Wednesday, May 23, 2012

USDA: Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships



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http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=FBCI
 USDA has a long history of working with faith-based and community organizations to help those
in need, by providing federal assistance through domestic nutrition assistance programs, international
food aid, rural development opportunities, and natural resource conservation. As we continue strengthening USDA's existing relationships and build new ones, the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships will be instrumental in working with our community partners, faith-based and secular,
to reach even more people in need throughout our country. On behalf of everyone at USDA,
Secretary Tom Vilsack would like to thank each and every partner for their dedication to this
important work.

Please let us know how we can support your efforts.

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Help End Hunger
Ending Hunger
The USDA nutrition assistance programs help one in every five Americans get the nutrition
assistance they need. We rely on local organizations and various partners to help get food to
those in need.


Revitalize Rural Communities
Rural Communities
Rural communities are a vital asset to our nation's economic and social well-being. USDA has
various grant and loan programs to help develop housing, community facilities and businesses
in our small towns.


Conserve Natural Resources
Natural Resources
USDA has a leadership role in developing partnerships to help America's private land owners
conserve their soil, water and other natural resources. Additionally, USDA is the steward of
our national forests.



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High School Students Engage Environment Management Program


DOE Office of Environmental Management

EM News Flash | May 22

High School Students Engage EM Program, Teach Classmates about Nuclear Cleanup 

LAS VEGAS – Two high school students are aspiring to educate their classmates on the Nevada National Security Site’s (NNSS) environmental cleanup program after surveying them to gauge their knowledge of it.

   After West Career and Technical Academy (WCTA) juniors Justine Leavitt and Cielo Gumabon analyze the survey results, they will develop an educational tool to boost students’ familiarity with NNSS’s work to clean up the environmental legacy of historic nuclear weapons related activities. Leavitt and Gumabon are considering several ideas for the tool, from a short documentary and audience-interactive school assembly to a rap song or comic book.

  Leavitt and Gumabon are undertaking the project as part of their roles as the first-ever student liaisons to the Nevada Site-Specific Advisory Board (NSSAB). Representing Nevada stakeholders, members of the board review and comment on environmental restoration and waste management activities at NNSS and provide recommendations to the EM program on issues of concern to the region surrounding NNSS.

   The board hopes to obtain a fresh perspective on environmental issues from the pioneering student liaisons, who are encouraged to raise environmental concerns on behalf of their classmates and the greater community. In turn, the students learn about environmental and technical issues impacting the region, build their portfolios and gain insight into potential college studies and career tracks. 

   The liaisons' year-long project is a first of a kind for WCTA, NNSS and NSSAB as they come together for WCTA’s inaugural Student Liaison Project. Similar partnerships exist at other DOE EM sites as well, including Oak Ridge in Tennessee.

    “Cielo and Justine have put a tremendous amount of work into this project, and all the while they are juggling coursework and other activities,” said NSSAB member Michael Moore, a mentor to the liaisons who helped coordinate the project. “They are succeeding in creating a path for other student liaisons who want to become involved with the environmental work at NNSS and its impact on the community.”

Cielo and JustineNSSAB student liaisons Gumabon, left, and Leavitt discuss their project involving a student survey and educational tool to members of the NSSAB.

Liaison Program Draws Together School, NNSS and Community
   Moore said the project integrates the school with NNSS and the community, providing the students leadership and educational opportunities outside the classroom.

   “The students already have had an introduction to environmental management, and this project provides them with a real-world educational opportunity. Hopefully this project will encourage and inspire the students to continue forward on this path to college and later a career in environmental management,” Moore said.

   He said the project’s goal of increasing the surveyed students’ NNSS knowledge is important since the site is an integral part of the Las Vegas community. He recalled his school days in the 1980s when he saw workers stand in line for buses to transport them to the site. Many people in the community also remember the nuclear testing viewing parties held decades ago.

   “Las Vegas has always been hand in hand with the site in one way or another,” Moore said.

   Gumabon said that the research she and Leavitt perform to try to educate the WCTA community will be a great skill to apply in her college and post-college careers.
   “I hope to become an environmental and materials engineer, and research will play an integral role,” she said.

Liaison: Students Should Know about Environmental Cleanup  

   Leavitt believes it’s important for WCTA students to have knowledge of the NNSS EM program.

   “Students at WCTA are always trying to connect with their surroundings, and this is a great way to do so,” she said of the liaison project. “It will help increase their knowledge and awareness by us telling them what is happening. They should be aware because they are living with the changes the site makes.”

