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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: 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.