By Mary K. Talbot Special to The Journal
The September trip to South Korea was supposed to be a goodwill mission sponsored by the Defense Department. At the time, Reginald Centracchio was adjutant general of the Rhode Island National Guard and it was his honor to escort 42 veterans of the Korean War back to the place where they had served.
“It was somewhat overcast,” he remembers. A storm was brewing to the south that day as General Centracchio was standing on the edge of the demilitarized zone with some staff members and the group of Rhode Island veterans.
“We had been invited by South Korea to experience a ceremony which they did to recognize the end of what they call the Battles of the Outposts,” the final, bloody two years of the Korean War when half of America’s casualties occurred.
By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large
A secret committee of local fire and police chiefs postponed its December meeting just minutes before it was to start after La Prensa San Diego filed a lawsuit claiming the group’s meetings violate state open meeting laws.
The group, called the Urban Area Working Group (UAWG), is the “Approving Authority” recognized by the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to distribute funding to local law enforcement and fire agencies to prepare for and respond to terrorist threats.
UAWG is a permanent subcommittee of the Unified San Diego County Emergency Services Organization (USDCESO), a local Joint Powers Authority (JPA) agency comprised of the County Office of Emergency Services (OES) and representatives from each of the 18 cities in the region, including local fire and police chiefs.
(Cheyenne, WY) â Governor Mark Gordon has appointed George Nykun Deputy Director of the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security (WOHS). He replaces Leland Christensen, who was recently named State Director for Senator Cynthia Lummis.
Lieutenant George Nykun began his career in 2001 stationed in Teton County as a Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper in Division K. There he served as lead on the highway patrol side for all motorcade movements for Vice President Cheney during his time in office. He joined Division O assigned to Cheyenneâs Capitol Complex in 2008. serving on the Governorâs Protection Detail for Governors Freudenthal, Mead and Gordon. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 2015 and joined the Professional Standards and Conduct team before accepting Governor Gordonâs appointment to WOHS. Nykun served in the United States Marine Corps from 1990-1994 and received his Bachelorâs Degree from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.
NJ Homeland Security office investigates potential threats from followers of QAnon
News 12 Staff
Updated on:Jan 29, 2021, 8:35pm EST
The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security is investigating possible threats from followers of the online conspiracy theory QAnon.
“When you look at what the ultimate aims of those groups are, it is to take out the government. It is to create this new way of governing the country,” says OHS Director Jared Maples.
In the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the federal Department of Homeland Security is warning that anti-government extremists objecting to the presidency of Joe Biden could strike elected officials and government facilities in the next several weeks.
January 20 2021, 11:01Â a.m.
Photo illustration: Elise Swain/The Intercept, Getty Images (2)Photo illustration: Elise Swain/The Intercept, Getty Images (2)
Now that Donald Trump is gone from office, whatâs next? This week on Intercepted: There are a slew of unanswered questions about the siege of the Capitol. Americans are being asked to believe that the national security apparatus â the same one that charged nearly 200 people en masse, including journalists and observers, with felony rioting when Trump was inaugurated in 2017, and has leveled federal charges including terrorism charges on Black Lives Matter protesters â failed to see the threat to the U.S. Congress posed by right-wing extremists, even as people organized across social media platforms in plain sight.