NewzIntel.com

Category: Science

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Dialogue and partnership across religious and belief communities vital to strengthen human rights and security

    Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE

    Headline: Dialogue and partnership across religious and belief communities vital to strengthen human rights and security

    Susan Kerr, ODIHR Senior Advisor on Freedom of Religion or Belief and John Kinahan from Forum 18, speaking at the ODIHR’s launch of the Belief, Dialogue and Security Guide (OSCE/Piotr Dziubak) Photo details

    Dialogue and partnership across religious or belief communities play an invaluable role in strengthening human rights and security, participants agreed at the launch of a new guide entitled Belief, Dialogue and Security by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) during the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference this week.
    “Dialogue is essential to respond to the ever-changing challenges to human rights and democracy and finding ways to work together peacefully,” said Susan Kerr, ODIHR’s Senior Adviser on Freedom of Religion or Belief. “Our thanks go to the many people from across the OSCE area who helped make the guide’s recommendations relevant to all OSCE states.”
    Interfaith and interreligious dialogue can help to combat fear, prejudice and hatred by promoting mutual understanding. Participants noted that meaningful dialogue is only possible when based on freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and underscored the need for governments to demonstrate real commitment to protecting this right for all. They concluded that states must be even-handed in engaging with religious and belief communities, and work hard to build trust if they are to fully realise the potential of dialogue and joint action.
    “Full respect for human rights, equality and the autonomy of religious and belief communities should be central to every dialogue. It is the obligation of every stakeholder involved, but primarily of the state, to respect fundamental human rights. The success of the Council of Religions, which has been functioning under the Ombudsperson’s umbrella in Georgia for almost two decades, is an excellent example of this. The equality of every member has been the key to its success and can inspire other interfaith and inter-religious dialogue initiatives,” said Mariam Gavtadze from Georgia’s Tolerance and Diversity Institute.
    The new guide was made possible by the knowledge and experience of ODIHR’s panel of experts on freedom of religion or belief. The launch brought together state representatives, civil society, and members of religious and belief communities to discuss dialogue and joint action partnerships in the OSCE area. The discussions illustrated the benefits of the guide’s practical recommendations, which are designed to assist OSCE states in implementing their commitments to interfaith dialogue and freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: U.S. releases National Spectrum Research and Development Plan to guide spectrum innovation

    Source: US Government research organizations

    The U.S. government has released the National Spectrum Research and Development Plan, a crucial step forward in maintaining America’s global leadership in wireless spectrum innovation. The Wireless Spectrum Research and Development Interagency Working Group of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program developed the plan on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

    The U.S. National Science Foundation was pivotal in creating the National Spectrum R&D Plan, co-chairing the working group with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and contributing expertise and guidance on key research areas.

    NSF’s involvement underscores its leadership in fostering interdisciplinary research, including critical innovations in agile antennas, spectrum sharing and interference resilience. The plan authoring team also included members from various U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Federal Communications Commission and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

    The National Spectrum R&D Plan aligns with President Joe Biden’s memorandum on Modernizing United States Spectrum Policy, which called for a coordinated national strategy to address the increasing demand for spectrum access, further cementing spectrum’s role in driving U.S. economic growth, national security and technological advancement. It also responds to the National Spectrum Strategy, which emphasizes the need for innovation in spectrum management and sharing technologies.

    The innovation areas and organizational improvements detailed in the National Spectrum R&D Plan will offer research opportunities across multiple disciplines, from communications and networking to economics and policy. The cross-disciplinary nature of spectrum R&D will also pave the way for new commercialization pathways, offering industry leaders a blueprint to develop next-generation wireless technologies. Furthermore, the work described in the plan will improve data-driven decision-making and international cooperation to enhance U.S. competitiveness in the global spectrum landscape.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Go With the (Atmospheric) Flow: A Former NREL Wind Energy Intern Comes Full Circle

    Source: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

    Kelly Huang, a Kalsi assistant professor at the University of Houston, reflects on her transformative journey from NREL wind energy intern at NREL to educator, inspiring the next generation of engineers with real-world research opportunities. Photo from Kelly Huang

    Kelly Huang was on the fence as she wrapped up her junior year as a mechanical engineering major at Cornell University. Senior year was fast approaching, and then graduation, and then the rest of her life. Should she seek a career in industry or academia? Should she pursue a master’s degree? A Ph.D.?

    Luckily, Huang had landed an internship with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) Program. For 10 weeks that summer, Huang supported NREL’s research on offshore wind energy, collaborating with leading researchers and gaining experience that shaped her future career.

    “I fell in love with atmospheric flows, fluid dynamics, and the hands-on aspects of fieldwork: going out, collecting data, and using instrumentation that we built ourselves,” Huang recalled. “Those 10 weeks showed me what research could really be like.”

    During her internship, Huang developed code for optimizing the dimensions of floating offshore wind turbine spar structures, which are long, vertical, floating components that extend deep into the water and allow the turbine to float without being anchored to the seabed. The team’s end goal was to integrate this code into NREL’s Wind Plant Integrated System Design and Engineering Model (WISDEM), which helps analyze how different parts of a wind energy system work together in order to find ways to improve performance and lower costs.

    “The coding part was helpful for gaining basic engineering skills,” Huang said. “But more importantly, the whole experience showed me that there’s a whole community of scientists working on similar problems. It gave me the courage to pursue a Ph.D., which had seemed like a very daunting task up to that point.”

    A Journey of Growth and Giving Back

    During their internship, Huang and fellow interns Caelan Lapointe (middle) and Julian Quick (right) conducted wind energy field research at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center. Photo from Kelly Huang

    Ten weeks passed, the internship concluded, and Huang completed her senior year, graduating with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. During her senior year, she applied and was accepted to Princeton University, where she earned a master of arts and a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Today, Huang is a Kalsi assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. Huang recently returned to NREL to participate in the Faculty-Applied Clean Energy Sciences (FACES) program—another 10-week program that gave her the opportunity to collaborate with researchers and enhance her research skills.

    The FACES program aims to bridge the gap between national laboratories and faculty at minority-serving institutions. Participants work with NREL researchers to enhance their expertise in clean energy science, develop scalable educational modules, and receive mentorship. Huang used field data from NREL’s AWAKEN campaign to build a curriculum for a class she is launching called “Introduction to Environmental Fluid Dynamics.”

    “Students will use open-source data, like the data from the AWAKEN campaign, for independent projects on environmental fluid mechanics,” Huang said. “This will expose students to real-world research so that they can gain experience with data analysis and scientific inquiry.”

    For Huang, participating in the FACES program brought her full circle in several ways.

    “I grew up in Houston and really appreciated the diverse, multicultural community there,” Huang said. “That was one reason why I accepted my position at the University of Houston. It inspired me to give back to that community. I was happy to see NREL also recognize the importance of supporting diverse communities through education and research communities.”

    Huang also reconnected with NREL researcher Senu Sirnivas, her supervisor from her SULI internship.

    “He told me that my code had been integrated into the WISDEM tool and that researchers still use it, which was really cool to learn,” Huang said. “He was already supportive during the internship, and this time, he was excited to catch up and went out of his way to advise me on navigating my role as a professor and the challenges that come with it.”

    Upon visiting the NREL campus again, Huang was pleased to see how the wind energy internship cohort has grown over the years.

    “When I started, there were only eight of us at the wind site,” Huang recalled. “Now, there are so many interns, they have to do separate cohorts because onboarding is taking so long. Which is a great problem to have—it means the program is thriving.”

    Huang’s internship also fostered lasting connections among its participants.

    “I still keep in contact with my internship cohort,” Huang said. “One of them is an assistant professor of mathematics at University of Seattle, one of them is a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, and a few work in the clean energy industry.”

    Huang plans to encourage her colleagues in academia to apply for the FACES program and also to get her students involved with NREL through SULI and other internship programs.

    “Working with NREL as a SULI intern and later as a FACES partner were such valuable experiences,” Huang said. “They both changed the course of my career.”

    Visit NREL’s internships page to learn more about the wide variety of programs available to undergraduate and graduate students. Check out the FACES program page to learn how you can enhance your research skills with expertise in clean energy science.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: First wave of COVID-19 increased risk of heart attack, stroke up to three years later

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 2

    News Release

    Thursday, October 10, 2024

    NIH-funded study focused on original virus strain, unvaccinated participants during pandemic.

    Infection from COVID-19 appeared to significantly increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death for up to three years among unvaccinated people early in the pandemic when the original SARS-CoV-2 virus strain emerged, according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported study. The findings, among people with or without heart disease, confirm previous research showing an associated higher risk of cardiovascular events after a COVID-19 infection but are the first to suggest the heightened risk might last up to three years following initial infection, at least among people infected in the first wave of the pandemic.

    Compared to people with no COVID-19 history, the study found those who developed COVID-19 early in the pandemic had double the risk for cardiovascular events, while those with severe cases had nearly four times the risk. The findings were published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.

    “This study sheds new light on the potential long-term cardiovascular effects of COVID-19, a still-looming public health threat,” said David Goff, M.D., Ph.D., director for the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which largely funded the study. “These results, especially if confirmed by longer term follow-up, support efforts to identify effective heart disease prevention strategies for patients who’ve had severe COVID-19. But more studies are needed to demonstrate effectiveness.”

    The study is also the first to show that increased risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with severe COVID-19 may have a genetic component involving blood type. Researchers found that hospitalization for COVID-19 more than doubled the risk of heart attack or stroke among patients with A, B, or AB blood types, but not in patients with O types, which seemed to be associated with a lower risk of severe COVID-19.

    Scientists studied data from 10,000 people enrolled in the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database of European patients. Patients were ages 40 to 69 at the time of enrollment and included 8,000 who had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and 2,000 who were hospitalized with severe COVID-19 between Feb. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020. None of the patients had been vaccinated, as vaccines were not available during that period.

    The researchers compared the two COVID-19 subgroups to a group of nearly 218,000 people who did not have the condition. They then tracked the patients from the time of their COVID-19 diagnosis until the development of either heart attack, stroke, or death, up to nearly three years.

    Accounting for patients who had pre-existing heart disease – about 11% in both groups – the researchers found that the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death was twice as high among all the COVID-19 patients and four times as high among those who had severe cases that required hospitalization, compared to those who had never been infected. The data further show that, within each of the three follow-up years, the risk of having a major cardiovascular event was still significantly elevated compared to the controls – in some cases, the researchers said, almost as high or even higher than having a known cardiovascular risk factor, such as Type 2 diabetes.

    “Given that more than 1 billion people worldwide have already experienced COVID-19 infection, the implications for global heart health are significant,” said study leader Hooman Allayee, Ph.D., a professor of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. “The question now is whether or not severe COVID-19 should be considered another risk factor for cardiovascular disease, much like type 2 diabetes or peripheral artery disease, where treatment focused on cardiovascular disease prevention may be valuable.”

    Allayee notes that the findings apply mainly to people who were infected early in the pandemic. It is unclear whether the risk of cardiovascular disease is persistent or may be persistent for people who have had severe COVID-19 more recently (from 2021 to the present).

    Scientists state that the study was limited due to inclusion of patients from only the UK Biobank, a group that is mostly white. Whether the results will differ in a population with more racial and ethnic diversity is unclear and awaits further study. As the study participants were unvaccinated, future studies will be needed to determine whether vaccines influence cardiovascular risk. Studies on the connection between blood type and COVID-19 infection are also needed as the mechanism for the gene-virus interaction remains unclear.

    This study was supported by NIH grants R01HL148110, R01HL168493, U54HL170326, R01DK132735, P01HL147823, R01HL147883, and P30ES007048.

    About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): NHLBI is the global leader in conducting and supporting research in heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders that advances scientific knowledge, improves public health, and saves lives. For more information, visit http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov.

    About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

    NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Upcoming US Law Webinars – November 2024

    Source: US Global Legal Monitor

    We are excited about what the changing of the season has brought us so far and with that, the Law Library of Congress is offering more educational webinars in November. The Law Library of Congress’s next offerings will be a Lunch and Learn webinar concerning the use of secondary sources, an Orientation to Legal Research webinar on federal legislative history, and an Orientation to Law Library Collections webinar with a special guest from the Alaska State Court Law Library. We hope you can join us.

    Flyer announcing the Lunch and Learn Webinar titled, “Using Secondary Sources in Legal Research.” The webinar will take place on November 5, 2024 at 1:00 PM EST. Created by Taylor Gulatsi.

    A Lunch and Learn Webinar: Using Secondary Sources in Legal Research

    Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2024, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

    Content: This webinar will provide an overview of secondary sources such as legal encyclopedias, treatises, and dictionaries. In addition, the webinar will provide examples to show how these resources are used in practice. The presentation will demonstrate how secondary sources are an important step in the legal research method and how they can guide researchers to primary sources. Many of the materials and content for this webinar have come from the Law Library’s research guide, Legal Research: A Guide to Secondary Resources.

    Instructors: Olivia Kane-Cruz and Linnea Eberhart. Olivia Kane-Cruz is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Olivia holds a B.A. in political science from Humboldt State University (Cal Poly Humboldt), a J.D. and a master of environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington. Linnea holds a B.A. in international studies and criminology from the University of South Florida Judy Genshaft Honors College, a J.D. from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and an M.S.I. from Florida State University. She is currently a Librarian-in-Residence at the Law Library.

    Register here. 

    An Orientation to Legal Research Webinar: Federal Legislative History

    Date: Thursday, November 7, 2024, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

    Content: This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. federal legislative history resources, including information about the methods of identifying and locating them. In tackling this area of research, the focus will largely be on finding these documents online.

    Instructor: Jason Zarin. Jason is a legal reference specialist at the Law Library. Jason has a B.A. in economics from Tufts University, an M.A. in economics from UCLA, a J.D. from the University of Southern California, an LL.M. in taxation from Georgetown University, and a Master of Science in information systems from the University of Texas at Austin.

    Register here.

    An Orientation to Law Library Collections Webinar feat. the Alaska State Court Law Library

    Date: Thursday, November 14, 2024, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST

    Content: This webinar is designed for patrons who are familiar with legal research, and would instead prefer an introduction to the collections and services specific to the Law Library of Congress. Some of the resources attendees will learn about include the Law Library’s research guides, digital collections, and the Guide to Law Online, among others. This Orientation to Law Library Collections webinar will feature a special appearance by Susan Falk, State Law Librarian for the Alaska State Court Law Library as part of our 50 State Outreach Program.

    Instructor: Anna Price. Anna is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library. Anna holds a B.S. in communications from Ithaca College, a J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington iSchool.

    Register here.

    To learn about other upcoming classes on domestic and foreign law topics, visit the Legal Research Institute.

    Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Warren Releases Report Highlighting Senate Record of Plans Passed Into Laws, Fights Won for Massachusetts

