Countermeasures
Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Gary Peters (D-MI) requested Wednesday that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) review the Border Patrol’s interior immigration checkpoints usage and Fourth Amendment compliance.
In correspondence to GAO personnel, the senators sought... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has earmarked $23 million to support the manufacturing of an investigational Ebola vaccine as a means of addressing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) virus outbreak.
The effort will also meet domestic biodefense goals. The HHS... Read More »
A growing lack of vaccination among Texas youth is leaving schools and the cities that house them increasingly at risk to measles outbreaks, according to new findings published by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
The findings were published in the journal JAMA... Read More »
A group of 18 U.S. senators recently urged the Senate Armed Services Committee to include three nuclear weapons provisions in the final National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020.
The provisions were included in the House-passed version of the bill.
The first provision would ban... Read More »
Marine fighter pilots rehearsed combat air patrol missions with the F-35B Lightning II jets in the Pacific Ocean in August.
The jets were launched from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp carrying and employing a live AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The exercise was conducted by the Marine Medium... Read More »
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has contracted with a firm to aid a burn imaging device’s development.
The two-year, $27.3 million contract with SpectralMD, Inc., of Dallas, Texas, advances the... Read More »
Officials are touting the results of the first system-level tests of SPY-6(V)2, the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) at the Surface Combat System Center at Wallops Island, Va.
“Moving quickly from radar installation at Wallops Island to tracks on glass in less than three months is a... Read More »
A new antibiotic workaround for drug-resistant infections is the focus of a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense and VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
“Developing new antibiotics that represent an improvement over standard of care... Read More »
The United States has finally cleared a medical product known as Silverlon for use in treating mustard gas-induced blisters, marking a first for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Mustard gas -- or sulfur mustard -- saw its most first and most devastating widespread use in World War I, but... Read More »
Jack Gumtow, the Defense Intelligence Agency’s chief information officer, and Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley, Jr., the agency’s director, opened the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems Worldwide Conference on Tuesday in Tampa.
The theme of this year’s conference is how... Read More »
BAE Systems has launched a Robotic Operations Center (ROC) to deploy software robots that automate high-volume, repetitive tasks in support of U.S. national security missions.
The ROC leverages machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) to transform large volumes of data into... Read More »
Legislation recently introduced in the House would change the penal code structure to prosecute domestic terrorism crimes the same way as international terrorism crimes.
The change would allow federal law enforcement officers and prosecutors to charge those committing acts of domestic terrorism... Read More »
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) recently urged the Trump administration to protect the lives of the Afghan translators who worked with the U.S. or the Taliban will kill them. Moulton’s warning comes as the administration is negotiating a potential peace deal with the Taliban.
There are nearly 20,000... Read More »
BAE Systems recently launched its next-generation XTS Guard 7, a cybersecurity tool that has differing levels of security classification and allows U.S. intelligence organizations to share information.
"Our product is the guard of choice for Department of Defense and other Intelligence Community... Read More »
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities said personnel staffing the Camp Bounds Forward Operating Base adjacent to the Antelope Wells Port of Entry recently apprehended 194 illegal aliens there.
The group, from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, illegally entered the camp and was... Read More »
The danger of malaria is growing worldwide, according to Dr. Mark Travassos, assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and that demands greater access for those with serious cases to intravenously-administered (IV) drugs.
At present, access to... Read More »
Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) is urging national passage red flag laws, which will allow state law enforcement to seize weapons from individuals perceived as a danger to themselves or others.
Brooks said the effort is in the wake of the latest round of mass shootings across the country. She noted... Read More »
Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Pete Stauber (R-MN) introduced last week a measure designed to enhance the nation’s fire station infrastructure.
The Fire Station Infrastructure Safety Act provides data on the age and conditions of every fire station in the country, which the legislators maintain... Read More »
U.S. Sens. Todd Young (R-IN) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) recently introduced legislation to significantly increase U.S. efforts in prevention, research, and technology development to help end the global tuberculosis epidemic.
The End Tuberculosis Now Act of 2019 would alter the existing Foreign... Read More »
The Maine Cyber Range, a cybersecurity training center at the University of Maine at Augusta, recently held its official launch.
The facility is the first of its kind in New England and will allow faculty and students to learn the best ways to combat cyberattacks and deterrence practices. The... Read More »
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Public Safety Communications Research division (PSCR) and the Western Fire Chiefs Association have partnered to bring data analytics to firefighters nationwide.
Fire departments traditionally use one-way systems to maintain incident records,... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued the Army three recommendations regarding how forces will engage jointly with other services in multiple domains - specifically cyber and space.
The GAO said the analysis and subsequent recommendations stem from the House Armed Services... Read More »
The local commuter designated lane is returning to the Laredo Port of Entry, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) maintaining the benefits of the restored feature.
CBP officials said restoring the lane aids motorists not requiring benefits at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, which is... Read More »
As various bacteria continue to evolve and resist current vaccine treatments, West Virginia University (WVU) researcher Mariette Barbier is working to preserve vaccine effectiveness against pertussis or whooping cough.
Her efforts have been awarded $2.6 million from the National Institutes of... Read More »
The National Science Foundation recently awarded the University of Rochester a $1.5 million grant quantum computing research.
Researchers will use the funding to investigate the challenges of working with and stabilizing quantum particles, called qubits. The university also will use the funds to... Read More »
The First Responder Network Authority passed an $82 million budget for Fiscal Year 2020, which includes funding for future investments in the nationwide public safety broadband network.
“The FirstNet Authority is an organization solely focused on public safety’s critical communications needs... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) released a draft of a bill Wednesday that would make domestic terrorism a federal crime.
Domestic terrorism is defined in the criminal code but is not a distinct federal crime with specific punishments. This makes it more challenging to track domestic terror acts,... Read More »
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved drug treatment for resistant tuberculosis (TB) of the lungs.
The FDA approved Pretomanid Tablets in combination with bedaquiline and linezolid for the treatment of a specific type of tuberculosis of the lungs, specifically drug-resistant,... Read More »
U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) is asking U.S. Attorney General William Barr to investigate federal criminal and hate crime charges people who doused police officers with buckets of water.
In July, police officers in New York City were drenched with buckets of water and one officer was hit on the head... Read More »
A recently published The Lancet Infectious Diseases article detailed the identification of new markers aiding the effort to expedite the timeframe of Yellow Fever detection.
“Many patients admitted to the health services with a diagnosis of yellow fever aren't initially severely ill,” Esper... Read More »
North Dakota officials are touting the benefits of a new, $32 million Army National Guard Readiness Center, which will house, support and train guard personnel.
“The North Dakota National Guard is always ready, always there,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), a member of the Senate Defense... Read More »
Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have discovered that certain molecules can boost the efficacy of antibiotics in fighting Staph infections and powering through antibiotic resistance.
The molecules are known as rhamnolipids, and their targets are staphylococcus aureus bacteria --... Read More »
The FirstNet communications platform has surpassed 750,000 connections and serves nearly 9,000 public safety agencies and organizations.
The platform, built by the First Responder Network Authority and AT&T, is used exclusively by first responders to communicate critical information and... Read More »
Lockheed Martin has developed a tool that standardizes how to measure the cyber resiliency maturity of a weapon, mission, or training system anywhere in its lifecycle.
Lockheed Martin’s Cyber Resiliency Level (CRL) model provides increased visibility into the current state of risk. It produces... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection will implement Mobile Passport Control (MPC) in Puerto Rico.
That means that U.S. citizens and Canadian visitors will have the option to use MPC processing, which expedites the entry process to the United States by using a mobile app to submit users’ passport... Read More »
