DHS Releases REAL ID Regulation

Release Date: January 11, 2008

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

REAL ID Requirements

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today a final rule establishing minimum security standards for state-issued drivers’ licenses and identification cards. The rule sets uniform standards that enhance the integrity and reliability of drivers’ licenses and identification cards, strengthen issuance capabilities, and increase security at drivers’ license and identification card production facilities. The final rule also dramatically reduces state implementation costs by roughly 73 percent.

“The American public’s desire for greater identity protection is undeniable,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “Americans understand today that the 9/11 hijackers obtained 30 drivers licenses and ID’s, and used 364 aliases. For an extra $8 per license, REAL ID will give law enforcement and security officials a powerful advantage against falsified documents, and it will bring some peace of mind to citizens wanting to protect their identity from theft by a criminal or illegal alien.”

The problems that Americans face from document fraud are diverse and growing. A Public Opinion Strategies poll taken last year shows that more than 80 percent of the American public favors secure identification to prevent terrorism and identity theft. Identity theft has increased by nearly 800 percent from 2000 to 2006, according to the Federal Trade Commission. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 863 criminal arrests during various worksite enforcement operations in fiscal year 2007 - more than 500 were charged with crimes relating to federal and state document fraud - and their Identity and Benefit Fraud Units made 1,211 criminal arrests for document fraud related charges. The U.S. Secret Service made 4,348 arrests last year for identity theft or financial fraud crimes, accounting for approximately $690 million in actual fraud loss to individuals and financial institutions. In a sampling of Secret Service identify theft cases from 2000 to 2006, fraudulent drivers’ licenses were used 35 percent of the time.

REAL ID will address document fraud by setting specific requirements that states must adopt for compliance, to include: (1) information and security features that must be incorporated into each card; (2) proof of the identity and U.S. citizenship or legal status of an applicant; (3) verification of the source documents provided by an applicant; and (4) security standards for the offices that issue licenses and identification cards.

The first deadline for compliance with REAL ID is Dec. 31, 2009. By then, states must upgrade the security of their license systems, to include a check for lawful status of all applicants, to ensure that illegal aliens cannot obtain REAL ID licenses. Some states are expected to be compliant well before that time. Compliance will be needed for access into a federal facility, boarding commercial aircraft, and entering nuclear power plants. Federal agencies will continue to accept licenses for official purposes from residents of states that comply with the law.

DHS is making approximately $360 million available to assist states with REAL ID implementation - $80 million in dedicated REAL ID grants and another $280 million in general funding as part of the Homeland Security Grant Program.

The 73 percent cost reduction – from an original estimate of $14.6 billion to approximately $3.9 billion – was achieved mainly by giving states greater flexibility in issuing licenses to older Americans. Enrollment will be completed for all individuals under 50 years of age by Dec. 1, 2014. For all others, enrollment may be extended three additional years to Dec. 1, 2017. At that time, all state-issued drivers’ licenses and identification cards intended for official federal purposes must be REAL ID compliant.

REAL ID was a core 9/11 Commission finding and mandated by Congress in the REAL ID Act of 2005. This final rule follows a Notice of Proposed Rule Making published in the Federal Register on March 9, 2007. Based on comments received from various stakeholders, DHS drafted the final rule to substantially reduce costs and account for investments that many states have already made to improve the security of their drivers’ licenses.

For more information, this final rule is currently available at www.dhs.gov and will soon be published in the Federal Register.

This page was last reviewed/modified on January 11, 2008.

source

Thousands follow soldier's fate in WW1 "blog"

Thousands of people have been following the fate of a British soldier fighting in the trenches of World War One on a Web site publishing his letters home exactly 90 years after they were written.

Like William Henry Bonser ("Harry") Lamin's real family almost a century ago, the modern reader visiting www.wwar1.blogspot.com does not know when the next letter is coming, or whether the one they are reading is in fact his last.

Many are braced for the dreaded telegram from the army notifying relatives of a soldier's death.

"There are a lot of people saying how keen they are to follow him and are rooting for Harry," said Bill Lamin, the 59-year-old IT teacher who found his grandfather's letters when he was a boy and decided to turn them into a blog.

"They get hooked as if it is happening now. People are rooting for a guy who is in the thick of it," he told Reuters.

