A new TV feature is available on the USDA FTP site. The new feature can also be seen on USDA's YouTube channel and downloaded as a video podcast. See below for details.

FTP Download instructions:

The host: ftp://ocbmtcmedia.download.akamai.com

User name: usdanews

Password:  Newscontent1

Filename:aviation fuel feature

The new file is in QuickTime Movie (H.264 ), MPEG 4, MPEG2 and HDV.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY3Zp1rr1DI&feature=channel_video_title

video podcast: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/usda-down-to-earth-video-podcast/id461819504?uo=4

RSS feed: http://downtoearth.usda.libsynpro.com/rss

Please email bob.ellison@usda.gov if you have problems or suggestions.

Also, use this free ftp client if you have problems.

http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type+client

FEATURE - BIOFUELS FOR COMMERCIAL AIRLINERS

INTRO: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is touting the goal of expanding the use of advanced biofuels to boost rural America. The U-S-D-A's Bob Ellison has more. (1:33)

MADE IN THE U-S-A BIOFUELS POWERING AMERICA'S COMMERCIAL AIRLINES. THAT'S ONE OF THE MESSAGES AGRICULTURE SECRETARY TOM VILSACK BROUGHT TO A COMMERCIAL AVIATION ALTERNATIVE FUELS INITIATIVE EVENT HELD IN WASHINGTON D-C.

Tom Vilsack, Agriculture Secretary: So it's important for us to celebrate the success we marked this year for Alaska Airlines and United Continental, utilizing biofuel in commercial flights for the first time. And we obviously want to expand on that.

BECAUSE EXPANDING THE USE OF BIOFUELS WILL, VILSACK SAYS, BOOST THE ECONOMY IN RURAL AMERICA.

Vilsack: And for us at USDA advanced biofuels connected to the aviation industry is as much about fuel as it is about jobs. The ability to create good jobs primarily, in our view, in rural communities.

VILSACK SAYS THOSE JOBS WILL BE AT NEW RURAL BIO-REFINARY PLANTS TURNING NON-FOOD BIOMASS MATERIAL INTO ADVANCED BIOFUELS.

Vilsack: The Department of Energy will help and assist the development and construction of a number of prototype, commercial sized bio-refineries. We anticipate and expect that they might be able to provide assistance to as many as four or five of these bio-refineries located throughout the United States.

RECENTLY IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT THE U-S NAVY PURCHASED FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND GALLONS OF ADVANCED BIOFUEL TO POWER SHIPS AND PLANES...THE SINGLE LARGEST EVER GOVERNMENT BIOFUEL PURCHASE. FOR THE U-S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, I'M BOB ELLISON.

Pilot Program Will Yield Public Sector Energy Savings;
Create More Than 100 Green Jobs

CHICAGO - November 16, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn today announced Illinois Energy Now grants to help more public sector entities - such as schools, parks and police - incorporate energy efficiency into their buildings and save money. Awarded through the Illinois Energy Now Public Sector Energy Efficiency Aggregation Program, the grants will provide an estimated $7.1 million in energy cost savings to public sector facilities, including schools, community colleges and local municipality buildings. The initiative will help create more than 100 green sector jobs.

"By improving energy efficiency in public facilities, we are making Illinois a greener place to live and work," Governor Quinn said. "This program will help save money on public facility energy costs and create green sector jobs to keep our economy growing."

The Illinois Energy Now program offers a portfolio of both electric and natural gas efficiency programs to achieve targeted annual energy savings goals. The program ensures that the state meets its annual energy savings targets in three sectors: units of local government, community colleges and K-12 schools. The state of Illinois works with the electric service territories of ComEd and Ameren Illinois, and gas service territories of Ameren Illinois, Nicor Gas, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas to ensure that the state meets its annual energy savings targets.

Grant recipients include the city of Chicago, the Illinois Green Economy Network (IGEN) Community College Partnership, and the Metropolitan Mayors Council. Each of these grantees is responsible for identifying projects eligible for public sector incentives, administering the applications and implementation, and reporting back project data and progress.

