payments to compensate for bird deaths due to the avian flu outbreak.
    As the Trump Administration limits federal resources, including for USDA, it should ensure the funding it does make available for the avian flu response is used effectively to help producers who need it most – not highly-profitable companies.  A company that has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars of cash on-hand and expected earnings for stock buybacks also has the resources to recover from losses and implement biosecurity measures without taxpayer assistance. 
    I appreciate your attention to this important issue, and look forward to your prompt reply.
    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Active-Duty and Former U.S. Army Soldiers Arrested for Theft of Government Property and Bribery Scheme

    Source: US State of California

    One Soldier Charged with Conspiring to Transmit National Defense Information to Individuals Located in China

    View the indictment for Jian Zhao.

    Jian Zhao, and Li Tian, active-duty U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, along with Ruoyu Duan, a former U.S. Army soldier, were arrested today following indictments by federal grand juries in the District of Oregon and the Western District of Washington. Tian and Duan were charged in the District of Oregon for conspiring to commit bribery and theft of government property. Zhao was charged in the Western District of Washington for conspiring to obtain and transmit national defense information to an individual not authorized to receive it, and also for bribery and theft of government property.

    “The defendants arrested today are accused of betraying our country, actively working to weaken America’s defense capabilities and empowering our adversaries in China,” said Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi. “They will face swift, severe, and comprehensive justice.”

    “While bribery and corruption have thrived under China’s Communist Party, this behavior cannot be tolerated with our service members who are entrusted with sensitive military information, including national defense information,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “The FBI and our partners will continue to work to uncover attempts by those in China to steal sensitive U.S. military information and hold all accountable who play a role in betraying our national defense. The FBI would like to thank U.S. Army Counterintelligence for their close partnership during this investigation.”

    “We thank the FBI and U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command for their hard work on this investigation and commitment to protecting our national security,” said Acting U.S. Attorney William M. Narus for the District of Oregon.

    “These arrests underscore the persistent and increasing foreign intelligence threat facing our Army and nation,” said Brig. Gen. Rhett R. Cox, Commanding General, Army Counterintelligence Command. “Along with the Department of Justice and FBI, Army Counterintelligence Command will continue to work tirelessly to hold those accountable who irresponsibly and selfishly abandon the Army values and choose personal gain over duty to our nation. We remind all members of the Army team to increase their vigilance and protect our Army by reporting suspicious activity.”

    The indictment in the District of Oregon alleges that beginning on or about Nov. 28, 2021, and continuing to at least on or about Dec. 19, 2024, Duan and Tian along with others, known and unknown to the grand jury conspired with each other to surreptitiously gather sensitive military information related to the United States Army’s operational capabilities, including technical manuals and other sensitive information, and that Tian transmitted this information to Duan in return for money, in violation of his official duties as an active-duty U.S. Army officer. Specifically, Tian was tasked with gathering information related U.S. military weapon systems, including information related to the Bradley and Stryker U.S. Army fighting vehicles, and transmitting them to Duan.

    The indictment in the Western District of Washington alleges that beginning in or about July 2024, and continuing to the date of the arrest, Jian Zhao, an active-duty U.S. Army Supply Sergeant, conspired with others known and unknown to the grand jury to obtain and transmit national defense information to individuals based in China. Zhao is further alleged to have committed bribery and theft of government property.

    Specifically, Zhao was charged for his conspiracy to collect and transmit several classified hard drives, including hard drives marked “SECRET” and “TOP SECRET”, negotiating with individuals based in China for their sale, and agreeing to send the classified hard drives to the individuals in China. In exchange for the sale of the classified hard drives, Zhao received at least $10,000. Zhao is further alleged to have conspired to sell an encryption capable computer that was stolen from the U.S. Government, and sensitive U.S. military documents and information, including information related to the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), and information related to U.S. military readiness in the event of a conflict with the People’s Republic of China. Zhao is alleged to have violated his duties as a U.S. Army Soldier and public official to protect sensitive military information in exchange for money. In total, Zhao is alleged to have corruptly received and accepted payments totaling at least $15,000.

    The FBI and the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command investigated the case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Geoffrey Barrow and Katherine Rykken for the District of Oregon and Trial Attorneys Christopher Cook and Yifei Zheng of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Secretary Noem Honors Fallen Customs and Border Protection Agent and His Fellow Officers

    Source: US Department of Homeland Security

     In Puerto Rico, Secretary Noem also met with Governor Jennifer González-Colón.

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Today, Secretary Kristi Noem presented Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agent Jorge Santiago and Agent Mark Lamphere with the Medal of Valor and Purple Cross awards. The ceremony also officially marked renaming of the Mayagüez Marine Unit to the Michel O. Maceda Marine Unit during a solemn ceremony. 

    Secretary Kristi Noem presented Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agent Jorge Santiago and Agent Mark Lamphere with the Medal of Valor and Purple Cross awards.

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    Secretary Kristi Noem presented Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agent Jorge Santiago and Agent Mark Lamphere with the Medal of Valor and Purple Cross awards. | View Original

    In November 2022, Agent Santiago, Agent Lamphere, and Agent Maceda intercepted a vessel 14 miles off the coast of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. The individuals on board were attempting to smuggle drugs into American communities. After the agents identified themselves as law enforcement, the drug traffickers opened fire. All three agents were hit. Despite his near fatal injuries, Agent Santiago gave lifesaving first aid care to Agent Lamphere and attempted to save Agent Maceda. That day, Agent Maceda made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our great nation. 

    Secretary Kristi Noem presented Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agent Jorge Santiago and Agent Mark Lamphere with the Medal of Valor and Purple Cross awards.

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    Secretary Kristi Noem presented Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agent Jorge Santiago and Agent Mark Lamphere with the Medal of Valor and Purple Cross awards. | View Original

    A statement from Secretary Noem is below: 

    “It was my honor to present CBP Agent Jorge Santiago and Agent Mark Lamphere with the Medal of Valor and Purple Cross awards. In November 2022, both men and their fellow CBP Agent Michael Maceda were shot by drug traffickers attempting to bring drugs into American communities. Tragically, Agent Maceda lost his life. Thank you to all of our law enforcement who put their lives on the line every day to keep America safe.” 

    While in Puerto Rico, Secretary Noem also met with Governor Jennifer González-Colón to discuss partnership efforts to secure America’s maritime borders.  

    While in Puerto Rico, Secretary Noem also met with Governor Jennifer González-Colón to discuss partnership efforts to secure America’s maritime borders.

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    While in Puerto Rico, Secretary Noem also met with Governor Jennifer González-Colón to discuss partnership efforts to secure America’s maritime borders. | View Original

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Sullivan, Murkowski Seek to Extend Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans Allotment Program

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Alaska Dan Sullivan
    03.06.25
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski (both R-Alaska) have re-introduced legislation to extend the Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans Land Allotment Program for five additional years. Without such an extension, the program will expire in December 2025 and potentially leave well over a thousand eligible Alaska Native Vietnam veterans and their heirs without their rightful land allotments.
    “While serving their country during the Vietnam War era, many Alaska Native veterans missed the deadline to apply for their legally entitled land allotment—an injustice that we are still working to fix nearly 70 years later,” said Senator Sullivan. “I’ve been working on this issue since I came into office. In 2019, President Trump signed into law a major lands package led by Senator Murkowski that included an allotment program I authored with a five-year window to apply. Unfortunately, throughout the implementation of this program, the Biden administration callously threw up endless regulatory hurdles and delays, dramatically limited the lands available for selection, and ended up delivering allotments to about 40 Alaskans out of more than 2,000 eligible veterans. We are reintroducing this legislation to extend this program and finally secure these land allotments for our courageous veterans who sacrificed greatly on behalf of our country. I look forward to working with the Trump administration to see this legislation signed into law and successfully implemented to fix this historic injustice and honor our Vietnam veterans’ heroic service.”
    “As thousands of Alaska Natives served our nation during the Vietnam War, they missed their opportunity to select the land allotments they are rightfully owed,” Senator Murkowski said. “With roughly 150 veterans remaining to be notified, and the pace of allotment certifications slower than we hoped it would be, an extension has become necessary—especially as we push to open additional lands closer to where many of these veterans and their families actually live.”
    The Alaska Native Vietnam-Era Veterans Land Allotment Program was established through a Sullivan-Murkowski provision in Murkowski’s 2019 lands package. The program has enabled thousands of Alaska Native veterans to apply for their congressionally-pledged land allotments, which can range from 2.5 to 160 acres, on certain Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in Alaska.
    As of February 13, 2025, BLM Alaska reported that it has received 453 applications for allotments and completed certifications for 41 of them. Hundreds of eligible veterans and their heirs—especially those who live in southeast, western, and northern Alaska—have not submitted applications because no lands are available within hundreds of miles of their place of residence or ancestral homelands.   
    Timeline:
    In 1906, Congress passed a law allowing Alaska Native individuals to acquire 160-acre parcels of land.
    In 1971, at a time when many Alaska Native men were serving in the military during the Vietnam War, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) extinguished the 1906 allotment rights.
    In 1998, the Alaska congressional delegation secured legislation to partially fix the injustice of Alaska Native veterans who missed the chance to apply for an allotment. However, due to certain restrictions, only about 500 veterans ultimately applied out more than 3,000 who were eligible.
    On February 12, 2019, the Senate passed Sen. Murkowski’s S.47, the National Resources Management Act, including a Sen. Sullivan provision to establish the Alaska Native Vietnam Veteran Land Allotment Program. The late Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) shepherded the legislation through the House.
    On March 12, 2019, President Donald Trump signed S.47, and the Trump administration began working on its implementation.
    In January 2021, then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt signed the revocation of 11 outdated public land orders (PLOs) issued in 1972 and 1973 that were put in place to allow Alaska Native Corporations to select lands promised to them by Congress 50 years ago. This important step allowed for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to revoke the PLOs.
    In 2021, Senator Sullivan met twice with Secretary Haaland prior to her confirmation vote to be the Secretary of Interior. In both meetings, she committed to rapidly implement the Alaska Native Vietnam Veteran Land Allotment Program. She subsequently refused to follow through on this commitment.
    In February 2021, members of the Alaska congressional delegation condemned the Biden administration Department of the Interior’s (DOI) action to postpone the revocation of PLOs signed by former Interior Secretary Bernhardt.
    In April 2021, in a unilateral and unnecessary action, the BLM postponed the PLO revocations, requiring further environmental analysis on five public land orders with a two-year stay on the implementation of the PLO revocations.
    On May 7, 2021, Sen. Sullivan and Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-Alaska) penned an op-ed in the Juneau Empire outlining the State of Alaska’s legislative effort to make state lands available to eligible Alaska Native veterans.
    In June 2021, Sens. Sullivan and Murkowski introduced legislation to amend the Alaska Native Vietnam Veteran Land Allotment Program and make an additional 3.7 million acres of federal land in the National Wildlife Refuge System available for selection.
    On April 18, 2022, Sens. Sullivan and Murkowski sent a letter to Secretary Haaland urging her to lift the PLOs that would make over 28 million acres of federal land available for selection by eligible veterans or their heirs.
    On April 21, 2022, Sen. Sullivan disputed Secretary Haaland’s claim that she is “[moving] expeditiously to deliver on [her] promise” to Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans as she accepted a “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) from the acting Alaska BLM director on the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Alaska Native Vietnam Veteran Land Allotment Program.
    In February 2023, Sens. Sullivan and Murkowski reintroduced S.175, legislation to codify the revocation of the five PLOs signed during the Trump administration and undoing the Biden administration’s efforts to unfairly halt access to federal public lands in Alaska.
    In April 2023, Sen. Sullivan condemned Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s decision to order a new full environmental impact statement (EIS), which delays the implementation of the allotment program even further.
    On August 10, 2023, Sen. Sullivan criticized Secretary Haaland’s announcement of a PLO to open about 812,000 additional acres of public lands managed by BLM Alaska for selection, noting that the “new” land has already been spoken for by the state, and the decision will result in more delays and legal hurdles for eligible veterans.
    In February 2024, Sens. Sullivan and Murkowski introduced S.3790, which would extend the program for another five years before its expiration in December 2025. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent on the final day of the 118th Congress, but did not clear the House of Representatives.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Baldwin, Collins Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Support the Health and Wellbeing of Family Caregivers

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced bipartisan legislation to support the health and wellbeing of family caregivers. The Lifespan Respite Care Reauthorization Act of 2025 would reauthorize the Lifespan Respite Care program through fiscal year 2030.

