Airport security faulted, and more

Airport security faulted

U.S. airports are vulnerable to terrorist infiltration because contractors have failed to recover security passes and uniforms from former employees, a government watchdog said. The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security said that many former airport security personnel still had access to areas where luggage is held and planes are parked. Lax oversight, the report said, invited “a wide variety of terrorist and criminal acts.”

Back pay for wronged soldiers

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The families of 28 black soldiers unjustly convicted of rioting at a Seattle Army post in 1944 are eligible for back pay with interest under a bill signed by President Bush. The Army threw out the convictions in September, saying the soldiers’ due-process rights were violated. All but one of the soldiers are deceased, but their families had pressed for back pay. Payments to each family could run into the tens of thousands of dollars.