Government Executive - Authors - Matt Vasilogambros

Feds Push Local Election Officials to Boost Security Ahead of 2024

Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 13:00:00 -0500

This story was originally posted by Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some of the nation’s top cybersecurity leaders are warning state and local election officials of ongoing foreign and domestic national security threats to election systems, urging them to upgrade their defenses ahead of next year’s presidential election.

At separate conferences this month, federal officials warned gatherings of the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors that they must be vigilant in securing their state’s elections systems and building resilience to prevent attacks.

Many election officials, overworked and frightened by personal threats, left the field following President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. In light of that turnover, national security officials wanted to emphasize that local election officials can use federal resources to build defenses and educate front-line staff.

Although foreign cyberattacks did not disrupt November’s midterm elections, China, Iran, North Korea and Russia remain threats to U.S. election systems, said Cynthia Kaiser, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division.

“We have no evidence that a foreign government or other actors compromised election infrastructure or manipulated election results during the 2022 elections,” Kaiser told the secretaries of state. Still, she added, “We need to remain vigilant.”

A year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example, national security officials remain concerned Russia may attack critical U.S. infrastructure, including elections, said Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, also known as CISA.

“That has not, thankfully, manifested in any significant way,” Easterly told the secretaries of state. “We’ve not seen anything here, but I’d like to end with the word ‘yet.’”

She emphasized that preparation is key in preventing malicious efforts such as so-called denial of service attacks, which made a handful of state and local government websites unavailable in the weeks before the midterms.

To run safe and secure elections, Easterly recommended that state and local election officials train staff to use multi-factor authentication and to avoid clicking on suspicious email links. She also advised them to replace outdated software and use available federal resources.

There was “sophisticated” activity from foreign governments before and on the day of the 2022 midterms that should be a cause for concern, Kim Wyman, senior election security adviser at CISA, told a nearby conference of the National Association of State Election Directors.

Foreign actors scanned state and local government websites, even though election systems weren’t targeted, she said. While scanning a system doesn’t necessarily compromise it, she said, it could be preparation for a future attack. Local election offices can be “target-rich, cyber-poor” entities, she said, warning that cybersecurity still is not a top priority for many small- and medium-sized jurisdictions.

“The 2024 election for president is fast approaching,” Wyman said, “and this year is really that window of opportunity that you all have to gear up and make strides in reducing your risk.”

In addition to cybersecurity, national security officials stressed the importance of protecting the physical security of voting system storage locations and election offices by, for example, using locks that only a limited number of people can open.

Layering an approach that considers both physical and cybersecurity is challenging, said Bill Ekblad, Minnesota’s election security cyber navigator, who through the secretary of state’s office coordinates an election security strategy with local election offices.

“We continue to see threats compound,” he told Stateline after one session. “We have to take those two concerns with us and be ready for whatever else comes. Everything we heard from our federal partners shores up that perspective that it’s all about readiness, communications, preparing to react and planning, because we can’t predict what the trends will be.”

Presidential primaries are less than a year away for many states, he added, so election officials must prepare now.

The Cyber Threat

Every day, cyber threats increase, Kaiser told election officials.

She pointed to several incidents in recent years, including Iranian efforts to use influence campaigns, tailored to members of each political party and various other constituencies, to convince Americans that their election system is insecure or otherwise dissuade them from voting.

China has used new tools to target state agencies and services in the United States, including secretary of state and political party servers, Kaiser added.

The Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan federal agency that guides state and local election administration, will hand out $75 million in election security grants this year. In the four years after 2018, the commission awarded almost a billion dollars in election security grants, said Commissioner Ben Hovland.

The commission is accepting applications to test election equipment for security vulnerabilities. The agency also is developing election technology standards and evaluating electronic poll books, electronic ballot delivery methods, election night reporting systems and online voter registration portals.

Federal officials further encouraged state and local election officials to join a voluntary information-sharing network of more than 3,400 election offices. The network has room to grow, federal officials said — there are 10,000 election offices nationwide.

Boosting Physical Security

The sustained disinformation campaign that has falsely convinced millions of voters that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election had real consequences last fall: In some places, protesters — sometimes armed — harassed voters turning in their ballots at drop boxes during the midterms. There were protests blocking voters from reaching polling places and violent threats against state and local election officials.

Assessing physical security, conducting de-escalation and active shooter training and coordinating with local law enforcement can help mitigate such threats, federal officials said.

In Weber County, Utah, election workers, especially female staff, faced an onslaught of threats in recent years by people who believed the election was rigged, said Ricky Hatch, the county’s clerk. Hatch reached out to his county’s sheriff to develop a cooperative relationship, so that they can respond to harassment or other disruptions on or around Election Day.

Hatch provides law enforcement officers with his contact information and key election details, such as when drop boxes are accepting ballots, when in-person voting begins, when election officials are transporting ballots to counting centers and how elections are audited. They also review election laws, and procedures for removing people disrupting the voting process.

Not only does the communication establish a strategic relationship between election offices and law enforcement, but it also tells law enforcement officers that the election process is secure, and that the election results are valid and accurate, he said.

“We wanted to tell our partners, ‘Look, if you’re going to defend this process, we want you to have confidence that the process is sound,’” Hatch said.

In North Carolina, law enforcement officers have a guide that fits in their patrol car visors that succinctly outlines state election law and procedures for “maintaining peaceful and orderly elections and ensuring voters can cast a ballot free of intimidation,” said Karen Brinson Bell, the state’s election director. The state also is developing an online training guide for officers.

Federal law enforcement agencies also have stepped up protections for election workers.

The Election Threats Task Force, established in 2021 and run by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, has a dozen cases of criminal threats to state and local election workers from recent years, said John Keller, principal deputy chief of the department’s Public Integrity Section.

He urged state election directors to “err on the side of reporting” to federal partners any harassment or threats they face.

Lost Faith

As national security officials briefed the room of state and local election officials last week, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner stood up to say that he and many of his constituents have lost faith in the FBI and in federal law enforcement. Warner said that could hinder election security efforts.

“We love the FBI, we want to believe in the FBI, but as an election official, we’ve had this recent situation where the credibility of the FBI has been shot,” said Warner, a Republican. “I feel right now we’re being played by the FBI, our own federal agency, in the elections arena when it comes to things like Hunter Biden’s laptop and that sort of thing. I’m not sure we can trust the FBI.”

Kaiser defended the FBI and the “fantastic work” done by “really great people” every day, though she added she “sympathized” with his feelings. It’s important to establish local relationships, she said.

CISA’s Easterly, who was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in 2021, also acknowledged that some people may not trust the federal government. She’s been getting into the field, meeting people, understanding gaps in services and getting feedback.

“At the end of the day, it’s really about developing relationships because people trust people,” Easterly said. “I may not always like the feedback, but I will always listen. I will always hear.”

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Election Officials Prepare for Voter Intimidation Threat

Matt Vasilogambros and Carrie Levine, Stateline — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 11:00:00 -0400

This story originally appeared on Stateline.

Election officials across the country have begun reviewing security plans at early and Election Day voting sites, strengthening ties with local law enforcement and training poll workers to prepare for voter intimidation tactics.

Even before the presidential debate, when President Donald Trump urged his supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully,” Michelle Wilcox, the director of elections in Auglaize County, Ohio, was concerned about disruptions at the polls this year.

The rural county near the Indiana border seems like an unlikely candidate for trouble. It has about 32,500 voters, two-thirds of whom are registered as unaffiliated and another fourth of whom are Republican. The county seat, Wapakoneta, is best known as the hometown of astronaut Neil Armstrong. But even in this small rural county, Wilcox said, she will be prepared.

For the first time, she brought in the sheriff to help train poll workers. Wilcox said she and the sheriff talked to poll workers about situations that could come up and how to handle them. For example, she said, the sheriff would get involved in a case of disorderly conduct but is “not the arresting authority if somebody doesn’t have a mask on.”

“Our poll workers listened very intently,” she said. “They know that there may be some issues, so they wanted to know.”

Since the Sept. 29 presidential debate, there has been surging concern over the prospect of voter harassment at the polls. But prior to Trump’s poll-watching invitation to a national television audience, there were incidents.

Philadelphia officials last month turned away a group of poll watchers sent by the Trump campaign to satellite election sites, where they are not permitted entry under Pennsylvania law. In Virginia, Trump supporters temporarily blocked an entrance to an early voting site last month, forcing officials to offer voters escorts to cast ballots. And in Minnesota, a private security company is recruiting former military members to guard polling places, alarming election officials with the prospect of unofficial armed guards who could intimidate or harass voters. Many voting experts say these actions are not legal.

Poll watching or poll observing has long been a way for parties and outside groups to monitor voting, but such observers typically have to be certified in advance, and detailed rules vary from state to state.

Pennsylvania last week issued updated guidance. In late September, the Ohio secretary of state’s office put out a new training video on de-escalation at the polls. North Carolina put out new guidance to county election boards on allowable conduct. “It is not appropriate or permissible for law enforcement or private security to be stationed at a voting place,” the North Carolina memo warns in bolded text.

At the same time, election officials are trying to reassure worried voters that polling places will be safe.

“We have a strict and strong plan of protection in place, but we’re also being very, very mindful of making sure no voter is fearful of showing up and communicating to them we’ve got this,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, in response to a question during a press call last week. “We’ll protect them, we’ll protect their right to vote and we’ll use every resource and tool at our disposal in order to do so.”

On a separate press call, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, pointed out state law prohibits impeding voters or poll workers. "We will not in any way tolerate any kind of intimidation or suppression," he said. "The law in Ohio is very clear."