    “I was proud to serve as the primary caregiver for my grandmother as she got older, which is why I understand firsthand the financial and emotional strain of taking care of a loved one,” said Senator Baldwin. “I’m proud to work with Republicans and Democrats to deliver some much-needed relief and support for family caregivers so that when Americans step up to keep their loved ones safe and well at home, they can be confident we have their backs.”

    “Caregivers provide an estimated $600 billion in uncompensated care each year. Yet, an astounding 85 percent of caregivers have not received any respite services at all. I saw this in my own family, where my mother took care of my father who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for eight years. Respite care was almost nonexistent for her, other than that provided by family members,” said Senator Collins. “Respite care helps to reduce mental stress and physical health issues that caregivers may experience, keeping them healthy and families intact. This bill would help give family caregivers and their loved ones the support they need by ensuring that quality respite is available and accessible.”

    Specifically, the Lifespan Respite Care Reauthorization Act of 2025 would:

    1. Reauthorize the Lifespan Respite Care program at current appropriations levels for five years (FY25-30); and
    2. Clarify that youth caregivers (those under 18 who are providing care or helping to provide care to family members) are eligible for the program.

    According to AARP, more than a third of family caregivers report wanting support like respite services, yet only 14 percent receive them, even as research indicates that caregivers who use respite have lower caregiver distress and better health and sense of well-being.

    Respite care provides temporary relief to caregivers from their ongoing responsibilities. By protecting the health of caregivers, respite care decreases the need for professional long-term care and allows individuals who require care to remain at home. To date, 38 states have received funding through the Lifespan Respite Care program, which provides competitive grants to states to establish or enhance statewide respite resources and help ensure that quality respite is available and accessible to all family caregivers.

    Senators Baldwin and Collins championed legislation in 2020 to authorize the Lifespan Respite Care program through fiscal year 2024. The Lifespan Respite Care Reauthorization Act of 2025 would reauthorize this programming through fiscal year 2030.

    In addition to the ARCH National Respite Coalition, this bill is endorsed by the Autism Society of America and the Alzheimer’s Association.

    Full text of the legislation can be found here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Padilla, Markey Introduce Bipartisan, Bicameral Bill to Secure Fair Pay for Truckers Working Overtime

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

    Padilla, Markey Introduce Bipartisan, Bicameral Bill to Secure Fair Pay for Truckers Working Overtime

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), along with U.S. Representatives Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39) and Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.-02), introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to ensure that truckers are compensated fairly for the hours that they are on the clock, including overtime. The Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act would repeal the motor carrier provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which excludes many truckers from overtime protections enjoyed by other workers.

    In response to an Executive Order by former President Biden, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a Freight and Logistics Supply Chain Assessment in February 2022, which highlights high turnover rates and compensation issues in the trucking industry. Among its recommendations, the Department called on Congress to repeal the motor carrier provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to allow truckers to earn fair overtime pay.

    “America’s truck drivers are on the frontlines of our economy, enduring long hours away from home, and all too often, unpaid wait times at congested ports and warehouses. Unfortunately, truck drivers have been excluded from overtime pay protections for decades,” said Senator Padilla. “If truckers are forced to wait while on the job, they should be paid. This is not just a matter of fairness; it’s a matter of public safety. Experienced truckers are safer truckers, and better compensation and overtime pay will help more of them stay in the profession.”

    “Truck drivers are the engines of our economy, making sure that our supply chain keeps moving at full speed, and yet they are denied the fundamental worker protection of overtime. The Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act would reverse this injustice and ensure that truck drivers are paid their due,” said Senator Markey.

    “Truckers are vital for our supply chain, manufacturing, and the American way of life,” said Representative Takano. “It is unfair that they are singled out as somehow unworthy of overtime pay. This legislation will help right that wrong and make sure they are fairly compensated for the hours they work. I am proud to partner with Congressman Van Drew and Senator Padilla to build up workers and guarantee more money in their paychecks.”

    “Truck drivers keep our supply chain moving, often working long, exhausting hours to make sure goods get where they need to go,” said Representative Van Drew. “But right now, they are not guaranteed overtime pay like most other workers. It is just not right. The Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act is a simple fix—it ensures that truckers are fairly compensated for the extra hours they put in. These men and women do critical work, and it’s time we make sure their pay reflects that.”

    “The exclusion of truck drivers from federal overtime protections must come to an end,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “The Teamsters Union is proud to support the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, which will right the decades long wrong that serves only to harm drivers to the benefit of their employers.”

    “America’s truckers are the backbone of our economy, keeping goods moving and ensuring our supply chain stays strong,” said Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer. “Yet, despite their essential role, trucking remains one of the few professions in America denied guaranteed overtime pay. It’s long past time the hard work of the men and women behind the wheel are fairly compensated. By discounting a trucker’s time, ‘big trucking’ has driven wages downward, treating truckers as disposable rather than the skilled professionals they are. We appreciate Representative Van Drew, Representative Takano, and Senator Padilla for championing the bipartisan GOT Truckers Act, which will right this wrong by securing overtime pay. This legislation is an investment in truckers, road safety, and the strength of America’s supply chain.”

    In addition to Senators Padilla and Markey, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

    The Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act is supported by Teamsters and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

    Senator Padilla is a longtime advocate for improving workplace safety standards and helping workers secure fair wages. In the aftermath of the Southern California fires, Padilla introduced the bipartisan Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act to protect wildland firefighter pay and provide long-term workforce stability. Additionally, he introduced the Wildland Firefighter Fair Pay Act to permanently raise the caps on overtime premium pay for federal wildland firefighters. Previously, Padilla introduced the Fairness for Farm Workers Act, legislation to update the nation’s labor laws to ensure farm workers receive fairer wages and compensation. In 2023, Padilla announced the Asunción Valdivia Heat, Illness, Injury and Fatality Prevention Act to protect the safety and health of workers who are exposed to dangerous heat conditions in the workplace. Padilla is also a proud cosponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2025.

    Full text of the bill is available here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senate Advances Bipartisan Bill to Permanently Classify Illicit Fentanyl Knockoffs as Schedule I Drugs

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell
    03.06.25
    Senate Advances Bipartisan Bill to Permanently Classify Illicit Fentanyl Knockoffs as Schedule I Drugs
    Legislation would also enable research into fentanyl-related substances
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the United States Senate voted 82-12 to advance the bipartisan Halt All Lethal Trafficking of (HALT) Fentanyl Act. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, voted in favor of the bill.
    “The HALT Fentanyl Act maintains strong penalties for trafficking fentanyl, while allowing for important scientific research and medical applications to continue,” said Sen. Cantwell. “We still have more work to do on other bills to address the fentanyl scourge, from providing more treatment options, to additional resources for first responders, to more tools for law enforcement to stop traffickers and dealers.”
    The bill now awaits final passage by the Senate.
    The legislation would:
    Permanently schedule illicit fentanyl-related substances:
    Amends the Controlled Substances Act to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I.
    Ends the game of whack-a-mole Congress has played since 2018; Congress has repeatedly extended the first Trump administration’s temporary Schedule I classification of fentanyl-related substances.
    Locks in permanent classification of fentanyl-related substances before its temporary Schedule I status expires on March 31, 2025.
    Protect patients’ access to legitimate, FDA-approved fentanyl:
    Preserves the Schedule II status and FDA-approved use of fentanyl for legitimate medical purposes:
    Nine major medical associations affirmed the HALT Fentanyl Act’s distinction between illicit, fentanyl-related substances and FDA-approved fentanyl, citing the bill’s ability to, “effectively combat the illicit fentanyl epidemic while preserving access to legitimate, physician-directed pain management.”
    Support law enforcement and codify existing penalties:
    Maintains existing criminal penalties for fentanyl trafficking to ensure illicit manufacturers and traffickers can be fully prosecuted and victims and their families receive justice.
    Penalties under the HALT Fentanyl Act are identical to what current law dictates under the temporary scheduling of fentanyl-related substances.
    Utilizes the same class-scheduling rubric enacted seven years ago. This rubric has only ever been used to target lethal fentanyl-related substances and arrest defendants convicted of illicit drug trafficking and manufacturing.
    Advance scientific and medical research:
    Streamlines the registration process for Schedule I researchers, allowing more scientists to study fentanyl-related substances.
    Includes provisions to permit a single registration for related research sites, allowing researchers with ongoing studies to examine newly added fentanyl-related substances and authorize registered researchers to manufacture small quantities of fentanyl-related substances without a separate registration.
    In 2023 and 2024, Sen. Cantwell traveled across the State of Washington to 10 communities — Tacoma, Everett, Tri-Cities, Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, Port Angeles, Walla Walla, Yakima, and Longview – hearing from people on the front lines of the fentanyl crisis, including first responders, law enforcement, health care providers, and people with firsthand experience of fentanyl addiction.  She also participated in the National Tribal Opioid Summit, a gathering of approximately 900 tribal leaders, health care workers, and first responders from across the country hosted by the Tulalip Tribes following the first-ever statewide summit hosted by the Lummi Nation.  Sen. Cantwell has since used what she heard in those roundtables and related events to craft and champion specific legislative solutions, including:
    The Stop Smuggling Illicit Synthetic Drugs on U.S. Transportation Networks Act, which would crack down on the trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs, like fentanyl, using the U.S. transportation network;
    The Opioid Overdose Data Collection Enhancement Act, which would expand the use of tools that record fatal and nonfatal overdoses in near-real time and help first responders deploy resources faster;
    The FEND Off Fentanyl Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden, which will help U.S. government agencies disrupt opioid supply chains by imposing sanctions on traffickers and fighting money laundering;
    The Fight Illicit Pill Presses Act, which would require that all pill presses be engraved with a serial number and impose penalties for the removal or alteration of the number.;
    The Combating Illicit Xylazine Act, which would list xylazine as a Schedule III controlled substance while protecting the drug’s legal use by veterinarians, farmers, and ranchers, enable the Drug Enforcement Administration to track xylazine’s manufacturing to ensure it is not diverted to the illicit market;
    The TRANQ Research Act of 2023, signed into law by President Biden, which will spur more research into xylazine (also called “tranq”) and other novel synthetic drugs by directing the National Institute of Standards and Technology to tackle these issues; and
    The Parity for Tribal Law Enforcement Act, which would bolster Tribal law enforcement agencies by helping them hire and retain tribal law enforcement officers by raising their retirement, pension, death, and injury benefits to be on part with those of federal law enforcement officers.
    In addition, Sen. Cantwell voted for a series of federal funding bills allocating $1.69 billion to combat fentanyl and other illicit drugs coming into the United States, including an additional $385.2 million to increase security at U.S. ports of entry, with the goal of catching more illegal drugs like fentanyl before they make it across the border.  Critical funding will go toward Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technology at land and sea ports of entries. NII technologies—like large-scale X-ray and Gamma ray imaging systems, as well as a variety of portable and handheld technologies—allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help detect and prevent contraband from being smuggled into the country without disrupting flow at the border.
    A full timeline of Sen. Cantwell’s actions to combat the fentanyl crisis is available HERE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murphy: Billionaires Don’t Need Public Schools, But Millions Of Americans Do

