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Last night was an all-nighter for a crew of students in the computer program at Iowa State University. Doug Jacobsen is professor of electronics and computing at ISU who’s come up with concepts from the “ICE-age” cyber test lab to a program that teams students with companies to solve their security needs. He says students have a lot of fun defending themselves in the digital war games. They get to see how much fun it is, he says, describing the simulated invasion and defense as a “spy versus spy” scenario. What makes it fun, he says, is being up against professionals who are very good at what they do. “It really is like a big chess game that you’re playing.” A siege by a “red team” of security professionals kept the students on their toes closing loopholes in security and patrolling their firewalls all night. Jacobsen says it’s not just a war game, it’s professional training for the computer students. There’s good demand for these students in the workforce, and some of the pros on the “red team” are potential employers, so it’s a great chance to work with professionals in security. Jacobsen says some 30 students spent a couple weeks setting up the computers and connections, out at the ISU research park’s ISEage facility, a test lab funded by the U.S. Justice Department to simulate, investigate and re-create cyber-attacks over the Internet.
IBM and the All England Club have launched a new, more interactive Wimbledon Website powered by IBM analytics and cloud computing technology.
IBM and the All England Club recently launched an all-new interactive digital experience for tennis fans, featuring an enhanced Wimbledon Website powered by IBM analytics and cloud computing technology to help fans better track Wimbledon 2012 results, including Venus Williams' first first-round defeat in 15 years.
The redesigned Wimbledon site enables sports fans on the go to follow each serve and volley on their smartphone or other mobile device and delivers live TV and radio broadcasts along with an interactive IBM SlamTracker scoreboard. Wimbledon also will serve as the trial for IBM's SecondSight technology on center court to track and analyze how player movement affects play during a match.
Following IBM's involvement in the recent French Open tennis and U.S. Open golf tournament events, this announcement further spotlights how IBM is applying technology to improve fan enjoyment of major global sporting events. IBM provides the technological backbone at several sporting events, including the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
As Wimbledon 2012 opened June 25, tennis fans accessing the new website, www.wimbledon.com, saw a site that has been completely redesigned to reflect the heritage and appeal of the event. IBM said it also tried to design the new site to offer the tournament s anticipated 16 million unique Website visitors a more creative and immersive experience through improved content, more powerful imagery and an intuitive navigation process.
Built on IBM's SmartCloud infrastructure to meet surges in demand, the Website integrates a new online broadcast channel, Live @ Wimbledon alongside the interactive analytics-enabled IBM SlamTracker scoreboard, providing a one-stop shop for fans wanting to interact with The Championships. For instance, fans could zero in to get more on Williams' defeat in the first round this year her first since 1997, and her worst at Wimbledon--losing 6-1, 6-3 to Elena Vesnina.
Featuring both TV and radio, Live @ Wimbledon blends live action from around the grounds by dropping into matches at crucial points in play--a stream of one game, per set, per match, per hour--with the off-court color of a day at The Championships. In addition to the minimum of five hours live broadcasting per day, viewers will be able to enjoy prepackaged content, such as previews and reviews, match highlights and archive footage. The Live @ Wimbledon radio service will offer an enhanced and improved version of its popular predecessor (Radio Wimbledon), which will be available worldwide online and on the three local FM channels.
"Together with IBM, we've created a new Website which features increased options for people to personalize their Wimbledon experience," said Mick Desmond, commercial director at the All England Club, home of The Championships. "Visitors can follow the progress of their favorite players, view live match play clips of the day s action, and access scores and results delivered in real time. We expect this increasingly engaging and personalized online experience to appeal to fans in ever greater numbers."
At this year's Championships, IBM SlamTracker uses predictive analytics technology to enable fans to gain deeper insight into the match. SlamTracker is a multifaceted feature of Wimbledon's digital presence that leverages historical and real-time data to add depth and insight to the Championship experience. The Momentum capability maps a match in real-time, visualizing key turning points and their causes (i.e., winners, aces, etc.).
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia had exerted “unacceptable” undue pressure on the world body after a U.N. report blacklisted a Saudi-led military coalition for killing children in Yemen.
“It is not in our style, it is not in our genes, it is not in our culture to use threats and intimidation. We have the greatest respect for the United Nations institution,” Mouallimi told reporters shortly after Ban spoke.
The U.N. said Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh also contacted Ban’s office to protest the listing of the coalition. Diplomats said Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar did likewise.
The United States backed Ban’s remarks on Thursday and said the U.N. chief had invited the Saudis and coalition members to discuss the report in New York on June 17.
