Coupons On Thier Way to Your Door in 24 Hours

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Worst Case Scenario

I have recently posted some articles about security failures as it relates to computers that can't be accounted for and sensitive digital information transmitted in an unsecured way. That's not to mention the laptop computer that was taken home by a Veterans Administration employee and was subsequently stolen compromising some 26.5 million records. And then we bring into play the complete charlie foxtrot that CITIGROUP has made of the processing of US Passports.

What gives?

I mean, we're talking about a complete lapse of security and accountability here. From one aspect, military personnel not only have to be deployed to war zones, but now they have to worry about their own and their family's identities? That's the kind of distraction that could get someone killed. Shame on you, SAIC.

Then there's the retired military personnel, the veterans, who may not have much in the way of economic stability in the first place, who have to worry about the same issue. Veterans information was exposed once, but TWICE this year. Proud men and women serve their country bravely and their repayment is exposure to potential bad guys. Shame on you, VA.

If all that weren't bad enough, US Passports are back-logged in proportions never before seen. It's one thing when your vacation plans are fouled because your US Passport was delayed until the 12th of Never. It's another thing when you finally get your US Passport, but there are errors like a wrong date of birth, incorrect birth location; but, my favorite is it having the wrong picture (I can't make this stuff up). The kicker is when your US passport application gets lost completely. Your photos, application, application fee, and your birth certificate or previous passport are just gone (POOF!). Shame on you, CITIGROUP.

"OK. All that sucks, but why are you birthing a calf over it?"

Aside from identity theft within the country, which has become a past time for some bad guys, what happens if Al-Qaeda gets their grubby little hands on this information or some of the missing passport applications? They've got their computer geeks too, you know.

Digital and domestic terrorism, that's what happens. This goes far beyond the scope of the Red Cross Scam that targeted the spouses of deployed service members. Who knows how that information got leaked.

Please allow me to present a plausible scenario to you.

The bad guys get the information because it is lost, stolen, or otherwise misplaced. They steal the identities of veterans, military personnel and their families and cause complete economic havoc by running up credit cards and transferring savings to off-shore accounts to fund further terrorist activities. Millions of people become poor and destitute while they wait for the government to "solve the problem". What an incredible horror to know that not only have you lost everything, but that what you lost went to finance terrorist activities.

The second wave comes when military families and other citizens start getting threatening phone calls or suspicious letters containing a "strange white powder". Can you imagine the terror that would be instilled? You get a spooky phone call at three in the morning or open a letter you think is junk mail only to have white powder fly all over you and you rush to the Emergency Room. Now that Federal and Local law enforcement have their hands more than full, the next step comes.

The bad guys get the passports applications that were "lost", replace the pictures and reapply using false ID, which isn't that hard to get. And in the cases where the fees were paid with a money order, the poor person whose application was lost in the first place has now paid for a bad guy to gain access to the country. It's an open back door that anyone can walk right through while authorities are tracking down who was responsible for the first two steps.

The insanity of this is that I just thought of it. Me. A simpleton, for all intents and purposes. If I could dream up a nightmare like this, so can the bad guys. Or maybe the can one up me.

The time has come for us as citizens to start demanding the protection we're entitled to and the protection we were promised. Write your Representatives and Senators. Inundate them with letters, e-mails and phone calls. If everyone gets involved and does this, maybe, just maybe, for one day, a committee of some sort, perhaps the entire House or Senate won't be able to conduct business because of concerned and angry correspondence and phone calls. Then they'll step back and really look. "Why can't we do business today?" could turn into "Who's responsible for the lack of security?" and that could lead to action.

This is our time. Do we wait for the bad guys to come to us? I mean, certain government agencies have all but invited them, right? Or do we kick somebody in the pants to motivate them for our own protection? We elected our government officials and we pay their salaries. It's time they started working.

Do the Math: Soldiers' Return Plus 9 Months Equals Base Baby Boom

Now this is the kind of article I enjoy reading, except for the whole re-deploying bit. It is interesting to me to see the trend or the pattern between soldiers' returns and the ensuing fruits of romantic entanglement that follow. I would have to look for more data on this issue, but I do not believe that this is only a recent occurrence. I have a neighbor that lives just up the street from me. They have two little boys and he's been deployed right before each was conceived. (ponders)

Do the Math: Soldiers' Return Plus 9 Months Equals Base Baby Boom

By KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press Writer
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky.

Army Spc. John Luckey and his wife, Kerry, already had five children and no plans for more when he came home from a year's duty in Iraq. But there was romance in the California air when the entire family went on a vacation to see the giant redwoods.

Nine months later, Kerry Luckey gave birth to a daughter, EmLee Rae.

Apparently many military couples at Fort Campbell celebrated like the Luckeys when about 20,000 soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division came home last fall, because the military hospital here is now seeing a baby boom.

The hospital...


...expects to deliver 210 babies a month soon, nearly twice the usual number of deliveries, and more are expected at other nearby hospitals in Tennessee and Kentucky.

"You go around town and there are these big bellies everywhere. It's kind of fun to have all the babies around," said Kerry Luckey, who lives in Clarksville, near this Army post.

A temporary increase in births is not uncommon after soldiers return, but the boom this year is the biggest the post has seen in decades, said Lt. Col. Diane Adams, chief of women's health at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital.

The base is seeing "a lot more folks with family on the mind when they returnedthis time around," Adams said.

