National News from Muncie Free Press

WASHINGTON, DC - Ray Mabus, former Mississippi governor and U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was sworn in May 19 as the 75th secretary of the Navy. Leading the Navy and Marine Corps, Mabus will be responsible for an annual budget in excess of $150 billion and almost 900,000 people.

The secretary of the Navy is responsible for conducting all the affairs of the Department of the Navy, including recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training and mobilizing. Additionally, he oversees the construction, outfitting and repair of naval ships, equipment and facilities and is responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and programs that are consistent with the national security policies and objectives established by the president and the secretary of defense.

Prior to joining the administration of President Barrack Obama, Mabus served in a variety of top posts in government and the private sector. In 1988, Mabus was elected governor of Mississippi where he stressed education and job creation. In 1994, he was appointed ambassador to Saudi Arabia, where during his tenure, the Kingdom officially abandoned the boycott of U.S. businesses that trade with Israel. Mabus also was chairman and chief executive officer of Foamex, a large manufacturing company, and also served as a Navy surface warfare officer aboard the cruiser USS Little Rock.

Mabus is a native of Ackerman, Miss., and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Mississippi, a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence participated in a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the State of Israel today in the U.S. Capitol.

Congressman Pence serves as Chairman of the House Republican Conference and is a Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman Pence previously served as Ranking Member on the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee. He last traveled to Israel in 2008.

PRINCETON, N.J. - The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has announced the recipients of its first-ever Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowships. The 59 new Fellows begin work this summer on master's degrees to prepare for math and science teaching positions in the state's high-need urban and rural schools.

The Woodrow Wilson Foundation selected Indiana in December 2007 as the first site for its new national fellowship for high school teachers. The program is intended to help overhaul teacher education and encourage exceptionally able teacher candidates to seek long-term careers teaching science, technology, and math (the STEM fields) in high-need classrooms.

"This is a very bold step by the State of Indiana which promises to have enormous impact on the number of math and science teachers in schools where the need is so high," said Arthur Levine, the president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, who led a multi-year study on needed improvements in teacher education. "And the quality of the applicant pool was excellent-better than we ever imagined. They are going to be an extraordinary group of new teachers for Indiana, and we are proud to count them among the Foundation's 20,000 distinguished Fellows. They're a harbinger of the future of teaching and the preparation of teachers in America."

Each Fellow receives a $30,000 stipend to complete a master's program at one of four selected Indiana universities-Ball State University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Purdue University, and the University of Indianapolis. Fellows are then placed in a high-need urban or rural school that has committed, along with the partner university, to provide ongoing mentoring. In turn, the Fellows agree to teach in Indiana for at least three years.

In the inaugural Fellows class, 97 percent majored in a STEM discipline while 27 percent hold advanced degrees. Eighty-five percent are either changing careers or returning to the workforce while the remaining 15 percent will graduate from their undergraduate institution this spring.

"Indiana's students are not learning nearly enough math and science to succeed in this world," said Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. "They need to be taught by people with true mastery of the subject matter, and in the Woodrow Wilson Fellows our kids will have America's best math and science teachers."

The announcement made today in Daniels' office at the Indiana State House follows more than a year of planning and development with the participating Indiana universities and their partnering school districts, as well as a rigorous seven-month application and selection process. The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment provided a grant of more than $10.1 million to support the program.

"Lilly Endowment is pleased the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation chose Indiana as the first site of this promising new approach to encourage additional talented individuals to become teachers. Indiana students who will have these fellows as teachers will undoubtedly benefit from their subject matter expertise in the STEM disciplines and their enthusiasm and creativity," said Sara B. Cobb, vice president for education at the Endowment.

The Fellows selected include current and recent college graduates, career changers, stay-at-home parents returning to the workforce, and retirees. (Editor: See attached profiles of Fellows for follow-up stories.) The program attracted more than 300 applicants from around Indiana, as well as former Hoosiers and residents of neighboring states.

