Olive Oil Organically Grown and Pure Enough to Carry the Name of the Father of Medicine

This week in NECA Government Affairs we spotlight infrastructure legislation, the new SBA Administrator and the newly signed US/China Trade Agreement.

USAO Southern District of California
Attorney positions available in the San Diego Office
San Diego, California
Announcement #: 20-SDCA-10808887-AUSA03
Application Deadline: May 25, 2020

The U.S. Attorney's Office is currently seeking experienced attorneys for one or more positions as an Assistant U.S. Attorney ("AUSA") in the Criminal Division.  Positions are available in the San Diego office. 

The Criminal Division is organized into seven sections, which consist of the Border Enforcement Section, Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF Section), the Violent Crimes and Human Trafficking Section, the Major Frauds and Public Corruption Section, the National Security and Cybercrimes Section, the Asset Recovery Section, and the Appellate Section.  (See the San Diego U.S. Attorney’s website www.justice.gov/usao-sdca for a detailed description of each section.)   

Commensurate with experience and needs of the Office, AUSAs may be assigned to different sections in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  New hires are expected to start in the Border Enforcement Section.  The Border Enforcement Section is the largest section in the Criminal Division and accounts for approximately 95 percent of the cases prosecuted in the Southern District of California. 

The Border Enforcement Section handles a large volume of reactive cases that arise from policing the 141-mile long border between California and Mexico, six Ports of Entry, and the roughly 70 miles of coastline stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border to the northernmost tip of San Diego County. Cases commonly include illegal entry and reentry, drug importation and alien smuggling prosecutions.  This section consists of an Intake Team, Fast-Track Team, Immigration Team and four Trial Teams.  Border Enforcement Section attorneys try a large number of cases and often oversee the use of investigative tools like search and tracking warrants, undercover operations and confidential sources.

Enclosed is a link to the Southern District of California's web page for more information about the office.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/district/sdca

Benefits

The Department of Justice offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, paid vacation; sick leave; holidays; telework; life insurance; health benefits; and participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System. The Benefits link provides an overview of the benefits currently offered to Federal Employees.

USAO Middle District of North Carolina
United States Attorney's Office, Middle District of North Carolina
Greennsboro, North Carolina
Announcement #: 20-NCM-10808245-AUSA
Application Deadline: May 19, 2020

The Civil Division is seeking one experienced attorney to service as an Assistant United States Attorney. This AUSA will be responsible for defending and prosecuting a variety of federal civil cases, with particular emphasis on defensive actions, including but not limited to cases brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, actions which allege employment discrimination or retaliation, and immigration matters. They will also be assigned appellate, research, and writing duties. Link to the office website: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdnc

USAO Eastern District of Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky
Announcement #: 20-KYE-10810712-AUSA
Application Deadline: May 15, 2020

This position offers an exciting and challenging career opportunity. The Department of Justice has a diverse and talented workforce of over 100,000 men and women and is tasked with ensuring the protection of all Americans, while preserving constitutional freedoms. The position provides an opportunity to be part of a dedicated team helping to enforce Federal law (criminal and civil) and protect life, liberty, and the property of citizens.

The Mission of the United States Attorney's Office (USAO) is to vigorously enforce the criminal laws of the United States, to effectively represent the interests of the United States in civil litigation, and to promote the public safety needs of the community through an efficient, well-coordinated law enforcement effort.

In all matters, our responsibilities are to promote the fair and impartial administration of justice, adhering to the highest ethical, professional and performance standards; to promote effective partnerships with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, and the community at large in furtherance of law enforcement; to protect the rights of citizens, victims of crime and witnesses; to enhance community safety by reducing crime and the fear of crime, through outreach and education; and to inspire confidence in the criminal justice system.

This position will serve as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Fraud Division. Employment with the United States Attorney's Office offers a unique and challenging experience for the highly motivated attorney to work on some of the most significant, complex and visible cases being litigated today. Litigation handled by the Fraud Division helps to enforce Federal criminal laws that protect life, liberty and property of our citizens.