About 19,000 soldiers returned to Fort Stewart, Ga., in the first months of 2006, and the hospital there saw a baby boom nine months later, delivering more than 100 babies a month, compared with 76 per month the previous year. Fort Hood in Texas saw deliveries peak at 289 in March 2006, well above the 213 average.

Lt. Trena Buggs, a labor and delivery nurse at Blanchfield, got pregnant herself not long after her husband, a Special Forces soldier, returned from Iraq in early 2006, and she gave birth in May. She knew what to expect when the 101st Airborne came back between August and December of last year.

"We knewthat any time the soldiers are deployed, we knew the one thing they liked to do best when they come home is get a little bit of loving," she said.

In many cases, the father was back in Iraq by the time the baby arrived; many soldiers have heard their children's first cries via cell phone.

In the Fort Campbell hospital's busy maternity waiting room, many new mothers do not even seem to notice when Brahms' lullaby starts playing over the public address system _ the signal that another baby has just been born.

Adams hears the lullaby about seven times a day.

"We should be close to 2,300 for the year," she said. "Last year we delivered1,352, to give you a comparison."

The baby boom at Fort Campbell is expected to continue through December, which also happens to be when three units from the 101st Airborne are set to return to Iraq. Another three units are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan early next year.

About 20 percent of the new mothers at Fort Campbell are active-duty soldiers themselves, Adams said.

New mothers are exempt from deployment for four months. But after that, husband-and-wife soldiers have to arrange for child care if they are both sent overseas. Often, relatives or close friends take care of the children.

Many soldiers at Fort Campbell have beensent to Iraq three times already. Back-to-back tours can play havoc with family planning.

"When you're in your first deployment, if you haven't started your family already, you think, `Well, we'll go ahead and do that after the first one,'" Adams said. "They've put it off long enough, and now they want to get going on getting the family situation straightened out."

Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

VA Lost 53 Computers, Auditors Say

Oh, for the love of God. What's this, the third time this year? Somebody needs to pull their head out and make sure accountability is happening.



VA lost 53 computers, auditors say

Amy Doolittle - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 25, 2007 10:59:08 EDT


The Veterans Affairs Department has lost 53 computers that could include veterans’ sensitive, personal information, a new Government Accountability Office report said.


The computers are missing from four locations across the country. McCoy Williams, director of financial management and assurance at GAO, said veterans’ information possibly could be stolen as a result of the losses.


Williams said VA does not know who was using the computers before they went missing or what information was stored on them.


“We’re not sure ... we basically looked at the environment from a standpoint of ‘could it happen,’ and based on what we saw, the possibility exists” for information to be stolen, he said. “In a situation like this, you only need one case for messing up a whole lot of people.”


VA officials cautioned that missing laptops do not necessarily equal stolen information but nevertheless said the chance for a security breach still exists.


“I would say there’s a slim chance of it being stolen,” said Robert Howard, assistant secretary for information and technology at VA. “With all of the problems we’ve had, I have not encountered any case to my knowledge of identity theft as a result of these instances. Will information be exposed to the wrong people? Yes, we do have knowledge of that.”


The GAO audited three VA medical facilities and VA headquarters as part of their investigation. They found that as of March, officials at the Washington, D.C., VA medical center did not know the location of 28 percent of their information technology inventory. Six percent of the IT inventory was missing from the Indianapolis medical center, 10 percent from the San Diego center and 11 percent from D.C. headquarters.


“The four locations we audited put IT equipment at risk of theft, loss and misappropriation and pose continuing security vulnerability to our nation’s veterans with regard to sensitive data maintained on the equipment,” Williams said Tuesday at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs oversight and investigations subcommittee.


The GAO also found that used hard drives waiting to be cleared were stored in unsecured bins at the facilities, even though many of them contained sensitive data. Rooms where potentially sensitive data was stored also lacked required security, auditors said.


“When you leave those hard drives, there’s always a possibility that someone will come in and take it,” Williams said at the hearing.


In addition to the items that are currently missing, the audited VA locations reported a total of 2,400 missing IT items valued at $6.4 million over 2005 and 2006, GAO found.


VA officials said they are working to put in place better safeguards to keep tabs on where equipment goes and who has it. They said they have put together a handbook for tracking equipment and will soon put in place new tracking software.


Officials said that since the investigation was concluded, 1,457 of the 1,900 items missing from headquarters have been recovered. That leaves 443 items that are simply lost and likely will never be recovered, they said.


Last year, the personal information of over 26 million veterans and active-duty personnel was lost when a VA laptop was stolen from the Maryland home of a VA analyst. That computer was recovered several months later.


Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., an Iraq veteran, said the effects of data insecurity extend beyond potential loss. He said the carelessness of VA is demoralizing to veterans.


“It has a very corrosive effect in trusting the VA in general,” Walz said. “Each of the [committee] members are sensing the frustration among constituents and veterans that this is one of the issues we speak of often and see very little movement on.”

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Awesome Sweepstakes Getaway Opportunity for Authorized MWR Patrons

Until August 31, 2007 authorized MWR users can enter for a change to win the "Great Getaways" vacation package. This is the grand prize. It's a trip for two to any of the four Armed Forces Recreation Centers. The trip includes a seven night stay at any of the four AFRCs, round trip air fare for two, a seven day car rental, and a set of luggage.

