The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International took quick action yesterday, only a few hours after the magnitude 5.9 earthquake in northern Virginia, to remind the American people, and the U.S. Congress, of the compelling need to build a nationwide interoperable communications network that would be dedicated to public safety, providing a reliable network for first responders to communicate with one another and alleviating commercial network congestion during emergencies.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced final allocations for 12 preparedness grant programs totaling more than $2.1 billion in federal grants to assist states, urban areas, tribal and territorial governments, non-profit agencies, and the private sector in strengthening our nation's ability to prevent, protect, respond to, recover from, and mitigate terrorist attacks, major disasters and other emergencies.
As Hurricane Irene intensifies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is coordinating federal response efforts to support territory and local officials in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while also urging families along coastal areas of the southeastern United States to closely monitor the storm and take the steps needed to prepare for potentially severe weather in the coming days. According to the National Weather Service, Irene has already strengthened into the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
The ChemPro series of Chemical Warfare Agent (CWA) and Toxic Industrial Chemical (TIC) detection products have used an Americium-241 ionization source in their Ion Mobility Spectroscopy (IMS) sensors to provide license-free ownership in many nations of the world, including the United States. However, in some countries, such as Canada, this source is not recognized, so Environics has responded by incorporating a Nickel-63 source in the ChemPro product line. This new source provides the same gas/vapor detection performance as the original Americium-241 source.
RCC Consultants Inc. is pleased to announce the official launch of its Command, Control, and Communications Training and Exercise Solutions Team (C3TEST). C3TEST helps agencies create a holistic, multi-year program to improve capabilities related to command, control, and communications (C3).
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has unveiled new Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for the Department of Homeland Security's "If You See Something, Say Something" public awareness campaign, aimed at educating the public on the importance of reporting suspicious activity to state and local law-enforcement authorities.
Bruker has announced the award of a contract for 40 systems from the Improved Point Detection System - Lifecycle Replacement (IPDS-LR) program through the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBD) for use by the U.S. Navy. The IPDS-LR system is based on Bruker's RAID-S2, a trace-gas detector for the detection of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and toxic industrial chemicals (TICs). This system utilizes high-performance ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS) technology.
"We must stop individuals and transnational criminal organizations that seek to exploit the border shared by the United States and Canada to traffic drugs, arms, and other illicit goods," said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. "We will continue working closely with our Canadian partners through greater operational collaboration and intelligence sharing to strengthen the security of both our nations within, at, and away from our border."
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the award of $49 million in grants, partly supported by the Affordable Care Act, to improve the quality of U.S. health care and strengthen the public health infrastructure. The grants, awarded to all fifty states, will fund key state and local public health programs supported through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The grants strengthen state, local, and territorial health departments' capacity to perform critical epidemiology and laboratory work, detect and prevent healthcare-associated infections, and support immunization programs.
Avon Protection has announced that it has been awarded a three-year IDIQ (indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity) contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for the continued supply of M61 filters for use with Avon's M50 respirator.