All finalists were screened by a group of Indiana-based selectors, who observed sample teaching and conducted personal interviews with the candidates, as well as reviewing applications and writing samples. The selectors who led this rigorous process were:

• Carol Chen, former head of the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers, Inc. and a 28-year veteran of high school chemistry and physical science teaching;
• Don Meissner, a 33-year veteran of teaching biology who has mentored teacher candidates and conducted education research; and
• Beth Marchant, a career-changing engineer who taught high school physics and now staffs QuarkNet, an online physics resource for teachers and students nationwide.

"These are among the best teacher candidates I've ever seen," said Constance K. Bond. Dr. Bond, a senior program officer at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and former coordinator of education policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, has taught secondary school, overseen West Coast operations for Teach for America, and directed New York's New Teacher Residency Program at Mercy College. "I am enormously impressed with the quality of Indiana's candidates for this Fellowship, and with their genuine enthusiasm for making a difference in students' lives."

The Indiana Fellowship is part of a national Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship initiative. With Indiana leading the way, the program will expand into other states in the coming years, ideally reaching all 50 states. The Teaching Fellowship has the following four goals:

§  Transform teacher education-not just for Fellows but for the universities that prepare them, other teacher candidates in the same programs, and the high-need schools where they are placed as teachers;

§  Get strong teachers into high-need schools. Indiana has chosen to focus on attracting math and science teachers, though other states may choose different subject areas;

§  Attract the very best candidates to teaching through a fellowship with a well-known name and high visibility, similar to a National Merit Scholarship; and

§  Cut teacher attrition and retain top teachers through intensive clinical preparation and ongoing in-school mentoring, provided by veteran teachers and supported by able principals.

The next round of applications in Indiana is expected to open in summer 2009.

Staff Report
 
CYBERSPACE - While there are a lot of dating sites on the Internet that charge for membership, free dating sites are becoming more and more common. With the ease of using a website to meet other people interested in hooking up in real life or online, are more people straying from committed relationships? Do free dating sites just add to the problem of divorce? These are questions that come with the rise in free dating sites.
 
With so many struggling in the current economy, free online dating sites are becoming more popular all the time. One of the largest free dating websites (PlentyOfFish.com) boasts that they receive over a billion pageviews a month. As you might imagine, that's quite a lot of money even if the website is making only pennies per page view. The question, though, is whether PlentyOfFish and other free dating sites should have a responsibility (either morally or legally) to help protect people that use their websites to find and meet people in the real world.
 
The Gun or the Shooter?
 
Should free dating sites like PlentyOfFish be compared to a gun - only bad when they're misused by people? To take that analogy further, you could ask yourself what type of gun it would be. For instance, is it a gun with a safety (a site which checks registrations and ties people - via credit cards - to accounts) or is it one without a safety that could "go off" at any moment? Is it an automatic (can people sign up for more than one account?) or semi-automatic (there are limits to the number of accounts people can make.)
 
There are a lot of questions surrounding free online dating and whether or not they're simply a tool capable of being misused or if they're something that's contributing to the breakdown of American relationships. The truth most likely lies somewhere in between the two.
 
In the future, it may be important for free online dating sites to help verify members and hold them accountable for trying to ruin people's lives. For the present, though, more and more people are jumping online to use free social sites like PlentyofFish to find people to meet in the real world. With that in mind, here are some tips for online dating.
 
Ethics of Online Dating
 
While it's pure speculation to say whether or not sites like Plenty of Fish contribute more to good or evil, people like Founder and Chief Executive Markus Frind are growing richer by the minute by creating tools that allow people to "hook-up" very easily. Should there be accountability for websites that offer this type service?
 
With stories like the recent Craigslist murder hitting the airwaves and the Internet, people should strive to be even more cautious with their personal information online. One of the best things you can do to protect yourself is to only give out information to people you trust. How to build up that trust? Here are a few good ideas to follow:
 

• First Steps First - All communication should be kept online at first. Through the website's means of communication will most likely be your first means of contact. This first impression will tell you a lot.
   
