WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Transportation Security Administration has named John Halinski, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and eight-year veteran of the TSA, as its new deputy administrator, according to a news release from the agency.
ATLANTA—Because of a backlog in requests for criminal background checks, airport vendors at this city's airport have been allowed to hire employees before receiving security clearance.
WASHINGTON—Amtrak is consolidating the security and emergency preparedness functions for all its divisions under a new corporate department led by a former FEMA administrator.
JERSEY CITY, N.J.—Cargo theft is notoriously difficult to track, but there is evidence that it was on the rise in 2011, according to a recent study by CargoNet.
NEW YORK—Following two fatal stabbings in the subways here and then the failed bombing attempt allegedly committed by Faisal Shahzad in Times Square, mainstream media scrutiny of the city’s surveillance system ramped up. In particular, MSNBC, WNYC and other outlets made waves with stories about how “half of NYC security cams don’t work” or “none of the roughly 2,000 cameras [in the subways] ... are fully hooked up to surveillance rooms where employees can monitor them.”
JERSEY CITY, N.J.—Estimates of losses due to cargo theft range anywhere from $15 to $30 billion a year. At the end of January, those charged with protecting cargo will see the launch of CargoNet, a national database and information sharing system designed to deter and recover stolen cargo.
I know it's been three days since the inauguration, but mainstream media is still obsessing about it, so I figure I can, too. I wrote a brief article for our newswire this week about TSA's role in inauguration security and today I found this great video (or rather vlog, I guess, in cool-kid techie terms). I must say, I'm impressed that the TSA took the time (or had the foresight) to produce this. My favorite part, of course, is the dramatic score to accompany the footage, but you can't deny that screening that many people is pretty remarkable. See, I can be fair and balanced, too.