Election officials are stressing buffer zones that prohibit electioneering within a certain distance of polling places, depending on the state. The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, based at the Georgetown University Law Center, issued fact sheets for each state explaining what to do if armed individuals are near a polling site.

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a D.C.-based voting rights group, said the idea of armed people at the polls is an “explosive, dangerous and toxic situation.” She is especially concerned about communities with large numbers of voters of color.

The Lawyers’ Committee has recruited more than 21,000 lawyers for its election protection efforts this year, she said.

Joe Gloria, the registrar of voters in Clark County, Nevada, home to more than 70% of the state’s registered voters, said he expects problems. “We’re always worried about any type of intimidation at the polls and we’ve always had plans in place to address that. However, this election cycle is unique,” he said. “The indication is most of our planning will have to be put into place at some point.”

Gloria has doubled the number of roving workers available to visit voting sites this year, he said, so each can get to a polling place within 10 or 15 minutes.

Many states and counties typically have task forces to allow election officials to coordinate with local governments and law enforcement, and that process is underway. In Fulton County, Georgia, home to Atlanta, “a lot of people are concerned about election security,” Rick Barron, the county’s registration and elections director, told his board during a meeting last week. Barron said the county has formed a steering committee that will be briefed by the FBI in coming weeks, and “we are in the risk assessment phase right now.”

“Atlanta is a civil rights cradle,” said Aaron Johnson, a Democratic member of the county elections board, in a separate interview. “We have people here in Fulton County that take the right to vote very seriously. Our residents are quite adamant about voting and I don't think they would take too kindly to voter intimidation at any level from anyone.”

Rural voters may be more vulnerable to harassment because “issues can pop up and they’re not going to be as documented,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, who said she is monitoring efforts by groups in north and south Georgia to recruit potentially armed “concerned citizens” to watch the polls.

States that allow the open carrying of weapons will also have to navigate competing legal rights, since intimidation may depend on the eye of the beholder. In Nevada, for example, rural locations may be more inclined to allow firearms, and every case is different, state Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, said in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity and Stateline. But the bottom line, he said, is “courts have recognized the right to show up at a polling site and vote free from harassment and intimidation.”

The Trump campaign has set a goal of recruiting 50,000 poll watchers and has repeatedly said they will abide by the law. “Poll watchers are critical to ensuring the fairness of any election, and President Trump’s volunteer poll watchers will be trained to ensure all rules are applied equally, all valid ballots are counted, and all Democrat rule breaking is called out,” said Thea McDonald, the campaign’s deputy national press secretary, in an emailed statement.

The Biden campaign has promised “the largest voter protection program in history,” recruiting at least 600 voting rights lawyers and 10,000 volunteers to monitor the polls.

Trump’s call for supporters to turn out at the polls comes on the heels of months of his falsehoods about the integrity of the election and a wide-ranging legal push by his campaign and surrogates aimed at making voting less accessible.

This also is the first presidential election in four decades in which the Republican National Committee can send poll watchers. Two years ago, a federal court lifted a 1982 consent decree that stemmed from the national party sending off-duty police officers to monitor poll locations in New Jersey cities, which critics said intimidated voters of color. The decree didn't prohibit campaigns or state parties from sending observers to the polls, but the RNC couldn’t coordinate the effort. Mandi Merritt, a GOP spokesperson, said volunteers now undergo “rigorous” training and are not there to intimidate.

Some voting rights advocates add a note of caution, however. Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, wants voters to be aware of the issue and know to notify poll workers if they feel intimidated, but she worries they may feel discouraged to vote if they fear widespread intimidation or violence.

“We have to make sure that as we’re drawing attention to a problem that we’re not contributing to the problem,” she said. Almeida’s team recruited 2,000 poll monitors in the Keystone State and has run worst-case scenarios for months, focusing efforts on protecting individual voters at as many polling locations as possible.

Ford, the Nevada attorney general, drew national notice when he responded to Trump’s debate comments by tweeting that the president “wasn’t talking about poll watching. He was talking about voter intimidation. FYI — voter intimidation is illegal in Nevada. Believe me when I say it: You do it, and you will be prosecuted.”

Asked about the tweet, he said he wanted to make it clear voter intimidation won’t be tolerated in Nevada. “I’m a Black man from the South,” Ford said, adding, “I know what voter intimidation looks like.”

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Election Experts Warn of November Disaster

Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 12:00:00 -0400

This story originally appeared on Stateline.

After a presidential primary season plagued by long lines, confusion over mail-in voting and malfunctioning equipment, election experts are increasingly concerned about the resiliency of American democracy in the face of a global pandemic.

With four months until the presidential election, the litany of unresolved issues could block some voters from casting ballots and lead many citizens to distrust the outcome of one of the most pivotal races of their lifetimes.

There is widespread concern among voting activists, experts and elections officials that it will take further federal investment in local election systems, massive voter education campaigns and election administrators’ ingenuity to prevent a disaster come November.

“The coronavirus has really laid bare the cracks in our system,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program.

Even before the pandemic, Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, said he was worried about the state of U.S. elections. He warned in his recent book Election Meltdown about the effects that misinformation, administrative incompetence and voter suppression efforts would have on the 2020 presidential election.

Now, to add to all those problems, there is COVID-19, which further destabilizes voting. He, like many other election experts interviewed by Stateline, said he is worried about November.

“The best-case scenario for us is that key elections are not close,” he said, “because we are going to have problems.”

The troubles ahead of the presidential election include the inconsistent mail-in ballot system, voter safety at polling locations and lingering security gaps targeted by malicious foreign and domestic groups emboldened by the 2016 presidential election.

Mail-In Ballot Issues

Millions of voters turned to mail-in ballots as a safe alternative to voting in person during the pandemic-riddled primary. But in states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and in the District of Columbia, thousands of voters requested absentee ballots from local election officials and never received them.

States were unprepared for the record numbers of absentee ballot requests, said Hannah Fried, national campaign director of All Voting is Local, a project of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Leadership Conference Education Fund that helps register people of color and young people.

In many of those states, officials found it difficult to go from producing and processing thousands of mail-in ballots to contending with millions of them because of COVID-19. They lacked the training, equipment, supply chain and staff to handle the increase, she said.

Local officials must set up ways to get ballots to voters, provide for their easy return and allow voters to know their ballots will be counted, she said.

“It was overwhelming for officials and voters alike in the beginning,” Fried said. “But November is different, and we have time.”

But training and equipment cost money, said Cris Landa, program director at the election security group Verified Voting. While Congress allocated $400 million under the CARES Act for election administration earlier this year, it is unclear whether it will allocate more funds before the presidential election. But money must come soon, Landa said, or jurisdictions won’t have time to implement changes.

“Elections are woefully underfunded as is,” she said. “The need is there for more election funding. It’s hard not to paint such a stark, worrisome picture.”

Voters in some states had to contend with other barriers to voting by mail, such as requirements for a witness signature or voter ID — difficult tasks during a pandemic when people are confined to their homes. Proponents say these measures prevent voter fraud.

In Oklahoma, Republican leaders enacted a law that requires absentee ballots be notarized, while Republican leaders in Tennessee and Texas have fought efforts to make the coronavirus pandemic a legitimate excuse for requesting an absentee ballot.

County clerks have rejected absentee ballots at higher rates this election season in some communities of color, sometimes for reasons as simple as a mismatched or absent signature on the ballot envelope, said Kristen Clark, president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She’s trying to figure out why.

“Something is not right,” she said.

Voters unable or unwilling to vote by mail turned to traditional polling places. And when they got there, many were met by more barriers.

Polling Place Problems

The lines in the Atlanta area stretched for more than four hours in some majority-Black locations on the June 9 primary day. New voting machines were not working, poll workers had not been trained to use the new equipment, polling locations opened late and precincts ran out of paper backups.

In the middle of the coronavirus outbreak, voters with disabilities, limited English proficiency and unreliable mail service rely on polling places to cast their ballots.

But polling locations were cut throughout the country, while thousands of poll workers refused to serve because of health concerns.

In Wisconsin, local election officials drastically reduced the number of polling locations across the state. The city of Milwaukee had five polling locations — down from 182 in 2016. A Brennan Center analysis shows this contributed to reduced voter turnout.

Like Georgia, many states also debuted new voting systems this year, which led to confusion when poll workers, untrained because of the pandemic, had to navigate unfamiliar voting machines. Already before the pandemic, equipment issues caused massive disruptions in this year’s Iowa caucuses and California primary.

And then there’s the issue of safety: How do election officials keep polling places clean during a pandemic, especially as protective equipment is often hard to come by as states and businesses reopen across the country?

Some election officials have gotten creative. Harris County, Texas, will provide each voter with a finger cover to use on voting machines and a face mask if they need one. The Houston-area county of 2.4 million registered voters also will equip poll workers with masks, face shields and disinfectant wipes.

“Putting these safeguards in place has been no simple task,” said Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, “but they’re necessary.”

Hollins is one of several local and state election officials backing a new report by the nonprofit Voter Protection Corps on how to run safe in-person voting options ahead of November. It recommends not consolidating neighborhood polling places, recruiting and training poll workers and expanding early voting.

Safeguarding the health of voters isn’t the only security issue facing elections, however.

Election Security Issues

The threat of foreign interference in U.S. elections remains, including disinformation and hacking campaigns by the Russian government and others. Local election offices remain susceptible to email phishing attempts and website hacks that could penetrate state voter registration databases and other critical systems.

And the coronavirus adds security challenges. New online state systems for requesting absentee ballots could be vulnerable without proper protections, said Benjamin Hovland, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Meanwhile, most election officials have been working remotely since the outbreak, using home networks that lack the firewalls of their offices and are more exposed to cybersecurity threats.