• Email - After you've made first contact and have decided if you want to pursue anything with the person, you should exchange email addresses. Be sure to use one that doesn't identify you personally.
   
• Phone - After email goes well for a while, it's natural to progress to phone conversations if both parties are agreeable. You should remember that this is very personal information, though, and should only be given out to people you think you can trust.
   
• Public Meeting - After phone conversations go well for a while, meeting in a public place is the recommended next step.
   
• And then? - After that, it's pretty much up to the consenting adults. That said, if you're married or are in another relationship, you should make the other person aware of this. This could be a deal breaker for them if you are. Honesty is the best policy.

 
As you can see, there should be a natural progression when you're meeting someone online. If someone tries to jump from step 1 to step 5, there might be a potential problem in the future. Is PlentyofFish good or evil by providing a free service that has the potential to be misused? The answer may be different for all of us. Does it come down to whether the website is considered a "hook-up" site or a legitimate online dating or matchmaking site? What are the exact definitions for those two types of sites?
 
As you can see, even the hint of answers leads to more questions. As more and more answers to these questions are found, it will be interesting to see if any laws are put onto the books to control and protect people who use free online dating services to hook-up or try to meet their soul mate. Until then, it's best to approach any site on the Internet with your guard up and your eyes open, releasing personal information slowly and carefully, especially on free dating websites.
 

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

CAIRO, EGYPT – Disease knows no borders, and the men and women of the U.S. Naval Research Unit No. 3 here know that better than anyone. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the joint-service unit today and received briefings on how it operates and what threats the doctors, microbiologists and entomologists track each day. With similar units in Djakarta, Indonesia, and Lima, Peru, the unit tracks infections, disease vectors and the scope of outbreaks.

The units work with host nations and other nations in their regions to build medical capacity.

Cholera, other diarrheal diseases, HIV, avian influenza, Rift Valley fever, e-bola, leishmaniasis are among the diseases tracks, and the list goes on. Afghanistan even has diseases no one has ever heard of, because few researchers were allowed into the country in the past, Navy Lt. (Dr.) Jamal Dejli, a microbiologist at the unit, said.

From a military perspective, the unit works to ensure U.S. troops worldwide have good medical force protection. With airline travel as prevalent as it is today, the dengue fever that was a problem in Ethiopia today could be causing havoc at Fort Bragg, N.C., tomorrow.

The unit – working with partners in Egypt, other nations, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control – are part of the tripwire to chart diseases, develop vaccines and respond to any outbreaks.

"This is a really important unit and a really important mission," Mullen told the American and Egyptian workers at the unit. The chairman thanked them for their work and told them that he is proud of the work they do for America and the world.

Working alongside 152 Egyptian scientists and 97 contractors, 22 Navy and Army personnel and 11 career civilians work at the unit here. The unit has excellent rapport with Egypt's Ministry of Public Health and with countries running from Central Asia throughout Africa. "Our medical staff went on 1,200 temporary duty assignments last year," Navy Capt. (Dr.) Kenneth Earhart, the unit commander, said.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tours Naval Medical Research Unit 3 in Cairo, April 21, 2009. The unit was founded to battle a typhus outbreak during World War II and now is on the front line in detecting diseases in developing countries and aiding those countries in strengthening the public health care systems where they operate. DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley   (

Earhart told the chairman that the unit has had a shift in the way it operates over the past few years. It previously had concentrated on pure medical research, but now the U.S. and Egyptian specialists are spending as much time building capacity in neighboring countries as they do on research, he said.

"They are interested in the same things we are: building the capacity to improve public health, track diseases and respond to outbreaks," Earhart said. "We do a lot of training and capacity building from Kazakhstan to West Africa."

When there is a disease outbreak, unit medics can go to the area and conduct field studies, or local governments can send samples to the unit for analysis and advice. The unit has reference laboratory services that researchers across the region can use.

