A federal judge yesterday issued a preliminary injunction barring a controversial program to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S. work force, The San Francisco Chronicle’s Bob Egelko relates. Justice has filed an appeal to a ruling by a federal judge in Oregon who struck down key portions of the USA Patriot Act as unconstitutional, The Oregonian’s Ashbel Green reports.

Spooks: President Bush yesterday reiterated his refusal to sign a new eavesdropping bill if it does not grant retroactive immunity to U.S. telecoms, The Associated Press relates — while Reuters' Thomas Ferraro and Randall Mikkelsen has House Judiciary promptly passing a surveillance measure Bush has condemned. The Washington Times’ Sharon Behn spotlights a “crusading three-star general” who has “sparked outrage” by bringing legal actions against Army and Marine special ops troops for actions overseas. The U.S. tortures prisoners on Bush’s orders in violation of international law, ex-President Carter flatly asserted on CNN yesterday, Alexander Mooney reports.

Feds: A summer surge against gang violence has yielded more than 1,300 arrests of “the worst of the worst” since June, an ABC News team quotes ICE officials — while Newsday has 205 of the busts in the “controversial initiative” being made in Long Island and NYC. “Federal officials are offering no explanation for how a convicted felon helped broker tens of millions of dollars in contracts for a security company to guard federal buildings,” The Washington Times’ Jim McElhatton reports. A key rule streamlining disposition of major disciplinary appeals by DHSers is in place — five years after being initiated, The Washington Post’s Stephen Barr relates. DHS says a record number of organizations participated in the fourth annual National Preparedness Month, United Press International informs.

Poly-ticks: Hillary Clinton “is the Northeast’s favorite daughter” in part because “residents of the region see her talking about terrorism in nuanced ways,” The Hartford Courant’s David Lightman suggests. Rudy Giuliani’s challenge going into Tuesday’s debate was whether he “can successfully interest voters while speaking about something other than terrorism,” MSNBC’s “First Read” blog suggests. “Let’s face it,” Jim Geraghty handicaps for The National Review, GOPer John McCain “is running to be a war president, a war candidate, and economics doesn’t seem to stir his blood.” Asked about the campaign mileage racked up by the 2001 terrorist attacks, Dem pack-trailer Chris Dodd tells AP’s Amy Lorentzen that “9/11 ought not to be a slogan for anyone in my view.”

State and local: With the scope of the NYPD’s brief having mushroomed far beyond daily crime fighting since 9/11, The New York Sun has speculation running rampant on who will replace the current commissioner when he departs in 2009. State emergency officials have translated a wide range of information to help the growing population of Spanish-speaking Virginians prepare for disasters, The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports. Guam’s homeland advisor has met with the territory’s village mayors to discuss next week’s DHS-led counterterror exercise, New Zealand Radio notes — while The Arizona Republic says the Phoenix area’s role in the same dirty bomb drill — the largest ever conducted — will also test evolving plans to secure the Super Bowl next year.

Governators: South Carolina solons weren’t all amused by Gov. Mark Sanford’s joke — in questioning a $5 million Statehouse security upgrade — that he didn’t see it as a terror magnet — “though sometimes I would like it to be,” The Greenville News notes. Colorado lawmakers have scaled back by half a $1.6 million request by Gov. Bill Ritter to boost security at the Capitol, site of a fatal July shooting outside his office, The Denver Postreports. New Hampshire’s governor opened the first meeting of a FEMA regional council on Tuesday by calling for more interstate emergency planning, Foster’s Daily Democrat records. Connecticut’s governor, meanwhile, has tapped an ex-legislative aide to run the new state Office of Military Affairs, The Hartford Courant recounts.

Bugs ‘n bombs: A hazmat team was dispatched to a New Jersey police station Sunday after a “good Samaritan” surrendered a bag of “suspicious white powder,” The Jersey City Times tells — while the Post-Intelligencer has Seattle firefighters responding to the police HQ after an envelope with white powder inside was reported. A Montana woman was charged Tuesday for allegedly helping her son make pipe bombs in her home, The Great Falls Tribune tells. “The failure of NIH risk assessments to reduce or eliminate the ‘lingering’ concerns and fears is not simply the result of the opponents’ NIMBYism or paranoia,” a Boston Globe contributor comments of a controversial Boston University biolab. Private insurers are unlikely to actually cover nuclear, bio-chemical and radiological attack risk despite a House bill requiring them to offer it, Reuters quotes a Treasury official.