The four Armed Forces Recreation Centers are:

Dragon Hill Lodge in Seoul, South Korea;

Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, Germany;

Hale Koa Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii; and

Shades of Green on Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Other prizes include $100 gift cards, digital cameras, PlayStation Portables, and golf clubs.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Military Spouse Magazine Announces 2007 Who's Who of Military Spouses

Do you recognize anyone?


Military Spouse magazine announces 2007 Who's Who of Military Spouses
By Military Spouse magazine, a Victory Media, Inc. publication
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



In the last few years, the military spouse community has changed. Spouses have taken charge of their community and created the much-needed resources to meet the shifting requirements of military spouses worldwide.


The 2007 Who's Who of Military Spouses list recognizes military spouses who have made significant contribution in the military community for all military spouses. The leaders of the military spouse community were chosen based on their service-wide appeal, commitment to military spouses and professional development. Military Spouse magazine, a Victory Media, Inc. publication, is proud to be the resource to bring you this comprehensive list of deserving spouses in the world of the military. The listed spouses will be profiled in the next three issues of Military Spouse magazine as noted below.


September/October 2007:
Sue Hoppin, Military Officer Association of America (MOAA), Assistant Director for Spouse Outreach, Air Force Spouse
Sarah Smiley, syndicated columnist, author of Going Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife, Navy Spouse
Deb Kloeppel, Military Spouse Corporate Career Network (MSCCN), Founder and President, Navy Spouse
Meredith Leyva, Operation Homefront, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Navy Spouse
Andi Hurley, Spouse BUZZ, Founder, Army Spouse


November/December 2007:
Joyce Raezer, NMFA, Chief Operating Officer, Army Spouse
Jacey Eckhart, syndicated columnist, radio personality and author of The Homefront Club, Navy Spouse
Roxanne Reed, Jane Wayne Gear, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Marine Corps Spouse
Tanya Biank, Author of Army Wives: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage, Army Spouse
Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer, motivational speakers and co-authors of Help! I'm a Military Spouse and I Want a Life, too!
Victoria Parham, Military Spouse Talk Radio, President and Founder, Army Spouse

January 2008, first monthly issue:
Who's Who Spouses to watch in 2008
Kristin Henderson, Author
Janet Farley, Author
Karen Pavlicin, Author
Nicole Alcorn and Karie Darga, Military Spouse Monument, Founders
Krista Wells, Ph.D, The Military Spouse Coach TM
Shannon Maxwell and Robin Kelleher, Hope for the Warriors non-profit, Founders

H&R Block Offers Free Tax Course for Military Spouses

I thought this was interesting. You can take the course for free. You don't have to go to work for them, but you can if you want to.


H&R Block Offers Free Tax Course for Military Spouses
Week of July 16, 2007


See if you'd enjoy earning extra income preparing taxes. If you're a military spouse, our beginning course will get you started at no charge, with no previous training required. Even if you don't go on to become a tax professional, you'll be able to complete your own return and help others with theirs. To learn more about this special offer, view the H&R Block Free Tax Course PDF.

Some Gerber Baby Food Recalled

Been a long time since I had any this small, but maybe some of you do.


Some Gerber baby food recalled

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 18, 2007 5:26:25 EDT


Commissary officials are warning parents to stop using 8-ounce packages of Gerber Organic Rice and Gerber Organic Oatmeal cereals because of concerns about a potential choking hazard for babies.


Commissaries as well as civilian stores have pulled these cereals from their shelves.


Gerber Products Company issued a voluntary recall July 13 on the products, which may contain lumps of cereal that do not dissolve in water or milk. The Defense Supply Center Philadelphia’s food safety office on Tuesday issued a notice to commissary officials about the recall.


Gerber had received reports of choking, but there have been no reports of injury.


These particular cereals have been distributed in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.


Anyone who has these cereals should stop using the products and return them to commissaries for a full refund. Consumers can also call the Gerber Parents Resource Center at (800) 443-7237 or (231) 928-3000 to return the product and receive a full refund.


The affected cereals’ universal product codes can be found on the bottom right side of the box. Gerber Organic Rice and Gerber Organic Oatmeal cereals are sold in 8-ounce boxes, and all codes are being recalled, according to Gerber officials. The UPC codes are:


* Gerber Organic Rice: UPC Code 15000 12504


* Gerber Organic Oatmeal: UPC Code 15000 12502


No other Gerber products are affected by the recall.

NLU Reduces Tuition for Service Members

Ok. Here's the skinny on this one. NLU cut it's tuition costs for Active Duty, Reserve, Guard, Spouses, and dependents. The catch is, you can't take classes on campus. Only online, on-base, or off site. And for Active Duty folks only, this tuition is covered by Tuition Assistance.


NLU Reduces Tuition for Servicemembers

Military.com | National-Louis University | July 09, 2007

Tuition Cut By 43%


NLU Reduces Price For Active Military Personnel, Veterans, Military Spouses and Dependents, National Guard and Department of Defense Employees.


Beginning Fall Semester 2007, National-Louis University (NLU) is reducing the per credit hour cost of its tuition for active military personnel, veterans, military spouses and dependents, National Guard and Department of Defense employees. Tuition is now $167 per credit hour for undergraduate degree programs and $250 per credit hour for graduate degree programs. The new rate is covered by the Tuition Assistance (TA) for active military and is only available for programs offered online, on base and off site through NLU’s Virginia campus.


