More secure ...in crisis ...a worthy bill

WASHINGTON -- More than seven years after the 9/11 aerial attacks, the Department of Homeland Security has finally tightened up scrutiny of private aircraft entering or departing the United States.Until now, it was only commercial planes that had to submit information -- within 60 minutes of departure or arrival -- about the passengers and crew aboard so security officials could check them against a terrorism watch list.Now, private aircraft will be required to submit those manifests, along with advance notice of their planned arrival or departure, with at least an hour's lead time to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff offered no explanation of why such scrutiny wasn't mandated before.X...X...XAnother sign of stressful times? The National Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-800-273-TALK), in business less than four years, has answered its 1 millionth call. Linked to 133 local crisis centers across the country, it instantly links callers to a counselor closest to their location, 24/7. The hotline is also linked to a special service for veterans and their family members -- just dial 1 after the main line answers to connect to the VA call center.X...X...XAtop the Haleakala volcano on Maui next month, a prototype telescope that includes the world's biggest, most advanced digital camera will be fired up by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Hawaii.Eventually, four of the instruments, funded by the Air Force, will pan the sky, covering a patch of sky six times bigger than a full moon. It will be uniquely able to spot small moving objects -- like space rocks that might be on a path to cross Earth's orbit in the future.X...X...XWant to experience a magnitude 7.8 earthquake? Check out the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site, where you can download 3-D animations of the violent shaking and shifting of the ground that would take place if such a massive temblor hit. The animations are designed to let emergency responders, public officials, local residents and others visualize the effects in order to understand the enormity of the devastation that could result.On the Web: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/simulations/shakeout.X...X...XThe Military Postal Service Agency reports that close to 520,000 absentee ballots from military members overseas made it back to local U.S. election offices by Nov. 4 -- more than 2 1/2 times the number tallied in the 2004 elections.The U.S. Election Assistance Commission will report next fall on how many of those ballots actually were counted.X...X...XIt took a change in federal law, but military veterans and current service members in civilian clothes now can salute during the playing of the national anthem.Last year, Congress gave vets and those out of uniform the right to salute when the American flag was raised, lowered or passed. But lawmakers did nothing about the prohibition on saluting during the national anthem.So, in the Defense Authorization Act of 2009, Congress corrected that oversight and gave its blessing to salutes during the anthem.X...X...XLegislation we'd love to see, courtesy of the incoming 111th Congress: The Cleaver-Issa-Blunt bill to promote the tool and utensil sharpening industry, sponsored by Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.; Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.E-mail Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl(at)shns.com and Lee Bowman at bowmanl(at)shns.com