Consumer Reports

The Transportation Security Administration issued new security directives to all United States and international air carriers with inbound flights to the U.S. effective January 4, 2010. Because effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders, and as a result of extraordinary cooperation from our global aviation partners, TSA is mandating that every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening. The directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat- based and random screening for passengers on U.S. bound international flights. Read more…

The New Year is here and, because of the rough economy, it’s more important that ever to resolve to be a savvy consumer. Better Business Bureau offers the following ten New Year’s resolutions to fight scammers, prevent identity theft and save money in 2010. Read more…

I’m taking a hiatus from my Gov Gab hiatus today to bring you my GSA coworkers reports about their Fourth of July experiences. My colleague Karen Trebon tells us about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and my colleague Jonathan Rubin reports out on the National Mall fireworks display. Tell us about your Independence Day celebrations in the comments section and don’t forget to post your photos to the USA.gov Fourth of July Flickr photostream . You have until midnight eastern time tonight and we’ll be highlighting our favorite photos here tomorrow!

There are things that we all wish were better with our country. Like you, I think I pay too much in taxes (I have yet to meet a person who thinks he doesn’t pay enough). I get monumentally annoyed and disgusted when our political leaders get caught doing unethical things. I get frustrated with the red tape and the rigamarole that seems to accompany some of my interactions with the government, and I get angry when I hear my tax dollars are occasionally wasted on stupidity. It would be easy to sit and gripe all day about our government, but tomorrow is July 4th , a day we celebrate all that is good with our country. Our founding fathers risked their lives to declare their independence . They created this country on some basic principles that hopefully we all believe in even today. Throughout our history people have served and sacrificed for our country to advance the ideas of freedom of speech, equality, and representation. These are rights that many people in other countries don’t have or are struggling to obtain. There are many reasons for all of us to be proud of our country. I would like to see us all set aside the sniping and griping for this one day and think about why we appreciate living in the United States. Please express your heart-felt birthday wishes by sending in a comment. How would you finish this thought, “I love living in America because…” I will get us started: “I love living in America because I work for a government that allows me to write blogs that are totally my own (complete with embarrassing stories and quirky details . I have the freedom to express criticisms about my government and no one calls me a traitor, slaps handcuffs on me, or throws me in jail for doing so.”