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren
    October 10, 2024
    Senator Warren has beaten special interests, fought for workers and consumers, and worked across the aisle to lift up the middle class in Massachusetts and beyond
    Senator Warren has passed 44 bills into law; 60% of passed bills are bipartisan
    Text of Report (PDF)
    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a new report detailing her record of fighting — and winning — for consumers and working families in Massachusetts and across the country. The report, titled “From Plans to Law: Senator Elizabeth Warren’s Record of Accomplishments from 2013 – 2024,” provides a comprehensive overview of Senator Warren’s record of success in the Senate, from taking on special interests, to fighting for workers and consumers, to working across the aisle to lift up the middle class. 
    Senator Warren has passed 44 bills into law by both Democratic and Republican administrations. Over 60% of these bills passed into law were bipartisan. In addition to standalone legislation, Senator Warren secured 110 provisions in the annual National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs) signed into law by Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden. Senator Warren has also secured more than $50 billion in federal investments for Massachusetts, including more than $20 billion during the Biden-Harris Administration.
    Senator Warren has attended hundreds of hearings and served as the chair of three subcommittees: the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee’s Economic Policy subcommittee, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Personnel subcommittee, and the Senate Finance Committee’s Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth subcommittee. She has chaired 28 subcommittee hearings over the last three and a half years — including three held in Massachusetts.
    Senator Warren has also aggressively used the power of congressional oversight to fight for working families, writing thousands of oversight letters to government officials and private sector CEOs, and using the information she obtains to effect change by the private sector and by the executive branch, and to inform her legislative work. She has released over 40 investigative reports exposing issues from broken policies in U.S. trade agreements to the failure of big banks to rein in scams to the failure of the pharmaceutical industry to meet its promises to provide lower-cost insulin for patients.
    Key accomplishments include:
    Senator Warren made corporations pay a fairer share — and used the revenue to combat the climate crisis. Senator Warren introduced legislative proposals to make big corporations pay their fair share, and published a report showing how multi-billion-dollar corporations exploit loopholes to pay pennies on the dollar of what they should owe. Congress enacted Senator Warren’s 15 percent corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT) as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, meaning the CAMT helped pay for the largest climate package in U.S. history. It was the first corporate tax increase in three decades.
    This year, Senator Warren worked across the aisle to guarantee automatic cash refunds for canceled flights. Senator Warren worked with Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) to pass a bipartisan amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act, requiring airlines to guarantee automatic cash refunds for canceled or significantly delayed flights — defeating airline lobbyists’ efforts to block the provision.
    Senator Warren pushed to get rid of junk pharma patents, paving the way for more generics to come to market. In response to Big Pharma’s abuse of the patent system, which keeps generic competitors from entering the market and lowering costs for consumers, Senator Warren pushed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and FDA to strengthen their oversight of pharmaceutical companies and close regulatory loopholes that these companies exploit to limit competition. She also pushed the FTC to crack down on junk patents. The FTC’s subsequent enforcement caused multiple companies to remove junk patents from the FDA’s Orange Book and contributed to the overwhelming public pressure on inhaler manufacturers that led them to slash costs for patients from hundreds of dollars to just $35.
    Read the full report here.
    Senator Warren has used her legislative power to score major wins for working people, including:
    Securing $50 billion in federal investment for Massachusetts through the American Rescue Plan Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Chips and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act.
    Preventing a collapse in child care infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic by rapidly developing a plan to inject $50 billion in emergency funding into the child care system and leading the Child Care is Essential Act.
    Breaking the hearing aid monopoly in partnership with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), lowering costs for people with hearing loss.
    Securing $100 million to fight the opioid crisis and passing her slate of five bipartisan bills, as part of the SUPPORT Act.
    Safeguarding abortion care for military veterans and servicemembers.
    Protecting servicemembers from blast overpressure with a bipartisan bill (co-led with Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)), many elements of which the Department of Defense later incorporated into its updated blast overpressure policies.
    Defending servicemembers’ rights by requiring the Department of Defense to create the first-ever military housing complaint database and investigate sexual assault and harassment of students in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (JROTC).
    Securing investments in scientific research and development, and passed her bipartisan proposal to increase the inclusion of women participants in medical research, which was adopted as part of the 21st Century Cures Act.
    Passing a bipartisan bill (co-led with Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.)) to help workers and retirees keep track of their retirement accounts across jobs.
    Cracking down on wealthy tax cheats by introducing a bill to increase funding for the IRS — a priority which was later included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which appropriated a historic $80 billion increase in IRS funding over ten years.
    Lowering prescription drug costs by championing key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that directly reduced the cost of insulin, limited out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs for seniors, and allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers for the first time.
    Senator Warren’s oversight work has reined in corporate abuse, including:
    Pressuring Wells Fargo CEOs John Stumpf and Tim Sloan, as well as members of the Wells Fargo Board of Directors, to resign after cheating consumers..
    Pressuring Zelle to reimburse defrauded customers and change policies to protect consumers.
    Helping to block powerful mergers that would have raised costs, including Jet Blue / Spirit, Choice Hotels / Wyndham Hotels, Aetna / Humana, and Lockheed Martin / Aerojet.
    Securing relief for victims of Corinthian College and other predatory for-profit schools.
    Holding student loan servicers accountable, leading to Navient exiting the federal student loan system.
    Protecting renters by opening an investigation into RealPage, a software that helped corporate landlords engage in apparent price fixing.
    Prompting the delisting of key sham patents in FDA’s Orange Book, paving the way for more generic competition for critical drugs.
    Helping return $16.1 million of taxpayer money to the Department of Defense from military contractor TransDigm.
    Securing ethics commitments from high-level nominees to avoid conflicts of interest and shut the revolving door.
    Senator Warren has influenced executive actions and policy-making to advance key priorities, including:
    Laying the groundwork for regulators to put money back in Americans’ pockets by curbing overdraft fees and credit card late fees.
    Successfully encouraging the FDA to follow the science and reduce barriers to accessing mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion, including by allowing the medication to be dispensed at certified pharmacies and by mail.
    Helping to ban non-competes, making wages and benefits more competitive for workers.
    Helping establish a program for millions of Americans to file their taxes directly with the IRS, for free.
    Protecting seniors by securing a minimum staffing requirement for nursing homes, which will save over 13,000 lives each year.
    Protecting retirees from bad advice from investment brokers by leading an investigation into conflicts of interest.
    Fighting against the FDA’s discriminatory blood donation ban for men who have sex with men, leading FDA to replace the policy with one that better reflects the most up-to-date science.
    Working to stop Big Tech’s attempt to sneak unfair practices into digital trade agreements.
    Leading the charge to cancel student loan debt for almost 5 million Americans.
    Sounding the alarm about bank consolidation for years, contributing to President Biden’s action to strengthen DOJ bank merger guidelines.
    Read the full report here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: AI affects everyone – including Indigenous people. It’s time we have a say in how it’s built

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tamika Worrell, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Critical Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University

    Since artificial intelligence (AI) became mainstream over the past two years, many of the risks it poses have been widely documented. As well as fuelling deep fake porn, threatening personal privacy and accelerating the climate crisis, some people believe the emerging technology could even lead to human extinction.

    But some risks of AI are still poorly understood. These include the very particular risks to Indigenous knowledges and communities.

    There’s a simple reason for this: the AI industry and governments have largely ignored Indigenous people in the development and regulation of AI technologies. Put differently, the world of AI is too white.

    AI developers and governments need to urgently fix this if they are serious about ensuring everybody shares the benefits of AI. As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people like to say, “nothing about us, without us”.

    Indigenous concerns

    Indigenous peoples around the world are not ignoring AI. They are having conversations, conducting research and sharing their concerns about the current trajectory of it and related technologies.

    A well-documented problem is the theft of cultural intellectual property. For example, users of AI image generation programs such as DeepAI can artificially generate artworks in mere seconds which mimic Indigenous styles and stories of art.

    This demonstrates how easy it is for someone using AI to misappropriate cultural knowledges. These generations are taken from large data sets of publicly available imagery to create something new. But they miss the storying and cultural knowledge present in our art practices.

    AI technologies also fuel the spread of misinformation about Indigenous people.

    The internet is already riddled with misinformation about Indigenous people. The long-running Creative Spirits website, which is maintained by a non-Indigenous person, is a prominent example.

    Generative AI systems are likely to make this problem worse. They often conflate us with other global Indigenous peoples around the world. They also draw on inappropriate sources, including Creative Spirits.

    During last year’s Voice to Parliament referendum in Australia, “no” campaigners also used AI-generated images depicting Indigenous people. This demonstrates the role of AI in political contexts and the harm it can cause to us.

    Another problem is the lack of understanding of AI among Indigenous people. Some 40% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in Australia don’t know what generative AI is. This reflects an urgent need to provide relevant information and training to Indigenous communities on the use of the technology.

    There is also concern about the use of AI in classroom contexts and its specific impact on Indigenous students.

    Looking to the future

    Hawaiian and Samoan Scholar Jason Lewis says:

    We must think more expansively about AI and all the other computational systems in which we find ourselves increasingly enmeshed. We need to expand the operational definition of intelligence used when building these systems to include the full spectrum of behaviour we humans use to make sense of the world.

    Key to achieving this is the idea of “Indigenous data sovereignty”. This would mean Indigenous people retain sovereignty over their own data, in the sense that they own and control access to it.

    In Australia, a collective known as Maiam nayri Wingara offers important considerations and principles for data sovereignty and governance. They affirm Indigenous rights to govern and control our data ecosystems, from creation to infrastructure.

    The National Agreement on Closing the Gap also affirms the importance of Indigenous data control and access.

    This is reaffirmed at a global level as well. In 2020, a group of Indigenous scholars from around the world published a position paper laying out how Indigenous protocols can inform ethically created AI. This kind of AI would centralise the knowledges of Indigenous peoples.

    In a positive step, the Australian government’s recently proposed set of AI guardrails highlight the importance of Indigenous data sovereignty.

    For example, the guardrails include the need to ensure additional transparency and make extra considerations when it comes to using data about or owned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to “mitigate the perpetuation of existing social inequalities”.

    Indigenous Futurisms

    Grace Dillon, a scholar from a group of North American Indigenous people known as the Anishinaabe, first coined the term “Indigenous Futurisms”.

    Ambelin Kwaymullina, an academic and futurist practitioner from the Palyku nation in Western Australia, defines it as:

    visions of what-could-be that are informed by ancient Aboriginal cultures and by our deep understandings of oppressive systems.

    These visions, Kwaymullina writes, are “as diverse as Indigenous peoples ourselves”. They are also unified by “an understanding of reality as living, interconnected whole in which human beings are but one strand of life amongst many, and a non-linear view of time”.

    So how can AI technologies be informed by Indigenous ways of knowing?

    A first step is for industry to involve Indigenous people in creating, maintaining and evaluating the technologies – rather than asking them retrospectively to approve work already done.

    Governments need to also do more than highlight the importance of Indigenous data sovereignty in policy documents. They need to meaningfully consult with Indigenous peoples to regulate the use of these technologies. This consultation must aim to ensure ethical AI behaviour among organisations and everyday users that honours Indigenous worldviews and realities.

    AI developers and governments like to claim they are serious about ensuring AI technology benefits all of humanity. But unless they start involving Indigenous people more in developing and regulating the technology, their claims ring hollow.

    Tamika Worrell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. AI affects everyone – including Indigenous people. It’s time we have a say in how it’s built – https://theconversation.com/ai-affects-everyone-including-indigenous-people-its-time-we-have-a-say-in-how-its-built-239605

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: A patchwork of spinifex: how we returned cultural burning to the Great Sandy Desert

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Braedan Taylor, Traditional Owner; Karajarri Lands Trust Association/UWA, Indigenous Knowledge

    How can a desert burn? Australia’s vast deserts aren’t just sand dunes – they’re often dotted with flammable spinifex grass hummocks. When heavy rains fall, grass grows quickly before drying out. That’s how a desert can burn.

    When our Karajarri and Ngurrara ancestors lived nomadic lifestyles in what’s now called the Great Sandy Desert in northwestern Australia, they lit many small fires in spinifex grass as they walked. Fires were used seasonally for ceremonies, signalling to others, flushing out animals, making travel easier (spinifex is painfully sharp), cleaning campsites, and stimulating fresh vegetation growth ready for foraging or luring game when people returned a few months later. The result was a patchwork desert.

    After colonisation, this ended. Without management, the spinifex and grassy deserts began to burn in some of the largest fires in Australia.

    But now the work of caring for desert country (pirra) with fire (jungku, or warlu) has begun again. We are Karajarri and Ngurrara rangers who care for 110,000 square kilometres of the Great Sandy Desert. Our techniques have changed – we now drop incendiaries from helicopters to cover more distance – but our goals are similar. Guided by our elders, we are combining traditional knowledge with modern technologies and science to refine how we manage fire in a changing world.

    In research published today, we and our co-authors paired analysis of historic fire patterns with five years of fauna surveys. Put together, we found mature spinifex was important for creatures of the Great Sandy Desert – and that means we should burn small and often, like our ancestors.

    Fire and sand

    In the 1940s and ‘50s, the Royal Australian Air Force photographed the Great Sandy Desert from the air. These photos were taken before our people moved to settlements and pastoral stations between the 1960s and ’80s.

    That means these aerial photographs capture a time when traditional burns were still happening.

    Our ranger teams are studying these photographs to draw out the fire patterns produced by our ancestors.

    These photographs tell a story. Our ancestors burned many small areas, creating a complicated patchwork of spinifex at different stages of regrowth after fire.

    But they also left a great deal of mature spinifex – large old hummocks that hadn’t burnt for years. This patchwork of burned and unburned areas made it hard for bushfires to spread far and fast. When traditional burning practices stopped, bushfires became common.

    The knowledge contained in these old photos is very valuable. The images give us clear goals for our fire management. We combine this with guidance from elders and information on fuel loads across Country gleaned from remote sensing and weather modelling, to plan our fire management.

    We could see where our ancestors burnt (white patches) in the Karajarri Indigenous Protected Area in this aerial photo from the late 1940s.
    National Library of Australia, CC BY-NC-ND

    What does fire mean for desert creatures?

    Australian deserts are remarkably biodiverse, especially in reptiles. In a single clump of mature spinifex, you might find up to 18 different species of lizard. Then there are snakes and goannas, as well as mammals such as marsupial moles found only in the arid zone.

    Spinifex hummocks are crucial to many of these species, offering shelter, food and prey. What does fire do to spinifex-dwellers?

    On this topic, scientific knowledge is playing catchup with Indigenous traditional knowledge but we see value in using the scientific method – a universal language – to help us manage Country, and tell other people about what we are doing.

    The past few decades have been a time of major change for the Great Sandy Desert. Cultural burns stopped, and feral animals such as camels and cats grew in number. As a result, many native animals are disappearing or already gone.

    We think larger, more frequent fires play a part. Our Karajarri and Ngurrara rangers are using science to make sure our patchwork burns – known as right-way fire – are good for native animals.

    Between 2018 and 2022, we surveyed reptiles and mammals from 32 sites across the Karajarri and Warlu Jilajaa Jumu (Ngurrara) Indigenous Protected Areas in the desert. We caught almost 3,800 mammals and reptiles from 77 species. Reptiles made up the lion’s share, with 66 species. We also recorded when fire had come through, and how big the burnt patches were.

    The data showed reptile species care a lot about where they live. Some prefer recently burned areas, where the spinifex is gone or still very small. Others like old spinifex, huge hummocks going unburned for years. And others still liked mid-sized spinifex.

    We found mammals were rare in recently burned areas and more common in mature spinifex. We also found more mammal diversity in areas with fine-scale patchworks of fires.

    This shows we must keep our fires small, burning different areas at different times, and protect enough mature spinifex.

    This patchwork approach will help spinifex hopping mice, desert mice, planigales, dunnarts, and dozens of small reptile species to survive. But it will also help now-rare game species, the marlu (red kangaroo in Walmajarri language) and pijarta (emu in Karajarri).

    Our research tells us returning to the traditional burning techniques of our ancestors is still the right thing to do – even though the desert has changed.

    Karajarri Rangers talk about the Pirra Junkgu-Warlu project.

    Rare finds

    Scientists have rarely surveyed the Great Sandy Desert. As a result, our surveys have turned up important findings.

    The kaluta (Dasykaluta rosamondae), for instance, is a feisty little carnivorous marsupial. We found it on the Canning Stock Route, 500km further north than the distribution known to scientists.

    Similarly, we found the threatened Dampierland sandslider (Lerista separanda), a vividly coloured skink, in the Karajarri Indigenous Protected Area, expanding its distribution 450km southeast. Karajarri people call sandsliders winkajurta, or “lice eaters”, because in the old days you could use them to hunt lice in your hair.

    Our research gives us confidence that bringing back traditional burns helps desert creatures. We want more people to know that right-way fire is part of healthy Country, including our own mob and tourists who pass through, so we can all look after the desert.

    In our work, we take our old people out onto Country to get advice on burning and their knowledge of animals. As one told us, seeing the old ways return made him “real happy [and] to come alive” – just like the desert.

    We thank Karajarri and Ngurrara Traditional Owners and acknowledge past and present elders. Thanks to the many rangers and coordinators who helped in these surveys, and our partners: Environs Kimberley, Charles Darwin University, Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, and Indigenous Desert Alliance. Special thanks to Hamsini Bijlani, our project coordinator.

    Braedan Taylor and other rangers in this project were funded by the Australian Government’s Indigenous Protected Area Program, Indigenous Ranger Program, and the National Environmental Science Program via the Threatened Species Recovery Hub; by the Western Australia State Natural Resource Management, Aboriginal Ranger Program, Lotteries West, and via in kind support from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions; by the Indigenous Desert Alliance/10Deserts; and by the Australian Research Council.

    Jacqueline Shovellor receives funding from the same sources as the lead author.

    Frankie McCarthy receives funding from the same sources as the lead author.

    Sarah Legge receives funding from the Australian Research Council. The work reported here was partly funded by the National Environmental Science Program via the Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

    Thomas Narda receives funding from the same sources as the lead author.

    – ref. A patchwork of spinifex: how we returned cultural burning to the Great Sandy Desert – https://theconversation.com/a-patchwork-of-spinifex-how-we-returned-cultural-burning-to-the-great-sandy-desert-240447

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Are you over 75? Here’s what you need to know about vitamin D

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elina Hypponen, Professor of Nutritional and Genetic Epidemiology, University of South Australia

    OPPO Find X5 Pro/Unsplash

    Vitamin D is essential for bone health, immune function and overall wellbeing. And it becomes even more crucial as we age.

    New guidelines from the international Endocrine Society recommend people aged 75 and over should consider taking vitamin D supplements.

    But why is vitamin D so important for older adults? And how much should they take?

    Young people get most vitamin D from the sun

    In Australia, it is possible for most people under 75 to get enough vitamin D from the sun throughout the year. For those who live in the top half of Australia – and for all of us during summer – we only need to have skin exposed to the sun for a few minutes on most days.

    The body can only produce a certain amount of vitamin D at a time. So staying in the sun any longer than needed is not going to help increase your vitamin D levels, while it will increase your risk of skin cancer.

    But it’s difficult for people aged over 75 to get enough vitamin D from a few minutes of sunshine, so the Endocrine Society recommends people get 800 IU (international units) of vitamin D a day from food or supplements.

    Why you need more as you age

    This is higher than the recommendation for younger adults, reflecting the increased needs and reduced ability of older bodies to produce and absorb vitamin D.

    Overall, older adults also tend to have less exposure to sunlight, which is the primary source of natural vitamin D production. Older adults may spend more time indoors and wear more clothing when outdoors.

    As we age, our skin also becomes less efficient at synthesising vitamin D from sunlight.

    The kidneys and the liver, which help convert vitamin D into its active form, also lose some of their efficiency with age. This makes it harder for the body to maintain adequate levels of the vitamin.

