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Homeland Security considers local funding
As cities lay off police officers and firefighters to balance their budgets, the Homeland Security Department on Monday announced a new effort to get federal money to local governments.Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said a task force comprised of governors and municipal officials would take two months to recommend how best to get federal money into local hands. The group is headed by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Akron, Ohio, Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic. "It is critical that the men and women on the front lines of the war against terror have the resources they need to do their jobs," Ridge said. "By identifying best practices and determining ways to implement them across the country, the task force will put homeland security dollars into the hands of first responders more rapidly." The department has allocated $8 billion to states and localities. But municipal officials have complained that they are not receiving enough aid to pay for increased security costs. The National League of Cities, whose members descended on Washington last week to press for more money, said that more than half the 345 municipalities surveyed reported that fiscal pressures were forcing them to them to raise fees, tap their reserve funds or lay off employees, including police officers, firefighters and other first responders. "Our big concerns have been that we have adequate and continuing funding and that the money actually get down to the first responders," said Michael Reinemer, a spokesman for the cities' group. "We're encouraged that the Department of Homeland Security is moving on this problem."
seattlepi.nwsource.com
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Security groups call for education, alert systems
Two government industry working groups released reports Thursday, recommending that the U.S. public and private sectors work together to teach children online ethics, help small businesses secure themselves and create incident and advisory networks. The Awareness and Outreach Task Force and the Cyber Security Early Warning Task Force are two of five groups formed by the National Cyber Security Partnership, an industry and government alliance aimed at finding ways to improve cybersecurity without resorting to legislation. The task forces' reports are the first proposals the group released; three more reports are due in coming weeks. "We consider these recommendations to be a good starting point," said Guy Copeland, vice president at technology contractor Computer Sciences. "This is a dedicated group of volunteers presenting some hard thoughts on how to secure our information infrastructure." The task force recommendations come almost four months after industry and government officials met to discuss how a partnership could improve the nation's overall cybersecurity and more than a year after the Bush administration released the final draft of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. Some security experts criticized the proposals as a way for companies to dodge any responsibility for the morass of security issues that plague firms and people on the Internet, a charge similar to that leveled against the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, which recommends that each Internet participant learn to secure his or her portion of the online domain. "The average user will never become the kind of expert needed to protect himself or herself against the attacks being launched today," Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, said in a statement. "Today's announcement is the equivalent of national leaders telling every driver to wear football pads and helmets and tie themselves to the seat backs, because the automobile manufacturers won't build in seat belts and air bags and better bumpers and because there are a lot of dangerous drivers on the road."
news.com.com
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URI to stage mock bio-terror clinic
The University of Rhode Island will hold one of the largest mock emergency response clinics in New England April 2, as part of a statewide push to prepare for a bioterrorism attack. "This is the same idea as a family practicing fire drills. But how many people do that? Not very many," said Thomas Mather, a URI professor of entomology and the head of the 25-person bioterrorism committee planning the simulation. The committee is comprised of faculty and staff from the health services, pharmacy, communications, athletic, business and finance departments, along with campus police and safety and risk management officers. Every municipality in the state is required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security to develop a drug dispensing response plan in case of a biological attack. The drill is intended to simulate an actual medical response and the goal of the university is to process up to 1,000 people within a six-hour period. "One of the goals is to see where the bottlenecks are going to be," said Charles Henderson, director of health services at URI. "If this turns out the way we think it will, it should be a model for other municipalities," said URI spokesperson Dave Lavallee. The Department of Homeland Security gave the Rhode Island Department of Health $150,000 to fund the project. Mather said URI was selected to participate because it has a built-in community, police department and medical staff. Mather stressed there hasn't been any information that there is going to be a terrorist threat. "A terrorist is not going to look at the URI calendar and say what is the best time to strike the university," said Mather. "With the scope of what needs to be done, we need to get our ducks in a row." Mather hopes that by tapping the nursing and pharmacy programs, 150 students and faculty will make up the medical staff. The volunteer will be drawn from the university community and residents of neighboring communities are invited to participate.
www.zwire.com
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Agents mount up to patrol border
When the U.S. Border Patrol was created by Congress in 1924, Uncle Sam agreed to buy the feed as long as patrolmen provided their own horses. Eighty years later, in a back-to-basics move, the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol is deploying 100 horse patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border to help track and catch people entering the country illegally. The addition of horses to the region is part of the Arizona Border Control Initiative, a multipronged campaign announced yesterday by Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security, part of the Department of Homeland Security. Along with the beasts, large numbers of patrol agents, additional aircraft, electronic ground sensors, remote video cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles are being poured into the area over the coming month. The goal is to take control of what is known as the west desert corridor, from the Yuma County line to the Arizona border town of Sasabe. Those 121 miles of international border have been a hot spot for the Border Patrol for the past few years as crackdowns in Texas and California pushed illegal immigrants into Arizona's rough landscape. In a recent five-day operation, seven horse patrols rounded up 600 illegal immigrants in the rugged terrain of Jalisco Canyon, near Arivaca. Last week, four patrols caught more than 100 people traveling together in the same area. John M. France, assistant chief patrol agent in charge of the equines, said the recent captures illustrate that high-tech can't solve everything. "We need the gizmos, and we need the technology, but you never, ever give up on the basics," he said.
