New Driver's License

In pertinent part:
Friday, July 29, 2005
St. Louis Post-Dispatch



"I can tell already it's going to be a big hassle because for ladies, when they get married, their name changes and then they are going to have to bring in their marriage certificate along with their birth certificate. People that have been married two and three times and divorced, they're going to have to bring in all this documentation to show how their name changed because they're not going to go back to their maiden name every time."

And Loughary emphasizes that not just any birth certificate will do.

"You have to have the original one with the seal," she said. "A lot of people just have the one that the hospital issues with the hospital seal on it and that one is not acceptable, we have to have the state-issued one."

The new law will also impact legal immigrants who want to obtain a driver's license or a state ID card.

"They want to make sure that people who are not U.S. citizens have their current paperwork and that they're up to date on all their immigration paperwork too," Loughary said.

Customers who are U.S. citizens and are applying for a driver's permit, driver's license, or state-issued ID card will be required to produce one of the following – a state or local government-issued birth certificate, a valid U.S. passport, a Certificate of Citizenship, a Certificate of Naturalization, or a Certificate of Birth Abroad.

"For some people it won't be a problem," Loughary said "For younger people that have their birth certificate it's not going to be that big of a deal, but for older people, sometimes they lose them."

In addition to addressing concerns about homeland security, officials with the Department of Revenue say the new requirements will crack down on identity theft, the nation's fastest growing crime.

"A driver's license has become the most requested form of ID in America and we all depend on the accuracy of the information present on a license," said department director Trish Vincent.

"I understand some of our customers will find the new requirements difficult, but we are committed to providing the best service possible and to ensure that the work we do can be counted on by our customers, law enforcement, and everyone else who uses a driver's license as a means of identification."

For more information about the new requirements, call the Department of Revenue, (573) 751-2730, or visit their Web site, www.dor.mo.gov/mvdl/drivers/idrequirements.htm.

Libraries and the USA Patriot Act

Libraries and the USA Patriot Act.

Aviation Security Report-Secure Flight Violated Privacy

Aviation Security: Transportation Security Administration Did Not Fully
Disclose Uses of Personal Information During Secure Flight Program
Testing in Initial Privacy Notes, but Has Recently Taken Steps to More
Fully Inform the Public. GAO-05-864R, July 22

Secure Flight Test Violated Privacy of Passengers.

Verified Identiy Pass in MCO

4,000 registered, only 700 cards issued.

airports seek to expand Registered Traveler themselves

Airports to let some to front of security line

Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post
Jul. 18, 2005 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - A group of airports seeks to expand the federal government's Registered Traveler program, which speeds passengers to the front of the security checkpoint lines in exchange for divulging personal information and passing background checks.

So far, the program is available by invitation only at six airports, most of which have only one airline participating.

Carter Morris, senior vice president at the American Association of Airport Executives, said many airports and airlines are tired of waiting for the Transportation Security Administration to expand the program, so they are trying to do it themselves. "There has been no path forward. People say, 'That's great, but when do I get to sign up?' " he said. "The goal is to get this going now and move it at the speed the public wants it."

The group of airports, including Washington's Dulles International and Reagan National, has formed the Registered Traveler Interoperability Consortium to develop standards that would allow each airport to sign up travelers and give passengers the same security privileges at different locations. Now participants can skip to the front of security lines and are exempt from secondary screening that includes pat-downs.

Under the group's plan, each airport might be able to offer its own perks, such as allowing passengers to earn additional frequent-flier miles or exempting them from having to take off their shoes or remove laptops from cases.

To become a member, passengers would need to provide personal information, such as dates of birth, e-mail addresses, home addresses and phone numbers, and have their fingerprints and irises digitally scanned. Airports would then submit the information to the TSA. If travelers pass background checks, they would receive Registered Traveler cards containing data chips with their information.

National Airport already is a part of the program for American Airlines passengers, but spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said it makes sense to broaden it. San Francisco; Columbus, Ohio; Phoenix; Denver; and Minneapolis airports are in the new group, and many others are expected to join.

"We think it's important to have a consistent Registered Traveler program," Hamilton said. "Down the road, the benefit to our travelers is that more people, especially frequent fliers, would have a system that would reduce at least a couple of steps in the process that you go through in terms of security screening."

The TSA has supported a Registered Traveler program for about two years, but it has had difficulty getting it off the ground. The agency had trouble picking a biometric identifier, such as a handprint or fingerprint or iris scan, and it never moved far beyond the test phase. The agency has not endorsed the airports' program but said that it would help move the system forward.