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy

    March 06, 2025

    [embedded content]
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday joined Senate Democrats for a media availability following reports that President Trump will soon sign an executive order abolishing the U.S. Department of Education. Murphy slammed the plan as a dangerous move that would hurt families across the country and prioritize profits for the billionaire and corporate class over ensuring every kid in America has access to a quality education.
    Murphy blasted the out-of-touch billionaires in the Trump Administration who are dismantling programs ordinary Americans rely on: “The billionaires that are in charge of our government right now send their kids to the most elite private schools, and if every public school disappears in this country, they will still be able to get their kids an education. And it’s consistent with the entire way they are approaching the first six months of this administration. Billionaires don’t need Medicaid. So, to them, it doesn’t matter if Medicaid disappears, and rural hospitals close and addiction treatment centers shutter their doors– because the billionaires will still get their healthcare. They talk about Social Security being a Ponzi scheme. They’re shutting down Social Security offices around the country because they don’t need Social Security. They’re billionaires–they’re never going to need a Social Security check – like millions of American seniors do – in order to put food on the table.”
    Murphy tore into Trump and his corporate backers for prioritizing their tax cut over meeting the basic needs of working-class Americans: “All that matters is hoarding as much money – stealing as much money – from middle class and poor families in this country, so that they can pass that money along to the billionaires, the millionaires, and the corporations. Everything that they are doing is about making sure that they shrink the parts of government that help regular people, so that they can pass along more benefits and more help to their billionaire friends.”
    Murphy condemned the administration for trying to sell off America’s public schools to the highest bidder at the expense of millions of families: “The voucher program that they are talking about, that they will be more easily able to implement if the Department of Education is gone, is really about just making it easier for the billionaire and corporate class to be able to buy up our schools, so that they can make money off of it like they make money off of the Medicare program, like they make money off of so many other aspects of our government. So if the Department of Education closes, it’s going to hurt millions of families in this country– it is just going to enable the theft of resources from regular families to pad the pockets of the billionaires – but is also likely to result in you waking up one day and finding out that your local elementary school that your kids go to is owned by a private equity firm on the other side of the country and is being run for profit instead of being run for the education of your kids.”
    A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:
    MURPHY: “Thanks, Chuck, for gathering us here today. So, nobody wants this. Nobody in America wants the destruction of public education. The plan to eliminate the Department of Education is wildly unpopular in this country except for a handful of people on the fringy right. So the question is, why are they doing it? 
    “I think Bernie’s point is really important. Billionaires do not need public schools. Billionaires don’t understand the magic that happens in public schools. The billionaires that are in charge of our government right now send their kids to the most elite private schools, and if every public school disappears in this country, they will still be able to get their kids an education. 
    “And it’s consistent with the entire way they are approaching the first six months of this administration. Billionaires don’t need Medicaid. So to them, it doesn’t matter if Medicaid disappears and rural hospitals close and addiction treatment centers shutter their doors– because the billionaires will still get their healthcare. 
    “They talk about Social Security being a Ponzi scheme. They’re shutting down Social Security offices around the country because they don’t need Social Security. They’re billionaires–they’re never going to need a Social Security check – like millions of American seniors do – in order to put food on the table. So the billionaire mindset is just different than ordinary, average Americans. And that’s why, to them, public education doesn’t matter.
    “But to Senator Schumer’s point, here’s the other reason why: all that matters right now is the billionaire and corporate tax cut. All that matters is hoarding as much money – stealing as much money – from middle class and poor families in this country, so that they can pass that money along to the billionaires, the millionaires, and the corporations. Everything that they are doing is about making sure that they shrink the parts of government that help regular people, so that they can pass along more benefits and more help to their billionaire friends.
    “But then here’s the last piece of the story of why. The billionaire class, the corporate class, the private equity class– they are sick to death that they don’t have their hands inside the Department of Education treasury; that they can’t get their hands on our schools like they’ve gotten their hands into our healthcare system and every other aspect of our economy. 
    “What they want to do is to sell off our public schools to the highest bidder. The voucher program that they are talking about, that they will be more easily able to implement if the Department of Education is gone, is really about just making it easier for the billionaire and corporate class to be able to buy up our schools, so that they can make money off of it like they make money off of the Medicare program, like they make money off of so many other aspects of our government. 
    “So if the Department of Education closes, it’s going to hurt millions of families in this country– it is just going to enable the theft of resources from regular families to pad the pockets of the billionaires – but is also likely to result in you waking up one day and finding out that your local elementary school that your kids go to is owned by a private equity firm on the other side of the country and is being run for profit instead of being run for the education of your kids.
    “So this is deeply unpopular, nobody wants the Department of Education eliminated, and it’s really important for us to explain to the American people why it’s happening.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Virginia Man Convicted of Hate Crime for Attempted Church Shooting

    Source: US State Government of Utah

    After a four-day trial, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict today for Rui Jiang, of Falls Church, Virginia, who was charged with attempting to obstruct the congregants of a church in Haymarket, Virginia, in the free exercise of their religious beliefs. The charge included that the defendant’s attempted act involved a dangerous weapon and an attempt to kill. Jiang also faced charges for transmitting online threats and a firearms violation. The jury found Jiang guilty on all counts.

    According to evidence presented at trial, Jiang began posting online threats against the church on the evening of Sept. 23, 2023, which made clear his intention to kill congregants.

    On the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, police began searching for Jiang in response to a concerned citizen’s call about his posts. Police officers located Jiang inside the front entrance to the church while Sunday services were underway. Church volunteers, independently concerned about Jiang’s behavior, had just approached Jiang when police arrived. Jiang was armed with a semiautomatic handgun and two full magazines of ammunition. He had an additional 34 rounds of ammunition in his nearby car.

    During a search of Jiang’s apartment, police discovered five copies of a letter, each signed by Jiang in ink, which read in part, “To the families of those men about to be slain – I am sorry for what I have done and about to do (sic).”

    Jiang was arrested by Prince William County Police on Sept. 24, 2023, and has been in custody since that time.

    Jiang faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 18. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mac Warner of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Acting Assistant Director in Charge Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI Washington Field Office made the announcement. 

    The FBI investigated the case, with substantial assistance from the Prince William County and Fairfax County Police Departments. The Anne Arundel County Police Department also provided assistance.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas A. Durham and Troy A. Edwards Jr. for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Kyle Boynton of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Tuberville, Moran Introduce Bill to Expand Capital for Rural Communities

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Tommy Tuberville (Alabama)
    WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) in reintroducing the Access to Credit for our Rural Economy (ACRE) Act. This legislation would benefit American families, farmers, and rural communities nationwide by providing greater flexibility to more financial institutions to offer affordable lines of credit to rural and agricultural borrowers. 
    Senator Tuberville cosponsored this legislation in the 118th Congress.
    “As Alabama’s voice on the Senate Ag Committee, I will always advocate for Alabama’s farmers and rural communities here in Washington,” said Senator Tuberville. “Our farmers are struggling with cash flow and desperately need expanded access to credit to continue their farm operations. I’m proud to join my colleagues in cosponsoring this bill that would bolster our agricultural economy and stimulate rural housing for all Alabamians.”
    “Persistent inflation and high interest rates are putting a strain on farmers and rural homeowners in Kansas and across the country,” said Senator Moran. “Rural Americans should have the flexibility to access the capital needed to expand their family farms and achieve the dream of homeownership. This legislation will help to boost rural housing and support the agricultural economy that plays a vital role in small towns across America.”
    Senators Tuberville and Moran were joined by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) in cosponsoring the legislation.
    American Bankers Association and Independent Community Bankers of America endorsed the legislation.
    Read full text of the legislation here. 
    BACKGROUND:
    The ACRE Act would:
    Amend the Internal Revenue Code to exclude interest received on certain loans secured by rural or agricultural real property from gross income
    Allow farm real estate borrowers and rural homeowners access to lower interest rates by expanding the same tax-exempt status on certain earned interest that applies to other lenders
    Apply to agricultural real estate and single-family home mortgage loans in rural communities with fewer than 2,500 residents and for mortgages less than $750,000
    Expand access to affordable agricultural and home loans to over 4,000 rural communities nationwide and save family farmers and producers well over $400 million in annual interest expenses
    Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP, and Aging Committees.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Shaheen Introduces Bipartisan, Bicameral Proposal to Make Child Care More Affordable