    All of this combined means older adults need more vitamin D.

    Deficiency is common in older adults

    Despite their higher needs for vitamin D, people over 75 may not get enough of it.

    Studies have shown one in five older adults in Australia have vitamin D deficiency.

    In higher-latitude parts of the world, such as the United Kingdom, almost half don’t reach sufficient levels.

    This increased risk of deficiency is partly due to lifestyle factors, such as spending less time outdoors and insufficient dietary intakes of vitamin D.

    It’s difficult to get enough vitamin D from food alone. Oily fish, eggs and some mushrooms are good sources of vitamin D, but few other foods contain much of the vitamin. While foods can be fortified with the vitamin D (margarine, some milk and cereals), these may not be readily available or be consumed in sufficient amounts to make a difference.

    In some countries such as the United States, most of the dietary vitamin D comes from fortified products. However, in Australia, dietary intakes of vitamin D are typically very low because only a few foods are fortified with it.

    Why vitamin D is so important as we age

    Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, which is essential for maintaining bone density and strength. As we age, our bones become more fragile, increasing the risk of fractures and conditions like osteoporosis.

    Keeping bones healthy is crucial. Studies have shown older people hospitalised with hip fractures are 3.5 times more likely to die in the next 12 months compared to people who aren’t injured.

    People over 75 often have less exposure to sunlight.
    Aila Images/Shutterstock

    Vitamin D may also help lower the risk of respiratory infections, which can be more serious in this age group.

    There is also emerging evidence for other potential benefits, including better brain health. However, this requires more research.

    According to the society’s systematic review, which summarises evidence from randomised controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation in humans, there is moderate evidence to suggest vitamin D supplementation can lower the risk of premature death.

    The society estimates supplements can prevent six deaths per 1,000 people. When considering the uncertainty in the available evidence, the actual number could range from as many as 11 fewer deaths to no benefit at all.

    Should we get our vitamin D levels tested?

    The Endocrine Society’s guidelines suggest routine blood tests to measure vitamin D levels are not necessary for most healthy people over 75.

    There is no clear evidence that regular testing provides significant benefits, unless the person has a specific medical condition that affects vitamin D metabolism, such as kidney disease or certain bone disorders.

    Routine testing can also be expensive and inconvenient.

    In most cases, the recommended approach to over-75s is to consider a daily supplement, without the need for testing.

    You can also try to boost your vitamin D by adding fortified foods to your diet, which might lower the dose you need from supplementation.

    Even if you’re getting a few minutes of sunlight a day, a daily vitamin D is still recommended.

    Elina Hypponen receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Foundation, Medical Research Future Fund, Australian Research Council, and Arthritis Australia.

    Joshua Sutherland’s studentship is funded by the Australian Research Training Program Scholarship, and he volunteers on the board for the Australasian Association and Register of Practicing Nutritionists.

    – ref. Are you over 75? Here’s what you need to know about vitamin D – https://theconversation.com/are-you-over-75-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-vitamin-d-231820

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its harrowing, visceral impact has been rarely matched, 50 years on

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Godfrey, Senior Lecturer, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University

    The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a product of a unique time in American filmmaking, when independent exploitation films were nastier than ever, and equally capable of piercing the mainstream consciousness.

    Tobe Hooper’s 1974 film arrived in a recently transformed exhibition landscape. The 1967 outcry over onscreen violence in Bonnie and Clyde marked the end of Hollywood’s Motion Picture Production Code and the introduction of film ratings.

    Films like Easy Rider (1969) elevated the standing of formerly disreputable exploitation fare within Hollywood. By 1973, The Exorcist was packing out cinemas and producing lines around city blocks with the promise of the most unremitting horror film yet made.

    The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was shot quickly on a shoestring budget, financed in part by the newly-formed Texas Film Commission. The film assembled its cast and crew from Austin’s circles of recent college graduates and dropouts.

    Its plot is straightforward enough: a group of young people are stranded when they run out of gas in rural Texas. They are terrorised and subsequently murdered by an eccentric local family, including the chainsaw wielding Leatherface – a nonverbal, childlike giant who wears masks made from the skin of his flayed victims.

    We learn this family have lost their jobs at the local slaughterhouse with the introduction of bolt gun technologies, leaving them sell roadside meat made from human victims.

    This detail has inspired a range of thematic interpretations for the film, encompassing commentary on class and family, gender and animal rights.

    The film lays bare the horrors of meat production, inflicted on human victims. The family home is the site where these themes come into conflict.

    Porn and violence on screen

    The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was picked up by the Bryanston Distributing Company. In 1972, Bryanston was the distributor for the theatrical release of the hardcore pornographic film Deep Throat. The film’s success shifted popular discourse around pornography, and helped Bryanston widen the theatrical release for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

    In subsequent years, media reported on alleged abusive on-set conditions on Deep Throat, along with claims Bryanston was connected with organised crime. Director Hooper, and many of the Chain Saw Massacre cast, alleged they never received their share of box office from the distributor.

    A 1974 poster.
    Ralf Liebhold/Shutterstock

    The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s proximity to Deep Throat stoked controversy, conflating concern about increasingly extreme depictions of sex and violence onscreen.

    Two years earlier, young filmmaker Wes Craven had transitioned from making pornography to horror film. His low budget rape-revenge exploitation film The Last House on the Left (1972) was originally developed as a hardcore pornographic film. This approach was abandoned when it entered production.

    Unlike Craven’s notorious film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is not overtly sexualised. While there may be a sexual undertone to Leatherface’s pursuit of Sally and her companions, it does not escalate to onscreen acts of sexual violence.

    Regardless, the film drew condemnation, particularly in the United Kingdom, where it was banned, and later figured in public debates about the censorship of “video nasties” in the 1980s.

    For my part, I remember encountering The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at the video rental store as a child: its title, cover and R-rating promised horrors beyond comprehension, many years before I actually saw the film itself.

    Horrors implied, rather than shown

    Beyond its controversies, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre played an important role in the developing field of horror film studies. It figures prominently in Robin Wood’s taxonomy of “reactionary” horror movies (which uphold traditional values) and “progressive” horror movies, which take a more ambivalent stance on the figure of the monster, challenging conservative social values. Wood counts The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in the latter category.

    It is also central to Carol J. Clover’s influential codification of the “final girl” narrative trope, in which a sole young woman is able to withstand the monster’s onslaught.

    Alongside Halloween (1978), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre helped steer the trajectory of American horror films in the 1980s.

    Halloween is situated within the manicured surroundings of suburbia, and conveys its menace through the slick technical qualities of its gliding camera, and John Carpenter’s staccato synth score.

    By contrast, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre locates its horror in the backroads and decrepit farmhouses of central Texas. The idea of Texas looms large, connoting a place of lawlessness, violence and danger.

    Hooper punctuates his long shots with extreme close ups via rapid editing. The film’s most grotesque horrors are implied, rather than shown. Its most visceral impact comes from its extended chase sequences, and via its soundtrack: Sally’s piercing screams, and Leatherface’s ever-present chainsaw.

    While the Texas Chain Saw Massacre spawned several sequels and influenced even more imitators over the years, from the Ramones to Wolf Creek (2005) and X (2022), it has rarely been matched in its intensity, and its harrowing, visceral impact.

    Nicholas Godfrey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its harrowing, visceral impact has been rarely matched, 50 years on – https://theconversation.com/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre-and-its-harrowing-visceral-impact-has-been-rarely-matched-50-years-on-236700

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Sorensen Announces $200,000 for Local Police in Winnebago County to Improve Mental Health

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Eric Sorensen (IL-17)

    ROCKFORD, IL – Today, Congressman Eric Sorensen (IL-17) announced $200,000 for law enforcement in Winnebago County to improve access to mental health and wellness services. 

    “When our police are out keeping our neighborhoods safe, they see and encounter problems that we can’t even imagine dealing with,” said Sorensen. “Making sure they have access to proper mental health care is giving our law enforcement the tools they need to thrive. I am grateful that this funding will have a huge impact on improving the daily lives of our brave men and women in law enforcement. I will continue fighting to bring home more resources from the federal government to support our police in Northern Illinois.”   

    “Law enforcement professionals, police officers, correctional officers, telecommunicators and support staff face unique challenges that can impact their mental well-being, making it essential to provide them with the necessary resources and support,” said Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana. “This grant will enable us to implement comprehensive mental health programs, wellness training, and peer support initiatives. We are committed to fostering a supportive environment where our members can prioritize their mental health, ensuring they can serve the community effectively and safely. We greatly appreciate the support from our congressional partners and the community as we work toward this important goal.”  

    The $200,000 in funding for Winnebago County is coming from the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Program under the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, which provides funding to improve the delivery of and access to mental health and wellness services for law enforcement through training and technical assistance, demonstration projects, and implementation of promising practices related to peer mentoring programs that are national in scope.  

    This past May, Sorensen led a group of 24 of his colleagues in calling on Congress to fully fund the COPS program in direct response to roundtable discussions and meetings he has hosted with law enforcement from across Central and Northwestern Illinois.   

    Congressman Eric Sorensen serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Prior to serving in Congress, Sorensen was a local meteorologist in Rockford and the Quad Cities for nearly 20 years. His district includes Illinois’ Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria, and Bloomington-Normal.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Sorensen Helps Secure Over $22,000 for Illinois State University Police

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Eric Sorensen (IL-17)

    PEORIA, IL – Today, Congressman Eric Sorensen (IL-17) announced that he helped secure over $22,000 for Illinois State University (ISU) Police. The money will be used to improve relations with underserved communities on campus. 

    “We need to make sure Illinois State University police have the tools to keep every student and neighbor safe,” said Sorensen. “That means providing them with the resources to engage with the many diverse communities that exist on campus and across Bloomington and Normal. I was proud to help ISU secure this important grant funding that will make their campus safer for students, university police, staff, and faculty.”   

    “Illinois State University Police is grateful to Representative Sorensen for supporting this effort to engage and uplift marginalized voices on our campus,” said Illinois State University Chief of Police Aaron Woodruff. “This funding will create new training, accreditation, and engagement opportunities that will enrich our student experience and enhance safety for the broader Bloomington/Normal community.” 

    The $22,005 in funding for ISU is coming from the Community Policing Development (CPD) Program under the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, which provides funding to local and state law enforcement agencies to implement demonstration or pilot projects that offer creative ideas to advance crime fighting, community engagement, problem solving, or organizational changes in support of community policing.  

    This past May, Sorensen wrote a letter on behalf of ISU to the CPD grant program manager in support of the university receiving this grant. Sorensen also led a group of 24 of his colleagues in calling on Congress to fully fund the COPS program in direct response to roundtable discussions and meetings he has hosted with law enforcement from across Central and Northwestern Illinois.   

    Congressman Eric Sorensen serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Prior to serving in Congress, Sorensen was a local meteorologist in Rockford and the Quad Cities for nearly 20 years. His district includes Illinois’ Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria, and Bloomington-Normal.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠ Harris Administration Celebrates International Day of the Girl and Continues Commitment to Supporting Youth in the U.S. and  Abroad

    Source: The White House

    International Day of the Girl provides an opportunity to celebrate the leadership of girls around the world and recommit to addressing the barriers that continue to limit their full participation. Today, to commemorate International Day of the Girl, First Lady Jill Biden will host the second “Girls Leading Change” event at the White House to recognize outstanding young women from across the United States who are making a difference in their communities. This year’s event will honor 10 young women leaders, selected by the White House Gender Policy Council, who are leading change and shaping a brighter future for generations to come.  

    The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring that girls can pursue their dreams free from fear, discrimination, violence, or abuse; and to advancing the safety, education, health, and wellbeing of girls everywhere. Investing in young people means investing in our future; and they should have the opportunity and resources they need to succeed.

    That’s why, since day one in office, this Administration has taken action to advance the safety, education, health, and well-being of girls, including:

    • Accelerating Learning and Improving Student Achievement. The American Rescue Plan, the largest one-time education investment in our history, included $130 billion to help schools address the impact of the pandemic on student well-being and academic achievement. To sustain these efforts, the Biden-Harris Administration increased funding and targeting of federal grants to better support academic recovery—from the Education Innovation and Research program to extended-day and afterschool programming through 21st Century Community Learning Centers. And the Administration’s Improving Student Achievement Agenda for 2024 is helping accelerate academic performance for every child in school.
    • Canceling Student Debt. President Biden and Vice President Harris vowed to fix the federal student loan program and make sure higher education is a ticket to the middle class—not a barrier to opportunity. The Biden-Harris Administration has approved nearly $170 billion in loan forgiveness for almost 5 million borrowers through more than two dozen executive actions with the goal of helping these borrowers get more breathing room in their daily lives, access economic mobility, buy homes, start businesses, and pursue their dreams.
    • Cutting Child Poverty Nearly in Half in 2021. President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that no child should grow up in poverty. Their expansion of the Child Tax Credit helped cut child poverty nearly in half in 2021 to a record low of 5.2%. President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting to restore this expansion, which would lift over a million girls out of poverty and narrow racial disparities. The Biden-Harris Administration has also lifted hundreds of thousands of girls out of poverty by updating the Thrifty Food Plan and creating SunBucks, a new program that helps low-income families afford groceries over the summer when they don’t have access to school meals.
    • Supporting Youth Mental Health. President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that health care is a right, not a privilege, and that mental health care is health care—period. That’s why they invested almost $1.5 billion to strengthen the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and launched the National Mental Health Strategy, with ongoing investments to strengthen the mental health workforce, ensure parity for mental health and substance use care, connect Americans to care, and better protect youth from the harms of social media. The Biden-Harris Administration is also delivering the largest investments in school-based mental health services ever, bringing 14,000 new mental health professionals into schools across the country and making it easier for schools to leverage Medicaid to deliver care.
       
    • Preventing Gun Violence, Including Domestic Violence with Firearms. Gun violence is the leading killer of children and teenagers in the United States. President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken historic executive action to reduce gun violence and violent crime. In 2022, President Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the most significant new gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years. The intersection between guns and domestic violence can be especially deadly, and BSCA expanded background checks to keep guns out of the hands of more domestic abusers, narrowed the “boyfriend loophole” so an individual convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence against a dating partner is prohibited from purchasing a firearm, and expanded funding for red flag laws that allow for temporary removal of firearms from an individual who is a danger to themselves or others. President Biden established the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Harris. The Biden-Harris Administration has made historic investments in law enforcement and community-led crime prevention and intervention strategies and has announced more executive actions to reduce gun violence than any other administration. Most recently, building on life-saving actions that the Administration has already taken, President Biden signed a new Executive Order in September 2024 to improve school-based active shooter drills and combat emerging firearms threats. The President and Vice President also announced new actions to support survivors of gun violence, promote safe gun storage, fund community violence intervention, and improve the gun background check system, among other actions.
       
    • Launching the American Climate Corps. President Biden launched the American Climate Corps to give a diverse new generation of young people the tools to fight the impacts of climate change today and the skills to join the clean energy and climate-resilience workforce of tomorrow. The American Climate Corps is tackling the climate crisis, including by restoring coastal ecosystems, strengthening urban and rural agriculture, investing in clean energy and energy efficiency, improving disaster and wildfire preparedness, and more. More than 15,000 young Americans have already been put to work in high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience workforce training and service opportunities through the American Climate Corps—putting the program on track to reach President Biden’s goal of 20,000 members in the program’s first year ahead of schedule.
       
    • Providing Children with Healthier, More Sustainable Environments. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program has awarded nearly $3 billion and funded approximately 8,700 electric and low-emission school buses nationwide, protecting children from air pollution by transforming school bus fleets across America. The Biden-Harris Administration also invested $15 billion toward replacing every toxic lead pipe in the country within a decade, protecting children and schools from lead exposure that can cause irreversible harm to cognitive development and hamper children’s learning. And earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency provided $58 million to protect children from lead in drinking water at schools and child care facilities.
    • Fighting Online Harassment and Abuse. Online harassment and abuse is increasingly widespread in today’s digitally connected world and disproportionately affects women, girls, and LGBTQI+ individuals. President Biden established the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse to coordinate comprehensive actions from more than a dozen federal agencies, and his Executive Order on artificial intelligence directs federal agencies to address deepfake image-based abuse. The Department of Justice also funded the first-ever national helpline to provide 24/7 support and specialized services for victims of online harassment and abuse, including the non-consensual distribution of intimate images; raised awareness of new legal protections against the non-consensual distribution of intimate images that were included in the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022; and funded a new National Resource Center on Cybercrimes Against Individuals.
    • Keeping Students Safe and Addressing Campus Sexual Assault. The Department of Education restored and strengthened vital Title IX protections against discrimination on the basis of sex for students and employees. The Department of Justice awarded more than $20 million in FY 2024 to support colleges and universities in preventing and responding to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. And the Department of Education—in collaboration with the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services—launched a Task Force on Sexual Violence in Education that has released data on sexual violence at educational institutions and is working to improve sexual violence prevention and response on campus.
    • Supporting Vulnerable Youth. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to support the needs of vulnerable and underserved youth—from helping prevent youth homelessness and human trafficking to supporting employment initiatives for youth with disabilities. This includes $800 million in dedicated funding to support students experiencing homelessness through the President’s American Rescue Plan. The Department of Health and Human Services also issued landmark rules to improve the child welfare system, particularly for the most vulnerable children, and to advance the safety and wellbeing of families across the country, including for LGBTQI+ children in foster care. And the Department of Justice has funded programs to help communities develop, enhance, or expand early intervention programs and treatment services for girls who are involved in the juvenile justice system.

