Homeland Security, Tsa | featured news

Flight attendants, pilots, federal air marshals and even insurance companies are part of a growing backlash to the Transportation Security Administration's new policy allowing passengers to carry small knives and sports equipment like souvenir baseball bats and golf clubs onto planes.

A 43-year-old Department of Homeland Security worker allegedly used Facebook to solicit more than 70 area children for sexual acts, according to authorities. Robert B. Rennie Jr., a Loudoun County resident, was charged Oct. 24 with five counts of using a computer to solicit a child under the age of 15, after a school resource officer was tipped off to suspicious activity on a Mercer Middle School student's Facebook page.

CNN asks the Transportation Security Administration chief about aviation security threats, new airport screening procedures and what he's thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Dozens of employees at Honolulu's airport were fired or suspended after an investigation found workers did not screen checked bags for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday.

A U.S. appeals court Friday upheld the use of full-body scanners to screen air travelers, but said the Transportation Security Administration should have sought public comment before deploying them.

The U.S. government has warned domestic and international airlines that some terrorists are considering surgically implanting explosives into humans to carry out attacks, The Associated Press has learned. There is no intelligence pointing to a specific plot, but the U.S. shared its concerns last week with executives at domestic and international carriers. People traveling to the U.S. from overseas may experience additional screening at airports because of the threat, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

According to the Northwest Florida Daily News, a woman filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security alleging that her 95-year-old mother was asked by Transportation Security Administration officials to remove her adult diaper in order to comply with a pat-down search.

Every spring, private security officers at San Francisco International Airport compete in a workplace "March Madness"-style tournament for cash prizes, some as high as $1,500. The games: finding illegal items and explosives in carry-on bags; successfully picking locks on difficult-to-open luggage; and spotting a would-be terrorist (in this case Covenant Aviation Security's president, Gerald L. Berry) on security videos.

The head of the Transportation Security Administration is acknowledging that the new pat-downs are more invasive than what travelers were used to in the past.

President Barack Obama plans to appoint a former senior Army official with a career in intelligence to lead the Transportation Security Administration.