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U.S. Department of Homeland Security Partners with DOD "EMall"
The Department of Homeland Security's Management division and the Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency today announced a strategic partnership to provide DHS with a tailored version of DoD's EMALL (Electronic Mall). The DOD EMALL is an Internet-based marketplace that allows purchasers to access DoD's wide variety of vendors and catalogs and enhances DHS' ability to provide a one-stop shopping experience to acquire the goods and services needed to support DHS' mission. "Partnering with DoD to leverage its resources and buying power makes good business sense. The powerful EMALL portal will significantly aid DHS' quest for an efficient means to strategically acquire the goods and services it needs to support mission capabilities," said DHS Under Secretary for Management Janet Hale. The partnership with DOD EMALL enables DHS to participate in one of the largest existing government-to-business exchanges. With a single sign-on, DHS customers can access 383 commercial catalogs containing more than 12 million items and a total of 5.5 million National Stock Numbers from Defense Supply Centers and the General Services Administration. DHS is the first non-defense agency to use EMALL on an enterprise-wide basis.
www.dhs.gov
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Food-safety fears boost FDA budget
One of the biggest winners in President Bush's proposed 2005 budget is the Food and Drug Administration, which would receive an almost 9 percent increase in funding to expand a "food defense" program, to respond to the mad-cow disease crisis and to continue construction of its new campus in suburban Washington. In a federal budget in which most domestic programs are facing flat or declining resources, the administration has proposed a $1.8 billion budget for the FDA - an increase of 8.8 percent over the current fiscal year. The largest increase would be for the FDA's role in a new, multi-department counterterrorism program to protect the food supply. The additional $65 million would pay for more labs to analyze food samples for biological, chemical and radiological agents; for more inspections of imported foods; and for more coordination with the Homeland Security Department.
www.philly.com
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Vets pledge to fight terrorism
A network of Michigan veterinarians is among the newest enlistees in the battle against terrorism. The federally funded "Vet Net" eventually will involve all the state's nearly 3,600 animal doctors. Doctors say the program was initiated in response to the growing threat of bioterrorism and infectious diseases. Bioterrorists could cause famine and widespread economic disruption by targeting farm animals like cattle or swine. Doctors say the role of vets is crucial because they're often the first ones to observe unusual symptoms in animals. Vet Net intends to make information available to veterinarians four times a year. Subsequent phases include specialized training to respond to emergencies.
abclocal.go.com
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Police see increase in school crime
Crime in Cherokee schools is up, but not enough to trigger an alarm. No school is close to being labeled "persistently dangerous" by the state, according to school police, who recently released this year's first semester crime statistics. Police reported 274 incidents in elementary, middle and high schools for the first half of the school year. That's up from 211 for the same period last year and compares with 250 incidents for the first semester of 2001-2002. The number of school incidents ? everything from racing vehicles on school property to counterfeit currency, from battery to terroristic threats ? increased 9.5 percent over the past three years, mirroring a 9.6 percent rise in student population. "We continue to see increases in offenses based on student population. We're seeing the same types of incidents ? damage to properties, thefts and assaults. I'll take those any day over more serious offenses," said schools police chief Mark Kissel. Those three categories accounted for 52 percent of the 274 incidents. Drugs and other illegal substance violations, such as possession of alcoholic beverages, accounted for 23 offenses in the first semester, up slightly from similar periods. "Looking in the evidence room, we've got a little more dope in there than before," said Kissel. He said school police are stepping up efforts to curb drug possession on Cherokee campuses. Two officers have been trained to field-test suspected marijuana. Administrators, teachers and staff have been trained to identify types of illegal substances, including marijuana, prescription and over-the-counter medications. A similar training program is being designed for parents. The training programs were initiated in response to a parent survey showing high concern about drugs on campus.
www.ajc.com
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Law enforcement team up to stop auto thefts
Several law enforcement agencies are teaming up to help stop auto thefts in the Albuquerque area.The city registered more than 7,400 auto thefts in 2002, costing property owners more than $50,000.On Tuesday, the Albuquerque Police Department, the Bernalillo County Sheriff?s Office and New Mexico State Police announced the creation of a collaborative Community Auto Theft Team, or CAT.?We know it is indeed an epidemic that we must curtail,? said Albuquerque Police Chief Gil Gallegos. ?We?re not pulling one resource to give to another resource. We?re just using what we have more efficiently.?The team will target local auto thieves while educating the public on ways to protect their cars and trucks from being stolen. Authorities say drivers? mistakes, such as leaving keys in the ignition or a car left idling on a cold morning, most often lead to stolen vehicles.Sgt. John Sides of state police says the team will also go after illegitimate body shops using stolen parts and making the biggest profits.