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen
    (Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act and the Child Care Workforce Act—bipartisan, bicameral legislation that together form a bold proposal to make child care more affordable and accessible by strengthening existing tax credits to lower child care costs and increase the supply of child care providers. The bill was co-led by U.S. Senators Katie Britt (R-AL), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA). U.S. Representatives Mike Lawler (NY-17) and Salud Carbajal (CA-24) introduced a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill includes language from Shaheen’s Right Start Child Care and Education Act legislation.
    “I hear time and again from parents in New Hampshire who are desperate for reliable, affordable child care options, but for too many families, their options are limited at best and nonexistent at worst,” said Senator Shaheen. “For an issue that impacts so many families in every corner of every state, it’s time we find a bipartisan path forward, which is why I’m proud to join my colleagues on this commonsense, bipartisan proposal to lower child care costs, increase wages for the workforce and ensure providers can keep their doors open.”
    Additional cosponsors of the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act include U.S. Senators John Curtis (R-UT), Angus King (I-ME), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Susan Collins (R-ME). The bill text can be viewed here.
    The Child Care Workforce Act is also cosponsored by U.S. Senators King and Gillibrand. The proposal contains two bills because one proposes changes to existing tax credits, falling under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee, and the other authorizes a new pilot program, falling under the jurisdiction of the Senate HELP Committee. The bill text can be viewed here.
    The worsening child care crisis is holding families, child care workers, businesses and our entire economy back. Across the country, too many families cannot find—or afford—the high-quality child care they need so parents can go to work and children can thrive. Over the last few decades, the cost of child care has increased by 263%, forcing families—and mothers, in particular—to make impossible choices.
    More than half of all families live in child care deserts. Meanwhile, child care workers are struggling to make ends meet on their poverty-level wages and child care providers are struggling to simply stay afloat. The crisis—which was exacerbated by the pandemic—is costing our economy approximately $122 billion in economic losses each year.
    New national polling in conjunction with First Five Years Fund (FFYF) reflects overwhelming bipartisan support for the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), with 86% of voters in support of increasing the CDCTC. Additionally, 79% of Republican voters say they want President Trump and Republicans in Congress to do more to help hardworking families afford child care with 72% saying investing in child care is a good use of tax dollars. According to polling from Fabrizio Ward, 63% of all voters say helping working class families is their top priority when it comes to changes in tax policy.
    Senator Shaheen has been a leader in advocating for more affordable and accessible child care, including by delivering more than $77 million to New Hampshire through the American Rescue Plan and other COVID relief laws to the Granite State. Since then, Shaheen had urged state and local officials to distribute those federal funds, especially in communities that lack access to child care. In August, Shaheen visited Colebrook Community Child Care Center to discuss challenges and solutions to the child care crisis in rural communities, and in October Shaheen hosted Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su for a discussion on child care and workforce challenges in Brentwood. 
    Last year, Shaheen introduced the Right Start Child Care and Education Act, which would make child care more affordable and accessible for working families by reforming the federal tax code. She also introduced the bipartisan Expanding Child Care for Military Families Act. Additionally, she helped introduce the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act to permanently expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, which helps households offset their child care costs.
    Last April, Shaheen convened a hearing as former Chair of the U.S. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee to hear testimony from expert witnesses on the child care industry’s broken business model and what Congress can do to support small business child care providers, employees and families. A subsequent U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy issue brief, in response to data challenges raised at the hearing, details the role of small businesses in the child care industry and fills data gaps in child care industry research.
    Last Congress, Shaheen helped introduce the Child Care Stabilization Act, which would provide additional federal child care stabilization funding—which was provided in the American Rescue Plan—and ensure that child care providers can keep their doors open and continue serving children and families in every part of the country. Shaheen joined Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) to introduce the Child Care for Working Families Act, which would provide affordable child care for all working families, expand access to preschool programs and increase wages for early childhood workers. She also joined U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in reintroducing the bipartisan Childcare Workforce and Facilities Act to address the national shortage of affordable, quality child care, especially in rural communities. In the government funding bill for fiscal year (FY) 2024, Senator Shaheen worked to include a $1 billion increase for early education, including a $725 million increase to $8.75 billion for Child Care and Development Block Grants to states and a $275 million increase to Head Start4. The law additionally included $315 million for Preschool Development Grants.
    The Child Care Availability and Affordability Act is endorsed by A+ Education Partnership, Alabama Arise, Alabama School Readiness Alliance, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Bipartisan Policy Center Action (BPCA), Business Council of Alabama, Care.com, Chamber of Progress, Chamber RVA, Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA), Child Care Aware of Virginia, Children’s Institute, Early Care & Education Consortium (ECEC), Educare Learning Network, FFYF, Gingerbread Kids Academy, Hampton Roads Chamber, Healthy Kids AL, KinderCare Learning Companies, Manufacture Alabama, Metrix IQ, Mobile Area Education Foundation, National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), National Child Care Association (NCCA), Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce (NVC), Save the Children, Small Business Majority, Start Early, Third Way, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF), VOICES for Alabama’s Children and Voices for Virginia’s Kids. In addition to those groups, the Child Care Workforce Act is endorsed by the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and ZERO TO THREE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murray, Ossoff, Colleagues Demand Trump Administration Ensure Legal Representation for Vulnerable Children in Immigration System

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
    Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and 33 other senators in a letter demanding the Trump Administration ensures legal representation for children caught up in the immigration system. In their letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the senators urged the administration to continue legal services for unaccompanied children caught up in the immigration system as required by law. Earlier this month, the Trump Administration issued a stop work order to organizations that provide legal services for unaccompanied children. Last week, following public pressure, the order was rescinded.
    “Pausing or terminating the provision of legal services to unaccompanied children under this contract runs directly counter to the requirements of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and places 26,000 unaccompanied children at increased risk of trafficking, exploitation, and other harm,” the senators wrote to Secretaries Kennedy and Burgum. “The TVPRA, passed by Congress in 2008 on a bipartisan basis, requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure, to the greatest extent practicable, that all unaccompanied children have counsel to represent them in legal proceedings and protect them from mistreatment, exploitation, and trafficking.”
    According to a report by the Guardian this month, the organizations affected by the previous stop work order provide legal counsel for around 26,000 unaccompanied minors.
    “Cutting off access to legal services makes it more likely that the government will lose track of unaccompanied children, given the challenges such children would face in independently appearing for immigration court hearings, submitting address updates, or otherwise communicating with immigration authorities,” the group of senators continued. “Not only will this make children more vulnerable to trafficking, but it will also create further inefficiencies in an already backlogged immigration court system.”
    Joining Sens. Murray and Ossoff in sending the letter were Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Gary Peters (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE).
    The full text of the letter is available HERE.
    Senator Murray has championed comprehensive and humane immigration reform throughout her Senate career, repeatedly pushing for legislative solutions that would offer a fair pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in America, including Dreamers, farmworkers, and those with Temporary Protected Status. During Trump’s first administration, Senator Murray helped lead the charge in pushing back against Trump’s appalling treatment of migrant children and families at the southern border— cosponsoring the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act, which would require unaccompanied children and vulnerable individuals to be provided with legal assistance during immigration court proceedings, the Stop Cruelty to Migrant Children Act to end family separations at the border, and legislation to prevent the separation of families at sensitive locations such as schools, religious institutions, and hospitals, among many other efforts.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: The Keg Royalties Income Fund Announces Fourth Quarter 2024 and Full Year 2024 Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Not for distribution to U.S. News wire services or dissemination in the U.S.

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Keg Royalties Income Fund (the “Fund”) (TSX: KEG.UN) is pleased to announce its financial results for the three months ended December 31, 2024 (the “quarter”) and the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 (“YTD”).

    HIGHLIGHTS

    • Royalty Pool Sales(1) down 7.1% to $188.2M for the quarter and down 3.0% to $719.5M YTD
    • Keg Restaurants Ltd. (“KRL”) Average Sales per Operating Week(1) up 0.4% to $140,000 for the quarter and down 0.8% to $132,000 YTD
    • KRL Same Store Sales(1) up 2.6% for the quarter and down 0.7% YTD
    • Distributable Cash(1) up 9.9% to $0.262/Fund unit for the quarter and up 7.7% to $1.248/Fund unit YTD
    • Special cash distribution of $0.04/Fund unit declared on December 23, 2024, and was and paid on January 31, 2025
    • Payout Ratio(2) was 123.8% for the quarter and 94.2% YTD        

    Royalty Pool Sales reported by the 105 Keg restaurants in the Royalty Pool were $188,167,000 for the fourth quarter of 2024, a decrease of $14,350,000 or 7.1% from the comparable quarter of the prior year. The decrease in Royalty Pool Sales during the fourth quarter of 2024 was primarily due to the extra week of sales reported by KRL in the fourth quarter of 2023. Year-to-date, Royalty Pool Sales decreased by $22,157,000, or 3.0% to $719,541,000 due to the combination of the extra week of sales reported by KRL in the year ended December 31, 2023, and the slight decrease in Same Store Sales of 0.7% for the comparable 52-week periods.

    Royalty income decreased by $574,000 or 7.1% from $8,101,000 in the three months ended December 31, 2023 to $7,527,000 in the three months ended December 31, 2024. For the twelve months of 2024, royalty income decreased by $886,000 or 3.0% from $29,668,000 for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023 to $28,782,000 for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024.

    Distributable Cash available to pay distributions to public unitholders increased by $268,000 from $2,703,000 ($0.238/Fund unit) to $2,971,000 ($0.262/Fund unit) for the quarter, and increased by $1,016,000 from $13,154,000 ($1.159/Fund unit) to $14,170,000 ($1.248/Fund unit) year-to-date. During the fourth quarter of 2024, distributions of $3,677,000 ($0.324/Fund unit) were declared to Fund unitholders, compared to $4,130,000 ($0.364/Fund unit) in the fourth quarter of 2023. During 2024, distributions of $13,343,000 ($1.175/Fund unit) were declared to Fund unitholders, compared to $13,797,000 ($1.215/Fund unit) during the 2023 fiscal year. The decrease of $0.04/Fund unit in distributions declared to Fund unitholders for both the three and twelve month comparable periods, is entirely due to the difference between the $0.08/Fund unit special distribution declared in December of 2023, compared to the $0.04/Fund unit special distribution declared in December of 2024, as a result of KRL’s 53rd week of operation in 2023.

    In any reporting period, the Fund’s Distributable Cash is affected, both positively and negatively, by any changes in non-cash Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities balances recognized in that reporting period. The increase in the Fund’s Distributable Cash in the fourth quarter of 2024, was primarily attributable to the positive effects of changes in non-cash operating Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities balances during the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase in the Fund’s Distributable Cash in the twelve months of 2024, was primarily attributable to the positive effects of changes in non-cash operating Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities balances during the twelve months of 2024, as the incremental operating cash flow associated with KRL’s 53rd week of operation in the 2023 fiscal year was not received by the Fund until January 2024. The Fund’s year ended December 31, 2024 included this extra week of operating cash flow, thereby increasing Distributable Cash and decreasing the year-to-date Payout Ratio.

    The Payout Ratio was 123.8% for the fourth quarter of 2024 and 94.2% for the year.

    The Fund remains financially well positioned with cash on hand of $2,065,000 and a positive Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities balance of $2,627,000 as at December 31, 2024.

    (1) This is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure. Please refer to the “Non-GAAP and other financial measures disclosure (NI 52-112)” section of this press release.
    (2) This is a non-IFRS ratio. Please refer to the “Non-GAAP and other financial measures disclosure (NI 52-112)” section of this press release.

    “We are very pleased with the financial results of the Fund in the fourth quarter of 2024, despite the continued challenges facing the full-service restaurant category” said Kip Woodward, Chairman of the Fund. “Management continues their solid focus on operating efficiencies and delivering the best guest dining experience during these times of softening economic conditions. We are heartened by our long-term guest loyalty which we always endeavor to earn.”

    “We are pleased with KRL’s sales performance during the fourth quarter of 2024. Same store sales increased 2.6% versus the comparable quarter of 2023. Our guests continue to trust that they will receive a great experience each time they visit one of our locations” said Nick Dean, President of KRL. “Throughout 2024, management focused on empowering our exceptionally talented team of Keggers to deliver our promise of superior hospitality and product quality for our guests. With this strategy firmly in place, we expect guest demand for The Keg will continue to improve well into 2025”, he concluded.

    NON-GAAP AND OTHER FINANCIAL MEASURES DISCLOSURE (“NI 52-112”)

    NI 52-112 prescribes disclosure requirements that apply to certain Non-IFRS measures known as “specified financial measures”. This press release makes reference to certain non-IFRS measures which provides important information regarding the Fund’s financial performance and ability to pay distributions to unitholders. By considering these non-IFRS measures in combination with IFRS measures, the Fund believes that readers are provided with additional and more useful information about the Fund’s financial performance as opposed to considering IFRS measures alone. The terms “System Sales”, “Royalty Pool”, “Royalty Pool Sales”, “Same Store Sales”, “Distributable Cash Before SIFT Tax”, “Distributable Cash”, “Payout Ratio”, “Operating Weeks”, “Average Sales per Operating Week” and “Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities” are non-IFRS measures and non-IFRS ratios. These non-IFRS measures reported by the Fund do not have standardized meanings as prescribed by IFRS, and the Fund’s method of calculating these measures may differ and may not be comparable to similar measures reported by other issuers.

    “System Sales” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure representing the gross sales of all corporate restaurants owned by KRL, and the gross sales reported to KRL by franchise restaurants without independent audit, in any period. The total System Sales of KRL are of interest to readers as it best reflects KRL’s overall sales performance.

    “Royalty Pool” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure representing a specific pool of Keg restaurants for which System Sales is calculated, obligating KRL to make monthly royalty payments to the Partnership equal to 4% of these gross sales.

    “Royalty Pool Sales” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure representing the total gross sales reported by Keg restaurants included in a specified Royalty Pool, for which the Fund receives a royalty of 4% on these reported gross sales in any period.