The selected candidate will be responsible for white collar criminal prosecutions involving financial institutions and the forfeiture of assets gained from or used in the commission of crimes. The position will involve working with a team of investigators to review suspicious activity reports submitted to the United States by financial institutions, and conducting related investigations, prosecutions and forfeiture actions in United States District Court.

Responsibilities will increase and assignments will become more complex as your training and experience progress.

USAO District of Connecticut
New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford
, Multiple locations
Announcement #: CT-20-002
Application Deadline: May 26, 2020

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut is seeking applications for an Assistant United States Attorney to work in the Affirmative Civil Enforcement and Civil Rights Unit of the office’s Civil Division. The position offers a unique and challenging experience for a highly motivated attorney who is interested in working to advance civil rights in Connecticut. The person filling this position will work to advance civil rights through a variety of affirmative civil enforcement practice areas that may include housing and fair lending, ADA enforcement, allegations relating to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, voting rights, service members’ rights, pattern and practice policing investigations, and employment discrimination. The person filling the position will also coordinate with the District’s Criminal Division in criminal civil rights cases involving human trafficking, hate crimes, and color of law prosecutions. The person filling the position will also work closely with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and will develop, implement, and participate in significant community outreach events throughout the district.

USAO District of Utah
Criminal Division
Salt Lake City, Utah
Announcement #: 20-UT-04
Application Deadline: May 13, 2020

The U. S. Attorney's Office is seeking an experienced attorney to fill one Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) position in the Criminal Division of its Salt Lake City office.  AUSAs in the Criminal Division advise federal law enforcement agents on criminal investigations, present criminal cases to the grand jury, prepare and argue a broad range of motions, and try criminal cases before the United States District Court.  Candidates should be capable of handling a variety of significant and complex criminal prosecutions, including white collar and economic crime, violent crime, narcotics and immigration.

THIS IS A 14-MONTH TERM POSITION, AND IS UNLIKELY TO BE RENEWED.  This position may be extended and/or made permanent without further competition.

USAO Western District of Texas
San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
Announcement #: 20-WDTX-A10
Application Deadline: May 15, 2020

Responsibilities and Opportunity Offered: The District is currently accepting applications for Civil Chief. 

The Civil Division is responsible for representing the federal government and its agencies and employees in civil litigation in the District. Two primary areas of practice are tort cases, including medical malpractice and a variety of personal injury cases, and Title VII cases alleging discrimination in hiring and employment practices by agencies of the United States. Other areas of practice include civil rights, immigration, bankruptcy, debts owed the United States or its agencies, breach of contract, judicial review of administrative findings, and injunctive proceedings. AUSAs in the Civil Division are active at both the trial and appellate levels, taking depositions, preparing and answering interrogatories, negotiating for settlement, engaging in motions practice, trying cases, and writing and arguing appeals.

About the Position:  On a regular and recurring basis, this office fills the Supervisory Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) positions that it has been allotted. These temporary, at will positions, make up the management team of the office, under the control, supervision and direction of the United States Attorney. AUSAs selected for these supervisory positions will be responsible for exercising dynamic leadership and efficiently and effectively managing the employees in their respective sections to accomplish the mission of the Department and the specific goals of this office, as set forth by the United States Attorney.

USAO District of Massachusetts

Boston, Massachusetts
Announcement #: 20-MA-AUSA-02
Application Deadline: May 22, 2020

The position of an Assistant U.S. Attorney provides one with the responsibility and the authority to improve the lives of Americans who live in Massachusetts and across the United States.  We prosecute local and international drug dealers, fraudsters, terrorists, war criminals, major pharmaceutical companies that cheat in the sale of drugs and devices, and perpetrators of intellectual property crime.  We bring civil suits against bad actors in the health care industry and against companies that fail to comply with the laws protecting disabled Americans, and represent the United States when it is, or its agencies, are sued in a wide variety of civil actions.  