The County Commissioners Association was also awarded a $260,000 Illinois Energy Now grant to increase awareness of the energy efficiency incentives for public entities, with the goal of bringing in 60 projects that otherwise would not have had the technical resources to apply.

"Prior to the implementation of the Illinois Energy Now program, Illinois did not have a coordinated effort to achieve public sector energy reduction goals," DCEO director Warren Ribley said. "Through this program, we are helping to lower the energy bills of schools, parks and police stations, while creating green sector jobs."

The Illinois Energy Now program was created under the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard law, giving Illinois among the most ambitious energy efficiency standards in the nation. The initiative requires Illinois utilities to reduce overall electric usage by 0.2 percent of demand in 2008, escalating to 2.0 percent by 2015.

"Illinois' emphasis on energy efficiency is good policy and good for jobs because it puts our union brothers and sisters to work and provides public sector workers with more resources to make their communities better," said Michael T. Carrigan, President of the Illinois AFL-CIO.

As part of Governor Quinn's efforts to ensure greater energy efficiency and create more green industry jobs, the state's energy efficiency programs created more than 1,440 direct and indirect jobs in the green economy last year. The State Energy Office within the Illinois Department of Commerce of Economic Opportunity administers public sector and low income programs, while utility partners - ComEd, Ameren Illinois, Nicor, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas - administer residential and business energy efficiency programs. For more information on Illinois Energy Now programs, visit www.illinoisenergy.org.

Senators Ask Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission to Look Into Legality of Apps

WASHINGTON, D.C.?Today, U.S. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) led a bipartisan group of Senators in calling on key federal agencies for an investigation into mobile phone "stalking apps."  The apps are designed to allow domestic abusers and stalkers to secretly track a victim's movement and location, read a victim's email and text messages, or listen to a victim's phone calls?all without the victim's knowledge or consent.

Sens. Franken and Grassley wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice and urged the agencies to determine whether such apps are legal under current law. The letter was also signed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

"Stalking apps are dangerous," the Senators wrote in the letter. "We ask that you quickly determine if they are also illegal. If so, we ask that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission use their full force to investigate and prosecute those behind the development and marketing of these products for illegal stalking."

Stalking apps are directly marketed to individuals seeking to secretly track their spouses and intimate partners. "Worried about your spouse cheating?" one apps' website asked, offering the ability to "Track EVERY text, EVERY call and EVERY Move They make Using our EASY Cell Phone Spy Software." Other apps make similar claims, telling users that they can "track her movements throughout the day" or even "tap her actual phone call." According to 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics data, some 26,000 Americans are victims of GPS stalking annually, including by cell phone?although most advocates believe that number if considerably larger in 2011.

The letter cites an example of a victim from St. Louis County, Minnesota, who was tracked by her abuser through her smartphone during her trips to various county buildings to obtain an Order of Protection against him.  This example was drawn from testimony submitted by the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women and the National Network to End Domestic Violence to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, which Franken chairs.

You can read the full text of the letter below.

The Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Attorney General

Department of Justice

The Honorable Jon Liebowitz

Chairman

Federal Trade Commission

Dear Attorney General Holder and Chairman Liebowitz:

We are writing to express our urgent concern about the proliferation and use of so-called "stalking apps"?mobile apps for cell phones and smartphones that allow a domestic abuser or stalker to continuously and secretly monitor a victim's movements and whereabouts.  Based on 2006 data, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has estimated that more than 26,000 persons are victims of GPS stalking annually, including by cell phone.  Reports from advocates?and the boom in mobile technology?strongly suggest that this figure is much higher in 2011.  We ask that your agencies investigate whether the developers and distributors of stalking apps are in compliance with all applicable federal criminal and consumer protection laws.

In testimony submitted for a May 2011 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women and the National Network to End Domestic Violence recounted the disturbing experience of a Minnesota woman who was stalked through her smartphone:

In a recent case in Northern St. Louis County, MN, an advocate reported that a woman who entered the domestic violence program located within a county building received a text message from her abuser within five minutes of entering the building. The abuser asked why she was in the county building. The woman was extremely frightened and the advocate helped her obtain an Order for Protection (OFP) at the local courthouse. After filing the OFP, the woman received another text message asking why she went to the courthouse and if she was filing an OFP against him. The only device the woman had on her was her smart phone and they later concluded that her abuser was tracking her via a location tracking application or service on her phone.

