Federal Daily - August 1, 2008

Army Slates Sexual Assault Prevention Training

The Army on July 30 announced it will be holding a training summit next month for personnel who manage the Army’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program. The sessions, scheduled for Sept. 8-12 in Alexandria, Va., are intended to help eliminate incidents of sexual assault in the service, said Secretary of the Army Pete Geren. The Army is finalizing a range of new programs focused on addressing negative social influences, increasing peer-to-peer bystander intervention, teaching soldiers how to stop assaults before they occur and aligning all prevention measures. The Army noted that it has built a service-wide victim-advocacy program, which includes professional sexual assault response coordinators at each installation. The advocacy program extends to deployed units through Deployable Sexual Assault Response Coordinators and Unit Victim Advocates. “The Army must continue to address sexual assault issues aggressively to maintain a mission-ready fighting force, with all members looking out for the welfare of their teammates,” Geren said. To see more, go to: www.army.mil/-newsreleases/2008/07/30/11345-army-announces-summit-to-map-path-ahead-for-sexual-assault-prevention-program.

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AFGE Charters New TSA Local

The American Federation of Governments Employees (AFGE) announced July 30 it had chartered another union local representing Transportation Security Officers (TSOs)—Local 615 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. AFGE now has 6,000 TSO members at airport locals across the country, the union said. AFGE has chartered 14 other Transportation Security Administration locals, including ones at Dulles International and Baltimore Washington International Airports. “The chartering of these locals represents a growing movement amongst TSOs to have a strong voice within the workplace,” said AFGE President John Gage. “While we will continue to fight for whistleblower protection and full collective bargaining rights for TSOs, we will do so while simultaneously building union structures at key airports as a way of giving these workers a powerful voice at the job site.” Outstanding issues of concern among TSOs include personnel system fairness, performance-based pay and promotion policies, and shift scheduling, the union said. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=877.

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Appeals Court Upholds Prison Terms for Border Agents

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on July 28 upheld prison sentences for two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed illegal immigrant at the Texas-Mexico border and lying about it. Former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were convicted in the 2005 shooting just north of the border near El Paso, Texas. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and Compean received 12 years. Both men claimed they shot at Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, an illegal immigrant and admitted drug smuggler, in self defense. However, the appeals court refused to overturn their convictions or vacate their sentences. The ex-agents could appeal to the Supreme Court or seek a presidential pardon, as some Republican lawmakers have urged. Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said he was outraged that the agents were treated so harshly by the justice system. “I am profoundly disappointed the 5th Circuit did not free former Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean,” Culberson said in a July 29 statement. “Their 11- and 12-year prison sentences are grotesquely unjust, and their continuing imprisonment symbolizes everything that is wrong with America’s broken borders.” To see more, go to: www.culberson.house.gov/news.aspx or read the court’s ruling at: www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/06/06-51489-CR0.wpd.pdf.

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