The new tuition represents a 60 percent reduction from NLU’s current rate—and a 43 percent reduction of the rate previously available to the military.


NLU is a private, regionally accredited, not-for-profit university founded in 1886 with a long history of serving the military in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. NLU faculty understand the needs of military students—and know what it means to be deployed. NLU is a member of the Virginia and Florida Advisory Council on Military Education (ACME) and Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC)—and many of the NLU faculty are retired from the service.


Military personnel can immediately begin earning a B.S. in Management and Management Information Systems and beginning next winter a B.S. in Health Care Leadership in about 16-18 months. Certain requirements must be met for these accelerated programs. Two graduate degrees—the MBA and M.S. in Management—are also available online and in face-to-face classes off site.


If certain criteria are met, transfer credits for military students can be evaluated in two hours and the entire enrollment process can be completed within ten days.


Fall classes begin in September 2007. More information is available online at www.nl.edu/military and by phone toll-free at 1-888-550-8040.


Remember: Not applying for scholarships is like turning down free money. Get started on your search for scholarships today - visit the Military.com Scholarship Finder.


Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion.



Copyright 2007 Military.com. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.

President Set to Veto College Cost Reduction Act

I started to get upset when I read the title to this one. No worries, it's not as bad as the attention grabbing headline make out. Basically, Bush doesn't think the House's Bill is strong enough.


President Set to Veto the College Cost Reduction Act

What was once called the "largest investment in college financial aid since the GI Bill, helping millions of students and families pay for college," now faces a certain veto.


Military.com recently reported on the introduction of the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 (H.R. 2669). According to the author, U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the bill would make the single “largest investment in college financial aid since the GI Bill, helping millions of students and families pay for college.”


One of the most important aspects for servicemembers and veterans is the proposed $500 increase in Pell Grant scholarships over the next five years. When combined with other Pell scholarship increases passed or proposed by Congress this year, the maximum Pell Grant could reach $5,200 by 2013, up from $4,050 in 2006. Roughly 5.5 million students would benefit from this increase.


The College Cost Reduction Act also includes a number of other provisions that would ease the financial burden imposed on students and families by the cost of college:


Tuition assistance for excellent undergraduate students who agree to teach in the nation’s public schools;

Loan forgiveness for college graduates that go into public service professions;
Increased federal loan limits so that students won’t have to rely as heavily on costlier private loans; and

New tuition cost containment strategies.

“For years, college costs have been growing rapidly, far outstripping families’ ability to pay them,” said Congressman Miller. “With this bill, we are saying that no one should be denied the opportunity to go to college simply because of the price.”


However, in a statement issued by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, the bill fails to meet that goal. “[The bill] does little to benefit America's neediest students and essentially diverts a majority of savings in the bill to individuals out of school rather than focusing on aiding low-income students in school,” wrote Spelling.


According to Secretary Spelling, the House bill devotes only 38 percent of its savings to benefit low-income students, with only $5.8 billion dedicated to increase Pell Grants. While the President’s budget plan invests nearly 100 percent of its proposed savings to help students most in need, including $19.8 billion to support increases to the Pell Grant.


According to the official policy statement issued by Sec. Spellings’ office, the President’s senior advisors have recommended that he veto the House bill if it passes as introduced.


These Department of Education programs have a significant impact on servicemember and veterans’ “out-of-pocket” education expenses.

Forclosure Protection Could Have Hidden Risk

Here's something to be careful of. I'll put in the whole article and the link is above. Basically, it just says that if you've used forclosure protection due to military activation, be careful on the backside of the deployment. All that lower payments and interest could end up getting tacked onto your next 12 payments making it harder to play catch up when things get back to normal.


Foreclosure protection could have hidden risk

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 17, 2007 22:32:58 EDT


A House committee voted Tuesday to extend mortgage interest caps and foreclosure protection for activated service members despite warnings the move could make it more likely, not less, for someone to lose a home if they have financial problems.


The bill, HR 1315, the Veterans’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2007, includes a provision that would provide protection against foreclosure for 180 days after separation from the service and also would keep the 6 percent cap on mortgage interest promised under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act for the same 180 days.


The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee passed by bill by voice vote as one of five measures it considered on Tuesday.


Currently, the 6 percent interest cap, which applies only for loans that began before military service, applies only for the period on active duty. Current law also provides 90 days of foreclosure protection after separation.


Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., said the 180 days of protection is a compromise from the initial proposal by Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., that asked for one year of foreclosure protection but did not extend the interest cap.


Herseth Sandlin said the 180-day period would give a service member who might have fallen behind on their mortgage while on duty time to get current on payments, to sell the home or to work out some other arrangement short of foreclosure.


However, mortgage lenders warned the committee that a six-month freeze on foreclosure could end up making things worse instead of better, because the longer a homeowner does not pay their mortgage, the harder it becomes to catch up.


Rep. John Boozman, D-Ark., called the bill a “fairly radical change,” and tried — but failed — to limit the foreclosure protection to just three months. “These things do have consequences,” Boozman said. “My concern is in trying to do something good we may be hurting them, not helping them.”


The benefits bill includes a small change in a current adaptive housing grant program that allows a disabled service member temporarily living in the home of a family member to receive a grant of up to $14,000 to modify a home to meet special needs for severe service-related disabilities. It also creates a scholarship program to encourage college students to get degrees and certificates in blind rehabilitation.

AAFES Recalls Soldier Bear Toys Over Lead

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. I'll try to get my catch up posts in today. Here's something I found for all y'all with kiddos.


AAFES recalls Soldier Bear toys over lead

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 18, 2007 11:42:41 EDT


The Army and Air Force Exchange Service, in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has voluntarily recalled 13,200 “Soldier Bear” toy sets with action figures and animals that contain high levels of lead.


Consumers should immediately take these toys away from children and return them to the nearest AAFES store for a refund. The toys were sold between August 2005 and April 2007. The various action figures, dinosaurs, animals and vehicles were made in Hong Kong by Toy Century Industrial Co. Ltd., and were part of AAFES’ “Soldier Bear” private label toy brand in their inventory.


No injuries have been reported. Lead is toxic if ingested by young children, and can cause adverse health effects.


Although 13,200 sets were made, only 8,381 were sold. Because of another recall earlier this year, and in the interest of safety, AAFES pulled remaining Toy Century inventory from the shelves in May and AAFES’ quality assurance team commissioned additional independent testing, said AAFES spokesman Judd Anstey. Lab results showed four of nine styles contained lead in excess of government standards.


While the AAFES quality assurance team does physical performance and safety tests on every private-label item before it can be sold in the stores, toxicity testing is required by the manufacturer, Anstey said.


The style number, Universal Product Code and Soldier Bear logo are printed on the package of the recalled items. The four sets recalled are:


* Heroes — Dino Mega Cruiser — style number 00047, UPC number 4 98567 00047 4


* Dinosaur Adventure Set — style number 91068, UPC number 6 98567 91068 1


* Wild Animal Adventure Set (1 of 2 assortments) and Dinosaur Adventure Set (2 of 2 assortments). Both have style number 91074 and UPC number 6 98567 91074 2


* Heroes Vehicle Play Set — style number 85939, UPC number 6 98567 85939 3 (Three styles in three different boxes: military, police and fire rescue.)


Anstey said Toy Century has not manufactured products for AAFES since March 2006. Each year, AAFES reviews thousands of products from hundreds of manufacturers, he said, in making decisions about what to sell in their stores.


AAFES still sells Soldier Bear toys that are manufactured by numerous other companies, Anstey said.

Friday, July 20, 2007

More Military Medical Records Exposed

Not just military, but dependant too. I hope none of you all are caught up in this.

Data security lapse affects almost 900,000
By William H. McMichael - Staff writerPosted : Friday Jul 20, 2007 15:38:36 EDT

The coded personal health care records of nearly 900,000 troops, family members and other government employees stored on a private defense contractor’s nonsecure computer server were exposed to compromise, the company announced Friday.

SAIC said the information, maintained under several health care contracts with the government, included combinations of names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates and/or “limited health information in the form of codes.” It was stored on a single, SAIC-owned, nonsecure server in Shalimar, Fla., and was in some cases transmitted over the Internet in an unencrypted form. The information was exposed while being processed, the company said.

SAIC said a forensic analysis by top computer security experts “has not yielded any information that any personal information was actually compromised,” but added that “the possibility cannot be ruled out.”

Although SAIC announced the data breach Friday, the company acknowledged it has known about the problem since May 29, when U.S. Air Forces Europe notified SAIC that it had “detected an unsecure transmission of this personal information,” said SAIC spokeswoman Connie Custer.

However, SAIC had concerns about a potential problem even earlier. Two weeks before USAFE contacted the contractor, SAIC shut down the server “based on general concerns regarding the security of transmissions,” SAIC spokeswoman Melissa Koskovich said. SAIC confirmed that personal information had in fact been transmitted in an unsecure manner and stored on an unsecured computer.

Koskovich said the server has been shut down ever since. Neither she nor Custer knew the length of time over which the security lapse occurred, or when the company first began storing data at the site. “We’re working that now,” Custer said.

Storage of the data on an unsecure server is a violation of both SAIC and Defense Department policy, Custer said. Asked why an unsecure server was used to store the data, she said, “We’re trying to find that out. We’re doing an investigation.”

The Pentagon immediately expressed concern.
“We take this very seriously, and we’re taking all the steps necessary to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith, who also confirmed the department’s requirement for secure storage of the data.

But Smith downplayed this particular instance, saying “the risk for compromise is low” and that “there’s been no evidence of compromise.”

SAIC Executive Vice President Arnold Punaro said the nearly two-month delay in announcing the problem was unavoidable.
“We regret that it took a little bit longer than we would have liked,” he said, but added the time was needed to make an “accurate assessment” of the extent of the problem.
“Our task force has been working literally around the clock,” he said. “It was a massive amount of data.”

Experts initially had to accurately assess exactly what data was on the server. Some, Punaro said, was no more than a piece of an individual’s record, such as an isolated medical appointment file. As such, all records had to be matched against government Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, or DEERS, records, to determine how, with government permission, to contact individuals, he said.

FBI, Secret Service and other top computer experts were brought in to help analyze the problem, Punaro said.

SAIC said it is notifying about 867,000 individual records were involved. That includes 173,939 soldiers; 151,315 airmen; 96,925 sailors; 26,171 Marines; 10,415 Coast Guardsmen; 2,164 members of the U.S. Public Health Service; and 104 members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The remaining 406,000 are family members of those personnel.