Federal security officials, from the National Security Agency to the National Guard, will work with state and local election officials throughout the coming months, providing on-the-ground assistance and recommending practices to avoid a potentially disastrous security breach.

Misinformation remains one of the biggest threats to U.S. elections, Hovland said. Clever editing of an online video or false information spread throughout social media could reach vast audiences.

“Any of those situations is ripe for disinformation or misinformation,” he said. “Unfortunately, 2020 was never going to be an easy election year. And now with COVID, we’re facing unprecedented challenges.”

Another factor that could damage voter confidence is a delay in reporting election results. Because of the expected volume of absentee ballots, voters should not expect complete race results on Election Night; it will take much longer to process and count votes. Election Night might turn into Election Week.

Delays in election results are not necessarily troublesome or nefarious, said U.C. Irvine’s Hasen. It shows election officials take the count seriously, he said. The question is how voters will react to those delays.

Hasen worries both domestic and foreign groups will try to undermine legitimacy and take advantage of delays. Malicious actors may spread false information about polling place locations, ways to register to vote, voting hours and the ability to vote online.

A candidate may, for example, declare victory before results are completely counted, he said, potentially delegitimizing the eventual results of the election among supporters.

Disinformation and misinformation targeted communities of color during the 2016 presidential campaign, and as much is expected again this year, said LaShawn Warren, executive vice president of government affairs at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

In anticipation of this threat, several organizations like hers have pressured social media companies to add new warnings and labels on malicious or false election-related content. It is the responsibility of these companies, she said, to oversee what is being placed on their platforms.

“You don’t want to add to confusion,” she said. “You want to add a level of transparency and clarity. The way they have rolled out these policies is not thoughtful and rooted in truth.”

While Twitter has begun labeling false tweets, Facebook recently announced it would label all election-related content, without noting whether the content is false. Facebook says its policies protect free speech, but Warren said the company does not do enough to quell falsehoods, potentially keeping people from voting.

President Donald Trump’s continued and unsubstantiated attacks on mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it would lead to massive voter fraud, also sows doubt in the election, she said.

While election experts are sounding the alarm ahead of November, they say there is still time for federal, state and local election authorities to prevent a disastrous presidential election.

U.S. elections are fragile, said Pérez at the Brennan Center. It will take the election administrators hustling for resources, planning and looking for solutions. It will take residents offering their storefronts for polling places, volunteering to be poll workers and helping register their neighbors to vote, she said.

“We are in the middle of a real challenge,” she said, “but there is a lot we can do between now and November to minimize harmful outcomes.”

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Postal Service's struggles could hurt mail-in election

Matt Vasilogambros, Federal Soup — Mon, 11 May 2020 10:14:00 -0400

An unprecedented shift in American democracy is underway, as more states and counties turn to voting by mail. But as jurisdictions prepare for a pandemic-riddled presidential election, the threat of a financial crisis at the U.S. Postal Service looms over that alternative to in-person voting.

If Congress does not pass a $75 billion bailout, the Postal Service says uninterrupted mail service may not last past September. That’s when local election officials plan to send out mail-in absentee ballots, letters with polling place information, voting booklets, new voter cards and federally mandated voter registration confirmation postcards.

Because so much U.S. election infrastructure relies on mail, some state officials of both parties are sounding the alarm about the prospect of a financial crisis at the Postal Service.

“I can’t understate how disastrous this would be to our democracy and our economy,” said Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos, a Democrat. “Mid-election year is not the time to risk the dependability of the Postal Service.”

State and local officials depend on the agency to run smooth elections, they say.

A financial crisis at the Postal Service could threaten the success of November’s election, said Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, especially since many states and counties have limited experience with voting by mail. Washington is one of five states that vote entirely by mail.

“The ramp up is going to be logistically difficult enough without having the uncertainty of whether or not a state can actually mail a ballot to a voter and have it returned to them,” said Wyman, a Republican.

Even before the outbreak, the Postal Service struggled with multibillion-dollar debts with the rise of the internet and competitive private mailing services such as FedEx and UPS. Congress has not funded the Postal Service since 1970. Instead, it relies on revenue from selling stamps and packaging.

A crush of online shopping during the coronavirus crisis has not been enough to save the agency, however. Business mailings, such as catalogs and real estate ads, plummeted because of the economic downturn created by COVID-19. The agency is projected to lose $13 billion in this fiscal year -- about a third of its revenue.

A federal bailout may be a longshot. Last month President Donald Trump called the agency a joke. He also blocked congressional efforts to infuse the Postal Service with needed cash, instead hinting he would consider only loans.

He has said the Postal Service should charge more to Amazon (whose owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post) and other major retailers. The administration has yet to approve a $10 billion loan to the agency that was included in the March stimulus package.

This week, Amazon and other retailers launched a $2 million ad campaign to convince Republican lawmakers to oppose Trump’s proposal.

Meanwhile the president this week installed new leadership at the Postal Service, tapping one of his top donors, Louis DeJoy, as postmaster general.

Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, expressed concern with Trump’s pick, tweeting Wednesday that it was hard not to be cynical about the motivations of his appointment.

“The USPS is a public good,” she wrote. “So many jobs especially for people of color and delivery of essential items depend on it. And our democracy (vote by mail, the census) amid COVID-19 depends on it.”

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents 200,000 postal workers and has lobbied Congress this spring over the dispute, said relieving the financial need should be nonpartisan, ensuring Americans receive vital mail, from stimulus checks to pharmaceuticals to absentee ballots.

“If the post office is not there to deliver, we won’t have an election or any kind of fair election,” he said.

This fall, the financial shortfall could have a similar impact on mail service that hurricanes and tornadoes have had in previous elections, such as delays in delivery and strains on postal workers, said Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser for the elections program at the bipartisan Democracy Fund. Even so, Patrick emphasized the Postal Service deems mail-in ballots and other election-related mail essential.

“There might be some slight delays that might impact election mail,” she said, “but it’s not going to stop it.”

There are several ways, Patrick said, to prepare for this situation: Voters should request their mail-in absentee ballots early and send them in as quickly as possible; local election officials should use existing best practices to design envelopes that are both easily sortable by mail carriers and trackable by voters; and state legislators should shape election laws that extend early voting periods to account for delays.

In Palm Beach County, Florida, voters can track their ballots through the county website by using barcodes. Wendy Sartory Link, the county’s supervisor of elections, said she bought an additional mail sorter to meet demand, as well. These steps, she said, allow voters to trust their mail-in ballot will be counted.

Despite the uncertainty around the Postal Service, many local election officials remain confident in their relationships with the agency, which often involves coordination between election officials and local postmasters when there are widespread election mailings.

A strong partnership with the Postal Service has been crucial for local elections, said Jim Irizarry, an assistant county clerk for San Mateo County, California, where officials run elections entirely by mail. While the agency’s financial problems are troubling, he said, he has confidence.

“It is so fundamental to our democracy, to our nation and our local government,” Irizarry said. “I believe they will take that responsibility seriously moving forward.”

Counties have had to adapt to changes in the Postal Service before. When, in recent years, the agency shifted its delivery model in Nebraska, Lancaster County Election Commissioner Dave Shively had to account for mailing delays. He and his voters could no longer depend on next-day deliveries after mail began rerouting through Omaha.

“Too many people depend on the Postal Service,” said Shively, whose county includes the state capital of Lincoln. “If there are changes, we’ll just have to learn to adapt to that as we go.”

That will be critical for November -- if the primary season is any indication. In preparation for the state’s May 12 contest, Shively for the first time sent every voter forms to request mail-in ballots. With 193,000 registered voters, he has received 80,500 mail-in ballot requests, which he said is an enthusiastic response. The state is still holding in-person voting, as well.

The potential crisis at the Postal Service shows why election officials should protect in-person voting options ahead of November, said Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program. Voters with limited accessibility or already unreliable mail service depend on polling locations to cast their ballot, she said.

“In a time of crisis, voters need more options, not fewer,” she said.

In San Mateo County, California, Irizarry said if there were delays in mail service, the county is well positioned to run a smooth election through its existing ballot drop boxes and vote centers that offer both paper ballots and machines with a paper trail.

Voting rights advocates such as Democracy Initiative Executive Director Wendy Fields say that it could be a form of voter suppression for Congress not to bail out the Postal Service. It’s simply not an option to let the agency fail, she said, especially during an election year hit by a pandemic.

“This is not a moment for change,” she said. “This is a moment for investing.”

Matt Vasilogambros is a staff writer for Stateline.

This article was first posted to Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

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Trump Taps James Mattis for Defense Secretary

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 10:05:21 -0500

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped James Mattis, a retired Marine general, as his secretary of defense.

Trump, speaking at a rally in Cincinnati on Thursday, said Mattis is “the closest thing we have to General George Patton of our time.”

Mattis, known by the nickname “Mad Dog,” led a Marine division at the start of the war in Iraq in 2003 and was in charge of U.S. Central Command from 2010 until 2013. He left command because of a disagreement with the Obama administration over his position on Iran, and since leaving the military he has continued to be an outspoken opponent to President Obama’s Middle East policy, especially on combating ISIS.

In a recent meeting after Trump’s election, he reportedly convinced the president-elect that waterboarding was not an effective interrogation technique, apparently changing Trump’s mind. With his nomination, Mattis may moderate Trump’s position on other issues, including on Russia and the Iran nuclear deal.

Mattis enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1969. He also served in the Persian Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan.

In order to serve, Congress will have to pass legislation exempting Mattis from a statute requiring a seven-year waiting period for members of the military looking to serve in a civilian role. The last time a exemption was granted was when President Harry S Truman nominated General George Marshall in 1950.

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Feds Charge Three Kansas Men in Domestic Terror Plot

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 12:15:55 -0400

Federal prosecutors charged three Kansas men Friday with domestic terrorism for planning an attack on Somali immigrants.

