FTC: Make It as Easy to Cancel as Sign-up
Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River 
economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.
The US Federal Trade Commission adopted a final rule on Wednesday requiring businesses to make it as easy to cancel subscriptions and memberships as it was to sign up, reports Reuters. It is the agency’s last major ruling before the Nov. 5 election.
Navy football appeared in the Week 8 Associated Press Top 25, checking in at No. 25 in the poll that was released Sunday. The Midshipmen are ranked for the first time since the end of the 2019 season, when they ended the year ranked 20th. Military.com reports Army (6-0, 5-0 American Athletic Conference) is also ranked this week, with the Black Knights coming in at 23rd in the poll. It’s the first time the two rivals have been ranked in the same week since 1960. They haven’t been undefeated this late in a season since 1945.
The nation’s loan program for disaster survivors has fully exhausted its funding, and the lawmakers needed to greenlight more funding, are slated to be out until after Election Day, reports Politico. Without congressional action, the Small Business Administration can’t make new loan offers to people trying to rebuild businesses and homes hit by disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly said he does not intend to call lawmakers back to town before the scheduled Nov. 12 return.
Boeing will cut 10% of it’s entire workforce, roughly 17,000 people, as troubled programs, fixed-price contracts, and an inability to reach a deal with thousands of striking machinists drag down the company. Defense One reports, the aerospace giant announced the cuts on Friday. The dramatic move comes after 30,000 company workers rejected a new labor contract with no end of the strike in sight.
Boeing has set out to shore up its sagging finances, announcing on Tuesday, plans to raise up to $25 billion through stock and debt offerings and a $10 billion credit agreement with major lenders amid a production and regulatory crisis. Reuters reports, analysts estimate Boeing needs somewhere between $10 billion and $15 billion to maintain its credit ratings, which are now just one notch above junk.
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Jon Tester (D-MT) has introduced a bill to alter a veteran’s suicide prevention program after discovery that the algorithm prioritized white males and gave preference to divorced and widowed males, although military sexual trauma and intimate partner violence are both linked to elevated suicide risk among female veterans and were not taken into account. Tester’s legislation would require those factors to be incorporated within 60 days of the bill becoming law, reports Military Times.
The Army is buying hundreds of small drones as it starts to equip its infantry with warfare’s latest must-have weapon, but that’s not nearly enough. The experience of current units suggests the Army will need to buy thousands of drones per year just to meet training objectives, let alone go to war, says Defense One.
If a collection of soldiers and scientists are successful, troops may never again have to run, on foot, into a breach, swinging a grappling hook in a scene resembling medieval foot soldiers breaking through enemy fortifications. Instead, reports Defense News, soldiers of the future may pilot explosives-laden drones and robotic bulldozers into the tangle of concertina wire, steel barricades and landmines.
The Navy advanced rearming surface combatants at sea last week by using repurposed 1990s-era prototype equipment to transfer and reload 25-foot missile canisters between guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG-65) and dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE-11) off the California coast. It was the first time the service tested the system at sea, reports USNI.
The Space Force’s top-secret spacecraft is attempting a new maneuver where it will change its orbit around the Earth without burning fuel. It’s a rare public announcement of the highly classified vehicle’s movements, says Military.com. The unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, in space since late December, has been used for classified experiments and investigating radiation effects. The spacecraft, on Thursday, began aerobraking, maneuvers essentially using the drag of Earth’s atmosphere to change orbit and save fuel.
Marketing and aggressive investment in recruiters and stations helped the Coast Guard meet its enlisted recruiting goals in fiscal 2024, the first time since 2018, reports Military.com. Coast Guard officials said they recruited 4,442 active-duty enlisted personnel and 737 reservists as of Sept. 30, exceeding the respective goals of 4,200 and 725 by 6% and 2%.
A Navy investigation into the drowning deaths of two Navy SEALs released on Friday revealed the elite warfare community struggles with performance-enhancing drug use and a culture of exceptionalism allowing behavior off-limits to regular sailors, reports Military.com. The deaths were determined preventable, stemming from a lack of concern over flotation gear of the sailors lost off the coast of Somalia in January during a ship-boarding mission to intercept Iranian-made weapons headed to Yemen.
Canadian miner Lithium America said on Wednesday General Motors will contribute $625 million to their new joint venture for developing the Thacker Pass project in Nevada. Reuters reports, US automakers are ramping up their output of EVs and hybrids and aiming to reduce their reliance on China for battery-related materials in a competitive market. US-listed shares of Lithium Americas were up 16.5% at $3.11 in premarket trade.
Russia, China, and Iran are increasingly relying on criminal networks to lead cyberespionage and hacking operations against adversaries like the US, according to a report on digital threats published Tuesday by Microsoft, reports Military.com.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran’s president on Friday, at a time when Tehran is supplying weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine and concerns are growing over escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its militant allies, reports AP News. Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian discussed the situation in the Middle East on the sidelines of an international forum in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, Russian state media said.
Former White House national security adviser John Bolton warned that former President Trump is likely to withdraw from NATO if reelected in November, reports The Hill.
North Korea has accused rival South Korea of flying drones to its capital to drop anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again. South Korea issued a vague denial of the allegation, reports AP News.
STATE-SEC Antony Blinken and DEFSEC Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday, that Israel must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it allows into Gaza within the next 30 days or risk losing access to US weapons funding, reports Military.com.