    “Same Store Sales” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure representing the overall increase or decrease in gross sales from a group of Keg restaurants (those restaurants that operated during the entire period of both the current and prior years), compared to gross sales for the same group of restaurants for the same period of the prior year.

    “Distributable Cash Before SIFT Tax” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure and is defined as the periodic cash flows from operating activities as reported in the IFRS consolidated financial statements, including the effects of changes in non-cash Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities, plus the Specified Investment Flow-through Trust tax (“SIFT” tax) paid (including current year instalments), less interest and financing fees paid on the term loan, less the Partnership distributions attributable to KRL through its ownership of Exchangeable units.

    “Distributable Cash” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure and is defined as the amount of cash available for distribution to the Fund’s public unitholders and is calculated as Distributable Cash Before SIFT Tax, less current year SIFT tax expense. Distributable cash is a non-IFRS financial measure that does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. However, the Fund believes that Distributable Cash, both before and after SIFT tax, provides useful information regarding the amount of cash available for distribution to the Fund’s public unitholders.

    “Payout Ratio” is a non-IFRS ratio and is computed as the ratio of aggregate cash distributions paid during the period plus any special distributions declared or paid during the same period (numerator) to the aggregate Distributable Cash of the period (denominator).

    “Operating Weeks” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure representing the number of weeks a restaurant is open for in-store dining, without significant capacity restrictions, during a respective period.

    “Average Sales per Operating Week” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure and is defined as the sales generated by an average restaurant during those operating weeks when restaurants were fully open for in-store dining, during a respective period. This metric is calculated by dividing total System Sales for any financial period by the total Operating Weeks open during the same financial period.

    “Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities” is a non-IFRS supplementary financial measure and is defined as the Fund’s current assets less current liabilities before Class C and Exchangeable Partnership units. The Fund believes this metric provides useful information to readers as Working Capital Before Classification of Class C and Exchangeable Partnership Units as Current Liabilities represents the Fund’s current working capital amounts expected to be settled for cash within the next twelve months.

    FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

        Three months ended   Twelve months ended
          December 31,       December 31,       December 31,       December 31,  
    ($000’s expect per unit amounts)     2024       2023       2024       2023  
                     
    Restaurants in the Royalty Pool     105       107       105       107  
    Royalty Pool Sales   $ 188,167     $ 202,517     $ 719,541     $ 741,698  
    Royalty income (1)   $ 7,527     $ 8,101     $ 28,782     $ 29,668  
    Interest income (2)     1,091       1,106       4,361       4,383  
    Total income   $ 8,618     $ 9,207     $ 33,143     $ 34,051  
    Administrative expenses (3)     (122 )     (106 )     (468 )     (480 )
    Interest and financing expenses (4)     (224 )     (268 )     (1,002 )     (1,028 )
    Operating income   $ 8,272     $ 8,833     $ 31,673     $ 32,543  
    Distributions to KRL (5)     (3,398 )     (3,572 )     (13,134 )     (13,414 )
    Profit before fair value gain (loss) and income taxes   $ 4,874     $ 5,261     $ 18,539     $ 19,129  
    Fair value gain (loss) (6)     1,526       (2,616 )     (5,123 )     11,119  
    Income tax recovery (expense) (7)     (1,337 )     (1,439 )     (4,992 )     (5,091 )
    Profit (loss) and comprehensive income (loss)   $ 5,063     $ 1,206     $ 8,424     $ 25,157  
    Distributable Cash Before SIFT Tax   $ 4,287     $ 4,107     $ 19,137     $ 18,260  
    Distributable Cash   $ 2,971     $ 2,703     $ 14,170     $ 13,154  
    Distributions to Fund unitholders (8)   $ 3,677     $ 4,130     $ 13,343     $ 13,797  
    Payout Ratio     123.8 %     152.8 %     94.2 %     104.9 %
                     
    Per Fund unit information (9)                
    Profit before fair value gain (loss) and income taxes   $ 0.429     $ 0.463     $ 1.633     $ 1.685  
    Profit (loss) and comprehensive income (loss)   $ 0.446     $ 0.106     $ 0.742     $ 2.216  
    Distributable Cash Before SIFT Tax   $ 0.378     $ 0.362     $ 1.686     $ 1.608  
    Distributable Cash   $ 0.262     $ 0.238     $ 1.248     $ 1.159  
    Distributions to Fund unitholders (8)   $ 0.324     $ 0.364     $ 1.175     $ 1.215  
                     
    Notes:
    (1)   The Fund, indirectly through The Keg Rights Limited Partnership (the “Partnership”), earns royalty income equal to 4% of gross sales of Keg restaurants in the Royalty Pool.
    (2)   The Fund directly earns interest income on the $57.0 million loan to KRL (the “Keg Loan”), with interest income accruing at 7.5% per annum, payable monthly.
    (3)   The Fund, indirectly through the Partnership, incurs administrative expenses and interest on the operating line of credit, to the extent utilized.
    (4)   The Fund, indirectly through The Keg Holdings Trust (“KHT”), incurs interest expense on the $14.0 million term loan and amortization of deferred financing charges.
    (5)   Represents the distributions of the Partnership attributable to KRL during the respective periods on the Class A, entitled Class B, and Class D Partnership units (“Exchangeable units”) and Class C Partnership units held by KRL. The Exchangeable units are exchangeable into Fund units on a one-for-one basis. These distributions are presented as interest expense in the financial statements.
    (6)   Fair value gain (loss) is the non-cash decrease or increase in the market value of the Exchangeable units held by KRL during the respective period. Exchangeable units are classified as a financial liability under IFRS. The Fund is required to determine the fair value of that liability at the end of each reporting period and adjust for any increase or decrease, taking into consideration the sale of any Exchangeable units and Additional Entitlements during the same period.
    (7)   Income taxes include the SIFT tax expense, and either a non-cash deferred tax expense or deferred tax recovery. The deferred tax expense or recovery primarily results from differences in income recognition between the Fund’s accounting methods and enacted tax laws. It is also partially due to temporary differences between accounting and tax bases of the Keg Rights owned by the Partnership.
    (8)   Distributions to Fund unitholders include all regular monthly cash distributions paid to Fund unitholders during a period and any special distributions, either declared or paid, to Fund unitholders in the same period.
    (9)   All per unit amounts are calculated based on the weighted average number of Fund units outstanding, which are those units held by public unitholders during the respective period. The weighted average number of Fund units outstanding for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2024 were 11,353,500 (three and twelve months ended December 31, 2023 – 11,353,500).
         

    The Fund (TSX: KEG.UN) is a limited purpose, open-ended trust established under the laws of the Province of Ontario that, through The Keg Rights Limited Partnership, owns certain trademarks and other related intellectual property used by Keg Restaurants Ltd. (“KRL”). In exchange for use of those trademarks, KRL pays the Fund a royalty of 4% of gross sales of Keg restaurants included in the Royalty Pool.

    With approximately 10,000 employees, over 100 restaurants and annual System Sales exceeding $700 million, Vancouver-based KRL is the leading operator and franchisor of steakhouse restaurants in Canada and has a substantial presence in select regional markets in the United States. KRL continues to operate The Keg restaurant system and expand that system through the addition of both corporate and franchised Keg steakhouses. KRL has been named the number one restaurant company to work for in Canada in the latest edition of Forbes “Canada’s Best Employers 2025” survey.

    This press release may contain certain “forward looking” statements reflecting The Keg Royalties Income Fund’s current expectations in the casual dining segment of the restaurant food industry. Investors are cautioned that all forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Keg’s ability to continue to realize historical same store sales growth, changes in market and existing competition, new competitive developments, and potential downturns in economic conditions generally. Additional information on these and other potential factors that could affect the Fund’s financial results are detailed in documents filed from time to time with the provincial securities commissions in Canada.

    This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, which may be made only by means of the prospectus, nor shall there be any sale of the Fund units in any state, province or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any state, province or jurisdiction. The Keg Royalties Income Fund units have not been, and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an application for exemption from the registration requirement under U.S. securities laws.

    The Trustees of the Fund have approved the contents of this press release.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI China: Trump pauses some Canada and Mexico tariffs until April 2

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media Thursday that tariffs on Mexico will be paused until April 2, applying to anything covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

    “After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd,” Trump said in a post on “Truth Social.”

    “I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum,” Trump said, noting that “our relationship has been a very good one.”

    Earlier that day, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC that more one-month tariff exemptions under USMCA are “likely.”

    “It’s likely that it will cover all USMCA compliant goods and services, so that which is part of President Trump’s deal with Canada and Mexico are likely to get an exemption from these tariffs,” Lutnick said.

    Trump’s latest announcement on Mexico tariffs came one day after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the president is granting a one-month exemption to three major automakers from the newly imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

    The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a trade agreement negotiated, signed, and ultimately enacted during Trump’s first term, aimed at replacing the former North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

    On Feb. 1, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25 percent tariff on products imported from Mexico and Canada, with a 10 percent tariff increase on Canadian energy products. On Feb. 3, Trump announced a 30-day delay in implementing the tariffs on both countries and continued negotiations. According to this decision, the relevant tariff measures took effect on March 4.

    Canada has announced retaliatory measures, while Mexico has signaled its intent to implement tariffs and other economic countermeasures. Businesses are increasingly concerned about the rising costs due to these tariffs, which could drive up consumer prices and contribute to an economic slowdown.

    The stock market has shown significant volatility in response to the new tariffs, with investor uncertainty mounting as fears of potential economic repercussions grow.

    The escalating tensions and economic uncertainties might have prompted Trump to reassess his trade policies.

    Trump has yet to make announcement on an overall pause on Canada tariffs. In a post on Truth Social Thursday, he accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of using the tariff problem to further his reelection bid.

