• Carjackings, violence to increase in wake of Mexico prison break

    Close to 200 drug dealers, murderers, and human traffickers broke out of a Nuevo Laredo prison — probably with the help of guards who were bribed or threatened; members of the Zetas were behind the prison break, and they are expanding their influence in cities close to the U.S. border; intelligence analysts say that the breakout means that we should expect more violence in cities within the Zetas-dominated areas

  • U.S. kill vehicle missile defense weapon fails test

    The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has suffered another failure in a live test conducted last week over the Pacific; the first part of the test — detecting and tracking the “enemy” missile by the Sea Based X-band Radar — went well; the second part — getting an Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) to place itself in the path of the oncoming missile warhead and destroying it — did not work; the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) triple-stage rocket is the most capable tool in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s armory, but its test record is spotty at best

  • Rhode Island prison deploys new inmate eye scanners

    This summer a Rhode Island prison inmate was able to walk out of prison by posing as another inmate who was up for parole; the state Department of Corrections has deployed an eye scanner in the prison that checks inmates’ eyes to ensure identity

  • White House held up regulation to stop gun flow to Mexico

    Tens of thousands of semi-automatic rifles are smuggled from the United States to Mexico every year, increasing the level of violence of the war among the drug cartels and creating a situation in which the cartels often out-gun the Mexican police and military; on Friday, the ATF published an emergency proposal in the Federal Register; the proposal requires dealers to report to the ATF anytime they make two or more sales over a 5-day period of semiautomatic rifles that have a caliber greater than .22 and a detachable magazine; it would be valid for six months; Justice wanted the proposal to be placed in the Register in the summer, but the White House held it up — some say because of election considerations

  • Critics: Trusted Traveler will allow Mexican cartels to bypass airport security

    Two weeks ago DHS announced plans the roll out of Trusted Traveler program with Mexico; under the program, Mexicans who have undergone background checks and are deemed low security risks will be able to fly into major U.S. cities and breeze through customs without being questioned by U.S. Customs agents; critics say Mexico’s drug cartels will quickly learn how to exploit loopholes in the plan by recruiting Mexicans with clean backgrounds to attain trusted traveler status, and then use them to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the United States; Mexican citizens are already eligible for expedited land border crossings through another trusted traveler program, Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI); last week, two SENTRI trusted travelers were caught trying to bring contraband across the border into the U.S. through the SENTRI-only express border passage

  • More companies shun Mexico as violence spirals

    Growing numbers of companies are deciding to limit their investments in Mexico because of spiraling drug-related violence in one of the world’s most important emerging markets; Mexico continues to lure foreign investment with its low wages, location next to the United States, and the advantages of the North American Free Trade Agreement; for some companies, particularly those that do not yet have operations south of the border, the violence has become daunting

  • Software enables swifter justice

    A system from the Eagan, Minnesota, company Intertech speeds the process of filing criminal complaints, eliminating steps that used to require paper; this summer, it received approval for its eCharging Web-based system, which cuts down on the time to process the complaints because officials sign off electronically through a password or fingerprint reader

  • U.S. rules that Virginia Tech violated Clery Act during 16 April 2007 massacre

    Virginia Tech may be fined $55,000 and lose some federal student aid over the way it alerted — or failed to alert — students on campus of the unfolding massacre on 16 April 2007; a federal report notes that a continuing education center and the university’s veterinary college were locked down, an official directed that the doors to his office be locked, and campus trash pickup was suspended after word traveled of the shootings — and that all of these actions took place before e-mails were sent to students, faculty, and staff on campus

  • PatriotApp allows citizens to alert feds

    A new iPhone app — the PatriotApp — allows people to report criminal or suspicious activity to several federal agencies, including the FBI, EPA, CDC, and GAO, the office responsible for investigating public funds; it also includes RSS feeds for the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and the Department of Homeland Security’s threat level, and allows people to report workplace harassment and discrimination

  • Mexico cannot control border: WikiLeaks documents

    The Mexican government has no control of its 577-mile border with Guatemala, where arms, drugs, and immigrant smugglers appear to have free rein, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable disclosed recently by WikiLeaks; the document says that Mexico does not have enough resources to patrol the border; in another recent document, U.S. diplomats voiced concerns that Mexican drug dealers could end up buying certain high-tech weapons that Russia had sold to Venezuela; such weapons are capable of shooting down U.S. combat helicopters

  • Grim milestone: Mexican border city hits 3,000 dead in 2010

    The Mexican drug war among the drug cartels — and between the cartels and the government —- continues to escalate as more and more weapons pour into the country; Ciudad Juarez, the homicide capital of the world, saw 1,623 people killed in drug-related violence in 2008; the toll increased to 2,763 deaths in 2009; on Tuesday the tolls reached 3,000 for 2010; also Tuesday: the Mexican navy reported it seized nine go-fast boats and a total of 15 metric tons (16.5 tons) of marijuana during two days of searches in the Gulf of California.; on 13 December; and the lower house of Mexico’s Congress voted 384-2, with 21 abstentions, to rescind the congressional immunity from prosecution of a fellow legislator accused of links to La Familia; La Familia leader Nazario Moreno, nicknamed “The Craziest One,” was killed in battles that lasted two days and spread to key parts of Michoacan state

  • Mexicans march in support of killed drug kingpin

    Hundreds of people turned out for the march in Apatzingan, the birth place of La Familia cartel leader Nazario Moreno, who was known as “the Craziest One” and reputedly indoctrinated his gang members in pseudo-Christian ideology; the government says Moreno was killed in Apatzingan on Thursday in a shootout with federal police

  • Police robot ends Wisconsin standoff

    Last Friday, a Northrop Grumman police robot was sent to investigate an SUV parked on the shoulder of a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, highway; the robot approached the two potentially dangerous suspects holed up in an SUV, transmitted instructions from a hostage negotiator sitting safely in a nearby truck, and punched out the rear window of the suspects’ stolen car, helping police end the standoff peacefully

  • Mobile apps tackle bad driving with "see something, say something"

    Crowdsourcing comes to traffic management; state governments are increasingly asking drivers to help enforce traffic laws, and there is a growing number of driving apps allowing drivers to report the bad traffic habits of fellow drivers; the app developers say their aim is to bring greater civility and safety to the nation’s roads — but they also plan to sell the information they gather to insurance companies and states’ DMVs

  • Car 54 -- we know where you are

    In “Car 54 Where Are You,” the dispatcher of the 53rd Precinct in the Bronx always tried to locate officers Francis Muldoon and Gunter Toody; that was in the early 1960s; now, 47 years later, Chief Stan Bynum of the Ingleside, Texas, Police Department does not have to wonder where his patrol cars are; he just has to go to his new laptop to visually pinpoint every patrol car at the same time via GPS