Despite big efforts, the US is still a major consumer of illegal elephant ivory

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Anti-poaching advocates have tried all manner of ways to get people to stop purchasing illegal animal products, from celebrity ads to staged, public destruction of ivory caches. In June 2015, the US government made a very public display of crushing a ton in front of thousands of onlookers in Times Square. Yet poachers are still finding a market for illegal ivory on American streets, thanks to the US’s confusing and hard-to-enforce poaching laws.

SF ivory

Long feature produced for America Abroad Media in July 2015, which is distributed by PRI.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-22/despite-big-efforts-us-still-major-consumer-illegal-elephant-ivory

Shrinking of Military Unprecedented, says Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Christine Fox

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After years of growth in defense spending following the attacks of 9/11, and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military’s budget is being cut back. Yet the question of whether and how to cut military spending remains hotly debated in Washington. Aging infrastructure, changing strategic needs, and rapidly rising personnel costs are all competing for the attention of budget planners at the Pentagon, in Congress, and at the White House.

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