A team is a team is a team. But a championship team is not built overnight - and definitely cannot rest on its laurels. The biggest difference, really, between a championship baseball team and a community's emergency-response team is that the baseball team gets tons more publicity and much higher pay, whereas the responders have to make do with such meager accomplishments as saving lives and, just perhaps, the local infrastructure.
Compelling information for responders, receivers, planners, and managers. This report focuses on the importance of training and preparing for a large-scale disaster during a special event. Audio links included.
Parents, nutritionists, and educators have been concerned for many years about school lunch programs and, more recently, childhood obesity. Now they have a new and arguably more important problem to worry about - namely, that the food served up to the tots and teenagers during school hours others might be contaminated, radioactive, and/or otherwise dangerous to their childrens' health.
In the early 1800s, the New Madrid Seismic Zone, centered in the southeast corner of Missouri, was the site of the largest earthquake in U.S. history. The question is not if another quake will occur in that area, but when will it happen. Listen to Kay Goss's roundtable discussion on National Level Exercise 2011, which will address this pressing concern and help the nation be better prepared for the next "big one."
It is a ship, a hospital, a floating embassy. More specifically, "It" is the hospital ship USNS Comfort, one of the nation's least publicized but most effective naval/military/diplomatic assets better known overseas, perhaps, than at home. Come aboard for a quick tour, then "request permission to leave the ship, Sir" - which you will do with an overwhelming feeling of pride, patriotism, and compassion.
Well, there is really only one buyer - the U.S. government. And the executive and legislative branches of that government are under extreme pressure to "cut the budget" as much and as quickly as possible. The only problem is that this year's easy choices may never be available again. But that problem, of course, can be left to the next generation. If there is one.
The Target hit, the Tactics used, and the Technology involved - all provide a wealth of information that can be used by everyday citizens to find out the "real facts" behind a terrorist incident and/or other mass-casualty event. Also not to be ignored is the telling clue, noticed only by Sherlock Holmes, about the dog that did not bark.
After-action reports are valuable both in establishing precisely what went wrong, and why - particularly if used to ensure that the same mistakes are not made a second time. They are even more valuable, though, if used by other political jurisdictions as lessons learned to upgrade their own preparations and advance-planning policies and procedures.
by Robert Kadlec, Former Special Assistant to the President for Homeland Security & Senior Director for Biological Defense Policy -
Not surprisingly, and despite minor differences of opinion on other questions, career homeland-security professionals and DPJ readers agree in general that there will be another terrorist attack against the United States "within the next 10 years." What to do about it, though - particularly to be better prepared ahead of time - is and will be a topic worthy of much greater attention now and for the foreseeable future.
If not, why not? There are good reasons, both pro and con. And is Assange the only culprit? Also, why are senior U.S. officials hiding behind reassuring comments that provide little or no comfort to U.S. allies throughout the world - and/or to the American people, either. Finally, at a time of maximum peril, why is the question headlined above relegated to the "Too Hard" basket?
