Report Challenges U.S. Port Security; FDA Approves Chip Implant; Senator Defends Closing Office

Report Challenges U.S. Port Security

A report to be released today by the Homeland Security Department will claim that the nation’s ports are at risk. The Associated Press reports that an independent investigator charges that U.S. ports lack the scanning equipment and search procedures that would prevent a terrorist attack. ”Improvements are needed in the inspection process to ensure that weapons of mass destruction or other implements of terror do not gain access to the U.S. through oceangoing cargo containers,” Clark Kent Ervin wrote in his report.

For more details, read the full Associated Press article in the Boston Globe.

FDA Approves Chip Implant

The Food and Drub administration has given the go ahead to a Florida company to market tiny, implantable chips that would give doctors easy access to patients’ medical records. According to a report in The New York Times, the devices, called VeriChips, claim to save lives by reducing medical errors in critical situations. The chip itself doesn’t contain any records, but a unique number that emergency personnel could obtain by using a scanning device. The number would then be input into a computer and then the patient’s records would be available.

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

Senator Defends Closing Office

Freshman Senator Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) took the unusual step of closing his Capitol Hill office this week in response to terror warnings presented to members of Congress by the CIA and FBI. According to a report in the Washington Post, Dayton was the only member of Congress to take such an extreme measure in response to the briefings, which indicated that al Qaeda could launch multiple attacks on the government between now and the election. “I would not advise someone to visit Capitol Hill between now and the election, out of extreme precaution,” Dayton said in an interview with the Post. “I would not bring my two sons to Capitol Hill between now and the election.”

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