Anonymous ID: 97b46c Sept. 18, 2018, 10:45 a.m. No.3074292   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4300 >>5048

>>3074004 (lb)

 

NOTABLE

 

FEMA's 'Presidential Alert' test postponed as some Americans want to disconnect

 

The wireless emergency alert test was set to go out Thursday before FEMA announced it will be pushed back to Oct. 3.

 

by Farnoush Amiri / Sep.17.2018 / 8:15 PM ET

 

Plenty of Americans aren't terribly keen to be receiving text messages from the president, even in an emergency.

 

And they'll have a reprieve, if only briefly.

 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the wireless emergency alert (WEA) system, announced that the test that had been scheduled for Thursday will be pushed back to Oct. 3, citing the "ongoing response efforts to Hurricane Florence."

 

The initial announcement was met with concerns from social media users who stated that a direct message from President Donald Trump to the nation could be used for political purposes, similar to how he uses his official Twitter page.

 

One online user responded to FEMA's announcement via Twitter, saying, "We don’t need presidential alerts! We already have public emergency alert messaging. This is not necessary!"

 

We don’t need presidential alerts! We already have public emergency alert messaging. This is not necessary! We should be able to opt out of these messages. Wth would he have to say that local agencies can’t. No!

 

— JoAnn (@JoAnnNYNY) September 15, 2018

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/mobile/fema-s-presidential-alert-test-postponed-some-americans-want-disconnect-n910406

Anonymous ID: 97b46c Sept. 18, 2018, 10:49 a.m. No.3074331   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4385 >>4774 >>4959

>>3074312

>National Biodefense Strategy

Statement from the President on the National Biodefense Strategy and National Security Presidential Memorandum

 

National Security & Defense

 

Issued on: September 18, 2018

 

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Today, I have taken action to better protect the American people by releasing a National Biodefense Strategy and signing a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) that will strengthen our Nation’s defenses against biological threats to health and safety. The implementation of these actions will promote a more efficient, coordinated, and accountable biodefense enterprise. Taken together, they represent a new direction in the Nation’s defense against biological threats.

 

The National Biodefense Strategy builds on lessons learned from past biological incidents, such as the 2001 anthrax attacks, the 2009 influenza pandemic, and the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic, to develop a more resilient and effective biodefense enterprise. Biological threats emanate from many sources, and they know no borders. They have great potential to disrupt the economy, exact a toll on human life, and tear at the very fabric of society. My Administration will take steps to improve our understanding of the risks posed by biological threats and to respond to them effectively and efficiently.

 

The NSPM I have signed directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve as the Federal lead in coordinating implementation of the National Biodefense Strategy. It also establishes a Cabinet-level Biodefense Steering Committee to support the transformation of America’s biodefense enterprise and to protect Americans from bioterrorism and natural outbreaks of deadly diseases. Finally, it directs my National Security Advisor to review biological threats and prioritize biodefense actions annually, which will enable the Government to better anticipate, prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from biological incidents.

My Administration is changing the Government’s approach so that it can adapt to the complex nature of biological threats. Our National Biodefense Strategy will address the full range of biological threats, including those that are naturally occurring, deliberate, and accidental—a first for the United States Government. We will comprehensively evaluate our national biodefense needs and monitor implementation of our strategy on an ongoing basis in order to prioritize effectively the Government’s biodefense resources and actions.

 

My Administration is focused on strengthening our Nation’s defenses against the full range of threats to our health and security, including those of a biological nature. With these actions today, I am reaffirming my unwavering commitment to protecting the American people, the American homeland, and the American way of life.

 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-national-biodefense-strategy-national-security-presidential-memorandum/

Anonymous ID: 97b46c Sept. 18, 2018, 11:07 a.m. No.3074529   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4959

Defendant Pleads Guilty in Connection with Ohio Labor Trafficking Scheme Involving Immigrant Minors

 

Pablo Duran Ramirez, 50, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, Ohio, to encouraging the illegal entry of Guatemalan nationals, including unaccompanied minors, into the United States for financial gain, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman of the Northern District of Ohio, and Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division. Duran Ramirez is the fourth defendant to plead guilty in connection with a labor trafficking scheme that forced Guatemalan minors to work at egg farms in central Ohio.

 

According to the defendant’s plea agreement and admissions in court, the defendant, through his company, Haba Corporate Services, contracted to provide labor to Trillium Farms, knowing that the workers were unlawfully present in the United States. He further admitted to knowing that some of the workers were unaccompanied minors who had been coerced or threatened to enter the United States and then housed in an isolated trailer park in Marion, Ohio. In 2013 and 2014, Trillim Farms paid the defendant’s company approximately $6 million for its labor services.

 

“Motivated by greed, the defendant violated the immigration laws and contributed to the exploitation of vulnerable children who lacked immigration status,” said Acting Assisting Attorney General Gore. “The Department of Justice will use its resources to prosecute individuals who unlawfully victimize others for their own monetary profit.”

 

“This defendant profited off the desperation of children and their parents and other relatives,” said U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman for the Northern District of Ohio. “He knew some of the workers he delivered to Trillium Farms were underage, in the country illegally and were threatened or coerced. We will continue to work to eliminate human trafficking in all its forms.”

