Hi, everyone. Joe for Jaspy's casebreaks.com. We did it. We knocked out that last pack right there to knock out Jumbo, pick your team, nine. Big thanks to this group for rallying around this break, for making it happen. I appreciate it. All teams are in. So we're gonna do the pack break first and we'll re-randomize everybody's names, give away some teams in the next break. One and two, three times for names and teams. One, two, and three. Three, let's gather everybody's names here. This is just for the Jumbo pack break. That will be a different dice roll. One and two, three times for the teams. Two and three. Let's gather everybody's names, or everyone's teams right there. Put them into this list. Different dice roll for the giveaway part as always. Here's the first half of the list right there. And the second half of the list right over here. No trade windows. Let's just print and rip. Got a Spencer Jones paper.   All right, let's flip back over here. Let's gather everybody's names once again. One through 30. And we'll match up with the teams. It'll be the top 10 with the team. Top 10 after four. Three and a one, four times. One, two, three, and four. So after four, so from 11 through 30, we can see already sad times. Nicole, saddest of all, very close, but no cigar on the team. Appreciate you and everybody else trying. Top 10, you're happy because you're in the next break. In the next video, Simon is happy. So is Jeremy. Jeremy again, Brandon, last spot, Mojo, Jason, Rick, Jason, Nicole is in and Jose. Congrats to the top 10. We'll see you in the next video for the break itself. Jasper'scasebreaks.com, bye-bye.


Thank you for joining me on Think Tech Hawaii. I am Shayna Park, your host for Money Talks. My guest is Nieva Sumer. She is a senior marketing director with World System Builder. Welcome to the show, Nieva. Hello, hi everybody. Thank you for having me and giving us this opportunity to have a good time with you guys, hopefully. Thank you for being on and for those or for everyone who doesn't know you, please tell me more about yourself. All right, so prior to joining World System Builder, I actually had three jobs, Shayna. I worked for a local high school here for 17 years as a part-time ELL teacher. So I helped new immigrants in our high schools and I was also associate for our wireless industry for a little over nine years. On top of that, I was also a certified court interpreter of the State of Hawaii Court. I'm also married for more than 25 years. I have two beautiful children and I have two grandkids now. My youngest grandson just turned, he's gonna be three months this month. Yes. You just look so hip and fantastic. But it seems like you had a lot of hats. You did many different things. So what got you started in finances and how did you start Maui Financial Center? So actually, I rejoined the company in 2020 during the pandemic. We were on lockdown and so many people. I didn't know where my next paycheck is gonna come back. I didn't wanna depend on the unemployment checks that we were receiving at the time. So I figured find another side hustle, right? So I find an extra income so that I can support our growing family. And during the pandemic, one of my mom's good friend at the Delma from Hawaii reached out to me through Facebook and she didn't really mention anything about the business. She just said, hey, add income and learn about our workshops. We're not doing anything anyway. There's no schools. I said, okay. And then so when I joined the workshops and Zoom, of course, I was thinking, oh wow, I don't know anything about finances at all. And actually before my three jobs, I actually worked for the banking industry for seven years. And I said, oh my goodness, the things that I talk about in the workshop, I've never learned any of that when I was working for the bank. So I said, okay. So what else is there in this company? And then she went on to say, actually, this is also a business opportunity for you. And without knowing that I was actually licensed, life producer licensed already before she reached out to me. So she presented the compensation plan and whatnot. And I said, wow, I can actually learn for myself and then share what I learned. And I can earn extra income on my time and help others as well. And when I joined the business way back in two years ago, I just wanted to earn extra $1,000 so that I can replace one of my jobs. Because I've always worked three jobs, even when my kids were growing up. So I kind of missed out most of their childhood. And I think that's the cycle of families here where we each have two, three jobs so that we can raise our kids, right? But two and a half years later, man, I'm here. We opened the Maui Financial Center. And of course, with the help of our mentor, Piviro Sugitan, and of course, Steven Lee. And two months ago, I stepped away from my three jobs, Shayna. So I'm just so grateful to be a part of this company. You just have such an amazing success story, Neva. And I mean, for most of us who do live in Hawaii, it's not common that we have one full-time job. A lot of people have multiple full-time jobs. And to hear you say that you only started up in the pandemic, which is 2020, and to see where you're at now, it just proves that, you know, whatever you put your mind to, you can achieve.  Whatever we, you know, learn through our jobs or sometimes during school, it's not the entire picture of finances. And I think it's your great example of, you know, putting yourself out there to learn firsthand of what you need to know to provide for your family. Yes, I agree, I totally agree, Shayna. So with the Maui Financial Center, I know you have a lot of, you know, business associates over there. And you're born and raised there or you grew up most of your life there, right? I was actually born and raised from the Philippines.  I was originally from Hawaii. So my husband is the one from Maui, but we've been here since 2003. So pretty much, yeah. Well, most of my children spent most of their lives here in Maui, yeah. I see, and, you know, with what's going on in Maui right now, and I'm sure everyone has heard about the tragedy that happened, you know, did any of your family, friends, business associates get affected by the fire? Yeah, actually, Shayna, with our Maui Financial Center is growing. We have a lot of teammates. And unfortunately, 11 of our teammates actually lost their homes in Lahaina. And many, many, many friends and families, immediate families and close friends lost their homes.  So it's just so heartbroken. I was just so heartbroken. What's happening with my... My heart is so broken because we, you know, work alongside with each other too. So when we all heard the news of what's going on in Maui, we couldn't help, or I couldn't help but think about you folks. And, you know, I would love for you to share more in detail of, you know, what's going on with your business associates, your friends that have been affected. Yeah, so when we, actually, and that just the night when, you know, the fire was going on in Lahaina, we were not even aware. You know, we have a full house here at our financial center. We were having a BPM for our RSA, you know, on how to optimize our social security benefits. And then we just hear sirens and our phones were going off, you know, from friends and family because there were three fires going on at the same time, you know, in Lahaina, Kihei and Pukalani.   And, you know, there were eight guests that actually didn't make it.  But then later on when we see, you know, on our social media and whatnot, we were just so speechless.  It's like, oh my God, and it just happened so fast. So the next day after the fire, I know one of our associates, she's a veteran, Sharon, immediately went to volunteer at the biggest shelter here near our office, which is the Maui War Memorial Gymnasium. And from there, you know, we saw a lot of displaced families who were in this strut.  And, you know, in the next couple of days, our teammates went to volunteer. Actually, we were asked, our office were asked by a few of our National Guard friends and first responders to go and interpret for our Filipino families who were housed in the War Memorial. And from those listening to their stories, men, like I said, Shayna, no words can express what they went through. So a few of the stories was, you know, an elderly couple. They were already maybe even older than my mom and my dad, you know. They're like close to 70s. And they were in the water for six hours before they could even be rescued. They had to jump out of their car to escape the fire. And Nana said, you know, every time the wave would come, you know, they were holding on, she was holding onto the rocks and they were slippery and she would be swept back into the ocean. And her children would swim back for her so that they could bring her back and hang onto the rocks again. And at one point, you know, six hours is a long time for someone so old, right? So hanging there, you know, they're hungry, they're calm. And at one point she said, and actually she said many times she told her children to just let her go, just save their energy. She's old enough, she lived her life and to just save their selves. But of course her children, you know, wanted her to stay because they said, mom, we need you, we still need you. So yeah, so that's one of the stories that I heard. And of course, Julius, he moved here from Colorado four months ago because he couldn't handle the temperature in Colorado. And but he's by himself, he has no family and he suffered burns. He I think even broke his leg because he jumped out of the house just to escape the fire. He couldn't go through the front door. And, you know, he didn't have any phones. He lost everything pretty much Shayna.  