    The Biden-Harris Administration has also taken action to support girls around the globe by fighting to advance the human rights of women and girls and promote access to education, health, and safety, including:

    • Promoting Girls’ Education Globally. The United States is investing in girls’ education around the world, which in turn advances health and economic development. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) invested more than $2.5 billion from FY 2021-2023 to increase access to quality basic and higher education, and reached 18.7 million girls and women in 69 countries in FY23 alone to advance gender equality in and through education. The Departments of State and Labor have also supported efforts to promote girls’ education through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs in Kenya and Namibia, as well as technical and vocational education training centers for adolescent girls in Ethiopia. The United States has strongly condemned the restriction of girls’ education in Afghanistan, including by restricting visas for individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, repressing women and girls by limiting or prohibiting access to education.
    • Closing the Gender Digital Divide. Last year, Vice President Harris launched the Women in the Digital Economy Fund (Wi-DEF) to accelerate progress towards closing the gender digital divide. To date, Wi-DEF has raised over $80 million, including an initial $50 million commitment from USAID. Building on the success of the Fund, the Women in the Digital Economy Initiative includes commitments from governments, private sector companies, foundations, civil society, and multilateral organizations that have pledged more than $1 billion to accelerate gender digital equality. This Initiative supports girls’ access to digital learning opportunities, provides employment and educational skills, and helps fulfill the historic commitment of G20 Leaders to halve the digital gender gap by 2030. Since the launch of Wi-DEF, the United States has invested $102 million in direct and aligned commitments to closing the gender digital divide and accelerating gender digital equality.
    • Preventing and Responding to Online Harassment and Abuse Globally. To address the scourge of online harassment and abuse against girls and women, the Biden-Harris Administration launched the 15-country Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse, which has advanced international policies to address online safety and supported programs to prevent and respond to technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Since the Global Partnership was launched in 2022, the Department of State has supported projects in every region to prevent, document, and address technology-facilitated gender-based violence, cultivate safe online use, and respond to survivors’ needs. 
    • Championing Girls’ Leadership in Addressing the Climate Crisis. In 2023, Vice President Harris announced the Women in the Sustainable Economy Initiative—an over $2 billion public-private partnership to promote women’s access to jobs in the green and blue industries of the future—including by advancing girls’ access to STEM education. Through WISE, the Department of State is investing more than $12 million in programs to benefit girls, including programs that promote girls’ economic skills and opportunities in STEM and that foster girls’ roles in leading, shaping, and informing equitable and inclusive climate policies and actions.
    • Strengthening HIV Prevention Services for Girls. To address key factors that make adolescent girls and young women particularly vulnerable to HIV, the United States launched the DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) public-private partnership as part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2014. Announced in 2023, PEPFAR’s DREAMS NextGen program is the next phase of DREAMS that will take a more nuanced approach that is responsive to the current context within each of the 15 DREAMS countries. PEPFAR has invested more than $2 billion in comprehensive HIV prevention programming for girls through DREAMS—including $1.3 billion since the start of the Administration—and the program reaches approximately 2.5 to 3 million girls annually.
    • Increasing Efforts to End Child Marriage Globally. To address the global scourge of child, early, and forced marriage, USAID and the Department of State invested $86 million in 27 countries to support programs that prevent and respond to this harmful practice, including by equipping girls and young women with education and workforce readiness skills; providing education, health, legal, and economic support; and raising awareness. Under the leadership of the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States also made its first-ever contribution to the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to End Child Marriage, which works in 12 countries in Africa and South Asia to promote the rights of adolescent girls, and is contributing more than $2 million in FY 2024 to UNFPA to help reach refugee adolescent girls and prevent child marriages in humanitarian settings.
    • Leading Programs to End Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting. To address the harmful practice of female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C), USAID invested in programs to address this issue in Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritania, and Nigeria. The United States is a long-standing donor to the UNICEF-UNFPA Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, and invested $20 million from FY 2020-FY 2023 in this partnership, which has succeeded in advocating for legal and policy frameworks banning FGM/C in 14 of 17 countries and supported more than 6.3 million women and girls with FGM/C-related protection and care services.
    • Promoting Young Women’s Civic and Political Participation. The Biden-Harris Administration has advanced the political and civic participation of women and girls as a pillar of democracy promotion efforts worldwide. The Administration launched Women LEAD, a $900 million public-private partnership focused on building the pipeline of women leaders around the world, including by supporting programs to reach girls and young women. Under this umbrella, the USAID-led Advancing Women’s and Girls’ Civic and Political Leadership Initiative provides more than $25 million to identify and dismantle the individual, structural, and socio-cultural barriers to the political empowerment of women and girls in ten focus countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Kyrgyz Republic, Yemen, and Fiji. Furthermore, the State Department is launching a new $1.25 million program in Africa that will empower and equip young women leaders to take on decision-making roles in democratic transition processes.
    • Protecting Girls in Humanitarian Emergencies. The United States government has increased its support for girls in humanitarian and fragile contexts. Since 2021, USAID has more than doubled the percentage of its humanitarian budget allocated to the protection sector, which includes child protection and gender-based violence activities serving girls. In FY 2023, USAID provided $163 million specifically towards addressing gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies. In 2022, USAID and the Department of State launched Safe from the Start: ReVisioned, which seeks to better address the needs of girls and women from the onset of a conflict or crisis.
    • Combatting Child Trafficking. To combat child trafficking, including trafficking of girls, the Department of State has committed $37.5 million through Child Protection Compacts, building capacity in Jamaica, Peru, and Mongolia, and establishing new partnerships with Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Romania. These partnerships strengthen country responses to child trafficking to more effectively prosecute and convict traffickers, provide comprehensive trauma-informed care for child victims—including girls—and prevent child trafficking in all its forms.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: First Lady Jill  Biden Announces 2024 “Girls Leading Change”  Honorees

    Source: The White House

    In celebration of International Day of the Girl, the First Lady is honoring ten young women who are leading change and shaping a brighter future in their communities 

    In honor of International Day of the Girl, First Lady Jill Biden will celebrate ten young women leaders, selected by the White House Gender Policy Council, who are leading change and shaping a brighter future in their communities across the United States.    

    As an educator for more than 40 years, Dr. Biden has continued to be a champion for young people here in the United States and abroad. Together with the White House Gender Policy Council, Dr. Biden is hosting the second “Girls Leading Change” event at the White House to recognize the profound impact young women are having on their communities and their efforts to strengthen our country for generations to come.     

    “Everywhere I travel, I see inspiring girls leading change in their communities,” said First Lady Jill Biden. “These incredible honorees are meeting the challenges they see in the world by developing innovative new technologies, expanding access to education, erasing silence through the power of art and poetry and more. It is an honor to celebrate these young leaders at the White House and I hope that their courage and determination inspires the next generation.”  

    The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring that girls can pursue their dreams free from fear, discrimination, violence, or abuse; and to advancing the safety, education, health, and wellbeing of girls everywhere. Investing in young people means investing in our future; they should have the opportunity and resources they need to succeed. Since day one in office, this Administration has taken actions to advance the safety, education, health, and well-being of girls. A full summary of these actions can be found via a White House Fact Sheet released today HERE.  

    “Girls Leading Change” will begin at 5:30 PM ET today, Thursday, October 10th, and be available via livestream at whitehouse.gov/live  

      2024 Girl Leading Change Honorees   

    Cheyenne Anderson (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 

    Cheyenne Anderson, Iztac Citlali (White Star), age 17, is an artist and photographer who aims to lift up underrepresented communities, including those of her own Chicana, Mexica, and Apache heritage, through creative art forms. In ninth grade, Cheyenne created and co-edited a book, titled South Valley, which features poetry and artwork from fellow youth poets and local community members that showcase the beauty and spirit of Albuquerque’s South Valley. Through her art and elevating the art of others, Cheyenne hopes to inspire people of all backgrounds to share their unique stories. 

    Emily Austin (Alcabideche, Portugal) 

    Emily Austin, age 17, is a proud daughter of a U.S. Navy service member. Emily and her family have moved to seven different duty stations. She has attended seven different schools, over the course of her education. She currently serves as the Chief of Staff at Bloom, an organization started by military-connected teens dedicated to empowering teens from military families and elevating their voices. Emily started the Bloom Ambassador program to directly connect teens from military families to Bloom staff members and opportunities in their region, cultivating a sense of community and providing peer support through the shared joys and challenges of the military lifestyle. 

    Sreenidi Bala (Farmington, Connecticut) 

    Sreenidi Bala, age 16, is an advocate for the accessibility of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for students of all abilities. After recognizing a gap in STEM education for neurodivergent students in her school district, Sreenidi developed an elective to fill that gap called ASPIRE Adaptive STEM. Sreenidi also founded Code for All Minds—a free online platform offering educators and families comprehensive lessons in coding, digital citizenship, and essential technology skills tailored for students with learning disabilities. Through partnerships with neurodiversity advocacy groups and local college access programs, Code for All Minds has created and distributed adaptive STEM curriculums to schools across the country. 

    Noel Demetrio (Lake Forest, Illinois) 

    Noel Demetrio, age 17, is dedicated to supporting refugee and immigrant communities. Noel is the founder of Project Xenia, a local program that aims to educate students about displacement and show how they can support and welcome refugees into their community. Project Xenia has also helped fund scholarships for Ukrainian refugees in her local community. Noel serves as a Girl Delegate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to the United Nations and attended the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to advocate for the rights of girls all over the world. 

    Serena Griffin (Oakland, California) 

    Serena Griffin, age 17, is passionate about empowering youth through poetry, songwriting, and storytelling, and using creative expression as a tool for social change. She is the founder of EmpowHer Poets, a free afterschool program that provides writing workshops to local Bay Area youth, particularly young girls of color, to encourage them to find power in their voices. In addition, Serena is the current Berkeley Vice Youth Poet Laureate. She also serves as a member of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls Youth Advisory Council, advising on the impact of state legislation on youth and its implementation in schools.  

    Pragathi Kasani-Akula (Cumming, Georgia) 

    Pragathi Kasani-Akula, age 17, is a scientist and innovator dedicated to developing novel solutions that make health care more accessible to people across the world. Following her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis, she developed a prototype for a low-cost, less invasive test to detect triple negative breast cancer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pragathi also worked with the ScioVirtual Foundation to teach an online course on epidemiology to students across the nation, including education on how to advance public health. 

    Meghna “Chili” and Siona “Dolly” Pramoda (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) 

    Meghna “Chili” Pramoda, age 17, and Siona “Dolly” Pramoda, age 16, are advocates for digital safety for all. As co-founders of SafeTeensOnline (STO), the Pramoda sisters have educated and empowered over 5 million teens worldwide. STO’s work consists of year-round online awareness campaigns through social media and teen-led large-scale survey and research initiatives on topics such as internet usage and patterns of cyber incidents. During the COVID-19 pandemic when the world moved online, the Pramoda sisters noticed that older members of their community often felt isolated due to a lack of digital literacy. As a result, STO expanded from a teen-focused organization to one that also educates parents, teachers, and grandparents on safe digital practices and on how to build judgment-free spaces online. 

    Kira Tiller (Gainesville, Virginia) 

    Kira Tiller, age 18, is a disability rights activist who aims to expand accessibility and amplify the voices of young people with disabilities. After Kira discovered that the flashing lights during school fire drills posed a seizure risk for her due to her epilepsy, she dedicated herself to advocating for legislation to ensure students with disabilities are fully accommodated and protected during emergency situations at school. Kira founded and is the executive director of a national, student-led organization called Disabled Disrupters, which advocates for state and federal disability rights legislation and helps students take action to advance disability equity. 

    Morgaine Wilkins-Dean (Denver, Colorado) 

    Morgaine Wilkins-Dean, age 18, is a Gold Award Girl Scout who is working to eliminate gun violence in her community and across the country.  Morgaine’s high school experienced three firearm-related incidents in a single year that resulted in the loss of two of her classmates. As a result, Morgaine worked with the Denver Public School Board on gun violence prevention and safe gun storage policies. Due in part to Morgaine’s advocacy, this school year, for the first time, Denver Public Schools are required to educate families about the risks associated with unsecured firearms at home. 

    ### 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Evacuating in disasters like Hurricane Milton isn’t simple – there are reasons people stay in harm’s way, and it’s not just stubbornness

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Carson MacPherson-Krutsky, Research Associate, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder

    Evacuation is more difficult for people with health and mobility issues. Ted Richardson/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

    As Hurricane Milton roared ashore near Sarasota, Florida, tens of thousands of people were in evacuation shelters. Hundreds of thousands more had fled coastal regions ahead of the storm, crowding highways headed north and south as their counties issued evacuation orders.

    But not everyone left, despite dire warnings about a hurricane that had been one of the strongest on record two days earlier.

    As Milton’s rain and storm surge flooded neighborhoods late on Oct. 9, 2024, 911 calls poured in. In Tampa’s Hillsborough County, more than 500 people had to be rescued, including a dozen people trapped in a flooding home after a tree crashed though the roof at the height of the storm.

    In Plant City, 20 miles inland from Tampa, at least 35 people had been rescued by dawn, City Manager Bill McDaniel said. While the storm wasn’t as extreme as feared, McDaniel said his city had flooded in places and to levels he had never seen. Traffic signals were out. Power lines and trees were down. The sewage plant had been inundated, affecting the public water supply.

    Evacuating might seem like the obvious move when a major hurricane is bearing down on your region, but that choice is not always as easy as it may seem.

    Evacuating from a hurricane requires money, planning, the ability to leave and, importantly, a belief that evacuating is better than staying put.

    I recently examined years of research on what motivates people to leave or seek shelter during hurricanes as part of a project with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Natural Hazards Center. I found three main reasons that people didn’t leave.

    Evacuating can be expensive

    Evacuating requires transportation, money, a place to stay, the ability to take off work days ahead of a storm and other resources that many people do not have.

    With 1 in 9 Americans facing poverty today, many have limited evacuation options. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, many residents did not own vehicles and couldn’t reach evacuation buses. That left them stranded in the face of a deadly hurricane. Nearly 1,400 people died in the storm, many of them in flooded homes.

    When millions of people are under evacuation orders, logistical issues also arise.

    Two days ahead of landfall, Milton was a Category 5 hurricane. About 5 million people were under evacuation orders, and highways were crowded.

    Gas shortages and traffic jams can leave people stranded on highways and unable to find shelter before the storm hits. This happened during Hurricane Floyd in 1999 as 2 million Floridians tried to evacuate.

    People who experienced past evacuations or saw news video of congested highways ahead of Hurricane Milton might not leave for fear of getting stuck.

    Health, pets and being physically able to leave

    The logistics of evacuating are even more challenging for people who are disabled or in nursing homes. Additionally, people who are incarcerated may have no choice in the matter – and the justice system may have few options for moving them.

    Evacuating nursing homes, people with disabilities or prison populations is complex. Many shelters are not set up to accommodate their needs. In one example during Hurricane Floyd, a disabled person arrived at a shelter, but the hallways were too narrow for their wheelchair, so they were restricted to a cot for the duration of their stay. Moving people whose health is fragile, and doing so under stressful conditions, can also worsen health problems, leaving nursing home staff to make difficult decisions.

    At least 700 people stayed in chairs or on air mattresses at River Ridge Middle/High School in New Port Richey, Fla., during Hurricane Milton.
    AP Photo/Mike Carlson

    But failing to evacuate can also be deadly. During Hurricane Irma in 2017, seven nursing home residents died in the rising heat after their facility lost power near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In some cases, public water systems are shut down or become contaminated. And flooding can create several health hazards, including the risk of infectious diseases.

    In a study of 291 long-term care facilities in Florida, 81% sheltered residents in place during the 2004 hurricane season because they had limited transportation options and faced issues finding places for residents to go.

    Some shelters allow small pets, but many don’t. This high school-turned-shelter in New Port Richey, Fla., had 283 registered pets.
    AP Photo/Mike Carlson

    People with pets face another difficult choice – some choose to stay at home for fear of leaving their pet behind. Studies have found that pet owners are significantly less likely to evacuate than others because of difficulties transporting pets and finding shelters that will take them. In destructive storms, it can be days to weeks before people can return home.

    Risk perception can also get in the way

    People’s perceptions of risk can also prevent them from leaving.

    A series of studies show that women and minorities take hurricane risks more seriously than other groups and are more likely to evacuate or go to shelters. One study found that women are almost twice as likely than men to evacuate when given a mandatory evacuation order.

    If people have experienced a hurricane before that didn’t do significant damage, they may perceive the risks of a coming storm to be lower and not leave.

    Video from across Florida after Hurricane Milton shows flooding around homes, trees down and other damage. At least five people died in the storm, and more than 3 million homes lost power.

    In my review of research, I found that many people who didn’t evacuate had reservations about going to shelters and preferred to stay home or with family or friends. Shelter conditions were sometimes poor, overcrowded or lacked privacy.

    People had fears about safety and whether shelter environments could meet their needs. For example, religious minorities were not sure whether shelters would be clean, safe, have private places for religious practice, and food options consistent with faith practices. Diabetics and people with young children also had concerns about finding appropriate food in shelters.

