Top Cop Says Terrorism Top Priority [more...]

TSA Ready to Test Registered Traveler System [more...]

The High Life [more...]

At the End of the Day Most of Us are Fed up with Clichés [more...]

American Crime Stoppers [more...]

More Tech Jobs Flee [more...]

Music Wars [more...]

FBI Director Robert Mueller says counterterrorism is now FBI's top priority. Earlier this month Mueller told U.S. News & World Report that the bureau is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security and has assigned agents to the new TTIC (CIA-FBI Terrorist Threat Integration Center). "It's been a dramatic change and a huge increase in the integration and exchange of the information," says Mueller. The FBI is also adding 900 new analysts to beef up its capacity in counterterrorism, as well as sharing more information with local law enforcement. According to Mueller, agents are currently working cases involving al Qaeda suspects living in the U.S. He is convinced the FBI will eventually separate the true al Qaeda operatives from those who are innocent but adds, "Our greatest concern is that which we do not know."

The Transportation Security Administration plans to test its new registered traveler system in June. Travelers who pay a fee and allow the TSA to perform a background investigation on them will receive special treatment and minimal screening at airports and elsewhere. Admiral David M. Stone, acting administrator, recently told congress that the TSA will conduct a 90-day pilot of the system and that it supplements-not replaces-the computerized prescreening system his administration is currently developing. The Business Travel Coalition and some civil libertarians, who fear that passenger privacy will be jeopardized and "false positives" may be too costly, oppose the controversial CAPPS II system. As now designed, the CAPPS II system will collect personal information on travelers and assign them a risk score. Proponents of the system say it will save time and resources by allowing screeners to focus on those who deserve the most scrutiny. But incomplete or inaccurate information could corrupt the database and innocent passengers could face unnecessary delays and even detention. Airlines also worry that handing over passenger information to the TSA could anger customers and trigger boycotts. Over the outcry, Stone says the new program is a "high priority for us."

The new registered traveler program will work something like this:

• Travelers will provide full name, address, phone number and date of birth when making reservations.
• Commercial data aggregators will check the information and score them based on their confidence that the party is who they say they are.
• Using its database of criminal records, intelligence reports, and other data points the TSA will again screen the individual.
• Accordingly, screening levels will be assigned and encoded into the passenger's boarding pass.
• After check-in, the passenger will be subjected to the appropriate treatment based on the assigned screening level.

Commercial travel becoming a bit much for you? Try booking your own plane. Marquis Jet Partners sells eager travelers 25 annual hours of private flight in one of several of its $27 million aircraft for just $169,900 a year! One six-hour round trip with a personal flight attendant costs about $40,776. But Jet Partner members say it is worth it. Fractional sharing of expensive business jets eliminates big cash outlays and expensive maintenance. NetJets, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, pioneered the idea and today flies a fleet of sleek jets large enough to rival the air force of a small country. Members say the service is exceptional and the convenience is priceless. One would think so. For the additional $150,000 maintenance fee some services charge, members have yet to complain about empty peanut bags in seat pockets.

Travel Tip: Travelers are frequent targets of thieves and muggers. Don't answer your hotel room door without first verifying the identity of the person at the door. If the person is unexpected and claims to be a hotel employee, call the front desk and confirm the person's identity and purpose. When leaving your room, peek outside first. If circumstances appear suspicious, quickly re-enter your room, lock the door and call the front desk.

Plain English supporters around the world have voted "at the end of the day" as the most irritating phrase in the English language. Plain English is an independent group of free thinkers with the goal of getting more public information to be communicated in plain English. The group boasts having more than 4,500 registered supporters in 70 countries and says it intends to get others to use "Plain English so the intended audience can understand and act upon" the information provided the first time it is offered. Second place in the vote was shared by "At this moment in time" and the constant use of "like" as if it were a form of punctuation. "With all due respect" came fourth. Other annoying and often meaningless verbiage:

Fact: "Illegal income, such as stolen or embezzled funds, must be included in your gross income on line 21 of Form 1040, or on Schedule C-EZ if from your self employment activity." From IRS Publication 525, page 13, category Miscellaneous Taxable Income, subcategory Illegal Income.

A Wisconsin man put three handguns and some bullets in his oven for safekeeping before leaving on vacation. When he returned, his wife turned the oven on to prepare for dinner and the bullets cooked off. The couple took cover behind a refrigerator until their oven "stopped shooting at them."

A bet between two Georgia patrol officers cost them their jobs. The two had made a bet to see who could issue the most tickets. The contest ended when a judge overheard the apparent winner bragging. Both officers were quietly asked to resign.

A would-be burglar got stuck in a stove chimney while trying to bypass a Cleveland grocery store's alarm system. The police, who found the intruder hanging from the ceiling and shouting for help, said he had been stuck for four or five hours. The suspect later said he had gotten the idea from a news story he had seen on TV. He sheepishly added that burglar also had gotten stuck in a chimney.

A Los Angeles gunman successfully took the gun of a police officer attempting to arrest him. Mercilessly he told the frightened office to kneel and that he was going to be killed with his own gun. The gunman pointed, but the service weapon misfired. The stunned would-be-murdered turned the weapon and peered into the barrel as he again pulled the trigger. The officer later refused to comment.

Source: Access Control & Security Systems 2004, and others.

Quote of the Month: "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." Anonymous.

Nearly 750,000 precious high-paying jobs in the high-tech industry have fled the U.S. in the past two years, says the American Electronics Association (AEA). The AEA says the lost jobs paid salaries average $66,300. India and China have made no secret that they have been the largest beneficiaries. Even Russia has become a low-cost supplier of software developers and engineers. The AEA says 1 in 10 U.S. high-tech jobs will be exported in 2004. However, the tech industry defends the move and some CEOs say lower overseas labor costs translate into more resources for R&D and growth at home. According to one CEO, "The dollars saved add to our ability to hire more people. Though they may not be tech jobs, we are still creating jobs at home." Still, the issue has gotten the attention of U.S. lawmakers and the Department of Labor. But sources claim new legislation is not likely until after the November elections.

Now that the music industry has cleared the way to affordably download music, buyers still face challenges. With a multitude of confusing formats, dozens of media players and a wide selection of services to choose from, many buyers aren't buying. For PC users the best choice is Napster 2.0 or iTunes. Although iTunes was the first online music store for the Mac, last year shoppers bought more than 1,000,000 songs in just four hours when the site began offering songs to Windows users. Today the site offers over 400,000 tunes for just 99 cents each. Napster 2.0 is back with over 500,000 songs and downloads are also 99 cents each. BuyMusic.com is cheaper yet, at 79 cents per song but users must run Windows and Explorer 5.0 or higher. BuyMusic.com currently offers 300,000 songs and albums for just $7.95. Even Wal-Mart has gotten into the act. Wal-Mart currently offers 300,000 tunes at 88 cents per download. Best Bet: hard to say, but iTunes downloads are permanent, can be burned to an unlimited number of CDs, copied to any number of iPods and shared among three PCs on a network.