• $1.6 trillion needed to shore up U.S. failing infrastructure

    Experts say that the U.S. needs to invest $1.6 trillion over five years to shore up the country’s crumbling infrastructure; estimates show that each billion dollars invested in infrastructure creates between 40,000 and 50,000 new jobs, and that every $1 billion invested in transportation infrastructure generates $2 billion in economic activity throughout our economy

  • Bain's effort to acquire 3Com on verge of collapse

    Bain Capital and a Chinese partner wanted to buy 3Com for $2.2 billion; 3Com’s TippingPoint unit sells security software used by U.S. government agencies, and persistent questions were raised over the national security ramifications of the deal; Bain and Huawei Technologies have now withdrawn their application to CFIUS

  • Connecting renewable energy sources to the national grid

    Connecting different renewable energy sources to the national grid may be a costly proposition; new study aims to find community generation schemes which are able to connect to the grid without the need for expensive cable upgrades or digging up roads

  • King coal, III: DOE makes case for FutureGen restructuring

    The Department of Energy restructures its approach to FutureGen — the ambitious plan to develop clean coal technology which produces hydrogen and electricity and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions

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  • King coal, II: Administration restructures approach to clean coal funding

    DOE restructures FutureGen approach; under the new plan, DOE’s investment would provide funding for no more than the carbon capture and storage (CCS) component of the power plant — not the entire plant construction; the original 2003 FutureGen concept called for the federal government to cover 74 percent of the cost of the entire project; DOE requests $648 million in FY2009 budget for coal research, development, and deployment

  • Chinese espionage ring discovered

    Chinese spy ring based in New Orleans broken up; two individuals of Chinese origin bribe Pentagon official d=to deliver sensitive information concerning Taiwan

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  • Modeling and simulation course for newcomers to the field

    Modeling and simulation are growing in importance, and a new certificate program provides training in applying M&S to military and business challenges

  • LAPD buys forensic 3D laser scanners

    Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department adds 3D laser scanning technology from Leica Geosystems to support forensic and investigative activities — but also to help prosecution in impressing juries: “Due to the all of the CSI-type programming on television, jurors these days have much higher expectations about the quality and clarity of information that prosecutors present to them,” says Leica’s Tony Grissim

  • World’s first commercial-scale tidal stream

    The tidal farm scheme would be capable of generating 10.5 MW of power drawn entirely from the sea’s major tidal currents; project will be built off the north-west coast of Anglesey, north Wales

  • King coal, I: U.S. ends FutureGen funding; clean coal future unclear

    The Bush administration, as part of a new approach to producing clean cole, has ended government participation in the FutureGen project; government says that the private sector can now pick up the tab; the administration unfolds new clean cole initiatives

  • Life of U.K. project aiming to halve cost solar panels extended

    U.K. government agency injects £6 million into research aiming to halve the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells; in the first four years of the project, scientists created platform technologies in crystalline silicon, thin film silicon, thin film cadmium telluride, and thin film copper indium diselenide; now they will narrow down the research

  • Chinese hackers target government

    The Chinese government has embarked on a massive industrial espionage campaign aimed to hasten China’s rise to global technological and economic dominance while at the same time weakening Western companies; Aussie intelligence says Australia is now also a target of that campaign

  • Defending cities against dirty bombs is difficult

    DHS efforts to develop technologies for detecting dirty bombs run into criticism of the feasibility of the technology and questions about the cost-benefit analysis used to justify the deployment of the systems

  • India's Tata Group, U.S. company to manufacture defense equipment

    India is worried about China’s growing military might; Indian companies see an opportunity here, and more and more of them are looking to enter the defense market — with U.S. companies as partners; the U.S. government, too, is intensifying its defense cooperation with India

  • DHS proposed FY2009 budget request: Highlights

    DHS requests $50.5 billion in funding for FY 2009, an increase of 6.8 percent over FY2008; big ticket item: $1.3 billion request for department-wide efforts to counter IED threats