“The U.N. should be permitted to carry out its mandate, carry out its responsibilities, without fear of money being cut off,” State Department spokesman Mark Turner told reporters.
The Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen in March last year with the aim of preventing Iranian-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen’s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking power.
The Houthis, Yemen government forces and pro-government militia have been on the U.N. child rights blacklist for at least five years and are considered “persistent perpetrators.” Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is also on the blacklist.
“When U.N. reports come under fire for raising difficult issues or documenting violations of law or human rights, member states should defend the mechanisms and mandates that they themselves have established,” he said.
WASHINGTON — President Trump and two members of his cabinet mounted an aggressive defense on Monday of his policy of separating children from their parents at the border in response to a growing outcry from members of both parties.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions also defended the practice, while insisting that “we do not want to separate parents from their children,” and later, at a tumultuous White House news briefing, Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, gave a forceful explanation of the administration’s actions, arguing that it had no choice, and insisting that the only way the practice could end would be through congressional action.
Unlike Mr. Trump, she did not repeat the false accusation that only the Democrats, the minority party, were to blame for what she said was Congress’s failure to act to end a policy that, by some counts, has resulted in nearly 2,000 children taken away from their parents in a six-week period.
Ms. Nielsen insisted that the children who had been taken into custody were well cared for, but she was not able to answer several questions from reporters who demanded specifics about their whereabouts and care. She said she had not seen widely circulated footage of families penned behind chain-link cage fencing, nor heard audio taken of children wailing inside detention centers.
Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, called it an “ugly and inhumane practice,” and called for an immediate end to it, as did other Republican lawmakers, including Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, who called the practice “totally unacceptable.” And Representative Mia Love, Republican of Utah, whose parents emigrated from Haiti, issued a statement condemning what she called the administration’s “horrible” separation policy.
But no law actually requires that families be separated at the border.
There is a law against “improper entry” at the border, as well as a consent decree known as the Flores settlement that limits to 20 days the amount of time that migrant children may be held in immigration detention. A 2008 anti-trafficking statute — signed into law by a Republican president, George W. Bush — also requires that certain unaccompanied minors be transferred out of immigration detention in 72 hours.
None of those laws or precedents mean that children must be taken away from their parents.
Under President Barack Obama, the authorities initially responded to a similar surge in illegal border crossings by setting up family detention centers where children and their parents could be held together. But in response to a lawsuit against the Obama administration, a judge ruled that the Flores settlement also prohibited children from being detained with their parents.
Having no effective way to detain the parents with their children, Obama administration officials released the families pending the resolution of their asylum cases. Some were given ankle bracelets. Others were simply ordered to return for a court hearing. What they refused to do was to automatically split the children from their parents so that the adults could be detained.
Effectively, they made an exception for illegal immigrants who arrived with children — an exception that Trump administration officials followed until Mr. Sessions imposed a zero-tolerance policy this year.
Both the Flores settlement and the anti-trafficking law say that the authorities are permitted to separate children, but they are not required to do so. The Trump administration interpreted this as a requirement, or a “loophole,” that Congress must fix to stop the separations.
The energetic defense of the policy by Mr. Trump and members of his administration is at odds with the political reality on Capitol Hill, where Mr. Trump’s demands to change the laws face opposition from both Republicans and Democrats.
Members of both parties have responded with their own legislative proposals to deal with the separations.
The entire Senate Democratic caucus is backing a bill by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, that would limit family separations at the border. In the House, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, is expected to introduce a companion bill on Tuesday.
And on the Republican side, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, said Monday that he will propose legislation to double the number of federal immigration judges and authorize new temporary shelters so that families can remain together while their cases are expedited through immigration courts. His fellow Texan, Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, also said he has a plan to improve the immigration court process.
The battle is most likely to play out on Thursday, when the House is expected to vote on the two immigration bills. The first bill, known as the Goodlatte bill after its chief sponsor, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, is a hard-line package that would impose strict curbs on legal immigration and beef up border security, while denying a path to citizenship for the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.
It has Mr. Trump’s backing and that of his administration — “If we build the wall, if we pass legislation to end the lawlessness, we won’t face these terrible choices,” Mr. Sessions said Monday. But it is almost certain to fail.
The real debate will be around the second bill, a compromise measure that is the product of weeks of negotiations between House conservatives and immigration moderates who are eager to secure the fate of the Dreamers, the young immigrants brought here as children who have been protected from deportation under an Obama-era initiative, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that Mr. Trump moved to end in September.
