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If Mr. Obama were to apply for a job with the FBI, CIA, or a company manufacturing a top secret product for the U.S. Government, because of his past associations, activities and friends, he would not be able to get a TOP SECRET security clearance.

Before President Bush left Washington for the Mideast, he signed into law the first major federal gun control measure in more than 13 years. If the new law had been in effect last April, it might have prevented the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, from buying a weapon at a gun store.

Gun Lobby Hijacks Bill Intended to Improve Gun Buyer Background Checks Legislation Passed by Congress Would Revive Failed Multi-Million-Dollar Program to Restore Gun Privileges of Persons Currently Ineligible to Possess Firearms Because of Mental Health Disability WASHINGTON, DC--Leading national gun violence prevention organizations the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Legal Community Against Violence, and the Violence Policy Center today warned that a bill intended to improve the records available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)--the national system used to screen gun buyers--has been hijacked by the gun lobby and would now do far more harm than...

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — The U.S. deported a man to Mexico on Sunday who had taken a dead cousin's identity to pose as a citizen in order to become a Milwaukee police officer. Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, 25, arrived late afternoon Sunday at Guadalajara's international airport, where he was greeted by nearly a dozen relatives. He was visibly tired after traveling for more than 10 hours from Milwaukee, but the reunion appeared to be joyous and hugs were exchanged. Ayala-Cornejo said he was too tired to talk to reporters at the airport but indicated he would speak publicly in the coming days.

RICHMOND Gov. Timothy M. Kaine called Tuesday for new restrictions on firearm sales at gun shows but stopped short of declaring passage of the legislation as a high priority for the 2008 General Assembly session. Under current law, background checks on buyers are not required by unlicensed dealers who privately sell and trade firearms at the shows. Kaine endorsed closing the loophole, saying it provides an opening for felons and mentally ill people to buy weapons they are otherwise forbidden to purchase. "You either want felons to have guns or you don't," Kaine said on a morning radio show. "You...

Judges extend block on background checks By Elise Kleeman, Staff Writer LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE - A panel of three federal judges has extended its temporary injunction blocking NASA from requiring background checks of all JPL employees. Without an injunction, JPL employees who did not complete the necessary paperwork would have been "voluntarily terminated" Oct. 27.

McLEAN, Va. - A judge's ruling on Cho Seung-Hui's mental health should have barred him from purchasing the handguns he used in the Virginia Tech massacre, according to federal regulations. But it was unclear Thursday whether anybody had an obligation to inform federal authorities about Cho's mental status because of loopholes in the law that governs background checks. Cho purchased two handguns in February and March, and was subject to federal and state background checks both times. The checks turned up no problems, despite a judge's ruling in December 2005 that Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a...

Governor Deval Patrick, returning to one of the more contentious issues of his campaign, has begun quietly putting together a plan to limit employers' access to the criminal records of potential employees. Aides have been meeting with lawmakers and advocates working to limit the scope of the Criminal Offender Record Information law, which gives many employers broad access to criminal records. Activists argue that many applicants are rejected for jobs based on minor criminal convictions, crimes unrelated to the post, or records that contain errors.

NEWS | ADVERTISE | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE | ARCHIVE | GOV. SECURITY JOBS | BUYER'S GUIDE         Please select the newsletters you wish to subscribe to: GSN Homeland Security "Product of the Day" GSN Homeland Security Insider "weekly" To subscribe to our GSN monthly print edition please visit Subscribe           FBI eyes gun check systemThe FBI is preparing a massive survey of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), to develop ways it can better protect citizens from illegal weapons sales and use.   The background check system was launched...

The organization for truckers serving California harbors supports a Bush administration plan to check the backgrounds of port workers as long as it doesn't interfere with their livelihood, an official said Tuesday. However, a longshore union official called the plan "harassment." The government envisions looking into the backgrounds of hundreds of thousands of workers in the most sensitive areas of the nation's ports, and also issuing tamper-proof identification cards. Stephanie Williams, vice president of the California Trucking Association, said she supported background checks if they are quick and don't interfere with the work of the nearly 12,000 truckers at the...

DHS Child Sex Sting Official Is A Democrat Earlier today we listed some of the strong reaction to the arrest of Department of Homeland Security deputy press secretary Brian J. Doyle for attempting to arrange sexual relations with what he believed to be a 14-year-old female. Much of the reaction was critical of the Bush administration for not properly vetting one of their appointees. That assessment is dead wrong. Brian Doyle is a career civil servant - NOT a political appointee. Government workers aren't "vetted." Doyle, as a DHS employee probably has a secret or top secret government clearance, but...

MADISON, WI (AP) -- The University of Wisconsin System was unaware it employed a total of 40 felons this fall, including two who committed homicides in the 1970s and four child sex offenders, according to an audit released Tuesday.UW System President Kevin Reilly promised a review of all 40 cases cited by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to determine whether the crimes were related to their employment and the system should dismiss the employees. He said 12 of the employees no longer work for the system and 25 committed the crimes before they were hired. State law prohibits job discrimination...

WASHINGTON - In Alabama, a man with a history of mental illness killed two police officers with a rifle he bought on Christmas Eve. In suburban New York, a schizophrenic walked into a church during Mass and shot to death a priest and a parishioner. In Texas, a woman taking anti-psychotic medication used a shotgun to kill herself. Not one of their names was in a database that licensed gun dealers must check before making sales — even though federal law prohibits the mentally ill from purchasing guns. Most states have privacy laws barring such information from being shared with...

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Background checks to double this week Some 8,450 Clark County residents -- about 14,000 Nevadans, statewide -- have gone through the onerous process of acquiring a concealed firearms permit. It's not easy or cheap. You have to take a $100 class, pass a written safety exam, demonstrate safe gun handling and marksmanship at a shooting range, submit to fingerprinting and being "mug-shotted" like a common criminal, pay the state another $105, and then wait three months for an FBI criminal background check. Advertisement To induce us mostly well-behaved old geezers to participate in this

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ Anyone other than the governor and members of the Legislature will be required to submit to a background check before being allowed access to confidential security information under a measure that moved through the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. The so-called "Golan Bill" is named for Golan Cipel, the Israeli national hired by former Gov. James E. McGreevey as a top security aide. Cipel, who was found to be ineligible for top security clearance because he was not a United States citizen, was later identified as the governor's lover after McGreevey resigned amid a gay-sex scandal. Republican...

Subject: H.R. 10, the House 9-11 Commission Recommendations Implementation Act H.R. 10, the House 9-11 Commission Recommendations Implementation Act, contains two provisions that are extremely adverse to employment background screening. First, Section 2142 creates a pilot program administered by the Attorney General through which private employers will be authorized to directly obtain fingerprint-based, criminal history background checks for employees and applicants from the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Second, Section 2145 creates a task force to provide recommendations to establish a clearinghouse for fingerprint-based, FBI IAFIS background check requests submitted by private security guard services. In addition, the...

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - The U.S. Census Bureau says it is ending a practice of routinely turning over detailed information about Arabs or other minorities to anti-terrorism officials without high-level approval. The Census Bureau revealed Aug. 13 that it had been reporting demographic data about Arab Americans to a Homeland Security agency. The bureau said it only was providing population numbers and not names, addresses or other private details. Responding to requests over the past two years from the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Census Bureau said it had provided files that included a count of U.S. residents...

As incoming college freshmen fret about roommates and rosters this month, incoming faculty may be glancing back warily at their own college days, hoping that certain youthful indiscretions - or worse - will remain forgotten. Criminal background checks, standard practice for new hires in much of the working world, have invaded the upper echelons of higher education. Now the professors, once vouched for by clubby collegial networks, increasingly undergo scrutiny all too familiar outside academia. They are not happy. Cheap technology is pushing aside good judgment, says Jonathan Knight of the American Association of University Professors. While conceding that security...

<p>Beyond the gallon jars of mayonnaise and the office furniture, shoppers browsing the aisles at some Sam's Club stores will find something that isn't usually sold at retail -- an employee background check in a box.</p> <p>"Make better hiring decisions," says the package, a little smaller than a box of breakfast cereal. "Conduct background checks quickly and easily!"</p>

Associated Press WASHINGTON - The government will destroy records on gun buyers after one day because of a provision Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt inserted into the spending bill that became law last week. The length of time for keeping records will be shortened from 90 days to one day after a gun buyer passes a background check. First proposed two years ago by Attorney General John Ashcroft two years ago, the change is a victory for gun rights advocates who argue that keeping the records is an invasion of privacy. Gun control advocates say that destroying records immediately will handicap...

Edward Socorro had a good thing going as a sales manager with Hilton Hotels Corp. But not long after he started, a company hired by Hilton to do background checks on new employees reported that Socorro once spent six months in jail. In reality, Socorro was no ex-con. He protested that the background check was wrong. But still he was fired. And although he later settled a lawsuit against Hilton, the damage was done. Socorro learned the hard way about an increasing danger in our ever-more-networked society: the reliance of corporations and governments on commercially accessible databases that mine the...

Metro employee reportedly remained on bus, made calls Witnesses to an accident in which a Metro bus struck and killed a man in downtown Houston last month told police the bus driver never checked on the victim after the incident, but remained on the bus making telephone calls and filling out paperwork. One witness, Mary Acker of Houston, told police that the bus driver -- Alroyce Sheppard -- stepped out of the bus after the accident, looked at the injured man, then got back on the bus and began making telephone calls. Lisa Egan of Houston, one of the witnesses...

FBI speeds gun purchase background checks WASHINGTON — The FBI has improved its ability to respond quickly to gun dealer requests for criminal background checks, with only 9 percent of the transactions now facing delays, the Justice Department reported recently. Improvements in technology have reduced the number of false matches in the National Crime Information Center system, raising the immediate response rate from a 71 percent average in early 2001 to 91 percent in 2002. The improvement means that most gun dealers now can get information over the phone about whether a firearms purchaser is a convicted felon or...

New Scout leaders face background checks 03/29/2003 Associated Press TWIN FALLS - In the past, Scoutmasters were often the only adults supervising Boy Scout troops on outings. Times have changed. Boy Scout policy calls for a minimum of two adults to be present for all activities. Starting Tuesday, the Boy Scout organization will start conducting criminal background checks on all new applicants for volunteer leadership, carried out by an Atlanta-based company. Steve Nelson with the Snake River Council of Scouts in south-central Idaho says everything is being done to protect the young.

<p>People applying for gun permits in Hawai'i were rejected at a significantly lower rate than the national average, the state attorney general's office reported yesterday.</p> <p>Of the 6,990 firearms permit applications processed in Hawai'i in 2002, only 103, or 1.5 percent, were rejected. The national average was 2.3 percent.</p>

Background checks on reporters a bad idea By Lillian Swanson Inquirer Columnist A rule that takes effect today requires reporters who work in the Harrisburg Capitol to undergo criminal background checks - unless they wait in line with school groups, Boy Scouts groups and other visitors to pass through metal detectors at the doors. The rule, which leaves key questions unanswered, has spawned protests from about 25 reporters affected. "Our position is that we have been singled out," said John Baer, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and president of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association. The complaints have made...

Harris County sheriff's Deputy Shane Bennett paid with his life this week for our state's lack of gun laws. Shot during a home invasion, he was one of three deputies shot in the line of duty in recent weeks in Harris County. Tommy J. Bohannon's shooting (June 9) and Harris County Deputy Robert Spurgeon's shooting (May 15) make Harris County the deadliest in the U.S. Members of violent gangs use guns to inflict terror on citizens and peace officers, although Texas voters have the ability to take these gangs' firepower away. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms reports that...

Priest demoted over policy Criminal checks not conducted; removal may be precedent 04/06/2002 By SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH / The Dallas Morning News In what appears to be a national precedent, the Catholic Diocese of Dallas has removed a priest from his church for failing to do criminal background checks required by the diocese's sexual abuse policy. The Rev. Efren Ortega, 67, a beloved priest for 12 years at St. James Catholic Church in Oak Cliff, is being reassigned to another Dallas parish as a pastoral associate. He can still perform sacramental duties, the diocese said, but he cannot serve as...

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