The nation's program to detect nuclear devices and materials being smugggled into the country by terrorists went "off the rails" during the Bush administration and left the nation unprotected.
"Scientists have underestimated the potential for a giant quake and tsunami that could swamp much the U.S. northwest and Canadian west coasts, British and U.S. researchers said on Monday."
Reporters interested in following the hazards of dams, refineries, chemical plants, pipelines, and other infrastructure may find story leads in DHS reports.
"On July 4, 1999, a storm devastated the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota and killed millions of trees. Now, the forest is growing back." Everybody who was there 10 years ago has a story.
By Amy Wold
Two days after Hurricane Katrina, my editor called me over to his desk and pointed to a place on the map below New Orleans. He said, "Try to get somewhere in this area."
At the time there were four adults, two dogs and two children (some of whom were New Orleans evacuees) staying in my onebedroom home so getting "somewhere in this area" sounded like a really good idea.
By JEREMY HARPER
When I went to sleep Wednesday, Sept. 21, Hurricane Rita was threatening the Texas coast, promising to pester Louisiana with no more than a quick bout of tropical storm conditions. I was prepared to ride out the fringe of the storm in either my apartment on the second floor of a sturdy historic building in downtown Lake Charles, La., a city of 75,000 about 40 miles inland of the Gulf of Mexico, or in the newsroom of the American Press, the city's daily newspaper where I have worked for four years as a reporter.
"West Virginia regulators and coal operators have not properly implemented state rules meant to keep strip mining from contributing to flooding during heavy rains over narrow mountain hollows, according to a new federal report."
"People in North Texas worry about tornadoes, not earthquakes. That's not the case in the small town of Cleburne, just south of Fort Worth. They've had six quakes so far this month. Cleburne happens to sit on a huge, recently discovered natural gas deposit called Barnett Shale. There's been a lot of drilling, and some people wonder if that has triggered the earthquakes."
Rockefeller's bill keeps FOIA exemptions for real security information, but forbids using the "sensitive security information" stamp.
FOIA requests and Congressional pressure got the Obama administration to reverse its decision to withhold key information about dangers to communities from coal-ash ponds operated by electric utilities.
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