The three men from Liberal, Kansas, in the southwest part of the state, were targeting a nearby meatpacking town, planning to detonate bombs in an apartment complex where around 120 Somali immigrants reside.

According to the affidavit:

This is a militia group whose members support and espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs.

This comes after an eight-month investigation into the militia group called “The Crusaders.” The FBI even used an informant, who attended their meetings. Mother Jones adds:

Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, and Patrick Stein allegedly contemplated murder, kidnapping, rape, and arson before settling on a different plan: They would obtain four vehicles, pack them with explosives, and set them off at the four corners of an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas, that housed a mosque and 120 Somali refugees.

The three men were arrested with nearly 2,000 pounds of firearms and ammunition. They were planning to attack on November 9, one day after the election.

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The Justice Department's New Police Shooting Database

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 09:49:45 -0400

The Justice Department will start collecting data on police-involved shootings.

In light of recent fatal shootings and a series of protests, the Justice Department next year will embark on what The New York Times says is “the most ambitious” project to track the use of deadly force by police officers nationwide. Activists have long complained about the gap in federal data.

A Resignation at Yosemite Amid Sexual Harassment Reports

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 09:39:50 -0400

The superintendent of Yosemite National Park has stepped down amid reports of rampant sexual harassment and bullying of female employees.

Don Neubacher has led the California destination for the last six years, and was previously lauded for his efforts to protect and restore major sections of the park. This latest scandal, though, is likely to tarnish his legacy.

In a statement Thursday, Neubacher said:

I regret leaving at this time, but want to do what’s best for Yosemite National Park. It is an iconic area that is world renowned and deserves special attention.

The House Oversight Committee last week held a hearing to address recent allegations of sexual harassment at some of the country’s most popular national parks, including Yosemite. As ABC News reports:

At Yosemite, at least 18 employees have come forward with allegations of harassment or other misconduct so severe that a recent report labeled working conditions at the park “toxic.”

At Yellowstone, officials are investigating complaints of sexual exploitation, intimidation and retaliation.

The complaints follow a report by the Interior Department's inspector general that found male employees at the Grand Canyon preyed on female colleagues, demanded sex and retaliated against women who refused.

At the hearing, Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said Yosemite’s hostile work environment was “a result of the behavior and conduct of the park’s superintendent,” Neubacher.

Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, said many of these persistent issues were presented to Congress 16 years ago and hostile working environment of national parks has yet to change.

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A Nomination for the First U.S. Ambassador to Cuba in 50 Years

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 09:54:30 -0400

President Obama has nominated a top diplomat to serve as the first U.S. ambassador to Cuba in more than 50 years. But the nomination may face some roadblocks in the Senate.

Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who currently serves as the chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Havana, has worked in the State Department since 1991 as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Obama said his nomination is “a common sense step forward toward a more normal and productive relationship” between the U.S. and Cuba. He adds:

Having an ambassador will make it easier to advocate for our interests, and will deepen our understanding even when we know that we will continue to have differences with the Cuban government. He is exactly the type of person we want to represent the United States in Cuba, and we only hurt ourselves by not being represented by an Ambassador. If confirmed by the Senate, I know Jeff will build on the changes he helped bring about to better support the Cuban people and advance America’s interests.

DeLaurentis served in Havana twice before and played a vital role in normalizing relations with the communist country in recent years. The U.S. embassy in Havana reopened August 2015, a month after the two countries restored diplomatic relations.

Several Republican senators, including Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, have vowed to block a nomination for U.S. ambassador to Cuba. Rubio, ina letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last June, said he would remain opposed to a nomination until Cuba enacted political and human rights reforms.

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Who's Responsible for the Aleppo Aid Convoy Attack?

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 09:49:47 -0400

Russian warplanes bombed the aid convoy that was heading to Aleppo, U.S. officials are now claiming.

The airstrike killed 20 people Monday, including the head of the Syrian Red Crescent, and destroyed 18 of the 31 trucks that were delivering medicine, water, and food to help 250,000 stranded civilians. The bombing came just after a weeklong ceasefire agreement, brokered by Russia and the U.S., came to an abrupt end.

Russia, for its part, claims that footage from its military drones shows the attack was carried out by Syrian rebels firing a mortar from a pickup truck. U.S. officials, however, told CNN that only a Russian warplane could have struck the convoy.

Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, also told CNN that it was clearly an airstrike that destroyed the aid convoy. Only Syria or Russia could have carried out that strike, he says. Rhodes, though, didn’t say which forces struck.

Still, he argues that Russia did not hold up its end of the ceasefire agreement, saying:

We hold the Russian government responsible for airstrikes in this airspace given their commitment under the cessation of hostilities was to ground air operations where humanitarian assistance was flowing…

We have not seen good faith. This was an outrageous action. It raises serious questions about whether or not this agreement moves forward.

The United Nations announced earlier on Tuesday that it was suspending aid to Syria in light of the airstrike, saying it was a security precaution.

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Screening for Zika in Donated Blood

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:48:33 -0400

The U.S. government is now recommending that blood banks around the nation take precautions against the Zika virus.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday it will recommend all U.S. blood banks screen donated blood for the mosquito-borne virus, which can cause birth defects. In February, the FDA recommended screening only in areas with confirmed Zika cases, as well as barring donations from people who had recently visited such areas or had been exposed.

Noting the general uncertainty surrounding Zika, and the fact that four out of five infected people don’t show symptoms of the virus, Dr. Luciana Borio, the FDA’s acting chief scientist, said in a statement:

As new scientific and epidemiological information regarding Zika virus has become available, it’s clear that additional precautionary measures are necessary. We are issuing revised guidance for immediate implementation in order to help maintain the safety of the U.S. blood supply.

The FDA said that in light of the new guidance, it will test already-donated blood in Florida and Puerto Rico.

As scientists study the virus—and how it can effectively spread through sexual intercourse—Zika cases continue to pop up in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with South America and the Caribbean. On Tuesday, Florida officials said they were investigating five Zika cases where the virus was transmitted locally. Around 50 people have now contracted the virus in South Florida.

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The Missing 28 Pages

Matt Vasilogambros and J. Weston Phippen, The Atlantic — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 16:16:17 -0400

Some 9/11 hijackers had links to officials in the Saudi government, according to 28 formerly classified pages released Friday from the joint congressional investigation into the attack.

NOTE 1 (p. 6)

View entire document with DocumentCloud

In 2002 a joint congressional investigation looked into possible intelligence failures that led to the attacks, but these 28 pages were kept classified, leading to speculation that they possessed details about Saudi links to the hijackers.

U.S. lawmakers had wanted to release the documents, but the FBI wanted the pages to remain classified—and indeed many details in the pages are redacted. As our colleague David Graham reported, former Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who chaired the Senate side of the congressional investigation, has tried to get the pages released for years. He has said there is no security reason for the U.S. government to keep them secret. And while he hasn’t been able to discuss what is in the pages because they were classified, he had promised “a real smoking gun.”

The pages that were released Friday appear to fall short of that promise—though they do raise questions about senior Saudi officials and their connections, sometimes tenuous, to some of the hijackers. The pages allege that while some of the hijackers were in the U.S., they were in contact with, and at times received assistance from, people in the Saudi government, including two Saudi intelligence officers. Officials in the Saudi government, including members of the royal family and embassy staff, at times provided large sums of money, fake passports, and information to people assisting the hijackers while they were in the U.S., the pages allege.

Here’s an example:

BANDAR (p. 18)

View entire document with DocumentCloud

Bandar, a close family friend of the Bushes, was Saudi ambassador to U.S. from 1983 to 2005.

The pages also criticize the intelligence shortfalls on the Saudi issue, saying:

In the view of the Joint Inquiry, this gap in U.S. intelligence coverage is unacceptable, given the magnitude and immediacy of the potential risk to U.S. national security.

Here’s more:

NOTE 3 (p. 11)

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One reason for this, the report explains, may relate to Saudi Arabia’s status as a U.S. ally. Indeed, Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said Friday the Obama administration does not think the release of the 28 pages “change conclusions about the 9/11 attacks.”

In a statement, the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes the release of the redacted pages from the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry. Since 2002, the 9/11 Commission and several government agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, have investigated the contents of the ‘28 Pages’ and have confirmed that neither the Saudi government, nor senior Saudi officials, nor any person acting on behalf of the Saudi government provided any support or encouragement for these attacks.

But the 9/11 Families in response said: “The Saudis are exerting extreme pressure on the Administration to protect themselves and to cajole Congress in hopes of avoiding the restoration of the long-held understanding of our law and setting good policy. And this very exercise of unacceptable leverage by the Saudis over our Government is precisely what the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act was meant to prevent.”

The 9/11 Families also called for Congress to pass the Justice Against Sponsor of Terrorism Act, which would allow families of terrorist victims to sue foreign governments for damages in U.S. courts. The Saudis are opposed to the legislation and the White House has said the president will veto any attempt to pass it.

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A Homicide at U.S. Navy SEAL Training

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 15:49:48 -0400

Investigators looking into the drowning death of a Navy SEAL trainee have ruled it a homicide.

James Lovelace, who was 21, died May 6 during a swimming exercise in a pool on the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado outside of San Diego. While instructors are expected to splash, make waves, and yell at trainees during the “Combat Swimmer Orientation,” they are not allowed to dunk them. According to a reportreleased Wednesday by the San Diego County medical examiner’s office, though:

Video surveillance footage of the pool showing the training exercise was reviewed with NCIS. At some point during the exercise, an instructor observing from the dive platform is seen to point out the decedent, who appeared to be struggling, and an instructor in the water approaches the decedent. That instructor is seen to dunk the decedent under the water and then follow him around the pool for approximately 5 minutes. He continually splashes the decedent, dunks him at least one additional time, and appears to be yelling at him. The decedent is also splashed by other individuals during the event. At one point in the video, another individual in the water is seen pulling him up and away from the instructor. Throughout this time period, the decedent’s head is seen to go under the water multiple times, and the instructor can be seen pulling him up multiple times. Eventually the instructor pulls him out of the water, and the exercise is stopped.