The unit began in 1942 as part of the effort to address the problem of typhus among allied troops in North Africa. It was effective, and after the war, the Navy established the unit and expanded its responsibilities. It is a unit dedicated to the health of all. No one goes into a country unasked, and conclusions and research are shared with all qualified public health professionals.

When there was a break in U.S.-Egyptian relations after Egypt's Six-Day War with Israel in 1967, all Americans were required to leave Egypt. The Egyptian staff maintained the unit's capability. Soon, the Egyptian government made an exception and allowed the unit's commanding officer to return. He was virtually alone until relations thawed in 1974.

The unit has plenty to do. Workers are developing an integrated communicable disease surveillance database, working with countries of the region to publish a disease surveillance bulletin, and are looking for antibiotic resistance for diarrheas and for drug-resistant tuberculosis.

By Air Force Maj. Keith Moore
Special to American Forces Press Service

DIERKS, AR – A team of five Arkansas Air National Guard airmen from the 188th Civil Engineering Squadron restored clean water yesterday to this small southwestern Arkansas community following an April 9 tornado that destroyed the town's water treatment plant.

Two reverse-osmosis water purification units were used to filter water from any surface source for use as drinking water. The systems can move about 1,200 gallons per hour to support the daily needs of the community's 1,230 residents.

"On a normal day [before the storm], our system would provide 350 gallons per minute," said Jeremy Stone, the Dierks city engineer. "The Guard's system doesn't move water at that rate, but we have been using only bottled water since the storm, so this will at least restore normal flow and pressure to our town."

Dierks Mayor Terry Mounts praised the professionalism and efficiency of the Guardsmen. "They got here and set right to work," he said. "They said it would be several hours to get set up and start filtering water, but they got water moving and tested in just under one hour. The city of Dierks is just glad the Arkansas Air Guard has this capability to support our residents."

Stone said the tornado destroyed the second-floor control center of the town's water treatment facility, removing its chlorination system and leaving it without electricity to power the pumps, which bring water to nearby Lake Dierks.

Air Force Master Sgt. Kevin Rice, a utilities systems management specialist with the 188th CES, said the team practices using the reverse-osmosis system to support its regional training site at its Fort Smith, Ark., base, but this is the first time the units had been deployed to support a civilian community.

"We've utilized these units overseas, and we use them in practice to support our `bare base' training at home station, but this really makes us feel good when we can utilize the equipment to support a local community," Rice said.

Mounts said the city is requesting aid from state and federal agencies to help get the main plant back on line as quickly as possible, but had no idea how long the Guard may be needed to support the town with clean water.

(Air Force Maj. Keith Moore serves with the Arkansas National Guard.)

Closure to begin Monday through the end of the month

NEWBURGH, IN - The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is announcing that on Monday, April 20, Lincoln Avenue on the north side of State Road 66 (S.R. 66) will close.  As work continues on the Major Moves project in Newburgh, crews will need to close Lincoln Avenue.

This closure will allow crews to reconstruct the Lincoln Avenue approach with S.R. 66.  Crews will begin work at approximately 7:00 a.m. and the roadway will remain closed through the end of April 2009.  Inclement weather may postpone the scheduled opening date.

This work is in conjunction with the Major Moves added travel lanes project through the Town of Newburgh.  Contractor's crews will construct four new lanes, left turn lanes at major intersections and place new curb and gutter.  A new storm water drainage system will also be installed throughout the project.  Work began on this project in April of 2008 and the project is scheduled for completion in December of 2009.

Major Moves fully funds a decade of critical highway projects in Indiana.  When Major Moves is complete in 2015, more than 200 new construction and 200 major highway preservation projects will have been built.  Major Moves capitalizes on Indiana's strategic location at the Crossroads of America by building a superior road infrastructure.  This innovative plan will bring jobs to the Hoosier State and leave a legacy for Indiana to be a global leader in distribution and logistics.
 