    How to improve evacuations for the future

    There are ways leaders can reduce the barriers to evacuation and shelter use. For example:

    • Building more shelters able to withstand hurricane force winds can create safe havens for people without transportation or who are unable to leave their jobs in time to evacuate.

    • Arranging more shelters and transportation able to accommodate people with disabilities and those with special needs, such as nursing home residents, can help protect vulnerable populations.

    • Opening shelters to accommodate pets with their owners can also increase the likelihood that pet owners will evacuate.

    • Public education can be improved so people know their options. Clearer risk communication on how these storms are different than past ones and what people are likely to experience can also help people make informed decisions.

    • Being prepared saves lives. Many areas would benefit from better advance planning that takes into account the needs of large, diverse populations and can ensure populations have ways to evacuate to safety.

    Carson MacPherson-Krutsky works for the Natural Hazards Center (NHC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. She receives grant and contract funding for her work at NHC through the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other funders.

    – ref. Evacuating in disasters like Hurricane Milton isn’t simple – there are reasons people stay in harm’s way, and it’s not just stubbornness – https://theconversation.com/evacuating-in-disasters-like-hurricane-milton-isnt-simple-there-are-reasons-people-stay-in-harms-way-and-its-not-just-stubbornness-240869

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Evacuating in disasters like Hurricane Milton isn’t simple – there are reasons people stay in harm’s way, and not just stubbornness

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Carson MacPherson-Krutsky, Research Associate, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder

    Evacuation is more difficult for people with health and mobility issues. Ted Richardson/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

    As Hurricane Milton roared ashore near Sarasota, Florida, tens of thousands of people were in evacuation shelters. Hundreds of thousands more had fled coastal regions ahead of the storm, crowding highways headed north and south as their counties issued evacuation orders.

    But not everyone left, despite dire warnings about a hurricane that had been one of the strongest on record two days earlier.

    As Milton’s rain and storm surge flooded neighborhoods late on Oct. 9, 2024, 911 calls poured in. More than 500 people were rescued in Tampa’s Hillsborough County. Tampa police helped more than a dozen adults and children from a flooding home after a tree crashed though the roof at the height of the storm.

    In Plant City, 20 miles inland from Tampa, at least 35 people had been rescued by dawn, City Manager Bill McDaniel said. While the storm wasn’t as extreme as feared, he said his city had flooded in places and to levels he had never seen. Traffic signals were out. Power lines and trees were down. The sewage plant had been inundated, affecting the public water supply.

    Evacuating might seem like the obvious move when a major hurricane is bearing down on your region, but that choice is not always as easy as it may seem.

    Evacuating from a hurricane requires money, planning, the ability to leave and, importantly, a belief that evacuating is better than staying put.

    I recently examined years of research on what motivates people to leave or seek shelter during hurricanes as part of a project with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Natural Hazards Center. I found three main reasons that people didn’t leave.

    Evacuating can be expensive

    Evacuating requires a car, gas money, a place to stay, the ability to take off work days ahead of a storm and other resources that many people do not have.

    With 1 in 9 Americans facing poverty today, many have limited evacuation options. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for example, many residents did not own vehicles and couldn’t reach evacuation buses. That left them stranded in the face of a deadly hurricane. Nearly 1,400 people died in the storm, many of them in flooded homes.

    When millions of people are under evacuation orders, logistical issues also arise.

    Two days ahead of landfall, Milton was a Category 5 hurricane. About 5 million people were under evacuation orders, and highways were crowded.

    Gas shortages and traffic jams can leave people stranded on highways and unable to find shelter before the storm hits. This happened during Hurricane Floyd in 1999 as 2 million Floridians tried to evacuate.

    People who experienced past evacuations or saw news video of congested highways ahead of Hurricane Milton might not leave for fear of getting stuck.

    Health, pets and being physically able to leave

    The logistics of evacuating are even more challenging for people who are disabled or in nursing homes. Additionally, people who are incarcerated may have no choice in the matter – and the justice system may have few options for moving them.

    Evacuating nursing homes, people with disabilities or prison populations is complex. Many shelters are not set up to accommodate their needs. In one example during Hurricane Floyd, a disabled person arrived at a shelter, but the hallways were too narrow for their wheelchair, so they were restricted to a cot for the duration of their stay. Moving people whose health is fragile, and doing so under stressful conditions, can also worsen health problems, leaving nursing home staff to make difficult decisions.

    At least 700 people stayed in chairs or on air mattresses at River Ridge Middle/High School in New Port Richey, Fla., during Hurricane Milton.
    AP Photo/Mike Carlson

    But failing to evacuate can also be deadly. During Hurricane Irma in 2017, seven nursing home residents died in the rising heat after their facility lost power near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In some cases, public water systems are shut down or become contaminated. And flooding can create several health hazards, including the risk of infectious diseases.

    In a study of 291 long-term care facilities in Florida, 81% sheltered residents in place during the 2004 hurricane season because they had limited transportation options and faced issues finding places for residents to go.

    Some shelters allow small pets, but many don’t. This high school-turned-shelter in New Port Richey, Fla., had 283 registered pets.
    AP Photo/Mike Carlson

    People with pets face another difficult choice – some choose to stay at home for fear of leaving their pet behind. Studies have found that pet owners are significantly less likely to evacuate than others because of difficulties transporting pets and finding shelters that will take them. In destructive storms, it can be days to weeks before people can return home.

    Risk perception can also get in the way

    People’s perceptions of risk can also prevent them from leaving.

    A series of studies show that women and minorities take hurricane risks more seriously than other groups and are more likely to evacuate or go to shelters. One study found that women are almost twice as likely than men to evacuate when given a mandatory evacuation order.

    If people have experienced a hurricane before that didn’t do significant damage, they may perceive the risks of a coming storm to be lower and not leave.

    Video from across Florida after Hurricane Milton shows flooding around homes, trees down and other damage. At least five people died in the storm, and more than 3 million homes lost power.

    In my review of research, I found that many people who didn’t evacuate had reservations about going to shelters and preferred to stay home or with family or friends. Shelter conditions were sometimes poor, overcrowded or lacked privacy.

    People had fears about safety and whether shelter environments could meet their needs. For example, religious minorities were not sure whether shelters would be clean, safe, have private places for religious practice, and food options consistent with faith practices. Diabetics and people with young children also had concerns about finding appropriate food in shelters.

    How to improve evacuations for the future

    There are ways leaders can reduce the barriers to evacuation and shelter use. For example:

    • Building more shelters able to withstand hurricane force winds can create safe havens for people without transportation or who are unable to leave their jobs in time to evacuate.

    • Arranging more shelters and transportation able to accommodate people with disabilities and those with special needs, such as nursing home residents, can help protect vulnerable populations.

    • Opening shelters to accommodate pets with their owners can also increase the likelihood that pet owners will evacuate.

    • Public education can be improved so people know their options. Clearer risk communication on how these storms are different than past ones and what people are likely to experience can also help people make informed decisions.

    • Being prepared saves lives. Many areas would benefit from better advance planning that takes into account the needs of large, diverse populations and can ensure populations have ways to evacuate to safety.

    Carson MacPherson-Krutsky works for the Natural Hazards Center (NHC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. She receives grant and contract funding for her work at NHC through the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other funders.

    – ref. Evacuating in disasters like Hurricane Milton isn’t simple – there are reasons people stay in harm’s way, and not just stubbornness – https://theconversation.com/evacuating-in-disasters-like-hurricane-milton-isnt-simple-there-are-reasons-people-stay-in-harms-way-and-not-just-stubbornness-240869

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Violation of LGBTQ+ rights by the Republic of Bulgaria – P-001504/2024(ASW)

    Source: European Parliament

    As set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, equality and respect for human dignity and human rights are values common to the Member States on which also the EU is founded.

    The Commission remains steadfast, within the limits of its competences, in its commitment to tackling discrimination, inequalities and challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) individuals, including in education, as outlined in our LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025[1], of course including in Bulgaria .

    The Commission is aware of the law adopted by the Bulgarian parliament.

    On 13 August 2024, Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, sent a letter to the Bulgarian Minister of Education and Science, Mr Galin Tsokov, to request further information on the legislation. The Commission received the reply of the Minister on 3 September and is assessing it.

    The Commission is analysing whether the legislation is aligned with EU law, including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Commission will use all the instruments at its disposal to protect the EU’s values and will not hesitate to take the necessary actions within the limit of its competence.

    • [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0698
    Last updated: 10 October 2024

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Netherlands: Dutch Life Science Tools LUMICKS secures €20 million from EIB to accelerate drug discovery for cancer.

    Source: European Investment Bank

    EIB

    • Amsterdam-based LUMICKS signs €20 million venture debt with EIB to accelerate the development and launch of its new product, designed to advance immunotherapy development for cancer research.
    • LUMICKS’ next generation high-throughput cell avidity platform aims to transform the drug discovery process by replacing traditional screening methods, expediting development for life-saving treatments, and improving reliability in the drug discovery process.
    • The investment is backed by the European Commission through the InvestEU initiative, which seeks to foster innovation projects and job creation across Europe.

    The European Investment Bank (EIB) and LUMICKS have signed a €20 million venture debt agreement to accelerate the launch of its next generation, high throughput cell avidity platform. The financing is supported by the European Commission under the InvestEU initiative.

    LUMICKS’ Cell Avidity technology is transforming the discovery process in cancer immunotherapy by addressing a critical challenge: the lack of tools to directly measure the binding interaction of immune cells, such as CAR-T cells, with cancer cells. This limitation creates uncertainties in the preclinical funnel and slows therapy development. By providing high-throughput measurement of such interactions, LUMICKS’ empowers researchers to optimize therapies faster and with greater accuracy, with the goal of improving success rates in clinical trials.

    “The Netherlands is home to a vibrant Life Sciences industry and the EIB has been proudly supporting this sector to ensure it continues to lead in medical innovation and transformative healthcare solutions.” stated EIB vice president Robert de Groot. “The new financing to LUMICKS is a testament of this. With the backing of InvestEU, the EIB can provide LUMICKS with stable long-term funding matching the highly innovative profile of the Company and tailored to its current needs for continued growth, market expansion, and development of its technologies.”

    “This investment from the EIB enables us to accelerate our R&D timeline, ensuring we continue innovating to deliver a long-lasting impact in the immunotherapy space” stated LUMICKS CEO Hugo de Wit. “By providing deeper insights into cellular interactions, our instruments empower researchers to make faster, better-informed decisions, with the goal of improving success rates in clinical trials and accelerating the development of effective therapies.”

    LUMICKS, founded in 2014, employs 170 people globally and has a proven track record of developing and commercializing cutting-edge life science tools. Widely adopted by top universities and research institutions worldwide, LUMICKS’ technologies have contributed to numerous publications in top journals across fields such as oncology and immunotherapy.

    Background information:

    The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. Over the last ten years, the EIB has made available more than €27 billion in financing for Dutch projects in various sectors, including research & development, transport, drinking water, healthcare and SMEs.

    The EIB is the European Union’s bank; the only bank owned by and representing the interests of the European Union Member States, The Netherlands owns a 5,2% share of the EIB. It works closely with other EU institutions to implement EU policy and is the world’s largest multilateral borrower and lender. The EIB provides finance and expertise for sustainable investment projects that contribute to EU policy objectives. More than 90% of its activity is in Europe.

    The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investment for EU policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the European Union, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.

    LUMICKS is a pioneering life science tools company dedicated to accelerating drug discovery in cancer research and advancing the understanding of fundamental biological mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels. Our innovative technologies empower researchers to reveal crucial insights into the biological complexity of health and disease, driving the development of next-generation therapies and accelerating immunotherapy breakthroughs.

    Mission:

    We empower academic and pharmaceutical communities with cutting-edge technologies to deeply understand the mechanisms of life and disease, driving the discovery and development of life-saving therapies.

    Vision:

    By 2027, more than 250 world-leading researchers developing therapies and understanding biological mechanisms will use cell avidity and single-molecule data to develop cures that will impact more than 1 million lives.

    Lumicks (IEU LS)
    Dutch Life Science Tools LUMICKS secures €20 million from EIB to accelerate drug discovery for cancer.
    ©EIB
    Download original
    Lumicks (IEU LS)
    Dutch Life Science Tools LUMICKS secures €20 million from EIB to accelerate drug discovery for cancer.
    ©EIB
    Download original
    Lumicks (IEU LS)
    Dutch Life Science Tools LUMICKS secures €20 million from EIB to accelerate drug discovery for cancer.
    ©EIB
    Download original

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: How catalysts remove dangerous nitrogen oxides (last modification, the 10.10.2024)

    Source: Switzerland – Federal Administration in English

    Villigen, 10.10.2024 – Catalysts belonging to the zeolite family help to remove toxic nitrogen oxides from industrial emissions. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have now discovered that their complex nano porous structure is crucial. Specifically, individual iron atoms sitting in certain neighbouring pores communicate with each other, thereby driving the desired reaction.

    Industry produces gases that are harmful to both humans and the environment and therefore must be prevented from escaping. These include nitric oxide and nitrous oxide, the latter also known as laughing gas. Both can be produced simultaneously when manufacturing fertilisers, for example. To remove them from the waste gases, companies use zeolite-based catalysts. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, in collaboration with the Swiss chemical company CASALE SA, have now worked out the details of how these catalysts render the combination of these two nitrogen oxides harmless. The results of their research have been published in the journal Nature Catalysis and provide clues as to how the catalysts could be improved in the future.

    An entire zoo of iron species

    “The Lugano-based company CASALE contacted us because they wanted to develop a better understanding of how their catalysts used for the abatement of nitrogen oxide actually work,” says Davide Ferri, head of the Applied Catalysis and Spectroscopy research group at the PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences. The zeolites used for this are composed of aluminium, oxygen and silicon atoms forming a kind of framework. Zeolites occur naturally – as minerals in rock formations, for example – or they can be manufactured synthetically. Many catalysts used in the chemical industry are based on these compounds, with additional elements added to the basic structure depending on the specific application.

    When the zeolite framework also contains iron as an active substance, it enables the conversion of the two nitrogen oxides, nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide(N2O), into harmless molecules. “However, these iron atoms can be located in many different positions of the zeolite framework and can possess various forms,” says Filippo Buttignol, a member of Ferri’s group. He is the principal author of the new study, which he conducted as part of his doctoral thesis. “The iron can lodge in the small spaces of the zeolite in the form of single atoms, or else several iron atoms can bound together and with oxygen atoms in slightly larger spaces in the regular lattice as diatomic, multiatomic or polyatomic clusters.” In short, the catalyst contains an entire zoo of different iron species. “We wanted to know which of these iron species is actually responsible for the catalysis of nitrogen oxides.”

    The researchers, who specialise in spectroscopic analyses, knew exactly which three types of experiment they needed to carry out to answer this question. They performed these while the catalytic reaction was taking place in their zeolite sample. First they used the Swiss Light Source SLS at PSI to analyse the process using X-ray absorption spectroscopy. “This allowed us to look at all the iron species simultaneously,” explains Buttignol. Next, in collaboration with ETH Zurich, they used electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to identify the contribution of each species. And finally – again at PSI – the scientists used infrared spectroscopy to determine the molecular aspect of the different iron species.

    Catalysis happens at individual but communicating atoms

    Each of these three methods contributed a piece of the puzzle, eventually leading to the following overall picture: Catalysis takes place at single iron atoms which are located in two very specific, neighbouring sites of the zeolite lattice. During the process, these two iron atoms act in concert with each other. One of them, sitting at the centre of four oxygen atoms in the zeolite arranged in the form of a square and responsible specifically to convert nitrous oxide, communicates with a different iron atom, which is surrounded by oxygen atoms arranged in the form of a tetrahedron and at which the nitric oxide reacts.

    “Only where this precise arrangement is found do we see iron contributing to the catalysis of the simultaneous abatement of the two gases,” says Buttignol. Each of these iron atoms gave up an electron and took it back again, in other words the typical redox reaction of catalysis took place there over and over again.

    Removing hazardous nitrogen oxides more efficiently

    Ferri sums up the significance of the new study: “If you know exactly where the chemical reaction takes place, you can start adjusting the manufacture of catalysts accordingly.”

    The catalysis of nitric oxide and nitrous oxide and thus their removal from industrial waste gases is important because both are toxic to humans. Beyond this, both gases are also harmful to the environment: nitric oxide is one of the causes of acid rain, while nitrous oxide has such a strong impact on the climate that one molecule of it contributes almost 300 times more to the greenhouse effect than a molecule of carbon dioxide.

    Text: Paul Scherrer Institut PSI/Laura Hennemann

    Technical terms explained

    Catalyst: A material that enables a chemical reaction to take place which would otherwise be much more difficult to achieve. Individual atoms or agglomerates of atoms of the catalytic material can move to and from between different chemical states (see redox reaction), but always return to their original state. This means that a catalyst is neither consumed nor permanently altered during the process.

    Spectroscopy: Spectroscopic analyses use visible light or other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (including ultraviolet and infrared radiation, as well as X-rays, microwaves and other spectral ranges, all of which are invisible to the human eye). Many different techniques exist, which differ in their details. What they all have in common is that the light interacts with the sample and the result reveals information about certain aspects or properties of the sample.

    X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS): This particular spectroscopic analysis uses X-rays. The sample absorbs individual parts of the X-ray spectrum, allowing researchers to deduce certain properties of the sample.

    Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy: This involves placing the sample in a magnetic field and simultaneously irradiating it with microwaves.

    Infrared spectroscopy: The infrared range of the spectrum can be used to excite vibrations or rotations of molecules. This means that infrared spectroscopy can be used to quantitatively characterise known substances or to determine the structure of unknown substances.

    Tetrahedron: A tetrahedron is a pyramid whose base is a triangle (as are all its sides).

    Redox reaction: The term redox reaction is a portmanteau for “reduction-oxidation” reaction. In a redox reaction, two chemical substances – a reducing agent or reductant and an oxidising agent or oxidant – exchange electrons. The former loses or donates electrons, while the latter gains or accepts them.

    About PSI

    The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI develops, builds and operates large, complex research facilities and makes them available to the national and international research community. The institute’s own key research priorities are in the fields of future technologies, energy and climate, health innovation and fundamentals of nature. PSI is committed to the training of future generations. Therefore about one quarter of our staff are post-docs, post-graduates or apprentices. Altogether PSI employs 2300 people, thus being the largest research institute in Switzerland. The annual budget amounts to approximately CHF 460 million. PSI is part of the ETH Domain, with the other members being the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne, as well as Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology), Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) and WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research).

    Original publication

    F. Buttignol, J. W. A. Fischer, A. H. Clark, M. Elsener, A. Garbujo, P. Biasi, I. Czekaj, M. Nachtegaal, G. Jeschke, O. Kröcher and D. Ferri
    Iron-catalyzed cooperative red-ox mechanism for the simultaneous conversion of nitrous oxide and nitric oxide
    Nature Catalysis, 10.10.2024 (online)
    DOI: 10.1038/s41929-024-01231-3

    Address for enquiries

    Dr Davide Ferri
    PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences
    Paul Scherrer Institute PSI
    +41 56 310 27 81
    davide.ferri@psi.ch
    [German, English, French, Italian]

    Dr Filippo Buttignol
    PSI Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences
    Paul Scherrer Institute PSI
    +41 56 310 37 58
    filippo.buttignol@psi.ch
    [English, Italian]

    Publisher

    Paul Scherrer Institut

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Proposal to reduce wolf protections – E-001944/2024

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-001944/2024
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Isabel Serra Sánchez (The Left)

    The European Commission’s recent proposal to lower the level of protection for wolves is a threat to the still pending achievement of the wolf recovery objective, as set out in both the Bern Convention and the Habitats Directive. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, six out of nine transboundary wolf populations in the EU are ‘vulnerable’ or ‘near threatened’. Reducing their level of protection at this point would compromise the objective of achieving viable and stable wolf populations.

    In addition to the fact that the proposal to lower protection has no scientific basis, the Commission itself confirmed in its analysis that hunting does not reduce predation on domestic livestock.

    In light of the above:

    • 1.How does the Commission assess the risk posed to the future of the wolf by reducing the level of protection accorded to the species?
    • 2.How will the Commission ensure that wolves cannot be hunted in countries where they are not in a favourable conservation status?
    • 3.How will the Commission ensure that any future changes to species included in the Habitats Directive will be based on science and not on political interests?

    Submitted: 3.10.2024

    Last updated: 10 October 2024

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Speech by DSJ at Spanish National Day Reception in Hong Kong (English only) (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         Following is the speech by the Deputy Secretary for Justice, Mr Cheung Kwok-kwan, at the Spanish National Day Reception in Hong Kong today (October 10):
     
    Consul General (Consul General of Spain in Hong Kong, Mr Miguel Aguirre de Cárcer), Deputy Commissioner Fang Jianming (Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
     
         Good evening. I’m delighted to be here tonight to celebrate the national day of Spain. This is a proud and festive occasion throughout Spain, one of the major economies in the European Union.
     
         A celebration, too, of the growing ties between our two economies.
     
         Less than three weeks ago, the Financial Secretary visited Madrid, leading a high-profile delegation of Hong Kong start-up companies, together with the heads of Hong Kong Science Park and Cyberport.
     
         Over three fruitful days, the Financial Secretary and his delegation visited a variety of Spanish start-ups, investors and corporate representatives, such as start-up accelerators IMPACT and Wayra, and Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica, and met with the Director General of CDTI (the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación), which promotes I&T (innovation and technology) co-operation between Spain and other economies.
     
         They also met with Spain Startup President and officials from IE University, the organisers of the renowned innovation and entrepreneurship event South Summit, which brings together a world of start-ups, investors, and entrepreneurs each year. The Financial Secretary welcomed the prospect of holding the South Summit in Hong Kong, and for good reasons.
     
         Asia’s super-connector, Hong Kong is at the heart of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and its consumer-powered population of more than 80 million people. Technology and innovation will drive the flourishing future of both Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
     
         Hong Kong is also among the world’s leading financial centres – placing third worldwide and topping the Asia-Pacific in the latest Global Financial Centres Index. Also, in the World Bank Group Business Ready 2024 Report which was just published last week, Hong Kong is among the top ten performers among 50 economies covered in that report. 
     
         We are familiar with the common law and we have connection with the Mainland legal system through a number of very important mutual legal assistance arrangements. Hong Kong is also a unique gateway. We can help Spanish start-ups find markets, and fund their expansion in the Mainland China and throughout Asia.
     
         Our legal co-operation with Spain is also well-established. I’m pleased to say that there has been well-established regimes for legal co-operation on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, and the co-operation has been smooth and effective.
     
         Our good ties extend to culture and culinary creativity, too. This year’s Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival opens in less than two weeks at Central Harbourfont. And I know Hong Kong will revel in the Festival’s Spanish gourmet delights and featured wine and spirit tastings. They will surely be among the highlights of this year’s Wine & Dine Festival. I’ll see you there.
     
         And now, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a toast: to the people of Spain.      

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Humanity’s future depends on our ability to live in harmony with nature

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Liette Vasseur, Professor, Biological Sciences, Brock University

    The world is facing multiple — potentially catastrophic — crises, including inequality, poverty, food insecurity, climate change and biodiversity loss. These issues are interconnected and require systemic solutions, as changes in one system affects others.

    However, human systems have largely failed to acknowledge their connection to ecological systems. Most modern societies have dominating and exploitative relationships with nature, which are underpinned by imperialist and dualistic thinking that divides living beings into racial, gender, class or species hierarchies.

    Our current mindset, with its focus on competition, growth and profit, has been a key contributor to social and ecological crises. Even more alarming is that this mindset has depleted nature to the point that it may soon fail to sustain human and non-human lives entirely.

    Sustainable and equitable well-being

    Policies for future survival and prosperity must address the interconnected crises affecting the world today. These challenges are pushing social and economic systems beyond their sustainable limits.

    While current sustainability efforts, such as those outlined in Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity — a collaboration between scientists and economists from around the world — and the United Nations’ Pact for the Future offer pathways for action, they often fall short. These initiatives, though well-intentioned, remain rooted in a business-as-usual approach.



    Read more:
    Have we reached the end of nature? Our relationship with the environment is in crisis

    This isn’t enough. What’s needed is a transformative shift in how we interact with the natural world. A reciprocal relationship between humans and nature, where humans give back to the environment as much as we take, is essential. Sustainable and equitable well-being must be placed at the centre of human societies.

    Central to this transformation is the need to ensure good lives for all while staying within the Earth’s planetary boundaries. These boundaries are the limits within which humanity can safely operate without causing irreversible environmental harm. This will require a new economic mindset that enables people to live with nature, instead of destroying it.

    Change is daunting, but possible

    Though the scale of change needed may seem daunting, it’s achievable and already in motion in some places. In many communities around the world, like Puget Sound on the northwestern coast of Washington state, people are already living in ways that allow humans and ecosystems to flourish.

    In other regions, like Ecuador and Sumas First Nation, new possibilities are emerging for building human societies that operate within the planetary boundaries. Humans are exceptionally adaptable and have the advantage of foresight and the ability to transform entire systems through ethical collaboration.

    Individual action is one necessary element to accelerate this shift. Change often starts small, with individuals and small groups adjusting their lives. But while personal choices do matter, individuals must also push for systemic changes in their communities, organizations, and broader society.

    To make nature-connected living more widely accessible, collaborative, equitable and intentional efforts are needed. This involves intercultural communication, collaboration and open dialogue to ensure diverse perspectives are considered in decision-making processes.

    Thoughtfully considering the direct and indirect impacts of our action, including the immediate and long-term consequences of any decisions, will create more equitable and sustainable systems.

    People looking to create meaningful change should seek to support a range of groups and organizations dedicated to environmental and social justice. This includes Indigenous leaders and treaty protocols, local authorities, environmental advocacy groups, community organizations or labour unions. A good example of this is the work being done by the UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserves.

    Alternative ways of knowing

    The problems facing the world today are vast and multifaceted, and need to be addressed in multiple ways. Both formal knowledge, like scientific research, and informal knowledge, through the Two-Eyed Seeing principle have roles to play in fostering more equitable nature-human relationships.

    Although western scientific knowledge is often centred in evidence based discussion, many valuable solutions stem from alternative ways of knowing, such as Indigenous ecological knowledge. By welcoming and supporting diverse knowledge holders in creating solutions, we can expand the range of approaches, successes and failures from which humanity can learn.

    Creativity — the essence of adaptability — flourishes when different knowledge systems are woven together. However, this must be done ethically and involve consensual and collaborative exchanges to ensure no knowledge system is exploited or undervalued. We must be careful to avoid repeating the mistakes of imperialism and domination that have created our current planetary crises.

    In addition to rethinking how we approach knowledge, rebuilding strong, interconnected relationships between humans and nature also means rethinking our technological systems.

    Technological innovation has been used to exploit the Earth for short-term gains, but it also holds great potential for positive change. It can either maintain or disrupt the status quo, depending on how we use it.

    To build healthier relationships between people and nature, human societies need to adopt a systems thinking approach. This approach looks at the bigger picture, considering the ecological, cultural, political and social aspects of technology in an integrated manner. It ensures that innovation is guided by principles of sustainability and equity.

    What the future holds

    The future will bring massive changes to Earth’s natural environments, accompanied by shocks to political economic and social systems. The survival of human and non-human beings depends on our ability to plan for these challenges.

    Climate change, biodiversity loss and resource depletion are not isolated problems — they are part of an interconnected web of crises that demand urgent and comprehensive action.

    Incremental approaches are not enough to address the scale of these looming threats. Purposefully co-ordinated actions are needed to shift the current trajectory away from exploitation to one of mutual benefit for humans and the natural world.

    What is needed is radical transformation aimed at creating just and flourishing relationships between nature and humanity for the benefit of all current and future life on Earth.

    Christie Manning, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Macalester College; Jacqueline Corbett, Professor of Information Systems, Université Laval; and Simone Bignall, Senior Researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, co-authored this article.

    Liette Vasseur receives funding from New Frontiers Research Program Exploration program in Canada.

    Anders Hayden and Mike Jones do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Humanity’s future depends on our ability to live in harmony with nature – https://theconversation.com/humanitys-future-depends-on-our-ability-to-live-in-harmony-with-nature-233042

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: During Children’s Health Month, NH Delegation Applauds More Than $19 Million to Protect Children from Lead Poisoning

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH)

    The New Hampshire delegation applauded the announcement of more than $19 million headed to New Hampshire from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Lead Hazard Reduction Grant program to help protect families with small children from the dangers of lead-based paint exposure. Specifically, the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority is receiving $7.75 million, the City of Nashua is receiving $7.7 million, and Sullivan County is receiving $4 million through the grant program.

    “The health of our children must always be a top priority, and protecting them from lead and other hazardous materials is essential in this effort,” said Congressman Pappas. “These funds will help New Hampshire families address lead-based paint and other health issues within our older housing supply to ensure our kids can grow up in a safe environment. I’ll continue working to address the needs of our children, families, and communities.”

    “Lead-based paint poses a serious health threat to children, and in states like New Hampshire where many of our neighborhoods have older housing stock, we must make every effort to protect families,” said Senator Shaheen. “This federal funding will help protect Granite State children from lead poisoning and exposure to other dangerous contaminants in their homes.”

    “New Hampshire’s children need safe places to live in order to thrive, but lead-based paint in older homes continues to jeopardize their health and development,” said Senator Hassan. “This federal funding to fix homes with lead paint is not only an important investment in the health of our children, but it also will preserve access to affordable housing in New Hampshire – giving more Granite Staters the safe homes and communities that they deserve.”

    “The science is clear: there is no safe amount of lead exposure—particularly for young children,” said Congresswoman Kuster. “I’m pleased to join the rest of the delegation in welcoming these resources heading to Nashua, Bedford, and Newport to help remediate older homes and apartments that contain lead paint and protect our communities from hazardous chemicals.”

    The bipartisan infrastructure law, which the full delegation supported, invested a historic $15 billion to identify and replace lead service lines.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Drug Maker Teva Pharmaceuticals Agrees to Pay $450M in False Claims Act Settlement to Resolve Kickback Allegations Relating to Copayments and Price Fixing

    Source: US State of Vermont

    Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. (Teva USA) and Teva Neuroscience Inc. (collectively, Teva) have agreed to pay $450 million to resolve two matters that allege Teva violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the False Claims Act (FCA). Teva, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, is the largest generic drug manufacturer in the United States. The settlement amount was based on Teva’s ability to pay.

    “Kickbacks designed to induce referrals or purchases of healthcare goods or services distort physician and patient decision-making, thwart competition and bypass controls put in place to protect federal health care programs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Justice Department is committed to pursuing those who engage in kickback violations, including drug manufacturers, to ensure that federal health care programs continue to serve the interests of taxpayers and program beneficiaries.”

    The settlement encompasses two alleged kickback schemes. First, Teva has agreed to resolve allegations in a complaint the United States filed in the District of Massachusetts in August 2020 that Teva violated and conspired to violate the AKS and FCA by paying Medicare patients’ cost sharing obligations (copays) for the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone from 2006 through 2017, while steadily raising Copaxone’s price. In particular, the United States alleged that Teva coordinated and conspired with multiple third parties, including a specialty pharmacy and two allegedly independent copay assistance foundations, to ensure that purported donations to the foundations were used specifically to cover the copays of Medicare Copaxone patients, which Teva knew was prohibited by the AKS, and that Teva thereby caused the submission of false claims to Medicare.

    Second, Teva USA has agreed to resolve separate allegations that it conspired with other generic drug manufacturers to fix prices for pravastatin, a drug widely used to treat high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as two other generic drugs, clotrimazole and tobramycin. Teva USA previously entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to resolve related criminal charges. Teva USA paid a criminal penalty of $225 million and admitted to conspiring with three other generic drug companies to fix prices on certain generic drugs. Under the civil settlement announced today, Teva agreed to resolve allegations that the benefits it received under its price fixing scheme constituted illegal kickbacks.

    Teva will pay collectively $450 million to resolve the two kickback schemes. This payment is in addition to the criminal penalty paid by Teva USA under its deferred prosecution agreement. 

    “Kickback arrangements by pharmaceutical companies escalate the costs for critical drugs used by our citizens and federal health care programs,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “My office is proud to work with the rest of the Department of Justice and our investigative partners to enforce federal laws prohibiting kickback arrangements. We will continue to take action to lower the drug costs for our country and its health care programs supporting senior citizens, our military service members and others.”

    “For far too long, Teva gamed the charitable foundation process by paying kickbacks through two foundations, and with the aid of a specialty pharmacy. Those kickbacks undermined the purpose of the Medicare co-pay system and violated the Anti-Kickback Statute,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy for the District of Massachusetts. “This office has taken the leading role in cracking down on these highly lucrative schemes that drive up the cost of essential drugs by bringing multiple enforcement actions that have returned more than $1 billion to the Medicare system. We will continue to pursue these actions to ensure that all pharmaceutical companies play by the rules and to protect the American taxpayers.

    “The Medicare program’s copay structure serves as a safeguard against the artificial inflation of drug prices. When a pharmaceutical company manipulates drug prices through collusion, or disguises kickbacks as charitable donations to subsidize copays for its own drugs, the integrity of the Medicare program is jeopardized,” said Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Adam Globerman of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “This type of conduct is unacceptable, and HHS-OIG remains committed to thoroughly pursuing allegations of price fixing and kickbacks that put the Medicare program at risk.”

    “The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the law enforcement arm of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, seeks to protect the integrity of TRICARE, the healthcare system for U.S. military members and their dependents,” said Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Hegarty of DCIS Northeast Field Office. “When pharmaceutical corporations artificially inflate prices, they place an unnecessary financial burden on the TRICARE program. The settlement agreement announced today demonstrates our commitment to partner with investigative agencies and the Department of Justice, including the Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to combat healthcare fraud.”

    Since 2017, the United States has collected over $1 billion, in addition to today’s settlement, from pharmaceutical companies that allegedly used third-party foundations as conduits to unlawfully pay patient copays. The department has also reached settlements with four foundations and a specialty pharmacy pertaining to those allegations. Today’s resolution with Teva is the largest of these settlements to date. The settlement of Teva’s price fixing conduct is the seventh pertaining to allegations of price fixing involving generic drugs, with total recoveries exceeding $500 million.

    The government’s pursuit of these matters illustrates the department’s emphasis on combating health care fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to HHS at 800‑HHS‑TIPS (800-447-8477).