He said, like, I'm just so grateful that I'm happy. You guys donated to someone who needed more. And it's just so, I don't know, it's just so uplifting that with someone who lost everything and is just so grateful and still positive and just his faith with God, he was just so grateful. And then of course, my cousin, two of my husband's aunties, they are my mother-in-law's sisters. They lost their home. And my cousin's husband was actually working during the fire and he tried to go to my family. Now my auntie and my uncle are both using a walker. And then my cousin is in a wheelchair. And of course my niece, she has only 10, you know, so she didn't know what to do. So what my cousin did is he just left his car in the middle of the highway because he was stuck in traffic and he ran. And he said he didn't even know how did he get to his house or how fast he run because it was uphill, right? He was coming from Hyatt Hotel. And he said, I didn't know how fast I was running or how did I get to our house? I just needed to get to the house and save, you know, your mana and my auntie and uncle and my niece.  But yeah, it's just so, you know, sorrowful and it's just so hard, we were just so heartbroken, Shayna. But yeah, when, yeah. Sorry. All the stories that you just had shared right now, I mean, many different perspectives, but a lot of loss is what I hear. And, you know, with the second guy that you mentioned from coming from Colorado, it just puts a really different perspective, right? Of being grateful for life. And sometimes you lose track of just the simple things and hearing that message really just gave me chicken skin because, I mean, every day is a blessing to be alive and breathing and being able to see the sunrise, right? And, you know, I'm very grateful and happy to hear that, you know, although your family has lost their home, that they're all okay as well.  Yeah, so we're just so grateful, Shayna, that even if we had 11 teammates that, you know, lost their homes and many, many friends and families lost their homes, that no one was hurt, you know, no one got hurt in the fire. Although right now, I know as of today, there's over a hundred that's been confirmed dead and 850 are still unaccounted for or missing.  As for at the moment, a lot of families are still, a lot of the displaced families are still staying at many hotels and our convention centers and whatnot. But, you know, we're just overwhelmed with, you know, everyone all over the world, including our, you know, Ohana and Kauai team actually, our WSB community has decided to donate you know, my minimum of $10,000 from our tickets with our upcoming convention right in Hawaii. And of course, you know, our parent companies as well, right? But, you know, it's just so, what it says, just heartwarming to see all the community coming together.  And when we were volunteering at the War Memorial, you know, actually there was a sign up sheet before you could even go in and as a volunteer and man, there was like two, three pages of, you know, waiting lists for volunteers to be called, you know, and it just feels so good, you know, that, you know, even though this strategy, it just happened that many of us come together and wanna help in any way that we can, you know, give as much as we can, especially our time, right? To those displaced families. And yeah, and we are just so grateful. I wanna take this opportunity to thank everyone around the world that who would watch this episode later on that, you know, we are just overwhelmed with Aloha and, you know, we're just so grateful and what this strategy taught each and every one of us is to just be grateful even of the little things because, you know, life can just happen so quickly. Life is just so fragile, right?   We may not be able to help so much as far as finances and whatnot, but just be, you know, lending a shoulder just listening to their stories and just giving them that hope that better days are coming and help is underway. And there is hope that there's gonna be a better tomorrow for them. Yes, and I 100% agree with you.  And I think that's what matters most right now for Maui. Showing up for the people of Maui and showing up, you know, to help rebuild what was lost. And I know our CEO from the WSB Ohana Financial Center went out to go visit you guys and Maui. And I know we've been gathering a lot of supplies or what's needed. So can you please share about, you know, your business associates that were affected and, you know, how they're doing right now? And just share about them, please. I know they have an amazing story. Yeah, so three of the families that lost their homes actually came when our CEO Ben Young and Karen Young came, I think that was two days ago.  And, you know, we're just so happy to see them. You know, I didn't think that they would show up with, you know, everything that happened to them, but they came and they were just so grateful with the things that were donated to them from the team. And of course some monetary donation as well to help them get started with their lives. But yeah, they're doing okay. They don't know when they're gonna, because if some of them lost their homes and at the same time lost their livelihood as well, because their workplace part down, but, you know, they're just so positive and optimistic that, you know, they, something happens for a reason. And then, you know, as long as they keep their faith in God and to their community and to other people that everything's gonna be okay. Yeah, so right now they are, you know, staying in the hotels, you know, just taking it day by day. We know that with everyone's support around the world, our teams and the community, you know, we will see, we will restore Lahaina again in its glory, right? Yeah. And I know too when, you know, we had a few conversations earlier and hearing you share that, you know, one thing is that we're in control of what's going on in regards to our emotions.   Yes, yes. So when RCEO Ben Young came, you know, I was surprised our financial center was packed with our team members. And that's how that shows their commitment to the business, their commitment to themselves, right? To better their lives and then change other people's lives as well. And, you know, one particular story of Chad, he is, he was only one month, one week in the business before the Lahaina fire started. And, you know, he had to live in his car for a couple of days because he couldn't go back to Lahaina. He was undecided when the fire happened. But the very next day, he brought in a friend and, you know, we shared the campaign and he had a new business associate.  I can't take, you know, everything back, I can't take it back, but we have to look forward to a better tomorrow, to a better future. And I have to make sure that I work hard and to strive to succeed again because there's a lot of people that, you know, depending on me, he said, so it's just an inspiring story, you know? And the human spirit, you know, how they survived all that and still processing what had happened to them, but still very optimistic. Yes.  Being so willing to help others themselves and just coming together as a community, which is really beautiful.  And I want to say Japan, they donated, correct me if I'm wrong, $2 million to Maui? I have no confirmation of that just yet. I'm not sure. I know $2 million. And I know Korea has done so as well.  And, you know, I know they reached out to you guys personally as well, right? And I believe they reached out to our CEO Ben Young and our EMD baby roles. Yes. Goodness. Yeah. And it's just really, really nice to see too, you know, again, togetherness. And like you mentioned too, with our events coming up, there are donations going towards that. But as of right now, Niava, please share, you know, what else is needed in Maui right now as a whole? What can, you know, the public do to come together and help? Right now, of course, a lot of prayers, a lot of love for our community, but, you know, just to just come and donate maybe like what the displaced families need now is the consensus is they need monetary support because, one, they don't have anything and many of them lost their jobs as well and they don't know when they can go back to work.  It's just, you know, it's like things that we don't even pay attention to sometimes, but now it's just like, it's so valuable to them, right?  