• 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

    Smart cluster bomb hunts down targets… Anthrax-case documents reveal bizarre Ivins’s behavior… New FISMA bill receives committee OK… L-1 in $5.9 million Mississippi driver’s license contract…

  • NATO in major anti-terror drill

    NATO will hold a two-week comprehensive anti-terrorrism drill in Sardinia; 15 nations, 10 agencies will coordinate land, air, sea, space assets in an effort to smooth communication, information sharing, and operational execution

  • Briefly noted

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

  • Alternatives to the H-1B visa, pt. 1: O-1 "Extraordinary ability"

    The U.S. immigration services received more than 163,000 petitions for the 65,000 regular H-1B visas allocated for FY2009; the homeland security, hi-tech, and services sectors, as well as academic and research institutions, need another way to bring to the United States qualified foreign workers and researchers; one such way is the O-1 “Extraordinary Ability” visa

  • Neither presidential campaign has contacted DHS about transition

    DHS has set up transition teams to facilitate a smooth and effective transmission of information and transition of authority to the new administration, but neither the McCain or the Obama campaign has contacted the teams

  • 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

  • Infrared lie detector

    Rather than measure what are taken to be the symptoms of lying — increased heart and respiration rate, perspiration — new infrared detector measures brain activity

  • 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

  • FAST-certified trucker tries to smuggle drugs into U.S.

    The Free And Secure Trade (FAST) program allows truckers who drive back and forth across the U.S. border to pre-register with Customs, thus giving them the status of low-risk traveler; one FAST-certified driver used status to smuggle drugs

  • Treasury grants cannot be used for chemical detection

    The federal government told the Boston transit authority and other municipal transportation agencies that they cannot use anti-terrorism grants to install chemical threat detection systems at subway stations

  • Lockheed Martin team delivers first littoral combat ship to U.S. Navy

    Dealing with terrorist threats from the sea, and with other threats in the shallows, the Navy requires a different type of equipment, the and the littoral combat ship is part of the answer

  • Chinese dairies add organic base found in plastics and resins to products

    Lab tests in Hong Kong find that Chinese company’s dairy offerings, including milk, ice cream, and yogurt, were contaminated with melamine — an organic base usually found in plastics and resins, and banned in food

  • Colorado to remove Social Security numbers from public Web sites

    Colorado attorney general asks counties to remove documents containing Social Security numbers from public Web sites, saying that the “The availability of this information online increases the possibility of Colorado citizens becoming the victims of identity theft”