After he was pulled from the water, Lovelace became unresponsive. After several “aggressive attempts at resuscitation,” he was declared dead at a local hospital. Naval records showed Lovelace was “not a strong swimmer,” and that his face had turned purple and his lips blue during the exercise.

While the report notes Lovelace’s death may be considered an accident by some, “it is our opinion that the actions, and inactions, of the instructors and other individuals involved were excessive and directly contributed to the death, and the manner of death is best classified as homicide.”

While NCIS continues to investigate the incident, one of the instructors was pulled from training exercises, though he is not yet facing official accusations of wrongdoing by the Navy, the Washington Post reports. In the days that followed Lovelace’s death, more safety measures were added near the pool.

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Yosemite, Through John Muir's Words

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:53:28 -0400

President Obama and the First Family will arrive in Yosemite on Friday, and spend the weekend celebrating the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary. The park actually antedates the agency that now cares for it; the naturalist John Muir helped create it in 1890.

Muir, a Scottish-American who retained his iconic long beard and boyish energy even in old age, was the fiercest proponent of the Sierra Nevada, exploring every inch of Yosemite—its plants and animals, its sounds and smells. He even took Theodore Roosevelt on a visit there in 1903.

He wrote extensively about the area for The Atlantic during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In our August 1899 issue, he gave a passionate account of the new national park, writing:

Of all the mountain ranges I have climbed, I like the Sierra Nevada the best. Though extremely rugged, with its main features on the grandest scale in height and depth, it is nevertheless easy of access and hospitable; and its marvelous beauty, displayed in striking and alluring forms, wooes the admiring wanderer on and on, higher and higher, charmed and enchanted. Benevolent, solemn, fateful, pervaded with divine light, every landscape glows like a countenance hallowed in eternal repose; and every one of its living creatures, clad in flesh and leaves, and every crystal of its rocks, whether on the surface shining in the sun or buries miles deep in what we call darkness, is throbbing and pulsing with the heartbeats of God. All the world lies warm in one heart, yet the Sierra seems to get more light than other mountains. The weather is mostly sunshine embellished with magnificent storms, and nearly everything shines from base to summit,—the rocks, streams, lakes, glaciers, irised falls, and the forests of silver fir and silver pine. And how bright is the shining after summer showers and dewy nights, and after frosty nights in spring and autumn, when the morning sunbeams are pouring through the crystals on the bushes and grass, and in winter through the snow-laden trees!...

Of this glorious range the Yosemite National Park is a central section, thirty-six miles in length and forty-eight miles in breadth. The famous Yosemite Valley lies in the heart of it, and it includes the head waters of the Tuolumne and Merced rivers, two of the most songful streams in the world; innumerable lakes and waterfalls and smooth silky lawns; the noblest forests, the loftiest granite domes, the deepest ice-sculptured canons, the brightest crystalline pavements, and snowy mountains soaring into the sky twelve and thirteen thousand feet, arrayed in open ranks and spiry pinnacled groups partially separated by tremendous cañons and amphitheatres; gardens on their sunny brows avalanches thundering down their long white slopes, cataracts roaring gray and foaming in the crooked rugged gorges. and glaciers in their shadowy recesses working in silence, slowly completing their sculpture; new-born lakes at their feet, blue and green, free or encumbered with drifting icebergs like miniature Arctic Oceans, shining, sparkling, calm as stars.

Nowhere will you see the majestic operations of nature more clearly revealed beside the frailest, most gentle and peaceful things. Nearly all the park is a profound solitude. Yet it is full of charming company, full of God’s thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur and eager enthusiastic action, a new song, a place of beginnings abounding in first lessons on life, mountain-building, eternal, invincible, unbreakable order; with sermons in stones, storms, trees, flowers, and animals brimful of humanity. During the last glacial period, just past, the former features of the range were rubbed off as a chalk sketch from a blackboard, and a new beginning was made. Hence the wonderful clearness and freshness of the rocky pages.

Muir knew that the natural wonders of the country could easily be taken away. At the time of his writing, he saw the coastal redwoods of California and the spruce of Oregon and Washington succumb to the commercial demand for lumber. To Muir, this made the creation of national parks an urgent project.

He so loved trees that he once climbed a pine during a particularly bad storm just to see what it was like to be a tree in heavy winds. In the April 1900 issue, hedescribed Yosemite’s trees in exhaustive detail, including its sugar pines:

No traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. The majestic crowns approaching one another make a glorious canopy, through the feathery arches of which the sunbeams pour, silvering the needles and gilding the stately columns and the ground into a scene of enchantment.

It was in that essay that Muir described meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson, a leader of the Transcendentalist movement and prominent writer for The Atlantic, in Yosemite in 1871. After many failed attempts to get Emerson to go “rough camping” with him, Muir said to Emerson, sitting in Mariposa Grove, “You are yourself a sequoia. Stop and get acquainted with your big brethren.” Emerson, however, was “past his prime” and would not join him.

John Muir (USDA photo)

Muir devoted the same loving attention to the flowers of Yosemite as he had lavished on its trees. As he wrote in the August 1900 issue:

In general views of the Park scare a hint is given of its floral wealth. Only by patiently, lovingly sauntering about in it will you discover that it is all more or less flowery, the forests as well as the open spaces, and the mountain tops and rugged slopes around the glaciers as well as the sunny meadows.

Even the majestic cañon cliffs, seemingly absolutely flawless for thousands of feet and necessarily doomed to eternal sterility, are cheered with happy flowers on invisible niches and ledges wherever the slightest grip for a root can be found; as if Nature, like an enthusiastic gardener, could not resist the temptation to plant flowers everywhere.

One of his final observations of the national park for The Atlantic came during the April 1901 issue, when he excitedly described Yosemite’s waterways. He recounted one specific location in the park of which he was particularly fond—the north fork of Owens River—which he says had “wonderful champagne water” that was best imbibed by leaning down and drinking directly from its source, “lest the touch of a cup might disturb its celestial flavor.”

A story from that essay captures the joy Muir found there:

In Yosemite Valley, one morning about two o'clock, I was aroused by an earthquake; and though I had never before enjoyed a storm of this sort, the strange, wild thrilling motion and rumbling could not be mistaken, and I ran out of my cabin, near the Sentinel Rock, both glad and frightened, shouting, "A noble earthquake!" feeling sure I was going to learn something.

A boulder soon gave way up the valley, tumbling down, leveling trees, and breaking into piece. After the dust settled and the chaos calmed, he observed:

Nature, usually so deliberate in her operations, then created, as we have seen, a new of features, simply by giving the mountains a shake,—changing not only the high peaks and cliffs, but the streams. As soon as these rock avalanches fell every stream began to sing new songs; for in many places thousands of boulders were hurled into their channels, roughening and half damming them, compelling the waters to surge and roar in rapids where before they were gliding smoothly. Some of the streams were completely dammed, driftwood, leaves, etc., filling the interstices between the boulders, thus giving rise to lakes and level reaches; and these, again, after being gradually filled in, to smooth meadows, through which the streams now silently meander; while at the same time some of the taluses took the places of old meadows and groves. Thus rough places were made smooth, and smooth places rough. But on the whole, by what at first sight seemed pure confusion and ruin, the landscapes were enriched; for gradually every talus, however big the boulders composing it, was covered with groves and gardens, and made a finely proportioned and ornamental base for the sheer cliffs. In this beauty work, every boulder is prepared and measured and put in its place more thoughtfully than are the stones of temples.

In his writings, he explored nature with such reverence that the trees, insects, and animals became characters. He wanted visitors of Yosemite to appreciate their surroundings as much as he did. That became clear in the November 1898 issue, when he wrote:

Travelers in the Sierra forests usually complain of the want of life. “The trees,” they say, “are fine, but the empty stillness is deadly; there are no animals to be seen, no birds. We have not heard a song in all the woods.” And no wonder! They go in large parties with mules and horses; they make a great noise; they are dressed in outlandish unnatural colors; every animal shuns them. Even the frightened pines would run away if they could. But Nature-lovers, devout, silent, open-eyed, looking and listening with love, find no lack of inhabitants in these mountain mansions, and they come to them gladly. Not to mention the large animals or the small insect people, every waterfall has its ouzel and every tree its squirrel or tamias or bird: tiny nuthatch threading the furrows of the bark, sheerily whispering to itself as it deftly pries off loose scales and examines the curled edges of lichens; or Clarke crow or jay examining the cones; or some singer-oriole, tanager, warbler-resting, feeding, attending to domestic affairs. Hawks and eagles sail overhead, grouse walk in happy flocks below, and song sparrows sing in every bed of chaparral. There is no crowding, to be sure. Unlike the low Eastern trees, those of the Sierra in the main forest belt average nearly two hundred feet in height, and of course many birds are required to make much show in them, and many voices to fill them. Nevertheless, the whole range, from foothills to snowy summits, is shaken into song every summer; and though low and thin in winter, the music never ceases.

Muir’s way of looking at America’s national parks may strike the contemporary reader as alien. The president’s visit comes as the National Park Service is beset by internal controversies, and there seem to be weekly incidents of visitors failing to respect what conservationists for over a century have tried to protect. But overall, visits to National Parks have steadily increased, topping 300 million for the first time in 2015. More and more Americans, it seems, may feel as Muir did in 1873: “The mountains are calling and I must go.”

