Homeland Security

SUMMIT POINT, W.VA. - The focus switched from solar- and wind-powered generators to simulated terrorist attacks and squealing tires. Government officials and business executives on a 2 1/2-day mission in West Virginia to explore new homeland security initiatives moved to the Summit Point Raceway on Monday to learn about antiterrorism training. This week's conference hosted by Discover the REAL West Virginia Foundation is designed to lure more private companies involved in homeland security to West Virginia.

tarar@herald-mail.com Washington County has received nearly $670,000 in federal Homeland Security dollars that will pay for protective clothing and equipment for police, fire, ambulance and other responding agencies in the event of chemical, biological or nuclear attacks. "That's by far the largest grant award that we ever got," Emergency Services Director Joe Kroboth told the County Commissioners on Tuesday. Kroboth said he received news of the $668,038 grant this week from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, which distributes the federal money.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA. - It was like something out of a science-fiction movie. Mike Lee flipped controls on his "mini Titan" power-generating unit and it made a buzzing sound as its parts moved into place. The contraption with its tall tower and solar panels is designed to generate alternative forms of power, which is important during natural disasters or other emergencies, according to Lee, of Elevated Security. In the aftermath of a man-made or natural disaster, it might be impossible to pump fuel to run traditional power generators, Lee said.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety and the Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation will co-host a two-day Homeland security forum next month in the Eastern Panhandle. The event will be held at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown on Nov. 9 and 10. Emergency responders, hospital administrators, physicians, public health workers, business and manufacturing representatives, law enforcement, local government leaders, educators, military and public safety officials will mix with federal officials and security experts from the private sector to discuss a variety of security issues.

gregs@herald-mail.com The state's homeland security director agreed to meet with Hagerstown Regional Airport officials after it came to light Wednesday that the statewide office was not aware of local security efforts related to presidential visits to Camp David. Dennis Schrader, director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security, spoke Wednesday morning at a Hagerstown-Washington County Chamber of Commerce breakfast at the Plaza Hotel in Hagerstown, and took questions after the talk.

Martinsburg, W.Va. From staff and wire reports A U.S. District Court Judge from Martinsburg has been appointed to oversee a homeland security training facility in Preston County, W.Va. Craig Broadwater, a brigadier general in the West Virginia Army National Guard, will administer the 1,400-acre facility at Camp Dawson near Kingwood, W.Va. Preston County is just west of Garrett County, Md., and east of Monongalia County, W.Va., where Morgantown is located. Broadwater is a federal judge in Martinsburg for the Northern District of West Virginia.

This abandoned home along Kinship Lane off Shepherdstown Road was heavily damaged Tuesday morning. The cause of the fire, reported at about 8:15 a.m., was undetermined, according to Baker Heights Volunteer Fire Department Lt. Dennis Soward. Volunteers from Baker Heights and Bedington Volunteer Fire Department, along with the Berkeley County Emergency Ambulance Authority, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the sheriff's department's arson team also responded.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. John Rockefeller on Thursday fought back an amendment on the Senate floor that would have struck $39.7 million for the continued expansion of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Advanced Training Center, which is used to train senior CBP officers in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 61-35. "Customs and Border Protection is vital to our nation's homeland security," Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a press release.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The congressman who heads the committee overseeing the Department of Homeland Security is asking for a review of the agency's involvement in Maryland State Police surveillance of anti-war and death penalty opposition groups. "The politically motivated surveillance of dissident domestic groups that have neither a link to terrorism nor promote violence is ... a deplorable use of taxpayer funds," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Leslie LeBlanc of Hagerstown, who has family living in Massachusetts, said she could not reach her niece, who lives in Boston, for several hours after the Monday explosions during the Boston Marathon that left three people dead and scores injured. “That was a real source of concern for us,” she said Tuesday. LeBlanc, 55, described the explosions as “disconcerting,” but said she does not feel any less safe because of them, nor is she worried about something happening in Hagerstown or to her family in Massachusetts.

U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., announced Thursday that Rescue Hose Co. in Greencastle has been awarded a Department of Homeland Security FIRE grant for $182,875. Rescue Hose Co. will use the grant to replace 35 self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units, which are at the end of their life cycle, according to a news release. “Without this critical equipment, our volunteer firefighters wouldn't have the ability to enter hazardous or smoke-filled environments to save lives.

Don't give up on America To the editor: I know we have some problems today in our country, but I've lived through other times when our leaders got together and solved them. We will do it again, but we must get off the political posture on both sides and do what is best for America. To begin with, we must balance the budget and create a new tax code that is fair to all income levels. We still have the greatest country in the world with freedom, democracy and capitalism; but some changes in the capitalism need to happen.

Someday they might be on the front lines of the fight for cyber security. But on Friday, the students in David Long's Computer Repair and Networking and Chris Malott's Graphic Communications and Printing classes at the Washington County Technical High School were learning to stop and think before they connect to the Web. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security addressed the students on the agency's initiative, "Stop....

This abandoned home along Kinship Lane off Shepherdstown Road was heavily damaged Tuesday morning. The cause of the fire, reported at about 8:15 a.m., was undetermined, according to Baker Heights Volunteer Fire Department Lt. Dennis Soward. Volunteers from Baker Heights and Bedington Volunteer Fire Department, along with the Berkeley County Emergency Ambulance Authority, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the sheriff's department's arson team also responded.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Civil Air Patrol Cadets Chloe Powers and Samantha Pate recently received the Wright Brothers Award for completing all requirements of the learning phase, which is phase one of the five-phase cadet training program. The award is named for the two Americans who are credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. To earn this award, cadets must pass a comprehensive leadership exam and a physical fitness test.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd reappeared on the Senate floor Tuesday with some of his old bluster back after a season of frailty, this time to manage a $44.1 billion homeland security spending bill. "There are some people in this country who have become complacent about the threat of another attack," Byrd, chairman of the homeland security subpanel of the vaunted Appropriations Committee, said in a clear voice. "Don't count me as one of them. " Don't count him out, either.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. John Rockefeller on Thursday fought back an amendment on the Senate floor that would have struck $39.7 million for the continued expansion of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Advanced Training Center, which is used to train senior CBP officers in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 61-35. "Customs and Border Protection is vital to our nation's homeland security," Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a press release.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- With less than two weeks left until the presidential election and John McCain trailing in Pennsylvania, longtime political ally and former governor Tom Ridge stopped in Chambersburg Friday to tell a crowd of about a hundred people to "get out and get people talking about this election. " When Ridge kicked off his gubernatorial campaign in 1994, McCain was by his side during an appearance in Chambersburg. Ridge stumped for McCain on Friday, stressing his economic message to those assembled in front of the Franklin County Courthouse.