KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Security at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remains fragile amid worrying recent staff cuts enacted by Russian authorities occupying the facility, which is one of the 10 biggest atomic power plants in the world, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief said Tuesday.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, who is in Kyiv, told The Associated Press that his upcoming visit to the plant as the war approaches its two-year milestone will aim to assess the impact of recent personnel reductions after Russia denied access to employees of Ukraine’s Energoatom.

“This huge facility used to have around 12,000 staff. Now, this has been reduced to between 2,000 and 3,000, which is quite a steep reduction in the number of people working there,” Grossi said. “To man, to operate these very sophisticated big installations you need a certain number of people performing different specific functions.”

“So far the situation is stable, but it is a very, very delicate equilibrium,” he said. “So this is why I need to see for myself what is the situation, what are the prospects in terms of staffing, medium-term and long-term as well.”

Grossi’s visit coincided with the arrival in the Ukrainian capital of the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, who said he was there to discuss military aid and financial support as well as Ukraine’s ambition of joining the bloc.

The 27 EU countries agreed last week to provide Ukraine with 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in support for its ailing economy. But the EU’s military backing is falling short, leaving Ukraine’s forces grappling with ammunition shortages while Russia uses its economic muscle to keep up the pressure with probing ground and air attacks.

At the same time, a question mark remains over further help for Ukraine from the United States, its biggest supplier.

That has made the early months of this year a critical juncture for Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has indicated he is mulling a broad shake-up of the country’s leadership to bring “fresh energy” to the fight.

The IAEA has repeatedly expressed alarm about the Zaporizhzhia facility amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. The plant has repeatedly been caught in the crossfire since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and seized the facility shortly after.

The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.

Rossi said he would also check the stability of the facility’s cooling function in the wake of the Kakhovka Dam collapse over the summer, and the presence of mines in and around the plant.

The plant suffered yet another blackout last month, highlighting continuing nuclear safety concerns as battles rage nearby.

“All these things tell us that the situation in Zaporizhzhia continues to be fragile and it requires constant care,” Grossi said.

Of particular concern is the Russian decision to block access for Ukrainian staff employed by Kyiv’s national operator, who refused to sign contracts with the Russian operator at the site.

The staff working at the plant now are former Energoatom workers who adopted Russian citizenship and signed new contracts with Russia’s operator at the site.

Reasons for the staff reduction vary. Some workers fled, many didn’t want to remain in occupied territory and those who decided to remain did not want to work for Russia.

“Some did continue working, and my Russian counterparts are telling me that they are signing up more and more people. So it’s something that we need to check,” said Grossi.

The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for nearly 18 months and produce no electricity but still hold large amounts of nuclear fuel that must be cooled. The collapse of the dam in June jeopardized access to the reservoir where water was drawn for cooling. To compensate, the plant administration dug wells. “Now we want to see how this has evolved,” Grossi said.

He is to meet with Ukrainian officials before heading to the plant. He is also due to travel to Moscow for talks with officials there.

Access to the entire plant facility for IAEA experts permanently based there is still limited, with Russian authorities denying requests to see certain areas.

Grossi confirmed his team observed anti-personnel mines in some areas of the plant, another cause for concern that he needs to see with his own eyes. He added, however, that the mines appear to be placed between the two perimeter fences.

“We say mines at a nuclear power plant are not advisable, but what we see is that the placement and the type of mines would not pose an immediate danger to the facility.”

In other developments:

— A Russian missile strike killed a 2-month-old infant and injured three women in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Tuesday morning, regional authorities said.

— The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday its forces brought down all seven drones launched from Ukraine toward Russia’s Belgorod region overnight.

Elsewhere, four Russian Baltic Sea ports have brought in extra security measures due to the continuing risk from Ukrainian drone attacks, according to documents published Tuesday on the local port authority’s website.

Both Ukraine and Russia have increasingly relied on long-range attacks as fighting remains largely static along the 1,500-kilometer (900-mile) front line.

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ATLANTA (AP) — The woman flying out of Philadelphia’s airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag. But what was more important was what she forgot to unpack: a loaded .380-caliber handgun in a black holster.

