Tornado Alley Is Migrating Eastward | DHS Intelligence Rearranges the Deck Chairs—Again | Fixing the ‘Hopelessly Obsolete’ Classification System, and more

American Terrorism: From Timothy McVeigh to January 6  (David Masciotra, Washington Monthly)
The Defense Department defines terrorism as the “unlawful use of violence or threat of violence to instill fear and coerce governments and societies.” Given the official definition, it is easy to conclude that Americans live in an era of domestic terror. The January 6 insurrection, the Michigan militia plot to abduct and assassinate Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the home invasion and beating of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and several mass shootings accompanied by racist manifestos all fit the description. In the background is the dark and dangerous reality of escalating hate crimes against Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and LGBTQ Americans, as well as increased violence targeting abortion clinics and death threats registering in the thousands against school board members, librarians, and election workers. Although Islamic terrorism and left-wing violence certainly exist on American soil, the predominant use and threat of violence intending to “instill fear and coerce governments” comes from the right wing. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s statistically exhaustive annual Murder and Extremism study, right-wing ideology was behind 76 percent of extremist murders in the United States from 2009 to 2019. The numbers remained roughly the same in 2020.  

Who Gets In? A Guide to America’s Chaotic Border Rules. (Natalie Kitroeff, Christine Zhang, Miriam Jordan and Eileen Sullivan, New York Times)
New restrictions on asylum will lead many migrants to be deported — but others will still get into the United States. Here’s what the process will look like.

Watch Out: Tornado Alley Is Migrating Eastward  (Mark Fischetti, Matthew Twombly, and Daniel P. Huffman, Scientific American)
Roughly 1,200 tornadoes strike the U.S. during an average year. They’re prevalent in the U.S.—far more so than anywhere else in the world—because its geography sets up the perfect conditions, especially in spring and summer. Westerly winds from the Pacific Ocean drop their moisture when they push up over the Rocky Mountains, becoming high, dry and cool as they move farther east. Similar winds may descend from Canada. Meanwhile low, warm, humid air streams northward from the Gulf of Mexico. Flat terrain along these paths allows the winds to move relatively uninterrupted, at contrasting altitudes, until they run into one another. The angles at which they collide tend to create unstable air and wind shear, two big factors that favor tornado formation. Although somewhat similar air masses do clash in other places, such as Uruguay and Bangladesh, the forces are much more powerful over the U.S. Canada ranks second worldwide with 100 twisters a year.

Experts See Lessons for Next Pandemic as Covid Emergency Comes to an End  (Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Noah Weiland, New York Times)
The United States’ struggle to respond to the virus has highlighted the importance of communicating with the public, sharing data and stockpiling vital supplies.

U.S. Focuses on Invigorating ‘Chiplets’ to Stay Cutting-Edge in Tech  (Don Clark, New York Times)
Chiplets, a way to design chips for higher performance, has become a key prong of U.S. industrial policy. But pushing for more of this activity domestically is challenging.

Bipartisan Group Aims to Fix ‘Hopelessly Obsolete’ Classification System  (Courtney Bouble, Defense One)
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators unveiled legislation on Wednesday to reform the information classification system in a bid to reduce over-classification and prevent the mishandling of classified documents.
One bill—the Classification Reform Act—would designate the director of national intelligence as the executive agent for classification and declassification, which would lead to “whole of government” reforms; ensure that information can only be classified when the national security harms outweigh the public interest to know; enforce a 25-year period for classification; “tax” agencies based on their use of classification; and require a security review of presidential and vice presidential records to make sure that documents with classified markers aren’t designated as personal records incorrectly. 
The other bill— the Sensible Classification Act—would codify who has classification authority; promote efficient declassification of records subject to the Freedom of Information Act or Mandatory Declassification Review; require training for “sensible” classification; provide the Public Interest Declassification Board with more staff; and direct federal agencies to review how many security clearance holders they actually need.