The Battlefield Restoration Grants funds to restore “day-of-battle” conditions at battlefields and historic sites associated with the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The grants are awarded by administrators from the American Battlefield Protection Program, a subsect of the National Park Service that uses resources from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which reinvests funds raised from offshore oil and natural gas leasing to improve conservation and recreation opportunities across the country.

In Pennsylvania, the America Battlefield Trust received $62,500 for projects restoring Gettysburg. Two sites in Virginia were awarded $254,428 for projects involving the restoration of Brandy Station and Huntsberry Farm, with an additional $28,277 going toward the demolition of non-historic buildings near Virginia’s New Market battlefield.

Huntsberry Farm, a 209-acre property in the Shenandoah Valley, was purchased in 2009. This year’s grant will be dedicated to build a fence around the historic battlefield. The funds will help preserve a portion of the battlefield where more than 50,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fought on Sept. 19, 1864.

According to the press release, a confederate soldier said the battle was like none other. “A more murderous fire I never witnessed,” the soldier said. A Union soldier was also noted as saying that Confederate artillery fire “walked death in our ranks.”

NPS Director Chuck Sams said in the press release that the grants will build on collaborative conservation efforts between nonprofit partners and state and local governments.

“By restoring landscapes, grant recipients can preserve important historic sites,” he said. “At the same time, they are conserving open spaces, protecting natural resources, and providing public access to our shared heritage.”

The report, which was obtained by Bloomberg News, said soldiers complained of headaches, eyestrain and nausea, with 80% of those who experienced discomfort noting that their symptoms started after less than three hours of using the goggles.

Nickolas Guertin, director of DoD’s Operation Test and Evaluation, said in the report obtained by Bloomberg that those issues must be addressed, but he didn’t deem the device a failure. The Army should “prioritize improvements” before a wider fielding to reduce the “physical discomfort of users,” Guertin said, according to Bloomberg.

The report, which was not made public, was marked as “Controlled Unclassified Information.”

The exercise chronicled in the report was conducted in May and June, although service members have been testing the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS, for the last few years. In 2020, Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston reviewed the systems as soldiers tested out the goggles in drills, such as clearing rooms.

The appeal of the goggles, Army leaders shared at the time, is that they give low-level leaders the ability to easily run new soldiers through various battle drills, building up small unit skillsets.

The goggles are supposed to provide a “heads-up display” for ground troops, similar to those utilized by fighter pilots.

Guertin noted in the report’s summary that improvements are needed with the goggle’s low-light sensors, display clarity, field of vision and other essential functions, according to Bloomberg. Guertin also noted that the latest model of the goggles — a customized-version of Microsoft’s HoloLens — allowed for “enhanced navigation and coordination of unit movements.”

The Army has proposed spending upwards of $420 million on the program this fiscal year and estimated that it may spend around $22 billion on the goggles over the next decade, citing costs including spare parts and support services, Bloomberg reported.

But while Army budgets and estimates view these goggles in a positive light, the report shows that soldiers may not be as infatuated with the goggles as planners are.

The level at which soldiers accepted the goggles “remains low,” the report showed, and both soldiers and leaders don’t think the goggles “contribute to their ability to complete their mission.”

While Microsoft was not given a copy of the Pentagon’s test results, the technology company told Bloomberg in a statement that “our close collaboration with the Army has enabled us to quickly build” and adjust the goggles “to develop a transformational platform that will deliver enhanced soldier safety and effectiveness. We are moving forward with the production and delivery of the initial set.”

The Army’s assistant secretary for acquisition, Doug Bush, said the Army “is fully aware” of concerns from the testing office and adjusting the program’s schedule “to allow time to develop solutions to the issues identified,” Bloomberg reported.

Despite these results, however, Bush gave the Army the green light to begin accepting the initial 5,000 sets of goggles produced that had been put on hold.

“On Friday, September 16, the Commonwealth offered the migrants a voluntary transition from Martha’s Vineyard facility to Joint Base Cape Cod (JBCC),” the press release revealed. “State officials provided transportation to individuals and families from the island to a temporary shelter on JBCC, where a broad range of services have been established to support urgent needs.”

Included in those services are access to health care and crisis counseling, translators, food, clothing, and case managers to help with temporary housing and even education services for children, the press release said.

More than 100 National Guard members were activated in response, the press release also confirmed. The Massachusetts National Guard declined to comment.

Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director, said the flights were scheduled in an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” but according to the victims and their representatives, they were lured to the area under false pretenses.

The migrants were allegedly promised that after being flown to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy vacation spot for many New York and Boston elite, they would be taken to Boston, Julio Henriquez, an attorney who met with several migrants, told the Associated Press.

“They had no idea of where they were going or where they were,” he said.

Henriquez said that after the migrants’ initial arrival at a city-run shelter in San Antonio, a woman approached them and moved them into a nearby La Quinta Inn, where she reportedly made daily food runs. She allegedly promised the migrants jobs and three months of housing in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

Many of the migrants are asylum-seekers, having fled the authoritarian regime in Venezuela, and while asylum seekers in the U.S. have limited rights compared to full citizens, the U.S. Constitution does protect them from improper treatment by the government and from discrimination based on race or national origin.

In Texas, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar opened an investigation into the incident on Sept. 19.

Requests for comment from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency were not returned.

U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm also ordered Eddie Ray Johnson, Jr., age 60, of Brandywine, Maryland, to three years probation after his 16-month sentence. The first of the three years will be served in home confinement, marking the part of his sentence that addresses theft of government property.

According to the press release, Johnson was additionally ordered to pay more than $1.1 million in restitution, on top of a separate $15,000 fine. He must also perform 500 hours of community service.

Johnson worked for the Air Force as a civilian employee from 2003 to February 2018, serving most recently as a travel coordinator for the Secretary of the Air Force’s Office of Legislative Liaison. According to court documents, it was Johnson’s job to plan congressional travel, reviewing and approving accounting packages submitted by trip escorts.

Johnson admitted in court documents that from March 2014 through September 2017, he used his position and his government travel charge card to obtain more than $1.1 million in cash advances. He used $774,000 of that for his own personal benefit. Court documents did not specify what happened to the remaining $326,000 Johnson stole.

According to his plea agreement, Johnson would deposit stolen funds into a non-interest-bearing account open in his name at a bank branch in the Pentagon. While employees in the Office of Legislative Liaison were instructed to open these accounts to facilitate their daily duties, Johnson used his to write checks to himself. He would then deposit those checks into other personal accounts, spending the stolen funds to pay for a baby grand piano, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, family vacations and living expenses.

Johnson additionally admitted to giving stolen cash to family members, including his spouse.

During the investigation against Johnson, law enforcement recovered approximately $15,174 in cash from his home in 2019, $4,000 of which he was ordered to forfeit during his sentencing.

In total, Johnson’s actions cost the federal government $1,157,540.69, which includes $26,506.02 in banking fees the Air Force paid monthly for the stolen cash advances. He will pay back the $1.1 million loss as part of his court-ordered restitution.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dana J. Brusca and Elizabeth Wright prosecuted the case while the investigation was carried out by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Defense Department Office of Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office.