    The resolution of the patient copay matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, with investigative support from HHS-OIG and the FBI.

    Attorneys Douglas Rosenthal and Nelson Wagner of the Civil Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Abraham R. George, Diane Seol and Evan Panich for the District of Massachusetts handled the matter.

    The civil resolution of the price fixing matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, with investigative support from HHS-OIG, the Defense Health Agency Program Integrity Office, DCIS and Office of Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    Senior Trial Counsel Jennifer L. Cihon and Senior Litigation Counsel Laurie A. Oberembt of the Civil Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Landon Y. Jones III, Rebecca S. Melley and Anthony D. Scicchitano for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania handled the matter. Fraud Section financial analyst Sheryl Paynter provided support for both matters.

    The civil action in Massachusetts is captioned United States v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. et al., No. 20-cv-11548 (DMA).  

    DMA Settlement

    EDPA Settlement

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Drug Maker Teva Pharmaceuticals Agrees to Pay $450M in False Claims Act Settlement to Resolve Kickback Allegations Relating to Copayments and Price Fixing

    Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

    Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. (Teva USA) and Teva Neuroscience Inc. (collectively, Teva) have agreed to pay $450 million to resolve two matters that allege Teva violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the False Claims Act (FCA). Teva, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, is the largest generic drug manufacturer in the United States. The settlement amount was based on Teva’s ability to pay.

    “Kickbacks designed to induce referrals or purchases of healthcare goods or services distort physician and patient decision-making, thwart competition and bypass controls put in place to protect federal health care programs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Justice Department is committed to pursuing those who engage in kickback violations, including drug manufacturers, to ensure that federal health care programs continue to serve the interests of taxpayers and program beneficiaries.”

    The settlement encompasses two alleged kickback schemes. First, Teva has agreed to resolve allegations in a complaint the United States filed in the District of Massachusetts in August 2020 that Teva violated and conspired to violate the AKS and FCA by paying Medicare patients’ cost sharing obligations (copays) for the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone from 2006 through 2017, while steadily raising Copaxone’s price. In particular, the United States alleged that Teva coordinated and conspired with multiple third parties, including a specialty pharmacy and two allegedly independent copay assistance foundations, to ensure that purported donations to the foundations were used specifically to cover the copays of Medicare Copaxone patients, which Teva knew was prohibited by the AKS, and that Teva thereby caused the submission of false claims to Medicare.

    Second, Teva USA has agreed to resolve separate allegations that it conspired with other generic drug manufacturers to fix prices for pravastatin, a drug widely used to treat high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as two other generic drugs, clotrimazole and tobramycin. Teva USA previously entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to resolve related criminal charges. Teva USA paid a criminal penalty of $225 million and admitted to conspiring with three other generic drug companies to fix prices on certain generic drugs. Under the civil settlement announced today, Teva agreed to resolve allegations that the benefits it received under its price fixing scheme constituted illegal kickbacks.

    Teva will pay collectively $450 million to resolve the two kickback schemes. This payment is in addition to the criminal penalty paid by Teva USA under its deferred prosecution agreement. 

    “Kickback arrangements by pharmaceutical companies escalate the costs for critical drugs used by our citizens and federal health care programs,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “My office is proud to work with the rest of the Department of Justice and our investigative partners to enforce federal laws prohibiting kickback arrangements. We will continue to take action to lower the drug costs for our country and its health care programs supporting senior citizens, our military service members and others.”

    “For far too long, Teva gamed the charitable foundation process by paying kickbacks through two foundations, and with the aid of a specialty pharmacy. Those kickbacks undermined the purpose of the Medicare co-pay system and violated the Anti-Kickback Statute,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy for the District of Massachusetts. “This office has taken the leading role in cracking down on these highly lucrative schemes that drive up the cost of essential drugs by bringing multiple enforcement actions that have returned more than $1 billion to the Medicare system. We will continue to pursue these actions to ensure that all pharmaceutical companies play by the rules and to protect the American taxpayers.

    “The Medicare program’s copay structure serves as a safeguard against the artificial inflation of drug prices. When a pharmaceutical company manipulates drug prices through collusion, or disguises kickbacks as charitable donations to subsidize copays for its own drugs, the integrity of the Medicare program is jeopardized,” said Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Adam Globerman of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “This type of conduct is unacceptable, and HHS-OIG remains committed to thoroughly pursuing allegations of price fixing and kickbacks that put the Medicare program at risk.”

    “The Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the law enforcement arm of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, seeks to protect the integrity of TRICARE, the healthcare system for U.S. military members and their dependents,” said Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Hegarty of DCIS Northeast Field Office. “When pharmaceutical corporations artificially inflate prices, they place an unnecessary financial burden on the TRICARE program. The settlement agreement announced today demonstrates our commitment to partner with investigative agencies and the Department of Justice, including the Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to combat healthcare fraud.”

    Since 2017, the United States has collected over $1 billion, in addition to today’s settlement, from pharmaceutical companies that allegedly used third-party foundations as conduits to unlawfully pay patient copays. The department has also reached settlements with four foundations and a specialty pharmacy pertaining to those allegations. Today’s resolution with Teva is the largest of these settlements to date. The settlement of Teva’s price fixing conduct is the seventh pertaining to allegations of price fixing involving generic drugs, with total recoveries exceeding $500 million.

    The government’s pursuit of these matters illustrates the department’s emphasis on combating health care fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to HHS at 800‑HHS‑TIPS (800-447-8477).

    The resolution of the patient copay matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, with investigative support from HHS-OIG and the FBI.

    Attorneys Douglas Rosenthal and Nelson Wagner of the Civil Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Abraham R. George, Diane Seol and Evan Panich for the District of Massachusetts handled the matter.

    The civil resolution of the price fixing matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, with investigative support from HHS-OIG, the Defense Health Agency Program Integrity Office, DCIS and Office of Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    Senior Trial Counsel Jennifer L. Cihon and Senior Litigation Counsel Laurie A. Oberembt of the Civil Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Landon Y. Jones III, Rebecca S. Melley and Anthony D. Scicchitano for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania handled the matter. Fraud Section financial analyst Sheryl Paynter provided support for both matters.

    The civil action in Massachusetts is captioned United States v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. et al., No. 20-cv-11548 (DMA).  

    DMA Settlement

    EDPA Settlement

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: The Justice Department’s Executive Office for U.S. Trustees announced today the appointment of three Assistant U.S. Trustees to offices in Missouri, Ohio and Washington.

    Source: US State of Vermont

    The Justice Department’s Executive Office for U.S. Trustees announced today the appointment of three Assistant U.S. Trustees to offices in Missouri, Ohio and Washington.

    Jill Parsons was appointed in September as the Assistant U.S. Trustee for the Kansas City office, which serves the Western District of Missouri (Region 13). Before joining the U.S. Trustee Program (USTP), Parsons served as a chapter 7 panel trustee since 2009 and practiced bankruptcy law, representing both creditors and debtors in Kansas City for over 20 years. Parsons received her bachelor’s degree in English from Weber State University and her law degree with honors from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

    Angela Abreu was appointed in August as the Assistant U.S. Trustee for the Cleveland office, which serves the Northern District of Ohio (Region 9). Abreu joined the USTP after several years in private practice specializing in creditors’ rights and chapter 7 bankruptcy practice. Most recently, Abreu was a corporate vice president and loss mitigation manager at a regional bank. Abreu received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and general administration of justice from Saint Vincent College and her law degree cum laude from Duquesne University. 

    Hilary Mohr was appointed in August as the Assistant U.S. Trustee for the Seattle office, which serves the Western District of Washington and the District of Alaska (Region 18). Mohr joined the USTP as a trial attorney in the Seattle office in January 2016 after working as a partner at a Seattle law firm focused primarily on creditors’ rights litigation and bankruptcy matters. Mohr received her bachelor’s degree in political science from University of Washington, worked in the nonprofit sector and received a law degree summa cum laude from Seattle University.

    The USTP’s mission is to promote the integrity and efficiency of the bankruptcy system for the benefit of all stakeholders – debtors, creditors and the public. The USTP consists of 21 regions with 89 field offices nationwide and an Executive Office in Washington, D.C. Learn more about the USTP at http://www.justice.gov/ust. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Health – Whooping cough outbreak prompts calls for urgent action

    Source: Asthma and Respiratory Foundation

    Health experts are calling for urgent widespread vaccination to protect our most vulnerable as whooping cough cases in Aotearoa hit their highest levels in five years.
    The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ, which is supported by leading respiratory specialists, is urging swift preventative measures, particularly for those with existing respiratory conditions.
    Figures from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) show 187 cases reported in September, more than double the previous month’s total of 75.
    Foundation Medical Director Professor Bob Hancox says whooping cough poses serious health risks for people with respiratory conditions.
    “Whooping cough is a life-threatening illness for young babies, but can also cause serious illness in those already struggling with respiratory issues.
    “It can exacerbate symptoms, leading to hospitalisations or even fatalities.”
    Even among people without respiratory disease, it can cause a nasty illness with a cough that can last for months, Professor Hancox says.
    “So it is crucial that we take this spike in cases seriously – vaccination is our best and strongest defence to protect those who are most vulnerable.”
    Whooping cough, or Bordetella pertussis, is a highly contagious illness.
    According to Healthify, on average, each person with whooping cough passes the infection on to 12 other people.
    Whooping cough causes bouts of intense coughing and trouble breathing. Each bout may last for two or three minutes, and the cough can last three months.
    It can cause serious illness and sometimes death in babies, young children and older adults.
    Foundation Chief Executive Ms Letitia Harding says the best action we can take to protect each other, including the 1 in 5 Kiwis affected by respiratory disease, is to get vaccinated.
    “As we face the risk of a widespread outbreak, it is critical for at-risk individuals to be vaccinated.
    “This includes pregnant people, babies, and older adults with pre-existing respiratory conditions,” she says.
    “The reality is that whooping cough can be fatal, so we are urging all Kiwis to do their part.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Nadler and Garamendi Introduce Legislation to Codify the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection On Children’s Environmental Health Day

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (10th District of New York)

    Today, U.S House Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and John Garamendi (D-CA) introduced the Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024, legislation to codify into law the only office within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dedicated to children’s health, the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP). This office would be responsible for rulemaking, policy, enforcement actions, research and applications of science that focuses on prenatal and childhood vulnerabilities, safe chemicals management; and coordination of community-based programs to eliminate threats to children’s health where they live, learn and play. 

    Similarly, the legislation would also make the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee a permanent advisory committee. This advisory committee will advise the EPA Administrator in regards to the activities of the Office of Children’s Health Protection, all relevant information regarding regulations, research, and communications related to children’s health, and continue to serve the EPA in protecting children from environmental harm. 

    The Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024 aims to ensure that no future President will be able to remove these safeguards that help shield children from environmental harms to their health. 

    “On Children’s Environmental Health Day, which highlights the urgent need to address the unique health risks children face from environmental factors, I am proud to introduce the Children’s Health Protection Act,” said Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY). “By codifying the 1997 Executive Order that created the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection—the only office within the EPA dedicated to children’s health—this bill makes certain that the Office will remain a critical resource for our children, no matter who is in the White House.”

    “I am thrilled to partner with Congressman Nadler to protect children from exposure to toxic pollutants like lead and address health risks such as poor indoor air quality in our nation’s schools,” said Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA). “Our bill will ensure that the EPA prioritizes safeguarding children’s health, allowing them to grow up and become the next generation of American leaders. In 2018, the Trump Administration attempted to eliminate the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection, which plays a crucial role in ensuring that federal regulations for chemicals and other toxic substances account for children’s unique health needs. Congressman Nadler and I have introduced this commonsense bill to prevent any future administration from making such a reckless decision.”

    In addition to Representatives Nadler and Garamendi, the bill also cosponsored by Representatives Grijalva, Evans, Watson Coleman, Holmes Norton, Salinas, Tlaib, Moulton, Kamlager-Dove, and Bush. 

    BACKGROUND:

    Since its creation in 1997 through Executive Order, the EPA’s OCHP has been crucial in protecting children, who are uniquely vulnerable, from environmental hazards. It has done so through policy, research focusing on their unique prenatal and childhood health vulnerabilities, safe chemicals management, and coordination of community-based programs to eliminate threats to children’s health.

    The OCHP also studies how natural disasters affect children’s health, not only through exposure to hazards like mold and water-borne pathogens but also by analyzing the mental toll of displacement and loss. 

    The Children’s Health Protection Act will ensure this vital work continues by strengthening and securing the OCHP and the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee.

    The Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024 is endorsed by a wide range of health advocacy groups and environmental justice organizations, including: Allergy & Asthma Network, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Lung Association, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, California Brain Tumor Association, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Climate Psychiatry Alliance, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, Health Care Without Harm, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology: North America Chapter, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, Moms Clean Air Force, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Center for Healthy Housing, National Environmental Health Association, Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Maine, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Texas, Physicians for Social Responsibility of Pennsylvania, Prevention Institute, Rachel Carson Council, Rachel’s Network, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sears-Swetland Family Foundation, Society for Public Health Education, Toxics Information Project (TIP), and 350 Bay Area Action.

    WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

    “It is very fitting that on Children’s Environmental Health Day, a day of action for and with our youth, Representative Nadler is introducing The Children’s Protection Act,” said Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, Executive Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network. “This Act would mandate that all aspects of a child’s well-being – health, education, safety, family and community unity, economic security and mobility, development, and identity – are foundational in developing new regulations that impact children in the United States and around the world. We have never seen an intention like this comprehensive approach to protecting all children, especially the most marginalized. It is critical and urgent for policy leaders to take a strong stand for the health and safety of children today and for generations to come.”

    “Children are the brightest part about our future,” said Deb Brown, Chief Mission Officer of the American Lung Association. “That’s why it’s critical to do everything we can to protect them. With lungs and other organs that are still developing, children are more vulnerable to the health harms from air pollution. Ensuring there will continue to be an office and a team dedicated to protecting the health of children from environmental hazards is a small step that will reap large benefits for our future.”

    “Nearly 5 million children in the United States have asthma, and asthma causes more missed school days than any other chronic disease,” said Kenneth Mendez, President and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). “Environmental factors such as poor indoor air quality and outdoor air pollution play a role in making asthma symptoms worse. That’s why we need the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection – to focus attention on steps to reduce asthma triggers. We thank Rep. Nadler for introducing this legislation to make this office permanent and ensure the health concerns of children are at the forefront of the EPA’s work.”

    “There are big gaps in our understanding of the long-term health outcomes resulting from exposure to the great number of toxins we’ve dumped into the environment over the last 50+ years,” said Sydney R. Sewall, MD, MPH, Pediatrician and President of Physicians for Social Responsibility (Maine Chapter). “We do know that children are at greatest risk, and more EPA policies need to be directed at reducing this risk.”

    “Children, and especially Black and Brown children, are uniquely vulnerable to the adverse health impacts  – both physical and mental – of air pollution, extreme weather and environmental injustice,” said Almeta Cooper, National Manager for Health Equity of the Moms Clean Air Force. “Moms Clean Air Force is proud to endorse this legislation, which makes children’s health a permanent factor in EPA decision-making.”

    “Children are disproportionately impacted by their environment because their bodies are still developing,” said Dr. David Dyjack, CEO of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). “They are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, hazardous chemicals and contaminated water. This bill will help to ensure that EPA maintains an Office of Childrens’ Health Protection to ensure better health and a better future for our children.”

    “Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) commends Representative Nadler for safeguarding the health of children by introducing legislation to make the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection and the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee permanent fixtures,” said Paige Knappenberger, Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Environment and Health Program. “As physicians, PSR members know that children have unique vulnerabilities to environmental harms like climate change and air pollution and deserve special protections from these harms so they can have safe places to grow, play and learn.”

    “Pediatric nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) deal every day with the harmful effects of environmental threats to the health of our nation’s children and adolescents,” said Dr. Daniel Crawford, President of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). “The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection and the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee play critically important roles in recognizing that children are often more likely to be at greater risk from environmental hazards than adults and that evidence-based federal policies eliminate or reduce those threats. NAPNAP applauds Congressman Nadler’s effort to permanently establish these important offices.”

    “The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments enthusiastically endorses Rep. Nadler’s bill introduced this week, the “Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024”, said Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. “This bill aims to make the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP) and the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee permanent. Established in 1997, OCHP is the only office within EPA dedicated to the health of children and as such, it safeguards our children from potential environmental harms to their health. We strongly urge members of Congress to support this bill to avoid any possibility of future administrations dismantling of this crucial office.”

    “Since their inception in 1997, the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Office (the Office) and the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (the Committee) have been key in increasing the environmental health literacy in our country,” said the Rachel Carson Council. “Tasked with research, rulemaking, policymaking, and enforcement, the Office addresses chemical management, community programs, and more to tackle threats to prenatal and childhood environmental threats. The Committee has played an instrumental role in advising the EPA Administrator on the priorities of the Office. While the Office and Committee have been revitalized by the Biden-Harris Administration over the last four years, hostile administrations have attempted to de-staff and even dismantle these pillars of environmental justice for children, and they are susceptible to the same threats in the event of a less amenable administration taking office in the future. The Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024 will prove crucial in shielding children from the environmental harms that could affect millions across the United States. If passed, this bill would permanently establish both the Office and the Committee within the EPA, so that prenatal and childhood environmental harm reduction is a fortified, standing priority in the Agency. We applaud Representative Nadler’s recognition of the need to enshrine the work of the Office and the Committee into law so that some of the most vulnerable members of our society, children, will indefinitely enjoy protections from environmental harm.”