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Transportation Department To Allow More Flights to Cuba

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 15:32:54 -0400

Americans will now have more opportunities to fly to Cuba.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved six domestic airlines to begin flights to Cuba from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis/St. Paul. This is the first time there have been scheduled flights between the U.S. and Cuba in more than 50 years. Charter flights between the two countries, though, have been allowed for several years, making around 100 crossings per week.

The airlines—American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Sun Country Airlines—were approved to fly to nine cities in Cuba. Havana, though, is not on that list. As USA Today reports:

But the department is still considering which airlines will get a combined 20 daily flights to the capital out of 60 proposals, which will be announced later this summer.

The nine destinations in Cuba are Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara, and Santiago de Cuba. Each city could have received up to 10 U.S. flights per day.

In February, Cuba and the U.S. signed an agreement to re-establish scheduled flights between the two countries, allowing for 110 daily round-trip flights. This is yet another step in the growing diplomatic relations that began December 2014, and was most notably highlighted by President Obama’s trip to the Communist Party-run island nation in March.

(Image via Flickr user darioruglioni)

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State Department Warns Americans of European Travel Risk

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 10:32:50 -0400

The U.S. government is warning American travelers of the potential risk of terrorism if they are planning to visit Europe this summer.

On Tuesday, the State Department issued a travel alert, saying tourists should be wary of public locations and large events. Most notably, the State Department says the European Soccer Championship, which takes place in France from June 10 until July 10, might be a target. The department warns:

Euro Cup stadiums, fan zones, and unaffiliated entertainment venues broadcasting the tournaments in France and across Europe represent potential targets for terrorists, as do other large-scale sporting events and public gathering places throughout Europe. France has extended its state of emergency through July 26 to cover the period of the soccer championship, as well as the Tour de France cycling race which will be held from July 2- 24.

France has been in a state of emergency since last year’s terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead. French authorities plan on using 90,000 police, soldiers, and private security personnel for the soccer tournament, the BBC reports.

The travel alert also draws attention to the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day, which will bring 2.5 million to Krakow, Poland, between July 26 and July 31. According to the BBC, this is only the third time in 20 years the State Department has listed Europe on one of its travel alerts.

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Should Airports Privatize Security to Avoid Long Lines?

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Fri, 27 May 2016 10:20:42 -0400

More than a minute into his journey from the front of the security line at Chicago’s Midway Airport to its end, one man filming the weaving monstrosity recently lamented, “Guess what? It’s just getting started.” Walking past endless rows of fellow travelers, he doesn’t find his place at the end of the line for a few hundred more feet. Only then does his hours-long trip through security begin.

People across the United States have faced similar travel nightmares this month, thanks to historically long security lines at airports. Officials are telling passengers to arrive three hours before their flights in order to give them enough time to get through long lines manned by the Transportation Security Administration. Between June and August, the high season for air travel, 231 million people are expected to fly in the U.S. and likely exacerbate those waiting times.

The long lines have officials in some U.S. cities wondering whether they should ditch the TSA and turn to the private sector to provide security. Authorities in Atlanta and New York sent letters this week to the TSA to start the process of privatizing airport security, and a group of Chicago aldermen are calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to follow suit. Charlotte and Phoenix officials have also expressed some interest.

Some lawmakers say contractors can react more quickly to fixing issues like long lines. Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from California, wrote Thursday in a column for CNN that privatizing airport security could solve “our broken airport security system.”

“The TSA, of course, could still exist to set standards and oversee quality control for the companies administering security, but we could do away with the long lines and endless sea of ‘suitcase surgeons’ in their iconic blue rubber gloves,” Issa wrote.

Before 9/11, it was up to airlines to hire private contractors for terminal security. After the attacks, the federal government created the TSA to streamline the security process and took over most airport security nationwide. Airports had the option to use private contractors, but only through the approval and with the funding of the TSA. Many airports took the TSA up on its offer.

In the years since, the TSA has faced criticism for what some describe as aggressive pat downs and oversights that have allowed banned items to make it through security. A 2015 investigation by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General showed that TSA agents missed 95 percent of mock explosives and banned weapons that undercover investigators brought through security. One TSA agent even missed a fake explosive device taped to the back of one of the undercover investigators.

Already, 22 airports across the country use private contractors instead of the TSA for airport security, including in Kansas City and San Francisco, which kept its private security even after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That seems to have worked well for those airports, as the Chicago Tribune reports:

Reviews by consultants and government agencies have found that private screeners perform at the same level or modestly better than TSA-staffed operations, with higher marks for customer service and flexibility.

A 2011 report from Republican members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure showed private airport security officers in San Francisco processed 65 percent more passengers per screener than their TSA counterparts in Los Angeles.

The TSA says it is understaffed because of budget cuts and a higher volume of travelers. The union that represents security officers says the TSA needs to add at least 6,000 more officers to the TSA’s 42,000-member workforce to meet airports’ demand. But to hire new officers would mean an injection of tens of millions of dollars in a budget of $7.4 billion—an unlikely sell for a fiscally conservative Congress.

As complaints grow against the TSA, the administration is attempting to do what it can with the resources it has. Officials say they will hire an additional 800 security officers nationwide by the end of the month to ease some of the demand. On Monday, top officials also replaced the administration’s head of security.

When city officials put in requests to switch to private security, the TSA has 120 days to review the applications and decide whether to approve them. Any applications submitted now would not have any effect on this year’s busy summer months.

For now, some members of Congress have suggested Americans up for TSA Pre-Check for expedited security screenings. Ironically, the TSA warns that “consumers may experience longer than usual wait times at some enrollment centers” because of high demand, forcing travelers to wait in long lines to avoid long lines.

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Justice Department Scores Goal With Latino Soccer Fandom

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 16:32:53 -0400

The target of Justice Department indictments last week may have been FIFA, but U.S. Latinos heavily influenced its aim.

If you want a good look at growing soccer fandom in the United States, look at the television ratings of Univision during the last World Cup. In the final match alone, 9.2 million people tuned in, making it the most-viewed World Cup final in U.S. Spanish-language television history.

Univision outperformed ABC—who also showed World Cup games in 2014 along with ESPN—in the Miami and Houston markets during that final broadcast, this all according to Nielsen. In total, Univision had 80.9 million total viewers in the entire tournament, surpassing the last World Cup viewership by nearly 30 million viewers. That sort of growth is astronomical.

(NBC Universal's Spanish-language station, Telemundo, outbid Univision for the 2018, 2022, and 2026 World Cups and will likely share similar ratings success among a largely Latino audience.)

The Justice Department's actions against FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, are not coincidental. Americans are starting to care about soccer. The United States is still miffed about losing the 2022 World Cup bid to Qatar. With last week's arrests, and subsequent downfall of FIFA head Sepp Blatter, the United States is showing leadership in the world of soccer.

As Slate's Mark Joseph Stern writes:

The Justice Department says it isn't trying to bring down FIFA; it's trying to save it. And it has decided to do so by arresting, prosecuting, and (with luck) imprisoning a stunning array of the organization's most powerful leaders.

In its actions last week, the Justice Department firmly introduced itself to Latinos, the fastest-growing demographic in the country and one of the major sources of increased soccer fandom in the nation. Doing so shows millions of ardent soccer fans that this administration—or Attorney General Loretta Lynch at least—cares about an issue they care about.

Before the 2014 final, a Pew poll found that 23 percent of Latinos were following the World Cup closely and another 32 percent were following the games fairly closely. Together, that translates to more than half of Latinos following the World Cup, vastly greater than the number of white and black poll participants.

No substantial (or scientific) polling on how Americans view the recent FIFA arrests and the future of soccer exists yet, but judging by the massive interest in the World Cup last year, it's safe to assume those Justice Department actions were popular. Presidential candidates take note.

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This Bakery Trains Wounded Veterans in the Art of Pastries and Business

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 10:18:41 -0500

There's a new, swanky bakery in Georgetown that's serving up premium coffee, teas, and pastries like a crème caramel rooibos teaclair, mini banana bread loaf, and lemon financier, all baked from scratch in an historic building on a quiet side street a few blocks from the waterfront. Exposed brick and light-stained hardwood floors complement red leather seats and blue and white booths with matching red pillows—appropriately patriotic décor for this nontraditional eatery.

Dog Tag Bakery, which celebrated its grand opening this month, is not like other bakeries in the upscale D.C. neighborhood. The staff may be just as talented and pleasant as in other coffee houses in area, and the digs just as nice. But for eight people on staff, baking and brewing is just one element of their jobs. Those eight are injured veterans and their spouses, participating in a work-study program through Georgetown University.

By day, they help run the bakery—from ringing up customers, to marketing, to actually baking the pastries. They learn the ins and outs of running a business and the art of baking. On the side, they take business courses on the second floor of the 150-year-old building. Georgetown professors, through the School of Continuing Studies, come in to teach courses on accounting, business management, finance, and communications. It's the only business certificate program of its kind in the country, helping transition injured veterans into the private sector.

It's an important transition that's often overlooked. Veterans, and especially wounded veterans, often have a difficult time finding jobs after leaving the military. In a recent survey, Wounded Warriors found that over 17 percent of the program's alumni are unemployed—one-third of whom are long-term unemployed. Just 44 percent of those surveyed work full time.

One of the roots in this trend has to deal with wounded veterans lacking the necessary education for the private sector. That's why Justin Ford, the bakery's general manager, wanted to offer the program to wounded veterans—many of whom have combat injuries or post-traumatic stress—and to their spouses, who are often caregivers. Participants are paid a $2,200 monthly stipend by the program and the bakery covers their certificate costs.

