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Ron Nixon reports at The New York Times that facing a backlash over long security lines and management problems, TSA administrator Peter V. Neffenger has shaken up his leadership team, replacing the agency's top security official Kelly Hoggan and adding a new group of administrators at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Beginning late that year, Hoggan received $90,000 in bonuses over a 13-month period, even though a leaked report from the Department of Homeland Security showed that auditors were able to get fake weapons and explosives past security screeners 95 percent of the time in 70 covert tests. Hoggan's bonus was paid out in $10,000 increments, an arrangement that members of Congress have said was intended to disguise the payments. During a hearing of the House Oversight Committee two weeks ago, lawmakers grilled Mr. Neffenger about the bonus, which was issued before he joined the agency in July. Last week and over the weekend, hundreds of passengers, including 450 on American Airlines alone, missed flights because of waits of two or three hours in security lines, according to local news reports. Many of the passengers had to spend the night in the terminal sleeping on cots. The TSA has sent 58 additional security officers and four more bomb-sniffing dog teams to O'Hare.
Several current and former TSA employees said the moves to replace Hoggan and add the new officials in Chicago, where passengers have endured hours long waits at security checkpoints, were insufficient. "The timing of this decision is too late to make a real difference for the summer," says Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who testified his supervisor accused him of "going native" after attending a meeting at a local mosque and that TSA's alleged practice of "directed reassignments," or unwanted job transfers were intended to punish employees who speak their minds.. "Neffenger is only doing this because the media and Congress are making him look bad."
(Score: 5, Funny) by Marand on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:54AM
walk to your local supermarket, buy a semi-automatic gun
I have no idea where you live, but your supermarkets sound awesome. The ones here just sell food. :(
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:51AM
The closest thing my supermarket has to lethal weapons are cans of beans and premade burritos.
They are adequate for smaller acts of terror, like emptying a row at the theater or bookstore, or halting coffee sales at Starbucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:54AM
Must be a pretty shitty supermarket if it doesn't sell kitchen knives.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:54AM
To be fair, while kitchen knives are single-target, beans are area-of-effect.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JNCF on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:52AM
I can think of local (midwest US) supercenters (Wal*Mart) that carry semi-automatic guns in their sporting departments. I don't know if supercenters also count as supermarkets, Merriam-Webster has distinct entries. I'm leaning towards "yes, it's a prerequisite."
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @01:23PM
I thought Wal*Mart stopped carrying semi auto rifles after a bunch of bad press several years ago? Then again I usually only go there about once a year and then it is usually because I need something in the middle of the night so it isn't like I go down their sporting goods aisles.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2, Funny) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Wednesday May 25 2016, @02:00PM
You're thinking of Kmart (they stopped selling guns). Walmart still carries semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. That's what I like about Walmart; I can buy everything I need for grilling burgers, refinishing my deck, removing ticks from my dog and ammunition for target-practicing with exploding mannequins afterwards, all in the same go. God bless 'Murica.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:10PM
Shooting is fun. It is also distinctly American; I can't think of another first-world country in the world with a similar gun culture. So no Fourth of July is complete without it, so it makes perfect sense for it to be on sale next to the BBQ supplies.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Wednesday May 25 2016, @04:00PM
Precisely. Joking aside, I wish every country could enjoy a similar, recreational gun culture.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @04:42PM
It's physical, almost. Can you hit your target? Yes, or no. Would you actually shoot at a living thing? Maybe, maybe not. But shooting at a target is free of those concerns. I like to shoot things at maximum range because it's a challenge to marry your breathing with the sights on a weapon. What you put into that shot depends on you. Would you pull the trigger on a target you wanted to hit? Perhaps, and also perhaps not. But it's good to feel like that choice is in your hands, not some other's.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:11PM
> a challenge to marry your breathing with the sights on a weapon
You could do both with a laser pointer. I do that with a bow (quietly and with more muscle control).
People like the gun going BOOM and/or the target being damaged. It's a fascinating feat of telekinesis.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:54PM
I don't know if supercenters also count as supermarkets, Merriam-Webster has distinct entries. I'm leaning towards "yes, it's a prerequisite."
I look at it as a sub- and super-set thing. Supermarkets are grocery stores and supercenters contain supermarkets, but the supermarket being part of the supercenter doesn't make the whole thing a supermarket. The supermarket is inside the supercenter in the same way the McDonalds and the bank inside is (if that Wal-Mart had them), but that doesn't mean your bank sells groceries and big macs.
Wal-Mart sells certain things in all stores. Wal-Mart supercenters sell those things but also contain supermarkets. Maybe that's a useless distinction, but it's how I've always thought of it.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:01PM
I totally get what you're saying. We're talking about arbitrary object heirarchies now, so nobody is really wrong; if I am my foot, I am the sun. That being said, I think that the different sections of a Wal*Mart may be more integrated with each other than they are to Wal*Mart's symbiotes (McDonalds, banks, etc.). The definition I saw for supermarket seemed open-ended enough that I don't feel comfortable saying that supermarkets can't have sporting goods sections. I can think of very small grocery stores that had toy aisles with wiffle ball bats, so sporting goods seems like a matter of scale. There may be other parts of a supercenter that are less integrated, and not part of a large supermarket (Wal*Mart's mechanics might be a good example), but I'm probably grouping sporting goods in with the large supermarket subset.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:05PM
In Michigan they sell fireworks, too. Alas, they're sparklers and glow worms.
They do bring unexpected delights, like the checkers who marveled at the strange item I had in my basket (it was an avocado.).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:53PM
Supermarket could mean a Walmart that includes a supermarket, along with consumer electronics, and lots of firearms.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.