The world in briefs

Former FEMA director Brown deflects criticism

Mike Dorning

Chicago Tribune… Former FEMA director Brown deflects criticism

Mike Dorning

Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON – Michael Brown, the Bush administration’s former emergency management chief, went before Congress Tuesday unbowed by fierce criticism of his handling of Hurricane Katrina, admitting few errors of his own and laying most of the blame for the debacle on Democratic officials in Louisiana whom he dismissed as “dysfunctional.”

Brown, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, outlined a vision of a limited federal role in response to natural disasters. He pointedly noted several times that the federal government is not “a first responder” to such disasters and brushed aside a suggestion that the federal government assist with gasoline supplies for mass evacuations.

At one point, he volunteered that FEMA should end its current practice of providing ice for disaster evacuees, provoking a furious lecture from Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., on the life-threatening effects of unrelieved heat on the elderly and infirm.

Brown laid much of the blame for the disastrous and sluggish effort to rescue thousands of people trapped in flooded New Orleans in the wake of the Aug. 29 storm on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, both Democrats.

Restoring power in southeast Texas may take months

Leila Fadel and Anthony Spangler

Knight Ridder Newspapers

PORT ARTHUR, Texas – Hurricane Rita destroyed much of the electrical system in southeast Texas, a blow that may cripple the region for months.

Without power, towns from the Gulf Coast to more than 50 miles inland can’t pump water or gas, provide relief from record heat or reopen schools, hospitals and grocery stores. As a result, thousands of Texas residents are being told they still can’t return home.

A line of traffic Tuesday stretched at least half a mile back from Port Arthur on the main road, Texas 73, as residents tried to return home. When drivers made it to the front of the line, a state trooper ordered them to turn around. Only emergency personnel would be allowed into town, troopers said.

FBI turns to colleges

Alex Abnos

U-WIRE (D.C. Bureau)

(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON – This fall, the FBI will begin looking to college campuses in the effort to protect national security with a new program announced last week.

On Sept. 15, FBI Director Robert Mueller announced the creation of the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, a group of 16 presidents and chancellors from major American universities that will foster communications between the FBI and the nation’s institutions of higher education.

The Board will place a special focus on helping the government to understand the cultural side of higher education. FBI spokesman Bill Carter said such “open dialogue” will help the government to identify international potential security risks within the college community.

“Much of the intellectual property that exists in the United States is produced on college campuses,” Carter said. “There are countries that would try to take advantage illegally of trying to get the rights to this property.”

Of particular concern to the FBI is protecting the information produced by millions of dollars of grant-driven research conducted at such universities. This often includes work in the fields of energy, defense and other critical areas.