GI Bill math. Contributor Ron Kness explains, “Scholarships can be a great source of financial aid, but when used with the GI Bills, they can have varying effects on the student’s bottom line. What many students do not know is the VA is the last payer when it comes to using other sources of financial aid along with the Post 9/11 GI Bill; other forms of available financial aid (including some scholarships) are first applied to the tuition bill.”

Podcast: clearance finances. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “Financial issues remain the number one cause of clearance denial and revocation. But knowledge is power – there is a lot you can do to mitigate potential issues. Learn more in this week’s podcast with security clearance attorney Sean Bigley.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

Reuters’ Hamid Shalizi and Kay Johnson report, “As details surfaced of Kunduz’s stunning capture, a picture emerged of a carefully coordinated insurgent assault, and of Afghan police and soldiers who were surprised, overwhelmed and unprepared to fight inside a major city. ‘The Taliban were attacking from several directions and we did not know what to do,’ Kunduz deputy governor Abdullah Danishy said.”

AP’s Nataliya Vasilyeva reports, “Russian lawmakers voted unanimously Wednesday to let President Vladimir Putin send Russian troops to Syria. The Kremlin sought to play down the decision, saying it will only use its air force there, not ground troops. Putin had to request parliamentary approval for any use of Russian troops abroad, according to the constitution. The last time he did so was before Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.”

The Long War Journal’s Thomas Joscelyn’s testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism: “[T]he Islamic State cannot truly be ‘defeated’ until it can no longer plausibly claim to rule over a large swath of territory. Its founding myth must be shattered. This does not require dislodging the Islamic State from all of the territory its black banner flies over.”

Vice News’ Matt Yurus reports, “If US lawmakers don’t come to an agreement about the federal budget in the next day or so, the military could be forced to operate under last year’s spending plan. And that could stymie its 2016 modernization efforts . . . Funding levels are locked in place with a CR, which means the Department of Defense (DoD) can’t start any new programs, nor can it discontinue any programs that were funded during this past fiscal year. The military would instead be required to maintain its 2015 budget and spending priorities through at least December of this year.”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

Homeland Security News Wire reports, “Multiple drugs to combat bioterrorism threats and other life-threatening bacterial infections will be developed under a public-private partnership agreement between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (APSR) and AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company. HHS says that the partnership agreement with AstraZeneca uses Other Transaction Authority granted to the Secretary of HHS under the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006.”

Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “Once upon a time, very smart people in the Pentagon believed that connecting sensitive networks, expensive equipment, and powerful weapons to the open Internet was a swell idea. . . . That strategy has spread huge vulnerabilities across the Defense Department, its networks, and much of what the defense industry has spent the last several decades creating.”

Wired’s Cade Metz reports, “Together with NASA and the Universities Space Research Association, or USRA, Google operates its quantum machine at the NASA Ames Research center not far from its Mountain View, California headquarters. Today, D-Wave Systems, the Canadian company that built the machine, said it has agreed to provide regular upgrades to the system—keeping it ‘state-of-the-art’—for the next seven years.”

New York Times’ Robert Mackey reports, “Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, opened his Twitter account with a joke on Tuesday. “Can you hear me now?” he wrote, in a short message that electrified the social network and made reference to his revelations about the agency’s spying on phone calls.”

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.