The company has taken full responsibility for the lapse.
“We deeply regret this security failure, and I want to extend our apologies to those affected by it,” said chairman and chief executive officer Ken Dahlberg. “We are concerned about the inconvenience and risk of potential compromise of personal information this may cause. The security failure is completely unacceptable and occurred as a result of clear violations of SAIC’s strong internal IT security policies. We let down our customers and the service members whom we support. For this, we are very sorry.”

SAIC said the company is working with the affected agencies to “mitigate any potential inconvenience or harm” the security lapse may have caused. It has retained Kroll Inc. to help out those whose records were exposed affected. Kroll will operate an Incident Response Center with extended hours, information resources and credit and identity restoration services for any victims of related identity theft.

Those potentially affected will be provided the contact information by mail, Punaro said. All assistance will be provided at no cost to the government or affected persons.
The company’s internal investigation is being conducted using outside counsel to determine how the security lapse occurred. It also has placed “a number” of employees on administrative leave pending the investigation’s outcome, it said.

For more information, go to http://www.saic.com/response.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

DoD, States Work To Help Military School Kids

If the Department of Defense gets cooperation from the states on this, it could make PCS transitions as it relates to schools a little easier. Let's hope that the states get on board.

DoD, states work to help military schoolkids
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer Posted : Friday Jul 13, 2007 17:09:43 EDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In hopes of making school transitions easier for military children, the Defense Department and the Interstate Council of State Governments have developed a “compact” agreement dealing with issues children face during their frequent moves.


Defense officials will now seek legislation in the 54 states and U.S. territories to carry out the compact, said Leslye Arsht, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, at the annual conference of the Military Child Education Coalition here. More than 600 educators and other youth-serving professionals attended.


Schools operated by the Defense Department serve a small percentage — about 12 percent — of military school-age children, according to defense officials. The other 88 percent attend civilian public schools, charter schools, private schools or are home-schooled.

The Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunities for Military Children addresses such issues as:


*Education records and enrollment. For example, if a child has successfully completed kindergarten in one location and moves, he should be eligible for first grade at the next location, even if the new district requires children to start kindergarten at an older age.


*Placement and attendance. One example is how deployment-related absences are considered. One mother who took her child out of school in San Diego to meet the father’s ship received a letter of truancy from the school, said Laurie Crehan, regional quality of life liaison for the Defense Department’s state liaison office.


*Graduation requirements, such as giving consideration to students who transfer during their senior year, for example.


If states accept the compact and pass laws and policies related to it, Crehan, said, there are provisions to form state councils to resolve issues from district to district, and for an interstate council that will look at other issues that need to be addressed.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Considering Going To School While Your Spouse Is Deployed?

One of the biggest things the spouse of a deployed service member has to consider is what to do with his or her time while their loved one is deployed. Certainly, having nothing to do with your time will make the deployment seem longer. If you're working or chasing kiddos around, you've got your hands full for sure.

Maintaining a house, a family, finances, cars... all of this seems like it would take a considerable amount of time. But what if you find yourself in a situation where you have the time and nothing to do? Have you considered continuing your education? Thinking about picking up a few college hours? Are your children old enough to take college courses?

Almost every state offers in-state tuition prices for military members and their families. That makes for incredible cost savings. Then consider the specific military scholarship programs available to service members and their families. I'll list a few here and also put them on my side-bar for easier access.

First, you have to choose a school. Internet or on campus, it all depends on your personal preferences and the time and resources you have to spend on it.

Then you have to complete the appropriate year Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This can usually be accomplished online, unless you just like the old pencil and paper version better. Usually, when the FAFSA gets submitted to the school/schools you have chosen, the schools will apply on your behalf for State funded financial aid, such as grants, lottery money, etc.

"The Military Scholarships For Children Programwas created to recognize the contributions of military families to the readiness of the fighting force and to celebrate the role of the commissary in the military family community."

The National Military Family Association's Joanne Holbrook Patton Military Spouse Scholarship Program awards scholarships to "spouses of Uniformed Services members (active duty, National Guard and Reserve, retirees, and survivors) to obtain professional certification or to attend post secondary or graduate school."

The purpose of the Armed Forces Children's Education Fund is to be able to financially assist the educational needs of the surviving children of the U.S. Military men and women who lost their lives on or after October 7, 2001, the commencement of Afghanistan operations, as part of the global war on terrorism defined as "Operation Enduring Freedom".

America Supports You links to several service specific scholarship programs for children and spouses as well.

Additionally, FastWeb is an awesome resource for nation wide scholarships and it's search utilities can be customized to suit your individual qualifications for scholarships; i.e. field of study, local area scholarships, internships, minority scholarships, etc.

So, why not rack up a few college credits? It's a great way to occupy your/your children's time and it's likely to cost little or nothing. Good luck!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

For Military Families with Pre-K Aged Kids

I came across this and thought it would be something some folks might to keep an eye on. Good luck. :)

Report: All military kids need pre-K programs

By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 11, 2007 17:28:47 EDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — All states should make all military children eligible for state-funded pre-kindergarten programs, according to two advocacy organizations for pre-K education and for military children.

Eligibility requirements vary among the 39 states that have state-funded pre-K programs. As states expand their programs, some base eligibility on income. But regardless of eligibility requirements, military families should have access, said Libby Doggett, executive director of Pre-K Now, a public education and advocacy organization based in Washington.