    Trudeau, meanwhile, said on Thursday that Canada will continue to be in a trade war with the United States for the foreseeable future.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Fischer Questions Expert Witnesses on Defense Mobilization

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Nebraska Deb Fischer
    Today, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned expert witnesses about the use of the Defense Protection Act (DPA) for defense mobilization. She asked the witnesses about ensuring that the DPA is invoked only for situations that truly relate to national defense.
    During the hearing, Senator Fischer questioned Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MMR Defense Solutions Dr. Christine Michienzi on whether she recommends any statutory changes to better define what qualifies as national defense.
    Additionally, Senator Fischer asked Dr. John McGinn, Executive Director of the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, for his assessment of the Department of Defense’s National Defense Industrial Strategy and any recommendations he would propose for implementation.
    Click the image above to watch a video of Senator Fischer’s questioning
    Click here to download audio
    Click here to download video
    Fischer Questions Expert Witnesses:
    Senator Fischer: I strongly believe the administration should maximize its use of the Defense Production Act. They have the authority to address challenges in our defense industrial base. However, I am concerned by the expanding definition of what qualifies as national defense. For example, in 2022 President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to ramp up domestic production of clean energy technologies. Dr. McGinn, how should the Defense Production Act be used for defense mobilization? Should the DPA investments be focused on areas clearly related to the national defense of this country?
    Dr. McGinn: Thank you very much, Senator Fischer. Yes, the Defense Production Act is an incredibly powerful tool, and it is best used for national security defense purposes. And that’s how it’s been used during the development of the MRAP during the Afghanistan and Iraq War. That’s how it was used during COVID, and that’s how it’s being used to rebuild our defense industrial base in areas such as rare earth processing, castings, and forgings and the like, specialty chemicals. So, that is how it is best used. And the more it is focused on national defense, it is not a political issue, therefore it’s a national security issue.Senator Fischer: Thank you. And how should the Act be used for defense mobilization? Should the investments be focused on areas clearly related to being able to get that done?Dr. Michienzi: Thank you. I just wanted to make sure, it should absolutely be focused on mobilization efforts. But some of the efforts that DPA is funding now, it’s difficult sometimes to realize that those go towards mobilization—so things that Jerry mentioned, such as rare earth processing and critical chemicals.Senator Fischer: Would you look at any statutory changes to be able to make it work and make it identify, truly, what is national defense? Is there anything we need to be looking at here?
    Dr. Michienzi: I think making sure that it is centered on national defense issues and national security is critically important, as Dr. McGinn mentioned, because we don’t want to dilute the efforts of the DPA that are being very successfully used currently and can be used going forward. 
    Senator Fischer: Thank you. Dr. McGinn, in January of 2024, the Department released its first National Defense Industrial Strategy, and later in October, released an implementation plan. What’s your assessment of the strategy?
    Dr. McGinn: Well, I think the strategy did a very good job at kind of bringing together a lot of efforts that have been led across recent administrations. One of the good things about this area is it’s very bipartisan. There’s been a lot of similar themes being addressed across the Obama administration, through the Trump administration first, through Biden and today’s. So, I think that the strategy did a good job at identifying the progress that has been made, but also setting a vector for the future. And I think that there were a number of good things in that report. I particularly like the focus on importance of production as well as the importance of working with allies and partners. The key will be kind of how that’s instantiated in the FY26 budget submission.
    Senator Fischer: Are there any additional areas that you’d recommend the Department would consider that maybe were lacking from the previous strategies?
    Dr. McGinn: I think two things I would recommend. One is mobilization. I mean it’s mentioned briefly in the strategy, but there’s no talking about restarting mobilization planning. I mean there actually are program elements in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, Marines for mobilization, but they’re really all about pre-positioning equipment and the like. There’s no planning function that’s being done today; that all stopped and that needs to be restarted. And then the other area that is on—the strategy talks a lot about it—building exportability in systems. That is building systems so that we can share them with our partners and allies. That requires investment in terms of—because you’re going to have different capability levels—of different missiles going to different partners, depending on how close they are. So that requires investment up front, and that’s a big priority that needs to be invested in, in terms of making exportability a priority in acquisition and also investing in the technology needed to build that capability.Senator Fischer: Thank you.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Duckworth, Democrats Demand Answers from Trump and VA Secretary Collins on Indiscriminate Firing of Veterans and VA Employees, Including Veterans Crisis Line Staff

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth

    March 06, 2025

    [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, combat Veteran and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (SVAC)—led her fellow Democratic colleagues in demanding answers from President Donald Trump and Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins on their indiscriminate purge of Veterans and VA employees, including staff who help operate the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL), under the direction of unelected co-president Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. Veterans make up more than 30 percent of the federal workforce and it is estimated that the Trump Administration has already fired more than 6,000 men and women who have served in uniform. Duckworth and her fellow lawmakers are calling on Trump and Secretary Collins to immediately outline how many Veterans and VA employees have been fired since the start of this Administration and to tell the truth about how the VCL has been impacted by these terminations. For weeks, Duckworth has repeatedly called out Secretary Collins for denying the Trump Administration inflicted any damage on the VCL.

    In their letter, the lawmakers slammed Trump and Secretary Collins for smearing those who help prevent Veteran suicide as supposedly “non-essential” employees: “Claiming that only those who answer the phones at VCL are essential is an insult to the service and commitment to Veterans of the many dedicated employees who ensure that someone is ready to listen and help in a moment of crisis. We are shocked that Secretary Collins, who claimed that one of his top priorities as VA Secretary would be to address Veteran suicide, would participate in such a cynical cover-up for the Trump administration’s error— not only by going along with the lies, but also justifying them.”

    After the VA has refused to be transparent about the layoffs, Duckworth and her colleagues are demanding a list of public answers detailing the specific job categories that were impacted, how many of those fired were Veterans and more. The lawmakers are also asking how many VCL employees were terminated as part of each VA purge last month, the specific jobs they held at VCL, whether they’ve been reinstated at this time and if not, why. The lawmakers are requesting answers these questions by no later than March 12, 2025.

    The lawmakers concluded: “Our Veterans deserve honest and transparent answers. As a reminder, the American public elected President Trump into office to represent their best interests, and the actions of the VA Secretary are a direct reflection of President Trump’s leadership and priorities. Our Veterans’ interests should always come before any selfish agenda, and actions that impact their access to care and benefits should require immense scrutiny prior to implementation. We believe this close review has not been conducted, as evidenced by the VA’s scramble to rehire mission-critical positions such as VCL employees.”

    Along with Duckworth, the letter was co-signed by U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Tina Smith (D-MN) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

    A copy of the full letter is available on the Senator’s website and below:

    Dear President Trump and Secretary Collins:

    We write today to call into question President Trump’s series of egregious Executive Orders and other illegal actions in coordination with unelected co-president Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and with unquestioning execution by Secretary Collins, that have had increasingly detrimental impacts on the Veteran community and continue to create capability gaps that threaten the well-being of Veterans. The indiscriminate purge of Veterans and other federal employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) means slower claims processing, longer wait times for Veterans seeking access to their medical care and the end of important research that benefits Veterans and all Americans. We demand that you take accountability for these actions and share with the American people what exactly the plan is for the future of VA.

    Just last week, the VA announced a second wave of mass terminations, totaling 1,400 employees, claiming in the announcement that these are “non-mission critical” positions and exclude the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) – though we have already learned of at least two cases that prove this claim wrong. We challenge this disregard for the important work of the entire VA ecosystem that provides comprehensive and timely care and benefits to our Veterans, and we have yet to learn about a day-after plan that explains how exactly VA will function with so many sudden and senseless cuts. Claiming that only those who answer the phones at VCL are essential is an insult to the service and commitment to Veterans of the many dedicated employees who ensure that someone is ready to listen and help in a moment of crisis. We are shocked that Secretary Collins, who claimed that one of his top priorities as VA Secretary would be to address Veteran suicide, would participate in such a cynical cover-up for the Trump administration’s error— not only by going along with the lies, but also justifying them.

    Nearly 6,000 Veterans across the federal government have been terminated to date. Among the most patriotic people in our Nation, Veterans make up 30 percent of the federal workforce, which is a true reflection of their exceptional dedication to our country. Yet, their President will not even publicly acknowledge his error of judgment in allowing Elon Musk unfettered access across federal agencies in his quest to dismantle their critical contributions that save lives and deliver essential services. Instead, he quietly rehired certain mission-critical VA positions that never should have been terminated and brushed off the significant impact that this indiscriminate mass firing would have on morale, workflow and ability of the Department to deliver critical services to Veterans in a timely manner.

    We demand that you respond to the following questions no later than March 12, 2025, and that this information be made available to the public, and particularly Veterans, who are owed accountability and transparency from the administration that represents them.

    1. Please provide a list detailing, by job category, how many VA employees were terminated during the February 13, 2025, dismissal of 1,000 VA employees, as well as the February 24, 2025, dismissal of an additional 1,400 VA employees.
      1. How many of these employees are Veterans themselves? Please provide a numeric breakdown by job category and duty station.
      1. How many of these employees are disabled Veterans? Please provide a numeric breakdown by job category and duty station.
      1. How many of these employees were eligible for Veterans’ preference? Please provide a numeric breakdown by job category and duty station.
      1. How many of these employees were on probationary status because they had just been promoted? Please provide a numeric breakdown by job category and duty station.
      1. What is the administration’s plan, if any, to assist these dismissed Veterans with obtaining employment elsewhere? Has the administration considered how these terminations may increase the risk of Veteran homelessness?
      1. How many of these employees were military spouses? Please provide a numeric breakdown by job category and duty station.
    1. How many employees working for the VCL received notice of dismissal on February 13, 2025? Have all dismissed VCL employees been reinstated?
      1. If all dismissed VCL employees have not been reinstated, why not? How many positions remain open, and what are the functions of these positions?
      1. Assuming these dismissals were accidental, what error led to these employees being wrongfully terminated? Has this error been addressed in the evaluation process?
    1. How many employees working for the VCL received notice of dismissal on February 24, 2025? Have all dismissed VCL employees been reinstated?
      1. If all dismissed VCL employees have not been reinstated, why not? How many positions remain open, and what are the functions of these positions?
      1. Assuming these dismissals were accidental, what error led to these employees being wrongfully terminated? Has this error been addressed in the evaluation process?
    1. Do you acknowledge that all employees working for the VCL, including and not limited to phone operators, are critical to its mission to ensure that at-risk Veterans receive the assistance they need?
    1. Can you provide a justification for the numerous public reports that describe terminations of probationary employees despite positive evaluations by their respective management?
    1. What analysis is used, if any, to ensure that disabled Veterans using their Veterans’ Preference are not wrongfully wrapped into the administration’s attack on probationary employees?
    1. Can you please describe, in detail, DOGE’s evaluation process in determining cuts to VA employment? What checks are in place to ensure that these cuts do not continue to harm critical programs that provide care and benefits, including mental health services, to Veterans?
    1. What was the total cost spent by the U.S. government on recruiting and training the VA employees who have since been fired by DOGE?
    1. What is the administration’s plan to swiftly address postponements and cancellations of suicide prevention training sessions, health care appointment cancellations and new clinic opening delays?
      1. Please provide a list of programs and services that have been cancelled or delayed since February 13, 2025.
      1. Please include the number of Veterans or VA employees impacted by these cancelations and delays.
    1. How exactly will the claimed savings as a result of the mass terminations at VA be redirected back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries?
      1. Please provide an itemized list of savings in dollar amounts by account, and for each amount, specify whether these are mandatory or appropriated funds.
      1. Please provide your spend plan for savings that you claim to recoup through these terminations. Which accounts do you intend to redirect these funds to, and which new services would these funds provide?
      1. For each of these proposed changes, specify whether you have the legal authority to reprogram these funds in the way intended. 
    1. Regarding the February 22, 2025, emails sent to all federal employees requiring an explanation of tasks completed the week prior, what exactly will be done with this information?
      1. Did all Veterans Crisis Line employees receive this email?
      1. Did all physicians and nurses employed in VA hospitals receive this email?
      1. Who is reading and analyzing responses to this email?
      1. Are responses being used to determine future layoffs or personnel changes?
    1. What analysis – if any – did the U.S. Office of Personnel Management conduct to examine the impact terminations or resignations resulting from this email would have on critical services across government?

    Our Veterans deserve honest and transparent answers. As a reminder, the American public elected President Trump into office to represent their best interests, and the actions of the VA Secretary are a direct reflection of President Trump’s leadership and priorities. Our Veterans’ interests should always come before any selfish agenda, and actions that impact their access to care and benefits should require immense scrutiny prior to implementation. We believe this close review has not been conducted, as evidenced by the VA’s scramble to rehire mission-critical positions such as VCL employees.

    We stand ready and willing to reach across the aisle for the best interests of our Veterans – a sentiment that Secretary Collins will recall from his hearing before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Support to our Veterans has historically been a bipartisan issue, and we do not want this long-standing tradition to fall because of a President and his VA Secretary turning their backs on our Veterans due to the influence of an unelected co-president who yields illegal privilege to invoke Executive authorities. He fools no one with his efforts to line the pockets of the wealthy, and we will not stand by while there is an active attack against our Nation’s Veterans.