The bill’s passage is highly uncertain. It has the backing of Speaker Paul D. Ryan, but Democrats are expected to vote in lock step against it and conservatives are leery of the measure, which they call “amnesty.” And Mr. Trump sowed confusion on Capitol Hill late last week when he said at first that he did not support the compromise — only to be later contradicted by the White House, which said the president was confused.
So Mr. Trump’s comments to the House Republicans on Tuesday will be critical to the bill’s chances. The immigration hard-liners who are uneasy about it are unlikely to be swayed by arguments from Mr. Ryan or other Republican leaders; they want reassurance from Mr. Trump.
That said, many are likely to remain skittish even if Mr. Trump offers a full-throated endorsement. Republicans know from experience that the president is mercurial, and they do not want to vote for a bill that the Republican base will denounce as amnesty, only to watch the president change his mind.
Reporting was contributed by Eileen Sullivan, Katie Benner, Michael D. Shear and Thomas Kaplan.
Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Mothercare use a factory in Bangladesh that paid the equivalent of 35p an hour to machinists making Spice Girls T-shirts sold to raise money for Comic Relief, it can be revealed.
A Guardian investigation disclosed that the predominantly female employees claimed they experienced verbal abuse and harassment from management during shifts of up to 16 hours.
Workers at the factory produced the £19.40 T-shirts, which were emblazoned with the message “#IWannaBeASpiceGirl”, to raise money for the charity’s “gender justice” campaign.
But employees said they were called “daughters of prostitutes” by managers for not hitting “impossible” targets and claimed employees were forced to work despite being ill.
The Spice Girls and Comic Relief said they had been kept in the dark about a change of manufacturer and were “shocked” by the findings.
Now it has emerged that Interstoff Apparels, which makes millions of pounds in profits and is co-owned by a Bangladeshi government minister, also produces garments for major British retailers.
Tesco and M&S launched investigations after the revelations, while Mothercare, which sells clothing for babies, children and expectant mothers, said it would be reviewing the findings.
Labour’s Mary Creagh said the news was a “wake-up call” and urged retailers to do more to ensure workers producing clothes for them are not abused.
The MP, who chairs the environmental audit committee, which has been investigating the garment industry, said: “There is no reason for any British retailer to tolerate these abuses in the labour supply chain.
“I remarked in one of our inquiries that large supermarkets can tell me more about the lives of the animals that we are eating than about the people who make our clothes.
Comic Relief said it was “shocked and concerned” and both the charity and Spice Girls had checked the ethical sourcing credentials of the online retailer commissioned by the band to make the T-shirts, but it had subsequently changed manufacturer without their knowledge.
The Spice Girls said they were “deeply shocked and appalled” by the Guardian’s findings and would personally fund an investigation into the factory’s working conditions.
But the Labour MP Rushanara Ali, who is the government’s trade envoy to Bangladesh, called on the band do more to help impoverished Bangladeshi garment workers and “learn from this terrible mistake”.
She said: “I think it’s utterly shocking that the due diligence hasn’t been done successfully enough to prevent the sale and purchase of these goods when people are being paid so badly and treated so appallingly.
The MP, who is the vice-chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group on Bangladesh, added: “I think it’s important that celebrities don’t end up having their fingers burnt and stepping back altogether, as I think they have a positive role to play.
Interstoff Apparels has said the Guardian’s findings would be investigated but were “simply not true”.
M&S confirmed the company has been working with Interstoff for 13 years. A spokesman added: “We will be investigating this incident. We take any allegation against factories we work with extremely seriously and we have already arranged for a compliance manager to visit as soon as possible.
Tesco said it was investigating. Mothercare said it took staff welfare “very seriously”, adding that the retailer “works in close dialogue with all factories” and would be reviewing the information.
A spokesman added: “Mothercare has a code of practice, based on the Ethical Trading Initiative code, which outlines the labour standards expected at all factories, which forms part of our conditions of trade.
“Before production is approved, all factories must provide an independent factory ethical audit from a shortlist of providers, to demonstrate that they comply with our code of practice.
“These audits are then reviewed and graded. Dependent on the findings, the factory is approved for production and a corrective action plan is issued, detailing any areas where the factory needs to improve. Factories found to have issues in the audit are not approved for production.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Syracuse and Duke will play the first of their two meetings this season as part of ESPN’s Big Monday programming. The game will be broadcast on ESPN at 7 p.m. from Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The broadcast will include the ESPN crew of Syracuse alumni Sean McDonough on play-by-play, Jay Bilas as color commentator and Allison Williams as the sideline reporter. It’s the second time Syracuse has been on ESPN’s primary network this year. The teams will meet for the second time in Syracuse on Feb. 23 in the Carrier Dome.
