{dateline: Tucker, Georgia}.. Ripping open one of four waist-high
cardboard boxes on a cargo bay here, Steve Ekin pulled out cork-
screws, pocketknives and assorted hand tools before finding an
electric impact drill as long as his arm. "You'd think people would
know better," he said.
 
..The original price tag, still on the drill, read $170. Mr. Ekin planned
to sell it for about $15 at a store opened last October, in a warehouse
district northeast of Atlanta. Mr. Eakin is the director of Georgia's
Surplus Property Division, the agency in charge of selling the govern-
ment's used belongings.
 
..These days, he's also selling items that trigger alarms at security
checkpoints at nearby Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport; the
world's busiest in terms of passsengers and flights.
 
..Nearly six years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
and a blitz of government marketing about what is and isn't allowed,
thousands of travelers still attempt to board aircraft with scissors,
awls, hammers and saws. They even try to carry on box cutters, the
weapons apparently used by some of the 9/11 attackers to comman-
deer and crash four planes.
 
..This summer, as airport security lines back up, amid one of the most
congested vacation-travel-seasons ever, prohibited items are one of
the reasons for the delays.
..Last year, according to the gov't "T.S.A." figures, airport agents
collected 12,295 "clubs, bats and bludgeons"; 1.6 million knives and
blades; and 74,665 other objects classified as "deadly/dangerous."
 
..The most lethal items are dispensed with promptly. Guns.. an average
of two-a-week are collected nationally, are surrendered to local police
departments, who investigate their bearers. Hazardous chemicals are
disposed of by "SAIC Inc." {a San Diego company under government
contract}.
..But the "TSA" {Tranportation & Security Admin., a division of the
Department of Homeland Security} relies on state agencies like Mr.
Eakin's, to offload tons of other items that passengers "voluntarily
surrender," in TSA parlance. {So long as the objects are legal, trav-
elers are free to exit security checkpoints, and mail them home or
store them in their cars, before taking their flights.
 
..Some states trash or destroy some of the items, along with the sham-
poos, toothpaste and other gels and liquids banned in large amounts
after a British bomb scare last August.
 
..But many states now sell the banned objects and keep the proceeds.
Alabama, Arkansas and Illinois, auction them off on the "Web." Ken-
tucky enjoys a cottage industry in Internet sales of miniature "Louis-
ville Sluggers" {wooden baseball bats, for the clueless} surrendered
after factory tours in the baseball bats' hometown.
 
..Pennslyvania, which collects airline traveler's goods at 13 airports,
including, New York's 'JFK International', says it collects a total of
2.5 tons of confiscated goods a month.. and that the items, sold on
eBay since 2004, have raised $360,000 for state coffers, as of last
June. {fini}
 
{Hint, to all of you readers out there, to feel free to post assorted subjects/
links, that you find reasonably interesting; and assuming that the Bible-
forum type emphasis, this place has taken on in recent {and not-so-
recent} times, can arguably be improved upon, with a little more subject
variety!}