Free Republic

County leaders are hopeful that the $1 trillion infrastructure investment promised by Republican president-elect Donald Trump will have a big impact on the region. Trump has promised to prioritize infrastructure spending in his first 100 days in office. The move is one that Democrats, now in minority positions in both houses of Congress, have said they're willing to support. The plan, which is not yet fully fleshed out, looks to rely heavily on billions of dollars of infrastructure tax credits to private entities. And while Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen warned recently that weighing down the national debt with...

They may not ride in crammed trains or carry angst over potholes but feuding presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both want to fix America's infrastructure. The focus on improving public transit and highways couldn't come soon enough for local commuters, say two experts. "There is a desperate need to invest more into mass transit in Chicagoland," Regional Transportation Authority Chairman and former state senator Kirk Dillard said. "Most states significantly assist in the mass transit arena, but that is not the case today in Illinois," Dillard added, noting New York City budgets about $196 per capita on mass...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is defending Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX, from criticisms by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during Monday night’s first presidential debate. Trump mentioned LAX in the context of a statement about the national debt, saying that it might be understandable to have $20 trillion in debt and outstanding public infrastructure, but that the poor state of America’s transportation network underscored the government’s waste of money.

The Transportation Security Administration's woes continue. Despite the Transportation Security Administration's ten-point action plan to reduce long lines at airports across the country, lengthy queues remain. Now, the TSA's summer may be getting even worse: According to a recent report from the House Homeland Security Commission entitled "Misconduct at TSA Threatens the Security of the Flying Public", nearly half of the TSA’s 60,000 employees have been cited for misconduct in recent years. The bad news doesn't stop there. Citations have increased 28.5 percent from 2013 to 2015, and in 2015, the average U.S. airport received 58 complaints each year—more than...

Abandoning reality At one point, you were probably worried about ISIS. It seemed like the horrific terrorist organization was on a real roll as its barbarian forces slaughtered their way across the middle east. They raped, tortured, burned, beheaded, crushed, and acidically-disolved their enemies while our leaders promised that they were being dealt with in the harshest possible way. We’d “contained” them, we’d “diminished” them, and - most importantly - we’d decimated their command and control capabilities. According to President Obama, the J.V. team is on the run.

Truth involves Obama, 'nude pictures of passengers' and fed-up workers. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson warns air travelers to prepare for much longer than usual airport security lines, but a Transportation Security Administration watchdog says this mess is simply a matter of the government failing to manage its resources responsibly. On Monday, Johnson stood at Ronald Reagan National Airport just outside Washington and told passengers to expect longer than expected wait times as the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, expedites hundreds of new personnel into service to speed up the security process. In Chicago, passengers were told to arrive three...

TSA's Union Power Grab: Thousands Slowing Down Airports Michelle Malkin All you travelers stuck in mile-long TSA security lines are pawns. Convenient political pawns. Big Labor bosses want more power and more money. Stranded travelers are just the latest victims in this age-old game of D.C. extortion. Union leaders want you to think the fault lies with a stingy Congress unwilling to fork over enough money to fill screener shortages. White House spokesman Josh Earnest poured more partisan fuel on the fire last week by blaming the nationwide slowdowns on "the inability of Republicans in Congress to govern the country."...

A worker was allowed access to secure areas of both of Berlin’s airports for up to 10 months after authorities found out he had links to fundamentalist Islam, media reported on Wednesday. Recep Ü., a Turkish-born aircraft cleaner for a private firm at the airport, was allowed into the secure areas of Tegel and Schönefeld airports to do his job. German air security law states that only people who have passed a security check can work in such sensitive zones of an airport. But although Ü. had passed such a check in 2011, he did not lose his security clearance...

(excerpt) San Diego International Airport is sending in clowns from the Fern Street Circus to tickle the passengers’ funny bones, NBC reported. “They are creating content inspired by the traveler experience, so they will constantly be visible, trying out new ideas and interacting with passengers,” said airport spokesman Jonathan Heller. “We certainly think they will be at the checkpoints often, as people waiting in line are a great audience for them!”

