Today's News

The Homeland Security & Defense Business Council launched on September 10 a year-long thought-leadership project that will release monographs on the 10^th of each month to document our nation’s response to the events of 9/11, and ask, “Are we ready for the day before tomorrow?” 

The Federal Aviation Administration has decided that it will no longer allow U.S. airports to permit private residences adjacent to the airport to have what is known as “through-the-fence access” to runways for the private aircraft they store at their “hangar homes.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reminds Visa Waiver Program travelers that a new $14 fee for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization applications begins on Wednesday, September 8.

A fee of $4 will recover the costs incurred by CBP in providing and administering the ESTA system, in addition to a mandatory $10 “travel promotion” fee established by the Travel Promotion Act of 2009. The total fee for a new or renewed ESTA is $14.

In order to make it easier to handle classified requests for information from the federal law enforcement and intelligence communities concerning immigrants resident in the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security intends to create a classified data base that “mirrors” the information contained in several different existing unclassified data bases.

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office within DHS wants to acquire two radiological / nuclear detection devices that can be mounted on small boats, for delivery to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA.

Gamma detection modules would be mounted on the port and starboard side of each detector boat, which would range in size from 25 to 45 feet. A neutron detection module would be installed inside the boat’s cabin, according to a set of technical specifications released by DHS on August 31.

The Obama administration has been cozy with the National Rifle Association – in fact, a Washington Post editorial recently called the administration “long AWOL on sensible and much needed gun regulations” – but it was still surprising to learn that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has just awarded the NRA a $182,000 contract so Border Patrol agents can use the NRA’s firing range for training purposes.

The award, which was announced online by CBP on August 17, was actually handed to the NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, NM, is instructing so many Border Patrol students in techniques to cross canals and rivers safely that it has run out of space in FLETC’s own swimming pool and has had to rent space in the nearby swimming pool owned by the Artesia public school district.

FLETC announced on September 7 that it will pay Artesia’s school system $110,000 per year for periodic use of its large indoor natatorium. FLETC’s new demand apparently will not squeeze out the local students from using their own pool as well.

On August 31, the White House was forthcoming enough to announce that President Obama had just signed a new Executive Order that supposedly amends the Manual for Courts-Martial, but was not forthcoming enough to explain in any way how these amendments will actually change the rules under which courts-martial are conducted.

The U.S. Coast Guard has announced that its request to collect additional information from owners and operators of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities about any expansion plans they may be contemplating has recently been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and that the Coast Guard will require this additional information from LNG facilities beginning on September 3.