AP News reports, Trump’s first term tested the limits of how he could use the military to achieve policy goals. He has pledged to recall thousands of American troops from overseas and station them at the US border with Mexico. Trump has explored using troops for domestic policy priorities such as deportations and confronting civil unrest. He has talked of weeding out military officers who are ideologically opposed to him.
The Hill reports, one of Trump’s former DEFSECs, Mark Esper, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source,” the public should take Trump “seriously” when he suggests using the military against American citizens. “I lived through that, and I saw over the summer of 2020 where President Trump and those around him wanted to use the National Guard in various capacities in cities such as Chicago and Portland and Seattle,” he said and noted an instance from June 2020 when Trump “wanted to bring in active duty military as well” against protesters.
A judicial workgroup recommends Maryland abolish contested elections for its 175 circuit court judges, saying the process presents ethical problems and poses a risk to judges’ safety in the current political atmosphere, reports Maryland Matters. Instead of standing for reelection every 15 years the recommendation is circuit judges face a retention election every 10 years for a simple yes-or-no choice of whether to keep the judge on the bench. That is the process currently used for the state’s appellate judges.
Contracts:
August Schell Enterprises, Rockville, Maryland, is awarded a not-to-exceed $29,059,763 firm-fixed-price order (N0001925F0067) against a previously issued contract (NNG15SD80B). This contract procures tool requirements to include software licenses and commercial software applications to construct secure and reliable IT systems to facilitate the development, security, and operations systems development life cycle, critical to the successful fielding of information technology capabilities for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program in support of the Joint Strike Fighter Program for the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, and non-US Department of Defense participants. Work will be performed in Arlington, Virginia, and is expected to be completed in October 2026. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and evaluation (Air Force) funds in the amount of $12,331,917; and fiscal 2024 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,408,669, will be obligated at the time of award, $2,408,669 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competed, one offer was received. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
Flatiron-Aecon JV, Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $15,700,000 hybrid (fixed-price-incentive and fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment) contract for a water storage project and fish passage facility. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Ravensdale, Washington, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 14, 2030. Fiscal 2025 civil construction funds in the amount of $15,700,000 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle, Washington, is the contracting activity (W912DW-25-C-0001).
Atlantic Diving Supply Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia (SPE8E3-25-D-0001); Noble Supply & Logistics, Boston, Massachusetts (SPE8E3-25-D-0002); and SupplyCore LLC, Rockford, Illinois (SPE8E3-25-D-0003), are sharing a maximum $100,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract under solicitation SPE8E3-23-R-0001 for commercial maintenance, repair and operations products. This was a competitive acquisition with 15 responses received. These are three-year base contracts with two one-year option periods. Locations of performance are Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, with an Oct. 14, 2027, ordering period end date. Using military services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2025 through 2028 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Textron Systems, Hunt Valley, Maryland, is awarded an $18,003,985 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost delivery order for production of the Mine Sweep Payload Delivery System production and engineering support. This delivery order includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this delivery order to $106,151,605. Work will be performed in Cockeysville, Maryland (57%); Naples, Florida (16%); Houston, Texas (8%); Salt Lake City, Utah (8%); Yaphank, New York (6%); and Beltsville, Maryland (5%), and is expected to be completed by October 2025. If all options are exercised, work will continue through October 2029. Fiscal 2024 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $12,698,834 will be obligated at time of award, of which none will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This delivery order was competitively procured via the Unmanned Surface Vehicle Family of Systems Multiple Award Contract, with one offer received in response to this solicitation. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, DC, is the contracting activity (N00024-25-F-6300).
Curtin Maritime Corp., Long Beach, California, was awarded a $33,493,525 firm-fixed-price contract for Baltimore Harbor and channels maintenance dredging. Bids were solicited via the internet with three received. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2025. Fiscal 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025 civil operation and maintenance funds; and 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025 civil construction funds in the amount of $33,493,525 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W912DR-25-C-0002).
Design Partners Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii (W912HV-25-D-0001); Jacobs Government Service Co., Arlington, Virginia (W912HV-25-D-0002); Woolpert-RS&H LLC, Beavercreek, Ohio (W912HV-25-D-0003); EIJV LLP, Chicago, Illinois (W912HV-25-D-0004); Group 70 Gushiken A-E LLP, Honolulu, Hawaii (W912HV-25-D-0005); AECOM Technical Services Inc., Los Angeles, California (W912HV-25-D-0006); Pond-CDM Smith JV LP, Peachtree Corners, Georgia (W912HV-25-D-0007); HDR Engineering Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii (W912HV-25-D-0008); OTIE-Merrick JV, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (W912HV-25-D-0009); WSP-KYOWA – a JV, San Diego, California (W912HV-25-D-0010); Stanley-Setiadi JV, Muscatine, Iowa (W912HV-25-D-0011); SSFM International Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii (W912HV-25-D-0012); Tetra Tech-PAE JV, Marlborough, Massachusetts (W912HV-25-D-0013); INSYNERGY Engineering Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii (W912HV-25-D-0014); and Michael Baker International Inc., Moon Township, Pennsylvania (W912HV-25-D-0015), will compete for each order of the $249,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect-engineer services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 22 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 14, 2031. US Army Corps of Engineers, Japan District, is the contracting activity.
