DHS Names New Cyber-Security Chief; Prosecutors Won’t Pursue RNC Protest Cases; Airports Ease Weapons Rules

DHS Names New Cyber-Security Chief

Andy Purdy, who served as deputy cyber-security director under Amit Yoran, who resigned the directorship last week, has been appointed to head the National Cyber-Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security. According to a report in the Washington Post, Robert P. Liscouski, head of infrastructure protection, made the announcement through e-mail. Purdy has been a member of the cyber-security division since it was formed in 2003. He was the vice chairman and senior adviser on information technology issues for the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. A graduate of the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia Law School, Purdy formerly worked as a news producer for NBC and CBS.

For more details, read the full article in the Washington Post.

Prosecutors Won’t Pursue RNC Protest Cases

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said Wednesday that it would not pursue cases against 227 protestors arrested during the Republican National Convention because it would be too difficult to prove that the protestors defied orders. According to a report in The New York Times, nearly 1,200 people were arrested on Aug. 31, the second day of the convention. The protestors involved in Wednesday’s decision did not have a permit to march up Broadway past Madison Square Garden. Instead, they reached an agreement with local police to march as long as they obeyed traffic laws. These demonstrators were arrested after they were accused of blocking traffic.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

Airports Ease Weapons Rules

People will soon be able to carry guns, knives and other weapons onto the grounds of Reagan National and Dulles International airports as long as they don’t carry the weapons into restricted areas, such as the terminal, airport officials said Wednesday. According to a story in the Washington Post, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority unanimously agreed to the rules changes which they determined were overly restrictive. The new rules will take effect Dec. 1. Officials said the old rules did not enhance security and unnecessarily targeted legal gun owners who might unknowingly break the law.

For more details, read the full article in the Washington Post.