 

“This defendant, in conspiracy with three other previously convicted individuals, coerced and assisted individuals to enter the United States illegally, many of them children, forcing them to live in deplorable conditions and work for little to no wages,” said Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony of the FBI’s Cleveland Division. “These reprehensible actions are unacceptable and rest assured the FBI will continue to work with our partners to bring to justice those who engage in human trafficking.”

 

Duran Ramirez faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. His sentencing date has been set for Jan. 7, 2019.

 

Three other defendants—Aroldo Castillo-Serrano, of Guatemala, Ana Angelica Pedro-Juan, of Guatemala, and Conrado Salgado-Soto, of Mexico—previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the same labor trafficking scheme. Castillo-Serrano, the lead smuggler and primary enforcer, was sentenced to 188 months in prison; Pedro-Juan, who oversaw the victims in Ohio, was sentenced to 120 months; and Salgado-Soto, a subcontractor hired by Duran Ramirez, was sentenced to 51 months.

 

Those defendants admitted to recruiting workers from Guatemala, some as young as 14 or 15 years old, falsely promising them good jobs and a chance to attend school in the United States. The defendants then smuggled and transported the workers to a trailer park in Marion, Ohio, where they ordered them to live in dilapidated trailers and work at physically demanding jobs at Trillium Farms for up to 12 hours a day. The work included cleaning chicken coops, loading and unloading crates of chickens, de-beaking chickens and vaccinating chickens. During their sentencing, Senior United States District Judge James G. Carr found that they had threatened workers with physical harm and withheld their paychecks in order to compel them to work. Eight minors and two adults were identified as victims of the scheme.

 

Three additional defendants, including Duran Ramirez’s son, pleaded guilty for their roles in encouraging the workers’ illegal entry into the United States.

 

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Cleveland Office, Mansfield Resident Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The case is being jointly prosecuted by Trial Attorney Dana Mulhauser of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Rice.

 

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/defendant-pleads-guilty-connection-ohio-labor-trafficking-scheme-involving-immigrant-minors

Anonymous ID: 97b46c Sept. 18, 2018, 11:17 a.m. No.3074636   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein Delivers Remarks at the Justice Department’s Forum on Free Speech in Higher Education

 

Washington, DC

~ Monday, September 17, 2018

 

Remarks as prepared for delivery

 

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us on Constitution Day to discuss a topic central to the rule of law in America. I want to say a special thanks to Jesse Panuccio, our Acting Associate Attorney General, and the team that created a superb agenda and invited so many thoughtful speakers.

 

More than a decade elapsed between the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, a decade during which our nation’s citizens devoted significant attention to the question of how best to secure the blessings of liberty.

 

On this 231st anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, we properly praise the written document for establishing the framework of liberty. But the Constitution obviously did not write itself, nor did it take effect automatically. The drafters engaged in lengthy debates about first principles, and the people carefully considered the terms before accepting them.

 

Their decision reflected free thought, and it required free speech. As Jesse described it this morning, freedom of speech was “a precondition of the American republic.”

 

Listening to contentious debates and engaging rhetorically with opponents is at the heart of this great nation. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “[W]herever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; [and] whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”

 

Thanks to the open exchange of ideas and concerns, a consensus developed in 1787 that America needed a new form of government. The founders chose a democratic republic governed by the rule of law.

 

The rule of law was the subject of Abraham Lincoln’s first published speech. He prophetically titled it, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.” The year was 1838. The founding fathers had passed away, and Lincoln was alarmed by sharp political divisions and rising passions in our young republic. He advocated building respect for the law as a way to bind the society together.

 

Two decades later, in 1858, Lincoln engaged in a series of seven lengthy debates with his Senate opponent, Stephen Douglas. The opening speaker addressed the audience for one hour. The opponent took an hour and a half to reply. Then the first debater spent another half hour to respond.

 

People disagreed – sometimes vehemently – but they listened patiently, and they learned about opposing arguments.

 

That sometimes-messy process remains essential because our system of government is not self-executing. It relies on wisdom and self-restraint. In a democratic republic, liberty is protected by cultural norms as well as by constitutional text.

 

Theodore Roosevelt observed that the survival of a republic depends on the character of the average citizen. He said that “[t]he average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed.”

 

Debates and disagreements about public policy and political leadership are essential to building good citizens.

 

The question for today’s forum is how to respond when college administrators seek to prohibit or punish speech protected by the Constitution.

 

On college campuses, students hear about different perspectives, test conflicting arguments, and learn how to decide for themselves what is true, what is right, and what is just. To do that properly, colleges must expose students to a range of alternatives.

 

Students need to learn how to consider ideas that they do not like. That educational project requires free speech.

 

Yet we repeatedly hear about examples of hostility to free speech and viewpoint diversity on college campuses. Professors, students, and guest speakers are shouted down and even physically attacked for expressing their views.

 

As Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this morning, “Suppression of competing voices is not the American way.”

 

Our next guest speaker brings considerable expertise and experience to this forum. A graduate of Vanderbilt University and the New York University School of Law, Senator Lamar Alexander spent a large portion of his life in and around campuses. His mother was a school teacher, his father was a principal. He rose to become the Secretary of Education, and then a university president. While not serving in government, he worked as a lawyer and an entrepreneur.

 

Read the full speech:

 

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/deputy-attorney-general-rod-j-rosenstein-delivers-remarks-justice-department-s-forum-free