For the last several years, Rhode Island Congressman James Langevin has been pushing hard for comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.

Yesterday, a big step toward making that a reality: the US Senate, which had been slow to move on the issue, released a long-awaited cybersecurity bill to go with one making its way through the House.

The US Senate last week, in a vote that scrambled the usual partisan calculus, approved a controversial detainee policy - with Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse on a different side than you might expect.

The policy, which both senators voted for along with 15 of their Democratic colleagues and nearly every Republican in the chamber, would require the government to place suspected Al Qaeda figures, or members of allied groups, in military detention - even if arrested on American soil.

A curious bit of news from the New York Times involving former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, among other prominent Democrats and Republicans. Here's the truncated version from Robert Mackey on "The Lede" blog:

As my colleague Scott Shane reports, several former United States officials have been paid to make speeches in support of a banned Iranian exile group, the Mujahedeen e-Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen, known as the M.

I've spent the last several days talking with some of Rhode Island's brightest minds on where we are 10 years after 9/11. It was quite an undertaking - and helps to explain my spotty blogging of late. The interviews will appear in this week's Phoenix. But I'll offer one, here, that we weren't able to include in the paper.

Eric Hirsch, a sociology professor at Providence College, is best known for his work tracking the state's homeless population.

I noted in this space yesterday that Congressman Jim Langevin, who has long pushed for an upgrade to the nation's porous cyber defenses, has once again introduced legislation on the subject.

The new bill would carve out a special White House office on cybersecurity and aim to bolster a weak cybersecurity workforce, among other things.

Congressman Jim Langevin, who has made cybersecurity a signature issue, is making another go at reform. From DC publication The Hill:

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) unveiled a comprehensive cybersecurity bill on Wednesday that would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to regulate the security of private networks deemed part of the nation's critical infrastructure.

Congressman James Langevin visits three Rhode Island high schools this morning to highlight the High School Cyber Challenge, aimed at boosting the nation's skills in cybersecurity.

This fall, students from the three high schools - Warwick Career and Technical Center, the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center, and Exeter West Greenwich High School - piloted the program, which will be formally launched in Rhode Island, Maryland, and California come February.

Media coverage of the Republican filibuster of a major defense bill last week focused on the high-profile spat over repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

But the death of the legislation also meant the death of Rhode Island Congressman Jim Langevin's cybersecurity amendment which would, among other things, strengthen the hand of the president's cybersecurity czar by giving him budget authority over large swaths of the government vulnerable to attack.

The appointment of Rhode Islander Tom Donilon to the post of national security adviser brought this post from Jacob Heilbrunn at The National Interest:

The elevation of Donilon clearly signals that Obama is positioning himself to leave Afghanistan. Forget the policy review that is due. The die is cast. Obama is not going to turn himself into a hostage of the Afghan war.

My cover story in this week's Phoenix on cyber security quotes Congressman Jim Langevin, who has been a leading voice on the issue in the House. But another member of the Rhode Island delegation - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse - is also active on the issue. He co-authored a recent op-ed for CNN, with Senators Barbara Mikulski and Olympia Snowe, on the topic.

I've got a piece in today's Phoenix on the daunting challenge of cybersecurity. Experts say our power grid, financial systems, and telecommunications are vulnerable to hackers. And erecting a comprehensive defense is a near impossibility: intruders need find only one weak point to break in and do damage.

The local angle is Congressman Jim Langevin's heavy involvement in the issue.

Representative Patrick J. Kennedy's outburst on the House floor yesterday - excoriating the media for its heavy coverage of former Representative Eric Massa's tickle fights and scant coverage of a Congressional debate over pulling out of Afghanistan - has drawn the predictable response. There's Patches, flying off the deep end again.

Senator Jack Reed is getting some play for his comments on former Vice President Dick Cheney's latest pronouncements on Afghanistan. From The Hill:

Republicans have developed a pattern of criticizing President Barack Obama for trying to fix problems the GOP caused, one Democratic senator said Thursday.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.

My last post included a link to an article from The Hill reporting that Rhode Island Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed are among those backing an independent investigation into Bush-era interrogation techniques.

But Sen. Reed's office says the boss actually prefers a process that relies on the standard judicial and Congressional oversight process.