The "desire to get organized as an industry is a good sign and probably helpful as we consider how to roll out Registered Traveler," said Justin Oberman, an assistant administrator at the TSA. "We've always thought if we did expand the program, it would be national in scope. This is helpful that big, innovative airports are participating."

Lax Screening passport for criminals

From USAToday's editorial page, July 12, 2005

Lax screening becomes a passport for criminals
The federal government is awash in lists of all manner of criminals. Fugitives charged with child molestation or murder. The FBI's 10 Most Wanted. Illegal immigrants. And, most usefully, terrorists.

Two of the 9/11 hijackers — Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Al-Midhar — were allowed to board the jetliner that was flown into the Pentagon, even though both were on a State Department list of 60,000 known or suspected terrorists. The Federal Aviation Administration might have stopped them before they boarded, had it been checking travelers against that list. Instead, it was using its own "no-fly" list of a mere 12 suspects, according to the 9/11 Commission.

Nearly four years have passed since that debacle. Still, the federal government hasn't gotten its information-sharing act together. At times, one arm of government doesn't check lists kept by another. Often, agencies don't even know what they're missing.

The latest revelation of a lapse came last month, when Congress's non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the State Department was issuing passports without systematically checking applicants against FBI lists of fugitives and against a new, consolidated terrorist list.

The upshot? In a GAO test, 20 out of 43 federal fugitives weren't flagged by the State Department's system. One was on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Another had obtained an updated passport 17 months after the FBI listed that person as wanted.

A U.S. passport is considered the gold standard of identity documents. It enables holders to travel freely into and out of the USA and gain visa-free passage into many countries. The State Department says it checks passport applicants against its own database filled with information from many agencies.

State, however, wasn't aware that thousands of federal fugitives known to the FBI weren't included, until the GAO discovered it. The department lacked data from the terrorist watch list because it wasn't routinely receiving that information, according to the GAO.

A department official said last week that the agency will get the watch list in coming weeks, and it has a deal with the FBI to get data on more fugitives.

Despite some strides in sharing information, the lapses at State are emblematic of problems that remain across agencies. The Transportation Security Administration, for example, still doesn't scrutinize every government list in its screening of passengers. Concern about sharing intelligence information with private airlines, which still handle the checks, is one of the reasons, the 9/11 Commission found.

For decades, U.S. agencies worked alone on their individual missions. They seldom looked across the government for help. That mindset is tough to change, but 9/11 certainly should have provided the impetus, and the 7/7 bombings in London last week underscored the continuing terrorist threat.

Come next year, Americans will suddenly need passports to travel by air or sea from the Caribbean, Bermuda and other places where passports have not been required. Mexico and Canada will be added later.

The goal is more secure borders. By then, it would be nice if the State Department could ensure that anyone getting a passport is not a fugitive or terrorist known to some other arm of the U.S. government.



Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-07-11-our-view_x.htm

DVM in Virginia

washingtonpost.com
Va. DMV Official Accused in Fraud Probe

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 13, 2005; B05

The manager of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles office at Springfield Mall was charged yesterday with selling driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and others for up to $3,500 apiece.


Virginia licenses were issued to at least 40 people who were either illegal immigrants or whose driving privileges had been suspended, prosecutors said.

The case is the latest in a federal crackdown on document and identity fraud in Virginia since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Seven of the 19 hijackers in the attacks had fraudulently obtained Virginia documents.

Monitoring cellphone conversations inflight

The Wall Street Journal

July 15, 2005

Lawmakers Balk at Cellphones on Jets
Safety, Annoyance Factors
Remain Primary Concerns;
Terror Threat Is Also Worry

By AMY SCHATZ
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 15, 2005; Page B4

WASHINGTON
Justice Department and Homeland Security officials have said that if cellphone usage is allowed (onboard airplanes) they would like the FCC to require surveillance access to voice and data traffic and to establish rules that would allow federal officials to pinpoint the seat location of people using phones inside planes.

It isn't clear whether the FCC has authority to require such measures and if some of the requests are technically feasible.

Justice officials want greater power to intercept calls and data traffic on planes than they do on the ground. They also want to be able to obtain the seat number or general location of callers, and to have the ability to cut off or redirect calls and equipment in cargo holds to jam wireless signals that could detonate explosives.

you are being monitored.

Liberty vs Security

The Emerging Surveillance Society.