Romney Opposes Fire Fighter and Public Safety Programs

Romney also opposes FIRE Act grants, which provide critical funding to communities for life saving equipment and apparatus. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney repeatedly attempted to cut local aid to communities, jeopardizing public safety and safe staffing. He also attempted to strip away the collective bargaining rights of fire fighters in the state.

“The SAFER program has proven to be invaluable to fire departments facing layoffs during the current economic downturn. On the eve of the Illinois primary, we must let voters know that if Mitt Romney has his way, he will eliminate a successful public safety program that makes communities safer by keeping fire fighters on the frontlines,” Schaitberger said.

The SAFER program has put more than 5,000 fire fighters back to work across the country, giving a much-needed boost to public safety in countless struggling communities. In Illinois, the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] provided fire departments $10.2 million in grants to hire or retain fire fighters last year.

The ad can viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8DXBksXb2Q

The IAFF, headquartered in Washington, represents more than 300,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics in North America and is the leading advocate for the health and safety of fire fighters. More information is available at www.iaff.org.

Romney Opposes Fire Fighter and Public Safety Programs

WASHINGTON, Mar 18, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Fire fighters today are jumping into the Republican nomination process
with a new ad highlighting Mitt Romney’s opposition to critical public
safety programs.

The ad, produced by the International Association of Fire Fighters,
points out that Romney opposes the Staffing for Adequate Fire and
Emergency Response [SAFER] program, which has saved thousands of fire
fighter and paramedic jobs and ensured that public safety remains strong
in Illinois and across the country.

“It is important for Illinois voters to know Romney’s poor record on
public safety,” International Association of Fire Fighters General
President Harold Schaitberger said.

Romney also opposes FIRE Act grants, which provide critical funding to
communities for life saving equipment and apparatus. As governor of
Massachusetts, Romney repeatedly attempted to cut local aid to
communities, jeopardizing public safety and safe staffing. He also
attempted to strip away the collective bargaining rights of fire
fighters in the state.

“The SAFER program has proven to be invaluable to fire departments
facing layoffs during the current economic downturn. On the eve of the
Illinois primary, we must let voters know that if Mitt Romney has his
way, he will eliminate a successful public safety program that makes
communities safer by keeping fire fighters on the frontlines,”
Schaitberger said.

The SAFER program has put more than 5,000 fire fighters back to work
across the country, giving a much-needed boost to public safety in
countless struggling communities. In Illinois, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency [FEMA] provided fire departments $10.2 million in
grants to hire or retain fire fighters last year.

The ad can viewed here:

The IAFF, headquartered in Washington, represents more than 300,000
full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics in North America and
is the leading advocate for the health and safety of fire fighters. More
information is available at
www.iaff.org .

SOURCE: International Association of Fire Fighters

        Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois
        Bill Glanz, 202 329-5856
        or
        Pat Devaney, 217 621-0483
        President

Copyright Business Wire 2012

Romney Opposes Fire Fighter and Public Safety Programs

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fire fighters today are jumping into the Republican nomination process
with a new ad highlighting Mitt Romney’s opposition to critical public
safety programs.

“It is important for Illinois voters to know Romney’s poor record on
public safety”

The ad, produced by the International Association of Fire Fighters,
points out that Romney opposes the Staffing for Adequate Fire and
Emergency Response [SAFER] program, which has saved thousands of fire
fighter and paramedic jobs and ensured that public safety remains strong
in Illinois and across the country.

“It is important for Illinois voters to know Romney’s poor record on
public safety,” International Association of Fire Fighters General
President Harold Schaitberger said.

Romney also opposes FIRE Act grants, which provide critical funding to
communities for life saving equipment and apparatus. As governor of
Massachusetts, Romney repeatedly attempted to cut local aid to
communities, jeopardizing public safety and safe staffing. He also
attempted to strip away the collective bargaining rights of fire
fighters in the state.

“The SAFER program has proven to be invaluable to fire departments
facing layoffs during the current economic downturn. On the eve of the
Illinois primary, we must let voters know that if Mitt Romney has his
way, he will eliminate a successful public safety program that makes
communities safer by keeping fire fighters on the frontlines,”
Schaitberger said.

The SAFER program has put more than 5,000 fire fighters back to work
across the country, giving a much-needed boost to public safety in
countless struggling communities. In Illinois, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency [FEMA] provided fire departments $10.2 million in
grants to hire or retain fire fighters last year.

The ad can viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8DXBksXb2Q

The IAFF, headquartered in Washington, represents more than 300,000
full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics in North America and
is the leading advocate for the health and safety of fire fighters. More
information is available at www.iaff.org.

NSU offers homeland security degree

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BATON ROUGE — If you’ve got the desire to find ways to root out terrorists or just keep your community safe, Northwestern State University has a degree program for you.

NSU recently got conditional approval to offer the state’s first master’s degree in homeland security starting this summer.

It’s an expansion of an adult education course currently offered that has a “concentration” in homeland security.

Joe Morris, head of the Department of Criminal Justice, History and Social Sciences, said the university started developing the program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Courses will cover a variety of security issues such as international terrorism, transnational organized crime and covert operations, venue and event security, domestic terrorism prevention and analysis, constitutional issues and global security, cyberterrorism, counter-terrorism, advanced cyberforensics and cyberwarfare issues.

The new degree is aimed at applicants who have a bachelor’s degree in a related field, like criminal justice, or a master’s from NSU’s current homeland security “concentration” under the adult education program.

It can be done online but Morris cautions that it won’t be easy.

“If you don’t have to work hard, what good is it?” he asks.

Graduates will be eligible for employment in a number of fields with police and sheriffs’ departments, emergency management operations in

parishes or with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and state-level homeland security jobs.

The ultimate job, Morris says, is with one of the “three-letter agencies in D.C.”

NSU President Randall Webb said in a news release that the new degree is “a unique program to the state and few, if any, programs nationally have this type of focus.

We expect this program to give Northwestern State national prominence in the field of homeland security.”

NSU submitted its applications for the degree several years ago but got caught up in a moratorium on new college degrees.

During that time, funding cuts occurred and universities across the state eliminated many low-performing programs and consolidated departments to save money.

Homeland Security degree planned

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BATON ROUGE — If you’ve got the desire to find ways to root out terrorists or just keep your community safe, Northwestern State University has a degree program for you.

Northwestern, which is in Natchitoches, got conditional approval last week to offer the state’s first master’s degree in Homeland Security starting this summer. It’s an expansion of an adult education course already offered that has a “concentration” in homeland security.

Joe Morris, head of the Department of Criminal Justice, History and Social Sciences, said the university started developing the program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Courses will cover a variety of security issues, such as international terrorism; transnational organized crime and covert operations; venue and event security; domestic terrorism prevention and analysis; constitutional issues and global security; cyberterrorism; counter-terrorism; advanced cyberforensics; and cyberwarfare issues.

The new degree is aimed at applicants who have a bachelor’s degree in a related field, like criminal justice, or a master’s from NSU’s homeland security “concentration” under the adult education program.

It can be done online but Morris cautions that it won’t be easy.

“If you don’t have to work hard, what good is it?” he asked.

Graduates will be eligible for employment in a number of fields with police and sheriffs’ departments, emergency management operations in parishes or with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and state-level homeland security jobs.

The ultimate job, Morris says, is with one of the “three-letter agencies in D.C.”

NSU President Randall Webb said in a news release the new degree is “a unique program to the state and few, if any, programs nationally have this type of focus. We expect this program to give Northwestern State national prominence in the field of homeland security.”

NSU submitted its applications for the degree several years ago but got caught up in a moratorium on new college degrees.

During that time, funding cuts occurred and universities across the state eliminated many low-performing programs and consolidated departments to save money.

Fall River applying for $14.4M in grant funds to retain firefighter jobs

Continued employment of at least 79 city firefighters is hinging on the application of the second major SAFER grant application officials will submit to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, this one within the next 10 days.

Fall River is seeking $14.4 million to preserve those positions, grant writer Jane DiBiasio said Tuesday.

the city, after significant layoffs, received the largest Staffing for Adequate Emergency Response grant in the country in 2010 — $10.8 million — but funding this time is not certain, officials said.

“We don’t know if we’re going to get it for sure. But I think we have a good shot,” interim Fire Chief William Silvia said.

“When it comes to fire, this is the most important issue to me right now, making sure we get the funding,” Mayor Will Flanagan said. “If we are not awarded the grant funding, it would be devastating to our Fire Department.

“If we do not receive this funding, it would lead to layoffs, station closings and drastically reduced response times,” Flanagan said, consequences the city is emphasizing to federal grant officials.

Layoffs and attrition reduced the Fire Department to 153 firefighters in 2009, but the department has since been returned to its full complement of 232.

That was before the city received a $3 million, one-year federal and state recovery grant in late 2009, followed by the two-year SAFER grant the following year.

The current two-year grant runs through Aug. 27. This application must be submitted by Feb. 24, DiBiasio said.

The city’s funding request this time is 33 percent higher than the amount it received in 2010. The additional $3.6 million reflects high costs in salaries and benefits to retain the 79 firefighters, officials said.

Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, expects to announce awarding of the competitive grants sometime between May and the summer, Silvia said.

“We’re asking for the same 79 positions as we did in the last grant,” said Silvia, the senior deputy chief who has led the department on an interim basis since December.

If no funds are awarded, the number of layoffs could reach well above 79 to perhaps 100 to pay unemployment benefits of those losing jobs.
Flanagan, Silvia and DiBiasio stated one cause of concern regarding the competitive grant, which they believe has been rectified.

The federal guidance kit for the SAFER applications indicated Fall River was not eligible for this grant because a formal layoff notice was not issued prior to the application period, Jan. 30, they said.

“We hope that’s not going to be an issue,” Silvia said of their application to retain the previously awarded grant.

In recent letters sent to more than 40 federal and local officials seeking support, Flanagan noted the eligibility requirements.

“We contacted a (DHS/FEMA) fire program specialist,” he wrote, “who told us to submit an application under the retention category as if layoff notices had been issued. So we are proceeding.”

He said he explained to federal officials, “if we are not awarded the grant, we are faced with layoffs.”

Noting a rash of recent fires at mills and multifamily homes, Flanagan said that with a smaller department, “I do not believe we would have been as effective fighting those fires.”

The status of a nearly indispensable SAFER grant is part of a broader budget picture, Flanagan said.

Discussing it at his office Tuesday, he said this $14.5 million needed and $4.5 million in one-time grant money school officials know has been eliminated make full funding for those departments challenging.

On the other hand, the city learned this month that $4.3 million is available in surplus funds or “free cash.”

But if the SAFER grant application is not funded, Flanagan said, “We’ve got some difficult decisions to make.

“Hopefully, that’s not the case.”

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.

Homeland Security watches Twitter, social media

By Mark Hosenball

Wed Jan 11, 2012 2:15pm EST

(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.

A “privacy compliance review” issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a “Social Networking/Media Capability” which involves regular monitoring of “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.”

The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to “collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.”

The document adds, using more plain language, that such monitoring is designed to help DHS and its numerous agencies, which include the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency, to manage government responses to such events as the 2010 earthquake and aftermath in Haiti and security and border control related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A DHS official familiar with the monitoring program said that it was intended purely to enable command center officials to keep in touch with various Internet-era media so that they were aware of major, developing events to which the Department or its agencies might have to respond.

The document outlining the monitoring program says that all the websites which the command center will be monitoring were “publicly available and… all use of data published via social media sites was solely to provide more accurate situational awareness, a more complete common operating pictures, and more timely information for decision makers…”

The DHS official said that under the program’s rules, the department would not keep permanent copies of the internet traffic it monitors. However, the document outlining the program does say that the operations center “will retain information for no more than five years.”

The monitoring scheme also features a five-page list, attached to the privacy review document, of websites the Department’s command center expected to be monitoring.

CONTROVERSIAL SITES

These include social networking sites Facebook and My Space – though there is a parenthetical notice that My Space only affords a “limited search” capability – and more than a dozen sites that monitor, aggregate and enable searches of Twitter messages and exchanges.

Among blogs and aggregators on the list are ABC News’ investigative blog “The Blotter;” blogs that cover bird flu; several blogs related to news and activity along U.S. borders (DHS runs border and immigration agencies); blogs that cover drug trafficking and cybercrime; and websites that follow wildfires in Los Angeles and hurricanes.

News and gossip sites on the monitoring list include popular destinations such as the Drudge Report, Huffington Post and “NY Times Lede Blog”, as well as more focused techie fare such as the Wired blogs “Threat Level” and “Danger Room.” Numerous blogs related to terrorism and security are also on the list.

Some of the sites on the list are potentially controversial. WikiLeaks is listed for monitoring, even though officials in some other government agencies were warned against using their official computers to access WikiLeaks material because much of it is still legally classified under U.S. government rules.

Another blog on the list, Cryptome, also periodically posts leaked documents and was one of the first websites to post information related to the Homeland Security monitoring program.

Also on the list are JihadWatch and Informed Comment, blogs that cover issues related to Islam through sharp political prisms, which have sometimes led critics to accuse the sites of political bias.

Also on the list are various video and photo-sharing sites, including Hulu, Youtube and Flickr.

While a DHS official involved in the monitoring program confirmed the authenticity of the list, officials authorized to speak for the Department did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by Eric Walsh)

San Jose: Fire drill scheduled this morning near HP Pavilion

There won’t be a need to dial 911 if smoke is seen in the area around the San Jose Fire Department training facility near Montgomery Street and Park Avenues.

The second wave of firefighter recruits recently hired through a federal grant will be conducting one of their final drills this morning by locating and rescuing people trapped inside a smoky building, according to a San Jose fire captain.

The drill is expected to begin around 10 a.m. The recruits may be required to located a 165-pound mannequin and carry it to safety.

The class of new recruits will be graduating on Friday.

Earlier this year, San Jose was awarded a $15 million, two-year fire staffing grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which restored all the firefighter jobs lost a year ago because of budget cuts.

Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869.

Russian hackers breach water system in central Illinois

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security revealed Friday they are looking into an apparent cyber attack that shut down a water pump near Springfield earlier this month.

Reuters reported the Nov. 8 cyber attack originated from Russia and the hackers repeatedly switched the pump on and off, resulting in a burnout and shutdown.

Experts consider the incident to be the first of its kind — a successful cyber attack by foreign hackers targeting an industrial facility inside the United States.

“This is arguably the first case where we have had a hack of critical infrastructure from outside the United States that caused damage,” cyber security expert Joseph Weiss told Agence France-Presse.

The water pump serves 2200 customers in the Curran-Gardner Township Public Water District, a rural area west of Springfield. Local officials said there were no service interruptions because multiple pumps run simultaneously.

Patti Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, told The Daily on Sunday her agency has prepared for cyber attacks in the past but was not involved in the response to this particular incident.

“We have done cyber attack exercises in the past to help us practice our plans for those type of events,” Thompson said. “Depending on what gets attacks it might warrant different responses and we’ve worked on a couple different scenarios and how we would respond to different type of emergencies.”

IEMA regularly handles natural disaster response and coordinates emergency response efforts with the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois State Police and the FBI.

“We coordinate efforts so no agencies are working in a vacuum,” Thompson said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency controls the national response to disasters, including possible cyber attacks. FEMA spokesman Mark Peterson told The Daily on Sunday his agency plans to follow established protocols.

“Generally we follow the national response framework for any type of incident,” Peterson said.

The investigation of the Illinois incident is still in the fact-gathering stage, according to an email sent to Reuters by Department of Homeland Security spokesman Peter Boogaard.

“At this time there is no credible corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety,” he said.

mc2014@u.northwestern.edu

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security to Test Nationwide Emergency Alert System Today

On Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will test the Emergency Alert System across the entire country. The test may last up to 3 minutes.

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national alert and warning system established to enable the President of the United States to address the American public during emergencies. NOAA’s National Weather Service, governors and state and local emergency authorities also use parts of the system to issue more localized emergency alerts.

Wednesday’s national test will help federal partners and EAS participants determine the reliability of the system and its effectiveness in notifying the public of emergencies and potential dangers.

Similar to the weekly and monthly EAS tests conducted locally, the nationwide test will involve broadcast radio and television stations, cable television, and satellite radio and television services across all 50 states.

What people can expect:

On Nov. 9, at 2 p.m., the public will hear a message indicating: “This is a test.” The audio message will be the same for both radio and television.

Similar to local Emergency Alert System tests, an audio message will interrupt television and radio programming. When the test is over, regular programming will resume.

The Emergency Alert System plays an important role in preparing communities for significant hazards and emergencies. Conducting tests allows everyone to learn what the alert sounds like and what to do when it is broadcast. Residents should not be alarmed and should not call 9-1-1 to ask about this test.