DHS: DHS Announces Nearly $970 Million in Preparedness Grant Final Allocations

YAHOO/AP: Homeland Security boss says cartels under pressure

LAREDO, Texas – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says strategies outlined with Mexican officials this week will put warring drug cartels in a vice.

At a border crossing facility near the Rio Grande River, Napolitano said U.S. and Mexican officials reached agreement on several ways to stop the illegal flow of guns and drugs between the two countries.

Napolitano said beefed up border inspections, drug- and gun-sniffing dogs, more information-sharing and improved surveillance will "operate almost like a vice" on the cartels.

LA TIMES: White House unveils plan to fight drug cartels at border

Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration said Tuesday it is speeding hundreds of federal agents and intelligence analysts to the Mexican border, along with specialized technology, as part of an ambitious new plan to attack the powerful drug cartels and prevent violence from spilling into the United States.

The initiative represents the most determined U.S. effort in years to counter the powerful and dangerous cartels and assist Mexican President Felipe Calderon in a battle that has already claimed more than 7,000 lives in Mexico over the last 15 months.

WGNO: Rainwater Encouraged By New FEMA Tone

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana's hurricane recovery chief said he's encouraged to hear a new tone at FEMA. Paul Rainwater met Friday with Tony Russell, the newly named acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Louisiana office. Rainwater said the two discussed issues including the new state-federal "decision teams" meant to help settle funding disputes and speed rebuilding projects stemming from the 2005 hurricanes.

TIMES PICAYUNE: N.O. FEMA office gets 'Decision Team'

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Wednesday that, in cooperation with Louisiana officials, she is creating a new "Decision Team" at the New Orleans' FEMA office to "expedite final decisions" about rebuilding projects that have been the source of long-running disputes between FEMA and the state.

MISSOURI NEWS: Homeland Security Secretary advocates "all hazards" approach

United States Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has instituted an "all hazards" approach to public safety since joining the Obama Administration.

Homeland Security grew from the ashes of September 11, 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Yet, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano won't single out terrorism as the biggest threat to the security of the nation.

"There are always a number of threats to our security," Napolitano said during a news conference at the State Emergency Management Agency in Jefferson City. "They can be international, they can be terrorist, they can be domestic and domestically raised. So, it's hard to say what is the single largest."

FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK: DHS sees upgrade for Common Operating Picture

The Homeland Security Department wants to upgrade its Common Operating Picture (COP), the situational awareness tool used at the department’s National Operations Center (NOC), and make it more accessible to state and local authorities, a senior department official has said.

DHS’ activated the COP in May 2006 and currently uses it as a situational awareness tool for strategic, operational and tactical purposes at the NOC. The department now plans to spend millions to upgrade it, refresh technology and eventually to build a new version of the COP that would allow for improved visualization and increased users.

Harry McDavid, chief information officer of DHS’ Office of Operations, Coordination and Planning, said in a recent interview that when DHS originally developed the COP, the urgency brought by the 2001 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina didn’t allow for much advanced planning and officials made use of existing technology. However, McDavid said officials overseeing COP have since planned how to develop its capabilities and have worked with other DHS agencies on topics such as geospatial information, Service Oriented Architecture and federated search engines.

HS TODAY: FEMA Would Succeed In or Out of DHS, Deputy Says

The acting deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) argued before a House panel Tuesday that removing his agency from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would not disconnect it from valuable resources in times of a catastrophe.

GT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: First Responder IPT to be Heavy in Practitioners

When a disaster strikes, it's the local government and first responders on the ground who must respond, not to mention the emergencies firefighters, emergency medical technicians and police officers respond to on a daily basis. And by their own admission, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) needs to do better job of reaching out to this community. To that end, DHS S&T is in the process of forming an integrated product team dedicated to serving the technology needs of first responders.

DHS: Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the National Fusion Center Conference in Kansas City, Mo. on March 11, 2009

FEDERAL COMPUTER WEEK: DHS plans enhanced interoperability standard

The Homeland Security Department expects to complete an enhanced version of its Bridging Systems Interface technical standard in the this summer to better enable interoperability among emergency response agencies, a senior official said at the GovSec conference today.

The enhanced standard will allow for better connections between systems that link disparate radio systems, said Luke Berndt, chief technical officer for DHS' Office of Interoperability and Compatibility. It also will provide for better linkages with different types of first responder radio systems.

WASHINGTON POST: A Struggle Over U.S. Cybersecurity

The resignation of the federal government's cybersecurity coordinator highlights a power struggle underway over how best to defend the government's civilian computer networks against digital attacks.

Rod A. Beckstrom resigned the post Friday after less than a year on the job, citing a lack of funding and the National Security Agency's tightening grip on government cybersecurity matters.

Beckstrom is director of the National Cyber Security Center -- an organization created last March to help coordinate such security efforts across the intelligence community. But recently, Beckstrom said, efforts have been underway to fold his group into a facility at the NSA.

Beckstrom said in an interview over the weekend that his group was formed to coordinate the various agencies' efforts but not to be controlled by the NSA.

DHS: Statement from U.S. Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Sara Kuban on Secretary Napolitano’s Address to National Fusion Conference

GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE: Advocates say DHS managers, rank-and-file are dissatisfied with personnel policies

REUTERS: Cybersecurity chief Beckstrom resigns

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government's director for cybersecurity resigned on Friday, criticizing the excessive role of the National Security Agency in countering threats to the country's computer systems.

"He has tendered his resignation," Amy Kudwa, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman told Reuters.

Former Silicon Valley entrepreneur Rod Beckstrom said in a resignation letter published by the Wall Street Journal it was a "bad strategy" to have the National Security Agency, which is part of the Department of Defense, play a major role in cybersecurity.

BOSTON GLOBE: US taps state's homeland security official

Governor Deval Patrick's homeland security undersecretary has been tapped to serve as a top official at the US Department of Homeland Security. The department announced Thursday that Juliette Kayyem, the first Arab-American appointed to serve as a homeland security adviser at the state level, will be an assistant secretary for intergovernmental programs under Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE: Advocates say DHS managers, rank-and-file are dissatisfied with personnel policies

The Homeland Security Department should focus on retaining senior executives, who are leaving DHS at a fast clip, union and nonprofit leaders told a congressional committee on Thursday.

Since its creation in October 2003 to September 2007, 72 percent of its career executives have left DHS, according to data from Homeland Security's fiscal 2009-13 strategic plan -- a rate significantly higher than other Cabinet-level departments, testified Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight.

TORONTO STAR: U.S. security chief seeks to ease Canadian fears

OTTAWA – The new boss of the U.S. homeland security department rejects suggestions Canada and the United States have a "thickened border" because of excessive security regulation since 9/11.

Still, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, speaking to Canadian reporters in a conference call from Washington, signalled an important shift in American rhetoric from the Bush years, going out of her way to say an "important balance" between trade and security at the border needs to be struck.

Napolitano refused to divulge the "preliminary" results of a review she ordered of the Canada-U.S. border's "vulnerabilities." She portrayed it as an information-gathering exercise.

But she sought to allay Canadian fears that her review meant a further "thickening" of the border.

FOX NEWS: DHS: Chances of Home-Grown Attack 'Very Low'

The latest intelligence indicates that a home-grown terrorist attack inside the United States is not likely anytime soon, according to a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

"We are not immune to an attack from a home-grown terrorist, but the probabilities and sustainability of such an act are very low," said DHS spokesman Michael Keegan.

That assessment came just hours after FBI Director Robert Mueller said his agency is "particularly concerned" that young men living in the United States could be recruited to attack the very country they call home.

AP: Homeland chief orders gulf coast recovery review

WASHINGTON (AP) — In one of her first moves as Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano has ordered a fresh review of hurricane recovery efforts in the gulf coast 3 1/2 years after two killer hurricanes swept ashore.

In testimony prepared for a congressional hearing Wednesday, Napolitano said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will assign a new team of senior staff members to look at ways to improve hurricane recovery operations that have been under way since hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of her testimony.