Government
Following two years of planning to ensure public safety at Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, the FBI recently hosted a preparation exercise with officers from every local, state and federal agency involved in security for the 10 days of planned events.
During the in-person exercise at the city’s... Read More »
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recently called on senators to take a series of steps in reauthorizing the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) to ensure that states, local communities, and medical providers can protect against threats to public health.
IDSA’s... Read More »
A stratified biodefense hospital system would provide the United States with a protective shield in the event the country experiences a man-made or natural biological catastrophe, panelists told members of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.
The suggestion is one the panelists strongly... Read More »
A man with ties to Miami’s “cocaine cowboys” drug-smuggling era was arrested by federal and local officers in South Florida on Jan. 12 after spending four years on the run as a “high-risk fugitive.”
The U.S. Marshall Service for the Southern District of Florida Special Operations Group... Read More »
A 51-year-old Polish national, who has been imprisoned on terrorism charges in France since 2003, faces four counts in U.S. federal courts, including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, under a superseding indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday.
Christian Ganczarski is also charged with... Read More »
Agents of the U.S. Customers and Border Protection (CBP) service raided a cargo vessel at the Miami Seaport this week, confiscating $6.25 million worth of cocaine.
The 550 pounds of illegal narcotic were hidden in bags hidden behind metal tubing aboard the vessel. In all, those bags contained... Read More »
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers will soon have access to new resources to detect fentanyl and other synthetic opioids that are being trafficked into the United States under a bill that was signed into law last week.
Under the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response... Read More »
Seventy-five percent of those convicted of international terrorism or related charges in U.S. federal courts from 2001 to 2016 were born in foreign countries, according to a report released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday.
The report was... Read More »
Public health, when threatened not by Obamacare but by exposure to infectious diseases, natural disasters or chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) agents, is an area where members of Congress have been able to build bipartisanship.
Continuing such cross-party work will be... Read More »
InferLink Corp. will develop advanced search functionality for a cybersecurity research portal known as the Information Marketplace for Policy and Analysis of Cyber-risk and Trust (IMPACT) under a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contract awarded on Tuesday.
The $750,000 contract will be... Read More »
A joint program launched by the FDA and Department of Defense (DoD) on Tuesday will prioritize the development of medical products that can help save the lives of military personnel.
Using expanded authorities granted under a provision of the fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act,... Read More »
A panel of international policy experts told lawmakers Wednesday the best way to help rein in the nuclear ambitions of North Korea is through the intervention of the Chinese government, though none of the panelists expressed much optimism in Chinese assistance any time soon.
“I think getting... Read More »
In order to respond accordingly in the midst of large-scale biological events such as a terrorist attack or natural disaster, public and private organizations need to coordinate, but on Wednesday public health experts at a Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense meeting cited obstacles that highlight... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced legislation Tuesday designed to prevent foreign actors from interfering in U.S. elections.
The Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines (DETER) Act would implement measures such as sanctions and blocking... Read More »
Participants in the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) recently gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the fifth plenary meeting of the initiative, marking the completion of Phase 1 of the IPNDV.
Representatives more than 25 countries both with and without... Read More »
Seventy-five years after the first controlled nuclear chain reaction, Ernest Moniz, co-chair and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), recently warned that the United States faces “a different nuclear age” with miscalculation, diplomatic tensions, terrorism, technological advancements and... Read More »
The House of Representatives recently advanced 12 legislative proposals derived from recommendations from the Homeland Security Committee’s Task Force on Denying Terrorists Entry to the United States final report.
The legislation included various initiating designed to prevent terrorists from... Read More »
In two law enforcement actions, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers recently seized more than $1.04 million in marijuana and crystal methamphetamine.
The first seizure occurred Jan. 9 at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge between Mexico and Laredo, Texas. A non-intrusive... Read More »
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is focused on bolstering its efforts to stop cybercriminals and hackers, said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Today, we live much of our lives online, and we're in a situation where just about everything that is important to us lives on the Internet.... Read More »
U.S. Sens Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO) recently introduced the Wildfire Management Technology Advancement Act of 2017, which seeks to modernize fire departments by requiring the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to provide GPS locators for crews fighting... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently announced that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has failed to verify some licenses for radiological shipments through U.S. airports.
Warning that such material as contained within these shipments could be used by terrorists to make... Read More »
A bill introduced in the House of Representatives Wednesday would authorize construction of a border wall, invest in new technology and expand ports of entry, and add 5,000 Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents.
The Securing America's Future Act would also require the use of a biometric... Read More »
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) took part in a field training exercise earlier this month with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) to test the agencies’ response to radiological or nuclear incidents.
If an... Read More »
U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) recently intercepted two vessels carrying 40 undocumented aliens from the Dominican Republic and Haiti attempting to illegally enter Puerto Rico near the island’s west coast.
“Sustained collaborations... Read More »
The number of wireless network outages increased from 189 in 2009 to 1,079 in 2016, making safety-related communications like calling 911 and receiving weather alerts increasingly unavailable to the public, a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) review found.
The increase in wireless... Read More »
A working group consisting of government officials, private-sector representatives, academics, and veterinarians would be formed to develop standards for breeding and training dogs to detect explosives under a bill that the House of Representatives approved on Tuesday.
The Domestic Explosives... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security would be directed to draft best practices for using biographic traveler information and information about reservations and itineraries for counterterrorism screening under a bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The Screening and Vetting... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers from the Area Port of Philadelphia recently seized 709 pounds of cocaine, the largest local cocaine load in 10 years, which they found concealed inside cabinets shipped from Puerto Rico.
The cocaine load, which has an estimated street value of... Read More »
The Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) selected Tucson-based Raytheon Company Monday to complete development of software that enables unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to leverage collaborative autonomy to perform long-distance engagements in contested battle spaces.
After successful flight... Read More »
El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Highway 111 checkpoint recently discovered 6.44 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $22,540 strapped to a 14-year-old girl’s chest.
The girl, an American citizen, arrived at the checkpoint as a passenger in a vehicle... Read More »
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers at eight ports of entry extending from Brownsville to Del Rio, Texas, seized $12.1 million in narcotics, arrested 80 fugitives and blocked more than 3,500 inadmissible entries due to immigration law violations over the holiday season.
From Dec. 15 to... Read More »
The FCC’s forthcoming proposal to improve wireless emergency alerts will focus on making geographical targeting more precise so alerts can be used more effectively in local emergencies and disasters, the commission announced on Monday.
The FCC’s full proposal to revamp the wireless... Read More »
A request for innovators (RFI) has been released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), officially beginning the search for partners on emergency response technology development by 2020.
There are three projects on which the department is... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released an update to its directive regarding border searches of electronic devices, which was designed to enhance the transparency, accountability, and oversight of the searches.
CBP currently searches the electronic devices of fewer than... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened a record number of passengers during the 2017 holiday travel period, Dec. 15, 2017, through Jan. 2, 2018.
TSA officers screened 42 million passengers and more than 30.6 million checked bags screened nationwide. Dec. 22 was the busiest day... Read More »
