Transportation Security Administration U S

Southwest Airlines Co., AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and 20 other U.S. carriers will see the fees they pay the government for screening passengers reduced after an appeals court ruled that a regulator overstepped its authority. The court in Washington found Tuesday that although the fees were proper, the Transportation Security Administration erred when it included the cost of screening nonpassengers in implementing the Aviation and Transportation Security Act.

You might not see them. But they're watching you. To identify dangerous people, the Transportation Security Administration stations behavior-detection officers at 161 U.S. airports, including ones in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles. The officers can be anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, looking for passengers who seem highly nervous or stressed. They don't focus on nationality, race, ethnicity or gender, said TSA spokeswoman Sari Koshetz. "We're not looking for a type of person, but at behaviors," she said.

The Transportation Security Administration suspended Verified Identity Pass Inc. from enrolling travelers in its pre-screening program after a laptop containing the records of 33,000 people went missing. The company, based in New York, lost possession of the laptop July 26 at San Francisco International Airport. The laptop contained unencrypted pre-enrollment records of individuals interested in joining the program, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday in a statement.

There's a new option for people annoyed at having to take their laptops out of their bags at airport security. The Transportation Security Administration will now allow travelers to leave their computers inside "checkpoint friendly" cases. The new rules, announced Tuesday and set to take effect Aug. 16, are intended to help streamline the X-ray inspection lines.

HERE'S the hope: You pay nearly $100 and undergo a background check to become a Registered Traveler. Then you zip through airport security. Here's the truth: You may save time, but you'll still have the hassle because many features of this new program don't yet work. And that raises this question: Is Registered Traveler ready for prime time? My experience in San Jose, six days after the program made its West Coast debut on Jan. 23, suggests it's not -- at least not yet.

The Senate voted Tuesday to allow airport baggage and passenger screeners the same rights to negotiate working conditions that other employees of the Department of Homeland Security -- including Border Patrol and Customs agents -- now have. But Democrats did not appear to have the two-thirds majority they would need to override the veto the White House has threatened if the collective bargaining provision remains in the bill.

The Transportation Security Administration has lost a computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 current and former employees. Authorities realized Thursday the hard drive was missing from a controlled area at TSA headquarters. TSA chief Kip Hawley sent a letter to employees Friday apologizing for the lost data and promising to pay for one year of credit monitoring services.

The Transportation Security Administration is denying allegations that an airport screener seized a toddler's sippy cup and mistreated his mother, taking the unusual step of posting security camera footage on its website. The TSA said in a statement that the incident and the video -- at www.tsa.gov/approach/mythbusters/index.shtm -- demonstrate that its "officers display professionalism and concern for all passengers."

Love that ban on liquids on a plane? No? Well, you'll still have to throw out that water bottle before you hit the airline security checkpoint because the ban probably will be in effect at least through the rest of this year. That's the word from Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley. In a recent phone interview, Hawley talked about the changes in airport security, a process that can be, at the least, an annoyance and, at worst, a major aggravation.

The Department of Homeland Security has made some progress in making air travel more secure but has yet to implement recommended improvements in screening passengers and air cargo, a Senate panel was told Tuesday.