Mapbox has made available an interactive map that lets you zoom in and see where in the U.S. that drones are not allowed to fly. Click on image above to explore. Read full BusinessInsider story about the map.
Gun found at Atlanta airport security check-in earlier this month. SOURCE: Transportation Security Administration.
That translated to 5.6 guns per day, on average, with 84% of them loaded and nearly a third (29%) with ammunition in the chamber, ready to fire.
Once again, airports in the South and West — which tend to have most lenient concealed carry regulations — dominated the list of airports with the most guns found at security checkpoints. Dallas, Atlanta and Phoenix topped the list, followed by Tampa and Houston (Bush). Those 14 airports with the Top 10 number of guns found make up nearly 40% of all guns.
Data is based on an analysis of statistics compiled by the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative from weekly blog posts by the TSA. NSJI scans images of the tables that TSA posts and extracts data from them, then adds them to a master spreadsheet, which is makes available to the public to download. Data is available via NSJI’s site for 2012, 2013 and the first half of 2014.
SOURCE: Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, based on TSA reports
SOURCE: Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, based on TSA reports
Thanks to NSJI’s Tiffany Roberts for ongoing data entry support.
Military suicides fell about 8% in 2013, final numbers release by the Pentagon today show. Decreases were across the service branches among active duty components, but were up in most reserve components (see tables below).
Suicides among Army reservists increased the most — 5% — and the suicide rate among those reservists was up nearly 20%.
The decrease in 2013 followed a sharp spike in 2012, despite troop drawdowns and a drop in casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The final 2013 data was released in what the Pentagon said would now be a new quarterly report.
The first quarterly report for 2014 has yet to be released. A U.S. Army Freedom of Information Act officer, in response to a Medill FOIA request for the 2014 and December 2013 Army suicide data filed in the Spring, said in an e-mail earlier today that the report is “currently in the last stages of approval.”
However, the AP reported today based on top-level data it obtained from the Pentagon that total suicides across military branches are up slightly in the first half of 2014 compared to 2013. “Pentagon documents show there were 161 confirmed or suspected suicides as of July 14, compared to 154 during the same time frame in 2013,” the AP reported. “Officials say that more service members are seeking help through hotlines and other aid programs,” the AP also said.
Data that Medill records based on monthly releases by the Marines and Navy show active duty Navy suicides up by 40 percent in the first six months of this year (35 vs. 25) and a larger percentage increase for reservists (6 total vs. 2 in 2013).
Data from the Marines through June shows a slight increase (28 vs. 23) in confirmed or probable suicides, and a decrease in attempted suicides (103 vs. 135).
The U.S. Army used to release suicide statistics monthly, but stopped that practice after releasing November 2013 data, and has released nothing since. The Army said it was discontinuing monthly reports so it could be in sync with the new Pentagon quarterly reports. The Navy and Marines still release monthly data; Air Force have not been readily available on anything but an annual basis.
The Project on Government Oversight and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America asked veterans and Veterans Administration employees to share their stories about problems with the VA. The results so far:
In its 33-year history, POGO has never received as many submissions on a single issue—nearly 800 current and former VA employees and veterans contacted us. POGO reviewed each of the submissions, and the comments indicate that concerns about the VA go far beyond long or falsified wait times for medical appointments; they extend to the quality of health care services veterans receive.
POGO received allegations of wrongdoing from 35 states and the District of Columbia, and in the limited time we have had thus far to analyze the information, a recurring and fundamental theme has become clear: VA employees across the country fear they will face repercussions if they dare to raise a dissenting voice.
After essentially stagnating during 2013, the unemployment rate among the group of veterans who have served since 9/11 declined significantly in the first half of this year, an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.
On average from January through June, the unemployment rate among so-called “Gulf War Era II” veterans was 7.8% — a 25% drop from the 9% rate for 2013. The unemployment rate during the second quarter of this year averaged 6.4% compared to 8% in the first quarter, indicating continued positive progress as the year unfolds.
By comparison, the rate for non-veterans in the first half of this year averaged 6.4%.
An average of 175,000 post-9/11 veterans was out of work each month for the first six months of this year.
The Gulf War II veteran jobless rate remains significantly higher than the veteran population as a whole — 27% above the average 5.7% rate for all veterans in the first six months. That is a tiny bit improved over last year, when the overall 9% rate for Gulf War II veterans was just over one-third higher.
A good reminder from National Journal a few days ago that while the media seems most interested in the still-huge backlog of the Veteran’s Administration’s disability claims, a variety of other claims are clogged up as well.
The VA loves to talk about how it’s on track to reach its goal next year of completing all disability compensation and pension claims within 125 days—keeping them off the dreaded “backlogged” list. Frequently overlooked? The other two-thirds of VA claims—or more than 1 million requests—aren’t subject to the department’s 125-days, 98-percent accuracy goal. . . .
What are these other claims clogging up the VA’s system?
They run the gamut from aiming to change the amount of disability pay a veteran receives to appealing previous decisions by the department. They also include responses to congressional inquiries. So while the number of pending VA disability claims has shrunk in recent years, the number of overall claims has mushroomed to roughly 1.64 million. That’s compared with 941,666 in late 2009.
New report from the Tow Center and Knight Foundation: An ~80-page guide to digital security or journalists.
HTML version | PDF | Other electronic versions