The most recent entries from Harry, who served with the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment, were on December 30, 1917, after he had moved from the battlefields of northern Europe to Italy .

He thanks his brother, Jack, for the box of biscuits he sent and wishes his sister Kate a happy Christmas and New Year.

Many of the letters are mundane and focus on his wife and child in England , but some offer a glimpse of the horrors of trench warfare that young men faced.

"We have had another terrible time this week," Harry wrote on June 11, 1917, when describing his part in the Battle of Messines Ridge.

"The men here say it was worst (sic) than the Somme advance last July. We lost a lot of men but we got where we were asked to take. It was awful I am alright got buried and knocked about but quite well now and hope to remain so.

"It is a rum job waiting for the time to come to go over the top without any rum too. The C.O. got killed and our captain, marvelous how we escaped."

In another entry from October the same year, details of British casualties are penciled out, possibly by army censors seeking to maintain morale back home.

Lamin said the daily number of visitors to his site reached around 20,000 last week after several media reports appeared, although the daily total was normally lower.

"World War One has always been fascinating for people, the horrors of it," he said.

Dozens of people have written to the site to comment on Harry's experiences, including many from the United States .

One anonymous contributor wrote: "As a boy I was taught that war was glorious, I now know that it is exactly the opposite and will teach my children the same."

Lamin refused to give any clues as to Harry's fate, listing only his birth date as 1887.

source:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20080107/wr_nm/britain_war_blog_life_tech_dc_1

Delaware by the numbers - Figures

FIGURES
Based on U.S. Census, American Community Survey Profile 2005 and the Delaware Department of Labor

Economy & People
Chief Products:

• Agriculture -- broilers, soybeans, corn, milk.
• Fishing Industry -- crabs, clams.
• Manufacturing -- chemicals, food products, paper products, rubber and plastics products, primary metals, printed materials.
• Mining -- sand and gravel, magnesium compounds.

Population:

• 2000 Population Estimate: 783,600
• 45th among the states
• Density: 401 persons per square mile
• The largest cities in 2000:Wilmington, with an estimated population of 72,664, and Dover, the capital, with 32,135.
  
  

For additional information, go to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Delaware Economic Development Office, or the Office of Occupational and Labor Market Information.

• 2007 Population Estimate: 853,476
• 2025 Population Projection: 861,000
• 51 percent female
• 49 percent male
• Change from 2000: +69,876
• Births 2000-2006: 69,846
• Deaths 2000-2006: 44,173
• Internal migration 2000-2006: +33,419
• International migration 2000-2006: +13,394
• 2005 housing units: 374,872
• Housing units change from 2000-2005: +30,613

Diversity:
Among those identifying themselves as being of one race:

• 74 percent are white
• 20 percent are African-American
• 3 percent are Asian-American
• less than 0.5 percent are American Indian or Alaska natives
• less than 0.5 percent are native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
• and 2 percent are other races
• Six percent are Hispanic, of any race.

in 2000 Delaware's 44,898 foreign born made up 5.7% of the state's population in 2000 (more than double the total of 22,275, or 3.3%, in 1990). The United Kingdom, Germany, India, Italy, and Canada were the leading places of origin.

Median age:
37.9, 13% were age 65 or over, while 24.8% were under 18 years of age.

Households:
317,640

Types of households:
Married couple families, 50 percent; people living alone, 26 percent; other families, 18 percent; other non-family households, 6 percent

Where we live:
70 percent in single-family homes; 19 percent in apartments or multi-unit buildings; 11 percent in mobile homes -- and 28 percent of the state's housing has been built since 1990.

Average family size:
3.08

Median annual household income:
$52,499

Per capita yearly income:
$27,650 -- up from $26,440 in 2004 survey

Mean commute time of workers:
23.7 minutes

Most common occupations:
Management, professional and related work, 37 percent; sales and office occupations, 26 percent; service occupations, 15 percent; production, transportation and material moving, 11 percent; construction, maintenance and related work, 10 percent

Who's the boss:
Private wage or salary workers, 81 percent; government workers, 13 percent; self-employed, 6 percent

Unemployment rate:
3.3 percent as of May 2007, compared with 3.7 percent a year earlier -- and national unemployment rate of 4.5 percent

Adults' education:
Less than completion of high school with diploma, 14 percent; high school diploma or equivalent, 33 percent; some college but no degree, 18 percent; associate's degree, 7 percent; bachelor's degree, 16 percent; graduate or professional degree, 11 percent.