This excerpt reflects just one example of numerous cases of stalking through mobile devices.

Stalking applications are widely available and simple to install, usually by a spouse or intimate partner.  Anyone who leaves their mobile phone alone for five minutes could have stalking software installed without their knowledge. See Ben Goldacre, "How I Stalked My Girlfriend," The Guardian (Jan. 31, 2006).  Once installed, stalking apps can allow an abuser to listen to his victim's phone calls, read her emails and text messages, and track her real-time GPS location?entirely without the victim's knowledge or consent.

These apps are openly marketed to individuals who are trying to stalk or "spy" on an unwitting victim.  "Worried about your spouse cheating?" one app's website asks.  "Track EVERY text, EVERY call and EVERY Move They make Using our EASY Cell Phone Spy Software." Another app brags that its software will "turn a mobile into a secret gps [sic] tracking device." Still another site advertises that it will allow a user to "[t]rack her movements throughout the day," "[k]now what number she is calling or receiving," and even "tap her actual phone call."

Location-based services (LBS) offer consumers numerous benefits.  They help users navigate commutes and avoid traffic, help locate lost or stolen wireless devices, and also help parents keep track of their families.  Indeed, most major wireless carriers offer their customers legitimate services that allow them to track the locations of the users of their calling plans?especially minor children.  While these services can be abused by individual customers, all major carriers take precautions pursuant to voluntary industry guidelines to notify a wireless user that he or she is being tracked through one of these services.

In contrast, stalking apps abuse and misuse LBS to affirmatively facilitate stalking.  Indeed, these apps are designed to run secretly on a victim's phone and are actually marketed to abusers as being "undetectable."  While many of these apps also advertise themselves as a mechanism for parents to keep tabs on their minor children, their design and marketing suggests that this is an attempt to legitimize an otherwise suspect activity.  We believe that in most cases, stalking apps' intrusion into victims' privacy and their potential for abuse will far outweigh any legitimate purpose that these apps may serve.

Stalking apps are dangerous.  We ask that you quickly determine if they are also illegal.  If so, we ask that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission use their full force to investigate and prosecute those behind the development and marketing of these products for illegal stalking.

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EPA Awards Almost $900,000 to University of Iowa Black Carbon Research

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded more than $6.6 million in grants to eight universities in support of black carbon research. Black carbon is the sooty black material emitted from diesel-powered engines and vehicles, industries like brick kilns and coke ovens, traditional cookstoves, and other sources that burn fossil fuels or biomass. Black carbon can affect the climate in the near term, and like other types of fine particles, can cause serious health effects such as cardiovascular and respiratory ailments. Unlike greenhouse gases, which remain in the atmosphere for decades or centuries, black carbon particles only stay in the atmosphere for days or weeks. Therefore, reducing black carbon emissions could have a positive effect on our climate quickly.

"This research on black carbon will provide valuable information about the impact of black carbon on climate change," says William Sanders, director of EPA's National Center for Environmental Research. "An increased understanding of the impact black carbon has on climate change will better protect people and the environment."

EPA's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program awarded nine grants to support research to study the role and effects of black carbon. The research will analyze the impacts of black carbon on air and water quality, investigate the behavior of black carbon aerosols in the atmosphere, and develop innovative tools such as computer models to look at black carbon deposits on snow. Black carbon deposited on snow and ice hastens melting by directly absorbing sunlight and by darkening the surface, which reduces the amount of light reflected back to space. The research also examines the aging of black carbon in the atmosphere.

Award recipients include the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Carnegie Mellon University; University of California, Irvine; University of California, Riverside; University of Iowa; University of Washington; University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Rutgers University.

More information on the black carbon research projects: www.epa.gov/ncer/blackcarbon

University of Iowa project team will receive $895,432 for their black carbon research project.

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