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The Latest Headlines:

• Lawmakers Working to Revamp Patriot Act
• FHWA Urges Caution Near Construction Areas
• DHS Holds Mock Attack Drill
• ‘Minuteman’ Border Scouts Draw Mixed Reviews

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Lawmakers Working to Revamp Patriot Act

A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers are working to tweak the USA Patriot Act by adding safeguards on Americans’ civil liberties, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The result makes it probable that the law, passed in the wake of 9/11, will be reauthorized, the Journal said.

Five states have passed safeguards rebuffing some of the federal law’s provisions, such as a provision to subpoena library records. Montana passed such a measure last week, the paper reported.

Both Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and FBI Director Robert Mueller were pressing for reauthorization of the act, the Journal said. Transport Topics

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FHWA Urges Caution Near Construction Areas

The Federal Highway Administration Tuesday urged drivers to follow safe driving habits through more highway work zones pose greater challenges to drivers during the upcoming road construction season.

“No one should sit on the sidelines of safety,” FHWA Administrator Mary Peters said in a statement. “Taking a few simple steps will keep drivers, passengers and our highway crews safe in construction areas and avoid the traffic tie-ups that work zone accidents cause.”

Deputy administrator Rick Capka helped kick-off National Work Zone Awareness Week at an event at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge construction project near Washington, D.C., with several construction groups.

“The highway is a workplace for thousands of men and women, and we’re asking drivers to remember that,” he said. Transport Topics

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DHS Holds Mock Attack Drill

The federal government held a mock disaster training Monday to test its antiterrorism preparedness, the Department of ���ϳԹ���land Security said.

The exercise, called Topoff 3, took place in Connecticut and New Jersey, and will simulate a bioterrorism attack, DHS said.

The $16 million drill, the largest such exercise to date, simulated a bioterror attack in New Jersey’s Union County, and an attack involving fake chemical weapons in New London, Conn., the Associated Press reported.

The drills were monitored by top DHS officials from a command center in Washington, as well as from regional centers, AP said. Transport Topics

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‘Minuteman’ Border Scouts Draw Mixed Reviews

Citizen volunteers patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border said Monday they had helped apprehend 19 illegal migrants at the start of their border patrols, news services reported.

But the “Minuteman” volunteers had unwittingly set off some border sensor alarms, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Organizers of hundreds of the volunteers, whose efforts are opposed by U.S. authorities, call their effort a peaceful protest over what they say is the government’s failure to secure borders, Reuters reported.

Despite the arrests, migrants waiting to cross say the new patrols will not stop a flow of Mexicans into the United States that tighter federal security has failed to stop, Reuters said. Transport Topics

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