Federal Officials

WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security officials moved yesterday to re-evaluate airport security checkpoint procedures and hunt for new scanning technology that could be deployed quickly in the wake of the decision to ban liquids, gels and creams from carry-on luggage. Top officials met late in the day to check the implementation of the new procedures, monitor how information about banned items was being disseminated and examine new information from British officials to see what changes might need to be made in passenger screening.

The federal No Child Left Behind law requires a highly qualified teacher in every core subject classroom, such as math, English and history, by the end of the current school year. But as the Department of Education announced last week, no state has met that mandate. While most have made substantial progress, nine states and the District of Columbia face possible sanctions, including the loss of federal funds, for not improving sufficiently. Given the intense competition for qualified teachers, taking away federal money would seem to do more harm than good.

NEW YORK -- The threatened walkout by apartment building employees last week prompted a million or so New Yorkers to contemplate the value of an everyday amenity they take for granted: the doorman. As it turns out, the question of a doorman's dispensability was officially answered by the government six decades ago. During World War II, when some landlords wanted to save money by dismissing doormen altogether - but without reducing rents - federal officials defined when a doorman is essential, at least in wartime.

Traffic returned to normal yesterday on Interstate 83, as federal and state officials pledged to investigate the cause of a hazardous-waste leak in a truck that closed northbound lanes for 12 hours and disrupted the Thursday evening commute through northern Baltimore County. The truck, owned by Ecoflo Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., was transporting 20 barrels of rocket fuel from a naval facility in Southern Maryland to Pennsylvania. The barrels had been packed with another chemical that was supposed to keep the volatile fuel stable, but one or more containers erupted or leaked inside the truck as it passed the Parkton exit early Thursday afternoon, triggering a shutdown of the highway and a laborious cleanup.

Rockville -- Opponents of a proposed east-west highway through the Washington suburbs accused state and federal highway officials yesterday of preparing an "incomplete, inadequate and biased" study that understates the environmental harm that would result from construction of the $2.4 billion toll road. A coalition of environmental groups called on federal officials to send the State Highway Administration back to the drawing board to reconsider the impact of the Intercounty Connector and alternatives for relieving congestion in the traffic-choked area.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Suspicious fires destroyed three small churches and damaged two others in central Alabama early yesterday, officials said. All five fires, which investigators said broke out between midnight and 3 a.m., were in rural Bibb County. There were no injuries. The county's chief deputy sheriff, Kenneth Weems, told the Associated Press that the fires were set "as fast as they could drive from one location to the next." Federal officials said they were looking into whether the fires were hate crimes.

WASHINGTON -- For the first time, a nonpartisan government investigation has put principal blame on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not lower-level officials, for the fumbled response to Hurricane Katrina. The Government Accountability Office, an independent investigative agency of Congress, said in its preliminary report yesterday that Chertoff had failed to move quickly to mobilize resources despite advance warnings that Katrina was likely to be a devastating storm. And, the report said, Chertoff's failure to name a single individual to spearhead the response was a prime factor in the delays and confusion that followed.

Hoping to end years of contentious debate over how best to prosecute gun crimes, local and federal law enforcement officials have tentatively agreed to a broad new plan to lock up any violent felon who carries a firearm in Baltimore. Significant prison time for the city's most dangerous gun-toting criminals is one component of a revived and expanded "Baltimore Exile" program. The collaborative effort, led by the U.S. attorney's office, aims to reduce violent crime, including the city's stubbornly high homicide rate.

The new Medicare drug program signed up about 1 million new enrollees in its first month of enrollment, federal officials announced yesterday, touching off a debate about whether that represented success or signaled confusion over the new benefit. The number represents a fraction of the 8 million to 10 million people federal officials are expecting to enroll by May 15, the deadline to sign up without paying a penalty. Michael O. Leavitt, secretary of health and human services, announced a total enrollment of 21 million as of Dec. 13. That includes about 14 million who will continue to get benefits from private and federal programs and from Medicare HMOs; those programs will get a subsidy from Medicare for drug coverage.

MIAMI -- A troubled passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was fatally shot by federal air marshals yesterday as he charged off an American Airlines jet at Miami International Airport, federal officials said. It was the first time air marshals had shot at a passenger since the government stepped up the federal program after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, officials said. The passenger was identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, of Maitland, Fla. Federal officials said no bomb was found, and there was no apparent link to terrorism.