Washington, D.C.
Federal screeners took over the job of checking passengers and carry-on luggage at the nation’s airports this week. Officials selected 40,000 people from a pool of 1.6 million applicants and rushed to train them, meeting a deadline with one day to spare. The task was “Herculean,” but “the American can-do spirit always prevails,” Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said. The polite, white-shirted officers have been better trained and will be better paid than the sometimes lackadaisical private screeners they replaced. But the $6 billion security overhaul ordered after Sept. 11 remained far from complete. Bomb-detection machines were supposed to be installed at every airport by year’s end, but officials admit they’ll miss the deadline at 30 busy terminals.
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