"No matter if you have a physical or mental wound or disability, it's not going to stop you from growing professionally and personally," Ford says. "We'll definitely knock down that wall."

Ford knows this situation well. He's a veteran of the Army, serving as a combat engineer for four years, including in Kosovo and Iraq. When he left the military in 2004, he assumed that since he did well in the military and achieved rank promotions at a relatively quick pace, it would translate over to the civilian world. But after he couldn't secure any management positions, he found himself busing tables, working at a gym, and doing other odd jobs that didn't pay the bills for almost two years until he decided to go to college. Since then, he's worked to find jobs for other veterans after they leave the service.

"The military spends a great deal of time and money inaugurating you into the military, but only about a week to send you on your way. So, when someone comes out of the military, they don't have that support network," Ford says. "We've gotten a lot better as a country and within the military transitioning veterans. But there's still a lot of work to do."

Another issue has to do with the structure of the private sector, says Alex Powers, the director of the Warriors to Work program at Wounded Warriors. Because many veterans entered the military at a very young age, typically right out of high school, they don't have a vast amount of experience working in the private sector. His program provides one-on-one career counseling and coaching for part-time or full-time employment. Wounded Warriors has committed to finding meaningful employment for 10,000 veterans by 2017.

"When they go out to the civilian sector, they understand that they have to be at work at a certain time, but they're fearful of whether or not they'll be truly mentored and coached like they were in the military," says Powers, who served 10 years in the Army through the mid-1990s. "These are amazing people, just incredibly courageous individuals. These warriors want to continue to have a meaningful life. They want to take care of their family. They want to grow personally and professionally as they deal with their injuries upon their return from downrange."

Ford, for his part, has made an effort to hire veterans beyond the program as permanent staff in the bakery. He also hired Sham Hasan, a former Iraqi translator for the U.S. Army and State Department. Hasan worked for the U.S. government for over three years in Iraq and finally moved to Washington two months ago after a long, arduous green-card process. But with the new job, and new path in the U.S. he got through his service, he's around a couple things he knows well: food and military folks.

"I wake up every morning pumped up and motivated," says the 28-year-old barista. "I just want to be here and work. I want to be American. That's the dream. I always wanted to be American. I worked so hard and I nailed it."

Patrons of the Georgetown establishment share his enthusiasm. "The bread is good," a new regular customer yells as he leaves on this winter morning, walking past the chandelier made of dog tags hovering over an antique dog tag maker. The bakery hadn't celebrated its grand opening yet when I was there, but the place was packed with coffee drinkers and business people munching on curried chicken-salad sandwiches and chocolate coffee truffles. The space is comfortably airy, designed to be especially accessible for wounded veterans—there's an elevator for the second floor, there's more room in the aisles and behind the counter to fit a wheelchair, and the front door is automatic.

A new wave of program participants will come in the new year. But until that time, Ford reminds his customers: "Although we are a nonprofit, we do offer a good product."

(Image via Flickr user Borya)

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Yes, the Search for the White House Christmas Tree Has Already Begun

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 10:54:20 -0400

It's Christmas in July, sort of.

While the White House Christmas Tree doesn't arrive in Washington until late November, tree farmers meet Friday in southwest Michigan to decide who among them gets to provide the tree that will sit in the Blue Room. For Christmas tree farmers, this contest is the pinnacle of their profession.

Growing trees is more than putting saplings in the ground and waiting years for it to grow. Tree farmers describe their profession like a Hollywood movie where a character must defuse a bomb: Does he snip the green wire or the red wire? Every decision to trim a stem or snip a needle could mean the difference between a losing or winning tree.

"Trees don't just look that way naturally," says Rick Dungey, the executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association. "They go through this tree meticulously, branch by branch by branch. They snip off individual needles. Lord knows how many needles there are on an 8-foot-tall tree—probably thousands of them. And they go one at a time. When you see that, you realize what it takes to win this contest."

That contest will bring the 14 best tree growers from around the country together to showcase their best 6-to-8-foot trees, their fates in the hands of six industry professional judges and dozens of local consumers who rate on everything from shape and color to form and fullness. Growers must trim and shape trees, yes, but the tree must look natural and not look like it's been trimmed and shaped.

Peterson's Riverview Nursery in Allegan, Mich., will be transformed from a quiet farm into a fluttering foliage fair. Before the winner is announced on Saturday morning, the 400 tree growers attending the convention use the time to talk trade and attempt to answer the difficult Christmas tree political questions of the day.

"Could a pine ever win the contest? Could a spruce ever win the contest?" asks Marsha Gray, the executive director of the Michigan Christmas Tree Association. "Those are things we actually talk about!"

The state tree of Michigan is the white pine, but don't expect any favoritism toward that conifer. These days, consumers lean more toward the Fraser fir and the Noble fir. Fifty years ago, Scots pine and Douglas fir ran the gamut. But last year, it was a Douglas fir from Pennsylvania that won. Industry favorites be damned, a blue spruce might even win.

In the end, however, judging trees is a subjective process. "You could line up 100 people and ask what is the best kind of Christmas tree," Dungey says. "And you're going to get 100 different answers." When the White House representative eventually picks the much larger tree from the winning farm, they will choose the one they like best.

There are 14,000 Christmas tree farms in the United States, and only one is selected for the White House. Such high stakes sometimes require extreme actions. Gray notes what her friend, a Washington state grower, had to go through several years ago. The national competition was being held in eastern Pennsylvania, but he could only fly the tree out to New York City in a refrigerated package. He borrowed someone's truck, left Pennsylvania late that night, picked up the tree at 3 a.m., made it back in time to enter the tree into the competition at 7 a.m., and ended up winning.

"He went through so much to get his tree there," Gray said. "But his tree won and he got to go to the White House."

It's one of the most iconic sights of the holidays in Washington since the tradition started in 1966: A horse-drawn carriage pulls up in front of the White House with the giant tree, greeted by the first lady. For one grower, that's their tree. It's the kind of early Christmas present any tree farmer would want.

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If Hillary Clinton Doesn't Run, Who Would Lead the Democratic Field for President?

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 09:51:28 -0400

Hillary Clinton is almost certainly going to run for president. But what if she doesn't, and the Democratic field winds up wide open?

If she choses not to run, leaving the Democratic nomination for president up for the taking, Democrats would be in actual disarray, according to a new Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday.

Right now, Clinton leads in the potential Democratic field with 58 percent, topping Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (11 percent), Vice President Joe Biden (9 percent) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (4 percent). Democrats clearly expect a run for president and would generally support Clinton's candidacy if it happens.

Clinton's lead is much higher than it was at this point in 2006, where she would eventually lose the nomination to a little-known Illinois senator. In a June 2006 Gallup poll, she led with 37 percent among Democrats in a theoretical 2008 matchup, followed by former Vice President Al Gore at 16 percent, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards at 13 percent, and Secretary of State John Kerry at 12 percent.

But if you take Clinton out of the picture for 2016, the rest of the field either consists of candidates that Democrats don't want or don't know.

Take Joe Biden. The vice president holds a strong 73 percent favorability among Democrats, but clearly Democrats prefer other people to him for the presidency. He's behind Warren in this latest poll by a couple percentage points, and far behind Clinton.

While several Democrats have higher favorable ratings than unfavorable ratings, the percentage of people who haven't heard enough about them is much higher—50 percent for Cuomo, 88 percent for Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, 53 percent for Warren, and 88 percent for former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, according to this poll.

If Clinton didn't run, Democrats wouldn't know enough about the rest of the theoretical field to have a clear frontrunner.

Now, this all being said, President Obama was almost nowhere to be found at this point in the election cycle in 2006. He only managed to get the support of 1 percent of all voters when they were asked in June 2006 who they would most like to see elected president in 2008. Obama didn't start hinting he would run for president until later in the summer.

People didn't know much about Obama, but it worked out for him just fine. It could work out for another Democrat, too.

(Image via Flickr user sylartinitaly)

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The Capitol Hill Security Gap That's as Troublesome as the One at Navy Yard

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:17:05 -0400

On Sept. 23, as on most days, Aaron Alexis arrived at work at the Washington Navy Yard. He drove up to the front gates, displaying his parking pass and credentials. Sitting next to him was a backpack containing a shotgun and shells. The bag was never searched. He walked into Building 197, having never gone through a metal detector, and started his rampage, killing 12 people.

It was a frightening gap in security—a gap not unlike the one that exists at the U.S. Capitol now.

Most people, visitors and staffers alike, enter congressional office buildings through side doors, where they are met by Capitol Police and metal detectors. They empty their pockets and their bags are searched. But some House staffers who drive into work don't experience this level of security.

To experience this gap, I drove along this week with two senior staffers from a congressional office, who asked not to be named for this story. We approached the House side of Capitol Hill on New Jersey Avenue Southeast. A Capitol Police officer met us at the barricades. He checked the driver's parking sticker and ID and told us to pop the trunk, which contained golf clubs, a box, and two travel bags. He looked in the trunk for less than a second, closed it, and let us in, having never checked the bags or box or asked what was in them. I didn't show him any credentials, nor did he have a metal-detector wand in his hand.

We then drove into the Rayburn House Office Building parking garage and found a spot a couple of levels down. We parked and walked right into the building, one staffer carrying a bag. There was no metal detector or major Capitol Police presence. We were now in one of the office buildings where lawmakers and their staff work every day, having gone through practically zero security. As we walked over to the Longworth House Office Building, one staffer told me that this day's arrival was normal.

"Driving in is a breeze," he said. "When I first started, I expected high security. But I've always thought that security here, in today's world, is very lackadaisical."

