TSA

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TSA's $1B SPOT Program as Effective as Flipping a Coin

Screening 'the same as or slightly better than chance'

(Newser) - Nearly $1 billion spent on a TSA behavioral screening program may have been better spent in Vegas. Started in 2007 at a cost of $200 million a year, the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program trains officers to scan crowded airports for suspicious-looking people. There's just one...

LAX Suspect Was Dropped Off by Friend

Paul Ciancia says he acted alone

(Newser) - Alleged LAX gunman Paul Ciancia told investigators he had acted alone after being dropped off by a friend in a black Hyundai, a police official tells the AP ; that friend, officials believe, didn't know what Ciancia had planned. The accused shooter is currently under heavy sedation—and 24-hour armed...

TSA Agent in LAX Threat Previously in Public Spat

LAX terminals evacuated, 9/11 related note found in man's home

(Newser) - Federal authorities arrested an ex-TSA employee just before midnight last night, on suspicion that he'd made terrorist threats against Los Angeles International Airport. Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, resigned his post as a screener yesterday, the LA Times reports, leaving behind a "suspicious package." That package turned out...

The TSA: Now Guarding Music Festivals?

Not to mention sports matches, rodeos...

(Newser) - The Transportation Security Administration is turning up in some unexpected places these days. The organization was originally created for airport security, but after the Madrid train bombing in 2005, special teams known as Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response were deployed. The groups are now working in train stations, highway weigh...

TSA Halts 'Chewbacca' Over 'Lightsaber'

Peter Mayhew's lightsaber-shaped cane causes brief uproar

(Newser) - The latest TSA brouhaha is more amusing than enraging: Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films, was stopped last week because agents didn't like the looks of his cane ... probably because it looks like a lightsaber. The 69-year-old, 7-foot-2-inch actor tweeted about the incident, and says...

TSA Backs Down: No Small Knives on Planes

Move to allow them met with outcry from flight attendants, others

(Newser) - The TSA is abandoning a plan to allow passengers to carry small knives, souvenir bats, golf clubs, and other sports equipment onto planes in the face of fierce congressional and industry opposition. By scuttling the plan to drop the knives and sports equipment from TSA's list of prohibited items,...

TSA Delays Lifting Ban on Small Knives

Flight attendants want rule change ditched permanently

(Newser) - The TSA has decided that now isn't such a great time to ditch its post-9/11 ban on small knives in aircraft cabins. The agency says it is delaying the policy change —which had been set to go into effect Thursday—to get more feedback from law enforcement and...

Under Fire, TSA to Keep New Knife Policy

But Congress considers legislation to reinstate ban

(Newser) - The TSA has gotten a lot of flak for deciding to allow small knives back on planes—but not enough to change its mind. "I could have done a better job of bringing (the policy) in earlier," TSA boss John Pistole testified before a Homeland Security subcommittee. Lawmakers...

TSA Draws Rage for $50M Uniform Deal, Knives Policy

Agency accused of being tone-deaf, making flight attendants 'sitting ducks'

(Newser) - Just a week before the sequester kicked in, the TSA signed a deal to spend $50 million on new uniforms, reports Politico . The agency calls the uniforms a necessity, but for many on Capitol Hill it was just another sign of the TSA's cluelessness. "When we’re losing...

TSA to Allow Small Knives on Planes

Hockey sticks, golf clubs, pool cues also OK under relaxed rules

(Newser) - The TSA is loosening up a bit on what passengers can carry with them onto planes. Starting April 25, it will once again be OK to bring small pocketknives (with blades no more than 2.36 inches long and a half-inch wide), along with some kinds of sports equipment—including...

TSA Ditches 'Naked' Body Scanners

But you'll still have to go through scanners that create generic images

(Newser) - The Transportation Security Administration is done looking at your junk. The agency has confirmed for the AP that it intends to get rid of its much-maligned X-ray body scanners, which have proven controversial because they produce essentially naked images of travelers. Congress responded to the outcry by passing a law...

Woman Slaps TSA Employee Over Patdown

South Korean traveler is arrested after altercation

(Newser) - A traveler from South Korea did not take to kindly to America's airport security and is in jail as a result. Authorities say Hyunjoo Kim, 39, slapped one female TSA employee at Orlando International Airport and shoved another, reports the Orlando Sentinel . The slap came after a patdown and...

TSA Agents 'Laugh' at Nude Images

Flirting, clowning is typical in screening rooms: blogger

(Newser) - Airport security is no laughing matter—except to TSA agents who clown around in back rooms and chuckle over "some of your nude images, dear passengers," a blogger writes. Purportedly an ex-TSA officer, the blogger claims to have never seen or heard about illegal goings-on in screening rooms...

TSA OKs ... Snow Globes
 TSA OKs ... 
 Snow Globes 
Dec 24, 2012 6:45 AM CST

TSA OKs ... Snow Globes

Finally!

(Newser) - Today, in really important travel news: You can finally carry that snow globe on your flight. That is, as long as it "appears to contain less than 3.4 ounces" of liquid, explains the TSA blog . How to tell if yours qualifies? Make sure it's smaller than a...

TSA Detains Wheelchair-Bound 12-Year-Old

TSA officers say her hands tested positive for bomb residue

(Newser) - TSA officers at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport detained a sick, wheelchair-bound 12-year-old for nearly an hour on Sunday, saying her hands had tested positive for bomb residue. It was something of a shock for Shelbi Walser, who has made the Dallas-to-Florida flight many times to get treatment for her genetic bone...

TSA Removes X-Ray Scanners at Busy Airports
 TSA Removes X-Ray 
 Scanners at Busy Airports 
propublica
Oct 19, 2012 12:51 PM CDT

TSA Removes X-Ray Scanners at Busy Airports

Because of speed, not privacy or health worries

(Newser) - Those often reviled body scanners at airports should pose less of a burden to travelers—unless they happen to frequent small airports. Over the past few weeks, officials have "quietly" removed the X-ray machines from major airports including Boston's Logan and Chicago's O'Hare, shipped them off...

Cancer Patient: TSA Humiliated Me

She hopes agency changes procedures for sick travelers

(Newser) - A cancer patient on what was probably the last trip of her life says she was subjected to a humiliating pat-down from the TSA this month, the AP reports. Michelle Dunaj, who has leukemia and was recently given only a few months to live, was on her way to Hawaii...

Guy in Body Armor Nabbed With Bag of Weapons at LAX

He had ax, knives, clubs, cuffs, and biohazard suit: feds

(Newser) - An airline passenger wearing a bullet-proof vest was nabbed during a security screening with a suitcase stuffed with weapons at Los Angeles International Airport, officials report. Boston-bound flyer Yongda Huang Harris, 28, a US citizen of Chinese descent, was flying from Japan late last week when he was stopped by...

Supreme Court Refuses Body Scanner Case
 Supreme Court 
 Refuses Body 
 Scanner Case 
NEW SESSION's HIGHLIGHTS
Oct 1, 2012 12:17 PM CDT

Supreme Court Refuses Body Scanner Case

A rundown of cases the court refused to hear as new session open

(Newser) - The new Supreme Court term, which begins today, won't include a review of TSA body scanners: Justices have refused to take on a man's appeal in a case against the machines, which was also dismissed by federal courts in Florida and Washington, the AP reports. Nor will justices...

TSA Steals From Travelers All the Time: Ex-Agent

Pythias Brown: It 'was very commonplace. Very.'

(Newser) - A former TSA screener has advice for America's travelers: Watch your bags. Pythias Brown, who just served three years for stealing from people's luggage, says such thieving is typical. "It was so easy," he tells the Daily News . "One day I walked out of there...

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