    President Trump, Secretary Collins – we urge you to uphold with integrity your commitment to our Nation’s Veterans.

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: March 6th, 2025 N.M. Delegation Oppose Plans to Use Kirtland & Fort Bliss for Immigration-Related Operations

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Mexico Martin Heinrich
    VIDEO
    Heinrich heard from fired public lands employees and a New Mexico small business owner about the impacts of Trump and Musk’s mass firings
    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, along with U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Interior Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, and U.S. Senator Angus Kaine (I-Maine), Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee, hosted a virtual roundtable with public lands employees fired President Trump and Elon Musk.
    The senators heard from professionals from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service, as well as small business owner, Nick Streit, who owns the Taos Fly Shop near the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico.
    VIDEO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich Hosts Virtual Roundtable with Fired Public Lands Employees, March 5, 2025.
    “President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE illegal firings have targeted our Park Rangers, Refuge Managers, Forest Rangers, and BLM land managers,” said Heinrich. “This included many employees who were ‘red carded,’ meaning that they were trained for wildland firefighting. Not only have these DOGE firings made Western communities much less safe going into fire season. Staffing shortages in our public lands will also lead to reduced recreation opportunities and public access. This is a disaster for our local economies as we head into Spring Break, normally a peak season for visitation.”
    Heinrich continued, “We also need to be clear-eyed that this is just the start. Trump, Musk, and Republicans are defunding management of our public lands to make Americans think that they are being poorly managed. This is all part of their scheme to transfer our public lands to states so they can sell them to the highest bidder. I won’t stand for it.
    Heinrich is leading Senate Democrats in sounding the alarm on Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s destructive actions that are wreaking havoc on Americans, weakening our economy, and threatening the livelihoods of New Mexicans.
    Last month, Heinrich demanded that President Trump immediately halt his unlawful mass firings of federal employees on probationary status.
    In New Mexico, there are approximately 2,200 federal employees in their probationary period – including individuals who serve in critical roles across key agencies, including the Veterans Health Administration, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among others.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin, Shaheen Host Lithuanian Minister Of Defense To Discuss Increased Russian Aggression Toward The Baltic Region

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
    March 06, 2025
    The meeting comes after President Trump’s shameful outburst toward Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last Friday
    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Co-Chair of the Senate Baltic Freedom Caucus, and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with Lithuanian Minister of Defense, Dovile Šakaliene, to discuss an increase in Russian hybrid attacks in the Baltics and across Europe, and the need to maintain allied support forUkraine and NATO. The meeting comes after President Trump’s shameful outburst toward Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last Friday.
    “My mother’s family originally came from Lithuania—a country that knows Russian tyranny too well,” said Durbin. “As I said to Minister Šakaliene, I was saddened, shocked, and stunned at what happened in the Oval Office last week with President Zelenskyy. During today’s meeting, we agreed that now, more than ever, the U.S. must reaffirm our support for our NATO partners in upholding democratic values and transatlantic security,”
    “Lithuania is a vital NATO Ally that has demonstrated leadership in support of Ukraine and countering the Russian threat,” said Shaheen. “During our meeting, I reiterated the bipartisan Senate commitment to the NATO Alliance, including our positioning of U.S. forces on the eastern flank.”
    Photos of the meeting are available here.
    As Co-Chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, Durbin has been a vocal supporter of President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine. Last night, Durbin, asked for unanimous consent (UC) to pass a simple resolution he introduced condemning Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children and called on Russia to work with the international community to return all abducted Ukrainian children to their families. Senate Republicans rejected the resolution.
    Last week, Durbin introduced the Protecting our Guests During Hostilities in Ukraine Act, legislation that would provide temporary guest status to Ukrainians and their immediate family members who are already in the United States through the “Uniting for Ukraine” parole process. Bill text can be found here.  
    Durbin also joined Shaheen in leading a simple resolution last week that expresses continued solidarity with the people of Ukraine and condolences for the loss of thousands of lives to Russian aggression; rejects Russia’s attempts to militarily seize sovereign Ukrainian territory; reaffirms U.S. support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine; and states unequivocally that Ukraine must be at the table for negotiations on its future.
      
    Durbin has also championed the creation of the Baltic Security Initiative (BSI), which enhances and strengthens U.S. security cooperation with the Baltics amid Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine and heightened tensions with China. In Fiscal Year 2024, Durbin secured $228 million in defense appropriations funding for the BSI.  
    In 2022, Durbin traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania, where he received the Aleksandras Stulginskis Star Award—only the second individual and first American to receive this award. It was granted to Durbin forhis decades-long support of Lithuanian independence and democracy and his promotion of parliamentary values. He was in Vilnius three years ago on the morning Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 
    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Marshall and Kaine Introduce Legislation to Protect Patients from High Drug Costs

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall
    Washington – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas) and U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) led their colleagues in introducing the Help Ensure Lower Patient (HELP) Copays Act. This legislationeliminates pricing schemes, protecting patients from insurance and pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices that raise out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs.
    “Patient assistance programs help Americans pay for specialty medications that treat chronic and rare conditions,” said Senator Marshall. “Applying patient assistance toward deductibles and out-of-pocket costs has always been the law of the land. I urge my colleagues to pass the bipartisan, bicameral HELP Copays Act and cement this victory.”
    “Copay assistance programs are often the one thing standing between patients being able to afford their medication and having to go without it,” said Senator Kaine. “Insurance companies and PBMs shouldn’t be able to extract additional profit by penalizing patients for using copay assistance programs. Virginia is one of a growing number of states that have already banned this practice – the HELP Copays Act would expand that progress to the whole country and lower drug costs for patients.”
    Many Americans with chronic illnesses face high out-of-pocket costs associated with their health insurance in the form of high deductibles and cost-sharing. Copay assistance, or financial assistance from nonprofit organizations or drug manufacturers, can lower the out-of-pocket cost of specialty medications and help patients afford the life-saving drugs they require. However, when insurers and PBMs collect this assistance, they are not required to credit that assistance towards the patient’s annual deductible or out-of-pocket maximum. When the copay assistance runs out, patients are still required to cover their full deductible or out-of-pocket maximum – allowing insurers and PBMs to double-dip on profits while leaving patients unable to afford their medication. The HELP Copays Act requires insurers and PBMs to count all payments they receive on a patient’s behalf toward their annual deductibles and out-of-pocket limit, ensuring that patients have access to their medication.
    This legislation is cosponsored by Senators Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon). 
    Specifically, the HELP Copays Act would:
    Clarify the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) definition of cost sharing to ensure payments made “by or on behalf of” patients count towards their deductible and/or out-of-pocket maximum, prohibiting “copay accumulator adjustor programs.”
    Clarify that the ACA’s annual out-of-pocket limit applies to all prescription drugs covered in a health plan, since all covered drugs would be defined as “essential,” prohibiting “copay maximizer programs.”
    Read the bill HERE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI: Senator Marshall Delivers Opening Statement as Chairman of Conservation, Forestry, Natural Resources, and Biotechnology Subcommittee

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall
    Washington – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), Chairman of the Conservation, Forestry, Natural Resources, and Biotechnology Subcommittee, today delivered opening remarks for the hearing regarding the Fix Our Forests Act.
    This legislation is especially important in the wake of several catastrophic fires in Southern California and the Hawaiian island of Maui. Senator Marshall also highlighted the importance of grassland management and the need to address wildfires in Kansas. The Fix Our Forests Act will provide common-sense deregulation that streamlines fire prevention – both reactively and proactively.
    Agriculture Committee Hearings to examine options to reduce catastrophic wildfire, including H.R.471, to expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and improve forest management activities on National Forest System lands, on public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, and on Tribal lands to return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested lands, in Washington, DC on March 6, 2025. (Official U.S. Senate photo by Renee Bouchard)
    Click here or on the image above to watch the opening statement, or read Senator Marshall’s full remarks below:
    “Good morning and welcome everybody.
    “It is my privilege to call this hearing to order. I would like to thank our witnesses for taking time out of your busy schedules to come share your expertise and perspectives on the Fix Our Forests Act (H.R. 471), which the House passed – for the second time – by an overwhelming vote of 279-141 in January 2025. Just a month or so ago.
    “We know wildfires are indifferent to federal, state, tribal, and private property jurisdictions, and we have all seen the destruction catastrophic wildfire can cause on our rural and urban communities. 
    “Just this week we are witnessing fires threatening lives and property in the Carolinas, and unfortunately, recent history is replete with incidents illustrating the devastating impacts fires have on our communities from the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California to the 2023 Lahaina fires in Maui, Hawaii, to the 2025 Southern California fires as well.
    “In order to treat an issue, first we must identify the symptoms, diagnose the root cause of the problem, and implement scientifically sound treatments. The loss of human life and property from these fires is an acute and painful symptom of a system that is not working. The causes come from misguided policies one could argue goes all the way back to the Forest Service’s 1930’s so-called “10 AM Policy,” which required all fires to be extinguished by 10 AM the day after they were discovered. 
    “These causes have been compounded by the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to treat the right acres at the right time at the right scale over numerous administrations. Treating this problem comes in the form of an all-of-the-above approach to modernizing the federal technological toolbox for assessing and identifying wildfire risk, facilitating early response and suppression, and updating the public-private partnership model for federal, state, tribal, county, and private landowners to address fire risk rather than jurisdictional or political subdivision boundaries.
    “Every fire is unique – my dad was chief of a fire department for years before becoming Chief of Police, and indeed, he would tell me that every fire was very unique. But the most catastrophic fires all have similarities. Proper management of our nation’s forest lands can help prevent a small spark from turning into a raging fire with devastating consequences.
    “My own state of Kansas is not immune to wildfire. In 2021, strong winds and dry air combined to create ideal conditions for wildfires in the grasslands of Western and Central Kansas in the Four Counties Fire. That fire was clocked at over 180 miles per hour on the wind turbines as it sailed through those prairies.
    “Not all management methods for the grasslands of Kansas mirror what the science tells us should be conducted on forested acres, but the important role of proper management on our landscapes rings true for both.
    “The Fix our Forests Act (FOFA) is a rare bipartisan opportunity for Congress to provide the United States Forest Service, the Department of the Interior, states, tribes, counties, and private partners with a modernized and streamlined toolbox to fight fire. 
    Regardless of our respective views on the appropriate use of federal lands and resources, we all need to help mitigate the frequency and intensity of catastrophic wildfires while ensuring the scientifically sound and sustainable stewardship of our federal lands.
    “The Fix our Forest Act provides agencies with critically needed and appropriately calibrated increases in the acreage limitations for Categorial Exclusions available to forest managers and increases which agency analysis has shown will help provide the flexibility to better address forest management.
    “To be clear, Categorical Exclusions are not a free pass for an agency to go in and clear-cut forests as some are lead to believe. They are one way for federal agencies to comply with NEPA based upon extensive uses of prior Environmental Assessments that show no significant effect and are still subject to scoping before moving forward.
    “FOFA instructs the federal government to identify at the fireshed scale, the top 20 percent of firesheds that are at risk of fire exposure over the next five years in order to better focus limited resources. FOFA permanently fixes, in statute, the disastrous Ninth Circuit’s “Cottonwood” decision, which the Obama administration petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn, has led to delays in management projects through unnecessary and duplicative scoping in an attempt to avoid frivolous litigation. 
    “FOFA also adopts litigation reforms used by past Republican and Democratic administrations in statute to limit litigation delays to essential projects, and FOFA strengthens Good Neighbor Authority, a critical and overwhelmingly successful program that has allowed local and state partners the ability to supplement the work the Forest Service is not able to do on their lands.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senators Marshall and Moran Introduce Legislation to Lower Interest Rates for Farmers and Rural Communities

