A new look at how DHS grant funds are being spent should be a major priority of the Obama administration. It will be difficult to find fault with the earlier focus on equipment, but it seems obvious that the previously neglected "planning factor" also deserves greater emphasis.
Most Americans eat too much and too often. Solving that problem is a personal dietary responsibility. Protecting the nation's global food chain, though, is the government's responsibility - one previously neglected, but now receiving close attention from a slim new president.
At last! A Federal Register notice asks the nation's business community to comment on ideas that have been submitted to upgrade the disaster-preparedness capabilities of the U.S. private sector. Read, heed, and proceed - but do it fast.
Companies throughout the United States are trying to cut expenses any way they can: by layoffs, by plant closures, even by reductions in safety programs - which, it says here, are not only the most unkindest but also the most foolish cuts of all.
One of the most effective weapons against terrorists, surprisingly, is Money! Not the reasonable sums used to pay for new surveillance systems but damages charged against businesses that fail to provide proper security for customers, tenants, & employees.
For many Americans the most important date to remember next month will not be Inauguration Day, but 27 January, when the American National Standards Institute's Transit Security Workshop starts a much-needed review of U.S. rail-security deficiencies.
From parking lots to elevators & escalators to penthouse apartments - every room and every floor in the office and residential buildings now being designed represents a different type of danger. Here is a handy list of some of the more avoidable ones.
An underground garage open to the general public and poorly lighted is an open invitation to a robber, a rapist, or a murderer. Also to a terrorist whose life's ambition is to kill as many Americans as possible, even at the cost of his own life.
There are many reasons - e.g., future sales, & an infusion of outside expertise - for including international partners in the setting of standards. There are also legal & security factors to consider, particularly in the fields of weapons & technology.
Crowd control is today both a challenge and a necessity, as demonstrated by the Beijing Olympics and this summer's political conventions. The controls used, though, are often resented, and frequently expensive - but not as costly as a terrorist attack.
