Meetings are being held this week about the need to raise the alert status to orange before the July Fourth weekend, and for the first time homeland security officials are considering the idea of regional threat levels rather than a national one. The national threat level has been at yellow, or “elevated” since May 30, but there has been heightened regional concern in some parts of the country, including Texas, where a message was picked up from suspected al Qaeda operatives promising some kind of action during the July Fourth weekend. If homeland security officials decide to go to a regional threat level system, it could help save money for state and local governments. Many local government officials have complained about the added stress put on their budgets when the alert level is raised. With a regional system, alerts could be focused when U.S. intelligence officials have information that would allow them to identify where threats might be higher or lower. Full Story