Many military families are middle-income, she said, and “middle-income families are very much left behind in this country.”

Pre-K Now and the Military Child Education Coalition issued a joint report July 11 at the coalition’s annual conference here, titled “Pre-K for Military Families: Honoring Service, Educating Children.”

Doggett said research has shown that all 3- and 4-year-olds benefit from high-quality pre-kindergarten education.

Several states, including Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma, provide pre-K education for all 4-year-olds. The Texas legislature passed a law in 2006 making military children eligible for the state’s pre-K program. That includes children of National Guard and Reserve members who have been activated, said Mary Keller, executive director of the Military Child Education Coalition. Their children would remain eligible when the service member returns from deployment.

The Kansas legislature in 2006 approved a test program that includes serving military children in six counties, including Geary County, near Fort Riley.

A pre-K education could give military children a foundation to help them adapt later in the educational process, Doggett said.

“Military families have more stress. They may move from a state with lower education standards to a state with high standards. If the child has a strong start, they have more chance of catching up,” she said. “This is learning that lasts a lifetime.”

Pre-K education can be expensive for parents in the private sector, but it varies from one location to another. A family in Texas, for example, could pay more than $8,000 a year for pre-K.

In 2006, Texas was home to 5,395 3- and 4-year-old military children, half of whom did not meet the previous requirements for the state pre-K program. If all eligible military children had participated in the program, it would have cost the state about $7 million, Keller said.

She estimated about 500,000 military children worldwide might be in the pre-K age range, although it is difficult to pinpoint how many military children would be eligible for pre-K because of the fluid nature of the population and the number of Guard and Reserve families with children that age.

She said states can work with military child development centers so that children can go to pre-K for half a day, then roll over to the child development center staff.

Doggett said the pre-K programs are growing not only in schools, but in conjunction with child care centers.

“The military child care program is the premiere child care program in this country, but it’s is still not pre-K and is not tied to pre-K standards,” she said. “There are also a number of military families who don’t have access to military child care.”

Saving Money and Pinching Pennies in the Military

It's that time of year again. Thinking about putting the kiddos back into school... dreading fighting with other parents to get through crowded isles and picking through the left over school supplies at whatever store you choose to shop at. Here's some helpful advice:

1. Get Organized. Don't wait until you get to the Wal-Mart to look for the school supplies list on the rack. Go online to your school's website and download it. If you've got more than one kiddo, download them all. Print them off and compare them, then make a master list. (One list is easier to keep track of than three) Chances are, your kiddos are going to need some of the same things. If your kiddos have color preferences for stuff, jot that down too.

2. Shop Smart. Get a Sunday Paper with all the advertisements in it. Pull out the ones from places like Walgreen's, CVS, Wal-Mart, OfficeMax, Office Depot, etc. Compare the advertisements to your master list and put check next to the items you find in the ads with a little note beside the item saying what ad you found it in. Keep all your ads and your list together. Take a pocket calculator with you "just in case".

3. GO ALONE. If you don't HAVE to take the kids to the store with you, don't. Get a sitter, get a spouse, a relative, something to watch the kiddos for you. Remember last year when you took the kids with you? How much hair did you pull out of your head? How many margaritas did you drink after you put the kids to bed? All the "OH, mommy look!" and "Ooh, I want..." and "Aw, can't I have..." will distract you, wear you out, and slow you down.

4. Shop Early. Don't wait for the "Tax Free" weekend. Everybody and their grandmother's dog is going to be shopping that weekend. Besides, at your PX/BX, you don't pay sales tax anyway.

5. Go Shopping. Usually, you can get 90-95% of everything you need at the PX/BX. Take all your fliers, your list, and your method of payment to the PX/BX. Get an AAFES flier on your way in and glance through it. It's not unheard of for sales items prices to be in the flier and not in the computers. Grab a cart and start checking off items as you throw them in.

6. Check Out. Here's where your fliers come in handy. I'll almost guarantee that the prices in the other stores fliers are going to be less expensive than the shelf price. The PX/BX will price match ANY advertised price for the same item. AND there's no sales tax. AND you didn't wait to fight the hoarding mobs. AND if you're lucky, the kiddos are watching cartoons or something under the supervision of another responsible person who owes you a favor. ;)

That's just for the supplies. Of course, you're going to have to take the kiddos with you when you buy their school clothes. I do my school shopping in two trips. One by myself for supplies and one with the kids for their clothes. Limits the amount of stress on everyone involved. ;)

One thing I did not mention above (intentionally) was coupons. But now, I'm going to address that as well.

If you have a Star Card and you want to use it, DEFINITELY find that coupon in the AAFES flier that says "$10, $20, or $30 off your purchase when using your Star Card". And while you probably won't find coupons for pens, paper, folders, or glue, you can certainly find coupons for other products like hand sanitizer and facial tissue. And don't forget about the "$1.00 of any Exchange Select Item" coupons.

The Coupon Master

This website performs a "coupon collection" service. Basically, they collect and cut whatever coupons are available and many times get shipments directly from the manufacturers. There is a very minimal charge for their services and it is more than made up for in the savings. The first time I visited this site, I spent roughly $6 and change and saved almost $90 at the commissary!

