The Transportation Security Administration is plagued by significant problems, a congressional report said Wednesday on the 10th anniversary of Congress creating the agency.
According to the report "A Decade Later: A Call for TSA Reform," the problems include:
A bloated bureaucracy with 65,000 workers.
An ineffective agency with 25,000 security breaches in the last decade.
A buyer of inadequate technology, including 500 advanced-imaging technology machines that are "easily thwarted."
"Unfortunately, TSA has lost its way," Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said during a Wednesday news conference at Reagan National Airport near Washington.
"It is time for reform," he added.
While Mica has become a vocal critic of the agency, others have been more supportive.
A U.S. Travel Association survey released Wednesday found that two-thirds of the 604 respondents were "somewhat" or "very" satisfied with TSA's overall performance for security, while only one in eight were dissatisfied. But nearly nine out of 10 thought it still takes too long to get through security.
In a hearing last week, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate transportation committee, called it "remarkable" that there hasn't been a successful attack on the country's transportation network in the last decade. Rockefeller commended TSA Administrator John Pistole, a former FBI official, as "the ideal person" for the job.
But Mica's report recommended:
Elevating the TSA administrator's authority.http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/11/tsa-mica/566727/1
Revising the luggage screening program with private competition.
Reducing the number of TSA staffers.
"The agency as a whole has been a colossal disappointment," said Rep. Paul Brown, R-Ga., who is chairman of a subcommittee on oversight.
EU bans 'naked' airport security scanners after cancer fears
X-ray body scanners at airports have been banned by Brussels amid fears they could cause cancer.
The devices, widely criticised because they make passengers who go through them appear naked, emit low doses of radiation.
The EU has now told member states not to install them until a scientific assessment of the risks has been carried out.
Manchester airport, which has 16 of the £80,000 machines and bars anyone refusing a scan from boarding a flight, has been told it can continue using them for another year.
However, no new machines will be allowed to ‘protect citizens’ health and safety’.
The body scanners were introduced in a security crackdown after incidents such as the attempted ‘underwear bomb’ plot in 2009.
They were used at Heathrow but scrapped amid complaints about invasion of privacy. They have also been tested in Germany, France, Italy, Finland and Holland but will be completely banned in April if experts rule they are dangerous.
Research suggests up to 100 US airline passengers a year could get cancer from the scanners.
Britain, which argues the scans are a ‘proportionate response to a very real terrorist threat’, could be hit with a fine from the European courts if it ignores the ban.
The Health Protection Agency said: ‘The radiation dose from an examination of two or three scans is less than that received from two minutes flying at cruising altitude.’
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/881978-eu-bans-naked-airport-security-scanners-after-cancer-fears#ixzz1dymDSCDp
Glad i don't live in Canada, but it will come here soon, nobody had thought about it here yet.
Toronto school bans 'hard balls'
Citing safety concerns, an east-end Toronto school is banning students from playing with soccer balls, footballs, volleyballs or tennis balls in the schoolyard.
A letter issued on Monday, stated that students at Earl Beatty Jr. and Sr. Public School are not allowed to bring or play with any kind of hard ball.
"Any balls brought will be confiscated and may be retrieved by parents from the office," the statement said. "The only kind of ball allowed will be nerf balls or sponge balls."
The decision was made after a parent complained to school about being hit in the head by a soccer ball.
Principal Alicia Fernandez told CTV Toronto that some of the younger children are afraid to play in the schoolyard because it area too small and they were often being hit by the hard balls.
"It is a school issue of safety. I am the principal, I care for the kids' safety and I have that decision making right," Fernandez said on Wednesday.
The letter had also mentioned that the school had some serious incidents where students, staff or parents were hit, or nearly hit, by a hard ball on school property.
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111115/school-bans-hard-balls-111115/20111116/?hub=OttawaHome
Obama Pushing Shooters Off Public Lands
Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.
Officials say the administration is concerned about the potential clash between gun owners and encroaching urban populations who like to use same land for hiking and dog walking.
"It's not so much a safety issue. It's a social conflict issue," said Frank Jenks, a natural resource specialist with Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres. He adds that urbanites "freak out" when they hear shooting on public lands. [Read about the subpoena issued as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.]
If the draft policy is finally approved, some public access to Bureau lands to hunters would also be limited, potentially reducing areas deer, elk, and bear hunters can use in the West.
Conservationists and hunting groups, however, are mounting a fight. One elite group of conservationists that advises Interior and Agriculture is already pushing BLM to junk the regulations, claiming that shooters are being held to a much higher safety standard than other users of public lands, such as ATV riders.
"They are just trying to make it so difficult for recreational shooters," said Gary Kania, vice president of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation. His group is one of several, including the National Wildlife Foundation, Cabela's and Ducks Unlimited, on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council fighting the new rules. During a two-day meeting ending this afternoon, they are drafting their own changes to the BLM rules.
"What we probably are going to be looking forward to is a reversal," said Kania. Asked about how to handle people who freak out when they hear shots on public lands, Kania said, "I don't know how to quanitify 'freaking out,'" and noted that he's seen people panicing when fly fishing in float tubes but nobody wants to ban then from rivers.
BLM actually invited the fight, seeking the council's comments. But officials suggested to Whispers that no changes are being planned to the draft regulations.
Over five pages, the draft BLM regulations raise concerns about how shooting can cause a "public disturbance." They also raise worries about how shooting and shooters can hurt plants and litter public lands.
This is the key paragraph foes say could lead to shooters being kicked off public lands:
"When the authorized officer determines that a site or area on BLM-managed lands used on a regular basis for recreational shooting is creating public disturbance, or is creating risk to other persons on public lands; is contributing to the defacement, removal or destruction of natural features, native plants, cultural resources, historic structures or government and/or private property; is facilitating or creating a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property is violating existing use restrictions, closure and restriction orders, or supplementary rules notices, and reasonable attempts to reduce or eliminate the violations by the BLM have been unsuccessful, the authorized officer will close the affected area to recreational shooting." [Check out new Debate Club about whether Congress needs to overhaul gun trafficking laws.]
Squeezing out shooters, says the draft policy, is needed because, "As the West has become more populated, recreational shooters now often find themselves in conflict with other public lands users, and the BLM is frequently called on to mediate these conflicts."
At yesterday's meeting at Interior, the council balked at the BLM draft regulations, adding that the Obama administration was not being fair to shooters on the issue of safety.
In a draft retort to BLM, the council said other users of public land aren't required to be as safe as shooters. They note that shooters have a much lower injury rate than others, like ATV users. "The policy fails to recognize that recreational shooting has one of the lowest incidences of death and injury compared to virtually any other outdoor recreational activity. The policy is prejudicial and discriminatory to target shooters as compared to other recreationists," said the council's draft response, expected to be finalized today.
What's more, the group charged that the BLM is acting in a contradictory fashion, encouraging the shooting sports while limiting shooting areas.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/11/16/obama-pushing-shooters-off-public-lands
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