Transportation

Hot debate over proper technology slows progress on border-crossing ID
Political pressures from states bordering Canada persuaded DHS to relax its demand that U.S. and Canadian citizens crossing the border back and forth for shopping carry passports; instead, a biometric ID card would be issued; trouble is, there is an acrimonious debate over what technology to use in the card
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BlastGard raises $1.2 million; expands activities to unit loading device market
A developer of blast mitigation trash cans and other blast-resistant gear receives funding and expands its reach into the airplane-loading market
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Analysis: Growing opposition to administration’s plan to relax foreign ownership rule of U.S. airlines
The administration wants to relax the rules prohibiting foreign ownership of U.S. airlines; critics argue that the administration’s agile word parsing with regard to the term “actual control” of airlines short-changes U.S. national security
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Oshkosh Trucks acquires AK Specialty Vehicles
A maker of specialty vehicles for law enforcement and homeland security acquires a specialist in medical and command and control trucks to augment its offering
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URS to design container inspection facility at Port of L.A.
San Francisco company is heading down the PCH to build a container inspection facility on site of the former United States Customs Building on Terminal Island at the Port of Los Angeles; the project may cost upwards of $90 million
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Aussie company, GE to market quadruple resonance shoe-scanning device
An innovative Australian company is licensing its technology to GE to build and market shoe-scanning devices; passengers fumbling with their footwear at airport checkpoints have been a source of logjams and delays, and the TSA is looking for a solution
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Florida to require 2 IDs to enter state ports
Florida is tired of waiting for TWIC to get going, so it has initiated its own port employee security program in the state’s 14 ports; but now it appears that employees will have to equip themselves with two pieces of ID, costing them nearly $250
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TWIC hobbeled by politics-as-usual in Congress
Pork-barrel politics is as old as politics; still, the length to which one Kentucky congressman went to make sure that his home district and donors to his political campaigns benefit from an important DHS program, ,ay appear excessive; to say nothing of the damage the “bring home the bacon” approach did to the program, and to U.S. port security
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U.S. Air Force to experiment with chepaer synthetic fueld for planes
The U.S. Air Force consumes more than half of all the fuel consumed by the U.S. government; the service’s 2005 bill for jet fuel exceeded $4.7 billion; now the Air Force has decided to do something about (the Army is participating)
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Tupelo airport joins SPP
TSA has established the Screening Partnership Program (SPP) o allow airports to use private contractors for screening; Tupelo has joined five other airports already in the system, contracting a Virgnia company to run screening operations
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Industry wins initial skirmishes in battle over 100% cargo inspection
Security experts agree on two things: A terorist WMD will likely arrive in the U.S. inside a freight container, and the only solution is 100% container inspection; shipping industry says 100% inspection would hobble commerce, and its friends in Congress have so far managed to prevent inserting this requirement into shipping safety legislation
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California trucking association supports port security measures
It was unclear for a while whether California trucking association would support background checks on the more 12,000 drivers who come in and out of the sprawling twin ports of Los Anegeles and Long Beach; the trucking association ow say it is for it
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Shanghai airport to buy 70 Smiths Detection scanners
China, with an eye to the 2008 Olympic Games, is on a buying spree of explosive detection systems of all kinds, and the latest to benefit is Smiths Detection
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Former DHS IG: U.S. only â€œmarginally saferâ€ than it was in 9/11
Former DHS IG, described by colleagues as a “mild-mannered Texas Republican,” says DHS has made he U.S. safer, but only marginally so
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Port worker background checks launched
Facing growing impatience in Congress and the port security community with waiting for TWIC, DHS is launching stop-gap measures which have the Coast Guard coordinating background checks for more than 400,000 port employees; when TWIC comes around, the number of people subject to background checks will double
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