• Lawmaker wants the FAA to keep Midway control tower operating

    Representative Dan Lipinski (D-Illinois) is not happy with the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) decision to add Midway Airport to the list of air ports whose air-traffic control towers  are subject to closing during overnight hours because of the federal budget cuts.

  • Napolitano’s arguments about border security undermined by rise in arrests

    As recently as last Thursday, DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said that border security is at its most robust in years. New numbers released on the same day tell a different story about activity on the border: arrests on the border are up 13 percent compared to this time last year, from 170,223 last year to 192,298 this year. Napolitano argues that arrests alone are not a reflection of how secure the border is, and that crime statistics in border regions – a better measure of border security, she says — are down from previous years.

  • Farm states pass bills to protect farms from activists, whistle-blowers

    In an effort to stop animal rights activists from recording acts of animal cruelty on farms, lawmakers in twelve states have proposed or enacted bills which would make it illegal secretly to record livestock farms or apply for a job at a farm without disclosing ties to animal right organizations.

  • L.A County to turn rain water into drinking water

    Residents of Los Angeles County know that on the rare occasion that it rains, staying away from the beach is a good idea. Runoff from rain typically brings heavy metals, pesticides, cigarette butts, animal waste, and other pollutants  into the streams and rivers which go into the Pacific Ocean. Now, local officials are getting together to find a solution to the water pollution and water scarcity, with an ambitious plan to make the runoff water drinkable.

  • 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.