Captain John C. Kreitz, USS New York

On June 20, the USS New York held a change of command ceremony at sea during her first deployment.

Captain Kreitz will be USS New York's third commanding officer. He joined the Navy in 1982, receiving his commission at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Kreitz has most recently served as the executive assistant to the Chief of Navy Reserve and Commander, Navy Reserve Force.

Commander Herrmann will next report to the United States Northern Command, in Colorado Springs.

The 9/11 Tribute Center, in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, hosted a professional development workshop for educators on July 10-11.  The workshop was generously supported by the Matthew Sellitto Foundation. Over 30 educators from schools throughout the New York metro region and from as far as Colorado and Florida attended the two-day workshop. After guided tours of both the 9/11 Tribute Center and the 9/11 Memorial, educators took part in a series of sessions such as 9/11 - Teaching the Recent Past as History and How to Discuss 9/11 in our Multicultural Classrooms. 

After two rich days of listening, discussing, and planning, educators walked away with an abundance of resources, creative project ideas, and renewed confidence in teaching the difficult, but important topic of 9/11. As one teacher stated, "I feel the impact of 9/11 and realize the need to create an emotional connection for my students through the use of oral histories."

The 9/11 Tribute Center offers professional development workshops for educators throughout the year. If you are interested in attending a future workshop, please email education@tributewtc.org to join our education mailing list.

Construction delays, budget woes and perpetual feuding have stalled the building of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Construction on the Museum stopped in late 2011 due to a financial dispute between the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site, and  the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Foundation, the group that operates the 9/11 Memorial and future Museum.

The intended opening date for the Museum - September 11, 2012 - cannot now be reached. There is doubt over whether an opening in 2013 is possible.

The Port Authority claims the Foundation owes it more than $300,000,000. The Foundation claims that the Port Authority owes it $100,000,000.

The halt in construction added to reports of high costs - such as the Museum's projected annual operating expense of $60,000,000 - have opened a public discourse of how to memorialize 9/11 and at what cost.

After a request to the federal government for $20 million in funding the Foundation made, some victims' families have demanded that the National Parks Service take over the management of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum when the Foundation's lease expires next year, pointing to the Flight 93 Memorial which is run by the National Parks Service. Other family members are opposed to this measure, fearing that more infighting and delays would result.

The projected cost for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum is $800,000,000. Rebuilding the World Trade Center has cost more than $11,000,000,000 as of June 2012.