INDOT encourages motorists to slow down and pay special attention while traveling through the work zones throughout Indiana.  This construction project has a reduced speed limit and is being monitored by the Indiana State Police.

Source: INDOT

Popular Website Includes Latest CEO Pay Data; Bailout Bonuses

WASHINGTON, DC - Retention bonuses.  Golden coffins. Turbo-charged pension plans.   Hefty severance packages.  Lavish
“executive physicals.”  These are some of the outrageous CEO pay practices highlighted in the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Executive PayWatch website launched today at www.paywatch.org.  

Despite the worst economic slump in decades, companies continue to heap millions of dollars in pay, bonuses and perquisites on CEO for poor performance, according to the latest data for 2008. The 2009 PayWatch site highlights 10 of these worst CEO pay practices through case studies and includes a comprehensive database of new CEO pay figures.

“Americans are rightly angered by CEOs who haven’t learned their lesson,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka.  “After driving the economy into the ground and gambling with the nation’s retirement savings, these same corporations are giving out huge bonuses for bad behavior.”

The 2009 PayWatch includes a new section on pay practices at companies which received taxpayer assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The new PayWatch also includes companies which are actively lobbying against workers’ ability to form unions and bargain collectively for fair pay and benefits.

Corporations and pay practices featured in the 2009 Executive PayWatch are:

‘Super-Sized’ Stock Options: SunTrust (STI) received $4.9 billion from the TARP bailout fund and wants shareholders to approve a mega-grant of $7.7 million in stock options for James Wells, its chairman and chief executive officer, even as investors have lost billions of dollars.

Pay for Failure: Bank of America Corp’s (BAC) board of directors subscribes to a philosophy that rewards executives regardless of
performance.  Experts say this practice encouraged CEO Ken Lewis to make risky acquisitions of troubled financial companies such as Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial.

Retention Bonuses: American International Group A.I.G. (AIG) has been kept afloat by more than $170 billion in federal assistance since September 2008 – about $1,500 for every household in the nation.  But the New York-based giant insurer that nearly brought down the global financial system paid out more than $500 million in salaries and bonuses to hundreds of senior employees even as it was being bailed out by the government.

Executive Physicals: Employees of Wal-Mart (WMT), the world’s largest retailer, have a strong incentive to stay healthy.  Only 48% are enrolled in Wal-Mart’s health care plan for its employees, according to an internal company memo, and 46% of Wal-Mart employees’ children are either on Medicaid or uninsured.  To put that in perspective, 11% of children in America were uninsured in the U.S in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  

Meanwhile, the CEO and top executives receive an annual “senior executive physical” examination paid for by the company. While Wal-Mart doesn’t list the exact cost of the executive physical it is listed as part of the $431,446 received by former CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. under the category of “all other compensation.”

Moving the Performance Goalposts: Toll Brothers (TOL), the nation’s largest luxury home-builder, benefited from the housing bubble. As the housing market cratered in 2007 and it became clear that Robert Toll, the founding chairman and chief executive officer, would not qualify for a bonus under the existing plan, the company decided to move the performance goalposts.  

Instead of linking Toll’s bonus to the company’s net income, the new plan is tied to a percentage of the company’s income before taxes and bonus, revenues of at least $1.5 billion, and several squishy factors such as “management enhancement and efficiencies, and financial market visibility and access.”

Job Security for the CEO, insecurity for workers: FedEx Corp.’s (FDX) Frederick Smith, the chairman, president and chief executive officer, receives a generous salary, assurance of a severance if the company gets bought, perks and a traditional pension. Yet FedEx has a double standard for its workers. FedEx Ground classifies drivers as independent contractors so it doesn’t have to provide them with basic benefits, such as overtime pay or expense reimbursements.