    ###

    The Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024 is endorsed by a wide range of health advocacy groups and environmental justice organizations, including: Allergy & Asthma Network, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Lung Association, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, California Brain Tumor Association, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Climate Psychiatry Alliance, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, Health Care Without Harm, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology: North America Chapter, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, Moms Clean Air Force, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Center for Healthy Housing, National Environmental Health Association, Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Maine, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Texas, Physicians for Social Responsibility of Pennsylvania, Prevention Institute, Rachel Carson Council, Rachel’s Network, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sears-Swetland Family Foundation, Society for Public Health Education, Toxics Information Project (TIP), and 350 Bay Area Action.

    WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

    “It is very fitting that on Children’s Environmental Health Day, a day of action for and with our youth, Representative Nadler is introducing The Children’s Protection Act,” said Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, Executive Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network. “This Act would mandate that all aspects of a child’s well-being – health, education, safety, family and community unity, economic security and mobility, development, and identity – are foundational in developing new regulations that impact children in the United States and around the world. We have never seen an intention like this comprehensive approach to protecting all children, especially the most marginalized. It is critical and urgent for policy leaders to take a strong stand for the health and safety of children today and for generations to come.”

    “Children are the brightest part about our future,” said Deb Brown, Chief Mission Officer of the American Lung Association. “That’s why it’s critical to do everything we can to protect them. With lungs and other organs that are still developing, children are more vulnerable to the health harms from air pollution. Ensuring there will continue to be an office and a team dedicated to protecting the health of children from environmental hazards is a small step that will reap large benefits for our future.”

    “Nearly 5 million children in the United States have asthma, and asthma causes more missed school days than any other chronic disease,” said Kenneth Mendez, President and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). “Environmental factors such as poor indoor air quality and outdoor air pollution play a role in making asthma symptoms worse. That’s why we need the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection – to focus attention on steps to reduce asthma triggers. We thank Rep. Nadler for introducing this legislation to make this office permanent and ensure the health concerns of children are at the forefront of the EPA’s work.”

    “There are big gaps in our understanding of the long-term health outcomes resulting from exposure to the great number of toxins we’ve dumped into the environment over the last 50+ years,” said Sydney R. Sewall, MD, MPH, Pediatrician and President of Physicians for Social Responsibility (Maine Chapter). “We do know that children are at greatest risk, and more EPA policies need to be directed at reducing this risk.”

    “Children, and especially Black and Brown children, are uniquely vulnerable to the adverse health impacts  – both physical and mental – of air pollution, extreme weather and environmental injustice,” said Almeta Cooper, National Manager for Health Equity of the Moms Clean Air Force. “Moms Clean Air Force is proud to endorse this legislation, which makes children’s health a permanent factor in EPA decision-making.”

    “Children are disproportionately impacted by their environment because their bodies are still developing,” said Dr. David Dyjack, CEO of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). “They are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, hazardous chemicals and contaminated water. This bill will help to ensure that EPA maintains an Office of Childrens’ Health Protection to ensure better health and a better future for our children.”

    “Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) commends Representative Nadler for safeguarding the health of children by introducing legislation to make the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection and the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee permanent fixtures,” said Paige Knappenberger, Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Environment and Health Program. “As physicians, PSR members know that children have unique vulnerabilities to environmental harms like climate change and air pollution and deserve special protections from these harms so they can have safe places to grow, play and learn.”

    “Pediatric nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) deal every day with the harmful effects of environmental threats to the health of our nation’s children and adolescents,” said Dr. Daniel Crawford, President of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). “The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection and the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee play critically important roles in recognizing that children are often more likely to be at greater risk from environmental hazards than adults and that evidence-based federal policies eliminate or reduce those threats. NAPNAP applauds Congressman Nadler’s effort to permanently establish these important offices.”

    “The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments enthusiastically endorses Rep. Nadler’s bill introduced this week, the “Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024”, said Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. “This bill aims to make the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP) and the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee permanent. Established in 1997, OCHP is the only office within EPA dedicated to the health of children and as such, it safeguards our children from potential environmental harms to their health. We strongly urge members of Congress to support this bill to avoid any possibility of future administrations dismantling of this crucial office.”

    “Since their inception in 1997, the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Office (the Office) and the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (the Committee) have been key in increasing the environmental health literacy in our country,” said the Rachel Carson Council. “Tasked with research, rulemaking, policymaking, and enforcement, the Office addresses chemical management, community programs, and more to tackle threats to prenatal and childhood environmental threats. The Committee has played an instrumental role in advising the EPA Administrator on the priorities of the Office. While the Office and Committee have been revitalized by the Biden-Harris Administration over the last four years, hostile administrations have attempted to de-staff and even dismantle these pillars of environmental justice for children, and they are susceptible to the same threats in the event of a less amenable administration taking office in the future. The Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024 will prove crucial in shielding children from the environmental harms that could affect millions across the United States. If passed, this bill would permanently establish both the Office and the Committee within the EPA, so that prenatal and childhood environmental harm reduction is a fortified, standing priority in the Agency. We applaud Representative Nadler’s recognition of the need to enshrine the work of the Office and the Committee into law so that some of the most vulnerable members of our society, children, will indefinitely enjoy protections from environmental harm.”

    ###

    The Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024 is endorsed by a wide range of health advocacy groups and environmental justice organizations, including: Allergy & Asthma Network, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American Lung Association, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, California Brain Tumor Association, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Climate Psychiatry Alliance, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, Health Care Without Harm, International Society for Environmental Epidemiology: North America Chapter, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, Moms Clean Air Force, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Center for Healthy Housing, National Environmental Health Association, Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Maine, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Texas, Physicians for Social Responsibility of Pennsylvania, Prevention Institute, Rachel Carson Council, Rachel’s Network, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sears-Swetland Family Foundation, Society for Public Health Education, Toxics Information Project (TIP), and 350 Bay Area Action.

    WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

    “It is very fitting that on Children’s Environmental Health Day, a day of action for and with our youth, Representative Nadler is introducing The Children’s Protection Act,” said Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, Executive Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Network. “This Act would mandate that all aspects of a child’s well-being – health, education, safety, family and community unity, economic security and mobility, development, and identity – are foundational in developing new regulations that impact children in the United States and around the world. We have never seen an intention like this comprehensive approach to protecting all children, especially the most marginalized. It is critical and urgent for policy leaders to take a strong stand for the health and safety of children today and for generations to come.”

    “Children are the brightest part about our future,” said Deb Brown, Chief Mission Officer of the American Lung Association. “That’s why it’s critical to do everything we can to protect them. With lungs and other organs that are still developing, children are more vulnerable to the health harms from air pollution. Ensuring there will continue to be an office and a team dedicated to protecting the health of children from environmental hazards is a small step that will reap large benefits for our future.”

    “Nearly 5 million children in the United States have asthma, and asthma causes more missed school days than any other chronic disease,” said Kenneth Mendez, President and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). “Environmental factors such as poor indoor air quality and outdoor air pollution play a role in making asthma symptoms worse. That’s why we need the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection – to focus attention on steps to reduce asthma triggers. We thank Rep. Nadler for introducing this legislation to make this office permanent and ensure the health concerns of children are at the forefront of the EPA’s work.”

    “There are big gaps in our understanding of the long-term health outcomes resulting from exposure to the great number of toxins we’ve dumped into the environment over the last 50+ years,” said Sydney R. Sewall, MD, MPH, Pediatrician and President of Physicians for Social Responsibility (Maine Chapter). “We do know that children are at greatest risk, and more EPA policies need to be directed at reducing this risk.”

    “Children, and especially Black and Brown children, are uniquely vulnerable to the adverse health impacts  – both physical and mental – of air pollution, extreme weather and environmental injustice,” said Almeta Cooper, National Manager for Health Equity of the Moms Clean Air Force. “Moms Clean Air Force is proud to endorse this legislation, which makes children’s health a permanent factor in EPA decision-making.”

    “Children are disproportionately impacted by their environment because their bodies are still developing,” said Dr. David Dyjack, CEO of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). “They are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, hazardous chemicals and contaminated water. This bill will help to ensure that EPA maintains an Office of Childrens’ Health Protection to ensure better health and a better future for our children.”

    “Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) commends Representative Nadler for safeguarding the health of children by introducing legislation to make the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection and the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee permanent fixtures,” said Paige Knappenberger, Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Environment and Health Program. “As physicians, PSR members know that children have unique vulnerabilities to environmental harms like climate change and air pollution and deserve special protections from these harms so they can have safe places to grow, play and learn.”

    “Pediatric nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) deal every day with the harmful effects of environmental threats to the health of our nation’s children and adolescents,” said Dr. Daniel Crawford, President of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). “The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection and the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee play critically important roles in recognizing that children are often more likely to be at greater risk from environmental hazards than adults and that evidence-based federal policies eliminate or reduce those threats. NAPNAP applauds Congressman Nadler’s effort to permanently establish these important offices.”

    “The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments enthusiastically endorses Rep. Nadler’s bill introduced this week, the “Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024”, said Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. “This bill aims to make the EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP) and the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee permanent. Established in 1997, OCHP is the only office within EPA dedicated to the health of children and as such, it safeguards our children from potential environmental harms to their health. We strongly urge members of Congress to support this bill to avoid any possibility of future administrations dismantling of this crucial office.”

    “Since their inception in 1997, the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Office (the Office) and the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (the Committee) have been key in increasing the environmental health literacy in our country,” said the Rachel Carson Council. “Tasked with research, rulemaking, policymaking, and enforcement, the Office addresses chemical management, community programs, and more to tackle threats to prenatal and childhood environmental threats. The Committee has played an instrumental role in advising the EPA Administrator on the priorities of the Office. While the Office and Committee have been revitalized by the Biden-Harris Administration over the last four years, hostile administrations have attempted to de-staff and even dismantle these pillars of environmental justice for children, and they are susceptible to the same threats in the event of a less amenable administration taking office in the future. The Children’s Health Protection Act of 2024 will prove crucial in shielding children from the environmental harms that could affect millions across the United States. If passed, this bill would permanently establish both the Office and the Committee within the EPA, so that prenatal and childhood environmental harm reduction is a fortified, standing priority in the Agency. We applaud Representative Nadler’s recognition of the need to enshrine the work of the Office and the Committee into law so that some of the most vulnerable members of our society, children, will indefinitely enjoy protections from environmental harm.”

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: LLMs are becoming a commodity—Now what?

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: LLMs are becoming a commodity—Now what?

    Whenever a compelling new AI model emerges, I like to put it through its paces. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with the preview of OpenAI o1 (formerly known as Strawberry), an astonishing new LLM that’s capable of solving complex and layered problems, especially in math, science, and coding. 

    For businesses, o1 model and a slew of others in the works represent a clear opportunity. But they also reflect a less obvious challenge: as LLMs become more sophisticated, they’ll also become quickly commoditized, with not a lot of differentiation between them.  

    In other words, today’s breakthroughs will become tomorrow’s table stakes. This means companies should focus more on how they integrate these models with their own data and workflows, rather than seeing the models themselves as a unique competitive advantage. Embracing this shift in mindset is the way to ensure your business stays ahead.  

    Decoding the latest advance 
    We have historically relied on size to improve the capabilities of LLMs—training them on more and more data, a process that is incredibly time- and resource-intensive.    

    OpenAI o1 introduces an entirely new scaling dimension, one in which a model can become significantly more capable by taking more time to “think” or reason before it responds. That means o1 can tackle problems step by step, much like how a human might approach challenging questions.  

    Ethan Mollick, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, tried the o1 preview on a tough segment of a crossword puzzle and it performed quite well (though not flawlessly). Crossword puzzles trip up other LLMs because they can’t perform the iterative thinking that’s required: trying a word, scratching it out when it doesn’t fit, and cross-referencing clues to see how answers might fit together. 

    People across the business world are already experimenting with how o1 can handle tasks like responding to RFPs or performing risk assessments. It’s clear that we’ll look back and consider o1 to be one of the most pivotal advancements in generative AI. 

    So if o1 is such a breakthrough, why am I arguing that models will be commoditized? It comes down to competition. With so much energy and opportunity in the AI space, model developers are racing to exceed one another’s advances. We can expect to see more models, from more providers, with more capabilities on par with one another. 

    Technology and commoditization 
    Think of another technology that was groundbreaking for its time: the television. Once a rare luxury made by only a few companies, TVs are now produced by many manufacturers, with excellent models widely available. About two decades ago, flat-screen TVs were coveted and expensive. Now it can cost as much to mount a TV on the wall as it does to buy the TV itself, and “flat-screen TV” has become a redundant phrase. We expect LLMs to follow a similar path to commoditization, but at a swifter pace.  

    What does this mean for businesses? Leaders have to look beyond the LLMs themselves and focus on creating a system around the models that will serve the unique needs of their organizations. Only by understanding AI systems more holistically will they be able to leverage them to innovate, create value, and maintain a competitive edge.  

    Unlocking the real value of AI for business 
    LLMs get a lot of attention in the media, but the real value of AI comes from how you steer, ground, and fine-tune these models with your business data and workflow. And those capabilities come from the full system that surrounds the LLM. 

    Consider the evolution of personal computers. At first the raw power of the CPU was the most critical factor. But as powerful CPUs became commodities, the value of the PC shifted to the overall system—the combination of hardware and software that met your needs. Today, we don’t judge a PC by the power of a single component; it’s the value of the entire package that differentiates one device from another. 

    The same goes for AI: the system is more powerful than any one part. An LLM on its own, no matter how impressive, won’t deliver truly valuable results until it’s grounded in your company’s specific knowledge. When a system like Copilot can draw from your work data—emails, files, meetings, etc.—it becomes much smarter about your business. The system performs better when you can steer it toward your goals and fine-tune it to adapt to your specific needs. Together, all these elements feed the advanced “thinking” that the LLMs can and will be doing. 

    Think about how this system would work for, say, a retailer. An LLM on its own can offer general ideas for training new employees for the sales floor. But AI is more powerful if it also knows the specifics of your business. A highly effective AI agent might create and deliver training modules for your new retail employees, with insight into your latest products, up-to-the-minute promotions, and specialized customer service techniques. 

    Summing it up  
    LLMs are making incredible progress, and I’m delighted every day by what they can accomplish. But their true potential comes through when they’re applied to your unique business data and workflows. That way, they’ll solve more than puzzles—they’ll help untangle your thorniest business problems and reveal new opportunities for creating value.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Igniting Inspiration: Jennifer Becerra’s STEM Legacy at Johnson 

    Source: NASA

    Jennifer Becerra has nearly three decades of experience in education, both in the classroom and within the NASA community. Leading a team dedicated to fostering a passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), she develops programs that inspire students and educators alike.  
    Whether coordinating internships or organizing engagement events, Becerra creates educational opportunities to bring the excitement of NASA’s missions to life for students. As NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) student services manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston, her efforts aim to cultivate the next generation of explorers and build a stronger, more engaged future workforce. 

    Becerra’s responsibilities include overseeing intern recruitment, placement, and development. She leads the OSTEM Center Engagement to create impactful opportunities for students to connect with NASA’s mission and resources. Becerra also serves as the technical officer for NASA’s Teams II Engaging Affiliated Museums and Informal Institutions Community Anchor grant program. She assists in managing funded projects that advance STEM education by supporting institutions that serve as local hubs for learning and space exploration.  
    Becerra holds memberships in The National Science Teachers Association and the Science Teachers Association of Texas, further underscoring her dedication to empowering tomorrow’s innovators. 

    Becerra takes great pride in her work. One of her most fulfilling achievements is witnessing the spark of inspiration in students when they participate in events like astronaut graduation, the Artemis II crew announcement, or the OSIRIS-REx sample reveal. “Seeing their excitement and curiosity fuels our commitment to creating impactful experiences that encourage students to explore STEM fields,” she said. “We aim to inspire the next generation of explorers who may one day contribute to future NASA missions.” 

    Her upbringing on the Texas-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas, deeply influences her sense of identity. She is an active member of Johnson’s Hispanic Employee Resource Group, which promotes cultural awareness and provides a platform to engage and educate the Johnson community about the richness and significance of Hispanic culture. 
    “I aim to foster a more inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued and celebrated,” she said. Becerra honors her culture in the workplace by embracing her authentic self every day and contributing to her team in meaningful ways.  

    An important lesson she has learned throughout her career is the power of collaboration. “I’ve realized that it takes a collective effort to achieve our goals,” said Becerra. “I’ve come to deeply appreciate and rely on the diverse experiences and perspectives my colleagues bring to our team.” 
    Early in her career, Becerra faced imposter syndrome, but over time she overcame it by connecting with colleagues who shared her background. Today, she appreciates the inclusivity and collaboration within her teams. 

    Looking forward, Becerra is excited for the future of space exploration, especially the moment when the first woman steps onto the Moon. She hopes to inspire more girls to explore STEM and leave a lasting legacy with the Artemis Generation.  
    “Passion drives fulfillment and long-term commitment, especially at NASA,” she said. “I encourage students to seize every opportunity, build strong connections with their teams, and embrace the sense of being part of something much greater than themselves.” 

    MIL OSI USA News –