airport screener

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Tourists Accused of Trying to Bribe Their Way Into Hawaii

Louisiana couple didn't have negative COVID tests

(Newser) - If you're interested in visiting the Aloha State, you'll have to be OK with a 10-day quarantine when you first arrive, unless you've got COVID test results in hand confirming you tested negative within the past 72 hours. Two tourists allegedly thought they could get around those...

Sunday Was a Good Day, Not a Great Day, for the TSA

Screenings hit milestone, but they're still way down

(Newser) - The number of passengers screened in a single day for flights in the US topped one million for the first time since COVID-19 infections began to spike last March. The notable milestone, reached Sunday, signifies both the progress made since the darkest days of pandemic for the devastated US airline...

Diana Ross Says She Felt 'Violated' at Airport

She can 'still feel' screener's hands

(Newser) - Diana Ross says she felt "violated" by an airport screener who touched her between her legs after she performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In a series of tweets on Sunday, the Motown legend says she blames the Transportation Security Administration for a screening at the...

TSA Absence Rate Hits Record High
TSA Absence Rate
Hits Record High

TSA Absence Rate Hits Record High

10% of screeners missed work Sunday

(Newser) - The percentage of TSA airport screeners missing work hit a record 10% as the partial government shutdown stretched into its fifth week. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that Sunday's absence rate was up from 3.1% on the comparable Sunday a year ago. The workers who screen passengers...

New TSA Record: 73 Guns in Carry-Ons in One Week

68 of those firearms were loaded

(Newser) - The week of April 15-21 was a record-breaking one for the TSA, though not a record it likely wanted to break. During that one-week span, the federal agency found 73 guns stashed in carry-on bags at airports nationwide, breaking the previous weekly record of 68 set just last October, the...

2 TSA Screeners Fired Over Groping Scheme

CBS Denver: Male employee got help to perform patdowns on attractive men

(Newser) - TSA would have us believe that all its screeners are professionals who would never, ever stoop to gawking at our X-rayed private parts or, maybe worse, copping a feel. CBS Denver , however, reports that two screeners at Denver's airport have been fired after their groping scheme was uncovered. It...

Cops: Drunk Banker Posed as Airport Screener

He singled out female passengers for pat-downs

(Newser) - Federal authorities are investigating how a man who had been boozing at an airport lounge was apparently able to pass himself off as an airport screener and bring women into a private booth for pat-downs. Law enforcement tell the San Francisco Chronicle that the man's outfit of khaki pants,...

TSA Screener: Yes, We Laughed at Your X-Rays
TSA Screener: Yes, We Laughed at Your X-Rays
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

TSA Screener: Yes, We Laughed at Your X-Rays

Former employee writes of the not-so-professional work in airports

(Newser) - A former TSA employee has written a first-person piece for Politico Magazine , that, in the words of Ed Morrissey at Hot Air , "confirms pretty much everything we suspected about the TSA." Some excerpts from the article by Jason Harrington, who had previously posted anonymously at the blog Taking...

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...

Flier: TSA Screener Spilled Grandpa's Ashes

He says agent laughed as he picked up remains

(Newser) - Death offers no escape from shabby treatment by TSA agents, an Indianapolis man warns. John Gross, 30, says he was on his way home from Florida with his grandfather's cremated remains when an agent at Orlando airport searching his carry-on bag twisted open the jar and accidentally spilled at...

TSA's New Plan: 'Walk-Through' Security

Say goodbye to long lines, lengthy process ... in 7-10 years

(Newser) - Imagine a world in which you're allowed onto your airplane without ever having to flash your ID, take off your shoes, take out your laptop, or walk through a metal detector. That's the future the TSA envisions with a new planned security process, though it's admittedly still...

Cops: LAX Screeners Let Drugs Go Through

Four TSA agents arrested, accused of taking bribes

(Newser) - The feds busted four TSA agents for allegedly helping drug traffickers smuggle suitcases packed with cocaine, marijuana, and meth through security at Los Angeles International Airport. The screeners are accused of accepting up to $2,400 in bribes for allowing the drugs to pass through X-ray machines and checkpoints, reports...

Flier Strips to Protest Airport Security

Oregon man told cops he was sick of being harassed by TSA

(Newser) - A Portland man who'd had enough of TSA screening made it absolutely clear he wasn't carrying any contraband—but still missed his flight. John Brennan, 49, was busted after he stripped naked to protest airport security screening, AP reports. "While some passengers covered their eyes and their...

TSA: We Were Right to Take That Cupcake

 TSA: We 
 Were Right 
 to Take That 
 Cupcake 
in case you missed it

TSA: We Were Right to Take That Cupcake

...because it was a cupcake in a jar

(Newser) - Cupcakegate 2011 is proving to have quite the shelf life. The TSA commented on the sugary brouhaha this week, by way of a blog post on the topic. If you'll recall, security agents in Las Vegas confiscated a cupcake that Rebecca Hains was trying to take through security late...

TSA's Best 'Catches' of 2011
 TSA's Best 'Catches' of 2011 

TSA's Best 'Catches' of 2011

Explosives, snakes, and a harmless science project

(Newser) - Americans love griping about the TSA, and with good reason. The TSA, for instance, pocketed an estimated $376,480 of your loose change in 2010, notes the Huffington Post . But before your blood pressure shoots too high, consider this: TSA officers stopped some crazy and dangerous things from boarding flights...

Two New Elderly Women Accuse TSA of Strip Search

Both allege that medical equipment led to improper search

(Newser) - Lenore Zimmerman isn't the only octogenarian who says she was strip-searched by the TSA during Thanksgiving week at New York's JFK airport. Zimmerman, 84, came forward first, but now the Baltimore Sun reports that Ruth Sherman, 88, and Linda Kallish, 66, both of whom were also en route...

TSA Procedures That Won't Infuriate You: Coming Soon

Agency chief hints that focus will shift

(Newser) - Could the TSA finally be responding to public outcry over its often-controversial procedures ? In his most recent appearance before Congress, TSA chief John Pistole moved away from his typically adamant defense of the agency’s screening process. "I have listened to ideas from people all over this country,...

TSA to Fire Screener Who Left 'Get Your Freak On' Note

A woman found it in her suitcase, near her sex toy

(Newser) - The TSA screener who found a sex toy in a woman's suitcase and left a note saying, "Get your freak on girl" will soon be out of a job. The agency called the note "highly inappropriate" and said it plans to fire the Newark screener, reports AP...

TSA's New Strategy: Chats With Passengers

Agency plans to borrow security ideas from Israel

(Newser) - Get ready to reveal more than just your underwear at airport security checkpoints: TSA officers plan to start chatting up more passengers as part of the screening process. The agency already has "behavior detection officers" at work in airports across the US, but the new strategy calls for more...

Homeland Security Blowing $300M on Sketchy Scanners

Department skipped a mandatory test on ASP device, GAO complains

(Newser) - Homeland Security plans to buy 400 new radiation detection machines, even though it’s skipped its own internal requirements to test them first, the Government Accountability Office complained in a report today. These Advanced Spectroscopic Portal machines have a checkered past, the Washington Post reports: In January, the National Academy...

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