So just be positive, you know, keep on rooting for those families that better days are coming and, you know, just sending donations like water and stuff, food necessities, yeah, that's a lot, that would be a lot of help for them. Beautiful, thank you for, you know, sharing because, you know, you do have first-hand experience right now and hearing your stories and hearing, you know, what you guys are all overcoming right now is just, I'm at a loss of words.  Right now, they have started, well, our law enforcement has opened the Lahaina Road and I know for many of our friends and family has gone back to their homes and they started to just, you know, just clean up the area, I guess just to make it, sorry, just to, I guess make the, clean them up so that when it is time for them to rebuild their house or whatever, then, you know, it's faster for them. And I know a lot of the churches and, you know, businesses and nonprofit organizations are there constantly every day delivering food for them at the hotels and yeah, and it's just so awesome to see the community still coming together for them because, you know, Lahaina is not gonna be rebuilt and we don't know, maybe not even in a month or two. So we are just so overwhelmed with a lot of love coming from everyone and of course the community. It's just our first responders, our national guards are there to make sure everyone is safe and that, you know, the constant food and supply goes to our displaced families. So yeah, it's just so, like I said, it's so heartwarming to see that, you know, with this strategy that happened to Lahaina that, you know, the people are still optimistic. They're still positive, you know, and we're just a big family here in Maui. So that's what we are doing. And even us here at our office, we are helping, you know, anyone who we need to, you know, cause a lot of them are now looking for a home. So we have helped many of our teammates and teammates alike at the shelter to fill out their, you know, rental assistance or housing applications. So we hope what we can. And then I know we've been just passing out the important information, like, you know, when the Mexican consulate was here or the Philippine consulate was here to help the displaced families who lost their alien parts and passports during the fire. So just, you know, sharing those important informations for our displaced families so that we can help in any way we can. Thank you so much, Nieva. And, you know, I really hope I can see you soon at Maui as well. And, you know, just thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for being on the show and sharing all the stories that you've been experiencing. It's really, really beautiful to see everyone coming together and to bring hope for Maui during this devastating time. Thank you so much for being on the show, Nieva. Thank you to Shayna and for this opportunity. Thank you so much. Thank you. I hope to see you all at the next episode of Money Talks. I am Shayna Park, a Gen Z inspiring lives of liberties. Thank you.


Quark-LIG electrochemical sensors fabricated by direct laser writing of natural quark sheets display graphene-like Raman signatures, high conductivity, and fast electron transfer rates. After a 10 minutes electrochemical pretreatment, they can detect tyrosine, tear, in the presence of uric acid, dopamine, ascorbic acid, urea, and glucose with linear detection in the 5 to 150 m range in a LOD of 3.03 m. The sensors also show linear responsive tear in artificial sweat in the relevant physiological range of 5 to 250 micrometers, sensitivity 1.8 times 10 minus 2 a.m minus 1, with LOD of 3.75 micrometers, opening the door to the exploitation of renewable materials such as quark for the development of high quality. Green sensors for health and well-being parameters monitoring. This article was authored by Ewan Vaughn, Chiara Santillo, Michelle Seti, and others.


The CBI is a very important role to play, of course all its members have a crucial role to play, but the CBI too, in representing the voice of business, in being able to communicate with government, in being able to set out what business needs from the rest of the country, I think that's a very important indeed indispensable role. This is a fantastic organisation which does play a very important role. It's quite challenging sometimes because of the diverse membership of the organisation, but I think it is a good voice and it needs to keep people like me and the Foreign Secretary on our toes. You need to hold our feet to the fire and tell us when we're not getting things right.


Aloha, welcome to Think Tech. I'm Dean Sen Sui. I'll be your host today. I'm sitting in for J. Fidel. Today's show is fishing for good policy. We're going to be discussing the expansion of the proposed expansion of the Papahanao Mokua Ka'a monument up in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and today's guests we have Peter Apo. He's a trustee with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Makani Christensen, he's the owner of Ka'ape Adventures, and he is the executive director of the Hunting, Fishing, and Farming Association, and Senator Brickwood Gelderteria representing District 12, including Waikiki, Alamoana, Kaka'a Ako, Makali, and Moe Lee Lee. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Yeah, we're gonna be seven, to put it shortly, there were seven people who proposed the expansion of the Papahanao Mokua Ka'a monument and bring that graphic up. It shows right now it's an area that's about 50 miles wide. It's in the light pink area that you can see on the map. It's about 100 miles wide and about 1,200 miles long, and what they want to do is they want to expand it to 400 miles wide, and it'll probably end up being about 1,400 miles long, which is about the size of Oregon, Washington, and California combined. In fact, it would cover that entire area. I want to have talked to Peter about this. These seven Hawaiians wrote to President Obama to expand the monument, and there's a lot of people who are looking at it as an initiative from Native Hawaiians. Why would they do this when it seems like there's a lot of concern over the U.S. having taken Hawaii illegally, and yet now they want to give away this huge chunk of ocean? Exactly. I don't quite understand that reach the, first of all, I don't believe that the conservation concept is Hawaiian. The principle with marine conservation is the less humans, the better, and the less activity, the better. So it's about shutting out humanity. Now, I am a supporter of certain kinds of conservation issues, but Hawaiians never shut humans out completely. We had very strict rules. We were species specific as to what kapu was usually for a six-month period, and so it was a rotating. It was never shutting humans out of the environment because that was part of the food security. And during the kapu season to ease the burden on people, in case of a shortage, that's why we built fishponds. The fishponds were meant to offset the kapu season. So the idea of closing out humanity to, in this case, 580,000 square miles of Hawaiian ocean, and like you say, my calculation was it's the size of Texas and California and Montana are combined. And lastly, I don't want to take up all the conversation, it's the instrument by which this public policy would be enacted on the expansion. It simply requires the signature of the president on a declaration that comes under an act that was enacted in 1906 called the Antiquities Act. It does not require any vetting through the Congress, through the state, and especially no vetting required for the people who live in the impacted area. So I have a real problem with just the way a monument, particularly of this size, gets to. In other words, we have a resource that thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people depend on, and yet there's a small number of people who might dictate the policy of its access. They have and they can, yes. Makani, real quickly, let's see, you're the executive director of the Hunting, Farming and Fishing Association. How did that get started? Why did you start that up? You know, I saw commonalities between the different individuals that use the resources around the state, and I found that communication was an issue that because we're separated by islands, we weren't being able to communicate on the issues that happen at legislation. And a lot of times, farmers, fishermen and hunters would have to figure out that something was happening to their farm, the rules and regulations that came forth without them being aware of it. So what we did is we created the Hunting, Farming and Fishing Association and increased communication and just brought a big community together, I mean, from Hawaii Island to Kauai. So we've done a lot and it's paid off through legislative process this year. So the HFFA's primary focus is about food, right? It is. The motto is we feed Hawaii. That's correct. And with something like this expansion, how do you think it might affect the food supply? Food supply, for example, if a lot of us, like Poke, we like sashimi, prices will go up. People will lose jobs and in essence, we'll lose a food source and we'll basically give it up to foreign fleets who are not regulated to