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More About: airport security • Transportation Security Administration • TSA agent • Gerardo Hernandez • LAX shooting • Paul Ciancia • Department of Homeland Security • Los Angeles International Airport • LAX • knife • strange stuff • air travel • music festival • rodeo • gunman • coins • gift • airport screener • highways • suspect • disorderly conduct • light saber • Star Wars • Government Accountability Office • GAO

TSA Took $531K From Our Pockets Last Year

...because we forgot to put our change back in our pockets

(Newser) - The change in your pockets is lining the TSA's, well, pockets. The Washington Post shares the results of the TSA's 2012 fiscal report, which shows that it made off with a record $531,395.22 in change that travelers forgot to collect from security bins. (From 2008 through... More »

Man Builds Deadly Arsenal Using Airport Store Items

Including a gun, grenade, crossbow—and they all work

(Newser) - You may already find it ridiculous that you can't bring the tiniest pair of scissors through an airport security checkpoint, but you'll find it even more absurd after reading this: A North Carolina programmer is proving that even with all those security restrictions, it's still possible to... More »

Coroner: TSA Officer Died in Minutes

2 to 5 minutes after he was shot multiple times, coroner's report reads

(Newser) - Contradicting reports that TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez lay bleeding for a half-hour and may have been saved , the Los Angeles County coroner's office has said Hernandez died two to five minutes after he was shot multiple times inside LAX, the LA Times reports. "Some of the reporting on... More »

TSA Officer Bled for 28 Mins After LAX Shooter Seized

Investigation under way into police, fire response in LAX shooting

(Newser) - Unnamed officials say TSA officer Gerardo Hernandez lay bleeding for 33 minutes at LAX before being taken to an ambulance. For 28 of those minutes, alleged shooter Paul Ciancia was in police custody, though officers hadn't yet declared the area safe to enter. Officers checked on Hernandez, who was... More »

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... More »

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... More »

Air Marshal Took Upskirt Pics of Fliers: Cops

He's charged with disorderly conduct

(Newser) - A federal air marshal was removed from a plane after police say he was caught taking upskirt photos of at least one passenger. The discovery and arrest yesterday happened on a flight from Nashville to Tampa and delayed the flight about an hour. The man who first reported the problem... More »

TSA Screener Quits, Makes Terror Threat: Feds

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

TSA Backs Down: No Small Knives on Planes

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

(AP) - 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,... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »