• Debating how to shore up U.S. infrastructure

    As federal, state, and municipal governments justifiably look to the private sector to help rebuild the aging U.S. infrastructure, they must make sure that the public interest in affordable and accessible infrastructure does not take a back seat

  • Chertoff: Neglect threatens infrastructure

    DHS secretary Michael Chertoff says that lack of investment in U.S. infrastructure “[is] kind of like playing Russian roulette with our citizens’ safety”

  • The H-1B program: Mend it, don't end it

    Any required labor-market test must facilitate extraordinary alacrity; delays of years, months, or even weeks are unacceptable; similarly, H-1B workers should be paid the same wage as their U.S. counterparts: The H-1B program should not be a means by which “cheap foreign labor” is imported

  • Urgent inquiry as more personal data missing in Britain

    Another data loss blunder in Britain, as a disc containing the personal details of 5,000 employees of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), who may include many prison officers, went missing

  • New York State gives company 45 days to fix problems

    New York State awarded M/A Com a contract for building the infrastructure for the statewide wireless network for first responders; the contract was to be completed by December 2006; state comptroller office, citing the delay and nearly 20 other deficiencies, gives company 45 days to fix problem or see its contract revoked

  • Blumenthal: Impact statement regarding Plum Island seriously flawed

    Connecticut’s attorney general: “[DHS’s] draft environmental impact statement is profoundly flawed — factually deficient, and legally insufficient — mis-assessing the monstrous risks of siting a proposed national bio- and agro-defense facility on Plum Island”

  • New York officials want Plum Island to remain a Level-3 BioLab

    DHS is considering upgrading the Plum Island BioLab from Level-3 to Level-4 so it could conduct research into the deadliest diseases; the department argues that Plum Island’s relative isolation would make an accidental pathogen release less costly relatively to such release from a mainland-based lab; New York officials strongly disagree

  • Scarcity of science, technology students worries military IT officials

    Pentagon information technology officials: The dearth of Americans being trained in science and technology is one of the greatest threats to the U.S. military’s future

  • Lawrenceville, PA bioterror lab opening on hold indefinitely

    A state-of-the-art, $5.6 million BioLevel 3 lab was supposed to open in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, in 2002;

  • Germany tightens data protection laws after scandals

    After a wistle-blower revealtions, the German authorities decided o find for themselves how easy it was managed to obtain personal information on consumers; government agents managed, in only a few days, to buy six million items of personal data — for just €850 euros ($1,230); the government decided that tightening of regulations was necessary

  • Upping the ante: U.S. forces begin operations inside Pakistan

    A third — and distinct — phase of U.S. anti-al Qaeda campaign has opened: In the first phase, the U.S. relied on Pakistan to fight al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in that country’s Northwest Territories; disappointed with Pakistan’s performance, the U.S., six month ago, began the second phase — sending UAV’s across the border to attack targets inside Pakistan; yesterday, the third phase began, as U.S. special forces crossed the border into Pakistan to attack terrorist targets there

  • Handgun to the front

    Defending against a handgun threat is more difficult on the street than in a training facility; the right training under the right conditions would increase the chances of surviving a possibly lethal encounter with an armed assailant

  • Israel foils Hezbollah attempts to kidnap Israelis abroad

    In February, Hezbollah’s secretive head of operation, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a brilliant covert operation in the middle of Damascus; Israel denied any involvement, but the Lebanese organization said it would retaliate; Israel has since been worried about Israelis abroad being kidnapped

  • U.S. funds advanced cryptography effort by European biometric comapnies

    EU gives European companies $9 million in U.S. money to develop advanced cryptography for interoperable fingerprint biometric solutions

  • Canada's crumbling infrastructure reaching critical point

    New study says $200 billion needed to shore up Canada’s infrastructure in order to keep private sector competitive