The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Hackensack NJ, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office want to remind you that during these times of uncertainty, know that Bergen County law enforcement is prepared for anything. The men and women of the BCSO are working 24/7 in our Patrol, Homeland Security and other special units. The Bergen County Regional SWAT Team is one of our nation’s best. Enjoy the day in safety and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.
If You See Something, Say Something
December 26,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
WASHINGTON DC, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation released a public service announcement urging the public to remain vigilant during the holidays:
“As you travel, shop, and gather together to celebrate the holiday season, we ask you to stay alert. While we are not aware of any specific, credible threats at this time, the recent attempted attack in New York is a reminder that we must remain vigilant.
“You play a critical role in keeping our nation and our neighborhoods safe. So if you see something suspicious, or notice behavior that doesn’t seem quite right, say something. Contact local law enforcement. Tell them who and what you saw, where and when you saw it, and why it seemed suspicious.
“Hopefully, it’s nothing. But maybe, it could save your life. Help us make the holidays safer. If you see something, say something.”
Watch the PSA featuring Christopher Krebs, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate; Nikki Floris, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division; and David Glawe, the DHS Counterterrorism Coordinator.
The homemade clock Ahmed Mohamed brought to school was mistaken for a bomb. (Irving Police Department)
Why a ninth-grader’s arrest over a home-built clock struck a chord across America
A week after 9/11, a lapse of judgement ?
By Abby Phillip and Sarah Kaplan September 16 at 6:20 PM
Ahmed Mohamed just wanted to impress his teachers with a homemade invention. The story of what happened next has made the 14-year-old from Irving, Tex., the object of national outrage and attention.
Eager to show off to his engineering teacher, Mohamed walked into MacArthur High School on Monday morning with his hastily assembled invention: A digital clock.
Hours later, the ninth-grader was escorted out of the school in police custody after teachers mistook the device for a bomb.
The incident has triggered allegations of racism and made a Texas school district the target of outrage that began online and quickly spilled into the most powerful offices in the land.
As the story spread, along with a photo of Mohamed in a NASA T-shirt and handcuffs, support came flooding in.
“Cool clock, Ahmed,” President Obama wrote in a tweet Wednesday. “Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.”
he Huffington Post | By Andy Campbell
Posted: 06/01/2015 2:07 pm EDT
As thorough as the Transportation Security Administration screeners may be as they rifle through your belongings, the agency isn’t performing where it counts.
In a series of trials, the Department of Homeland Security was able to smuggle fake explosives, weapons and other contraband past airport screeners in major cities across the country, according to ABC News. Officials briefed on the Homeland Security Inspector General’s investigation told the station that the TSA failed 67 out of 70 tests conducted by the department’s Red Teams — undercover passengers tasked with identifying weaknesses in the screening process, NJ.com reports.
During the tests, DHS agents each tried to bring a banned item past TSA screeners. They succeeded 95 percent of the time.
The internal investigation was designed to find the TSA’s most egregious vulnerabilities. The TSA has said Red Team agents are “super terrorists” who “push the boundaries of our people, processes, and technology,” but DHS officials told ABC the test results were frustrating at the very least.
April 10, 2015 4:15pm PT by Eriq Gardner
The newly released documents buttress a report issued late last month detailing how an immigration director was swayed with respect to hundreds of millions of dollars in film and TV investments under the EB-5 visa program.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has released hundreds of pages of emails plus other documents in support of its investigation of improper influence on the EB-5 immigration program. Many of the documents discuss hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for film and television productions from Sony Pictures and Time Warner with prominent politicians including former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendall and the office of former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa interjecting in an effort to get approvals.
Since inception in 1990, the EB-5 visa program allows foreign nationals to become conditional permanent residents upon an investment of at least $500,000 for a qualifying project that creates American jobs. Entertainment studios begun to eye the program to get film investment capital, but some projects have been rejected. For example, in 2009, Lionsgate was denied funding from EB-5 investors because it was determined that the studio was not legally obligated to accept the funding.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/homeland-security-releases-emails-showing-787829
“Let’s Just Kill ‘Homeland Security'” Already!
Nick Gillespie|Feb. 25, 2015 2:07 pm
After you’ve read through Jesse Walker’s exclusive look at the much-hyped Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report of “sovereign citizens,” check out my argument for disbanding DHS altogether. Created in the “mad crush of panic, paranoia, and patriotic pants-wetting after the 9/11 attacks,” DHS oversees 22 agencies. It was a stupid idea from the beginning and it has continued to disappoint. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) regularly lists it as awful and ineffective at just about anything except wasting taxpayer dollars and surveys of federal employees document that even the Post Office has higher employee morale.
Absent legislative action, come Friday DHS will be unfunded due to an ongoing fight over Barack Obama’s executive action regarding illegal immigration. The Republican Congress is threatening to pull funding for the whole department and the Dems are (so far) standing firm in their threat to shut down the government.
In my latest Daily Beast column, I argue that scrapping over this small corner of DHS activities misses the bigger picture insight that the whole cabinet-level departmet should be chucked “into the dustbin.”
https://reason.com/blog/2015/02/25/lets-just-kill-homeland-security-already