Fearing that Homeland Security is not equipped to combat violent extremism, key lawmakers in Washington passed legislation Wednesday that would create a single office dedicated to focusing solely on terrorism.
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Justice Department has reached an agreement with the state of Alabama to undergo monitoring and serious reforms following years of complaints about female inmates being sexually assaulted by corrections staff, the Washington Post reports. An investigation by the Justice Department found that female inmates lived in a “toxic environment” at…
By Bill Piper Huffington Post Bill Piper is the director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. The resignation of the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Michele Leonhart, comes as no surprise to those of us working to reform the agency. The DEA is a bloated, wasteful, scandal-ridden bureaucracy charged with the…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The 9/11 Review Commission credited the FBI for thwarting terrorist attacks but said the bureau needs to improve intelligence and hire more linguists, according to a report released Wednesday, the New York Times reports. While the commission applauded the FBI’s ability to prevent terrorism, the report said the bureau lags “behind…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A Congressional dispute over Homeland Security’s budget means the Secret Service cannot hire new agents or reform the beleaguered agency until the impasse is over, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said, Reuters reports. Johnson expressed deep concerns about the impasse, saying a lot is at stake – the security of borders, airports…
By Todd Rosenblum CNN Opinion America’s immigration debate has become red hot because President Obama’s critics not only believe that he lacks the authority to act without the consent of Congress, but also that he must not change internal enforcement priorities before first “securing the border.” The truth is, the single most important thing Congress…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Hoping to address low morale and security blunders at the Secret Service, some congressional watchdogs are proposing to limit the agency’s role of protecting the president, Time reports. Perhaps most important, the proposal includes removing Secret Service from the Department of Homeland Security, which has struggled as a giant bureaucracy. “Long-term,…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Justice Department officials are combating wrongful convictions by demanding that law enforcement agencies to a better job scrutinizing eyewitness accounts and police interviews, Medill News Service reports. It’s impossible to know for sure how many people are wrongfully convicted, but more than 1,100 have been exonerated from 1989 to 2012, according to…
