Defense.gov News Article: DOD Releases Report on Estimated Sequestration Impacts: Overall, the report says, sequester-level cuts would result in a military that is too small to fully meet the requirements of its strategy, thereby significantly increasing national security risks both in the short- and long-term.
“As Secretary Hagel has said, under sequester-level budgets, we would be gambling that our military will not be required to respond to multiple major contingencies at the same time,” officials said in the release announcing the report.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Monday, October 21, 2013
'Back Country Voices' - Citizens Concerned About Drones
Back Country Citizens
Concerned About Drones
“Back Country Voices,” have joined to raise concerns about
the recent unanimous vote by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in
support of a proposal for testing drones over Southern California skies. “I don’t know what we can do,” said one
participant of the newly formed group, “but we have a lot of questions that
need to be answered.” The group came
together to discuss ideas and plans about educating themselves as well as the
public about how our environment, safety and privacy might be impacted by drone
testing in our skies overhead. “I’m very
concerned,” said another participant, “about drone technology pushing way ahead
of the groups that are writing the regulations for them. Parameters need to be put around their
usage. I believe it’s a slippery slope
going from military to domestic use.”
Northrop Grumman in
Rancho Bernardo, known for its Global Hawk drones and General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems in Poway, known for its Predator drones, are two of
the largest unmanned aerial vehicle makers, and have carved out a
booming local defense industry. The Army and Air Force have been using
aerial drones for several years as weapons of firepower and
surveillance.
With the anticipated increased commercial usage of drones, many fear our country is becoming ever-closer to a surveillance society.F.B.I. Director, Robert Mueller admitted
remotely operated aerial drones have been used in the United States for
surveillance and says the government needs to develop guidelines as the
use of drones increase. Anyone, in fact, can buy a personal drone with
limited range.
Privacy and safety seemed to be the predominant concerns of
the eclectic group, whose goal is to call for a public hearing on the matter. One member of the group claimed the
announcement concerning the Supervisors meeting came only a few days before the
announced proposal. “They mentioned in
the news that they’d presented it to the public and there was no comment, when
in fact, there was no venue to hear comments.
I take issue with that,” she said.
“Education is the answer,” said another person. “We don’t care about what we don’t know
about,” he said.
The group is putting together a panel of experts capable of addressing
these many concerns of drone usage in our back country, and hope to open
the topic up for discussion with our local supervisors as well. They
plan to hold a series of meetings in order to achieve the goal of
securing a public hearing, before the F.A.A. reveals the winners of the
test-site lottery in December.
Update -
Dates for public meeting/hearing:
Monday, Nov. 11th, 6:00 p.m. at the Julian Library
Wednesday, Dec. 4th, 6:30 p.m., at the Julian Town Hall
Informed citizens are truly the strength of a democracy.
borregojeannie@gmail.com
Concerned residents of San Diego County have joined
together to form a citizens action group, ‘Back Country Voices,’ which
will provide the necessary public outreach and education to better
address the ramifications of a ‘National Drone Testing Site’ in our back
country.
It was recently noted (September 24) in the UT San Diego, KPBS, and several news channels, that the 5 San Diego County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve San Diego back country as one of the proposed 6 national Drone Test Sites to be determined by the FAA in December, 2013.
It was recently noted (September 24) in the UT San Diego, KPBS, and several news channels, that the 5 San Diego County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve San Diego back country as one of the proposed 6 national Drone Test Sites to be determined by the FAA in December, 2013.
There have been no public forums, informational
hearings, nor has there been any opportunities for concerned citizens to
ask about the drone test sites. In fact, many area residents do not
even know that this proposal is being considered.
Back Country Voices has come together to fill this
gap by providing public meetings, tools, experts input and advocacy so
we can support and address our concerns.
Please join us and share your voice!
Resources:
States Vie for Test Sites As FAA Prepares U.S. Airspace … – lisaleaks
San Diego Sheriff’s Department fights to keep drone facts a secret …
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