Homeland Security agent seizes notes from a reporter who wrote critical stories

The Washington Times is preparing a lawsuit after federal agents raided the Maryland home of award-winning investigative reporter Audrey Hudson and confiscated her notes.

The agents had a warrant, but it was for unregistered firearms suspected of belonging to her husband. Only after they left did Hudson realize that some of her notes, which included interviews with confidential sources, were missing. The notes pertained to her reporting on problems within the Department of Homeland Security's federal air marshal service.

During the raid, a Homeland Security agent asked Hudson if she was the reporter who had written the air marshal stories for the Times.

"THIS VIOLATES THE VERY PREMISE OF A FREE PRESS."

"There is no reason for agents to use an unrelated gun case to seize the First Amendment protected materials of a reporter," says John Solomon, the conservative newspaper's editor, in theTimes' own story about the incident. "This violates the very premise of a free press, and it raises additional concerns when one of the seizing agencies was a frequent target of the reporter’s work."

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/26/5031806/homeland-security-agent-seizes-washington-times-reporters-notes

2010 National Vaccine Plan

2010 National Vaccine Plan: Protecting the Nation's Health through Immunization

This document, released by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, provides suggestions on how to improve vaccine programs in the United States in order to better defend against infectious diseases. The recommendations include the development of a broad national vaccine safety science agenda, launch of a comprehensive website about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Additionally, "the scope of the Plan is broad and addresses vaccines and key vaccine-related issues for the U.S. and its global partners. It provides a strategic approach for preventing infectious diseases and improving the public’s health through vaccination for the coming decade. Although vaccines are being developed to treat diseases and conditions (therapeutic vaccines) and for non-infectious diseases, the focus of this Plan is on vaccines for the prevention of infectious diseases as guided by the law that established the National Vaccine Program (NVP)."

via hsdl.org