ShareThisWASHINGTON -- Apparently, according to the Department of Homeland Security, one of the nation's major terrorism vulnerabilities lies under our feet: manholes.Though heavy to lift, manhole covers generally aren't locked or otherwise hardened against those who might want to attack us from below. Anyone could open most of them by using a simple lever.The absence of alarms or surveillance devices also means that bad guys could wreak havoc undetected beneath our cities, sabotaging utilities and telecommunications lines, or worse. Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Protection Center is now encouraging the development and eventual installation of locking devices on many of the estimated 250,000 manhole covers that dot U.S. streets and sidewalks -- an enormously expensive task.X...X...XEveryone knows that radio signals are lost underground. But researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently confirmed that underground tunnels can have a frequency "sweet spot" that lets signals travel several times farther than other channels. The exact "sweet spot" depends on the width of the tunnel.The studies are part of a larger post-9/11 effort to document what radio frequencies work best in different types of buildings and structures with the aim of giving emergency responders and perhaps other users the best quality of transmissions.X...X...XAt the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, historic aircraft of the past draw more tourists than almost any other attraction in Washington. Now visitors can see several of the first generation of revolutionary drones that will be pivotal warplanes in the future. Six of the so-called "unmanned aerial vehicles," or UAVs, are now on view. Included is an MQ-1L Predator A -- a surveillance robot operated by airmen on the ground thousands of miles away -- that can fly around the clock, providing unprecedented reconnaissance as well as missile fire.The Predator at the museum is one of the first three to fly over Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks and was the first Predator to launch a missile in combat. Before it was retired, it flew 196 combat sorties and racked up more than 2,700 flight hours.X...X...XSpeaking of retiring, the announcement of Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., that he will not seek re-election -- after his recent drunk-driving arrest and his acknowledgment that he fathered a child out of wedlock -- brings to 26 the number of House Republicans who are either retiring or seeking other office.That compares to only seven House Democrats who are vacating their seats.(E-mail Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl(at)shns.com. Scripps Howard News Service correspondent Lee Bowman contributed to this column.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Manhole alert ... Predator on display ... More
Submitted by SHNS on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 18:03
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
Who's got your number?
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
