• Netanyahu cancels security cabinet meeting on Iran after leaks

    Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, scheduled a 2-day marathon meeting of Israel’s security cabinet for Tuesday and Wednesday, with an 8-hour session planned for each day; the 2-day meeting was called for a thorough and comprehensive – and probably decisive — discussion of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and what should Israel do about it; the speakers on Tuesday included the directors of Israel’s military and civilian intelligence agencies; early Wednesday, Netanyahu abruptly canceled the meeting’s second session because of leaks from Tuesday top-secret meeting session appeared in the Israeli press 

  • DHS funds more tests of autonomous power buoy for ocean surveillance

    Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has entered into an agreement with DHS Science & Technology Directorate to perform a new round of in-ocean tests on the company’s Autonomous PowerBuoy to demonstrate its use for ocean surveillance

  • DHS in settlement talks with employee who charged that ICE was being run “frat style”

    DHS has entered into settlement talks with James Hayes, the head of New York ICE office, following a suit filed by Hayes against DHS secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE; the suit charged two female executives at ICE with turning the agency into a “frat house,” and with discrimination against male employees of the agency

  • Cloud OS for the U.S. intelligence community

    Cloud management specialist Adaptive Computingis partnering with the investment arm of the CIA, In-Q-Tel, to develop a cloud operating system for use by U.S. intelligence agency

  • Assassination attempt on Quebec’s premier-elect foiled

    A man shouting “The Anglos are waking up” broke into a victory party held by Pauline Marois, Quebec’s premier-elect and the leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ), after the party won the provincial election on Tuesday; the gunman missed Marois but killed one man and wounded two others; the PQ emerged as the largest party in the province, but it failed to win an outright majority; its minority government status means that it will not be able to push for a referendum on Quebec’s independence from Canada

  • Law-enforcement agencies eager for Web-surveillance tools

    Private technology firms are pitching software capable of analyzing large swaths of the Internet to local law enforcement looking for ways to stop the next mass shooting or domestic terrorist event before it happens; police departments hope the software will help them detect online information from terrorists, traffickers, pedophiles, and rioters

  • Janet Napolitano named in two lawsuits

    DHS secretary Janet Napolitano is under fire for two very different reasons as she is named in two separate lawsuits; the first lawsuit charges that two women executives Napolitano brought to DHS have mistreated male employees at the department; the second suit, brought by several ICE agents, charges that the administration’s deferred deportation executive order, which went into effect 15 August, force the agents face difficult choices while performing their tasks

  • House panel charges DHS overstates deportation figures

    A House committee says the administration inflates the number of illegal aliens it has deported in 2011 and 2012; the committee says the administration is able to cite larger numbers of deportees by including numbers from the Alien Transfer Exit Program (ATEP) in the administration’s year-end removal numbers; if the number of ATEP-removed individuals is subtracted from ICE-deported individuals, then the annualized number of deportees in 2011 and 2012 would lower – rather than higher – than the number of deportees in 2008 and 2009

  • Many of the U.S. 20 million manholes are in need of immediate rehabilitation or replacement

    The EPA estimates that there are about twenty million manholes in the United States – or one manhole for every 400 feet of pavement on average; many of those manholes are in serious decay or in need of immediate rehabilitation or replacement

  • MIT expert: “toxic” political discussions limit climate response

    In a talk at the Sandia National Lab, an MIT expert says the inability of natural and social scientists to convince political leaders that “we’re spinning a roulette wheel over climate change” puts humanity at “extreme risk,” and that the difficulties in using science to push for mitigation strategies are more political than scientific

  • Storing government records for generations to come

    A White House directive released last week requires that federal agencies adopt systems which will store and manage all electronic records in order to keep them safe and secure for future generations

  • As Hurricane Isaac beats on New Orleans, new infrastructure is holding up

    This week, as Hurricane Isaac was threatening to replicate the physical damage that Katrina inflicted, it has become apparent that $14 billion worth of changes and improvements in infrastructure, planning, and emergency response procedures have given the city of New Orleans and the Gulf states the ability to withstand the worst of the storm

  • Isaac leaves flooding, power outages in its path

    Hurricane Isaac lost its Category 1 hurricane status midday Wednesday and was downgraded to a tropical storm, but the severe rains and winds which it brought with it have not let up much; the number of power outages continues to increase as the number of homes and businesses without electricity is now up to 834,000 between Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas, with over one-third of the outages in Louisiana alone

  • Industry fights Pentagon efforts to restrict exporting of infrared products

    The global market for infrared technology products will be worth about $2.6 billion dollars by 2017; the technology can be used for commercial products such as automotive, surveillance, and security industries – and is heavily used by the military; three major U.S. infrared equipment makers fight the Pentagon’s efforts to restrict exports of devices based on the technology for fear these devices may enhance the military capabilities of adversaries of the United States

  • Evaluating fresh water sustainability in the southern U.S.

    Researchers have embarked on 4-year federal research effort to evaluate freshwater sustainability across the southern United States and develop policy recommendations on what can be done to make the best use of water supplies in the face of population growth and the effects of climate change over the next ten to thirty years