come into this area and sell it back to us at an increased price. I think I remember hearing somebody saying, was Baron Mijo at the United Fishing Agency saying that when that happens, it's almost like somebody stealing from you and selling it back to you. Yeah. Something like that. And you know, that's something that we should protect as far as Hawaii is concerned. It's a resource, you know, we take about 1.5% of the fish resources throughout the Pacific compared to all the foreign fleets. So it's not a big percentage and we're the most regulated industry in almost the entire world. We have a graphic that shows how much the U.S. actually takes from that resource. There's a chart and you can see on the right, the U.S. is actually Hawaii's fishing fleet. And it accounts for about 1.6% less than 2% of the total take-off big eye in the Pacific and you can see how much the other countries are taking. So when they're saying they want to put limits on what Hawaii is harvesting, does that help the resource realistically? No, what happens is it just allows foreign fleets to come in unregulated because you've got to figure how is the U.S. going to regulate the foreign fishers to come into an area the size of California, Oregon, and Washington. I mean, it's almost impossible unless you have a lot of funding behind it. We're just basically shooting ourselves in a foot. Senator Gallateria, what's the Senate's stance on this issue? You have kind of a pulse on that? Well, thank you for inviting me today. Certainly, I know what one senator's take is on it. I can share that with you, what my colleagues feel I'll reserve them the time to explain. But I think the title of this show is very telling, especially for me, fishing for good policy. As a policymaker, we're always trying to ensure the best for all parties as best as you can. So those seven friends, they're friends of ours, Peter and I, we know the gentleman who created and moved the initiative forward to the president's desk. There's a time limit on it, so there's some urgency going on on both sides, both proponents and opponents. I think from our perspective straight up, is it good policy? From a Native Hawaiian perspective, is this a Native Hawaiian issue? Because I think from the very get-go, the word Native Hawaiian and expansion don't go together. And to be clear, all three of you are Native Hawaiians. To be clear, and we all probably come from different places on that too, but from expansion is how we lost Hawaii. So we want to go back to the very source of it all and that kind of rubs some of us in the wrong way. So although I'm a proud American and a very proud Native Hawaiian and also involved in the new Native Hawaiian entity that we're raising, that will negotiate with the federal government one day, perhaps that's where we should start. Perhaps we should just back off a little bit and if there's any expansion to be done that affects cultural dynamics, not to mention economic dynamics, perhaps we should look at it that way. I'm all about Native Hawaiian prosperity and if this can help bring Native Hawaiian prosperity, then you got my attention. But it's simply expansionist policy. Now you're talking to a policymaker, right? Expansion. I'm not sure whether that's the best way to go. And I do know that one of my federal colleagues is also behind this and helping to push it forward. There's an up-and-coming conference that's going to be here in Hawaii that is a deadline, if you will, for a presidential action. So we're here in the midst of an interesting area where decisions have to be made. My next question is, once you've taken it away, when do you give it back? How do we as Native Hawaiians get in there, or not only Native Hawaiians, look at the fishing industry as an example. They're coming out strong against this, right? And it's for the economic reasons. We're coming, if some of us are against it, it's simply because there's too many questions unanswered. Culturally as well as economically. Well, when the monument was first established, it seems like constitutional patch rights might have been set aside. Is that correct, Peter? Well, no, it's not exactly. Well, they're set aside in that you have to have a permit now to go there. But let me give another perspective. There is already an existing monument that was put into place by George Bush in 2006. The existing monument pretty much takes care of all the concerns that were originally raised to justify monument states. It's a coastal fishery. It protected everything that needed. So the question is, in this expansion going from 180,000 square miles to 580,000 square miles, how do you justify that kind of expansion? Now you're leaving the coastal zone.  And you're moving into the benthic seas where only pelagic action happens, you know, fish that travel all over the world. So that's one of the existing monuments apparently is working fine. So justifying the expansion is really something that I cannot see. And then to have it done simply with the stroke of a President's pen without really much public vetting. Now I know they're going to have a couple of public hearings, but maybe three public hearings on an issue that is this important. It seems to me kind of insulting, I think, to the people of Hawaii. So it's very, very problematic and it really bothers me a lot. Oja had taken a vote on this issue and they decided to support the expansion. Why did that happen? That's my question. I am a dissenting trustee. There were two of us who did not support the expansion. Because as the senator pointed out, you know, we're in the midst of, we just came up with a constitution, you know, recently through a process called an aha, a gathering of Hawaiians. And at some point I fully expect that we will be engaging the federal government in some kind of a government-government, a negotiation relationship. Not that much different than Native American Indians have been able to take. So one of the things that would be on the table is submerged lands. So all this expansion area has to do with submerged lands and it will have to do with rights. And for Hawaiians to support just surrendering 580,000 square miles of submerged lands without a whimper is just, I don't get it. I'm sorry, hold that thought. We're going to take a little break and we'll be right back with ThinkTech. Hi, my name is Aaron Wills. You are watching ThinkTechHawaii.com. I am the host of the show Rehabilitation Coming Soon. You can watch us live at ThinkTechHawaii.com at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays. I will see you there. Aloha, I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday here on ThinkTech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same name at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha. Aloha, my name is Josh Green. I serve as Senator from the Big Island on the Kona side and I'm also an emergency room physician. My program here on ThinkTech is called Health Care in Hawaii. I'll have guests that should be interesting to you twice a month. We'll talk about issues that range from mental health care to drug addiction to our health care system and any challenges that we face here in Hawaii. We hope you'll join us. Again, thanks for supporting ThinkTech. Welcome back to ThinkTech. I'm Dean Sensui, sitting in for Jay Fidel. We're talking about the Papa Hanao Mokuakea Monument and today's show is Fishing for Good Policy. We have guest Peter Oppo, Makani Christensen, Senator Galliteria. Senator, you had something to say about the OHA support of this expansion. Well, yeah, OHA is a quasi-autonomous state agency, which means that some of their funding comes through the state pipeline. So that allows us to ask questions about why they would support something like this because it comes down to the support of the Native Hawaiian beneficiaries. So how does supporting an expansion of this nature support the Native Hawaiian dynamics and policies that they are in statute supposed to be doing? And I know that they've moved towards becoming a co-manager. Is it co-manager, Peter? The position is to be a co-manager of the... The proposal on the table now is for co-trustee. Co-trustee. But even that, the co-trustee doesn't make the rules if we're looking at the policy of it, too. The rules are made up on the federal level, so therefore we do not have say on how this thing is going to be run. Because that's what Governor Arioshi pointed out at the rally, that if we give this up and capitulate, then there's no guarantee that anybody will have access to it because the state... The president is only required to state a purpose for monument designation. He is not required to get into any of one of the rules, what happens, who's entitled, who's not entitled. All of that comes after the designation. Who would do that? I think it's on the federal level. Yeah, all on the federal level. Yeah, it's all on the federal level. So the state level, the home rule level has no say in this, except, of course, perhaps through OHA. And the state of Hawaii would be co-trustees, which means that if anything, they would be able to recommend things to the rule. I see. That's the troubling nature if there is in terms of policy making. Because once you've, you know, let it go, again, how do we get it back? I mean, I can understand, I can really understand our colleagues who are proponents of this thing. We have to give time for the, I guess, the fishing to propagate and to grow and that sort of thing. But I'm looking at it from the policy level. It's not making sense to me right now. Makani, you know, they're talking about the fish coming back and reproducing and, you know, increasing with exposure. You did a study on a core study with Westpac. Right, we did. We did a study basically in Mauna Loa Bay, which was a target area for closure through the humpback whale sanctuary.  