Duke (14-1, 3-0 ACC) is considered one of the country’s best teams and a national title contender. The Blue Devils were ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 last week and No. 2 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Duke did experience a couple of close calls on Saturday.
Duke edged No. 13 Florida State 80-78 on a last-second 3-pointer by Cam Reddish. It also played much of the game without star freshman Zion Williamson, who was poked in the eye. Duke is hopeful that Williamson will be able to play against the Orange.
The Orange (11-5, 2-1) is on the NCAA Tournament bubble for the fifth consecutive year and suffered a blow over the weekend when it lost 73-59 at home to Georgia Tech. Syracuse’s offense, which had been showing signs of life in recent games, returned to the lackluster form it has shown for much of the year against the Yellow Jackets.
You can also watch online through Watch ESPN or by using the Watch ESPN app.
You can listen to the game on the radio in Syracuse by tuning in to TK99 (99.5 FM) or WAER (88.3 FM).
Brent Axe recaps Syracuse basketball's 73-59 loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at the Carrier Dome.
YUMA, Ariz. – Two Marine pilots have died in a helicopter crash during a training mission in southwestern Arizona, U.S. Marine Corps officials said Sunday.
The station is located about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from Yuma and the 1,300-square-mile (3,367-square-kilometer) training ground is one of the world’s largest military installations.
In 2012, seven Marines were killed when an AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter and a UH-1Y Huey utility helicopter collided in midair during a training exercise in a remote area of the Yuma training grounds.
The crash site was in the Chocolate Mountains on the California side of the range.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WIFR) -- A bill proposing to double fines for drivers who pass stopped school buses passed vote from the Illinois House.
House Bill 1873​ was approved on a 74-16 vote Thursday.
The bill calls to double the fine for first offenses from $150 to $300, and second offenses from $500 to $1,000. The fines would take effect for any driver "approaching, overtaking, and passing school buses" in Illinois.
Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), the bill's lead sponsor, says the bill would "protect school children as they load and unload off of busses."
Opponents say increasing penalties will not stop people from violating the law and make the fines for difficult to pay.
The bill now heads to the Illinois Senate for consideration.
Worcester has been awarded a $450,000 state grant to plant 900 trees to replace a portion of the thousands of trees felled because of an Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation.
The Patrick Administration announced the Department of Conservation and Recreation grant Monday.
Reforestation efforts will be focused along public ways, within public parks, cemeteries and other public areas where trees were removed as part of the ALB eradication effort, according to a DCR press release. A portion of the money will also go to the Worcester Tree Initiative for tree giveaways in the affected areas. The grant, funded through DCR's Capital Plan, will primarily be managed by the City of Worcester's Department of Public Works and Parks.
Since 2008, the Patrick Administration has awarded nearly $1.3 million to the communities impacted by the infestation for eradication and tree planting. ALB teams at municipal, state and federal levels have removed 32,012 neighborhood trees and replanted 19,852 trees across Worcester, Shrewsbury, Holden, West Boylston, Boylston and Auburn, with the goal of replanting 30,000 trees. This partnership has also helped to raise awareness and educate residents to identify the tree-killing beetle, the press release said.
Republicans have been blocking Obama's nominations—but the president’s refusal to fight back is part of the problem.
Alliance for Justice (AFJ) reports that President Barack Obama will likely finish his first term with many more vacancies in the federal judiciary than when he was inaugurated. Today, seventy-five seats on the federal bench remain open, compared with fifty-three in January 2009. The shortage of judges has generated a backlog such that approximately thirty courts have been officially designated as being in a state of “judicial emergency”—that is, more cases per judge than he or she can handle fairly and efficiently—compared with only eighteen in 2009, thereby leaving important issues of law unsettled and many injuries unredressed.
Only 80 percent of the president’s district and circuit court nominees have been confirmed by the Senate. In comparable periods in their presidencies, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had confirmation records of 90 percent and 84 percent, respectively. Obama has also nominated fewer judges and done so much later than Bush or Clinton did during their first terms.
As a result of the White House’s laggardness, right-wing justices continue to dominate the federal courts—meaning that many of Obama’s most important legislative achievements could be eviscerated and his legacy dissipated, because most of the circuit courts of appeal are controlled by Republican appointees.
Republican obstructionism bears a large share of the blame for the situation, but Obama’s reluctance to expend political capital fighting for nominees is also at fault.
