• Withdrawal of Syrian troops from Golan area heightens Israel’s concerns

    For forty years, Syria had deployed four army divisions in positions along the eastern border of the Golan Heights. Israel has considered the Israel-Syria border to be its safest border. With the continuing deterioration of the Syrian regime’s military situation, the Assad government is in the process of redeploying two divisions – some 20,000 soldiers – from the Golan region to Damascus to help defend the capital against growing rebel pressure. Jihadi elements from the anti-Assad coalition have been moving into the security vacuum created along the Israeli border by the withdrawal of the Syrian troops, increasing the opportunities for friction and the likelihood of an Israeli military involvement in Syria.

  • Finding the right tools to respond to suspicious powder incidents

    HazMat teams across the United States respond to hundreds of white powder calls each year in large cities where quick decision-making is critical. DHS makes it easier to buy the right technology for bio-threat incidents.

  • California city could become first in the state to ban drones

    The City Council in Rancho Mirage, California was set  to vote yesterday on a proposal which would ban the use of drones in residential areas in the city. If it passes, it will be the first law of its kind in the state. The ordinance would ban the flying of “unmanned aircraft that can fly under the control of a remote pilot or by a geographic positions system (GPS) guided autopilot mechanism” up to 400 feet above areas that have been zoned residential.

  • Maryland’s new firearms safety law requires fingerprinting gun buyers

    The Maryland House of Delegates passed a new law on Wednesday which will require the fingerprinting of gun buyers, mandate background checks, restrict availability of weapons to the mentally ill, and ban certain kinds of assault weapons and magazines of more than ten bullets.

  • House Intelligence Committee to work on cybersecurity bill in camera

    The House Intelligence Committee will meet next week in order to draft a  cybersecurity bill, known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), but will not allow media members or the public to sit in on meetings during the process.

  • Obama, Hagel take pay cut to help sequester-affected federal employees

    President Barack Obama is following in the footsteps of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel by taking  a 5 percent pay cut to support federal workers who will be furloughed. Obama’s move will be backdated to 1 March, the first day of the sequester. The president’s yearly salary is $400,000, meaning that the cut will equal $20,000. Other senior administration officials, and some members of Congress and their staffs, have also announced that they will return a portion of their salary to the Treasury.

  • Bipartisan House immigration overhaul bill offers three paths to legal status

    While a bipartisan Senate group – the Group of Eight – is set to unveil its immigration overhaul proposal next week when Congress returns from a break, a bipartisan group of House members has come up with its own immigration reform draft. The House members’ proposal divides illegal immigrants into three categories – “Dreamers” and agricultural workers; those with families and jobs in the United States; and those who do not belong in either of the two other categories – and offers immigrants in each category a distinct path to citizenship.

  • U.S. prosecutor leaves Texas Aryan Brotherhood case due to safety concerns

    A federal prosecutor in Houston has withdrawn from a racketeering case involving the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Assistant U.S. attorney Jay Hileman left the case due to concerns over his and his family’s safety after a Kaufman County district attorney and an assistant attorney were killed in two separate incidents. It is not known whether Hileman and his family were specifically threatened.

  • Georgia town requires households to have firearms

    Nelson, a Georgia town of fewer than 2,000 people, has passed a mandatory gun ownership law in an effort to lower the town’s crime rate. The city council unanimously passed the Family Protection Ordinance on Monday, requiring “heads of households to maintain firearms … in order to provide for the emergency management of the city.”

  • China catches 12 times more fish beyond its waters than it reports

    Chinese fishing boats catch about $11.5 billion worth of fish from beyond their country’s own waters each year — and most of it goes unreported. Researchers estimate Chinese foreign fishing at 4.6 million tons per year, taken from the waters of at least ninety countries — including 3.1 million tons from African waters, mainly West Africa.

  • CBP rethinks budget cuts-related furloughs, over-time reductions

    Facing mounting criticism by political leaders and law enforcement in border states, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has decided to delay the implementation of two-week furloughs and cuts to overtime hours to its employees. The furloughs were originally set to begin later this month, and some said that reduction in hours worked by front-line personnel would have reduced security along the border.

  • GOP lawmakers say immigration reform bill should not be rushed

    As the unveiling of the bipartisan Gang of Eight’s immigration bill approaches, , Republican lawmakers, including one who  is part of the bipartisan group,  are asking Senate leaders to slow down the consideration of  the bill so as  to avoid making “fatal mistakes.”

  • Spotting potential killers, rather than armed guards, would make schools safer: study

    Tragedies involving children, such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School, fuel outrage and calls for immediate action to prevent similar atrocities. Lawmakers are debating different gun control measures, while the National Rifle Association’s unveiled a plan – the National Shield School Proposal — which calls for placing armed guards at schools. Three criminal justice researchers argue that the NRA’s proposal is problematic, expensive, and would not be effective. The researchers say there is evidence to show that in the majority of school shootings, the assailant suffered from some type of mental health issue, dysfunctional family, problems at school, social isolation, and in some instances, bullying. The article authors suggest that it is these issues that are the root cause of these tragedies, and that in order to prevent school violence, society must address troubled youth.

  • Growing U.S. concern over North Korean miscalculation

    U.S. officials are increasingly concerned with the escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the risk of miscalculation. The fear is that North Korea’s young leader, Kin Jong Un, may have launched the harsh rhetorical campaign against South Korea and the United States for domestic reasons – especially the need to establish his leadership credentials in the eyes of the skeptical North Korean military – but that his youth and inexperience may lead him to over-play his hand. “He is 28, 29 years old, and he keeps going further and further out, and I don’t know if he can get himself back in,” Rep. Peter King (R-New York), former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said.

  • Aryan Brotherhood suspected in Texas prosecutors killings

    The FBI and other law enforcement agencies believe the white supremacist group the Aryan Brotherhood could be behind the murders of a Texas district attorney and his wife last weekend, and the death of an assistant district attorney earlier this year.