KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video - Homeland Security cancels Vegas emergency exercise
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Associated Press - December 3, 2009 7:15 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Department of Homeland Security has called off plans for an emergency exercise in Las Vegas after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid protested that the event could harm the region's struggling economy.
The exercise had been planned for May and would have simulated a major security threat on the Las Vegas Strip. But Reid says that the exercise would have created unnecessary anxiety and that businesses were worried about the fallout. He wrote DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano last month and asked her to reconsider going ahead with the exercise.
Reid says he will work with the department to ensure its workers have the resources necessary to respond to security threats.
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