The staffer has never taken his concern to the Capitol Police, explaining, "It was something I always thought about it, but never acted on." He has, however, talked to his congressman, who has discussed the lack of security in the parking garages with other members of Congress who share those concerns and want to add metal detectors.

The force does what it can with the funds it has. The Capitol Police staff of 1,775 sworn officers and 370 civilian workers conducted 150,000 vehicle sweeps, 27,000 off-site vehicle inspections, and 9.8 million screenings of people in fiscal 2013, according to testimony from Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine. But they have their limits. Some gaps might remain open.

When asked specifically about the lack of security in parking garages, Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said she does not discuss security operations, but said the force "constantly assesses and reassesses our security procedures" and has not ruled out changing them. Further, in response to whether more money would help, she said the Capitol Police "utilizes the funds provided by the Congress to maintain robust security."

Any House staffer, spaces allowing, can get a parking pass. Even low-level staff assistants and interns, many of whom have worked on the Hill for only a short time, get passes and come into work through loose security. The sergeant-at-arms did not respond to questions.

Hill staffers are generally not perceived as threats to each other or to the general public. But the same might have been said about contractors at military facilities. Most congressional work is done in those office buildings, where members meet, staff work, and committee hearings are held. Securing them is one of Capitol Police's top priorities.

There is, though, a security checkpoint going from House office buildings into the Capitol Building, where staffers and visitors must go through metal detectors.

One of the solutions here is to add more security checkpoints in the House garages. But that takes manpower and equipment, which requires funding that the Capitol Police says it does not have right now. It also means a longer wait to get into work for those who drive, which is one of the reasons staffers haven't complained about this security gap in the past.

In May, the House passed the Legislative Appropriations Act for fiscal 2015, which sets aside money for staff salaries, architecture projects, and, among other things, the Capitol Police. The police force saw a $9.4 million increase from the last fiscal year, to $348 million. But that increase "does not provide for any new initiatives," according to report from appropriations bill author Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican. The bill is pending Senate approval.

Capitol Police could shift some personnel from current stations to new ones in the garages. But as sequestration showed, that comes with its own downsides. Police staff was significantly reduced and 13 entrances were shuttered due to reduced, sequester-level funding, which led to longer lines. This is a security concern in its own right, considering the bottleneck of people in open places.

(Image via Orham Cam/Shutterstock.com)

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The 10 Best and Worst States for Military Retirees

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal — Fri, 23 May 2014 12:54:10 -0400

Military retirees are not like the average retiree: Veterans may have special medical needs, and being decades younger than the average retiree, they usually still need to find work.

So when searching for the best place to retire from the Armed Forces, there are several economic, social, and health care factors for a veteran to take into account. WalletHub, a personal-finance network, this week released a survey ranking the states and the District of Columbia as places for military retirement.

Wyoming tops the list as best.

While medical treatment is one of the more essential services for veterans—making the Veterans Affairs Department scandal all the more disconcerting this Memorial Day—the survey also takes into account housing prices, job opportunities, and the number of veteran-owned businesses. The survey also considers the fact that the average officer retires at 45 years old and average enlisted personnel retire at 41 years old.

So why does Wyoming top the list? It ranked in the top five for all three main categories for the survey: economic environment, quality of life, and health care. Wyoming ranks first in the number of VA health facilities per 10,000 veterans and also ranks fourth-highest in number of veterans per 100 residents.

Among the main ranking categories, Delaware leads in the best quality of life for military retirees, New Hampshire has the best health care system for them, and Mississippi has the best economic environment for them.

California, though, is the worst state in the country for military retirees; the survey specifically notes its poor economic environment for veterans. California also has the second-lowest number of veterans per 100 residents, second-highest percentage of homeless veterans, and third-highest housing costs.

Though some states rank poorly in individual categories, not all states are bad for military retirees overall. While Texas has the worst quality of life for military retirees, it ranks 37th overall in the state rankings. Similarly, Virginia has the worst health care system for military retirees, but ranks 17th in the country overall.

For the 2.1 million military retirees in the United States, finding the right place for retirement is an essential part of their welfare after years of service. Considering the latest developments from the VA, military personnel need to look at all factors before choosing where to retire.

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The 5 Best and Worst States for Working Moms

Matt Vasilogambros, The Atlantic — Tue, 13 May 2014 14:34:58 -0400

f you're a working mom, Oregon might be the best place for you to live.

Wallet Hub, a personal finance network, released a survey on Monday ranking the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on which place provides the best opportunity for working mothers.

The survey uses nine metrics that are split into three categories: work-life balance, child care, and professional opportunities. It gathers data from the federal government and private advocacy groups on things like gender pay gaps and parental-leave policies.

On top is Oregon, which has the best work-life balance and strong rankings for both child care and professional opportunities.

The District of Columbia comes in second. While it may have some of the highest child-care costs in the country, ranking 49th, it makes up for it with work equality. According to Wallet Hub's metrics, D.C. has the smallest gender pay gap and has the second-largest female-to-male executive ratio. These gave D.C. a major boost in the rankings.

On the other end of the spectrum, Louisiana has one of the worst child-care systems and largest gender pay gaps. Women in Louisiana only make 72 percent of what men make.

As this survey shows, equal pay is not the only problem that working mothers face in the country. It also involves the important services for early childhood development and flexibility to do the primary job many women are concerned with: being a mom.

(Image via Andreja Donko/Shutterstock.com)

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The FBI Thinks It Can Pass Off Downtown D.C. as Shanghai

Matt Vasilogambros, National Journal — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 09:49:48 -0400

If you're a movie director, low on cash, in need of a nightlife shot in Shanghai, but can't fly to China, there is a solution: Just film in D.C.'s Chinatown.

That's the approach the FBI took in a new 28-minute film it released Monday, warning American students of the dangers of committing espionage on behalf of foreign governments.

Called Game of Pawns, the film follows Glenn Shriver, who is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for espionage. While in China as a student and desperate for cash, he was approached by Chinese government officials who offered him thousands of dollars to apply to the CIA and provide intelligence. He took the cash, and was arrested before flying back to Shanghai.

The film is packed with clichéd Hollywood lines like, "He's cooked," and, "Why did I do it? I don't know. I guess it was just hard to turn off the tap." But what's any film about counterintelligence without showing shady people (in this film called "Mr. Tang" and "Mr. Wu") handing over envelopes full of cash?

But one of the biggest faux pas in the film isn't the writing or acting. It's where the film was shot. Although it was supposed to take place in Shanghai, several nightlife shots were actually just the Chinatown neighborhood in Washington.

And when they didn't have something vaguely looking Chinese to show on the screen, they turned to the green screen to show the skyline of Shanghai.

And to cap off all of these errors, the film becomes even more absurd by showing what appears to be the world's friendless, least-overworked U.S. Customs agent in history, playfully bantering with the would-be spy Shriver as he returns home to apply to the CIA.

Customs official: "So what were you doing abroad?"

Shriver: "I told my friends I was leaving the country until the Lions had a winning season."

Customs official: "Lucky you made it back."

A Northern Virginia-based production company called Rocket Media helped produce the film. The company has helped produce, direct, and write several short films for the FBI in the last several years. They were allowed to film at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and splurged a little on cool helicopter shots.

(When Shriver was back in the U.S., one of those helicopter shots, in error, showed Georgetown as he was just leaving Langley, which is quite a distance away.)

After writing Betrayed in 2011, a film about members of the counterintelligence community becomes compromised, screenwriter Sean Paul Murphy explained in a blog post about the process of working with the FBI.

What is fascinating is that instead of making a traditional training film, the powers-to-be decided they to make a narrative film to try to capture the emotions as well as the minds of the viewers.

This looks to be the angle that Murphy and directing partner Tom Feliu took in this latest film, as well.

Ironically enough, the best part of the movie was the ending credits, which showed the real Shriver reflecting on his crime. It showed true emotion that would make anyone, not just an American student going abroad, shy away from espionage.

The movie was not Hollywood quality, many of the scenes inaccurately portrayed China, and the lines and acting were laughable at times. But a dramatization is probably far better than a traditional government-training film.

(Image via ArtisticPhoto/Shutterstock.com)

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Government Executive - Authors - Matt Vasilogambros

Feds Push Local Election Officials to Boost Security Ahead of 2024

The Cyber Threat

Boosting Physical Security

Lost Faith

Election Officials Prepare for Voter Intimidation Threat

Election Experts Warn of November Disaster

Mail-In Ballot Issues

Polling Place Problems

Election Security Issues

Postal Service's struggles could hurt mail-in election

Trump Taps James Mattis for Defense Secretary

Feds Charge Three Kansas Men in Domestic Terror Plot

The Justice Department's New Police Shooting Database

A Resignation at Yosemite Amid Sexual Harassment Reports

A Nomination for the First U.S. Ambassador to Cuba in 50 Years

Who's Responsible for the Aleppo Aid Convoy Attack?

Screening for Zika in Donated Blood

The Missing 28 Pages

A Homicide at ​U.S.​ Navy SEAL Training

Yosemite, Through John Muir's Words

Transportation Department To Allow More Flights to Cuba

State Department Warns Americans of European Travel Risk

Should Airports Privatize Security to Avoid Long Lines?

Justice Department Scores Goal With Latino Soccer Fandom

This Bakery Trains Wounded Veterans in the Art of Pastries and Business

Yes, the Search for the White House Christmas Tree Has Already Begun

If Hillary Clinton Doesn't Run, Who Would Lead the Democratic Field for President?

The Capitol Hill Security Gap That's as Troublesome as the One at Navy Yard

The 10 Best and Worst States for Military Retirees

The 5 Best and Worst States for Working Moms

The FBI Thinks It Can Pass Off Downtown D.C. as Shanghai

A Homicide at U.S. Navy SEAL Training