• Radiation risksStudy promises possible therapy for radiation sickness

    Studies of potential radiation therapies suggest they would be effective in humans only if administered within a few minutes or hours of radiation exposure, thus making them impractical for use in response to events involving mass casualties; the larger time window for administering a new 2-drug regimen ofeers the prospect that it could become a mainstay of the response to public health threats such as a nuclear power plant accident or nuclear terror attack

  • Mexican cartelsDHS takes down suspected Mexican gang members in New York

    On 16 November DHS agents arrested twenty-five suspected members of the Mexican Los Vagos gang on a variety of charges including murder conspiracy, assault, firearms offenses, narcotics trafficking, and immigration violations. Los Vagos allegedly used drug trafficking and violence to defend their turf from the Latin Kings, a rival gang

  • First respondersEarly 9/11 responders at greater risk of heart disease

    A new study warns that 9/11 responders who arrived immediately after the attacks could be at greater risk of heart disease; researchers examined the blood vessel walls of thirty-one 9/11 responders and found that the nineteen men and women who went to work before 13 September had much greater damage to their blood vessel walls than those who arrived later

  • Law enforcement technologyLAPD to rely solely on computers to fight crime

    In an unprecedented move, for the next three months the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) will rely entirely on computer software to decide where to deploy patrol officers; the predictive analytics software examines data from past crimes to determine when and where certain crimes are likely to occur next so police can be on hand to stop them before they are committed

  • CybersecurityHackers fail in AT&T cyberattack

    Last week AT&T announced that it had successfully fended off an attack by hackers; the company said it is still unclear what the hackers’ intentions were, but no accounts were breached

  • Bank cyberdefenseU.K. banks pass cyberdefense stress test

    To bolster cyberdefenses in the financial industry, U.K. banks recently took part in a stress test to determine their ability to cope with a cyberattack; eighty-seven banks took participated in the drill including Barclays, HSBC, and Royal Bank of Scotland