And basically we watched fish grow for about a year and a half. And we got it to the point where when we started it, it was the bloom from El Nino. So there's a massive, massive bloom throughout the entire state. And we got lucky enough to catch it at its infancy. And we basically watched fish grow within a year time period from a small size to basically harvestable size. Within a year and a half, you know, they're about a pound, pound and a half. I mean, really good size to consume and take home and eat. So and, you know, each time we went out, we probably saw about 5,000 fish, 6,000 fish, sometimes 10,000 fish all on one core. And that's one of the reasons why, you know, we came up with the concept of it was to bridge that gap between science and the fishermen who are out there who practice science almost on a daily basis. That was the study. Now with that kind of study, with that kind of fish and that kind of habitat, does that apply to Big Aituna? It's two different types of fish. So you've got pelagic and reef fish. So as far as Big Aituna, from what I understand from the research that's been done, you know, within two years, you know, you've got 130 pound fish, 140 pound fish, depends how much food they have and how much they eat. So they grow fast. And at the same time, you know, you want to make sure you catch a good size fish for market. So two different types of fish, but you have similarities between growth process. But it's not like a core where they're in a fixed position? No, they'll be in a tuna move throughout the Pacific. They'll follow the currents, they'll follow the temperatures. And they'll kind of gather at upwelling spots and they'll follow the bait, right? The bait will follow basically the plankton and all the small little critters out there. And the big fish will follow that. And that's determined by currents? Upwelling, currents, temperature, you know, all those things come into factor. And that's why fishermen will follow the fish throughout the Pacific.  Other fishermen, they're searching because the fish swam and they have to find them. By the way, just so that everybody knows, you want to get Makani to talk about his qualifications. How do you know this stuff? You studied it at... Oh, so I went to the United States Naval Academy, studied oceanography while I was there. And I came home and basically got taken under the wing of a very, very good fisherman. And he taught me things that I would never know. In fact, most of the, a lot of the reasons why you see me up at legislation fighting bills is because what I see versus what is actually on the table proposed as legislation doesn't make sense. And a lot of it comes from years of observation. And being fortunate enough to learn about the fish movement, fish habits. So that's what I bring to the table. You have any idea how much fish comes through the auction on a daily basis? You know, it could vary. I mean, some days, what, 30,000 pounds, 1,000 pounds to 150,000 pounds. It varies on how many boats are in during that time. Sometimes there's only one boat, sometimes there's five, sometimes there's not. So that all depends. I was going to say, speaking of doesn't make sense, two things that really stand out. I'm assuming that the existing rules with the existing monument, you know, is going to be applied to the expansion monument. And so one of the existing rules is on the question of native rights is it allows Hawaiians to quote subsistence fish.  Hello. You're going to have to do a lot of eating real fast. I would think so. Then the other thing, and this has to do with the expansion itself, what we're saying to US fishermen, because the no take zone would go all the way out to the furthest limits, the 200 mile limit of US jurisdiction. You're saying to a US fisherman that you can fish, but not in your country. That's the exclusive economics zone. That's where you're supposed to fish. All right, now. And then, you know, well, anyway. Funtless. If arguments can be made that there could be a balance, you know, between what is being asked, what is currently there, and it also, I'll go back to, if it's a native Hawaiian issue, then let's look at native Hawaiian prosperity as it works with fishermen like Makani. Can something that is taken from the expanded zone go back to help the native Hawaiians in Hawaii then as part of a reconciliation process, if you will. Because if this is an expansion, then it's essentially a grab. Yeah. Call it spade or spade. Can there be a balance? I mean, it seems like they're so polarized that nobody's meeting anybody in the middle. I think talking is required. It does have to be some polarization, you know, and I just remember what I want to say. You know, Hawaii imports 90% of our food. So we have a real food security issue. Most of the 10% of food that is produced here comes from fish, fresh fish that we get from our fishermen. And a large part of that comes from the long line fisheries, which fish out in, you know, the pelagic zone. Fish move, fish work in schools, they're like buffalo. So to say to a fisherman that you cannot go where the fish go, again, it doesn't make any sense. Somebody told me that, that ahi is like the Hawaiian equivalent of the buffalo, right? They depended on that for a lot of their food.  Yeah. Did you want to add something, Makane?  And really not thinking about the people of Hawaii. And when you forget about the people of Hawaii, we're already struggling. It's already hard enough to have three jobs just to pay rent. I mean, you know that the cost of living is just extreme. And for the federal government to come in at this time when we've all witnessed failure after failure after failure in Hawaii. Why are they doing this? And why would they make it harder for us to feed our families in Hawaii? Why would they threaten jobs if a policy doesn't make sense? That's what I wanted to add to that. Okay, we have a few minutes left. Peter, I want to talk about the ticking clock. There's a backstory to all this. On September 10th, Hawaii is going to play host to the World Conservation Congress. And part of this really seems like a clandestine, well, I don't know, maybe that's too strong a word, on the part of the Obama administration to help establish a legacy for the president, as George Bush did for himself when he declared the first monument. So, Ohio, in fact, had gifted the World Conservation Congress a half a million dollars for them to come here. I mean, we were one of the donors, there were others. But the ticking clock is, I think I can say that I am correct in saying that this monument scheme has been building for quite a few months without any input locally. At least, we trustees did not know about it until recently. And it was to time the announcement of this expanded monument, which would make it the largest marine conservation area in the world. To time it to the September 10th convening to give the president one an excuse to come to Hawaii to make the announcement there by establishing his legacy. Now, I say it's a backstory and, you know, people can deny it. But boy, it sure looks like that's what's happening because it's on a fast track. Senator, you just made it the front story. But I would say that I won't use clandestine, I won't use scheme. I will say that this is a unique opportunity for the conservation world to see what native Hawaiians do for conservation. And expanding in this way might not be what native Hawaiians do. I cannot say because I'm not a practicing fisherman. Nor am I an ancient, I mean, I'm a contemporary Hawaiian. But I do know that from a policy perspective, we need to ask more questions. Therefore, I think we should pull back a little bit. And even it will be a legacy for the president if we can make it work and we can get the right answers. Okay, Makani, you have a lesson.  Let's make sure that all policy that comes out there is supported with facts. And the facts support any kind of laws that come out because it affects people. It affects all people. And we are all living on the island together. And we need to understand the different facets of feeding people. Well, that sounds really good. I think we're about done here. Thank you very much. Thank you, Peter and Makani and Senator for coming out. And I'd just like to say that this issue is something that's worth discussing. But thank you for coming and watching Think Tech. My name is Dean Sensui and we're clear.


