Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge named his aide Michael. F. Byrne the first federal homeland security coordinator for the Washington area today. Byrne, a former New York City firefighter and the number-two Federal Emergency Management Agency official in charge of the World Trade Center clean-up, vowed to “maximize local, regional and federal support” for the national capital area in a closed-door meeting with 80 Washington-area business leaders in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this morning. The position was required under the law passed last fall that created the 190,000-worker Department of Homeland Security and came at the urging of the business community and Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.). Full Story