ALERT - USS JOHN S. MCCAIN (DDG 56) PATROL SOUTH CHINA SEA,
CHINA'S ANGRY USS John S McCain, a guided-missile destroyer, came within 12 miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The reef is part of a string of highly strategic islets and shoals where Beijing has built artificial islands to stage military bases.
The show of US force came as the Trump administration upped the pressure on China to bring Pyongyang to heel, just hours after North Korea threatened to target a US military base on the Pacific island of Guam.
China on Thursday voiced strong protest against a U.S. Navy warship passing close to the Meiji Reef of the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.
The USS John S. McCain entered the waters near the reef and conducted a so-called "freedom of navigation operation" on Thursday without permission of the Chinese government, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said, adding the Chinese Navy identified the U.S. warship, warned and expelled it.
"Such a move severely undermines China's sovereignty and security, and severely endangers the safety of frontline personnel of both sides," he said.
U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS LEADERSHIP TO MEET IN NEW ORLEANS, CALL FOR STRONGER PARTNERSHIP WITH WASHINGTON Source: Global NewsWire 10.08.2017
WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over50 of the nation’s leading mayors will convene in New Orleans from August 10 - August 12, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ (USCM) Summer Leadership Meeting to outline policy proposals for some of the country’s greatest challenges, including the opioid epidemic, infrastructure investment, tax reform and more. USCM President Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans will host a bipartisan coalition of mayors, including Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, OH; Mayor Stephen Benjamin of Columbia, SC; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, IN; Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta, GA; Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas, TX and Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, DC as well as business, law enforcement, infrastructure, labor and industry leaders.
In the race to create innovation districts in low-income urban areas, city leaders play a key role.
urban innovation, will be part of a broader agenda of re-enforcing local power in the face of uneven, if not uncertain, support from the federal government.
Over the past year, our two organizations—the USCM and the Brookings Institution—and the Project for Public Spaces have worked together to capture a new model of growth that is emerging in cities and the particular roles that mayors can play in supporting it. At the June USCM meeting we released a handbook that offers concrete strategies for mayors to facilitate the rise of innovation districts. Innovation districts are small geographic areas within cities where research universities, medical institutions, and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, accelerators, and incubators. They reflect profound market and demographic dynamics that are revaluing proximity, density, walkability, and accessibility—in other words, the natural strengths of cities.
Innovation districts offer enormous potential for innovative growth, as ideas hatched in universities are commercialized for the market by faculty, students, entrepreneurs, and mature companies. Given their location near low-income communities, innovation districts can also spur inclusive growth by intentionally including residents in employment opportunities and using increased tax revenues to provide needed services and enhance the affordability of housing
Mayors can play powerful roles in advancing these dynamic hubs of innovation.
One such role ismayor as convener.Mayors can use their soft power to pull together leaders of local institutions to find a set of common interests compelling enough to take a collective approach to innovative growth. The broad, citywide perspective of mayors allows them to see the big picture, drawing important connections between people, places, and ideas. It is this perspective that enables disparate local actors to see what’s possible and collaborate to compete.
Another role ismayor as champion. A mayor is often viewed as being at his or her best when declaring a vision of future prosperity that is grounded in evidence and conveyed with conviction and purpose.
A final role is mayor as catalyst.City governments have substantial regulatory and fiscal powers that can advance innovation districts. Many emerging districts in the United States lack the civic and physical spaces that enable the exchange of ideas and the continuous invention and deployment of products and technologies. Mayors can work with public, private, and civic leaders to change local zoning to increase a mixing of activities as well as to relax public space regulations to allow a greater range of activities and programs that stimulate innovation networks.
In today’s challenging fiscal, political, and economic environment, mayors can play a series of roles to advance the potential of their cities to grow quality jobs, create new economic opportunities for disadvantaged citizens, and generate much needed fiscal revenues. The good news is that a growing number of mayors in the United States are stepping up and leading in ways that can be adapted and adopted by others. As with so many other areas of domestic policy, mayors are uniquely qualified to advance innovative and inclusive growth simultaneously and help bridge the economic divisions in our country.