It is an honor and a pleasure to introduce the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Honorable Robert McDonald. Secretary McDonald is a 1975 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, an alumnus of the University of Utah, where he earned an MBA. An Army veteran and both airborne and Ranger qualified, he served with the 82nd Airborne Division upon leaving military service, Captain McDonald was awarded the Meritory Service Medal. In 1980, Mr. McDonald joined Procter & Gamble, a Fortune 50 company, and he rose through the ranks to become its Chief Executive Officer and President. He retired in June of 2013. Nominated by President Obama as the 8th Secretary of Veterans Affairs on June 30, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 29, 2014. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's terrific to be here with you this morning and I appreciate all of you who had to fight the weather to get here.  Many thanks to Brenda for that wonderful introduction. Brenda, if you have any issues with your leg, let me know because it's my fault. I will do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen for Brenda and everyone else in this room. I also want to thank Ron Hope, Ron's a terrific leader. He's the leader I want to be someday. My wife and I have been thrilled to be with Ron and his family at Veterans Day and throughout the year and it's just great working with Ron. We really think of you all in DAV as true partners in trying to get our mutual mission of caring for veterans done. Many thanks to Mark Burgess, of course, the adjutant, David Tannenbaum, Secretary Treasurer, Leanne Karg for her work as the Auxiliary National Commander, John Clindings, who directs the volunteers and of course my friend Gary Augustine who works here with us in Washington every single day. Great partnership and we are really thrilled. We can't do this job by ourselves. We know that and we know that the partnership with you all is absolutely essential to get that done and thank you so much for your partnership with the Winter Sports Clinic. I'm looking forward to this year's clinic in April and we hope to see some of you in snow mass for that clinic. Thanks also for your support with the VA caregiver support program. I'm going to talk more about that later. I know that's a very important topic to us and it's one we need to be on the forefront on as we go to talk to members of Congress. But let me talk for a few minutes about the VA and what we're attempting to do. You know, my life's purpose has been to try to improve lives and I've done that in various different ways throughout my life. Believe it or not these four five pictures are of the same individual. On the far left you've kind of got this geeky looking guy and my wife's never seen that picture by the way but when I was young I was a Boy Scout you know and I love the Boy Scouts and the thing I love most about the Boy Scouts were the projects that we did to help other people and every time you help someone you got this internal desire to do even more. So I decided I wanted to go to West Point because there were people living behind there in Curt and there were people living in communist countries that didn't have freedoms and I thought by going to West Point being the leader in the army that I could help make a difference in those people's lives. So even though I graduated toward the top of my class and most of those people tend to go in the Corps of Engineers I wanted to be in the infantry so I was one of the first people in my class to go in the infantry and as you can see in that third picture I was an 82nd Airborne Division as Brenda said I did Ranger School, Arctic Warfare School, Desert Warfare School, Jungle Warfare School in Panama, Jumpmaster and all that prepared me for the next picture which was to work for Procter and Gamble. I joined I joined the Procter and Gamble actually that was a really funny story until 1991 when my wife and I moved to the Philippines. The previous vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce had been kidnapped by communist rebels there for 39 days so it got so that story wasn't too funny anymore but my company said don't worry we know you don't want to go to a place where the safety of your children are in danger so don't worry we're gonna send you to the Philippines with that communist insurgency but we've hired bodyguards for your children and you and but anyway I will join the Procter and Gamble company that's the next picture that's the first day I joined the Procter and Gamble company it's June 4th 1980 and there are a couple important things you can tell from that picture and number one I joined the company because of the purpose of the company which was to improve the lives of the world's consumers and any given day about five billion people on the planet use at least one product of the Procter and Gamble company but the important insight from that picture is the Procter and Gamble company has not solved hair loss yet I thought getting out of the military you know grown my hair a little bit longer this is cool this is a new a new way to demonstrate my freedom but as you can see by the fifth picture something happened in between and I've lost a little bit of hair I don't know if that was worrying or what but the next picture of course is the one I'm most proud of which is is the ability to be in a position where I can serve you which is the veterans of the country I take this very personally when I was interviewed by CBS before I went around the Skid Row in Los Angeles looking for homeless veterans they asked me you know what was why was I there and I said my biggest fear is tonight as I'm walking through Skid Row I pick up a tarpolin to see if there's a veteran and I find someone who saved my life someone who checked my parachute before I jumped somebody who made sure the charge on those mortars was the right charge fortunately that night we didn't but fortunately also we're working to end homelessness in Los Angeles we have the most noble mission in government it was you know president Lincoln second inaugural address when he talked about to care for him who should have borne the battle as widows in his orphans today we paraphrase that because of course women are very important to us in VA we talk about to care for those who have borne the battle their families and their survivors in the Civil War over 750,000 soldiers lost their lives that's 514 Americans every single day for four years think about that 514 Americans every single day for four years and unlike our methods today where you wear dog tags and some of us I always had a dog tag in my shoelaces and my boots just in case my neck got separated from my my my feet but you know in those days there were no dog tags and in fact most of the people who died in those battles were buried right on the battlefield with the first inspiration was Lincoln's inaugural dress he created something called the Sanitation Commission which is the forerunner of our National Cemetery's administration where we went out on the battlefields dug up those mass graves identified the soldiers present Lincoln work with Congress to get national cemeteries and we reburied those soldiers in all those cemeteries we notified the families we were able to identify about two-thirds of the soldiers who were in those mass graves which were most of the casualties of the Civil War so that was an important inspiration for all of us as to the importance of the Veterans Affairs Department in the very beginning I think we've got a terrific set of values we tend to wear these in this button that says I care this acronym integrity commitment advocacy respect and excellence it's the way we want you to be treated as veterans it's the way we want to treat you and we want excellence to be the very best our mission is none other than to make sure we have the very best health care system in the whole world and health care is just one of those lines of business but it's one you probably know us most for in terms of education you can see here we spend about 40 billion dollars educating veterans 1.3 million veterans 1.1 billion dollars in vocational rehabilitation and employment we're one of the largest life insurance companies in the country we guarantee 2.1 million home loans and you know our foreclosure rate is the lowest in the industry veterans do not run into financial problems in paying for their mortgages and I think that's a great testament to all of our veterans fifty eight billion dollars in compensation benefits for almost four million veterans very very important in fiscal year 2014 we completed a record number 1.3 million dollars or 1.3 million claims that's over 150,000 more than the previous year's record and we're working hard to