• TERRORISMFBI, DHS Warn of Likely Terrorist Attacks

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security are warning that a copycat terrorist attack could occur similar to the New Year’s Day New Orleans attack.

  • WILDFIRESWhat Made the Los Angeles Wildfires So Monstrous

    By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey and Matt Simon

    Powerful winds and extra-dry vegetation have fueled what may become the costliest wildfires on record. The longer-term challenge is better adapting Los Angeles, and the rest of California, to a future of ever-worsening droughts and wildfires. “People talk about adapting to the climate,” sys one expert. “We haven’t adapted to the climate we have, let alone the climate that’s coming.”

  • GUNSWhat We Learned from Analyzing 10 Years of Shooting Data

    By Samantha Storey and Brian Freskos

    A Trace series challenges what many people might think about gun violence in America. Here is one of the highlights: You’re more likely to be shot in the rural South than in big cities like Chicago.

  • WILDEFIRESA Disaster Expert Explains Why the L.A. Fires Have Been So Catastrophic

    By Renée Cho

    As we’re seeing more and more disaster events, it raises questions about risk and whether insurers are going to keep insuring homes in the long run. Increasingly, it seems the answer is no.

  • ARGUMENT: A ROBUST HOMELAND AIR DEFENSE NETWORKMending Fences: Strengthening Homeland Defense through Integrated Civil-Military Air Surveillance

    A 1953 advertisement for the U.S. Air Force’s civilian Ground Observer Corps described America’s air defenses as a “10 mile high fence full of holes.” Thane C. Clare argues that in the seventy years since then, not much has changed – and that the United States “is not currently prepared to face a growing number of national security threats and challenges, including from the air.”

  • GUNSHow Many People Were Killed by the Pandemic Surge in Shootings?

    By Olga Pierce

    In a new analysis, The Trace figured out the number of people who might have lived if gun violence had remained at its 2019 level.

  • IRAN’S NUKESJapanese Yakuza Leader Pleads Guilty to Nuclear Materials Trafficking

    Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, the other day to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries.

  • EXTREMISMThe Militia and the Mole

    By Joshua Kaplan

    A wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover, climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell his family or friends. He penetrated a new generation of militia leaders, which included doctors and government attorneys. Experts say that militias could have a renaissance under Donald Trump. He sent ProPublica a massive trove of documents. The conversations that he secretly recorded give a unique, startling window into the militia movement.

  • TERRORISMIslamic State Group-Inspired New Orleans Attack Revives Familiar Fears

    By Jeff Seldin

    Even before the shock from the deadly New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans could subside, early indications from the investigation pointed to a scenario U.S. law enforcement and security officials have long feared –a plot at least inspired by the Islamic State terror group.

     

  • TERRORISMVehicle-Ramming Attacks

    Vehicle-ramming attacks have emerged as a significant terrorist tactic in Europe and, to a lesser extent, in the United States. From the perpetrator’s perspective, ramming attacks have several advantages.

  • TERRORISMVehicles as a Terrorist Weapon: History of the Last 20 Years

    The last twenty years have seen dozens of terrorist attacks in which the perpetrators used a vehicle as a weapon.

  • DEPORTATIONSTrump Has Promised to Build More Ships. He May Deport the Workers Who Help Make Them.

    By Nicole Foy

    President-elect Donald Trump has promised to increase the pace of U.S. military shipbuilding. But his pledge to also clamp down on immigration could make it hard for shipyards already facing workforce shortages.

  • CARTELSCartels Turn to Social Media to Lure Americans into Human Smuggling as Texas Enforces Stricter Laws

    By Alejandro Serrano

    Thousands of people have been arrested under Texas’ human smuggling law. Now they face at least a decade in prison under sentencing guidelines that took effect this year.

  • GANGSVenezuelan Prison Gang Crime, Arrests Confirmed in 22 U.S. States

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    Over the last two years, an unknown number of violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua prison gang members illegally entered the United States. Police records and official law enforcement statements confirm TdA-linked crime and arrests have occurred in 22 U.S. states.

  • CHEMICAL SPILLSAccidents Not Waiting to Happen

    By Marina Schauffler

    Fires are classified by the material ignited, and only Class A fires —involving wood, cloth, rubber and some plastics —respond well to water. Class A foam is typically used on structural fires because it penetrates into materials to quell flames quickly. But a recent firefighting foam spill points to a much larger problem Maine has ignored.