   Leavitt and Gumabon worked with their high school and NNSS to craft the survey questions. The surveys are emailed to the estimated 980 WCTA students for completion during English classes. Once all surveys are received, the liaisons will analyze the results and begin work on the educational tool this fall.

   This month, Leavitt and Gumabon briefed NSSAB on their progress. Board members responded positively, Moore said. The liaisons will update the board later this year with the complete survey results.

   Among the survey questions:
  • Do you want to learn more about the EM program at NNSS and/or its history?
  • Do you think the community’s concerns would be diminished by increasing their knowledge of the environmental cleanup projects being conducted at the NNSS?
  • Are you interested in any environmental management issues and solving them, in regards to the site?
  • Are there any issues or concerns you’d like to have your WCTA student liaison representatives bring to the Board?
Oak Ridge Students Reflect on Advisory Board Experience

   At Oak Ridge, two non-voting student representatives from area high schools sit on the Oak Ridge Site-Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB) and participate in the board’s working committees. ORSSAB’s outgoing student representatives, Kasey McMaster and Amira Sakalla, were recently recognized for their service at the board’s April meeting. 


Oak Ridge studentsMcMaster, left, and Sakalla were presented plaques by Dave Adler, DOE-EM liason to ORSSAB, in recognition for their service to ORSSAB.

   “I’ve really enjoyed my time on ORSSAB. It gave me a taste of how decisions and planning are carried out in the real world,” said Sakalla, a senior at Hardin Valley Academy. “It’s a gradual process that requires patience, but results in great progress. I plan on going into health care as a pediatrician, and the ORSSAB has helped me make connections between two seemingly unrelated fields. People often focus on how environmental issues affect the earth and overlook how these issues affect humans and their health.”

   McMaster, a senior, said she found her experience on the board interesting and enriching.

   “I learned about so many new things involving the environmental well-being of the Oak Ridge Reservation I probably would never have known about had I not taken the opportunity to be a student representative. I am thankful that I was given the chance to participate,” McMaster said.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

SBA: Small Business Help


Get the Small Business Help You Need, For Free!

Have a great idea for a new business, but don’t know where to get started? 


Try the government. Whether you’re looking for an app to help you get advice on the go, or reading material on how to get started, USA.gov has the information you need:
  • Federal and state governments offer a large variety of free resources to people looking for small business help. USA.gov’s small business section helps you find government resources to start, operate and expand a business and much more.
  • The Small Business Administration (SBA) can help you with management, technical, and training issues, or help you find your loan and funding options from multiple government organizations. The SBA app helps you find local advisers who can give you free one-on-one help for growing your business. Use the calculator to figure out costs of starting a new business, and catch up on all the news through SBA’s social media channels.
  • Visit the newly created Business.USA.gov to find the small business tools available to you from across the government. Partner agencies such as the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor share all their business resources in one spot, plus you can find out about state and local business outreach and development events.
  • If you’re looking for information on specific business related topics, Publications.USA.gov features important information on patents and copyrights, current business scams, workplace health and safety and much more.
  • The Consumer Action Handbook is a great resource to have on hand when you need to look up local, state and federal agencies for your business questions. You can also find trade associations and hot consumer topics like insurance questions, employment options, scams and more.

Haiti: Former Haitian telecom official gets 9 years in prison for bribery


MIAMI — A federal judge Monday sentenced a former top official of Haiti's state-owned telephone company to nine years in prison, after describing as "ludicrous" his testimony that the bribes he took from two Miami businesses were gifts for doing such a good job for them.

"It's perjurious," U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez said of Jean Rene Duperval's trial testimony in March. Duperval testified that the nearly $500,000 in bribes he received from two local telecom contractors were "tokens of appreciation."

The judge's finding of obstruction of justice, with other factors such as the amount of the kickbacks, doubled Duperval's sentencing under federal guidelines. Martinez ordered Duperval, 45, to pay the kickback amount to the U.S. government. The defendant used some of the money to buy his Miramar home and finance his three children's Florida Prepaid College Plans, prosecutors said.

Duperval's wife, Ingrid, tried to impress upon the judge that her husband was a U.S.-educated engineer from a prominent Haitian family headed by two doctors, and she wished Martinez had met him "under better circumstances."

Justice Department prosecutor James Koukios offered a different portrayal, saying Duperval "was born with a silver spoon in his mouth."

"And what did he do? He exploited that benefit" to obtain a high-ranking management job with Haiti Teleco and loot the country and line his pockets, Koukios said.

In March, a Miami federal jury found that the two telecommunications companies, Cinergy and Terra, secured discounted long-distance phone rates with Haiti Teleco due to the payoffs to Duperval. He was convicted of money laundering and conspiracy related to accepting the bribes.