get that production rate up even more we've got the claims backlog down 58 percent in the last 22 months from 611,000 to 255,000 but you know what as long as there's any claim and any backlog we have more work to do so we're not perfect yet we're moving in the right direction but what we're trying to do is put in place a budget and an organization capability to deal with the huge influx of claims the huge influx of needs that our veterans have after fighting wars for 24 years there we go our goal is to make VA a model agency with respect to customer experience and stewardship of taxpayer resources we want to be the best example for all government agencies with efficient and effective operations we look to be comparable to the very best private sector companies this is how we will meet our nation's obligations to our veterans it's worth remembering that today a full 150 years after the civil war ground to a halt we VA are still providing benefits to the child of a civil war veteran we still have troops in both Afghanistan and Iraq and in the last decade we've already seen a dramatic increase in the demand for benefits and care this chart shows how for 40 years from 1960 to the year 2000 the percentage of veterans receiving compensation from VA was relatively stable at eight and a half percent but in the last 14 years since 2001 the percentage has dramatically increased to 19 percent that's more than double the previous percentage and we'll make sure these charts are available to you as you go out to talk to your congressional representatives simultaneously the number of claims so that was about receiving disability compensation this is about the number of claims the number of claims and the number of medical issues in rating related claims has soared as this chart shows in 2009 VBA completed almost 980,000 claims in fiscal year 2017 we project we project we will complete 1.4 million claims that's a 47 percent increase but there's been an even more dramatic growth in a number of medical issues per claim 2.7 million in 2009 and a projected 5.9 million in 2017 that's a 115% increase in just over eight years as this chart shows now these increases were accompanied by a dramatic rise in the average degree of disability compensation granted to veterans for 45 years from 1950 to 1955 the average degree of disability held steady at 30 percent the average veteran with a disability claim had roughly 30 percent disability for 40 but since 2000 the year 2000 the average degree of disability has risen the 47.7 percent as you can see in this chart again more than you know nearly 50 percent of individuals so while it's true that the number of veterans is declining the number of those seeking care and benefits from VA is increasing quite dramatically now you know the reasons for this but let me just lay them out several factors contribute to this increase first we've been fighting a war for more than a decade second age and orange related disability claims third an unlimited claims appeal process which we're pleased with the fully developed appeal approach that the DAV has been leading increased number of medical claims issues far greater survival rates among those wounded more sophisticated methods for identifying and treating veterans medical issues and huge demographic shifts in this country the result veterans demand for services and benefits has exceeded VA's capacity to meet them it's important that the American people understand why this is happening and the most important consideration of those that I mentioned is I'm sorry is shown here on this chart please look at the the purple bar in particular as with any population health care requirements and the demand for benefits both increase as veterans age and exit the worst workforce this chart shows an astounding shift in 1975 the year I graduated from West Point just 40 years ago only 2.2 a million American veterans were 65 years old or older that's only 7.5 percent of our veteran population that's the purple bar in the year 2017 we expect 9.8 million veterans will be 65 years or older 46% of the veteran population nearly half of the veteran population look at the size of the purple bar so today we serve a population that is older and more prompt with more chronic conditions and less able to afford private sector care VA has the greatest opportunity to enhance care for veterans in its history we see that last year's crisis was a huge opportunity we're in extraordinary position we have not pretended not only right the wrongs but the length in our lead in areas where we've always excelled take the lead in service delivery areas that are lagging and chart new ground in emerging or evolving areas of health care and we've made progress on some of these already we've had 37 main appointments 1.8 million more in our facilities than in the same months last year 98% were completed within 30 days of preferred or medically necessary date 880,000 evening or weekend appointments 2 million authorizations for private sector care that's a 45% increase in private sector care and that's even before the choice cards were mailed 55% reduction electronic waitlist from over 57,000 to under 25,800 we hired 836 more physicians 1,856 more nurses 1,266 medical support assistance from April to December and November was our peak hiring month we're working hard to find the help to work hard for all of us your the opportunities are immense and we're going to work hard on your behalf when we can help and all of you can help find us the people that we need in order to get this done one of the we have many incentives now thanks to members of Congress and the work that we've done with members of Congress in order to hire more people we now can repay the education debt of a doctor that increase that's been increased from $60,000 a year $60,000 of reimbursement to $120,000 over a five-year service period and that's helping us recruit more doctors we can now repay student loans to lending institutions up to $10,000 per year with a lifetime cap of $60,000 if they're working to work if they're willing to work for three years for the VA employee incentive scholarship program that provides scholarships to employees for degrees or training and selected health carriers we can cover tuition and some living expenses we've increased pay ranges for physicians so that when they come to work at the VA we can be competitive with the private sector we've done the same thing for Dennis we have a compensation a comprehensive paying compensation packages commensurate with with education which will allow us to recruit more doctors and more nurses and we're soon beginning a pilot program for mental health professionals that was included in the recently approved and signed Clay Hunt Act we're also undergoing the largest restructuring in the department's history this is a historic department-wide transformation we're changing VA's culture and making the veteran the center of everything that we do the focus of my VA what we're calling it the reason we're calling it that is we really want you to think of the VA as your own we want you to feel like you have a customized program just for you from the VA we're focusing on five objectives number one is to improve the veteran experience so that every veteran has a seamless integrated and responsive customer service experience every single time they interact with the VA number two is we have to improve the employee experience and eliminate the barriers that employees see to providing great customer service to achieving people excellence amongst employees so employees can better serve veterans if we don't take care of our employees there's no way we can expect those employees to better take care of veterans number three we need to improve our internal support services within VA number four we need to establish a culture of continuous improvement so local levels can identify your correct problems more immediately and then replicate those proven solutions across the entire VA facilities number five importantly is enhancing strategic partnerships and of course we think that our partnerships with veteran service organizations like DVA DAV are absolutely critical again we intend every single veteran to have a delightful experience with VA every time that you interact with VA we're also in the process of reorganizing the the department geographically which is an important first step to simplification we have had nine lines of business each line of business has had its own geographic map and its own middle management we're moving to one geographic map the one you see here that will have five regions in the past those nine different this disjointed geographic maps will come together and the one will have one structure one organization simplify it so veterans