While the Transportation Security Administrationhas announced plans to hire 800 new officers, the wait for security at Chicago’s airports could be getting worse. Tuesday morning, the city’s Aviation Department advised anyone flying out of O’Hare or Midway airports to show up three hours before their flight’s scheduled departure time. That’s even longer than the two-hour cushion the TSA has suggested for domestic flights.

Travelers flying out of Chicago just can’t catch a break. With increasingly long lines to get through security at the city’s airports, many travelers have been missing their flights, and some ended up sleeping at O’Hare International Airport on Sunday. American Airlines put out cots for fewer than 100 travelers who missed their flights Sunday night due to the long lines at TSA security checkpoints.

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Can an administration that doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the terrorists' motivating ideology really vet these people, or anyone else? "Airport employees thought to have possible terrorist ties have now been vetted," by George Colli, Action News Jax, April 6, 2016: Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is setting the record straight on our series of reports from last month about dozens of private airline employees having possible terrorist ties. At a press conference with Senate Democrats announcing three new proposed amendments to the FAA Re-authorization Act of 2016, Johnson told Washington Bureau reporter George Colli that none of the...

The police union, expressed also its concern about the terrorists scouting the airport to plan possible attacks. (...)The police raised also suspicions about the other airport staff members, who apparently celebrated terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015. The astonishing claims come on the top of revelations by the Salafist senior official in Gaza Strip. The terror operative told Israeli-based Breitbart journalist that jihadists are working in western airports.

Police at Brussels airport have claimed at least 50 Islamic State supporters are working there as baggage handlers, cleaners and catering staff. In an astonishing open letter, the officers said they have warned about the terrorist sympathisers whose security badges give them access to planes, but they remain employed. The airport police, who are threatening to go on strike because of security deficiencies, also said they have raised the issue of terrorists scouting the airport to plan possible attacks. The extraordinary claims come after the Mail reported how the family of two of the bombers involved in the attacks last...

The Islamic State has agents working in Western airports, metro stations and “very sensitive facilities in the world,” a leading Islamic State-allied militant claimed in an exclusive interview. Abu al-Ayna al-Ansari, a Salafist movement senior official in the Gaza Strip, made the claim in a pre-recorded, hour-long interview to air in full on Sunday on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” the popular weekend talk radio program broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia. Klein doubles as Breitbart’s senior investigative reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief.

A $4 billion redevelopment of aging LaGuardia Airport was approved on Thursday after an unusually contentious board meeting that exposed divisions between members on how much the project is going to cost and how it should be managed. The resolution ultimately passed unanimously but with an asterisk: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board members also voted to rewrite policies governing how large-scale projects like LaGuardia are approved.

Workers from nine U.S. airports are planning to block bridges, march through terminals and protest at airline headquarters during a day of civil disobedience on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The workers - a mix of cleaners, baggage handlers, fuelers and wheelchair attendants - will risk arrest at airports and other locations including the Mall, to bring attention to their campaign for better wages, the Service Employees International Union said. The actions are the latest in the airport workers' campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, a benefits package and job protections. They're also protesting threats against their efforts to unionize....

U.S. fears inside job at airports British bombers had Muslim plant at Heathrow to test security Published: 10/21/2006 at 1:00 AM U.S. authorities are stepping up security checks on airport personnel after learning that one of the suspects in the transatlantic sky terror plot helped terrorists case security at London’s Heathrow airport as an airport employee. Asmin Amin Tariq, a Muslim convert of Asian descent, was a security guard at Heathrow, where the explosives allegedly were to have been carried onto planes bound for the U.S. After Tariq’s arrest, his employer, Jet Airways, suspended him. Jet Airways is the leading...

Washington area airports and others along the East Coast are reporting flight delays due to an issue with the system that routes air traffic, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control Web site. “The FAA is diagnosing an automation problem at an air traffic center in Leesburg, Va.,” according to a statement from the agency. “Some flights into and out of the New York and Washington, DC metro area airports area may be delayed.”