(TNS) - The people handling security for the nation’s busiest malls and amusement parks are no longer retired cops. They are a 24-year veteran of the FBI, a former CIA operative and the onetime chief of counterterrorism for Scotland Yard.

The theme-park industry’s annual security bill, already roughly $250 million a year, is expected to grow by more than $100 million over the next few years, according to one consultant. Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and SeaWorld all installed metal detectors outside their gates for the first time in December.

(TNS) — Mountaineering tents are lightweight equipment, meaning they are easy to carry around. The fact that they are more spacious than vehicles makes them quite popular.

At L-Breath, an outdoor equipment chain store in Tokyo, the number of people buying tents for emergency use has increased since the Kumamoto Earthquake. “There’s a lot of interest from middle-aged and elderly customers who have no outdoor recreation experience,” says Hiroaki Oka from the store in Tokyo’s Ochanomizu area.

(TNS) - No one likes to lose power or to have to boil tap water. But for some residents, these infrastructure issues can pose major health risks with summer thunderstorms a real possibility.

Power outages

• National Grid customers who are older than age 62, blind or disabled, or whose health depends on machines run by electricity can sign up for warning robocalls if a major storm likely could cause a blackout in their area, said spokeswoman Virginia Limmiatis.

Terrorist spread fear via social media. We’ve seen this before. Or have we?

This past week of sorrow was flooded by new reports that the Orlando killer was inspired by online extremism. Chilling new information was also revealed about Omar Mateen’s posts on Facebook before the attack.

According to CBS News, the killer posted social media messages that his attacks were in support of ISIS. He promised more “attacks from the Islamic State [ISIS] in the USA.”

(TNS) - Florida was left largely unscathed from its first taste of this year's hurricane season as Tropical Storm Colin cut through the northern half of the state last week, and that's a sigh of relief for Emergency Management Director Bryan Koon.

Koon was appointed in February 2011 by Gov. Rick Scott to lead the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and his tenure over the state's first line of recovery after a storm has remained free of hurricanes.

(TNS) - If you see something, say something.

It is a dictum for terrorizing times, and as the carnage mounts, law enforcement is more urgently pressing the public to turn tipster.

But what, exactly, does something mean?

That depends.

"If I have a friend who all of a sudden starts going to the masjid [mosque] five times a day, is that a sign of radicalization - or of admirable devotion?" said Quasier Abdullah, assistant imam at Quba Institute, a school and mosque in West Philadelphia.

(TNS) - In the aftermath of 9/11, the nation’s top domestic security priority focused on stopping foreign sleeper cells planted by al-Qaida or other radical groups.

Now, Omar Mateen defines what anti-terrorism experts say is the most serious and increasing threat for the United States — the “lone wolf.”

(TNS) — The Department of Homeland Security is testing airflow inside the city’s subway system this week as a way to predict what would happen in a possible chemical attack.

The week-long study poses no risk to the public, the Department of Homeland Security said.

From May 9 through May 13, DHS said officials will be releasing harmless, non-toxic gases inside several subway stations in Manhattan, including Penn Station, Grand Central Terminal and at Times Square.

The Islamic State-aligned gunman who attacked a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., had been investigated for possible terror ties in 2013 and 2014, yet he was able to legally buy two guns within days of the attack, officials said Sunday afternoon.

(TNS) - Don’t be alarmed if you hear gunshots coming from inside the Henry County Courthouse Thursday evening.

It’s only a drill.

Henry County, Iowa Emergency Management director Walt Jackson and the Henry County Sheriff’s Department will host the drill at 4 p.m. Thursday, using blank rounds in real guns to simulate the sounds of a shooting incident.

“We want to give employees here more tools in their tool bags if something like this happened,” Jackson said.