Tuesday 01-10-12

The cupcakes are now banning cupcakes?

TSA defends banning cupcake from airplane

"I wanted to make it clear that this wasn't your everyday, run-of-the-mill cupcake." blogs TSA Blogger Bob Burns today, defending the TSA's "Cupcate-Gate," incident against critics.

According to the story that went viral during the Christmas holiday, a TSA agent confiscated the cupcake from Rebecca Hains, a teacher who planned to feed it to her son on the plane.

“The TSA at Logan Airport said the cupcakes looked delicious and told us to have a great trip. But in Las Vegas, they were dangerous. They shouldn't be delicious in one part of the country and a security threat in the other.” Hains said at the time

Burns defended the decision, clarifying that this cupcake was in a jar, prompting a different reaction from the TSA agent.

"Unlike a thin layer of icing that resides on the top of most cupcakes, this cupcake had a thick layer of icing inside a jar." he wrote, "The officer in this case used their discretion on whether or not to allow the newfangled modern take on a cupcake per 3-1-1 guidelines. They chose not to let it go."

And in case you are outraged by these incidents, Burns reminds people to be sensitive of TSA agents.

"Every officer wants to finish their shift and go home with the peace of mind that they kept potential threats off of airplanes." he wrote. "They’re not thinking about whether their decisions will go viral on the internet."

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/tsa-defends-banning-cupcake-airplane/302656

I'm not going to condone carrying a handgun on an airplane. But the real story could be American have been doing it all along and are just getting caught more now. So that means Americans can fly safely in the airplane while carrying and they should be watching out for the hijackers (Muslims) and not bothering Americans.

More people being caught with guns at airports

More people are being caught at the nation's airports with guns in their carry-on bags, despite heightened awareness about security.

The Transportation Security Administration says it found 1,238 firearms — an average of almost four a day — at its airport checkpoints last year. The number has been on the rise since 2007.

"Clearly just the fact that we are getting four to five guns every day indicates that there are people who are not focused on the security protocols," TSA Administrator John Pistole told Congress in November, a month when officers found nine guns in a single day.

The TSA says guns usually are found in carry-on bags that are X-rayed at security checkpoints.

Pistole says full-body scanning machines also detect contraband hidden beneath passengers' clothing, including a .38-caliber handgun in one man's ankle holster in Detroit.

"More than 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks people are still trying to bring deadly weapons into the cabin of an airplane," he says.

Passengers are required to declare their guns and then store them unloaded in hard containers in their checked bags.

The common reply from passengers when caught with a gun is that they forgot they were carrying one, the TSA says. That's what the 73-year-old man with the ankle holster said Dec. 10, Detroit Metropolitan Airport spokesman Michael Conway says.

Same goes for a Georgia man, who was charged Dec. 11 with carrying a weapon at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after TSA officers found a loaded revolver in his messenger bag. The .22-caliber gun went off as police officers tried to unload it.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2012-01-08/More-people-being-caught-with-guns-at-airports/52457066/1

DNA Spray to foil thieves - McDonalds to use new anti-theft spray

McDONALD'S restaurants are fighting back against thieves by blasting suspected robbers with an invisible DNA spray as they attempt to flee.
The spray, which remains on the suspect's skin for two weeks and on clothes for up to six months, has been introduced in some of the chain's busiest NSW stores, including those at Parramatta, Granville, Auburn, Lidcombe, Kingsford and Wollongong, reported The Daily Telegraph.

If the SelectaDNA "forensic marking" spray proves successful in apprehending bandits, McDonald's will introduce the system across all its 780 Australian outlets.

Developed in the United Kingdom by a police officer and a chemist, the spray has been used by McDonald's outlets in Britain and Europe.

Each outlet keeps the details of its distribution a close secret, but one McDonald's restaurant in The Netherlands installed above the main door an orange device which was electronically linked to a panic alarm system. Staff could activate the device in an emergency.

"Once there has been a security breach, the hi-tech spray unit will douse fleeing robbers with an invisible, synthetic DNA solution," McDonald's Australia's chief restaurant support officer, Jackie McArthur, said.

"The solution is invisible to the naked eye and unique to each location. It stays on clothing for up to six months and on skin for up to two weeks."

Using a UVA light, police can see the markings left by the system and link the offender back to the scene.

The spray contains a synthetic DNA strand composed of 60 variable chromosomes, said SelectaDNA director David Morrissey.

