I wish I could say I am surprised, but I am not: a Transportation Security Administration Officer at Los Angeles International Airport was busted on Sunday for aiding and abetting a drug smuggler sneak 15lbs of marijuana past security....
Airport Security Screening of the Future
A little blurb on airport passengers screening in the Washington Post caught my eye today: AMSTERDAM — The airline industry has presented its vision for a security ‘checkpoint of the future,’ which would speed up safety checks by sorting...
Obama’s Deficit Plan = Higher Airfare
Part of President Obama’s recently announced deficit reduction plan includes a provision that will double security fees on tickets, increasing the price of a round-trip ticket by up to $20. While I agree that airport security should be styled...
TSA Plays Politics, Changes Children Screening Policy
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently announced that children will no longer be required to remove their shoes at airport security checkpoints and also will not be subject to pat-down searches. Instead, their hands will be swabbed for...
The Photograph the TSA Doesn’t Want You to See!
As we near the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Live and Let’s Fly will feature a series of posts in the coming the days focusing on how travel has changed over the last decade. Today, I want to...
Germany Rejects Airport Full Body Scanners
When you are evaluating the acquisition of new technology how do you determine whether it will be a good fit? Do you just buy it without testing it, as the U.S. did in the case of airport full body...
Just Another Bad Apple at the TSA
While I do not derive any sort of pleasure from blogging about Transportation Security Administration officers constantly being busted for breaking the law, there is a reason I choose to cover these sorts of stories. After blogging about the...
TSA Officer Indicted for Stealing $23,000 Worth of Watches at LAX
While the official Transportation Security Administration motto might be “not on my watch,” the more apt phrase is “that’s my watch” after another TSA Officer was indicted for stealing last week. Paul Yashou, a now disgraced ex-TSO at LAX,...
TSA Hints at New Behavior Detection Plan
Could the Transportation Security Administration be moving toward the Israelification of airport passenger screening? Currently, the TSA stations Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) at 161 airports across the country that look for psychological or physiological signs that a passenger may be...
Could Congressional Compromise Lead to Increased Airfare?
Just two days after blogging about how Congressional gridlock led to reduced taxes on airfare, it seems we may be getting our comeuppance: Congress is working on a deal that could more than double security fees on airlines tickets....
Analysis: TSA Diffuses Full Body Scanner Privacy Concerns
While I am no fan of the TSA, I will give them credit when credit is due. The announcement this week that the TSA will introduce new software on full body scanners that generates an image of a human...
D.C. Circuit Rejects Claim that TSA Full Body Scanners Violate Fourth Amendment
In probing the Transportation Security Administration’s Advanced Imaging Technology program last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit squarely rejected the contention that the TSA’s use of AIT violates the Fourth Amendment. Distinguishing unlawful...
Woman Arrested for Groping TSA Agent
61-year-old Yukari Mihamae apparently wasn’t pleased with the Transporation Security Administration and took it out on a TSO at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Thursday. Entering the security checkpoint, she grabbed the left breast of the female agent,...
Women Jailed for Yelling at TSA
Should a woman have been arrested for yelling and swearing at a government employee? While I have no respect for the organization or those who work in it, I am not one who would ever cuss out a Transportation...
Forced Through a Full Body Scanner!
I had a very nice time in Kiev, until my trip back this afternoon—read also about my baggage mishap. After years of vociferously protesting full body scanners as an unreasonable and unconstitutional intrusion on privacy, I quickly caved in...
TSA Forces 95-Year-Old to Remove Diaper
After probing this story further, some of my outrage has dissipated. Yet I am still fuming at all parties involved. A 95 year-old woman in Florida in the terminal stages of leukemia, weighing only 105lbs and bound to a...
New Role for the TSA: High School Prom Guards
Coming soon to a high school near you: the Transportation Security Administration. Two girls at a New Mexico high school recently sued their school district, claiming that they were "groped" on their way into their prom earlier in the...
Do the TSA Pokey Pokey (Video)
Another video is out poking fun at the TSA, and it is a good one. Take a look: I trust that this more light-hearted format might prod more Americans to question the Department of Homeland Security and the laughable (and frankly...
Exclusive: TSA Admits to Storing AIT Images
A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screener has admitted that the TSA stores images obtained from full body scanners. The 23-year old screener works at Ronald Regan Washington National Airport and posted the following in the course of an online...
College Newspaper Defends TSA…and Fails Miserably
In some ways, I miss college life. I earned my undergraduate degree at UCLA and relished the three years of intellectual stimulation while studying history and political science. As a political junkie, I was an avid reader of the...
