• Courts uphold rights of citizens to record police in action

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, in a unanimous decision that many see as a victory for the First Amendment, has recently upheld the right of an attorney to sue police after the police arrested him for using his cell phone to make an audio and video recording of officers conducting an arrest on Boston Common in the fall 2007

  • Four days of rioting strains U.K. legal system

    The ongoing unrest in the United Kingdom has begun to strain the country’s criminal justice and law enforcement system; with police arresting hundreds of people over the last few days, local judges have had trouble keeping up with the case load and facilities have quickly become overcrowded

  • Record number of immigration bills introduced in 2011

    This year state lawmakers have introduced a record number of immigration bills and resolutions according to a new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures; so far in the first half of the year, state legislators have seen 1,592 immigration bills, 16 percent more than the same time period last year

  • Illinois cracks down on "storm chasers"

    In response to the series of severe storms and floods that struck Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation to help protect homeowners as they rebuild; House Bill 3034 is aimed at protecting homeowners from “storm chasers,” contractors who take advantage of unsuspecting homeowners

  • Cybersecurity legislation passes House Committee

    Last week new cybersecurity legislation cleared its first obstacle passing through the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee; the bill would authorize the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish standards across federal agencies as well as research and education

  • DHS wastes billions in procurement process

    A recent DHS Inspector General report found that the agency had not leveraged its collective buying power thereby losing billions of dollars in potential cost savings; the report found that DHS’s various agencies individually bought $170 million worth of small x-ray machines, metal detectors, and hand-held radiation detectors rather than purchasing those items together, in a practice known as strategic sourcing.

  • FBI investigates News Corp. for potential 9/11 victim hacks

    Lawmakers in the United States have waded into the growing controversy that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire; on Wednesday several Democratic senators and Representative Pete King (R-New York), requested that the FBI begin an investigation into whether News Corp. attempted to hack into the phones of 9/11 victims; in response to their calls, the FBI opened an investigation into News Corp. to determine if the allegations of bribery and wiretapping are true

  • Bill to allow DHS to seize authority over U.S. coastlines

    The House is currently considering a bill that would cede control of America’s coastlines to DHS; under the proposed National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, the Secretary of the Interior would forfeit authority of all public coast lands to the Secretary of Homeland Security, whenever the DHS chief sees fit

  • Mica says TSA needs more independence from DHS

    According to Representative John Mica (R-Florida), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs more independence from DHS so that it may operate more efficiently; in an interview with Bloomberg, Mica, the chairman of the House Transportation committee said, TSA should be given “the authority to whack and hack some of the bad out”

  • Judge orders DHS to clarify whether Secure Communities is mandatory

    On Monday, a New York judge ordered federal immigration officials to provide clarification on whether or not states and local law enforcement agencies had the ability to opt out of the controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program; the judge’s ruling comes as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit launched by several immigration and legal rights groups

  • Ground Zero mosque clears legal hurdle

    Last Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit attempting to block the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan; the mosque would be built in a building which once housed the Burlington Coat Factory located two blocks from site of the World Trade Center; the mosque may have cleared its legal hurdles, but before it can begin construction the developer’s must also overcome some large financial hurdles; an estimated $100 million is needed to complete the project, and the money has not yet been raised

  • 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

  • Supreme Court to hear GPS tracking case

    The 220-year old Fourth Amendment to the Constitution offers protection against unreasonable searches; the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving the police secretly attaching a GPS device to a suspect’s car to monitor his movement; the question before the Court: does the secret placement of a GPS device on a suspect’s car in order to keep tabs on him for an extended period of time require a search warrant

  • Official dispels government green procurement regulation myths

    The U.S. government owns or manages one in five acres in the United States, and is the largest domestic user of electricity; it is also one of the largest consumers of resources in the United States, purchasing on average $535 billion worth of goods each year; In 2009 President Obama issued an executive order requiring that all government agencies establish and implement plans to increase their environmental performance; speaking at the 2011 Security Industry Association’s (SIA) Government Summit to an audience of security professionals, a government official sought to clarify myths surrounding the government’s new green procurement regulations and assured government service providers that the rules would not drastically affect a company’s existing practices

  • SAFETY Act falls short

    The SAFETY Act (the Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002) was created in order to speed up the pace of homeland security-related technologies and solutions reaching the market; the act encourages private firms to develop technology to combat terrorism by providing liability protection in case a firm is sued; since applications by companies for Safety Act coverage began in 2004, not many more than 400 technologies have been approved under the act; critics say that number should be in the thousands; they say the act is a good idea — but few in the industry know about it