Emergency and disaster management briefing for June 22, 2018: More than 30 children and several adults fell ill at a 4-H camp in Lake Placid, Florida; a former sales rep for Purdue Pharma alleges the company continued its misleading sales tactics for opioids after 2007 ruling; disaster declarations are issued for six counties in Texas that were inundated by floodwaters – and other news.

By Erik Kleinsmith

Citizens have long been warned of Big Brother, but are concerns over privacy and surveillance better directed at Little Brother? Learn how to protect your personal information from the non-governmental entities that are collecting it.

Reflecting upon my friend’s story (and stories similar to hers) I am reminded of how complex issues such as immigration reform can easily be reduced to sound bites calling for blunt enforcement of border security law as it is written.

While it may seem that all we need to do is map out the station location and measure the percentage of the city that the station 4 and 8 minute zones would cover, there are many more issues that are intertwined with the number and location of stations. Some of the issues that are intertwined are budget, staffing, apparatus, and hazard analysis.

Emergency and disaster management briefing for June 20, 2018: Del Monte issues a voluntary recall for veggie trays that may be linked to people sickened by the Cyclospora parasite, American Airlines is struggling to restore normal operations following two computer glitches, the Trail Mountain Fire in Utah grows to over 14,680 acres amid bug-killed trees &ndash other news.

A bill has been proposed in California to train former inmates in Emergency Medical Services. Despite the recruitment problems EMS has been seeing, EMS would not be a good profession for those released from prison.

By Jason Whitehead

Prisons house all kinds of criminals who are often able to network and share dangerous ideologies with other inmates. Correctional staff need to know how to identify members of terrorist groups and intervene in their activities.

There is a dark comedy that pervades front-line combat troops. It is a humor that very few American civilians understand and that many of them – apart from perhaps first responders and ER doctors – would find offensive.

Florida has more than a million gators, but only a dozen or so bites are recorded each year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). What can you do to prevent an alligator attack? Wildlife experts offer these four tips.