Washington, DC - In this week’s address, the President discussed an issue close to his heart: education for adolescent girls around the world. Earlier this week, he and the First Lady announced “Let Girls Learn,” a whole of government initiative that will build on investments we have made and successes we have achieved in global primary school education, and expand them to help adolescent girls complete their education and pursue their broader aspirations. 62 million girls around the world – half of whom are adolescent – are not in school and therefore have diminished economic opportunities.

New York, New York - Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Catherine Russell will co-head the U.S. delegation attending the 59th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to be held March 9–20 at UN Headquarters in New York. Ambassador Samantha Power will also co-head the delegation.

Washington, DC - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will be awarding over $30 million in grants to help schools prepare healthy meals for their children. Twenty-five million dollars in grants will help schools purchase needed equipment to make preparing and serving healthier meals easier and more efficient, and up to $5.5 million will provide additional training for school food service professionals.

Washington, DC - If you watch as much TV as we do, you may have been tempted to reach for the phone to order the Snuggie, that blanket with sleeves for couch potatoes; Forever Comfy, the answer to rump-sprung chairs; or a host of other items sold by New York-based Allstar Marketing Group. And if one Magic Mesh, Cat's Meow, Roto Punch, or Perfect Tortilla wasn’t enough, the ads reeled buyers in with a “double the offer” buy-one-get-one-free promotion the FTC and New York Attorney General said was misleading.

Washington, DC - Today, Rep. Juan Vargas is participating in the 15th Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage in Alabama. The event is taking place March 6-8, 2015 at various landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement. This trip is organized by the Faith and Politics Institute and is comprised of a bipartisan group of Members of Congress from both chambers.

Washington, DC - In another step to enhance the FTC’s website, I'm pleased to announce that our agency has enabled encryption by default (HTTPS) for ftc.gov, our primary public domain, and home of the Tech@FTC blog. Ironically, as I was preparing this post, the entire internet has been FREAKing out about another vulnerability in SSL.