GSN: Government Security News

DHSâ€s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) intends to acquire security guard services, through open competition, for DEA headquarters, at 600 & 700 Army Navy Drive, Arlington VA 22202. According to a DHS pre-solicitation, number HSCEEC-10-R-00001, the eventual contractor shall “provide and maintain all management, supervision, manpower, training, equipment, supplies, license, permits, certificates, insurance pre-employment screenings, reposts and files necessary to accomplish the requirement.”

St. Petersburg, FL-based Ogden Gerard, LLC has unveiled its new multi-purpose specialty vehicle, Venue, an enclosed trailer that converts automatically into up to 2,400 square feet of customizable, climate-controlled space for applications ranging from disaster relief and emergency housing to entertainment and business displays.

Mooresville, NC-based Nukepills.com has added a dirty bomb emergency kit to its line of radiation emergency preparedness products. The company describes the kits as intended for civilians, first responders and security personnel in the event of a dirty bomb attack or other radiological event.

Prestige Alarm and Specialty Products, Inc., of Birmingham, AL, has recently donated an E3 series expandable emergency evacuation System, manufactured by Northford, CT-based Gamewell-FCI, to a Birmingham, AL, Ronald McDonald House. 

™I've seen families receive the blessing of the Ronald McDonald House. It meant a lot to me to be a part of the new facility and provide a system that will protect lives there for many years,™ says Eddie Harden, Prestige CEO, who donated the system in his children's names, along with the installation and three years of monitoring and maintenance services.

With so many service men and women returning home from active duty, it is a time of transition and decision-making for young heroes in this country. Throughout my 25-year USAF career, Iâ€ve seen thousands of airmen go through this transition and face the unique challenge of re-entering the civilian workforce. When I retired, I made this transition myself and witnessed first-hand the uncertainty and anxiety inherent in leaving behind the comfort and security of a military career. Whether you are retiring with 20-plus years of service, or leaving after your first hitch, this transition can be daunting. 

Cambridge, MA-based CoreStreet, the specialist in credential validation solutions,has been chosen by AlwaysOn, a social-media and blog network provider, as one of its OnDC Top 100 Winners.  According to a company statement, “inclusion in the OnDC 100 signifies major developments in the creation of new business opportunities that contribute to the renewed and continued prosperity of our country.”

San Jose, CA-based Quantum Secure has announced the appointment of Curtis Jennings as federal account manager. Quantum Secure is a provider of enterprise software to manage and streamline security identities, compliance and events across disparate physical security systems. Jennings will represent Quantum Secure to the federal market on behalf of the companyâ€s SAFE for Government Solution, which was designed using NIST SP800.116 best practices and recommendations, according to the company.

Sparks, NV-based Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) reports that it has won a competitive contract valued at more than $600 million for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine multi-role enforcement aircraft (MEA). The initial base contract is for $95 million, SNC notes, specifying that the money will go for five Beechcraft 350ER aircraft.

Expect November delivery of 14 Defenshield Inc. mobile defensive fighting positions (MDFPs) to the U.S. air base at Incirlik, Turkey, for deployment at entry control points, the company says. MDFPs are deployed at both military bases and police departments throughout the U.S., Mexico and the UK, the company reports, adding that the Mexican Federal Police have purchased four units for use in drug interdiction programs along the U.S. border, the U.S. Consulate in Greece has recently installed an MDFP at their location in Thessaloniki, and more than 900 MDFPs are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and now Turkey.

Hackensack, NJ-based Safeguards Technology has named Eran Basis as its new vice president of operations.   According to Safeguards, Basis designed and built the worldâ€s first speech recognition system and, in 1989, founded Solutioneering Inc., an R-&-D company that brought to market new electronic products for 14 years.  

The week started well for QinetiQ North America. On October 19, the company reported that it has been awarded three DHS task orders worth more than $5 million to provide information technology (IT) support to the U.S. Secret Service's Washington, DC, headquarters, as well as a contract worth up to $15.6 million to provide asset tracking services to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Margaret DiVirgilio, VP, chief financial officer and treasurer of Concurrent Technologies Corp. (CTC), has been elected president of Women In Defense (WiD). WiD, a non-profit organization, is an affiliate of the National Defense Industrial Association.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in partnership with the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, has begun a three-week test of advanced explosives detection technology, monitoring passenger vehicles boarding the Martha's Vineyard ferry at the Woods Hole Terminal in Falmouth, MA, with CarSCAN. The test is part of TSA's Security Enhancement and Capabilities Augmentation Program (SEACAP). The purpose of the project is to test the performance of new technologies to detect explosives, while maintaining efficient operations for high-volume ferries.

Attention first responders and other underwater divers: SI Tech AB, of Brastad, Sweden, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, has issued a voluntary recall of approximately 65,000 units of a defective diving air hose for dry suits, which has been implicated in several diving incidents, including the death of a diver in Los Angeles, CA.

Missing person searches cost taxpayers more than $1 billion annually. According to the Alzheimerâ€s Association, there are currently 5.3 million Americans living with Alzheimerâ€s disease â€" 70 percent are likely to wander throughout the course of their disability. Furthermore, 1.5 million in the U.S. currently have autism. A survey conducted by the National Autism Association showed that 92 percent of children with autism are prone to wandering. As the population of at-risk individuals continues to grow, the need for a cost-effective location solution for law enforcement and government agencies is critical.

Mountain View, CA-based Impeva Labs, Inc., a provider of global asset management solutions, reports that is now providing support for selected cargo bound for Afghanistan, via the ™Northern Route,™ through Russian territories. The Impeva Labs' solution involves placing Global Sentinel tags on selected inter-modal containers.

New York City-based BrickHouse Security, a provider of security and surveillance products, has unveiled its new Global Watchman monitoring device. In the past, Brickhouse says, image-capture monitoring products have been constrained by battery strength, severely limiting the distance over which they could transmit images and shortening their battery life. To overcome this limitation the Global Watchman employs cellular networks to transmit images from its motion-activated camera to a user's computer or cell phone the moment the image is captured.

New York, NY-based Kroll, the well-known risk consulting company that is a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., has named Phil McVey president of its background screening division. McVeyâ€s mission is to lead the company's global pre-employment screening, identity management, data breach / fraud solutions, and corporate integrity verification businesses.   

The Department of Defenseâ€s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has begun a half-billion dollar grant program, and seeks white-paper proposals from accredited colleges and universities, as well as from commercial businesses and non-profit organizations, on ways to “reduce, eliminate and counter” biological, chemical, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threats to the U.S.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has deployed a mobile Radiation Portal Monitor (RPM) at the Friday Harbor port of entry, located on San Juan Island in Washington State. The truck-mounted RPM is a completely self-contained, passive monitoring device that permits screening for dangerous radiological devices or materials that might be smuggled into the U.S. in vehicles arriving aboard the international ferry.