Tackling Extremists’ | Federalizing the National Guard and Domestic Use of the Military | Florida’s Experiment with Measles | A New Era of Financial Warfare, and more

(NC News10)
The decision was made to prepare against “rare, unlikely, and unfortunate circumstances” that could constitute a threat to school safety.

Oakland-Based Clorox Hires Security Guards to Escort Employees Downtown  (Fox KTVU)
Oakland-based Clorox is the latest business downtown to take steps to protect its workers from crime.
The company says it’s hired additional uniformed security officers to escort employees from its building at 12th and Broadway to BART, parking lots, restaurants and coffee shops.

Halifax Alehouse Security Officer’s Actions Caused Death of Man, Lawsuit Alleges  (Josh Hoffman, CBC)
The actions of a security officer at a downtown Halifax bar led to the death of a man on Christmas Eve in 2022, according to one of two civil lawsuits filed by the man’s family against the bar and a former employee.

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Leak Reveals the Unusual Path of ‘Urgent’ Russian Threat Warning  (Dell Cameron, Wired)
A decision by US House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) chair Mike Turner to sound the alarm over space-based Russian military research was far more extraordinary than previously reported.

Florida’s Experiment with Measles  (Daniel Engber, The Atlantic)
The state of Florida is trying out a new approach to measles control: No one will be forced to not get sick.

Here Are the Secret Locations of ShotSpotter Gunfire Sensors  (Dhruv Mehrotra and Joey Scott, Wired)
The gunshot-detection system ShotSpotter has for years drawn criticism from activists and academics who believe the company behind the system, SoundThinking, places its microphone sensors primarily in low-income communities of color. 

How Many Sentinel Missiles Does the United States Need?  (Al Mauroni, War on the Rocks)
The U.S. Air Force deployed its first Minuteman missile in 1962. There’s no getting around this basic point, that America’s intercontinental ballistic missile fleet is a Cold War relic. 

Shining a Light on the Defense Department’s Industrial Base Problems  (Jeff Decker and Noah Sheinbaum, Texas National Security Review)
With the recent release of the National Defense Industrial Strategy, the Defense Department has acknowledged the urgency of strengthening the linkages between a healthy defense industrial base and U.S. military power. 

The Supreme Court Will Decide Whether to Let Civilians Own Automatic Weapons  (Ian Millhiser, Vox)
On February 28, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could effectively make it legal for civilians to own automatic weapons capable of firing as many as nine bullets every second.

Ex-FBI Informant Charged with Lying About Bidens Had Russian Intelligence Contacts, Prosecutors Say  (AP / VOA News)
A former FBI informant charged with making up a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company had contacts with officials affiliated with Russian intelligence, prosecutors said in a court paper Tuesday.

Something’s Fishy About the ‘Migrant Crisis’  (Jerusalem Demsas, The Atlantic)
Sometimes the best way to understand why something is going wrong is to look at what’s going right. The asylum seekers from the border aren’t the only outsiders in town. 

A New Era of Financial Warfare  (Ali Ahmadi and Owais Arshad, National Interest)
The twenty-first century ushered in a “new era of financial warfare” as the United States imposed robust financial sanctions on its adversaries. Unlike traditional trade sanctions, these measures focus on disrupting a target state’s cross-border financial channels to isolate it from the global economy. 

Los Angeles Just Proved How Spongy a City Can Be  (Matt Simon, Wired)
Earlier this month, the future fell on Los Angeles. A long band of moisture in the sky, known as an atmospheric river, dumped 9 inches of rain on the city over three days—over half of what the city typically gets in a year. It’s the kind of extreme rainfall that’ll get ever more extreme as the planet warms.

All That Rain Is Driving Up Cases of a Deadly Fungal Disease in California  (Zoya Teirstein, Wired)
Last week, a long, narrow section of the Earth’s atmosphere funneled trillions of gallons of water eastward from the Pacific tropics and unleashed it on California. This weather event, known as an atmospheric river, broke rainfall records, dumped more than a foot of rain on parts of the state, and knocked out power for 800,000 residents. At least nine people died in car crashes or were killed by falling trees. But the full brunt of the storm’s health impacts may not be felt for months.