• Company involved in largest U.S. meat recall admits it was at fault

    In February Hallmark/Westland Meat was forced to recall 143 million pounds of meat — the largest recall in U.S. history — after it was revealed that the company processed cows which were potentially sick; a week after the recall, the company went out of business; company’s president admits company was at fault

  • U.S. to lose a generation of young medical, biology researchers

    Five consecutive years of flat funding the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is deterring promising young researchers and threatening the future of U.S. health, a group of seven preeminent academic research institutions warn

  • Data sharing among local, state, and federal law enforcement grows

    The 9/11 attacks demonstrated the need for more information and intelligence sharing among law enforcement services a the local, state, and federal levels; more and more intelligence sharing systems are being put in place by private companies to help law enforcement cope with — and meaningfully and effectively use — the vast new sources of data now open to them; privacy advocates worry

  • Congressional funding for campus security urged

    There are 17 million students who live in open environments on college campuses across the United States; a year after the deadly Virginia Tech shooting, there are growing calls for Congress to help fund campus security; high-tech alert systems, such as text messaging, are seen as crucial to warn students of possible threats

  • FSIS exemplifies growing inadequacy of U.S. food inspection regime

    Decline and fall: In FY 1981, FSIS spent $13.22 per thousand pounds of meat and poultry inspected and passed; by FY 2007, the figure had fallen to $8.26 per thousand pounds; in FY 1981 FSIS employed about 190 workers per billion pounds of meat and poultry inspected and passed; by FY 2007, FSIS employed fewer than 88 workers per billion pounds

  • U.K. government lost more than 1,000 laptops in recent years

    The worries about how the U.K. government protects sensitive data continue: A report to parliament admits that the government has lost or had stolen more than 1,000 laptops in recent years

  • Resistance to a U.K. hedge fund's effort to control CSX

    Ever since the 2006 Dubai Ports World’s takeover of management operations in major U.S. seaports, Congress has shown increasing irritation with attempts by foreign companies to own U.S. critical infrastructure assets; there is a growing resistance in Congress to U.K.-based TCI to take control of rail operator CSX

  • Avalanche of drugs, scarcely any oversight, II

    About $72 billion in drugs and active ingredients were imported into the U.S. in 2006; the FDA that year spent a mere $12.75 million inspecting foreign production plants; between 3,250 and 6,800 non-U.S. plants export drugs and drug ingredients to the U.S.(the FDA’s two main databases each gives a different figure), and are thus subject to FDA inspection; in the last five years the agency has conducted only 1,445 foreign inspections; main reason: In the face of growing drug and food imports, the Bush administration steadily cut the agency’s budget and resources since 2001

  • Maryland leaders worry about shift in DHS priorities after elections

    Because of its proximity to the nation’s capital, the Baltimore metro area and Washington suburbs are particularly vulnerable to terrorist activity, Maryland leaders say; they want attention to security increased, not decreased

  • Fence to nowhere

    DHS received the keys from Boeing — behind schedule, it should be noted — to Project 28, only to find out that it fell short of the promise the department made to Congress, and that Boeing made to the department; Boeing has now received a three-year extension; the Arizona Republic says the failure of Project 28 has deeper meaning for technology and policy

  • $1.6 trillion needed to shore up U.S. failing infrastructure

    Experts say that the U.S. needs to invest $1.6 trillion over five years to shore up the country’s crumbling infrastructure; estimates show that each billion dollars invested in infrastructure creates between 40,000 and 50,000 new jobs, and that every $1 billion invested in transportation infrastructure generates $2 billion in economic activity throughout our economy

  • Bain's effort to acquire 3Com on verge of collapse

    Bain Capital and a Chinese partner wanted to buy 3Com for $2.2 billion; 3Com’s TippingPoint unit sells security software used by U.S. government agencies, and persistent questions were raised over the national security ramifications of the deal; Bain and Huawei Technologies have now withdrawn their application to CFIUS

  • Connecting renewable energy sources to the national grid

    Connecting different renewable energy sources to the national grid may be a costly proposition; new study aims to find community generation schemes which are able to connect to the grid without the need for expensive cable upgrades or digging up roads

  • King coal, III: DOE makes case for FutureGen restructuring

    The Department of Energy restructures its approach to FutureGen — the ambitious plan to develop clean coal technology which produces hydrogen and electricity and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions

  • King coal, II: Administration restructures approach to clean coal funding

    DOE restructures FutureGen approach; under the new plan, DOE’s investment would provide funding for no more than the carbon capture and storage (CCS) component of the power plant — not the entire plant construction; the original 2003 FutureGen concept called for the federal government to cover 74 percent of the cost of the entire project; DOE requests $648 million in FY2009 budget for coal research, development, and deployment