FedEx Ground drivers also are required to pay for their own delivery trucks, as well as for the insurance, repairs, gas and tires they need to do their jobs. By arguing that the drivers are independent contractors, not employees, FedEx maintains they can’t unionize. FedEx even opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would ensure all workers can have thefreedom to form unions to bargain for fair pay and better benefits.

Lavish Perquisites: While most working Americans struggle to file their federal tax returns by April 15, that’s one thing Ray Irani, chief of Occidental Petroleum (OXY), doesn’t need to worry about. In 2008, the company provided Irani with more than $400,000 in tax preparation and financial planning services.  That’s nearly eight times the $50,233 median U.S. household income in 2007, and more than the $400,000 salary of the President of the United States.

‘Golden Coffin’ Death Benefits: Americans have lost nearly one-fifth of their household wealth in the past year, leaving many wondering about the legacy they will leave their children.  But James Bernhard’s heirs are well taken care of.  When the founding chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Shaw Group (SGR) dies, the Baton Rouge, La. construction giant will pay more than $40 million to his heirs through “golden coffin” benefits, including pay, stock awards, life insurance and health benefits.

‘Golden Parachute’ Severance Benefits: Workers laid off by companies in these tough economic times are lucky if they receive more than their last paycheck and their legal right to extend healthcare benefits, but chief executive officers at many of America’s largest companies often receive a “golden parachute,” or a generous severance package, when they depart.  Richard L. Bond, president and top executive of Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) until January 5, stood to collect more than $14 million in severance.

Turbo-charged Pension Plan: Deere & Co. (DE) workers and pensioners have good reason to fret over their retirement.  Deere expects to earn 8.3% on its pension plan investments in fiscal 2009, but the stock market decline makes that highly unlikely, jeopardizing the company’s $683 million pension surplus. Overall, the nation’s pension funds lost roughly $1 trillion in assets by last summer alone.

But CEO Robert Lane’s retirement income is secure: the value of his total pension benefits increased $5.5 million in fiscal 2008 to $22.5 million - or about $1.6 million annually. Lane and other senior executives participate in not one, but three different pension plans.

The AFL-CIO launched Executive PayWatch in 1997 to draw attention to runaway CEO pay packages and the widening gap between the compensation of corporate chieftains and workers.  In 1980, CEOs of large U.S. companies made 42 times the wages of the average worker; by 2006 the gap had widened to more than 364 times.

The AFL-CIO represents 11 million workers in 56 unions nationwide and works to advance the interests of America’s working families.

By Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg
Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, DC – A Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences faculty member discussed Autism Awareness Month and the importance of early, proper diagnosis and treatment of children.

"Parents should feel confidence in raising questions about whether their child has autism," Dr. Janice Hanson told "Dot Mil Docs" listeners during an April 9 webcast on Pentagon Web Radio. "They are often the first ones to raise concerns and to raise them in a way that a pediatrician can sort out whether to be concerned, how concerned to be, and what to do about it next."

According to Autism Speaks, a science and advocacy organization dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism, early intervention is critical to gain maximum benefit from existing therapies. While there are no effective means to prevent autism, no fully effective treatments, and no cure, current research suggests that early educational intervention for at least two years during the preschool years can result in significant improvements for many children with autism-spectrum disorders.

Hanson said children can be diagnosed with autism by age 3, but parents might notice changes in a child as young as 6 months. Three categories of characteristics describe a child with autism, she said.

"Before complete diagnosis of autism, a child would show some symptoms in … [each of] three areas: communication, social interaction, and stereotypical behavior," Hanson explained. The three categories that go along with a diagnosis of autism include delayed speech or language; differences in social interaction, such as avoiding eye contact or misunderstanding social cues; and stereotypical behaviors such as playing with toys with a ritual behavior or rocking over and over again.

"Autism is a disorder of communication and social interaction," the doctor said. "There is a range of disorders actually that fall within a spectrum that we call pervasive developmental disorders. The range goes from classic autism, with a fairly significant difference in communication and social interaction, to Asperger's Syndrome, which is more mild and sometimes more difficult to diagnose.

