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General Security and Resilience

White House Releases Strategy for Combating Terrorist Travel to the U.S.

The Trump Administration has released the National Strategy to Combat Terrorist Travel, which outlines how the U.S. government intends to expand coordination and maximize the full capabilities of federal departments and agencies to identify, detect, and deter terrorists from transiting international borders. The document cites returning foreign fighters from overseas terrorist groups like the Islamic State, who can bring with them battlefield experience, explosives training, and extremist motivations, as one of the most significant threats it seeks to confront.

Water Quality Surveillance and Response System Capabilities Assessment Tool

The U.S. EPA created the Water Quality Surveillance and Response System (SRS) Capabilities Assessment Tool to help drinking water utilities identify existing SRS capabilities, assess these capabilities relative to target capabilities, and develop potential enhancements to meet their unique SRS goals and objectives. The tool provides an easy starting point for utilities interested in implementing an SRS. The SRS is a framework designed to enhance a drinking water utility’s capability to quickly detect and respond to water quality issues.

FBI Preliminary Annual Report Shows Declines in Violent Crimes and Property Crimes

Statistics FBI’s just released Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report revealed overall declines in the number of violent crimes and property crimes reported for the first six months of 2018 when compared with figures for the first six months of 2017. Three of the offenses in the violent crime category – robbery, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, and aggravated assault – showed decreases when data from the first six months of 2018 were compared with data from the first six months of 2017.

New Quadrennial National Health Security Strategy Emphasizes Whole-of-Nation Approach to Safeguard Nation’s Health in Crises

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has published the 2019-2022 National Health Security Strategy, its quadrennial plan for strengthening the nation’s ability to prevent, detect, assess, prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from disasters and emergencies.

An Examination of the U.S.’s Approaches to Terrorism Prevention Recommends Increased Federal Government Facilitation of Local Efforts

A newly published report from the RAND Corporation provides a comprehensive examination of past countering violent extremism and current terrorism prevention efforts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its interagency partners and explores options for this policy area going forward. A theme across many of the report’s recommendations is for the federal government to prioritize facilitating local programs and capability-building for terrorism prevention.

How Measles Hacks the Body – And Harms its Victims for Years

As discussed in the January 29 SRU, late last month Washington State declared a state of emergency in response to the growing number of measles cases there. Outbreaks have also been reported in New York and Texas, as well as many places around the world. An article in Wired magazine discusses the characteristics of measles, which make it an “elite virus” and the most contagious disease in the world. A cough from an infected person on a subway car would spread the disease to 90 out of 100 unprotected people.

NOAA Announces the Arrival of El Nino

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Climate Prediction Center has issued an El Nino Advisory, indicating the climate pattern has taken effect and is likely to continue through the spring. While this El Nino is expected to be weak, it may bring wetter conditions across the southern half of the U.S. during the coming months. El Nino is a natural, ocean-atmospheric phenomenon marked by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean near the equator.

Rare L.A. Mega-storm Could Overwhelm Dam and Flood Dozens of Cities, Experts Say

Researchers and engineers warn that California may be due for rain of biblical proportions – or what they call an “ArkStorm” (for Atmospheric River 1,000). According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a rare storm could last for weeks and would send more than 1.5 million people fleeing as floodwaters inundated cities and formed lakes in the Central Valley and Mojave Desert. Experts believe this would result in three times as much damage as a major earthquake ripping along the San Andreas Fault, with estimated structural and economic damage amounting to more than $725 billion statewide.

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