Duperval, who was hired as Haiti Teleco's director of international relations by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2003, is the first Haitian government official to be convicted at trial by the Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law prohibits American businesses from paying bribes to foreign businesses and government officials.

Duperval's former boss at Haiti Teleco, Patrick Joseph, pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this year. Joseph, 50, is the Justice Department's main witness in a long-running investigation into Aristide's alleged role in the Haiti Teleco bribery case.

In March, Joseph's father was shot to death in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Venel Joseph, 80, the former governor of Haiti's Central Bank during the Aristide administration from 2001-04, was killed outside his home by gunmen on motorcycles in a residential area. Joseph's driver survived the ambush.

Because of security concerns, Venel Joseph's body was brought to South Florida for burial.

The shooting occurred two days after The Miami Herald reported that the son, Patrick Joseph, had cut a cooperation deal with the Justice Department.

Patrick Joseph pleaded guilty in February to a money-laundering conspiracy charge, and agreed to testify about millions of dollars in bribes he claims to have shared with Aristide and other senior officials, according to legal sources familiar with the probe.

Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, has denied the allegation.

The country's central bank owned Haiti Teleco and was used to distribute the kickbacks paid by the Miami businesses, according to an indictment.

Since the first Haiti Teleco indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in 2009, a dozen South Florida business people and Haitian officials have been charged in the case.

Profits from the lower long-distance phone rates were pocketed by the Haitian officials, not the government's phone company. So far, seven of those defendants - including Patrick Joseph - have been convicted of corruption or money laundering.

Joseph is expected to be sentenced this summer.

A key witness at Duperval's trial was Robert Antoine, who was Haiti Teleco's director of international relations before Duperval. In 2010, Antoine pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering, admitting he took $1 million in bribes from Terra and Cinergy in exchange for lower phone rates, discounted costs and contract renewals.

At Duperval's trial, Antoine testified after he left the government job, he worked as a consultant for Cinergy and facilitated payments from that business to the defendant. Antoine, who was sentenced to four years in prison, is expected to see his term slashed in half by the judge next week at the recommendation of the Justice Department.

Copyright 2012 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Jay Weaver | McClatchy Newspapers

©2012 The Miami Herald

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/21/149617/former-haitian-telecom-official.html#storylink=cpy

Monday, May 21, 2012

Department of Energy: Web-based Project Preserves Plant’s Uranium Enrichment Legacy


DOE Office of Environmental Management

EM News Flash | May 21

Virtual Museum Captures Ohio Plant History

Web-based Project Preserves Plant’s Uranium Enrichment Legacy

PIKETON, Ohio – Do you wonder what the interior of a uranium enrichment plant looks like without ever stepping foot in the facility?
   Now, the public can view photos, watch interviews with current and former workers who share historical accounts and browse old newsletters on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant from as far back as the early 1950s with the touch of a computer keyboard or screen.
   DOE launched the website, www.portsvirtualmuseum.org, this year. Already, it has generated more than 36,000 page views and 3,000 people from 22 countries have visited the website.
   DOE established the website to preserve the rich history of its southern Ohio plant built between 1952 and 1956 to support the nation’s nuclear weapons program. The website is maintained by DOE contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth LLC.
   “The plant played an important role in supporting our nation’s defense through the Cold War as well as the development of nuclear energy,” said Dr. Vince Adams, DOE Site Director. “I am proud of its history and the virtual museum allows everyone to step inside and learn more about this engineering and scientific marvel.”

Virtual Museum
An online museum on the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant went live earlier this year.