Languages:
English in Delaware is basically North Midland, with Philadelphia features in Wilmington and the northern portion. In the north, one wants off a bus, lowers curtains rather than blinds, pronounces wharf without /h/, and says /noo/ and /doo/ for new and due and / krik/ for creek. In 2000, 662,845 Delawareans—90.5% of the resident population five years of age or older—spoke only English at home.

The following table gives selected statistics from the 2000 census for language spoken at home by persons five years old and over. The category "African languages" includes Amharic, Ibo, Twi, Yoruba, Bantu, Swahili, and Somali. The category "Other Asian languages" includes Dravidian languages, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, and Turkish. The category "Other West Germanic languages" includes Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch, and Afrikaans.

LANGUAGE	NUMBER	PERCENT
Population 5 years and over	732,378	100.0
Speak only English	662,845	90.5
Speak a language other than English	69,533	9.5
Speak a language other than English	69,533	9.5
Spanish or Spanish Creole	34,690	4.7
French (incl. Patois, Cajun)	4,041	0.6
Chinese	3,579	0.5
German	3,420	0.5
Italian	2,860	0.4
Polish	2,036	0.3
Korean	1,598	0.2
African languages	1,289	0.2
Tagalog	1,284	0.2
Other Asian languages	1,280	0.2
Other West Germanic languages	1,245	0.2
French Creole	1,199	0.2
Other Indic languages	1,186	0.2

Religions
The earliest permanent European settlers in Delaware were Swedish and Finnish Lutherans and Dutch Calvinists. English Quakers, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and Welsh Baptists arrived in the 18th century, though Anglicization was the predominant trend. The Great Awakening, America's first religious revival, began on 30 October 1739 at Lewes with the arrival of George Whitefield, an Anglican preacher involved in the movement that would later become the Methodist Church. The Methodist Church was the largest denomination in Delaware by the early 19th century. Subsequent immigration brought Lutherans from Germany; Roman Catholics from Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Poland; and Jews from Germany, Poland, and Russia. Most of the Catholic and Jewish immigrants settled in cities, Wilmington in particular.

From 1990–2000, the Catholic Church gained 35,399 new members, enough to outnumber the previously dominant mainline Protestants. There were 151,740 Catholics in about 46 congregations in 2000. The United Methodist Church had 59,471 adherents in 162 congregations, Episcopalians numbered 12,993 in 35 congregations, and the Presbyterian Church USA claimed 14,880 adherents in about 37 congregations. There were about 13,500 adherents to Judaism. About 59.4% of the population were not counted as members of any religious organization.

Transportation
The New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, a portage route, was built in 1832; the state's first passenger line—the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad—opened six years later. As of 2000, there were 281 rail mi (452 km) of track. In 1998, Delaware's six railroads carried nearly 14.1 million tons of freight—54% of the rail tonnage originating from within the state were chemicals. Consolidated Rail and CSX are Delaware's main freight carriers. In the mid-1990s, Amtrak operated approximately 70 daily trains through Delaware and served both Newark and Wilmington. The Delaware Authority for Regional Transit (DART) provides state-subsidized bus service.

In 2000, the state had 5,779 mi (9,300 km) of public highways, roads, and streets. In the same year, there were 641,426 registered vehicles and 556,688 licensed drivers. Delaware's first modern highway—and the first dual highway in the US—running about 100 mi (160 km) from Wilmington to the southern border, was financed by industrialist T. Coleman du Pont between 1911 and 1924. The twin spans of the Delaware Memorial Bridge connect Delaware highways to those in New Jersey; The Delaware Turnpike section of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway links the bridge system with Maryland. The Lewes–Cape May Ferry provides auto and passenger service between southern Delaware and New Jersey.

In 2000, New Castle, Delaware's chief port, handled 8.7 million tons of goods, followed by Wilmington, with a tonnage of 5.2 million tons that year. The Delaware River is the conduit for much of the oil brought by tanker to the US east coast.

Delaware had 45 airfields (29 airport, 15 heliports, 1 seaplane base) in 2002, of which Greater Wilmington Airport was the largest and busiest.

source:
Delaware Almanac 2007
and
Delaware Facts and Symbols