Last week, the the Director of Homeland Security suggested to Congress that the TSA get a cut of airline baggage fees. The fees encourage travelers to carry on their bags, and this in turn leads to more bags that have to be inspected by hand at security checkpoints. Should taxpayers keep picking up the tab, or should airlines give the TSA a piece of the baggage fees? How about neither? What if instead the TSA looked for more creative ways to offset costs and even increase revenue? Here are 10 modest proposals: [More]
airports
TSA Wants To Increase Airport Fees Because You're Not Checking Your Bags
By 3.4.11
To avoid bag check fees, travelers are routinely opting to carry on their bags, but the TSA says that the cost is just getting shifted to tax payers, to the tune of $260 million a year. That’s because the more bags that don’t get checked, the more bags the TSA has to inspect by hand at security checkpoints. Now the TSA is looking to get a cut of some of the checked baggage fees the airlines collect. [More]
Undercover TSA Agent Makes It Through Full-Body Scanners With Gun In Her Undies
By 2.23.11
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at Security Theatre: An undercover TSA agent was able to slip through the full-body scanners at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun stashed in her undies… And not just once, but five times. [More]
Seattle-Area Restaurant Refuses To Serve TSA Agents
By 2.22.11
Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List. [More]
Feds Find $9 Million In Opium Inside Adorable Acrylic Kitty Cats At JFK
By 2.18.11
Customs agents at JFK International Airport in New York City have seized $9 million of pure opium hidden inside a shipment of acrylic cats. [More]
TSA Screeners At JFK Admit To Stealing $160K From Passengers
By 2.16.11
It must be tempting to be a TSA screener, seeing bags full of expensive goodies going through your scanner and knowing how easy it would be to make those bags disappear. Two TSA agents at JFK Airport in NYC gave into that temptation, swiping at least $160,000 from travelers. [More]
Full-Body Scan Privacy Law Gets One Step Closer To Reality
By 2.15.11
Back in December, we wrote about the law being proposed by Senator Chuck Schumer that would make it a crime to distribute or save images taken as part of an airport security scan. That law has come one step closer to becoming a reality after being unanimously accepted as an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Bill being considered by the Senate. [More]
Tarmac Regulations May Be Extended To Cover International Flights
By 2.14.11
Less than a year after the Dept. of Transportation introduced controversial regulations limiting the amount of time planes making domestic flights can sit on airport tarmacs, the agency is planning to expand those rules to cover overseas carriers that use American airports. [More]
Teen Arrested For Pointing Laser At Landing Boeing 737
By 2.9.11
Flying on an airplane can make travelers anxious enough without having to worry about snotty little punks pointing lasers at planes while they attempt to land. [More]
TSA Body Scanner Tracking Site Gets User-Friendly Makeover
By 2.9.11
The citizen-created site that keeps track of which airports have bodyscanner devices and what their status is just got a big interface makeover. [More]
TSA Testing Less-Revealing Full-Body Scanner Software
By 2.2.11
If you’re one of the many travelers who aren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of having the intimate details of your anatomy displayed on a monitor at the airport security checkpoint, here’s some promising news. The TSA is testing out an upgrade to some of its full-body scanners that could put an end to incidents like this or this. [More]
Airport Introduces Hologram "Staff" Members
By 1.28.11
Rather than just running a plain ol’ video or audio loop instructing travelers on liquid restrictions and other topics, Manchester Airport in the UK has unveiled a pair of holograms it hopes will speed up the lines at the security checkpoints. [More]
Airport Calls 3-Inch Plastic Toy Gun A "Firearm"
By 1.28.11
Overzealous airport security prevented a man and his wife from bringing onboard a 3-inch long plastic toy soldier’s gun. They said it was a “firearm” and forced the couple to mail it home before passing through security. [More]
LAX Is A Hotbed For Animal Smuggling
By 1.13.11
Apparently due to wealthy Hollywood types’ yearning for exotic pets, Los Angeles International Airport — its friends call it LAX — has long been known as animal smuggling central. In the most recent high-profile incident, Japanese passengers were busted for sneaking 55 live tortoises and turtles in luggage. [More]
TSA: Trying To Fool Scanners With Clever Clothes Will Just Lead To A Pat-Down
By 1.11.11
You might remember our story from July on Flying Pasties, the stickers that purported to hide your private bits from airport scanners. Those are just one of many products released in recent months attempting to cash in on travelers’ anti-scanner attitudes. However, the TSA has made it pretty clear that all you’re really doing when you walk through security carrying or wearing one of these products is asking for a pat-down. [More]
Which Airports Actually Use Their Body Scanners?
By 12.28.10
Lists of which airports have installed the controversial backscatter screening devices are one thing, but they’re not actually super-useful. An airport might have the screener on site, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually “backscatting” with it. It could be gathering dust or just for hanging coats on. [More]
Woman In Wheelchair Strips To Lingerie, Still Gets TSA Patdown
By 12.2.10
In protest of the enhanced TSA pat-down, a woman arrived at the airport this week wearing only lacy black lingerie and holding her white poodle. She had hoped that if she “had nothing to hide” then she could avoid a pat-down. She failed in this endeavor. Naturally, it was captured by a fellow passenger and uploaded to YouTube. [More]
Parody: TSA's New List of Banned Carryon Items
By 12.1.10
The holidays are here so that means it’s time for the TSA to release a new list of items that you think would bring holiday cheer but actually need to be banned to protect national security. UCBComedy’s The Brig parodies TSA policies in this new sketch that is probably more disturbing (warning: blood n’ candy canes) than uproarious. [More]
