This fall the Transportation Security Administration’s Transportation Worker Identity Credential, or TWIC cards kick in. These employment cards are supposed to ensure that non-citizens working in the U.S. aren’t terrorists.

But TSA, which is part of the Dept. of Homeland Security, has sent out rejection letters to international students looking for summer work that makes it sounds like they are terrorists. The New York Times’ Scott Shane reports that the letters read, “I have determined you pose a security threat.”  A DHS spokeswoman said it was an unfortunate choice of words.  Read Shane here. MB

Yesterday likely GOP Presidential nominee John McCain unveiled his plan to fight global warming. The New York Times’ Elizabeth Bumiller and John Broder report that it includes mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

That means that no matter who becomes president, the Environmental Protection Agency of the past year may quickly become a relic of the past. The Supreme Court ruled that the agency must set greenhouse gas standards more than a year ago. But the Bush administration has been using every trick in the book to avoid writing a regulation, including a public comment period about the extent of the problem. McCain yesterday said that the U.S. needs to “stop idly debating the precise extent of global warming.”  Read Bumiller and Broder here.  MB

A number of environmental groups have sued Interior Dept. Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for his delay in deciding if the polar bear is an endangered species. As Mother Jones’s Daniel Schulman reports, many more groups could sue when that decision is made.

The Dept.’s Fish and Wildlife Service could issue a ruling saying not only that the polar bear endangered, but it’s dying out due to climate change. This would, for the first time, regulate what effect greenhouse gas emissions from industry have on animals. Industry lawyers and lobbyists will not grin and bear such a ruling. Read Schulman here. MB