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall
    Washington – U.S. Senators Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas) and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) today introduced the Access to Credit for our Rural Economy (ACRE) Act. This legislation allows community banks to administer agricultural real estate loans by granting them tax exempt status on earned interest. The ACRE Act would benefit American families, farmers, and rural communities nationwide by making loans more accessible and affordable to rural and agricultural borrowers.
    Joining Senators Marshall and Moran are Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama). 
    “The ACRE Act will help community banks address one of the most significant challenges for rural communities — high interest rates,” said Senator Marshall. “High rates raise the cost of doing business for family farms, make it harder for small businesses to grow, and leave home ownership unattainable for many. The ACRE Act is common sense legislation to reverse these trends.” 
    “Persistent inflation and high interest rates are putting a strain on farmers and rural homeowners in Kansas and across the country,” said Senator Moran. “Rural Americans should have the flexibility to access the capital needed to expand their family farms and achieve the dream of homeownership. This legislation will help to boost rural housing and support the agricultural economy that plays a vital role in small towns across America.”“Rural communities across America are facing a serious affordable housing crisis. It has simply gotten way too hard to find reasonably priced homes in our small towns,” said Senator King. “The ACRE Act is a commonsense way to make home and farm ownership possible for more families by providing better access to low interest loans.”“Owning a home or family farm is a cornerstone of the America dream, and I’m proud to co-lead the ACRE Act to make loans more affordable for rural communities,” said Senator Gallego. “The American dream should be within reach for all Arizonans, including those living in rural parts of our state.” 
    “Farmers and ranchers need large swaths of land to grow crops and raise livestock to feed and fuel the world,” said Senator Cramer. “The ACRE act is a simple, straightforward solution to promote competition among lenders by lowering interest rates for farmland purchases.”
    Specifically, the ACRE Act would:
    Amend the Internal Revenue Code to exclude interest received on certain loans secured by rural or agricultural real property from gross income.
    Allow farm real estate borrowers and rural homeowners access to lower interest rates by expanding the same tax-exempt status on certain earned interest that applies to other lenders.
    Apply to agricultural real estate and single-family home mortgage loans in rural communities with fewer than 2,500 residents and for mortgages less than $750,000.
    Expand access to affordable agricultural and home loans to over 4,000 rural communities nationwide and save family farmers and producers well over $400 million in annual interest expenses.
    “ABA applauds today’s bipartisan, bicameral introduction of the Access to Credit for our Rural Economy Act of 2025, and we thank the bill’s lead sponsors Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Angus King (I-ME), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Representatives Randy Feenstra (R-IA-04), Don Davis (D-NC-01) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX-01) for their leadership on this issue,” said Rob Nichols, President and CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA). “The ACRE Act will deliver much-needed financial support to farmers and ranchers working through a difficult economic cycle by lowering the cost of credit without creating new government payments or programs. It would also drive down the cost of homeownership and increase access to credit in more than 17,000 rural communities across the country. We urge all members of Congress to support this critically important legislation.”“This important legislation will help community bank lenders revive and sustain rural economies struggling to overcome the impact of higher interest rates,” said Rebeca Romero Rainey, President and CEO, Independent Community Bankers of America. “ICBA and the nation’s community banks thank Congressman Feenstra (R-IA) and Davis (D-NC) for providing a reasonable solution that benefits rural Americans, especially young, beginning, and small farmers and ranchers, who will make up the next generation of producers.” 
    To read the full bill text, click here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Budd Hosts Bipartisan Meeting with Keith Siegel and Recently Released Hostages

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Ted Budd (R-North Carolina)
    Washington, D.C. — A day after President Donald Trump met with eight hostages released from Gaza, U.S. Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) met privately in his office with North Carolina native Keith Siegel and his wife, Aviva. Following their private meeting, Senator Budd hosted a bipartisan group of Senators who met with recently released hostages and family members who are still awaiting the return of their loved ones.
    Joining Budd for the bipartisan meeting were Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Jackie Rosen (D-NV).
    Former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel, Iair Horn, Doron Steinbrecher, and Naama Levy as well as Moshe Lavi, the brother-in-law of Omri Miran, who is still being held in Gaza, told their stories and advocated for the release of the remaining 59 hostages.
    In a statement, Senator Budd said:
    “We rejoice in Keith’s return, but we also weep for what he and his fellow hostages endured and for what the 59 remaining hostages and their families are still enduring. For 484 days, Keith’s family, particularly his wife Aviva, his children, siblings, family and friends, worked tirelessly to secure his release.
    “Our work is not over. We must continue pressuring Hamas to release the remaining hostages in Gaza, especially the five Americans. I will continue working alongside my colleagues on a bipartisan basis, with President Trump, and with world leaders until all of the hostages are home and Hamas is destroyed.”
    Click here to download full resolution photos
    Senator Budd has been working for the release of American hostages since October 2023:
    On October 25, 2023, Senator Budd first spoke about the hostage situation in Gaza on the Senate floor, where he announced his intention “to hold all humanitarian aid to Gaza until each and every American hostage is home and is safe.”
    On November 6, 2023, Senator Budd met with Qatari Ambassador Meshal Al Thani in Senator Budd’s Washington, D.C. office. In that meeting, he strongly urged the Qatari government to use their leverage on Hamas leaders currently residing in Doha to immediately release all hostages, and hold those same Hamas leaders accountable once the hostage situation is fully resolved.
    On November 26, 2023, Senator Budd reacted to the release of Keith Siegel’s wife, Aviva, saying, “While we are encouraged by the government of Qatar’s efforts to mediate the release of some of the hostages, we renew our call to their government to exert pressure on Hamas leadership to release each and every hostage immediately and unconditionally.”
    On November 28, 2023, Senator Budd spoke on the Senate floor and called out Qatar for its continued hosting of Hamas terrorist leaders, saying, “We need to tell our friends in Doha loudly and clearly: Qatar is accepting a significant liability with its pro-Hamas policy.”
    On December 13, 2023, Senator Budd sent a holiday message of support to the hostages and their families in a speech on the Senate floor, saying, “I want every one of these family members to know that our country is behind them, we support them, and we are praying for them.”
    On January 10, 2024, Senator Budd returned from a congressional delegation (CODEL) to the Middle East, which included stops in Israel, Egypt, Qatar, and Bahrain. The focus of the delegation’s meetings across the region was on securing the release of hostages.
    On the trip, Senator Budd and his colleagues toured one of the communities devastated by the October 7th massacre by Hamas terrorists. He personally spoke with former hostage Aviva Siegel, and met with top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea.
    Senator Budd then met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the Prime Minister of Qatar, to whom Senator Budd sent a strong message that Qatar must do more to secure the immediate and safe release of all of the hostages.
    On January 15, 2024, Senators Budd and Joni Ernst (R-IA) published an op-ed marking the 100th day of captivity for the hostages, writing, “As long as Americans remain captive to these barbaric thugs, the latter is the victor. Allowing Americans to suffer under the yoke of terrorists is a win for evil around the world and a boon for Iran’s proxies.”
    On January 25, 2024, Senator Budd spoke on the Senate floor and delivered a sharp message to the government of Qatar: “Our patience has run out. Time is up. Either pressure Hamas leaders to release the hostages now, or expel them from your land. It’s that simple. The United States of America will be watching.”
    On March 7, 2024, Senators Budd and Tillis invited the family of Keith Siegel to be their guests at the president’s State of the Union Address. Keith’s sister Lucy and niece Hanna have accepted the Senators’ invitation.
    On March 15, 2024, Senator Budd joined a joint statement from Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jim Risch (R-ID), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as five other Senators stating, “If Hamas refuses reasonable negotiations, there is no reason for Qatar to continue hosting Hamas’ political office or any of its members in Doha.”
    On March 26, 2024, Senator Budd and Senator Ernst issued a joint statement calling on the State of Qatar to immediately expel all members of Hamas’ political office currently residing in Doha.
    On April 9, 2024, Senator Budd introduced the ‘Reviewing Qatar’s Major Non- NATO Ally Status Act’, which would require the Secretary of State to formally certify that Qatar has expelled or agreed to extradite to the United States any individuals bearing responsibility for the terror attack on October 7, 2023. If the Secretary of State cannot make this certification in good faith, then the President is required to immediately terminate the designation of the State of Qatar as a major non-NATO ally.
    On April 10, 2024, Senator Budd attempted to invoke unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass the ‘Reviewing Qatar’s Major Non- NATO Ally Status Act’, but was blocked. He said, “The time for talking is over, and the time for action is now. If we don’t see action, then Qatar must face consequences. At the end of the day, this bill represents another step towards securing the freedom of our fellow Americans.”
    On May 7, 2024, Senators Budd and Ernst returned from a congressional delegation (CODEL) to the Middle East, which included stops in Israel, Iraq, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
    On the trip, Senators Budd and Ernst received first-hand updates on the state of the hostage negotiations from top U.S. and Israeli officials including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They also hosted the families of American hostages, including the family of North Carolina native, Keith Siegel.
    On July 31, 2024, Senator Budd released a statement after Hamas’s political leader was killed, saying that it “sends a clear and resounding message to terrorists that those who kill and kidnap Americans will ultimately face justice.”
    On September 1, 2024, Senator Budd released a statement condemning the Hamas murder of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin along with five other Israeli hostages, saying, “This is yet another act of cold-blooded barbarism from Hamas terrorists. It must not be excused or downplayed. The U.S. government must leave no stone unturned until all those responsible for Hersh’s kidnapping and murder are brought to justice, and until we bring every American hostage home.”
    On October 7, 2024, Senator Budd disclosed that the Biden administration had ignored a bipartisan request from Senator Budd and 11 other Senators to authorize a reward of up to $25 million for information that brings Hamas leaders to justice.
    On October 17, 2024, Senator Budd released a statement after Israeli Defense Forces killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attacks, saying, “[Sinwar] was a terrorist leader who had American blood on his hands. To the remaining Hamas leaders: release the hostages, renounce terrorism, and recognize Israel’s right to exist. There is no future for Hamas or its ideology.”
    On November 8, 2024, Senator Budd joined a letter to the Department of Justice and Department of State requesting an immediate freeze on the assets of Hamas officials living in Qatar, the extradition of several senior Hamas officials currently residing in Qatar, and that Qatar end its hospitality of Hamas’ senior leadership.
    On November 8, 2024, Senator Budd released a statement after the State of Qatar decided to expel the remaining Hamas terrorist leadership from Doha, calling the move, “welcome, but long overdue.”
    On November 22, 2024, Senator Budd, along with Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker and Senator Joni Ernst, released a statement calling on Turkey to extradite the Hamas terrorist leaders who fled there after being expelled from Qatar.
    On December 2, 2024, Senator Budd released a statement after the Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that U.S.-Israeli citizen Omer Neutra was killed by Hamas terrorists during the October 7, 2023 attacks. His body remains in Gaza, saying in-part, “this news is further proof of the true evil of Hamas terrorists. The U.S. government must not relent until all those responsible for Omer’s murder are brought to justice, and until we bring every American hostage home.”
    On February 1, 2025, Senator Budd issued a statement following the release of North Carolina Native Keith Siegel from Gaza.

    MIL OSI USA News –