"SelectaDNA is non-toxic, non-allergenic and perfectly safe to deploy. It meets all Australian standards," he said.

Theft is a serious problem for fast-food outlets such as McDonald's, which has high cash turnover, multiple entry and exit points and more than 85,000 staff who often work through the night at truck-stops and other remote places.

In a single week in September, two hold-ups occurred at a McDonald's outlet at Merrylands in Sydney's west.

"Crime can occur anywhere at any time, which is why our extensive safety and security protocols are in place at every restaurant throughout the entire day," Ms MAcArthur said.

"These locations are some of our busiest, so it makes sense to try out the new technology here.

"McDonald's already has a range of security measures, including CCTV, strict security protocols, intensive training, and consultative working relationships with local police."

This is the first time the system will be used in Australia, and although its marketers claim an "85 per cent crime reduction" rate, the proof of its worth is not yet clear.

SelectaDNA trades on a "DNA fear factor," claiming the system is more about prevention than arrests.

Scores of law-enforcement agencies in the UK, including Surrey Police, have handed out the spray kits so residents can mark their property, and it has been widely used by schools and businesses.

http://www.news.com.au/business/dna-mcspray-to-foil-thieves/story-e6frfm1i-1226239112219

Talk about biting the hand that feeds her. She would not have had the opportunity they have now if it were not not for them. I guess she forgets that it was Ted Kennedy that gave him the democratic nomination. I guess she forgot that Ted was as "white Irish Catholic" as they come. I guess the books are coming out now, because they are afraid he may not get a second term, interesting.

Michelle Obama: "Distressed" about Daley, Madigan, Hynes clout

WASHINGTON-- When Michelle Obama worked in Mayor Daley's City Hall in the early 1990s, she was "distressed" by how a small group of "white Irish Catholic" families -- the Daleys, the Hynes and the Madigans -- "locked up" power in Illinois.

And as she prepared to become first lady, Mrs. Obama naively wanted to delay a move into the White House for six months, so her daughters could finish the school year. Her initial thought was to "commute" to the White House from her South Side home.

And Marty Nesbitt, one of President Obama's best friends, had been recruited to run for Chicago mayor by African-American leaders -- but never ended up challenging Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama's chief of staff who went on to win City Hall.

Details about Mrs. Obama's initial reluctance to embrace her new life, her time in City Hall, the influence she has in the White House, tensions between Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, Emanuel and former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs -- are in a new book about the first couple by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor.

The Chicago Sun-Times has obtained a copy of The Obamas, to be published Tuesday. Kantor hits Chicago for an East Lake Shore Drive book party on Jan. 16; the next day, Jan. 17, she headlines a 6 p.m. event at the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State.

Mrs. Obama worked in the Daley administration between Sept. 16, 1991, and April 30, 1993, according to City of Chicago personnel records. She was hired by Jarrett, then Daley's deputy chief of staff.

Kantor writes Mrs. Obama "disapproved of how closely Daley held power, surrounding himself with three or four people who seemed to let few outsiders in -- a concern she would echo years later with her own husband.

"...She particularly resented the way power in Illinois was locked up generation after generation by a small group of families, all white Irish Catholic -- the Daleys in Chicago, the Hynes and Madigan's statewide."

When Jarrett was forced out of City Hall in 1995 -- even though she was close to Daley -- "the Obamas were horrified, their worst suspicions about the world confirmed."

Jarrett, Gibbs, Obama's top strategist David Axelrod, Mrs. Obama's former chief of staff Susan Sher and Chicago pals Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt "gave me many hours of interview time each," Kantor wrote in her acknowledgements. In all, Kantor got the cooperation of 33 current and former members of the Obama administration and close friends.

Still, with reports about issues in the administration -- and an Emanuel who did not welcome Mrs. Obama's influence -- the Obama White House gave the book a frosty reception.

"The book, an overdramatization of old news, is about a relationship between two people whom the author has not spoken to in years," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. "The author last interviewed the Obamas in 2009 for a magazine piece, and did not interview them for this book. The emotions, thoughts and private moments described in the book, though often seemingly ascribed to the president and first lady, reflect little more than the author's own thoughts. These secondhand accounts are staples of every administration in modern political history and often exaggerated."

Camille Johnston, Mrs. Obama's former communications chief, told the Sun-Times, "We had some disagreements over how certain things would be handled, but in the end we all got back to the place Mrs. Obama had set at the onset: nothing on my agenda is more important than what's on his."

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2012/01/michelle_obama_distressed_abou.html