Threats

Parts of the US Are Trying to Reopen Too Early

What will happen now that some Americans seem unwilling to wait for sufficient testing?

Ideas

The US Army Is Racing to Build Makeshift Coronavirus Hospitals

The Corps of Engineers is converting dozens of American hotels and convention centers. Can it do it fast enough?

Ideas

The Vermont National Guard’s Great Experiment

A few weeks ago, the state's Guardsmen got an impossible assignment. And then they pulled it off.

Ideas

A New Statistic Reveals Why America’s Coronavirus Numbers Are Flat

Few figures tell you anything useful about how COVID-19 has spread through the U.S. Here’s one that does.

Policy

Congress Hears Options—And Concerns—for Using Smartphone Data to Fight Coronavirus

Other countries have been using various forms of location- and proximity-tracing to slow the spread of the disease, with widely varying levels of privacy protections.

Ideas

Ep. 65: Preparing for the next coronavirus

Three things that could help better protect us ahead of the next coronavirus-like pandemic.

Ideas

The Trump Administration Drove Him Back to China, Where He Invented a Fast Coronavirus Test

A federal crackdown on professors’ undisclosed outside activities is achieving what China has long struggled to do: spur Chinese scientists to return home. In this crisis, it’s costing the U.S. intellectual firepower.

Business

Defense Contractors Can Go To Work Amid State & Local Lockdowns, Pentagon Says

Companies in California have been struggling to navigate statewide orders to stay at home.

Threats

The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing

“I don’t know what went wrong,” a former CDC chief told The Atlantic.

Policy

Judge: Acting Immigration Services Director Was Unlawfully Appointed

Ken Cuccinelli — also acting DHS secretary — was named acting head of USCIS without having first served in a subordinate position.

Threats

Missteps at CDC Set Back US Ability to Detect Coronavirus' Spread

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed a flawed test for COVID-19, then took weeks to release a fix that allowed state and local labs to use it.

Ideas

The Federal Government Needs a Military-Style Campaign Against the Coronavirus

A longtime infectious disease specialist says such campaigns are effective against these kinds of infectious diseases because the way viruses operate fits, conceptually. into a military model.

Ideas

Trump Freezes Hiring at Another DHS Agency

TSA is the second Homeland Security component agency to suspend taking on new employees.

Ideas

White-Supremacist Violence Is Terrorism

As commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, I fought America’s enemies abroad. Now we must fight violent, hateful ideologies at home.

Threats

DISA Data Breach Affected 200,000 People, Officials Confirm

Defense officials provided few details but said the affected systems have since been secured.

Science & Tech

Border Patrol Seeks Automated Sensors to Cover Watery Blindspots

Homeland Security is looking for tech that can help border agents spot illegal watercraft — and decide what to do about them.

Policy

DHS to Waive Contracting Rules to Build Border Wall Faster

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is using a 2005 law to override certain requirements.

Policy

Trump Targets Major Weapons Projects To Fund Wall

The funds will be drawn mainly from procurement for major programs like the F-35 fighter jet. $1.3 billion will come from the National Guard alone.

Ideas

Trump's Former Chief of Staff, John Kelly, Finally Lets Loose

The retired Marine general explained, in the clearest terms yet, his misgivings about Trump’s behavior regarding North Korea, immigration, and Ukraine.

Policy

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President

How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape America's 2020 election.