The weapon was one of the 6,542 guns the Transportation Security Administration intercepted last year at airport checkpoints across the country. The number — roughly 18 per day — was an all-time high for guns intercepted at U.S. airports, and is sparking concern at a time when more Americans are armed.

“What we see in our checkpoints really reflects what we’re seeing in society, and in society there are more people carrying firearms nowadays,” TSA administrator David Pekoske said.

With the exception of pandemic-disrupted 2020, the number of weapons intercepted at airport checkpoints has climbed every year since 2010. Experts don’t think this is an epidemic of would-be hijackers — nearly everyone caught claims to have forgotten they had a gun with them — but they emphasize the danger even one gun can pose in the wrong hands on a plane or at a checkpoint.

Guns have been intercepted literally from Burbank, California, to Bangor, Maine. But it tends to happen more at bigger airports in areas with laws more friendly to carrying a gun, Pekoske said. The top 10 list for gun interceptions in 2022 includes Dallas, Austin and Houston in Texas; three airports in Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Atlanta; Phoenix; and Denver.

Pekoske isn’t sure the “I forgot” excuse is always true or whether it’s a natural reaction to getting caught. Regardless, he said, it’s a problem that must stop.

When TSA staffers see what they believe to be a weapon on the X-ray machine, they usually stop the belt so the bag stays inside the machine and the passenger can’t get to it. Then they call in local police.

Repercussions vary depending on local and state laws. The person may be arrested and have the gun confiscated. But sometimes they’re allowed to give the gun to a companion not flying with them and continue on their way. Unloaded guns can also be placed in checked bags assuming they follow proper procedures. The woman in Philadelphia saw her gun confiscated and was slated to be fined.

Those federal fines are the TSA’s tool to punish those who bring a gun to a checkpoint. Last year TSA raised the maximum fine to $14,950 as a deterrent. Passengers also lose their PreCheck status — it allows them to bypass some types of screening — for five years. It used to be three years, but about a year ago the agency increased the time and changed the rules. Passengers may also miss their flight as well as lose their gun. If federal officials can prove the person intended to bring the gun past the checkpoint into what’s called the airport’s sterile area, it’s a federal offense.

Retired TSA official Keith Jeffries said gun interceptions can also slow other passengers in line.

“It’s disruptive no matter what,” Jeffries said. “It’s a dangerous, prohibited item and, let’s face it, you should know where your gun is at, for crying out loud.”

Experts and officials say the rise in gun interceptions simply reflects that more Americans are carrying guns.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, tracks FBI data about background checks completed for a firearm sale. The numbers were a little over 7 million in 2000 and about 16.4 million last year. They went even higher during the coronavirus pandemic.

For the TSA officers searching for prohibited items, it can be jarring.

In Atlanta, Janecia Howard was monitoring the X-ray machine when she realized she was looking at a gun in a passenger’s laptop bag. She immediately flagged it as a “high-threat” item and police were notified.

Howard said it felt like her heart dropped, and she was worried the passenger might try to get the gun. It turns out the passenger was a very apologetic businessman who said he simply forgot. Howard says she understands travel can be stressful but that people have to take care when they’re getting ready for a flight.

“You have to be alert and pay attention,” she said. “It’s your property.”

Atlanta’s airport, one of the world’s busiest with roughly 85,000 people going through checkpoints on a busy day, had the most guns intercepted in 2022 — 448 — but that number was actually lower than the year before. Robert Spinden, the TSA’s top official in Atlanta, says the agency and the airport made a big effort in 2021 to try to address the large number of guns being intercepted at checkpoints.

An incident in November 2021 reinforced the need for their efforts. A TSA officer noticed a suspected gun in a passenger’s bag. When the officer opened the suitcase the man reached for the gun, and it went off. People ran for the exits, and the airport was shut down for 2 1/2 hours, the airport’s general manager Balram Bheodari said during a congressional hearing last year.

Officials put in new signage to catch the attention of gun owners. A hologram over a checkpoint shows the image of a revolving blue gun with a red circle over the gun with a line through it. Numerous 70-inch television screens flash rotating messages that guns are not allowed.

“There’s signage all over the airport. There is announcements, holograms, TVs. There’s quite a bit of information that is sort of flashing before your eyes to just try to remind you as a last ditch effort that if you do own a firearm, do you know where it’s at?” Spinden said.

Miami’s airport also worked to get gunowners’ attention. The airport’s director told Congress last year that after setting a gun interception record in 2021 they installed high-visibility signage and worked with airlines to warn passengers. He said the number of firearms intercepted declined sharply.

Pekoske said signage is only part of the solution. Travelers face a barrage of signs or announcements already and don’t always pay attention. He also supports gradually raising penalties to grab people’s attention.

But Aidan Johnston, from the gun advocacy group Gun Owners of America, said he’d like to see the fines lessened, saying they’re not a deterrent. While he’d like to see more education for new gun owners, he also doesn’t think of this as a “major heinous crime.”

“These are not bad people that are in dire need of punishment,” he said. “These are people who made a mistake.”

Officials believe they’re catching the vast majority, but with 730 million passengers screened last year even a miniscule percentage getting through is a concern.

Last month, musician Cliff Waddell was traveling from Nashville, Tennessee, to Raleigh, North Carolina, when he was stopped at the checkpoint. A TSA officer had seen a gun in his bag. Waddell was so shocked he initially said it couldn’t be his because he’d just flown the day before with the same bag. It turned out the gun had been in his bag but missed at the screening. TSA acknowledged the miss, and Pekoske says they’re investigating.

When trying to figure out how the gun he keeps locked in his glove compartment got in his bookbag, Waddell realized he’d taken it out when he took the vehicle in for repairs. Waddell said he recognizes it’s his responsibility to know where his firearm is but worries about how TSA could have missed something so significant.

“That was a shock to me,” he said.

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Our country has been besieged with hate crimes in the last ten years. Last night there was another one in a city with all kinds of security, including a critical United States Air Force facility. Take a look and prepare:

2012: The Dikh Gurdwara shooting in Wisconsin – the shooter, a skinhead band leader who had a history with white supremacy. It was categorized as domestic terrorism by authorities.

2013: The Boston Marathon Bombing killed three and injured 264. Two brothers were responsible. One was killed in a gun battle with police and the other received a death sentence.

2015: The Charleston Church Massacre, the gunman author of a racist and anti-Semitic manifesto prior to the attack was convicted in December 2016 on charges of federal murder, attempted murder and hate crimes.

2016: The June 26th, 2016 shooting spree at the Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by Omar Matee, who killed 49 people and wounded 53 more. He claimed his attack in the name of ISIS, although he had no previous connection with ISIS.

2017: White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, by anti-semites shouting, “Jews will not replace us.” There were scores of injuries and three deaths—a senseless attack by white supremacists.

2018: Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. History. The attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by an avowed White Supremacist.

2019: White supremacist shootings in El Paso, Texas that left 22 people dead and 26 injured.

2022: The most recent hate crime occurred at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs on November 20th. The perpetrator, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich is well known for his bad behavior by the police over a period of years.

There have been hundreds of such shootings with fewer casualties. Families like yours and mine are losing loved ones and all we hear is how terrible it is. When will we, the people who love this country, put an end to it? These killers have all had encounters with the authorities at some time in their past and are well known. Somebody is not watching for them to strike in a larger manner, killing off more innocent people.

You say, “It couldn’t happen in the San Jacinto Valley.” Really? Why are we so isolated from hate? I hear hate-mongers every day in our coffee shops. There isn’t a club owner in this valley that isn’t on edge that such a thing could and may well happen to us. What do we do then? We can’t go on forever saying it can’t happen to us. Wake up, folks – disaster could be just around the corner and it may be one of your beloved ones out having a good time at night which could be missing from your holiday dinner table. Just sayin’

rustystrait@alice-petersen

• DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

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BOSTON (AP) — Top U.S. election security officials say protecting the nation’s voting systems has become increasingly challenging.

That’s due mostly to the embrace by millions of Americans of unfounded conspiracy theories and false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential race.

With the midterm elections just days away , the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Jen Easterly, and other officials say they have no evidence that election infrastructure has been altered by hostile actors to prevent voting or vote counting, compromise ballots or affect voter registration accuracy.

But they’re not lowering their guard. Disinformation is rampant. Foreign rivals are capable of potent cyber mischief. And the insider threat is considered greater than ever. On top of the physical threats and intimidation of elections officials — which is authorities’ overriding concern — security experts are particularly worried about tampering by those who work in local election offices or at polling stations.

“The current election threat environment is more complex than it has ever been,” Easterly told reporters in mid-October.

Global rivals also are expected to deepen longstanding disinformation efforts. The tense geopolitical moment means Russia, Iran and China may have fewer qualms about trying to disrupt the conduct of elections in key battlegrounds with cyber operations.

The spectrum of potential threats is wide: foreign ransomware gangs friendly with the Kremlin, conspiracy-obsessed local election officials, hostile voters bent on sabotage or political provocateurs trying to suppress the vote with dirty tricks or misinformation.

Here are some of the potential threats agencies are assessing through Election Day:

THREATS FROM WITHIN

Insider threats are a growing concern and could undermine serious strides made to secure voting systems — including migrating to hand-marked paper ballots and introducing reliable audits — since they were declared critical national infrastructure in January 2017.

Rogue election officials could provide access to voting systems to unauthorized individuals, as happened in Colorado and Georgia. Poll workers or even voters could try to access voter registration databases or equipment, or plant malware to taint election management systems.

Eddie Perez, a voting technology expert with the nonprofit OSET Institute, calls the repeated efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of voting equipment an element of a more broad “manufactured chaos” — intentional subversion of the nation’s elections to sow doubt.

Perez is among specialists who think attempts to discredit voting technology are one manifestation of efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to undermine trust in election results so Republican-controlled state legislatures — rather than voters — can decide the outcome of future races.

To counter the threats from insiders, federal authorities have conducted trainings and encouraged election officials to focus on limiting access to critical equipment, adding video surveillance and key cards on doors. They also encourage strict chain-of-custody rules for everything from ballots to voting scanners and tabulators.

Threats to public officials and election disruption attempts haver occurred with increasing frequency and intensity, federal and local law enforcement officials say. They are especially concerned about physical violence by protesters in highly contested districts during the post-election vote-counting process.

THREATS FROM ABROAD

U.S. officials have issued two main election-security advisories in the run-up to the Nov . 8 elections. They say malicious cyberactivity is unlikely to seriously disrupt or prevent voting and that hostile foreign states are apt to try to influence outcomes with “information operations.”

Foreign meddlers could launch cyberattacks or exaggerate the effects of relatively ineffectual attacks. They could spread misinformation about voting or voter fraud, try to incite violence or, if violence is already happening, fan the flames.

Hostile foreign bids to undermine U.S. democracy have risen since the Russian operation that hacked and then leaked Democratic emails to aid Trump in the 2016 presidential race. None have had anywhere near the impact, though.

Rivals constantly probe U.S. networks for vulnerabilities. Moscow may seek payback for Washington’s arming of Ukraine against its invasion. Iran resents U.S. support for anti-regime demonstrations triggered by the death in police custody of a young woman who defied head-scarf orthodoxy. As for China, relations are tense as Washington tries to throttle high-tech supplies to Beijing over its perceived hostility and growing authoritarianism.

There’s also the possibility that foreign actors might have breached election systems long ago and are waiting to pounce.

ATTACKS FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARIES

On Election Day, hostile foreign powers or sympathetic hackers could mount what are known as denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which render websites unreachable by flooding them with junk data. Targeting state and local government websites, such attacks could prevent voters from looking up registration information or polling locations, or knock offline sites that report election results after voting ends.

One group on the radar of the U.S. cybersecurity agency is Killnet, pro-Russia hackers who made a ruckus in October by organizing DDoS attacks on U.S. airport and state government websites.

Such attacks are mostly a nuisance and don’t destroy data or even breach sites. But they can frustrate voters and election poll workers, and become powerful grist for disinformation offensives. For example, Russian state media and fake news mills could amplify exaggerated claims of disruption, as occurred with the Killnet effort against the airport and government sites.

Another potential threat are Russian-speaking ransomware gangs that operate with little Kremlin interference. They have largely spared U.S. election infrastructure, which by now tends to be a lot better protected than many of the hospitals, schools and businesses they routinely plague.

Hack-and-leak operations also are possible. Sensitive data could be stolen from election or campaign websites, partially falsified and released online.

Cybersecurity firm Trellix reported a spike in phishing emails targeting county election workers in Pennsylvania and Arizona, both battleground states, over the summer seeking to harvest passwords and potentially interfere with the administration of absentee ballots.

“In many cases, the threat actors attempting to breach our election systems are the same ones who are conducting influence operations that seek to sow discord,” Easterly, the CISA director, said in mid-October.

That could include the Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency, a key player in the 2016 Russia destabilization campaign that favored Trump and sought to widen social divisions in the U.S. The group sought to manipulate public opinion by gaming social media platforms, including by purchasing online ads.

In a pre-election report, the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future said it was “almost certain” that networks associated with the group “are engaging in covert malign influence on a subset of the U.S. population.”

On Thursday, the social media analysis firm Graphika reported that suspected Russian operatives have been disseminating on far-right media platforms beginning Oct. 29 political cartoons disparaging Democratic candidates in tight statewide races in Georgia, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.

___

Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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The result was not just a rapid answer to the viral strain question, but an ongoing partnership that continues to build infectious disease surveillance capacity in the West African nation, as part of a larger CII-led Global Alliance for Pandemic Prevention (GAPP). This week, a contingent from NPHIL and NIH met with Columbia Mailman leaders and scientists to discuss next steps.

Going back to the early summer, as COVID cases in Liberia swelled, NPHIL Deputy Director for Research Bode Ireti Shobayo traveled to New York to work alongside Nischay Mishra, assistant professor of epidemiology, and other CII scientists to analyze nasopharyngeal swab samples collected in Liberia. Previously, it had taken as long as eight weeks to analyze samples through labs in Nigeria and Ghana; through CII it took days. Uniquely, the visit also gave Shobayo hands-on training in DNA and RNA sequencing and bioinformatics which will be useful as NPHIL builds technical capacity.

Their analysis at CII confirmed suspicions: the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 was the dominant strain during the surge in Liberia. It also provided evidence that the highly transmissible variant was imported at multiple sites over a period of only a few weeks. In early August, the findings were announced in a national address by the country’s Minister of Health, Wilhemina S. Jallah—a message that helped tamp down the spread of the virus. A publication describing their findings is in press at the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“That information encouraged a lot of people to get vaccinated,” said Jane MaCauley, director-general of NPHIL, who led the Liberian contingent visiting the School this week. “After the ED [Ebola] outbreak, when people don’t see severe symptoms, they see it as a common cold. But understanding it is the Delta variant boosted everyone’s willingness to get vaccinated.”

During their visit to CII, NPHIL scientific staff met with CII scientists to review a curriculum for sequencing, bioinformatics, and serology. The group, which days prior also met with officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and USAID, also discussed next steps, including plans to bring sequencing technology online in the NPHIL lab, train additional scientists at CII, and publish new research. Looking ahead, MaCauley would like Shobayo and other members of her scientific staff to develop training courses in Liberia to further build capacity and better position the country to respond to infectious outbreaks like COVID, Ebola, and Lassa Fever, as well as future, as-yet-undiscovered pathogenic threats.

“There is a saying in Liberia, ‘a friend in need is a friend in deed.’ Columbia came to us right in time when we needed to know what virus was circulating. We look forward to continuing to build capacity and conducting research together,” said MaCauley.

Meanwhile, CII is looking to replicate the Liberian partnership in other countries, as part of efforts to build GAPP with the broad goal of developing scientific capacity and technology to support the early detection of infectious disease threats worldwide, including those with pandemic potential. GAPP is funded, in part, through a grant by the Skoll Foundation.

Since 2001, CII has trained researchers from more than 30 countries on how to identify and respond to infectious threats—including those that affect humans, as well as the livestock and fish that feed them—wherever they occur. As COVID has made painfully clear, an infectious threat that emerges in one country can quickly spread around the world.

“It is a privilege to work with our colleagues in Liberia, as we build partnerships to strengthen infectious disease surveillance in the region and beyond,” said CII Director Ian Lipkin, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “When it comes to outbreaks, there is no such thing as ‘here’ and ‘there.’ Everything is everywhere. International air travel means a pathogen can spread from one part of the world to another in 24 hours or less. Global scientific partnerships and capacity-building are critical to preventing the next pandemic well before it crosses the jet bridge.”

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These principles reinforce VA’s standards of data privacy and protection maintained during VA’s distribution of nearly 2 million COVID-19 vaccinations to date, and other critical health care services during the coronavirus pandemic.

“VA’s principle-based ethics framework takes a proactive approach to data management and privacy by setting standards for our partners to follow,” says Acting VA Under Secretary for Health Richard Stone, M.D. “VA is applying this framework to all data interoperability initiatives, including those tied to our COVID-19 response and modernization efforts.” Having clearly defined integrities for everyone who accesses or uses Veteran data puts VA at the forefront of organizational responsibility for ethical data practices.

Veterans trust VA to promote and respect their privacy, confidentiality and autonomy within the services the department provides and supports. The department will continue to uphold that trust by remaining consistent with VA’s I-CARE values of integrity, commitment, advocacy, respect and excellence to promote and ensure responsible practices whenever Veteran data is accessed or used.

The ethics framework was developed by the Data Ethics Work Group established by the VA Interoperability Leadership team and the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care, along with input from Veterans.

The department is actively working to ensure all VA directives, policies and standards reflect these principles which the agency anticipates completing by the end of 2022.

Learn more about VA’s COVID-19 vaccination response and how VHA’s National Center for Ethics in Health Care continues to work proactively to build trust in managing access and use of Veteran data.

va.gov • Contributed

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The officials, including the former chief of the Capitol Police, pointed their fingers at various federal agencies — and each other — for their failure to defend the building as supporters of then-President Donald Trump overwhelmed security barriers, broke windows and doors and sent lawmakers fleeing from the House and Senate chambers. Five people died as a result of the riot, including a Capitol Police officer and a woman who was shot as she tried to enter the House chamber with lawmakers still inside.

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned under pressure after the attack, and the other officials said they had expected the protests to be similar to two pro-Trump events in late 2020 that were far less violent. He said he hadn’t seen an FBI field office report that warned of potential violence citing online posts about a “war.” And he and a House official disputed each other’s versions of decisions that January day and in advance about calling for the National Guard.

Sund described a scene as the mob arrived at the perimeter that was “like nothing” he had seen in his 30 years of policing and argued that the insurrection was not the result of poor planning by Capitol Police but of failures across the board. Trump had rallied the invaders to protest his election loss at the Capitol, and the House later impeached him on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.” But he noted that he had asked the crowd to protest “peacefully,” and the Senate acquitted him.

Sund insisted the invasion was not his or his agency’s fault. “No single civilian law enforcement agency – and certainly not the USCP – is trained and equipped to repel, without significant military or other law enforcement assistance, an insurrection of thousands of armed, violent, and coordinated individuals focused on breaching a building at all costs,” he testified. The joint hearing, part of an investigation by two Senate committees, was the first time the officials testified publicly about the events of Jan. 6. In addition to Sund, former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger, former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving and Robert Contee, the acting chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department, testified.

Like Sund, Irving and Stenger resigned under pressure after the deadly attack. They were Sund’s supervisors and in charge of security for the House and Senate. “We must have the facts, and the answers are in this room,” Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar said at the beginning of the hearing. The Rules panel is conducting the joint probe with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Much remains unknown about what happened before and during the assault. How much did law enforcement agencies know about plans for violence that day, many of which were public? How did the agencies share that information with each other? And how could the Capitol Police have been so ill-prepared for a violent insurrection that was organized online? Sund told the lawmakers that he learned only after the attack that his officers had received a report from the FBI’s field office in Norfolk, Virginia, that forecast, in detail, the chances that extremists could bring “war” to Washington the following day.

The head of the FBI’s office in Washington has said that once he received the Jan. 5 warning, the information was quickly shared with other law enforcement agencies through a joint terrorism task force. Sund said Tuesday that an officer on the task force had received that memo and forwarded it to a sergeant working on intelligence for the Capitol Police but that the information was not sent on to other supervisors. “How could you not get that vital intelligence?” asked Senate Homeland Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., who said the failure of the report to reach the chief was clearly a major problem. “That information would have been helpful,” Sund acknowledged. Sund said he did see an intelligence report created within his own department warning that Congress could be targeted on Jan. 6.

But he said that report assessed the probability of civil disobedience or arrests, based on the information they had, as “remote” to “improbable” for the groups expected to demonstrate. Contee, the acting city police chief, also suggested that no one had flagged the FBI information from Norfolk, Virginia, which he said came in the form of an email. He said he would have expected that kind of intelligence “would warrant a phone call or something. ” Two officials disagreed on when the National Guard was called and on requests for the guard beforehand. Sund said he spoke to both Stenger and Irving about requesting the National Guard in the days before the riot, and that Irving said he was concerned about the “optics” of having them present. Irving denied that, saying Sund’s account was “categorically false.” Safety, not optics, determined the security posture, he said, and the top question was whether intelligence supported the decision.

“We all agreed the intelligence did not support the troops and collectively decided to let it go,” Stenger said. He added that they were satisfied at the time that there was a “robust” plan to protect Congress. After smashing through the barriers at the perimeter, the invaders engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police officers, injuring dozens of them, and broke into the building. Once the violence had begun, Sund and Irving also disagreed on when the National Guard was requested — Sund said he requested it at 1:09 p.m., but Irving said he didn’t receive a request until after 2 p.m., right as rioters breached the Capitol’s West side. Contee said he was “stunned” over the delayed response.

He said Sund was pleading with Army officials to deploy National Guard troops as the rioting rapidly escalated. Police officers “were out there literally fighting for their lives” but the officials on the call appeared to be going through a ”check the boxes” exercise, he said. Pentagon officials have said it took time to put the troops in position, and there was not enough contingency planning in advance.

They said they offered the assistance beforehand but were turned down. The hearing was the first of many examinations of what happened that day, coming almost seven weeks after the attack and over a week after the Senate voted to acquit Trump of inciting the insurrection by telling his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat. Fencing and National Guard troops still surround the Capitol in a wide perimeter, cutting off streets and sidewalks that are normally full of cars, pedestrians and tourists.

Congress is also considering a bipartisan, independent commission, and multiple congressional committees have said they will look at different aspects of the siege. Federal law enforcement has arrested more than 230 people who were accused of being involved in the attack, and President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Judge Merrick Garland, said in his confirmation hearing Monday that investigating the riot would be a priority. A second hearing, expected next week, will examine the response of the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

The panels may also hold closed-door interviews. Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the top Republican on the Rules Committee, said they might want to ask for phone records to clear up some of the discrepancies between officials.

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor in Washington and Nomaan Merchant in Houston contributed to this report.

MARY CLARE JALONICK, MICHAEL BALSAMO and LISA MASCARO • AP News

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From private companies to public, there are numerous ones out there to look at and consider.  Investment managers have built portfolios of cannabis companies that are stated to expand diversification and reduce risks.  Sectors of the economy expanding into Cannabis include medical, food and beverage, tobacco, security, transportation, processing, automation, real estate, chemical and fertilizer, and manufacturing. A new world has opened up and embraced Cannabis as a multi-billion-dollar industry to start. 

An investor can directly invest in a cannabis company that cultivates, manufactures, and sells its wares.  Another option is to indirectly invest in the industry through companies that support cannabis producers.  Mentioned earlier, this could be new plastic bags, or the RFID used to track-and-trace that states require.  There is a hub of businesses that are in the business but not in the business.  When building a position or selecting a company to invest in it is important to understand that you may already have exposure through an existing position.  For example, Constellation Brands (STZ), an alcohol company with operations worldwide that produces brands like Corona, Modelo, and Ballast Point, is in the business.  Constellation owns 38% of Canopy Growth, a Canadian Pot Producer.  The same is true for many companies.  It is hard for them not to push into a new high growth area.  After all there are two congressional bills moving through the Hill right now to allow cannabis companies to bank with FDIC institutions and to move it from a Class 1 to a Class 3 drug.  With the illegal becoming legal, a new opportunity has arisen and isn’t likely to go up in smoke.

Take GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH), a British company known for its multiple sclerosis treatment product Nabiximols, which was the first natural cannabis plant derivative to gain market approval in every country, even ours.  Their latest drug treats pediatric seizures.  Breakthroughs are happening in every facet.   The key is to not jump into any company before you understand what you are buying their price movements. 

Concerns about the cost of cannabis and related products and where it is headed is a risk.  The cost will most likely be driven down and so may be margins as larger producers and market efficiencies occur.  This will force consolidations in the industry and sharp barriers to entry too.  What I have noticed is there is substantial volatility in pricing of these companies.  By being patient, you can pick up what you wish to buy on the dip and you shouldn’t have to wait long to get the opportunity. 

Pot’s passé and Cannabis is open for business.

Andrew F. Kotyuk, CIMA* is CEO and Principal of Alpha Wealth Management LLC

For questions or investment topics, please email me afkotyuk@alpha-wealth.com.

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Lynda Jacques, District 5 Delegate to the park’s Residents’ Association, said, “Our speaker, Mr. Leopold, shared his experience of home safety and scammer issues with many of our residents who stayed until the end and took home the handouts provided by ADT.”

Schemes and Scams
Leopold started his presentation with a discussion on current scams that many senior citizens are experiencing. To this end, he asked the audience why seniors were targeted so frequently by professional scammers. Some replied, “We’re too trusting; seniors are naive; our memory is poor; we came from a different era; we’re an easy mark.”

Fake phone ID: Cell phone transmissions can now be faked in a very realistic manner. The top of your phone screen can read ‘Internal Revenue Service – Washington D.C.’ Don’t be fooled. The IRS will never call you about your tax bill.

Grandson scam: You receive a call in the middle of the night from a close friend who names your grandson as being held in jail without the necessary bail and you need to send a check now. The variations on this particular scam are endless.

Mailbox fraud: Robbers know that checks usually arrive on the first of the month. If you have an external mailbox, retrieve your mail quickly. The red flag on your mailbox also signals outgoing checks to be scooped up. Recommended: take your important mail to the post office.

Latest scam: You get a call that requires either a yes or no answer. Hang up without speaking! If they can record your voice saying yes or no, they may be able to use those voice recordings to get into your
bank account.

Break-ins
Did you know that most home break-ins occur during the daytime? Approximately 80 percent. Also, in the case of a stick-built house or manufactured home, 70 percent take place at the side or back of the residence. Unbelievably, 72 percent of intruders enter through a door or a pet-door.
Metal security doors, securely fastened to the door frame, are a good start when making your home safer from intruders. These doors are available from prices ranging from $100 – $250 for a standard size door. They can cost another few hundred dollars to install, depending on the condition of your door frames. Remember to keep all keys out of the possession of all but the most trusted workers, or change them when the work is completed.

Leopold strongly recommended installing motion detection lights mounted on the outside of your home, near the roof level. Locate them on the sides and rear of the structure where it will tend to be darker at night. Get your neighbors to do this too, and intruders will be discouraged from trying any house on your street at night.
Moving inside the home, alarm systems that use motion detection to warn of an intruder are superior to those with sensors on doors and windows that can be defeated. Leopold recommended a combination of motion detector alarm system with cameras including one mounted in the doorbell. Eight residents attending the presentation were selected to receive free installations of such a system, just announced by ADT.

Fire Safety
Speaking to a room of manufactured homeowners, Leopold asked them, “What was the #1 cause of fires in their type of home?” The answer: dryer fires. Prevention: clean out exhaust tubes every six months and keep lint traps cleaned.
The #2 cause of fires in a mobile home: electrical failures. Safety tip: if you are not using an electrical appliance, unplug it. That goes for fans, toasters TVs, power strips and anything else you can unplug.
The #3 cause of fires for senior park residents is kitchen fires that are mostly started as grease fires.
Besides cooking flare-ups, electrical fires caused by overloaded extension cords running over hooks and nails all over the home to appliances that are drawing too much wattage.

Free Checklist.
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department developed a Home Fire Safety Checklist of 30 questions. The checklist states, “Every ‘No’ answer on this list shows you where your family’s safety precautions fall short. Take action now.”
You can pick up a free copy of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department’s Home Safety Checklist at the Hemet San Jacinto Chronicle office at 135 E. Florida Ave., Hemet CA 92543. The office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Andy Leopold is an expert in crime prevention and home alarm systems. He can be reached at andy_leopold@yahoo.com.

Fletcher is a resident of the Soboba Springs Park in the article. Reach him at yorkman711@hotmail.com.

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