Hawaii senator wants feds to handle future nuclear attack warnings


On January 13th, a statewide alert warned Hawaiians about an incoming nuclear attack -- which turned out to be a mistake caused by human error. Whoops! The resulting finger-pointing revealed serious shortcomings about the state government's disaster response, including the governor's difficulty logging in to his Twitter account to tweet out an all-clear. But US senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii doesn't think fixes are enough: He wants to take the responsibility for nuclear warnings away from local and state governments and give it to the feds alone.

Any city, county or state can participate in a program that lets them send these alerts, but it doesn't make them experts, Schatz said in Congressional testimony at a hearing about the failure. So he proposed legislation with several other senators that would put the responsibility solely with the federal government.

"States are the laboratories for democracy, they should not be the laboratory for missile alerts," Schatz said. "A missile attack is federal. A missile attack is not a local responsibility. Confirmation and notification of something like a missile attack should reside with the agency that knows first and knows for sure. In other words, the people who know should be the people who tell us."

Specifically, the DoD and DHS should have the authority to send alerts, Schatz concluded. Also at the hearing, an FCC official described the agency's investigation, which faulted inefficient safeguards and process controls for the false alert. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency is currently working to add safeguards to prevent such a mistake from happening again by requiring two people to confirm a live alert before it goes off, according to CNET.

Via: CNET

Source: Big Island Video News

via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2niY7QS"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more