• Montana floods exacerbate Exxon oil spill

    Flooding in Montana has exacerbated the effects of an oil spill and made clean up more difficult for Exxon Mobil; it is estimated that roughly 750 top 1,000 barrels of crude oil have leaked into the Yellowstone River near Billings, Montana; the pipeline has been shut down, but flooding in the area has made it difficult for clean-up crews to find the source of the leak

  • ICE chief: Israel's inclusion on terror watch list a "mistake"

    DHS officials are now saying Israel’s inclusion on a list of countries that promote, produce, or protect terrorists was a mistake; John Morton, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said, “The addition of Israel to the list—- was based on inaccurate information provided to the OIG during the course of its audit”; a May 2011 report contained an appendix which lists “specially designated countries” that promote terrorism; the list instructed ICE agents to pay special attention to, and investigate more thoroughly, individuals from these countries arrested by ICE; ICE spokesperson suggested that Israel was included not because its government supports terrorism, but because some individual Israelis do pose a terror threat; 1.5 million of Israel’s 7.5 million citizens are Arabs

  • Palestinian non-violent resistance will challenge Israel

    In the last twenty years, the Palestinians launched two violent campaigns — intifadas — against Israeli occupation; both intifadas — the first in 1988, the second in 2000 — were forcefully suppressed by Israel; a Palestinian scholar, now teaching in the United States, has long advocated a peaceful, Gandh-like resistance as a better way for the Palestinians to achieve their national goals; he argued that the indiscriminate killing of Israeli civilians was not only a moral stain on the Palestinian national movement — it is also counter-productive, because it gave Israel reasons to respond with overwhelming force and continue to portray the Palestinians as unwilling to be partners in peace; the Palestinian leadership ignored him in the past, but appears to be listening to him now; Israel is anxious

  • U.S. and Kenya open talks to resume direct flights

    The United States is resuming talks with Kenya to discuss the reopening of direct flights between the two countries; due to fears of terrorism from neighboring Somalia, in September 2009 U.S. officials cancelled a Delta Airlines flight just hours before the fully-booked plane was schedule to depart; the flight would have been the first direct link between the two countries since the late 1980s

  • ICE lists Israel among countries that promote, produce, or protect terrorists

    DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a report describing the methods on which the agency relies to arrest, detain, and, if necessary, deport undesirable aliens; the report contains an appendix which lists “specially designated countries” whose detained nationals should be more closely examined; among the countries whose nationals should be paid special attention as potential terror risks is Israel — which the report considers a “Promoter, Producer, or Protector” of terrorists

  • Missouri struggles to pay for natural disasters

    Last week, Missouri governor Jay Nixon ordered his state budget director to put aside an additional $100 million to help the state’s disaster stricken areas recover; Governor Nixon has already ordered $50 million to be withheld, but Linda Luebbering, the state budget director, worries that the $150 million is not enough

  • Cook County, Illinois cancels troubled security camera program

    Contrary to the latest trends, Cook County, Illinois is scrapping a project to equip police departments with real time streaming cameras; Cook County canceled Project Shield, a $44 million federally funded initiative to provide 128 local police departments with cameras in squad cars and stationary locations that streamed live video to central command centers; the program has been plagued by technical problems, cost overruns, and shoddy performance

  • Audit reveals Montana mishandled federal grant money

    A recent audit of the Montana Department of Military Affairs found that the agency did a poor job of managing federal grant money; the investigation, led by legislative auditors, revealed that the agency had spent approximately $19 million in federal grant money over the past three years but did not monitor subcontractors;the agency is so badly organized that it could not even account for the number of active contracts that it currently had with vendors leaving the door open for potential fraud

  • New York governor determined to close Indian Point nuclear plant

    The Indian Point nuclear power plant, located thirty-five miles north of New York City, is facing increasing pressure from Governor Andrew Cuomo and senior officials say the governor is determined to shut it down; the governor’s hand has been strengthened by new legislation that streamlines the approval process for siting new power plants in New York, a move that would make it easier to replace Indian Point; closing the nuclear plant would be a major step toward reshaping the state’s energy policy as the plant produces 2,000 megawatts and provides New York City and Westchester with 25 percent of their power — but the nuclear disaster in Japan caused by the 11 March earthquake and tsunami raised fresh concerns about the plant, which is located near a fault line

  • Butte County police lobbies for armored vehicle

    For the second year in a row local law enforcement officials in Butte County, California are rallying to obtain grant money to help purchase an armored vehicle; if money from 2011 DHS grants is allocated to Butte County by the state, officials say it would be used to purchase an armored vehicle for the Butte County Sherriff’s Office and Chico

  • New Haven, Connecticut police begin installing security cameras

    New Haven police plan to install twenty-one surveillance cameras in the city’s hot spots for crime. The cameras will give officers a 360 degree view of an area’s streets and sidewalks; police hope that the cameras will help reduce New Haven’s rising violent crime rate; in the first half of 2011, more than eighteen people have been killed

  • White House prioritizes domestic threats in new counterterrorism strategy

    On Tuesday the Obama administration unveiled its new counterterrorism strategy that emphasizes protecting the United States from domestic threats; the deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism said the new U.S. counterterrorism strategy will focus on “the ability of al Qaeda and its network to inspire people in the United States to attack us from within”; the new policy “is not designed to combat directly every single terrorist organization in every corner of the world”; high administration officials said that the death of Osama bin Laden and the wide spread protests across the Middle East have left al Qaeda and other extremists “on the sidelines, watching history pass them by”

  • Austin fights to keep federal money to battle cartels

    With federal lawmakers struggling to reduce spending and cut the deficit, Austin, Texas, could lose as much as $2 million in federal grant money that it uses to combat Mexican drug cartels; on Tuesday, Austin police chief Art Acevedo and Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas) urged lawmakers not to cut their funding citing the fact that the city is a dangerous hub for drug cartels

  • Federal judge blocks Georgia's Arizona-style immigration law

    On Monday, portions of a Georgia immigration law were blocked by a federal judge on the grounds that the role of enforcing immigration was a federal responsibility; under the law, all businesses in Georgia would be required to check the immigration status of all new hires, police officers would be able to verify the immigration status of anyone unable to provide proper identification during a routine stop, and it would be illegal for anyone to knowingly or willingly transport illegal aliens

  • Lawmakers introduce raft of border security bills

    Border security continues to be a hot political issue, and lawmakers of both houses and both parties introduce a raft of new border security-related bills; the bills range from a measure to establish health care services along the U.S.-Mexico border to a proposal to educate border patrol agents about child trafficking to a bill calling for compensation to border counties for high level of undocumented aliens relying on county services