know where to go who to talk to and have a customer service organization that will reach out to you and work on your behalf in in terms of strategic partnerships we set up a new office of strategic partnerships we want to create a national network of community veteran advisory councils we want to drive responsibility in VA down closer to where the veteran is so that decisions can be made at the local level as to how resources need to be moved to better care for the veterans in their geography we're in the process of working to leverage external resources we're setting up an external advisory board that will involve a lot of experts in the industry as well as people in the private sector who can help us benchmark how to better care for customers we're talking to people like Disney like USA a like Starbucks to find out how you train people to better care for customers so that we can provide those kind of delightful experiences but obviously it's important to get the budget and the capability to do all this this budget requests one hundred sixty eight point eight billion dollars seventy three point five billion in discretionary funds and ninety five point three billion in mandatory funds as you can see here this is a large increase in discretionary funding of seven and a half percent a large increase in medical care funding of seven point four percent and a large increase in funding in the benefits area of six point six percent this budget will increase access to medical care and benefits for veterans it will address the infrastructure challenges including major and minor construction modernization and renovation most of our buildings are over 70 years old now that we have an influx of female veterans about eleven twelve percent of our veterans are female we don't have the clinical space to put in women's veterans I can tell you hospitals now that build operating rooms the operating rooms are fifty percent to a hundred percent bigger than they were seventy years ago why because when you do an operation out involves robotics involves computers involves bandwidth we need larger hospital rooms we just need to overhaul the facilities that we have we need to fund medical and prosthetics research and we also have to address this IT infrastructure and modernization issue that we have while this is a very very large increase and we understand that it's not enough it's not enough it's not sufficient to meet all the requirements in either 2016 or 2017 so one of things I've asked for Congress for is flexibility flexibility so that if you decide you want to use the choice card we can fund that if you decide you want to use the VA we can fund that right now in the VA we have 70 line items a budget that we can't move money from one line item to the other and there's tremendous uncertainty with choice card we are very much in favor of the choice card we think it's a great idea we want you to be able to get the care wherever you want to get it but so far we haven't seen a great uptake on the choice card and we're estimating that the choice card usage could vary anywhere from three point eight billion dollars over the three-year period to twelve point nine billion dollars over that three-year period that's a nine billion dollar difference all we're asking a Congress is over time if you decide not to use the choice card and you come to the VA we want to have the ability to take that budget money and move it to the VA or if you decide to overuse the choice card and go beyond the 12 billion we want to have the money to move from VA to the choice card that's all we've been asking is for flexibility like every business in the country would have in order to meet the consumer need again it's all about your choice not ours so we want to just be there where you are I want to talk briefly before I close about the importance of the caregiver program because I know you're going to be talking about it later we have clinical experts on caregiver issues we provide information to all veterans and caregivers on available services both VA and non VA again we can't do it all ourselves and one at every we have one caregiver coordinator at every one of our medical center facilities so if you haven't met them please please reach out and meet them we also have a caregiver service line the phone number there is<PHONE_NUMBER>-855-260-3274 we respond to inquiries about caregiver services we provide referrals to local caregivers we provide emotional support and we've received about 150,000 calls so far which average about 150 calls per day so it's not insignificant we think caregiving is incredibly important we want to stand up a new advisory council for the secretary before the VA of caregiving experts we want to have a caregiver conference where we bring all caregiving experts together we think that's important to shine a light on caregiving for the national audience and we know that you'd like to work with us and we want to partner with you on expanding caregivers last year we partnered with the Easter seal disability services we developed four new self-care training courses for caregivers but we know that's not enough and we know we have a lot more to do we have over two dozen caregiver partnerships one of course one very important one was with the DAV but of course we want to go further I know I probably haven't covered every single issue you wanted me to so I would like to close simply by saying if you have any questions or any comments please either give me a call or email me my email address is very very simple it's bob.mcdonald at va.gov bob.mcdonald at va.gov write to me call me anytime I would love to hear from you if you forget how to spell mcdonald just go outside and look for the golden arches thank you very much I take it that isn't the IEIO is this time I would like to ask commander hope to come up he has a presentation he'd like to make ladies and gentlemen last year many veterans felt a breach of trust resulting from the access issues at a VA we two understood challenges or changes had to be made to ensure veterans were properly cared for in a timely fashion we're now six months under the VA's new leadership and we're seeing a number of long-needed changes taking place secretary mcdonald has announced a large scale organization reef reef structuring under the my va initiative to realign care services and benefits in a way that offers veterans a more integrated responsive va system we have seen va leaders held accountable and removed for their part in the access crisis uncovered last year and we've seen an increased va budget request announced earlier this month which is something DAV has been requesting for years in the military you're recognized for your accomplishments but also for your potential at six months are still a lot of work to be done at va we can all agree on that but it's also true that the secretary bob is he likes to be called has brought about some large-scale changes and has more plans on the horizon to fix a bureaucracy that has at times hindered the process for veterans to receive their own care and benefits for his efforts thus far to restore the faith of veterans and more importantly as a gesture of faith and confidence in his continued work to improve and strengthen the VA we'd like to present DAV's outstanding federal executive of the year award for 2014 to secretary Bob McDonald thank you very much I must say to you that with great humility that I accept this and also with your intention that this causes me to work harder not relax I see lots of nodding heads thank you very much I agree this will energize all of us in the department you know there there are people who want us to fail and we don't want to fail we're most of us are veterans we're here for veterans to do veterans things and this will do nothing but energize all of us in the department to work even harder on your behalf so I thank you very much for this recognition it's with all humility that I accept it and I want to thank DAV for their partnership we could not do this without you and we look forward to working together to get it done thank you very much


Gut microbiota play important roles in the body, and their composition and diversity can influence various diseases. The host promotes a healthy gut microbiome by releasing specific and non-specific factors that encourage certain bacteria to grow while inhibiting others. Diet, antibiotics, and age can alter gut microbiota, and studies have linked imbalances in the microbiome to several diseases. This review discusses how the host shapes its gut microbiota through specific and non-specific factors, how environmental and nutritional factors affect it, and ways to modulate the balance using prebiotics, probiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation.