Free Republic

Why a Flexible Homeland Security Agency is Critical to Our National Defense September 25, 2002 1. After September 11, 2001, the Customs Service wanted to require its inspectors at the 301 ports of entry to wear radiation detection pagers to help detect attempts to import nuclear or radiological materials across our borders. The National Treasury Employees Union objected, saying that wearing the pagers should be voluntary, and sought to invoke collective bargaining over the issue, which would (under the best of circumstances) have taken at least a year to resolve. In the end the union backed down, and the Customs...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  More than half the explosive-detection machines now at airports are not being fully used to screen checked baggage, even as the government plans to buy hundreds more of the minivan-sized equipment, the Transportation Department said Thursday.</p> <p>Inspector General Kenneth Mead said the machines should screen at least 1,250 bags a day, but only 12 of 138 machines are reaching that level. Transportation Security Administration head John Magaw acknowledged the problem and said it would be fixed as trained federal baggage screeners replace private employees.</p>

<p>MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — Two top employees of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center have been replaced for allegedly misusing personal time.</p> <p>Patricia K. Dolan, a spokeswoman at the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, told The Providence Journal that Jeurgen G. Keil and John E. Sirmalis abused personal time that was taken for reported religious reasons.</p>