Coming and going: A noon-time bomb threat shut down a busy terminal at Oakland’s airport Monday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of passengers, The Contra Costa Times tells. Critics of Gov. Elliott Spitzer’s proposal to grant driver’s licenses to illegals warn that New Yorkers “will be forced to show a passport when they fly within the U.S.,” The Buffalo News notes. A federal attorney testified Tuesday that halting work on border barriers along the San Pedro River would do more environmental harm than letting the project be completed, The Arizona Daily Star says — while The Tucson Citizen has a judge temporarily delaying construction of a 1.5-mile section of fencing through that Arizona wildlife refuge.

School Daze: The glitched first test of Virginia Tech’s new campus notification system broadcast two messages at once: a test announcement and a message from April 16th urging listeners to seek shelter, Richmond’s WRIC 8 News notes. With two students injured in an on-campus shooting two weeks ago, Delaware State University is honing in on a text messaging system to notify students and staff of crises, The Wilmington News Journal notes. An Oregon high school teacher is suing to pack a pistol with her to work because she fears her ex-husband and worries about a Columbine-style attack, AP reports.

Ivory (Watch) Towers: DHS has awarded a $1.3 million competitive training grant to UC’s Center for Continuing Studies, The Hartford Courant recounts. Inspired by seashells’ molecular structure, the University of Michigan has created a composite plastic — strong as steel but lighter and transparent — that could lead to less burdensome, tougher armor for troops or cops, Science Magazine mentions. University at Buffalo boffins “are developing automated systems that track faces, voices, bodies and other biometrics against scientifically tested behavioral indicators to provide a numerical score” for an individual’s likelihood of committing terrorism, The Homeland Security Daily Wire relays.

Gizmotronica: “Cyborg insects with embedded microelectromechanical systems will run remotely controlled reconnaissance missions,” if all goes well, EETimes tells — and see the Post on rumors that the mini-bugs have already been spotted at domestic protest rallies. A new Navy “Master Plan” envisions many, many robotic ships waging “the Global War on Terror, Irregular Warfare, and conventional campaigns,” Danger Roomreports. DHS researchers have teamed up with Los Alamos Lab whizzes to devise a way “not only detect liquids in baggage and on airline passengers, but also to figure out what they are,” Science Daily says.

Terror tech: The war in Iraq has enabled insurgents to develop the relatively modern innovation of suicide bombs into a strategic weapon, New American Mediacites from a recent report. The next step for homeland security is deployment of the “fascinating and highly advanced” boost-phase missile-zapping Airborne Laser, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., asserts in a Santa Clarita Valley Signal panegyric. DHS chief Mike Chertoff’s “vision of a broad surveillance society — supported by massive databases of biometric data collected from hundreds of millions of people — presents a chilling future,” Michael Geist maintains for BBC News. Non-official Americans are tracking down U.S. Web pages used by jihadis and persuading the service providers to snuff out the sites, The Washington Times tells.

Courts and rights: The obstruction of justice trial for an ex-federal prosecutor in a botched 2003 terror case got off to a rocky start yesterday when a Justice lawyer said one of its lead witnesses had lied in a pretrial hearing, The Detroit Free Press reports. An FBI informant testified to fearing his cover had been blown and that he might be killed by members of the Liberty City Seven, The Miami Herald relays. Federal prosecutors are urging life in prison for a Palestinian activist who refused to testify before a grand jury investigating Hamas links here, The New York Sun says.

Over there: The founder of Iraq’s extremist Ansar al-Islam appealed Tuesday to Norway’s Supreme Court to overturn an order to expel him as a threat to national security, The Guardian relays. A new report from the Dutch intel and security service indicates the number of radical Dutch Muslims is on the rise, The Deutsche Presse Agentur records. U.K. police will soon need the power to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge, The Times of London quotes the top cop.

Tape heads: “Following continued complaints of poor audio quality and amateurish video, al Qaeda has announced a deal with Sony Corp. to begin distributing its terrorist messages in the CD/DVD format,” CAP News notes. “The deal has been two years in the making, with Sony having to stop and re-start negotiations multiple times due to various al Qaeda leaders being captured or killed during talks. Osama bin Laden participated in the meetings via remote conference bridge. ‘This move actually completes the tech refresh orchestrated by al Qaeda’s IT department,’ said Emu Mushi al-Kuholik just before being captured by U.S. troops. ‘We have wireless in 95 percent of our caves, we have BlackBerries for 75 percent of the Taliban army, and now we have digital media. We have completed our mission of bringing terrorism into the 21st century.’” Check, relatedly, on Onion Radio News: “2008 Hamas Calendar Features Photos Of Stuff They’ve Blown Up.”