A new government report released yesterday has dropped a bombshell on the state of private security and its ability to protect our nation's most important buildings.

In a routine check on the state of private security for our nation's federal buildings, investigators were able to sneak explosive materials inside - get this - a total of 10 out of 10 times.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security has said that poor management on the part of private security companies is a big part of the problem, with insufficient training given by the companies.

Here's what the report found:

• Only 13,000 private security officers are assigned to a total of 9,000 federal buildings.
• In one region that was investigated, officers haven't been trained on x-ray machines in over five years - since 2004.

While officials are vowing to fix the problem - and they say it will take a while - we know that it shouldn't take these kinds of reports to make the changes necessary to keep our buildings safe.

Every day, security officers witness this kind of poor management first hand, but are often afraid to speak out in fear of unjust retribution.

It's time for practices like this to end. Security officers need to be able to carry out their jobs well so that they're better prepared to be the "first" first responders in an emergency.

Watch the video and sign our petition.

This week, hundreds of RNs flooded our nation's capitol, many of us with several decades of experience in patient care. We left our families and communities because this year - 2009 - is the year that Congress can finally fix our broken health care system. And it can't happen without nurses.

On Wednesday, I joined with hundreds of nurses to lobby members of Congress about the issues we face at the bedside. As nurses, we're able to speak to issues the general public doesn't know about--understaffing, mandatory overtime, nurse training and education and more.

The National RN Day Of Action on May 13th turned out to be an incredible display of unity for all nurses and the patients we care for. While we were on the hill, we heard from staffers who'd received calls into their offices from nurses the following week. (See SEIU Blog post, "On National Nurses Week, We're Calling a Code On Our Healthcare System")

Thanks to your calls, Congress knew that nurses had an important role to play in health care reform. It was history in the making and I'm so excited that I had the chance to be a part of it!

Below are photos taken of the event: www.flickr.com/photos/valuecarenurses/

Janelle Manigault is a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) at St. Petersburg General Hospital (HCA) and a Vice President of SEIU Healthcare Florida's Health Systems Division.