Infrastructure

Maryland industry-government critical infrastructure working group faces difficulties
Most of the U.S. critical infrastructure is in private hands, so it makes sense to create a structured government-industry collaborative system for dealing with emergencies related to critical infrastructure; trouble is, the kind of information industry participants should share in such an effort is not only helpful in coping with terrorist acts – it is also helpful to one’s competitors
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House panel passes chemical plant safety bill
The House panel has now joined a Senate panel in passing a draft chemical plant safety bill; both bills offer qualified federal preemption, and no IST
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Senate takes first step toward regulating chemical plant safety
The Senate takes a step – half a step, critics charge – toward a more meaningful safety scheme for chemical plants
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Federal IT spending to reach $6.3 by 2011
The need for interoperability and the threat of hacking will drive the steady growth in government IT spending
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Chemical plant security becomes a federal responsibility
Finally action is being taken; the Senate has approved legislation that would give DHS control of chemical plant security; but hopefully Secretary Chertoff’s idea of voluntary industry regulation isn’t on the table, otherwise we are back to square one
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U.S. updates national emergency broadcast system
In 1951 President Harry Truman launched a national emergency radio broadcasting system aiming to alert Americans in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack on the U.S.; that system, thankfully, was never used, but President Bush has now ordered its upgrading so it could be used to broadcast warnings about national emergencies to Americans’ PDAs, cellular phones, Web sites, e-mail boxes, TV, and radio
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Foreign companies line up to bid on Midway airport
Earlier this year the firestorm over a Dubai-based company’s plans to run operations in several U.S. ports caused many to rethink the question of foreign ownership of U.S. critical infrastructure assets; still, as the city of Chicago is getting set to lease its Midway airport, all the likely bidders are non-U.S. companies
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EAGLE contract will save DHS $40 million
The 25 EAGLE contracts DHS has awarded would help the department streamline and standardize its IT operations, but will also save it about $40 million a year it now pays other agencies for various services
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Large Brazilian dam cracks
The tallest — and newest — dam in Brazil seriously cracks as an underground tunnel beneath it collapses
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ExxonMobil Massachusetts fuel depot shut down after illegal aliens found working there
Worries about the safety of super tankers carrying oil at Boston Harbor combine with unease about illegal immigration, as more than a dozen illegal immigrants are arrested while being used at the harbor for clean-up of hazardous material (what is more, the subcontractor also violated the law requiring protective gear to be worn during such operation)
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Raytheon
The multi-billion dollar EAGLE project, aiming to standardize and consolidate DHS IT operations, is beginning to yield rich contracts The usual suspects – Unisys, Raytheon, EDS — have already been awarded some of these contracts
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EDS
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DHS release critical infrastructure protection plan
DHS has releases its much anticipated critical infrastructure and IT protection plan
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CSC wins contract extensions in Australia
CSC wins extensions on key Australian critical infracture projects which may total to be more than $80 million
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Report: Nuclear warheads could explode, release radiation while in transit
Nuclear warheads have to be inspected and refurbished regularly; to this, they are taken off the missiles and submarines where they are deployed and trucked to secure labs; the U.S. and British defense ministries insist that these warheads cannot explode as a result of accident to or terrorist attack on the convoys transporting them back and forth; a new U.K. Ministry of Defense study says this is not the case, and that a partial explosion (fizzle yield) and lethal release of radiation are possible during transit
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