www.tucsoncitizen.com
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TSA plans to beef up passenger, cargo screening efforts
The Transportation Security Administration plans to screen all high-risk air cargo and begin installing new passenger and baggage scanning technology at airports in fiscal 2005, the agency's acting director, retired Navy Adm. David Stone, told Congress last week. Stone fielded pointed questions from members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security about what TSA is doing to improve airline passenger and cargo screening. "The intent is for us to use our intelligence to be able to target shipments," Stone said. "Our intent is to do as much of that and achieve 100 percent [screening of] high-threat designated cargo in 2005, so that's our goal."
www.govexec.com
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U.S. rail security takes center stage
Following the deadly train bombings in Spain, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin on Friday warning U.S. rail and local authorities to remain on the lookout for untended bags and other suspicious activity. Asa Hutchinson, the department's undersecretary for transportation and borders, said federal officials were urging local transit agencies to increase the number of police officers at stations, deploy more explosive detection teams and, in some cases, put law enforcement officers on trains. Passengers should also expect public announcements alerting them to remain vigilant. Hutchinson cautioned that there's no known threat against American rail lines. But U.S. officials believe the precautions are necessary until they know whether a Spanish separatist group or terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida were behind the attack in Madrid. Hutchinson said the Spanish attack, in which bombs exploded simultaneously aboard four packed commuter trains, killing nearly 200, had the markings of al-Qaida. Just over two weeks ago, recordings purportedly by al-Qaida were broadcast on two Arab television stations that promised fresh attacks on America. "We do know that al-Qaida looks to hit us and hit us hard and that mass transit is something that they have specifically referenced," he said. In late January the FBI issued a bulletin to local law enforcement warning that terrorists remained interested in striking U.S. rail lines, which could result in a "substantial loss of life."
www.kansascity.com
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ITAA creates wireless task force
The Information Technology Association of America's Federal Committee has formed a wireless task force to keep organizations up to date on the capabilities of wireless data and voice technologies. Ed Hearst, senior director of government affairs for Sybase Inc., will lead the task force as its chairman. "New and existing wireless technologies can be the difference between good federal computing solutions and exceptional ones," said ITAA President Harris Miller, in a statement. "As our homeland security challenges broaden and diversify, ITAA sees an increased role for wireless. Our federal committee, which has been dedicated to educating the government customer for many years, remains on the cutting edge by recognizing the need for wireless adaptation in the public sector, which can save money, time and increase government effectiveness."
www.fcw.com
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FDA Says U.S. Must Inspect More Food Imports
The Food and Drug Administration, which works to ensure imported food is safe, is inspecting only about 1 percent of imports and needs to improve, according to the agency's acting commissioner. The FDA is overwhelmed by imports, which have increased fivefold since 1994, said Dr. Lester Crawford, the acting commissioner. "It's difficult for us, and we are missing the mark, but we pledge to do better," Crawford told a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on agriculture Thursday. Persons in the U.S. eat on average about 2,000 pounds of imported food a year - 11 percent of everything they eat, according to Agriculture Department statistics. Last year, they ran up a bill of $50.1 billion on imports, said Mark Gehlar, a senior economist at the Agriculture Department. The FDA is responsible for inspections of most types of food imports. The Agriculture Department is responsible for meat, poultry and egg products. The FDA has added 600 food inspectors under the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, and this should help, Crawford told reporters after the hearing. The law requires exporters to give the U.S. advance notice of shipments. And the FDA is using the law to give priority to inspections of shipments that could have higher risk of carrying disease, he said.
www.wisconsinagconnection.com
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Nuclear Security Training Lacking
Nuclear weapons plants have eliminated or reduced training for guards responsible for repelling terrorist attacks, leaving the government unable to guarantee the plants can be adequately defended, the Energy Department's internal watchdog said. One plant has reduced training hours by 40 percent, and some plants conduct tactical training only in classrooms, according to a report from the department's inspector general. Some contractors fear that injuries among guards during training exercises could reduce bonus payments from the government, the report said. Guards typically receive 320 hours of training. Only one of 10 plants surveyed, Hanford, Wash., trains guards in the basic use of a shotgun, according to the report. None of the plants teaches guards how to rappel down buildings or cliffs because of concerns that guards might be injured. The report noted that one guard died rappelling in 1995. "Inconsistent training methods may increase the risk that the department's protective forces will not be able to safely respond to security incidents or will use excessive levels of force," said the report prepared by Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman's office and released Tuesday. The National Nuclear Security Administration, which protects nuclear plants, acknowledged in a letter responding to the inspector general that training for guards has suffered because of overtime demands at weapons plants. It promised to review training to make sure it is adequate.
www.washingtonpost.com
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Money's on the way for G-8 security
With bills for police overtime and new security equipment to prepare for the Group of Eight Summit already mounting, city officials are sweating. "It's kind of like you're running up your credit card bill and someone's telling you not to worry about it," said Bob Scanlon, the city's G-8 coordinator, "but you haven't seen the money come in." Scanlon and other planners saw the first sign of the money Thursday when U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., announced Georgia would soon receive $25 million for G-8 security planning. Congress approved the $25 million in October to help Georgia and its coastal region pay for extra law enforcement, police overtime and other security needs. However, the money had never been awarded. This week, Kingston, chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee, worked out an agreement where the money would be released for immediate needs. The money will be directed first to the Georgia Homeland Security Department, which will dole it out to local governments, said Loretta Lepore, the governor's press secretary.
www.savannahnow.com
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