   The facility was the last of three gaseous diffusion plants built in the United States by DOE’s predecessor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The Portsmouth plant ended production of enriched uranium in May 2001, and preparations to decontaminate and decommission (D&D) the facility are under way. The other two plants were built in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Paducah, Ky. The Oak Ridge facility is currently being dismantled and Paducah’s is still operational.
   A special feature on the website is a 26-minute documentary, “The Portsmouth Story,” produced by AEC. The feature contains footage of the plant being built on the 3,777-acre federal property.
   At the time of the Ohio plant's construction, the facility's three uranium enrichment process buildings were among the largest in the world, encompassing more than 10 million square feet on 90 acres. Altogether, those three buildings are comparable in size to three Yankee Stadiums and a football field. More than 100,000 tons of structural steel were used to construct the Ohio buildings, and the facility used more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity daily during full operation. That was enough power to service New York City at that time.
   The plant’s initial mission was to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear-weapons-grade material at the height of the Cold War. In the 1960s, its mission shifted to production of lower enriched uranium for U.S. Naval nuclear submarine reactors and commercial nuclear power plants.
   After enriched uranium production ended at the plant, it was placed in a cold standby mode for potential restart. However, in 2005, DOE transitioned the plant into cold shutdown to deactivate equipment and prepare for eventual dismantlement. In 2010, DOE awarded a $2.1 billion contract to Fluor-B&W to conduct the D&D activities.
   Workers under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have demolished some small support facilities at the site. Fluor-B&W is preparing to demolish several additional support buildings, including the plant’s primary administration building, former cafeteria and medical facility, all built in the early 1950s.
   “Some of the buildings are starting to disappear from the landscape,” Adams said. “This website will preserve much of the history and be an educational source for many years into the future.”
   In addition to the newsletters, videos, exterior and interior building images and photos of workers, the virtual museum includes a general plant history and other documentation.
   Photos, videotaped interviews and other information related to the more than 130 buildings that comprise the plant will be added to the website on an ongoing basis.

Whole Community: Communities taking control


Using the Toxic Release Inventory to Build Power in Communities

2012 May 17

By Erin Heaney

When Congress created the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), they intended for communities to have access to information about what was happening at the facilities in their neighborhoods. But until very recently, in the neighborhood we live in, many folks didn’t know the database existed and others didn’t have access to computers or know how to use them.

My organization, the Clean Air Coalition, was founded by residents in Tonawanda, NY who suspected that their pervasive health problems were linked to the industrial plants in their neighborhoods. There are 53 industrial facilities in Tonawanda, which is the highest concentration of air-regulated facilities in the state.

We have built power by developing grassroots leaders who run campaigns that advance environmental justice in Western New York. For example, in March we trained our membership on how to use the TRI.

We spent the first half of the training learning about history of TRI and about how it was through communities standing up and saying that they needed more information about the environmental conditions in their communities that led to the creation of the TRI. Our members learned who reports to TRI, as well as when and how the data is verified. Afterward, we headed over to the computer lab to learn how to use the EPA TRI tool myrtk.epa.gov. Our members dug into the data for their neighborhoods and learned which companies were polluting, what they were emitting and what the health effects of those emissions were.

Their reactions were powerful. One member said, “I’m sick to my stomach;” another said, “This makes me angry and makes me want to do something about it.” Folks left the training ready to recruit more of their neighbors to push for emissions reductions from companies and policymakers.

    The training took place during the Coalition’s campaign to ensure the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYS DEC) air monitors remained up and running. The training educated members about what was in their back yards and motivated them to advocate for air monitoring in the community. In the end, our work paid off and the campaign successfully resulted in a commitment from the NYS DEC to keep the monitors up and running for another two years.                                                                                                   

At our office we have a saying: “Knowledge isn’t power. Power is power.” While access to information alone doesn’t make change, providing people with information about what’s happening in their neighborhoods is an essential piece of building power in environmental justice communities.

About the author: Erin Heaney is the Executive Director of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, a grassroots organization that develops community leadership to win campaigns that advance public health and environmental justice. She has trained hundreds of grassroots leaders and won campaigns that have resulted in significant emissions reductions from some of the region’s largest polluters.


Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.

Whole Community: Voting Rights of Ex-Offenders


Ex-offenders find a reason to reclaim the vote
WASHINGTON POST
By Mary C. Curtis

Should American citizens who have been convicted of crimes and served their time have their right to vote restored?
From left: 2 Chainz, Kanye West, Rosci and Terrence J in New York City in April. Rapper 2 Chainz has his voting rights after a conviction on drug possession when he was 15. (Craig Barritt - GETTY IMAGES)

The question is a political issue, part of a voting-rights debate that is being fought in the states and among political candidates. To ex-felons, it can be a personal challenge, as well: Will their votes matter, and why should they care?