The GOP foot-dragging began with Obama’s first nominations. The Republicans have taken advantage of senatorial courtesy, which requires that both home-state senators, regardless of party, consent to a nomination. Republican senators have delayed committee hearings by taking an inordinately long time giving their consent, and in some cases have simply refused it.
Committee proceedings have also been slowed down. In the past the committee processed district judges quickly, often in groups. Republicans now insist on close individual scrutiny of every district court nominee, slowing the process even more.
But it is on the Senate floor that the GOP’s obstructionist tactics have gone into high gear. Much of the upper chamber’s business is carried on by unanimous consent agreements, and Republicans have repeatedly balked at giving unanimous consent to take up judicial nominations. Secret and public holds, filibusters, and thirty-hour “debates,” if cloture is voted, further slow down the process. Many nominations unanimously or overwhelmingly approved in committee have languished on the floor for months; when the vote finally comes, it is usually overwhelmingly for approval, often by voice vote.
Obama’s response to these GOP tactics has been weak and ineffectual. First, he has failed to send up enough nominees. Second, he has neglected to think and act strategically with respect to those he has nominated. The lack of strategic thinking is reflected in the philosophy and relative age of Obama’s judges. Where the Republicans made sure to appoint solidly conservative judges who would serve for many decades, Obama has focused on finding nonideological or middle-of-the-road candidates. Three-quarters of his circuit court nominees are former prosecutors, and a very large proportion are or were in private practice; many of the latter are millionaires. Only a handful are or have been legal aid lawyers, public defenders or public interest lawyers; few have been politically active. Public interest lawyers in the Fourth Circuit, for example, which has a majority of Democratic appointees, have complained that the Obama appointees are only a little more liberal than their Republican colleagues. Also, the average age of Obama’s circuit court judges is 54.1 (and seventy-three of his 214 nominees to both district and appeals courts are 55 or older); the average age of those nominated by Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes was about 49.4 years.
Third, the White House has failed to fight for its nominees. A case in point is the mishandling of the nomination of Goodwin Liu, a truly liberal candidate, to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The nomination was sent up with only one other choice rather than in a group, enabling the Republicans to concentrate their fire on Liu. Even so, some observers believe that if the president had fought for him, sixty votes could have been found. But there was little White House support and Liu finally withdrew.
In one area, Obama has made a very great difference: diversity. Calling his nominees “the most diverse in terms of race and gender in American history,” AFJ reported in November that 44 percent of his nominees were women, 37 percent were people of color, and six nominees were openly LGBT, with three of the latter confirmed so far.
In his new book The Oath, Jeffrey Toobin writes that Obama believes that elections rather than the courts are “the principal vehicle for social and political change.” But the administration’s primary concern should be to prevent judicial mutilation of what his elections have achieved. Many of the president’s signature laws and policies—the Dodd-Frank Act, including the provisions creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB); the Affordable Care Act; and new regulations for the SEC and many other federal agencies—require numerous regulations to put them into effect. All face massive legal assaults by business and other interests.
Most of these attacks will come before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which has long been a graveyard for federal regulation. Dominated by right-wing ideologues, the circuit has already struck down parts of Dodd-Frank and other financial regulations, new EPA and FCC rules, and cigarette advertising rules. The court has just heard a challenge to Obama’s recess appointments, and a new lawsuit attacking the constitutionality of the CFPB will probably be filed soon. There were currently three vacancies on the court (soon to be four), but so far the president has made only two nominations and done little to get them confirmed.
To avoid further damage to his legacy, President Obama should immediately form a task force to put together a pool of qualified liberal candidates from which he can choose twenty to thirty circuit and district court judges; Democratic senators involved in the process must also move quickly. The circuit court nominees should be sent to the Senate by this spring, and in groups to prevent the Republicans from concentrating their fire on just one or two. The president and the Democratic senators must then fight for the nominees in the Senate and before the general public.
The Democrats must also tighten the courtesy hold and filibuster rules so that opponents will have to oppose a nominee publicly on the merits and can no longer block nominees secretly with no repercussions. The Judiciary Committee should also not tolerate stalling; its chair, Patrick Leahy, must not permit GOP senators to exploit every opportunity to obstruct.
Finally, and perhaps most important, the Democrats’ efficient voter-turnout operations and grassroots advocacy groups must be mobilized, and the president must lend his bully pulpit to the effort to push more appointees through. Should the Republicans regain the Senate majority in 2015–16, they will bury most of his nominees in order to keep the seats available for a possible Republican president in 2018, just as they did to Clinton in 1999–2000. If that happens, the Obama legacy will be left in tatters.