Fresh Loaf

U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin Cochran

Still drunk with confirmation power, the U.S. Senate today gave the OK for Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran to be named the new U.S. Fire Administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Cochran’s duties at the federal agency will include overseeing and executing national strategies to prevent fires and improve emergency response.

A 28-year fire service veteran, Cochran said in a statement that the opportunity to work with President Barack Obama’s administration is an “honor.”

Mayor Shirley Franklin commended Cochran’s service to the city. “While we will miss him, we are proud that President Obama selected him for US Fire Administrator and are certain he will continue his public service with distinction,” she said in a statement.

Franklin says she’ll review a committee’s recommendations for an interim fire chief.

(Photo by Jeff Riley)

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This week, we’re doing a countdown to last week’s most widely read post. So … let’s start with No. 5, shall we? Fun!

5. Zell Miller: Obama should be restrained with ‘Gorilla Glue’ (Hey Zell, I think there’s a booth with your name on it at a certain bar referenced in post No. 1.)

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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today named Mayor Shirley Franklin to serve on an advisory task force that will review the federal agency’s effectiveness in informing the public about terrorist threats.

“I have assembled a task force, made up of Democrats and Republicans, elected officials at the state and local level, security experts, law enforcement officials and other professionals to assess our current threat level system and provide options for any improvements that are needed,” Napolitano said in a statement. “My goal is simple: to have the most effective system in place to inform the American people about threats to our country.”

The task force, which includes mayors, governors, private-sector bigwigs and former intelligence honchos, will review the current advisory system and its impacts on local, state, federal, tribal law enforcement agencies, the private sector and the general public. It will then issue recommendations to Napolitano, who will forward the task force’s report to President Barack Obama.

Says Franklin: “As the home of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is the busiest airport in the world, it is very important to me in this post 9/11 environment that we review the Homeland Advisory System to measure its current effectiveness.”

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Interesting item on Wonkette today involving Congressman John Lewis, D-Atlanta:

Rep. Bennie Thompson (Mississippi) was next to me on my flight from National to New Orleans last night. Heard him say that John Lewis stopped him at National last night and said hes still on some TSA no-fly lists due to his arrest a few weeks ago so Thompson wants to file a bill to remove him from all the lists. Seemed like a nice guy though, and spent most of his time reading a huge stack of newspapers.

A Lewis spokeswoman tells CL that Lewis’ appearance on the list isn’t because of his recent arrest at the Sudanese embassy. The frustrating security snafu dates back years to when the controversial — some say ineffective — method of screening passengers was beefed up after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Google “John Lewis no-fly list” and you’ll see what we mean.)

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If Atlanta were unfortunate enough to be targeted by a nuclear bomb — or maybe got caught in the way of an asteroid — the results, as you can imagine, wouldn’t be pretty.

And the kind souls at CarlosLabs used the power of Google Maps to create a tool that lets you know just how far away you better be if you absolutely must navigate your way out of a mushroom cloud hellhole.

Visit the tool to see how many of history’s most famous atomic weapons would impact your friends and neighbors in Atlanta, or anywhere else around the world. Some screenshots of how the metro region would fare after a nuclear bomb and an asteroid’s impact are after the jump.

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Today, the AJC has an excellent story about a Fulton County man who flew to and from Europe despite being infected with a rare and exceptionally dangerous strain of tuberculosis.

Worthy of another front-page story is the fact that the man discovered an unlocked backdoor into the United States.

The infected man evaded the U.S. “no-fly” restrictions, returning to the United States by flying from Prague to Montreal on Czech Air and driving from Canada.

Did the American keepers of the “no-fly” list tell Czech Air about the man? Did they tell Czech passport-control officials? Did they tell Canadian passport officials? Did anyone even bother telling the U.S. agents on the Canadian border? Who knows?

The precise nature of the screw-up is as yet unclear, but the bottom line is this:

It’s been almost six years since 9/11 and the United States still can’t even stop an American citizen using his own passport from getting on a plane in a friendly country, or stop him at the border.

Other than admiring my shoes, what exactly is the Department of Homeland Security doing with its $40 billion annual budget?

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