Ventura is asking a federal judge in Minnesota to issue an injunction ordering officials to stop subjecting him to “warrantless and suspicionless” scans and body searches.

The lawsuit, which also names Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole as defendants, argues the searches are “unwarranted and unreasonable intrusions on Governor Ventura’s personal privacy and dignity and are a justifiable cause for him to be concerned for his personal health and well-being.”

The lawsuit said the pat-down “exposed him to humiliation and degradation through unwanted touching, gripping and rubbing of the intimate areas of his body.” ” (via msnbc.msn.com ) by AMY FORLITI

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“Jet-setter Khloe Kardashian was slammed Tuesday for comparing the security measures at US airports to rape during an interview with George Lopez.

“Well, they basically just are raping you in public,” Kardashian, 26, told the comedian Monday on “Lopez Tonight.”

“I got asked the other day, ‘do you want to go for a screening or get patted down?’ — I don’t want that X-Ray to see everything, honey,” she said.

Kardashian’s comments angered victim’s rights advocates who claim the TV star underestimated the severity of sexual assault.

“Rape is a crime of violence,” high-profile attorney Gloria Allred told Radar Online. “I believe that the word should not be used loosely to describe security measures at airports or at any other place.”

Her use of the word rape “minimizes the experience of an actual rape, which is a very severe and traumatic form of violence,” said Jessica M. Cavey, Communications Specialist for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. ” .via NYPost.com)

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Click here to view the embedded video.

“Tammy Banovac, clad in undergarments and sitting in a wheelchair, failed to pass the Transportation Security Administration screening process Tuesday when security officers detected traces of nitrates on her wheelchair.

Airport spokeswoman Karen Carney said the issue was resolved this morning and Banovac, 52, caught her flight out of the city at 7 a.m. after going through screening without incident.

Banovac did show up at the airport this morning in her wheelchair wearing her bra and panties again, Carney said. But Banovac had a change of clothes that she put on after being screened, Carney said.

She boarded her flight to Phoenix without incident. Carney said Banovac also had a dog with her, who left on the same flight.

Tuesday night Banovac said she chose to wear her underwear because of an unpleasant experience two weeks ago at airport security.” (via  newsok.com) by ROBERT MEDLEY and MICHAEL KIMBAL

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Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie had to experience the new stricter TSA security rules yesterday at Los Angeles International Airport as she headed to board a flight to New York.

The 35-year-old star had to de-layer and go through the new full body scanners just like everybody else.

The singer was spotted putting her bags through the hand-luggage scanner before taking off her many layers of scarves and other accessories so she could step into the scanner.

The star was subjected to the same security checks as everybody else

If the passenger chooses to skip the scanner, which you are entitled to do, they are subject to an invasive full body pat down.” (via dailymail.co.uk ) by DAILY MAIL REPORTER

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Now, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday — traditionally the busiest time of the year — the Transportation Security Administration has imposed tough new security measures.

And that may have been the last straw for many travelers.

Judy Dugan, the research director at Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, argues that the anger that has welled up against the new security procedures is an expression of fliers’ overall attitude toward air travel.

“Passengers are angry and frustrated about most of the flying experience — the whole ‘shut up and sit down’ experience of flying,” Ms. Dugan said. “But unless they’re professional travelers, they can’t pin the frustration on individual airlines. It’s easy, though, to focus on the T.S.A., which is a big and omnipresent part of every flight for everyone.”

And don’t expect any change for the better anytime soon. While many travelers may complain about their travel experience, the industry for the first time in years has found a way back to profitability by holding the line on the number of flights they offer.

United States airlines scheduled 526,000 flights in September, according to the Air Consumer Travel Report, down from more than 600,000 in September 2007. And each flight is now fuller. Load factors, which measure how many seats are filled by paying customers, have risen above 80 percent on average at most airlines and will probably be 90 percent or more over the holidays. Only a few years ago, airlines were achieving load factors of 70 percent.

Just between Chicago O’Hare International Airport and La Guardia Airport in New York, American Airlines and United Airlines scheduled 1,400 fewer flights in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period three years ago, a drop of 17 percent.

Fees are also piling up. Bag fees, for instance, brought in $1.7 billion in extra revenue in the first half of the year. In many cases, passengers are paying for services that were once free. Changing a ticket on US Airways, for instance, now costs $150 to $250; sending an unaccompanied minor on a Delta Air Lines flight, $100. Pet charge on Southwest, $75; an alcoholic drink on United, as much as $9.

Southwest, the largest domestic carrier, said it would strive to accommodate every passenger, especially Wednesday and Sunday, traditionally among the busiest days, adding extra flights if needed.

“We do everything we can do to make sure you can get to your destination,” said Greg Wells, the vice president for operations at Southwest Airlines.

Continental and United, which recently merged, have several measures in place to handle the influx of holiday travelers, according to Christen David, a spokeswoman for both airlines. The carriers have brought in additional customer service agents, gate agents and bag handlers. They are also asking managers and clerical personnel to work on the front lines on the day before Thanksgiving.

“It’s all hands on deck,” she said.

Upset with the security measures, Rachelle Desrochers, a health insurance analyst who works in Providence, R.I., said she rarely flew these days, preferring to drive or take the train instead. “I may never get to the West Coast again,” she said, half-jokingly.

Other travelers appeared more stoic about the current state of the airline business.

“We want cheap airline tickets but we don’t want to accept the fact that airlines are turning into Greyhound buses,” said Christopher F. Childres, a managing partner at Edgewater Capital Partners, aprivate equity firm. “But if we pay Greyhound bus prices, we should expect Greyhound bus service.”

He said that his worst experiences were generally not with the airlines but with other passengers, “whether it is a person walking through security with all the jewelry they own, or the person that doesn’t buy two seats but lifts the armrest and takes up half your seat.”

But, he added, “If you’re paying $200 to fly 800 miles in two hours, there has to be an economic reason it’s that cheap. You can’t have a customer experience for $200.” ” (via  nytimes.com) by JAD MOUAWAD

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This time the defendant, Sam Wolanyk says he was asked to pass through the 3-D x-ray machine. When Wolanyk refused, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel told him he would have to be patted down before he could pass through and board his airplane.

Wolanyk said he knew what was coming and took off his pants and shirt, leaving him in Calvin Klein bike undergarments.“It was obvious that my underwear left nothing to the imagination,” he explained. “But that wasn’t enough for the TSA supervisor who was called to the scene and asked me to put my clothes on so I could be properly patted down.”

It was clear to Wolanyk that TSA only wanted him to submit to a pat-down and if they were interested in ensuring the safety of all passengers they would have rifled through his clothes, carryon baggage and acknowledged that he was not carrying any illegal paraphernalia on his person.

Once Harbor Police arrested Wolanyk, he was handcuffed and paraded through two separate airport terminals in his underwear to the Harbor Police office located inside a different terminal at the airport than Wolanyk had originally gone through during his TSA security process. ” (via  examiner.com) by  Kimberly Dvorak

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Airports will have executives working as greeters, gifts in Los Angeles for restless kids in long lines, and people with big yellow clipboards in Boston acting as roving information booths.

While bad weather is usually the biggest threat to holiday travel, there’s a bigger concern this year: new Transportation Security Administration procedures, including full-body scans and aggressive pat-downs that have screeners feeling inside waistbands and touching all the way up legs and on breasts.

The fear is that Thanksgiving travelers—many of them students, families and older people who fly once or twice a year—will be unfamiliar with TSA procedures and slow to get through checkpoints. Full-body scanners require removal of wallets, belts, jewelry and everything inside pockets.

“With people getting partially molested at checkpoints, all that is going to be a real shock for them,” said Greg Wells, senior vice president of operations at Southwest Airlines. “TSA will create an issue for us. It’s going to slow things down.”

Southwest will have employees with walkie-talkies at checkpoints to hold airplane departures if passengers are stuck in long lines. ” (via  online.wsj.com) by Scott McCartney

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He said, "Once you cross that line, I can do whatever I want."

I said that wasn't true. I say that I have the option of saying no and not flying. He said, "Are you going to let me search you, or do I just throw you out?"

I said, "Finish up, and then call the police please."

When he was finished with my shoes, he said, "Okay, you can go."

I said, "I'd like to see your supervisor and I'd like LVPD to come here as well. I was assaulted by you."

I still don't know what I'm going to do, but my advice to everyone is complain all you can and call the cops. I think it might make a little difference. Maybe you can become a VIP too.” (via  drudgereport.com) by PENN JILLETTE

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In recent weeks, representatives from the International Air Transport Association, the U.S. Travel Association, the Allied Pilots Association and British Airways have criticized the T.S.A., saying it adds intrusive and time-consuming layers of scrutiny at airport checkpoints, without effectively addressing legitimate security concerns.

The U.S. Travel Association, in fact, is worried that the more onerous screening process will discourage air travel.

“The system is broken, it’s extremely flawed and it’s absurd that we all sit back and say we can’t do anything about it,” said Geoff Freeman, executive vice president of the association. The group has convened a panel of transportation leaders to recommend a better way to balance security with a more efficient and honed screening process.

Travel industry representatives say they are primarily concerned that security procedures unnecessarily burden the vast majority of travelers and crew members. The government, they argue, should instead be using intelligence to develop a risk-based approach to screening passengers.

Specifically, they point to the new body scanners that are replacing metal detectors — which have raised privacy and health concerns, as well as prompted legal challenges — and the more invasive pat-downs, which have set off complaints about disrespectful treatment by agents.

“I think people want to say enough is enough, but they’re worried that they’re going to be perceived as weak on security,” Mr. Freeman said.

T.S.A. officials declined to discuss their checkpoint screening procedures, but sent an e-mail statement: “T.S.A. is a counterterrorism agency whose mission is to ensure the safety of the traveling public. To that end, T.S.A. deploys the latest technologies and implements comprehensive procedures that protect passengers while facilitating travel.”

But the growing chorus of complaints from travel industry leaders suggests that frustrations with policies on shoes, laptops, liquids and pat-downs may have reached a limit.

Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the International Air Transport Association, said in a speech at an aviation security conference in Frankfurt last week that the airlines would like to see an overhaul of the checkpoint screening process — with a greater focus on finding bad people, rather than bad objects.

“Discouraging travelers with queues into the parking lot is not a solution,” Mr. Bisignani said in his speech. “And it is not acceptable to treat passengers as terrorists until they prove themselves innocent.” ” (via  nytimes.com) by SUSAN STELLIN

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