"Also included in the spectrum is a group of children that don't exactly fit the criteria, but have many of the characteristics," she continued, "and they are called children with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified."

Hanson said the number of children diagnosed is hard to pin down with current data.

"That is actually a subject of debate and research as we speak," she said. "I just read a study that summarized 43 studies in the literature from the last several decades, trying to pin down what that number might be, so what we have is a range of numbers. The greatest number would be about one child out of 150, and this would be the most broad use of the diagnostic categories, which would include children with autistic diagnoses all along that spectrum from the most severe to the most mild."

Hanson said whether the number of diagnoses is increasing is another controversial subject.

"There has been a lot of controversy for the past 10 to 15 years about whether the incidence of autism is increasing, and if so why," she said. "Some people think yes, it is definitely increasing. Others think we have improved our ability to identify these children and we've changed our criteria to include broader numbers."

The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is working toward educating and training physicians and nurses to accurately diagnosis autism early.

"We have a medical school and a graduate school of nursing that educates and trains physicians and nurse practitioners to work in the military health system, and that is where I am on the faculty," Hanson said. "We do an intense, focused job of providing education for these students, not only about autism, how to diagnosis, and what to watch for, but also about the military environment and the special challenges for military families.

"We are trying very hard to send new doctors into our military health system with a strong awareness of when to refer, where to refer and how to get a child accurate diagnosis and effective interaction," she added.

(Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg serves in the Defense Media Activity's Emerging Media directorate.)

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. is on track to meet the terms of a timeline of withdrawal from Iraq, the top American commander in Iraq said on Sunday, April 12, 2009.

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said he believes the U.S. is prepared to fulfill a deal requiring U.S. forces to leave major Iraqi cities by June 30 and all combat troops to depart the country by the end of 2011.

"We continue to work with the government of Iraq so they can meet that timeline so that they are able to maintain stability after we leave," he said. "I still believe we're on track with that."

The so-called status of forces agreement brokered by Washington and Baghdad took effect Jan. 1, 2009, and placed broad operational authority under Iraqi control.

Odierno said the U.S. and Iraqi government continue to assess the security situation as the June 30 deadline approaches. He added that his recommendation for force levels would be based on the situation on the ground.

"If we believe we'll need troops to maintain a presence in some of the cities, we'll recommend that," he said. "But ultimately it'll be the decision of (Iraqi) Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki."

Speaking about overall security conditions in Iraq, the general said violence remains at lows that existed in 2003, before the insurgency became prominent. But a suicide bombing that killed five U.S. forces last week underscores the continued capability of enemy forces, he said.

"What I see is there are some cells out there that are still capable of conducting suicide attacks," he said. "But this is not a significant increase or an overall lack in security."

Asked about the possibility that a portion of the insurgency is laying in wait to reemerge after the U.S. withdrawal, Odierno said, "There's always that potential."

The general said many enemy fighters have been driven towards Mosul, near the Syrian border, and Baqubah, near border with Iran.

"We now are working very hard with the Iraqi security forces to finish off this last group of individuals who are still able to conduct some of these attacks," he said.

Odierno added that the U.S. has been able to significantly reduce the number of foreign fighters coming across the Syrian border, and that Iran's influence in Iraq has tapered somewhat. But he acknowledged reports of Iran training, funding and providing weapons to the insurgency in attempts to affect Iraqi stability.

As the first withdrawal deadline nears, Odierno expressed confidence that Iraqi security forces will be able to shoulder more of the security responsibilities.

"What we're trying to do is set the conditions for Iraq to take over and be able to secure themselves," he said.

Odierno said the national forces of Iraq, which now has a 250,000-strong army and a 400,000-member police force, have "matured significantly" and continue to improve.

"The issue is can the Iraqis maintain security? And that's what we're working through now," he said. "We want them to be able to maintain this stability as we pull out. I believe we're on track to do that."