Our picksRural veterinarian shortage; better disaster preparedness; cyberweapons, and more

Published 21 June 2018

  Shortage of rural veterinarians puts farmers, food supply at risk

  Congress needs to back legislation supporting disaster preparedness

  Here’s what Trump actually achieved with North Korea

  On the theft and reuse of advanced offensive cyber weapons

  Santa Rosa approves $447 million budget to spur fire recovery

  For National Guard, lava disaster presents real-world mission

  On the theft and reuse of advanced offensive cyber weapons

  Lawmakers urge Google to end partnership with China’s Huawei

Shortage of rural veterinarians puts farmers, food supply at risk (NPR)
Large-animal veterinarians inspect livestock before they can legally be sold for slaughter. If an illness spreads among a herd or flock, it’s Chandler’s responsibility to diagnose and report the problem to public health officials. Early detection is key to preventing devastating outbreaks, like the 2015 bird flu in the Midwest that led to the deaths of 50 million turkeys and chickens.

Congress needs to back legislation supporting disaster preparedness (Nicolette Louissaint, Stat)
While it is crucial that our emergency management and public health programs are fully funded, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act is about more than funding. It also lays the groundwork for executing our national preparedness and response strategy.

Here’s what Trump actually achieved with North Korea (Uri Friedman, Defense One)
It wasn’t what he said. But it was much more than nothing.

Santa Rosa approves $447 million budget to spur fire recovery (Kevin McCallum, The Press Democrat)
The city estimates it needs $111 million to repair all of the damage from the fire.

For National Guard, lava disaster presents real-world mission (Andrew Gomes, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
More than 200 Guardsmen have been assisting Hawaii County Civil Defense with jobs that include monitoring dangerous gas emissions from lava flows, manning security checkpoints, building emergency housing and conducting search-and-rescue missions.

On the theft and reuse of advanced offensive cyber weapons (Gil Baram, Defense One)
Last year, North Korea and Russia used a vulnerability stolen from the U.S. government to conduct the WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware attacks.

Lawmakers urge Google to end partnership with China’s Huawei (Howell O’Neill, Cyberscoop)

Five U.S. lawmakers urged Google CEO Sundar Pichai to end the company’s partnership with Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant that faces increasingly harsh criticism from Congress on national security grounds.