Working as a federal prosecutor sworn to pursue justice in the name of the United States is deeply satisfying.  Many lawyers look back on their days as an Assistant U.S. Attorney as among the most rewarding of their professional careers.

The office is currently hiring two Assistant U.S. Attorneys, one in the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) and one in the Defensive Litigation Unit of the Office's Civil Division.

The attorney hired for the Asset Recovery Unit position will focus primarily on recovering assets to pay fines and restitution in criminal cases, including ensuring pre-judgment identification and freezing of assets and handling post-judgment enforcement matters.  This attorney’s practice will also include commencing civil actions to recover debt owed to federal agencies and managing civil bankruptcy matters.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys in ARU also handle forfeiture of assets in criminal and civil cases, and this position may include some forfeiture work as well.

The ARU AUSA will be responsible for handling a large and active caseload, filing pleadings, appearing in both U.S. District Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court, providing prompt legal advice to agencies, and representing the United States in other legal matters as may be assigned.

The attorney hired for the Defensive Litigation Unit position will represent the United States when it is sued in the District of Massachusetts.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the DLU are general civil litigators because they defend the United States in a wide variety of cases that can include employment discrimination and retaliation claims, tort actions including complex medical malpractice cases, lawsuits filed under the Administrative Procedures Act, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) litigation, Bivens and other constitutional claims, and various immigration and prisoner habeas petitions.  The work in this unit will include practice before both the Massachusetts District Court and the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Warren County, North Carolina, Board of Education (Warren County) that resolves a federal lawsuit brought under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) on behalf of Dwayne Coffer, a Command Sergeant Major (CSM) in the Army Reserve. In its complaint, the United States alleged that Warren County violated USERRA by eliminating Sergeant Major Coffer’s employment position while he was on active duty with the military and failed to re-employ him in a comparable position when he returned.

The Department of Justice announced that it filed a complaint yesterday in federal court in the Northern District of Mississippi against Coahoma County, Mississippi (Coahoma County), to protect the employment rights of an Army Reservist, Staff Sergeant First Class (SSG) Jason Sims Sr.  

The Department of Justice has reached a settlement of its civil forfeiture cases against assets acquired by Khadem al-Qubaisi using funds allegedly misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s investment development fund, and laundered through financial institutions in several jurisdictions, including the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment today charging eight individuals with conspiring to violate federal criminal copyright law by running two of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the United States, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars by television program and motion picture copyright owners.

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a 16-count indictment against a former Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a former subordinate for their alleged theft of proprietary software and confidential databases from the U.S. government as part of a scheme to defraud the U.S. government.

We would like you to come and sit alongside C4, Derek Hunter and other WBAL listeners at the WBAL Penthouse at 3800 Hooper Ave.

Two series of single and stereo photographs display a range of natural conditions and fuel loadings in post-hurricane forests in the southeastern United States. Each group of photos includes inventory information summarizing vegetation composition, structure and loading, woody material loading and density by size class, forest floor loading, and various site characteristics. The natural fuels photo series is designed to help land managers appraise fuel and vegetation conditions in natural settings.

Woody biomass can be used for the generation of heat, electricity, and biofuels. In many cases, the technology for converting woody biomass into energy has been established for decades, but because the price of woody biomass energy has not been competitive with traditional fossil fuels, bioenergy production from woody biomass has not been widely adopted. However, current projections of future energy use and renewable energy and climate change legislation under consideration suggest increased use of both forest and agriculture biomass energy in the coming decades.

New equipment, technology, and marketing efforts have allowed Alaska's wood products producers to consider opportunities previously unavailable to them. Until recently, the primary product produced by Alaska firms was rough, unseasoned lumber sold primarily within local markets. Given the purchase and installation of new drying and planing equipment, Alaska producers can now enter domestic and export markets for a variety of secondary wood products. Previously underutilized species, such as red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.), paper birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.), and Alaska yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D. Don) Spach) are also gaining in popularity and market potential. A detailed knowledge of species preferences for Alaska lumber, across business types and geographic regions, will be essential if Alaska producers are to be competitive.