The Honorable Terry McAuliffe, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, will open the two-day event on Thursday evening with a discussion about the Future of Cities and the partnership between cities and states. The mayors will hold a PRESS CONFERENCE on Friday, August 11 at 10:15 am. A full list of events can be found below. WHAT:USCM 2017 Summer Leadership Meeting WHO: Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, USCM President; Mayor Stephen Benjamin of Columbia, SC, USCM Vice President; Mayor Bryan Barnett of Rochester Hills, MI, USCM Second Vice President; Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas; Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, OH; Mayor Jorge Elorza of Providence, RI; Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston; Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson of Gary, IN; Mayor Richard Berry of Albuquerque; Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, DC; Mayor John Giles of Mesa, AZ; and more. WHEN: Thursday, August 10, 2017- Saturday, August 12, 2017 WHERE: Hyatt Regency Hotel, 601 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans, LA PRESS GUIDANCE:
The Thursday evening event and sessions on Friday are OPEN for media coverage. All other evening events and sessions are CLOSED to press.
Note: The Thursday evening event and Friday sessions will be live streamed[JF2] .
PRESS CONFERENCE: Time: Friday, August 11, 2017 at 10: 15 am CDT Location: Empire D, Level Two, Hyatt Hotel Who: USCM Leadership and attending Mayors SCHEDULE OF EVENTS THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 Dinner & Discussion: The Future of Cities 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Featuring: USCM President Mitch Landrieu (NOLA), Mike Allen (Axios), Gov. Terry McAuliffe (VA), La June Montgomery Tabron (W.K. Kellogg Foundation), Marc Morial (National Urban League), Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (Sustainable Development Solutions Network), Jim Anderson (Bloomberg Philanthropies), Peter Scher (JP Morgan Chase & Co.) FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 Opening Remarks 8:00 a.m. – 8:15 a.m. Featuring: USCM President Mitch Landrieu (NOLA), Mayor Steve Benjamin (Columbia, SC), Mayor Bryan Barnett (Rochester Hills, MI), Tom Cochran (USCM), Michael Brown (RAI/Reynolds American) Tackling the Opioid Epidemic in America’s Cities 8:15 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Featuring: USCM President Mitch Landrieu (NOLA), Mayor Nan Whaley (Dayton, OH), Joyce Linehan (Boston), Mike Podesio (Adapt Pharma), Dr. Josh Sharfstein (Johns Hopkins University) Press Conference 10:15 a.m. Creative Infrastructure Financing for America’s Cities 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Featuring: Mayor Kasim Reed (Atlanta, GA), Brent Booker (Building Trades Association), Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr. (American Public Transportation Association), Norma Jean Mattei (American Society of Civil Engineers) Equitable Development: Bridging the Divide between Urban & Rural Communities 2:00 p.m. – 2:50 p.m. Featuring: Angela Glover Blackwell (Policy Link) The Impact of Globalization and Technology on Cities’ Economic Growth and Workforce Preparedness 2:50 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Featuring: Mayor Pete Buttigieg (South Bend, IN), Amy Liu (Brookings Institution), Deborah Elam (General Electric Company), Michael Chui (McKinsey & Company) Working Session: Violence as a Public Health Threat 4:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. Featuring: David Kennedy (City University of New York), Dr. Gary Slutkin (University of Illinois-Chicago), Michael Harrison (New Orleans Police Department)
###
About The United States Conference of Mayors --The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors.
At the same time 4 Blackwater contractors get sentenced to jail for crimes in Iraq ten years ago
Published on Aug 8, 2017
Views: 2,375
Trump has so far rejected the advice of his national security adviser for the next steps in Afghanistan, a war that's been going on for nearly 16 years. Erik Prince, founder of the security firm previously known as Blackwater, wants to send about 5,000 private military contractors to replace troops helping the Afghan army. Prince, now executive director of Frontier Services Group, joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss the plan that he says would cut the annual cost of the war from an estimated $45 billion to less than $10 billion.
ALERT - U.S. DEPLOYS ADVANCED EARLY WARNING E-2D HAWKEYE AIRCRAFT TO JAPAN AMID KIM'S THREAT
E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft with Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 125 return to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Aug. 9, 2017. VAW-125 deployed aboard the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) for the first time with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5. The E-2D is the latest variant of the long-running E-2 Hawkeye series of aircraft, which employs long-range radar and electronic communications capabilities to oversee the battlespace and detect threats beyond the sensor range of other friendly unit
