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New York City opens counterterrorism center
The $100 million project was launched after 9/11; the facility would eventually receive video footage from 3,000 cameras posted in and near the financial district, an area of about 1.7 square miles
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Biosafety Lab-Level 4 dedicated in Galveston, Texas
The $174 million, 186,267-square-foot lab will employ 300 people; the lab is one of two approved in 2003 by NIH (the second is being built in Boston); critics question placing a BSL-4 lab on a barrier island vulnerable to hurricanes
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DHS releases FY2009 guidance for $3 billion worth of grants
FEMA requests applications for 14 programs for which it has allocated $3 billion; funded programs concentrate on state and local governments and strengthening community preparedness
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Briefly noted
Deadly plague found in Grand Canyon… IG: USDA monitoring system improves IT security… France’s DGA issues multinational contract for lightweight UAV radar tech… Thales completes acquisition of U.K. encryption specialist… N.J. safer, but not safe from terrorists
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U.S. government to take counterterrorism local
The federal government says local police efforts to record and share activities that could be related to terrorism are critical to the government’s counterterrorism effort; the creation and coordination of a uniform system of reporting among thousands of jurisdictions is a problem, though
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Letter carriers may deliver antibiotics during bioterror attack
The task of delivering medications to citizens during a bioterror attack may fall to volunteer mailmen (and mailwomen); trial in St. Paul
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Texas county weighing border fence alternatives
Cameron County, Texas, must decide which option is more beneficial to it: DHS’s fence plan which the county does not like, but which will see $37 million in contracts go to local businesses, or resubmitting the county’s alternative fence plan, which DHS had already rejected, exploiting the fact that DHS has postponed the 31 December fence deadline
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Briefly noted
Smart cluster bomb hunts down targets… Anthrax-case documents reveal bizarre Ivins’s behavior… New FISMA bill receives committee OK… L-1 in $5.9 million Mississippi driver’s license contract…
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Treasury grants cannot be used for chemical detection
The federal government told the Boston transit authority and other municipal transportation agencies that they cannot use anti-terrorism grants to install chemical threat detection systems at subway stations
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NYC receives $29 million to detect and prevent nuclear, radiological attack
DHS awards New York City $29 million under the Securing the Cities initiative
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Push for nation-wide car tracking system in U.S.
Two companies quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients; goal is to create a nation-wide car tracking system in the United States by using existing and newly installed red light cameras and speed cameras
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Asking fundamental questions about the homeland security agenda
The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks should occasion a debate about fundamentals, not merely a tactical, short-term security issues; such fundamental issues have to do with how the United States fits increased security from natural and man-made disasters into a liberal, democratic, free-market system characterized by federalism and checks-and-balances
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Yucca Mountain project clears another hurdle
The Yucca Mountain nuclear storage project moves forward, as NRC says it would conduct an in-depth review of the government plans
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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
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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”
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The long view
Reducing Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise in Virginia
As the climate changes and sea levels rise, there is concern that sinking coastlines could exacerbate risks to infrastructure, as well as human and environmental health in coastal communities. The Virginia Coastal Plain is one of the fastest-sinking regions on the East Coast.