Homeland Security Department Urban Areas Security Initiatives

Homeland's Urban Follies

An armored vehicle like the ones Homeland Security Department grants have helped buy for various urban communities. This vehicle belongs to Montgomery County, Maryland, which declined to say Tuesday whether it used Homeland funding to help underwrite the cost. Photo courtesy of Sen. Tom Coburn's office.

UPDATED 12:35 PM EST, December 14, 2012 | BY John Solomon

A $7.1 billion Homeland Security Department program to make cities safer from terrorism has paid for 13 sno-cone machines in Michigan, a $98,000 underwater robot in Columbus, Ohio, an armored vehicle for a tiny New Hampshire town that uses it to patrol the annual pumpkin festival, and humorous videos that offered little valuable information for fighting real threats, according to an investigation by Sen. Tom Coburn.

»MORE

Guardian Exclusives

The White House is in damage control mode - and stretching facts to defend itself
How an effort to integrate Afghan forces gave the Taliban the chance to unleash the newest lethal threat to U.S. troops
Facebook founder launches political group, focuses first on immigration policy debate
A bill designed to help farmers is riddled with millions of dollars in giveaways