Center of Excellence

A draft of what would be the first-ever Homeland Security Department authorization bill would increase the number of border agents, alter the color-coded terror alert system and touch on almost every aspect of the agency’s operations. What it would not do, by design of Christopher Cox, House Homeland Security Committee chairman, is wade too deeply into areas over which other committees have jurisdiction, an attempt to avoid the potential turf battles with other chairmen that helped stop an authorization bill last year. (more…)

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday, April 22, announced $9,657,138 in intercity bus security grants, reinforcing the Administration’s commitment to protecting the nation’s traveling public. (more…)

As the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing Tuesday, April 19, the threat of domestic terrorism is being overshadowed by foreign terrorism, even though domestic terrorists have greater access than ever to knowledge they could use to kill large numbers of people. (more…)

The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday, April 14, that for the third season in a row, it is joining Minor League Baseball to promote emergency preparedness. (more…)

The Department of Homeland Security is funding the development of a new forensics tool to be used in crime scene investigations involving infectious agents, such as anthrax. (more…)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on April 11 made official what had been expected for many days, the availability of more than $141 million in security grants for train, bus and ferry systems. (more…)

Although Washington, DC, area is designated as high−risk, it has not spent $120 million of the $145 million in anti−terrorism grants awarded by the federal government over the past three years, including funds earmarked for such critical items as hospital beds and protective gear for rescue workers. (more…)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, April 12, announced $141,630,806 in transit security grants. (more…)

Homeland security grant funding to states and local governments is riddled with waste and pork-barrel spending, according to a report broadcasted April 10 by the television news program “60 Minutes.” (more…)

U.S. authorities refused to allow a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 747 to fly over the United States, officials said Sunday,April 10. Flight 685 from Amsterdam to Mexico City was denied permission to fly south across the Canada−U.S. border on Friday because the names of two passengers aboard were included on a U.S. “no−fly” terrorist watch list, (more…)

A unique partnership between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to develop and offer the first Homeland Security Master�s Degree in the United States.

Speaking at the National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner last night, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recommended continuation of the placard system for hazardous materials transported by rail. (more…)

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday he may eliminate the much-ridiculed color-coded terrorism alert system. In an interview with ABC News, Chertoff said the five-color system — which, according to The New York Times, “spawned a thousand riffs” by comedians — may be discarded as part of a top-to-bottom review of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (more…)

The hijacked airplanes that struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, hit with such force that the resulting explosions blew the fireproofing off the steel columns, accelerating heat buildup and weakening the structural core −− contributing to the towers’ eventual collapse, according to a study issued Tuesday, April 5, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (more…)

Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Robert Bonner acknowledged in an interview Monday, April 4, that the Border Patrol is “almost … being overwhelmed” by illegal immigration. The Border Patrol caught about 1.1 million illegal immigrants in fiscal 2004, but an estimated 10 million illegal aliens are in the country. (more…)

Spent nuclear fuel stored in pools at some of the nation’s 103 operating commercial nuclear reactors may be at risk from terrorist attacks, says a new report from a committee of the National Academies’ Board on Radioactive Waste Management. (more…)

Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. Coast Guard has adopted a risk-based approach to identifying and intercepting threats well before they reach U.S. shores, said Rear Adm. Robert F. Duncan, the Coast Guard’s commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District and Commander of Maritime Defense Command Eight. (more…)

Federal investigators onMonday, April 4, were looking into reports that some sections of a southwest Washington railroad track had given trains a rough ride in the days before a four−car passenger train derailed on Sunday, April 3, injuring more than two dozen people. (more…)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced today the publication of the Interim National Preparedness Goal.

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To protect the Hutchins Street water treatment plant in Concord, NH, from the possibility of a terrorist attack, city officials will reinforce the stone security wall in front of the plant with a barbed wire−topped fence and replace the open gate at the plant entrance with an automated one. (more…)