• Eyeless in Libya -- and a Swiftian border security solution

    Everyone knows what the Libyan rebels are against — Gaddafi — but there is no way tell what they are for; this lack of information is not good; first, the United States and its allies may be pushing for the replacement of the devil we know with the devil we do not know; this is akin to giving Michael Phelps a three body length advantage at a swim meet: not a good idea; second, the lack of knowledge about the rebels is like a Rorschach test: outsiders look at them and see what they want to see; Jonathan Swift suggests that impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies; should we consider a Swiftian solution to problem of securing the U.S.-Mexico border?

  • Senate holds Muslim civil rights hearings

    Senator Dick Durbin (D - Illinois) recently presided over a Senate hearing exploring Muslim civil rights; Durbin said that the goal of the hearings was to show that most Muslim Americans “are patriotic, law abiding people who simply want to live their life as we do”; witnesses said that anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise; from 2008 to 2009 25 percent of all complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were Muslim bias-based; Senator Jon Kyl (R - Arizona) said he was perplexed by the need to hold specific hearings on Muslim civil rights citing the fact that most religious hate crimes in the United states are committed against Jewish people

  • Coalition faces unappealing choices in Libya

    The Obama foreign policy and national security team has concluded that the poorly equipped opposition is probably incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention — either an all-out U.S.-led military assault on regime forces or a decision to arm the rebels; even though an invasion of Libya will be smaller in scope than the invasion of Iraq, the United States and the Europeans have no stomach for it, and the coalition’s Muslim members will not support it; a decision fully to coordinate Western air power with rebel ground movements would place Washington openly on the side of the rebels, whose goals and makeup are murky and whose chances of winning — even with more air support — are questionable

  • TSA fired an agent for being a witch

    TSA fires a security screener at New York’s Albany International Airport for being a witch; the screener, who practices Wicca, was accused by a fellow worker of casting a spell on her (the fellow worker’s) car’s heater so it would not work; when the screener refused to participate in mediation to dispel myths about Wicca, she was terminated

  • Special rural training for NM park rangers

    New Mexico State Park Rangers are currently receiving specialized training from the state’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management; the training is designed to prepare first responders to conduct operations in rural terrain. In particular the program will address the needs of officers working along the state’s southern border with Mexico and in rural areas

  • $200,000 grant for upstate N.Y. fire department

    Last week the city of Tonawanda in western New York received nearly $200,000 from DHS to purchase new firefighting equipment; the money will be used to purchase harnesses, ropes, victim removal devices, enhanced air supply equipment, and a new communications system; funding comes from the DHS Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program; the grant comes at a critical time as the city is struggling with its budget; several local fire departments nearby also received grants last month including those in Rochester, Youngstown, and Ridge-Culver

  • Relying on technology to prevent another WikiLeaks

    After the WikiLeaks scandal leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents from military networks, the U.S Intelligence Community (IC) is grappling to find the right balance between information sharing and protection; IC’s information sharing executive says the government is relying on technological solutions to protect data while also sharing information across intelligence agencies; technological solutions will be implemented in a two-pronged approach over the next two years; implementation of these additional security measures is on schedule and the IC’s chief information officer expects to be able to assign security certificates to IC personnel by the first quarter of FY2012

  • Half of EPA's radiation warning system in California defective

    The defective sensors are part of EPA’s RadNet detection system which was created to provide an active warning system that would alert scientists and public health officials of any elevated levels of radiation so they can warn the public or take other protective measures; half of California’s twelve sensors have been sending data with “anomalies” to the EPA’s main laboratory; the faulty data results in delays of up to several hours; officials say that the sensors are fully functional and that the delays are a result of “glitches” in satellite transmissions; there are several other radiation sensors in the United States operated by local, state, and federal agencies

  • Washington nuclear sensors capable of detecting faintest amounts of radiation

    The radiation detectors developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington are so sensitive that they can detect trace amounts of radioactive material from hundreds of thousands of miles away; far from being a public health concern, the amount of radiation from Japan detected on the west coast of the United States was far less than what individuals receive from natural sources and is testament to the sensors extraordinary sensitivity; officials say that the PNNL’s sensors are a hundred times more sensitive than other radiation sensors; the PNNL facility is capable of picking up the faintest amounts of radioactive elements produced by nuclear reactions from the vast amounts of air particles in the world

  • San Francisco to regulate private biological agent detectors

    Some firms have begun selling building owners and companies untested devices designed to detect anthrax and other biological agents, but city officials are worried that these will generate false alarms; in San Francisco city officials estimate that responding to a false alarm generated by a biological agent detector could cost as much as $700,000; legislation has been introduced to regulate these devices; the bill would require those who have biological agent detectors to pay an annual fee and owners would also be fined as much as $10,000 for false alarms; if passed, owners would have ninety days to register with the city

  • States continue to fight REAL ID

    The battle against the REAL ID act rages on as states continue to oppose implementing REAL ID standards; under the law states would have to remake their driver’s licenses, restructure their computer systems, and create new intra-state data sharing networks; nearly half of the states in the country have enacted anti-Real ID bills including Maine, Alaska, South Carolina, Arizona, and Oklahoma; DHS issued its third reprieve giving states an additional twenty-one months to observe the law; the National Governors Association welcomed the decision; with the recent economic downturn and many states facing budget shortfalls, many states are struggling with the costs of implementing REAL ID standards

  • NATO to take command over stalemated campaign

    Agreement has been reached for NATO to take over command of the Libya campaign from the U.S. Africa Command; the question of command and control has been resolved, but the questions about strategy and direction of the operation have not; it is not easy to see how, short of a ground intervention by an outside force, the operation can escape the current stalemate

  • Keeping it in perspective

    The question we should ask about nuclear power is not whether or not it has risks; every mode of power generation comes with its own risks; rather, the questions we should ask are: How do the risks of nuclear power measure relative to the risks of other power generation methods? Was the disaster in Japan proof that nuclear power plants are riskier than we thought — or did the disaster provide evidence for the opposite conclusions: aging plants absorbed unprecedented blows — a double whammy of an 8.9 earthquake, followed by a massive tsunami; a series of mistakes by plant operators — mistakes which came on top of years of wrong decisions about back-up systems and redundancy — and yet, the plants survived: there was no meltdown; there was but little release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere; some would be moved to say this is a pretty good record under the circumstances

  • Obama: Coalition cannot militarily force Gaddafi to leave

    The Obama administration is continuing to send mixed messages about the direction, purpose, and effect of the U.S.-led missile strikes on Libya, with conflicting statements from the top about Col. Qaddafi’s grip on power five days into the campaign; the coalition’s air dominance has been achieved, but administration officials have not offered a clear picture as to what the no-fly zone is expected to yield; the president reiterated that the coalition does not “have military tools at our disposal in terms of accomplishing Qaddafi’s leaving,” though he has said it is U.S. policy that Qaddafi should go; Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa spoke by telephone Sunday night with assistant secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman; no details were released

  • Madison County, IL receives $260,000 in DHS grants

    Two fire departments in Madison County, Illinois were recently awarded more than $260,000 in federal grants; the grants come as part of DHS’ Assistance to Firefighters program and goes toward the purchase of new safety gear and firefighting equipment; the Wood River fire department will receive $223,556 to help pay for a high-volume foam monitor as well as foam that will be used to put out chemical fires; the Rosewood Heights Fire Protection District will receive $37,050 to procure thirty sets of new protective fire suits