The rapper 2 Chainz, made the case for the vote at a pre-show stop at the Urban League of Central Carolinas in Charlotte on Saturday. He told his story for 40 young people, a few with criminal records. The 35-year-old Atlanta-based performer said he was first arrested at age 15 for cocaine possession. When it came to voting, he thought he was “counted out” and didn’t know he was eligible until he picked up a brochure at a registration drive at an Atlanta mall. Along with 10 friends, he recruited from his recording studio, “I walked around with a sticker the whole day” they voted.
“I felt rejuvenated,” he said. “I felt like a citizen again.”
To supporters, restoring voting rights to former felons is a logical and positive step, a way to give them a stake in the world outside prison walls. That was the point of the weekend workshop organized by the Washington-based Hip-Hop Caucus and its “Respect My Vote” campaign, a nonpartisan mobilization and education effort focused particularly on young voters.  
Denying former felons the vote, “ultimately denies rights to a class of people based on previous actions,” according to William Harding, a Charlotte attorney, who also spoke at the even. “Once a person has paid his debt to society, it’s important that he is integrated back into society,” he told me. The ex-inmates are more involved, Harding said, and their recidivism rate is lower.
He explained that in North Carolina, anyone who completes all parts of a sentence for a felony conviction, including probation and parole, can register to restore the voting right that was lost, though it is a crime to register before the sentence is completed. Those convicted of a misdemeanor do not lose their right to vote.
The law puts North Carolina somewhere between Maine and Vermont, where felons never lose their voting rights, and states such as Kentucky and Virginia, which require the governor to approve an application. (In Virginia, GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell has stepped up the pace to restore rights.) In some states, only the most serious crimes are punished with permanent disenfranchisement.
Because the courts have determined voting is a fundamental rather than constitutional right, Harding said, it’s left up to the states, and he thinks that’s wrong. “It’s not as though they’re somehow going to taint the process,” he said. “Ultimately, the laws affect them, too.”
The issue can be used to label an opponent soft on crime, as Republican Rick Santorum found out in the primaries when a Mitt Romney Super PAC ad attacked – and in Santorum’s view, distorted -- his position advocating voting rights for ex-felons who completed their obligations. At a debate before the South Carolina primary, Santorum challenged Romney and pointed out the former Massachusetts governor’s once similar stance. Romney answered that he governed a largely Democratic electorate then, and stated his current view that “people who committed violent crimes should not be able to vote, even upon coming out of office."
It’s an issue with a racial dimension, as African American men are disproportionately affected. In her 2010 book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” Michelle Alexander places current policy – including a  disparity in prosecution and sentencing rates, particularly for drug-related offenses -- within a history of America’s disenfranchisement of African American voters. The University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law released an analysis this week that counted more than 2,000 people in the United States who were falsely convicted of serious crimes and then exonerated in the past 23 years. The universities used their archive to study the details of 873 of those exonerations. Nine out of 10 in that group were men, and half were African American.
On Saturday, Brandi Williams, the Hip Hop Caucus Charlotte coordinator, recited statistics from the nonprofit Sentencing Project that showed lower N.C. registration and voting rates among those with felony convictions. It’s “not good for democracy,” she said.
In a close 2012 presidential election, when every vote in swing states such as North Carolina promises to be crucial, both parties are concerned about the issue. In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials last year rolled back the 2007 rule change by then-GOP Gov. Charlie Crist that made it easier for many ex-felons to regain the right to vote. Now even nonviolent offenders have to wait five years before applying for the chance to have their rights restored. "It clearly has the effect of suppressing the vote as we go into a presidential election cycle," Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Washington Post then.
Participants at the Charlotte event could fill out registration forms and a “Respect My Vote” pledge, which included space to list the issues they care about. Patrick Graham, executive director of the Urban League of Central Carolinas, said the event was not to advocate for any candidate or position, but to emphasize the message “to never let your past determine your future.” He made the Urban League’s computer lab and resources available for anyone to research candidates and issues.
Graham said some with past felony convictions are too willing to give away their voting rights. “They don’t look on them as a priority.” He told the workshop participants, “It’s so important you follow through with this.”
At first, 23-year-old Dimitros Jordan said he was turned off by politics. “Nothing is really going to change,” he said, preferring to “put it in God’s hands.” After attending a question-and-answer session in which some pointed out that it was civic action that led to charges for George Zimmerman after he shot Florida teen Trayvon Martin, Jordan changed his mind. He served five months as a teenager for armed robbery, he said, but now works in construction and coaches children in summer camp. Jordan said he is determined to stay out of trouble – and to vote. “I’m going to tell my friends,” he said.
Patrick Chambers, 26, of Charlotte, has never voted. “I didn’t think I could” after a felony conviction, he said. He intends to vote for the first time in November. “People in the neighborhood are quick to accuse the government, ‘They don’t do this, they don’t do that,’” he said. “It’s really our fault if we don’t vote.”
Mary C. Curtis, an award-winning multimedia journalist in Charlotte, N.C., is a contributor to The Root, Fox News Charlotte, NPR, Creative Loafing and Nieman Watchdog blog. She has worked at The New York Times, Charlotte Observer and as national correspondent for Politics Daily. Follow her on Twitter: @mcurtisnc3

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