On High Alert

dr1 reports: Business owners in Boca Chica are complaining about the high level of crime in the municipality. Representatives of the business community argue that the police, rather than preventing crimes, are aggravating the situation by demanding handouts.

Enrique Félix, president of the Union of Small Businesses in Boca Chica, highlighted that on Saturday morning, 22 July 2017, two individuals held up a tourist at gun point, stole her bag and left shooting in the air, all this only 500 meters from the police station.

He said that rather than the police protecting the tourists that some of their members blackmailed and extorted the tourists. Felix cited an example a group of firefighters from New Jersey who the police threatened with guns and demanded US$200 not to be taken to jail.

Felix reported low occupancy in Boca Chica, estimating this at 50% due to the insecurity.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...cial-MY7706493

Secure Flight Program

A program began last week which subjects travelers to "behind-the-scenes" passenger watch list matching as an additional safety precaution.

It is the end of a year-long grace period for the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Secure Flight Program.

The biggest change affecting passengers is that it requires airlines to submit to TSA each passengers full name (as it appears on government ID), date of birth, gender and Redress Number (if applicable) at least 72 hours before the trip.

If the information is not submitted three days in advance, a boarding pass will not and cannot be issued. If a traveler has an existing reservation for immediate travel it's strongly advised the traveler contact the airline or booking source prior to going to the airport. Many sources allow you to add the information online, others require you to visit a ticket counter or call the reservations number.

The Program helps prevent the misidentification of passengers who have similar names to individuals on the watch lists and better identifies individuals who may pose a threat to aviation. If all reservation identification is listed correctly, TSA estimates that more than 99% of passengers will be cleared to print their boarding passes at home.

New Rules!

In the latest federal security mandate, travelers are being required to provide their full names, gender and birth date when booking airline tickets with carriers or travel agents, industry and federal officials say.

The data-matching program being implemented by the Transportation Security Administration is aimed at reducing the "false-positive" or misidentified matches between travelers and suspected terrorists.

A match of names with those on the Terrorist Watch List could cause TSA officers to require secondary screening of passengers or prohibit passengers from boarding aircraft, officials said.

The passenger should provide their full name as appears on their government-issued identification along with their birth date and gender. All airlines will be collecting Secure Flight information by early 2010.

The information will be collected during the booking process by airlines and travel agents and relayed to TSA, which will verify names against those on the Terrorist Watch List. The information will be sent to TSA well before you travel, so when you get to the airport there will be nothing different.

Southwest Airlines has started to implement the new requirements, as are Delta and AirTran Airways.

People who use nicknames might have to make an adjustment. TSA officials say the new requirements will be implemented by every airline over the coming months.