Homeland Security Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Capito Receives Award For Senate Support Of Public Broadcasting

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has received an award for her support of public broadcasting.

Capito accepted the Champion of Public Broadcasting Award from America’s Public Television Stations on Wednesday.

The two-term West Virginia Republican is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that maintains federal funding for public broadcasting.

In another role on a Homeland Security subcommittee, Capito has supported funding for public broadcasting’s emergency communications services.

“Public broadcasting plays a significant role in our communities and helps inform Americans on what is happening around their state, our nation, and our world,” Capito said. “It certainly does in my state of West Virginia.”

The organization also presented Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee alongside Capito, with the same award.

The award is the highest given by the organization, to state and federal leaders who have made an extraordinary contribution to public television.

The organization presented Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Blumenauer founded and chaired the Congressional Public Broadcasting Caucus.

W.Va. Bill On Data-Gathering Center Has Some Safeguards For Civil Liberties; Some Say Not Enough

The West Virginia House of Delegates is closer to a vote on House Bill 4176, which would add the existing West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center into state law.

The center gathers and evaluates information on potential threats of terrorist activity for state and federal agencies, most prominently including the federal Department of Homeland Security.

The bill and the fusion center itself — which has existed and operated since 2008 in West Virginia through an executive order from the governor’s office — have come under fire several times this session for potential violations of civil liberties and its extremely closed-door aspects. However, delegates have said the bill will increase legislative oversight of the fusion center.

During a public hearing Thursday morning, the American Civil Liberties Union asked lawmakers to spend more time on the bill.

The ACLU’s Executive Director of the West Virginia chapter, Joseph Cohen, cited an eight-year-old report from a U.S. Senate subcommittee on investigations, which found fusion centers nationwide typically were not effective in detecting real threats.

A Wood County man who said the governor’s office used the fusion center to spy on him last year also spoke at the public hearing. Fusion center leaders and the Cabinet Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs, which oversees the center, denied the allegations.

The House Judiciary Committee passed an amended version of House Bill 4176 Thursday afternoon, including additions from the Veteran Affairs and Homeland Security Committee, which reviewed the bill weeks earlier.

Some of the changes include protections for whistleblowers, who would inform an outside organization if the fusion center was participating in illegal activity, and the creation of an oversight committee that will monitor otherwise closed off operations at the fusion center.

At the same time, the bill exempts the fusion center from complying with Freedom of Information Act requests, withstanding any requests necessary to investigating whistleblower accusations, and it introduces felony and misdemeanor charges for employees that leak information.

Fusion centers nationally date back to 2001, when President George W. Bush signed an executive order establishing intelligence-gathering and analyzing centers to investigate and prevent potential terroristic threats, following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Former Gov. Joe Manchin authorized the creation of a West Virginia fusion center in 2008. Today that center exists under the jurisdiction of DMAPS.

If the Legislature passes House Bill 4485 or Senate Bill 586 to divide DMAPS between the governor’s office and the state Division of Homeland Security, the state intends to send the fusion center to the latter agency.

Del. John Shott, R-Mercer, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill should be voted on by the Full House of Delegates sometime next week, before bills are required to cross chambers on Wednesday, Feb. 26.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

Feds: DHS Analyst Had Parts for Explosives at Home

Court documents say a Department of Homeland Security employee who entered his agency’s Washington headquarters with a gun and other weapons kept ingredients for explosives at home.

A document detailing a search of Jonathan Wienke’s Martinsburg home was unsealed Tuesday.

It says authorities found plastic pipes, glue, tools and boxes of magnesium shavings, thermite and oxidizers. In the filing, a federal agent determined the items could make explosives.

Wienke has pleaded not guilty to illegal firearms-related charges. He was released late last month without bond.

Previous filings allege Wienke carried a backpack with a gun, knife, infrared camera, pepper spray and handcuffs into his agency’s building on June 9.

Last month, the department’s chief security officer told a House Homeland Security subcommittee there’s “no indication” Wienke planned workplace violence.

Wienke’s public defender declined to comment.

Homeland Security Searched W.Va. Home For Weapons

Agents who searched the West Virginia home of a federal homeland security colleague after he was discovered at work with a gun and knife told a magistrate judge that they would look for other weapons, “lists or notes of potential targets” and written evidence of any potential co-conspirators.

The list of items agents were looking for at the Martinsburg home of Jonathan Wienke was filed in federal court in West Virginia. Wienke was arrested June 9 at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington on a gun charge. He is not in custody.

It’s not known yet what the agents found in the subsequent search of his home, but in justifying their search, they told the court that they had probable cause to believe Wienke “was conspiring with another to commit workplace violence, and more particularly may have been conspiring or planning to commit violence against senior DHS officials in the building.”

National Focus in September: Be Prepared

September is National Preparedness Month. The West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management wants citizens, businesses and communities to make sure they’re ready in the event of disaster.

When any type of severe weather is in the forecast, Facebook and other social media light up with all sorts of jokes and comments about panicked people making a run on stores for milk, bread and toilet paper.

While paying attention to weather forecasts is smart, waiting until the last minute to make sure you have important basic supplies is not. That’s the message of National Preparedness Month.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is reaching out with public service announcements like this one, in hopes that people take action to be ready in case disaster strikes. They say you should plan ahead – and part of that plan is to know how you would survive and get along for up to three days without key resources – such as electric, water, access to a supermarket, telecommunications and perhaps even public safety services.
State emergency officials say you should make sure you identify sources of information in your community that would be helpful before, during and after an emergency; you should make a plan for what to do in the event of an emergency; you should build an emergency supply kit; and you should get involved in helping your community plan ahead.

Suggestions and tips for how to take these steps can all be found on-line.

W.Va. Official: $2 Million in Chemical Spill Costs Reimbursable

A West Virginia homeland security official thinks responders for a Jan. 9 chemical spill into the water supply could receive $2 million in federal help.

Homeland security official Greg Myers says the estimate covers state and local agencies, and select nonprofits, like volunteer fire departments. He says the total could grow.

Public agencies and nonprofits could receive Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for related costs incurred Jan. 9-20, including overtime, temporary employees and contractors, and use of equipment, like ambulances.

After denying assistance, FEMA agreed to a state appeal for reimbursement grants.

FEMA covers 75 percent of the costs. The state covers the rest.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin estimates a $61 million economic loss over nine counties, where 300,000 people couldn’t use tap water for days.