The purpose of this note is to provide a starting point for discussion of fire hazard reduction treatments that meet the full range of management objectives, including budget priorities. Thoughtful design requires an understanding not only of the physical and biological outcomes, but also the costs and potential revenues of applying variations of fire hazard reduction treatments in a wide range of stand conditions. This analysis was done with My Fuel Treatment Planner software and provides estimates of cost and net revenue from fire hazard reduction treatments on 18 dry forest stands from 9 national forests in the Western United States. The data and software tools used in this analysis are all available, so these analyses can be easily modified to address a wider range of treatments and conditions.

Tables summarize volume and values of United States trade in wood products from 1978 to 2005. Import and export data are shown for 21 commodities aggregated from over 1,700 wood products. Data were obtained from an earlier report by Chmelik and others and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Trade in each commodity is delineated by trading partner and shipments through each of four regional aggregations of U.S. customs districts. Data show that the United States is a net importer of wood products and Canada is the dominant supplier.

We examine the use of woody residues, primarily from forest harvesting or wood products manufacturing operations (and to a limited degree from urban wood wastes), as a feedstock for direct-combustion bioenergy systems for electrical or thermal power applications. We examine opportunities for utilizing biomass for energy at several different scales, with an emphasis on larger scale electrical power generation at stand-alone facilities, and on smaller scale facilities (thermal heating only) such as governmental, educational, or other institutional facilities. We then identify west-wide barriers that tend to inhibit bioenergy applications, including accessibility, terrain, harvesting costs, and capital costs. Finally, we evaluate the role of government as a catalyst in stimulating new technologies and new uses of biomass material.

The United States, in partnership with 11 other countries, participates in the Montreal Process. Each country assesses national progress toward the sustainable management of forest resources by using a set of criteria and indicators agreed on by all member countries. Several indicators focus on nontimber forest products (NTFPs). In the United States, permit and contract data from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, in addition to several other data sources, were used as a benchmark to assess harvest, value, employment, exports and imports, per capita consumption, and subsistence uses for many NTFPs. The retail value of commercial harvests of NTFPs from U.S. forest lands is estimated at $1.4 billion annually. Nontimber forest products in the United States are important to many people throughout the country for personal, cultural, and commercial uses, providing food security, beauty, connection to culture and tradition, and income.

This report provides new cost estimates for carbon sequestration through afforestation in the United States. We extend existing studies of carbon sequestration costs in several important ways, while ensuring the transparency of our approach. We clearly identify all components of our cost estimates so that other researchers can reconstruct our results as well as use our data for other purposes. Our cost estimates have five distinguishing features: (1) we estimate costs for each county in the contiguous United States; (2) we include afforestation of rangeland, in addition to cropland and pasture; (3) our opportunity cost estimates account for capitalized returns to future development (including associated option values) in addition to returns to agricultural production; (4) we develop a new set of forest establishment costs for each county; and (5) we incorporate data on Holdridge life zones to limit afforestation in locations where temperature and moisture availability prohibit forest growth. We find that at a carbon price of $50/ton, approximately 200 million tons of carbon would be sequestered annually through afforestation. At a price of $100/ton, an additional 100 million tons of carbon would be sequestered each year. Our estimates closely match those in earlier econometric studies for relatively low carbon prices, but diverge at higher carbon prices. Accounting for climatic constraints on forest expansion has important effects on cost estimates.

Over the past decade, wood-energy use in Alaska has grown dramatically.

The national age-adjusted rate of fall-related TBI deaths increased by 17% from 2008 to 2017; rates increased significantly in 29 states and among nearly all groups, most notably persons living in noncore nonmetropolitan counties and those aged ≥75 years.

