-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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)
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
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
-
-
Former DHS IG: U.S. only “marginally safer†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
-
-
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
-
-
Industry: TWIC will cost thousands of jobs
The implementation of new ID cards has some worried that illegal immigrants and individuals with criminal convictions who now hold transportation positions may lose their job
-
The long view
Calls Grow for U.S. to Counter Chinese Control, Influence in Western Ports
Experts say Washington should consider buying back some ports, offer incentives to allies to decouple from China.