• New DHS network still has problems

    HSIN was launched in 2004 to provide a secure, Internet-based system to share terrorism information with federal, state, and local agencies and the private sector, but ran into problems; last year DHS decided to replace it with a new system, but that one, too, has problems

  • DHS, NSF announce $3.1 million awards for radiological detection

    DHS and NSF give awards to academic institutions to advance research in radiological and nuclear detection

  • More debate about how best to defend Earth against asteroids

    U.C. Berkeley expert says protecting Earth against incoming asteroids “is not an astronomy problem. It is a financial problem, an accounting problem, an international problem, an organizational problem, a political problem”

  • Texas county weighing border fence alternatives

    Cameron County, Texas, must decide which option is more beneficial to it: DHS’s fence plan which the county does not like, but which will see $37 million in contracts go to local businesses, or resubmitting the county’s alternative fence plan, which DHS had already rejected, exploiting the fact that DHS has postponed the 31 December fence deadline

  • Briefly noted

    Aussie cyber security needs work… D.C. policy carry iPhones… Surveillance radar in Indonesian straits… HUD awards Iowa critical infrastructure funds…

  • India eases foreign borrowing rules to aid infrastructure

    The U.S. infrastructure is often described as “aging” or “crumbling”; in india they refer to the country’s “ramshackle infrastructure”; the Indian government, as part of a move to have $500 billion invested in improving the country’s infrastructure, eases borrowing rule, allowing Indian companies involved in infrastructure improvement to borrow more money abroad

  • USPS to deploy IPv6-capable video surveillance

    The U.S. Postal Services wants to increase security inside the more than 40,000 post offices around the country; it will install IPv6-capable CCTV systems — complying with the federal government encouragment of agnecies to migrate to IPv6

  • DHS may operate under continuing resolution in the new fiscal year

    Republican lawmakers and DHS officials warn that allowing DHS to operate under a continuing resolution in the new fiscal year would have consequences for several programs, possibly weakening U.S. security; Democrats strongly disagree

  • Panel says nearly $15 billion wasted in 11 failed DHS contracts

    A House homeleand security subcommittee charges that there is nearly $15 billion in waste in 11 failed DHS contract

  • Asking fundamental questions about the homeland security agenda

    The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks should occasion a debate about fundamentals, not merely a tactical, short-term security issues; such fundamental issues have to do with how the United States fits increased security from natural and man-made disasters into a liberal, democratic, free-market system characterized by federalism and checks-and-balances

  • FDA hires 1,300 new doctors and scientists

    Staffing drive, launched just five months ago, will result in an estimated 10 percent increase in the FDA’s work force

  • DHS: Progress and priorities, II

    Since its creation more than five years ago, DHS has made significant progress — uneven progress — in protecting the United States from dangerous people and goods, protecting the U.S. critical infrastructure, strengthen emergency response, and unifying department operations

  • DHS: Progress and priorities, I

    Since its creation more than five years ago, DHS has made significant progress — uneven progress — in protecting the United States from dangerous people and goods, protecting the U.S. critical infrastructure, strengthen emergency response, and unifying department operations

  • U.S. gets a C grade in WMD report

    A blue ribbon panel of former high security official says terrorism threat remains real, and that the U.S. government’s efforts to counter WMD threats leave much to be desired

  • Chertoff: Neglect threatens infrastructure

    DHS secretary Michael Chertoff says that lack of investment in U.S. infrastructure “[is] kind of like playing Russian roulette with our citizens’ safety”