www.kobtv.com
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Official outlines three-pronged security plan at borders
A top Homeland Security Department official on Friday outlined for industry representatives the developing strategy for securing U.S. borders while also ensuring the steady flow of commerce. "The debate continues to rage on whether we're doing a sufficient amount" to bolster security on goods entering the country, said Asa Hutchison, the undersecretary for border and transportation security, adding that it is impossible to inspect 100 percent of all U.S.-bound cargo. Instead, the department's strategy is focused on "technology, targeting and partnerships," he said. "This is the direction we're going," the undersecretary told a panel of experts that advises the department on commercial operations. He said the White House has "not signed off" on the developing strategy and emphasized the need for industry feedback.
www.govexec.com
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In America's Heartland, Learning to Fight Terrorism
Joe McCroy, an MP for the Missouri National Guard, believes it's inevitable that terrorists will target the Midwest in order to strike at America's heartland. "I see it coming," he said. An officer in training at Fort Leonard Wood and trained in criminal intelligence, McCroy has enrolled in Drury University's new online certificate program that provides fire, police and other responders with new ways to analyze, understand and manage the threat of terrorism. McCroy likes the Drury program because he can work on it wherever he is, it counts toward his master's in criminal science degree and supports his plans to leave the Army and either pursue a doctorate and teach, or work in federal, state or local emergency management or law enforcement on threat assessment and analysis. The online nature of the program, which begins next week, also means experts can teach the courses. One of the program's instructors, Anders Strindberg, is the UN correspondent for Jane's Intelligence Review and has just finished a visiting research fellowship at Princeton's Center of International Studies and the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North African and Central Asia. He was a Fellow at Damascus University in Syria, where he broke new ground in his thesis work by having direct contact with terrorist cells. His specialty is contemporary international terrorism.
www.newswise.com
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Small airports risk terrorists
Officials at small airports throughout the Chicago area and around the country are debating whether to buy terrorism insurance, the cost of which varies widely. Although there was sporadic talk in the months after Sept. 11, 2001, that terrorists might pack small planes with explosives or use crop-dusters to spread poison, there is no experience to guide officials about how real the terrorism threat is at their small fields. Insurers are equally in the dark, which is why the rates are so different. In March, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley cited concerns about terrorism after he ordered bulldozers to tear up the runway at Meigs Field on the lakefront--a permanent and serious take on Malkas' half-joking plan to block a runway with his car. Meanwhile, three small airports in the Washington area remain under severe flight restrictions because of their proximity to the White House and other key structures, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. "While most of our attention has been on commercial airlines at larger airports because of our Sept. 11 experience, there is an equally legitimate threat that a terrorist might rent a small airplane and use it to do the same thing," said P.J. Crowley, an insurance-industry consultant. Insurance companies quickly canceled terrorism coverage from their policies after the 9/11 attacks. But now they are required to offer it to customers, backed by the federal government, under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act signed by President Bush in November 2002. It's up to customers whether they want to buy it.
www.chicagotribune.com
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New technology can track students who ride school buses
A local school district is using new technology to prevent horror stories of children let off school buses at the wrong stops. This first-of-its-kind system is being unveiled in Spring. This new device is meant to track students all the way home. It is anything but old school when most of us used to rid the bus. Welcome to the high-tech world of tracking your children or student accountability system as the Spring Independent School District calls the pilot program. "It gives me a comfort to know that if they did get off at the wrong spot I at least have a place to start looking for them," says Bammel Elementary Principal Linda Kenjura. Just like when everyone was looking for five-year-old Kyle Friels last fall. "I called the police department, I called transportation and I called the school," said Kyle's dad, Kenneth. "And I got three different stories." But the bus ID system is designed to prevent that very thing. "If a parent does call us with the question, 'My child did not come home and my child did not get off the bus?' We can find out where they actually got off and who they got off with," says Spring ISD Transportation Director Brian Weisinger.
www.khou.com
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Olympics organisers worry about hackers
Security officials for the Athens Olympics are working on plans to counter a possible hacker attack on key infrastructure during the Games in August, a Greek newspaper has reported. The Nea daily said on Tuesday electronic security experts became concerned by a message in a U.S. computer magazine asking hackers if they had found a way to interfere during the Athens Olympics. "Theoretically, there are opportunities for them to act," the newspaper quoted a police source as saying. "We need to be alert and cooperate with other countries and with the specialist electronic crime unit". The newspaper added that electronic scoreboards, traffic lights, utilities and air traffic networks were high on the list of possible targets that security experts would try to make hacker-proof before the Games. Greece is spending a record 650 million euros (444 million pounds) on security for the August 13-29 Olympics, the first summer Games since the September 11, 2001 attacks and the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
www.reuters.co.uk
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