The U.S. Postal Service is a rare thing: a beloved federal agency. Mail carriers visit every household in the country, and they are the only federal employees most of us see on a regular basis. But the service has been in serious financial trouble for years, a problem exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis. The survival of the system depends on intervention from Congress, but President Trump has called the postal service “a joke,” and without congressional intervention it could be forced to cease operating by the end of the year. Casey Cep, a New Yorker staff writer and the daughter of a postal worker, joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the past and future of the U.S.P.S.

Joe Biden has emerged as the Democratic nominee for the United States Presidential race in November. But he’s run twice before and both times been defeated soundly. Why did he win this time and how did he gain the support of African American voters?

Despite a tightening supply and smaller yields due to dry conditions, the value of Australia's wine exports has continued to grow.

(United States Federal Circuit) - In an action alleging that the government misappropriated plaintiff's trade secrets, the Fifth Circuit's decision vacating the district court’s judgment for plaintiff and remanding the case for transfer of the case to the Claims Court under 28 U.S.C. section 1631, is affirmed, where: 1) the Fifth Circuit ruling that the case must be transferred to the Claims Court is law of the case; and 2) the Claims Court has jurisdiction over plaintiff's suit because although plaintiff brought the action under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which now must give way, plaintiff is within the class of those authorized to recover upon proof of breach of contract, injury, and amount of damages, as well as a Fifth Amendment taking.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a suit for negligence and willful misconduct against soccer league defendants, arising out of the sexual abuse of plaintiff by her former soccer coach, the trial court's judgment sustaining defendants' demurrers to the fourth amended complaint on the ground that they had no duty to protect plaintiff from criminal conduct by a third party and dismissing the defendants is reversed where defendants had a duty to conduct criminal background checks of all adults who would have contact with children involved in their programs.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirming the denial of the North American Soccer League's motion for preliminary injunction seeking Division II designation pending the resolution of its antitrust case against the United States Soccer Federation because they had failed to demonstrate a clear likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.

(US 1st Circuit) - No. 19-1390

(US 4th Circuit) - No. 18-4794

(US 4th Circuit) - No. 19-4167

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirmed. The panel affirms the district court’s application of a four-level enhancement to a defendant who either sells a firearm and drugs to a buyer in a single transaction or to a buyer who the defendant has reason to believe is a drug dealer.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirming the denial of the North American Soccer League's motion for preliminary injunction seeking Division II designation pending the resolution of its antitrust case against the United States Soccer Federation because they had failed to demonstrate a clear likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Reversing a district court dismissal of claims that an ordinance authorizing collective bargaining between driver coordinators like Uber and Lyft violates and is preempted by the Sherman Antitrust Act because the act sanctions price fixing by private cartels of independent contractor drivers but affirming the dismissal of claims that the ordinance was preempted by the National Labor Relations Act and remanding for further proceedings.

The Senate considered H.R. 1314, the legislative vehicle for trade promotion authority reauthorization.?It would give the president broad fast-track authority when negotiating trade agreements and require Congress to consider treaties without an amendment process. Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out against this bill before the Senate on May 12, 2015. Continue reading →

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) warns not to underestimate him in the 2016 Democratic race for the White House. Sanders, who is formally launching his campaign Tuesday, said he has a strong message. Continue reading →

MAP Health Management and IBM Watson Health today announced a partnership that aims to address the pervasive problem of relapse among Americans suffering from Substance Use Disorder, a chronic disease. MAP will integrate Watson cognitive technologies into the MAP Recovery Network Platform to enhance the platform’s existing capabilities around patient risk models. In doing so, it is anticipated that behavioral health and substance abuse treatment providers that use the MAP platform will be better able to predict and prevent incidence of relapse nationwide.

THE UNITED STATES who says it's not classy?

New research quantifies the fire risks of eight species of invasive grass.

A chronology of key events

Key facts, figures and dates

Hear about the United States UNESCO World Heritage Sites as the Amateur Traveler talks to Gary Arndt from Everything-Everywhere.com and The Global Travel Conspiracy podcast about these best of the best sites.

4 March 2020 , Volume 96, Number 2