I'm not ashamed of saving money. In fact, I rather enjoy it. I usually check this site every couple of weeks for new updates. Most of the time there is no limit to the number of coupons of a certain product you can order. (Unless it a really hot product) I already save between 30-40% just by shopping at the commissary. And when I coupon, depending on what I buy, I save another 22-28% off of that.

Granted, I have some pantry space available for me to use as well as a chest freezer. I tend to buy in bulk when something is already on sale and coupon it down.

Sometimes, though, the commissary's prices aren't the best. So the grocery store ads that you didn't look at when making your school supply list are going to be your friends now. Don't make special trips to out of the way grocery stores. If you're already running an errand and pass by a store that you know has a sale, stop in there, get the sale items, present your coupons and go on home. I keep a notebook with my coupons, a calculator, and the weekly fliers in the car "just in case".

Here's some grocery store shopping tips:

1. Get Organized. Don't wait until you get to the commissary/grocery store to decide what you're having for dinner for the week. Plan out a menu. Take suggestions from family members. Create a shopping list based on that menu and add other necessities. (bath tissue, laundry detergent, etc.) It takes me about 20-30 minutes per week to make a list and sort my coupons.

2. Don't Shop Hungry. This leads to impulse buying and you end up with more in your cart than you planned on. The commissary usually isn't like this, but other grocery stores are. That DANGED BAKERY right in the front of the store. You walk in, smell warm fresh bread and impulsively buy more.

3. Shop Smart. Check the sales fliers for the grocery stores that come out of the Sunday Paper. Look at those coupons too. On your shopping list, put a check next to the items that you have coupons for and pull those out. But go ahead and take your entire coupon book into the store in case you find an unadvertised sale as well.

4. GO ALONE. Same reasons as above plus a few others. Candy aisle. Cereal aisle. Ice cream aisle. Plus, kiddos are ALWAYS hungry.

5. Go Shopping. Take your calculator. Look at the unit price, not the items price (per ounce vs per box). The best deals aren't always in the larger packages. Look up and look down. Usually, the most expensive items in a category (pasta sauce for example) are at eye level. Less expensive items will be above or below that. There are certain things that my wife and I absolutely insist on having name brand stuff for. Other stuff, we don't care.

6. Now, you've taken your calculator for this very reason. When you apply a coupon to the shelf price of an item, it will change the unit price. Enter the shelf price, subtract the amount of the coupon, then divide by the number of units in the item. There's your new unit price. At this point, the larger item may now become the better value for your dollar.

7. This is very important. Just because you have a coupon doesn't mean you have to buy the item. Don't clip coupons you won't use. You can take the extra coupons you're not going to use and leave them at the front of the store if you like. Other shoppers will pick through them and take what they want.

Good luck and have fun shopping and saving money!

The Coupon Master

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Being a Deployed Military Wife

OK. So I'm not a wife. I'm a husband. But I assure you, the worries are the same, the responsibilities are the same, the stress is the same. I'm a full time student as well as a full time single parent of 3 great kids. But biggest and foremost, I'm a full time deployed spouse.

All of our dynamics (deployed spouses and families) are different, but our needs are basically the same. We want to be able to communicate with our spouse that is deployed, however it is possible. If we have kids, we want our spouse to be able to communicate with them also. We knew what we asked for when we signed up, but we're not afraid to take help when it's offered.

Your first stop, if you haven't already, is to go to the Family Readiness Center at your local base. They'll have a list of programs and benefits that you can utilize.

After that, go here. http://www.iraqwarveterans.org/free_for_troops.htm and see what all you can do for your family and for your deployed Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine.

Additionally, many states have extra benefits for families of deployed service members. Check your local state governments web page for details.

If you'd like to help out my family or my deployed spouse, e-mail me at drexxell@hotmail.com and I will send you the information you need. Put "I want to help" in the subject line. These same services can be applied to any deployed service member or their family as long as you know their address.

Also, don't forget to look into Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA)(Formerly Soldiers and Sailors Act). This is especially use full for guard and reserve members who have been activated as it relates to their debts incurred prior to being called to active duty (Credit cards, car loans, mortgage loans). Many times, credit card companies will follow the directions of the SCRA for active duty members who have been deployed. Call your credit card company and ask.

As for cell phones, check this out http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/06/military_cellphone_cancelcontracts_070628w/.
This was just passed in June of 2007. Deployed members can have their cell phone accounts put on "Military Suspense" for the duration of their deployment. That means no monthly service charges on their phones (which they can't use because they have no coverage). It doesn't effect phones you're still using at home. Basically, call your cell phone provider and see what they require to make this happen.

My many thanks go out to the organizations that donate their time, money, and effort to supporting our deployed troops and their families.

Special thanks and praise goes out to the deployed Service Members themselves and the families they've left behind. God's safety to you all and God's speed home.

If there's anything I can do for your family or for your deployed member, please let me know.

For spouses and their deployed members, just remember this "It's not worth getting into a pissing contest on who's got it worse." The situation sucks from both sides, but for different reasons. Remember that you love each other. Remember that you love your family. Remember that war has bad effects on people and don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it.

http://www.militaryonesource.com/skins/MOS/home.aspx will give you a lot of tips on how to cope. Additionally, they'll give you 8 sessions of personal or family counseling, no questions asked, all billed to TriCare.

Find the support groups. Get involved in your spouses group at your base. If one isn't active, make noise and help create one. Best of luck to you all.