Department of Homeland Security

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Homeland Security's Big Problem: Staff Keep Quitting

Department grapples with morale problems

(Newser) - One of the biggest challenges faced by the Department of Homeland Security is an internal one: Top staff members keep quitting, and it's hampering officials in their efforts to fight external dangers. In the past four years, the rate of departure from the department has been almost double the...

US to Yahoo: Hand Over Data or Pay $250K a Day

Court documents show government pressure in 2008

(Newser) - Just how badly did the federal government want data about Yahoo users for its now-notorious PRISM surveillance program ? It threatened to fine the company $250,000 a day in 2008 if it didn't comply, reports the Washington Post . The revelation comes from newly declassified court documents detailing the...

Pols Demand Missile Defenses on Airliners

Thousands of surface-to-air missiles believed owned by terrorists

(Newser) - A pair of prominent legislators are reviving a decade-old measure that would outfit passenger planes with anti-missile technology, at a cost of up to $2 million per $200 million plane, the New York Post reports. Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Steve Israel want on-board lasers, warning systems, flares, and infrared...

Chinese Hack Data of Feds With Top-Secret Clearance

'NYT': Office of Personnel Management was hit in March

(Newser) - Hackers gained access to the Office of Personnel Management, which houses the personal data of all federal employees, and an official tells the New York Times that the hit was traced to China—though it's not clear whether Beijing sanctioned it. The March breach appeared to target the files...

Firm That Vetted Snowden Gets New $190M Contract

US Investigations Services has been accused of massive fraud

(Newser) - You might think that giving a green light to Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis and allegedly fraudulently submitting 660,000 other background checks without actually completing them would prevent you from getting future government contracts. But you'd be wrong, because the Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $190...

US to Build Big Processing Facility for Migrant Kids

Site in McAllen, Texas, will hold 1K children

(Newser) - With the number of child immigrants from Central America overwhelming Border Patrol stations , the US plans to convert a giant warehouse into a processing facility for the kids in Texas, reports AP . The facility in McAllen will accommodate about 1,000 children, who will have access to an "interaction/play"...

Planned Homeland Security HQ a Total Fiasco

It's running a decade behind schedule, $1.5B over budget

(Newser) - What America was supposed to have as soon as this year, at a cost of $3 billion: a sprawling headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security, a complex of more than 50 buildings that would allow easier coordination of the department's agencies. The plan, announced by former DHS Secretary...

Homeland Security: Avoid Internet Explorer

Feds suggest switching browsers until flaw is fixed

(Newser) - A security flaw uncovered in Internet Explorer is so serious that users should consider switching to a different browser for now, the Department of Homeland Security yesterday warned. "We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem," said the department's Computer Readiness Team, which recommends...

Senate Report: Homeland Security Watchdog Was Anything But

Charles Edwards accused of altering reports to favor administration

(Newser) - As acting inspector general of Homeland Security, Charles Edwards was supposed to serve as an impartial watchdog over the department. But a bipartisan Senate report says he was more like a puppy dog anxious to please his superiors in the White House, reports the Washington Post and Fox News . The...

Nigella Lawson's New Humiliation: Barred From US

Could be due to drug confessions

(Newser) - As if it's not bad enough to have your ex-assistants publicly brand you a cokehead , now Nigella Lawson's admitted drug use may have gotten the celebrity chef barred from the US. Lawson was forbidden to board a Heathrow flight to Los Angeles on Sunday, the Department of Homeland...

US Makes Significant Child Porn Bust

'Never before ... have we identified and located this many minor victims'

(Newser) - US police have taken down a secret, members-only child porn ring, and with it achieved quite the feat: "Never before in the history of this agency have we identified and located this many minor victims in the course of a single child-exploitation investigation," one official told Reuters . The...

Border Patrol Takes Flak Over Use of Lethal Force

Changes expected after rash of recent deaths

(Newser) - A scathing report that suggests US Border Patrol agents are too quick to shoot and kill is expected to bring policy changes soon, reports the Wall Street Journal . Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson told Congress that he is personally reviewing some of the recent cases and will announce the reforms...

Feds Warn Airlines of New Shoe-Bomb Threat

Terror groups working on new bomb designs

(Newser) - Air passengers headed to the US from overseas can expect much tighter scrutiny of their shoes—and bodies—in the days and weeks to come. The Department of Homeland Security has learned of a possible new shoe-bomb plot and told airlines flying to the US to pay extra attention to...

Feds Warn Airlines of Bomb Threat in Toothpaste Tubes

Warning specific to flight to Russia for Olympics

(Newser) - Homeland Security officials say airlines flying to Russia ahead of the Olympics ought to pay special attention to passengers' toothpaste tubes because they could contain explosives to make a bomb, reports ABC News . Authorities say they passed along the threat "out of an abundance of caution" and know of...

Senate OKs New Homeland Security Chief

Jeh C. Johnson confirmed with help from new filibuster rules

(Newser) - Democrats used their newly initiated lower threshold for defeating filibusters yesterday to win Senate confirmation of President Obama's nomination of former top Pentagon lawyer Jeh C. Johnson to be secretary of Homeland Security. On a 57-37 vote, Democrats broke a GOP blockade against Johnson before the Senate minutes later...

Reid Used Clout to Overturn Ruling on Casino Investors

Washington Times: He got visas sped up; agency staffers cry foul

(Newser) - A newspaper report suggests that Harry Reid exercised improper political clout on behalf of a casino in his home state of Nevada. The Washington Times reports that Reid personally intervened when a government agency—the US Citizenship and Immigration Services—rejected a request to speed up visa applications for foreign...

Man Builds Deadly Arsenal Using Airport Store Items
Man Builds Deadly Arsenal Using Airport Store Items
in case you missed it
Nov 30, 2013 6:00 PM CST

Man Builds Deadly Arsenal Using Airport Store Items

Including a gun, grenade, crossbow—and they all work

(Newser) - You may already find it ridiculous that you can't bring the tiniest pair of scissors through an airport security checkpoint, but you'll find it even more absurd after reading this: A North Carolina programmer is proving that even with all those security restrictions, it's still possible to...

TSA's $1B SPOT Program as Effective as Flipping a Coin

Screening 'the same as or slightly better than chance'

(Newser) - Nearly $1 billion spent on a TSA behavioral screening program may have been better spent in Vegas. Started in 2007 at a cost of $200 million a year, the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program trains officers to scan crowded airports for suspicious-looking people. There's just one...

DHS Workers Watch Netflix, Charge Overtime: Report

Dipping into 'candy bowl' cost department $8.7M a year

(Newser) - An Office of Special Counsel report has detailed a "profound and entrenched problem" at six Department of Homeland Security offices, where employees have been dipping into a "candy bowl" of unearned overtime money to boost their paychecks. The routine practice of claiming Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime—meant to compensate...

US to Hand Out Biggest Immigration Fine Ever

Infosys used visitor visas instead of work visas

(Newser) - The federal government is expected to slap a record $35 million immigration fine on Infosys tomorrow, after Homeland Security and State Department investigators found that the Indian outsourcing company had been sneaking workers into the country on cheap visitor visas (B-1), instead of more expensive and harder to get temporary...

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