Remember the days when you could actually take a bottle of water through airport security? Your hand lotion, hairspray, and mouthwash were okay too, even if you had the big bottle. All that changed in 2006, when a scare related to liquid explosives caused airports around the world to restrict passengers to carrying a small amount of liquid (3 ounce bottles in the U.S.) through security. Consumers couldn't even take beverages with them, being forced instead to buy an overpriced drink on the other side of security if they were thirsty.

The Transportation Security Administration says it's working to change the rules to allow passengers to carry full-size bottles of liquids through security, so long as they removed them from their carry-ons and put them through X-ray machines separately. (Just like the current requirement to put laptop computers through separately.)

A spokesperson for TSA says that the rule should be changed sometime in 2009, but at the latest, 2010. How hard can it possibly be to change the rule and why is it taking so long? The TSA says that X-ray machines have to be upgraded so they can tell the difference between harmless liquids and explosives.

Air travel has gotten so bothersome, that this small change isn't likely to make me a much happier flier. The TSA says this rule change would help speed up the time spent passing through security, but I'm pretty skeptical. The amount of time spent taking all these liquids out of a suitcase can't possibly be less than the time now spent taking mini bottles out of the carry-on. Flying commercially is getting more expensive and more inconvenient. Don't pin your hopes on a rule change like this to ease the hassle one bit.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Homeland Security says the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are bad at their jobs, and I believe them! They say the nation's 48,000 airport screeners have extremely high injury and turnover rates.

The reason they're so bad at their jobs? They're frustrated! Awwwwww..... The TSA chief says Homeland Security relied on "disgruntled screeners" at a few locations for these results and we shouldn't believe them. I don't know about you, but curiously, I run into those "disgruntled" TSA employees at just about every airport I use.

TSA employees are complaining about favortism, discrimination, and management misconduct. A screener says this is all true and that the work of his peers is suffering. Someone in TSA upper management says that morale is good and screeners are providing good security. Which is it, people?

I'm all for the government cracking down on collecting child support payments, and taking the money directly out of IRS payment seems like a winning plan. But the $2 billion that the government has collected so far isn't all from deadbeat dads. I, for instance, am part of the 39% of those who had money withheld for an unpaid federal debt. And I still don't know why.

I apparently owed the federal government $89.49 and they took it from my rebate check. I got a letter in the mail from the Department of the Treasury that told me, "As authorized by Federal law, we applied all or part of your Federal payment to a debt you owe." Then it gave an address and phone number for a Birmingham, Ala. processing center.

I called, of course, and all they could tell me is that the Transportation Security Administration had taken my money. They said they could give me their main number. They might as well have offered to give me the number for the White House to ask President Bush what was up with my payment. I didn't figure you could just call a mammoth government agency and get any kind of response.

Score another one for the Transportation Security Administration... It's making it even more inconvenient for travelers. Lucky passengers in 10 major United States airports can have the pleasure of the TSA seeing them naked. No, I'm not kidding. Travelers in cities like Los Angeles and New York might win the travel lottery and be selected to enter a glass booth to have a three-dimensional image taken of their bodies.

The technology essentially lets the TSA see through people's clothes, and gives nice pictures of your body, including your private parts. It's done with "millimeter waves" which are intended to help the TSA identify any weapons or foreign objects you might be concealing.

The TSA says that passengers will have a choice: They can either let an agent give them a physical pat-down, or they can allow this image of their body to be taken. That sounds nice, but how far is too far? I think this has definitely gone too far. And make no mistake, the next step is making these images mandatory and offering passengers no choice.

The Internal Revenue Service has long been one of the most hated federal agencies. Now they are in danger of losing that prestigious title to the Transportation Security Administration.

And the more people travel, the more they hate TSA. While 53% of travelers think that TSA is doing a somewhat good or very good job, the frustrations with air travel grow by the day.

Among the chief complaints by Americans:

• Excessively long lines
• Inconsistent enforcement of rules
• Pat downs leaving few private areas untouched
• Unreasonable restrictions like the 3 ounce liquid rule
• Almost non-existent responses to complaints filed by travelers
  

Government officials say all the hassles at airports are required to cut the risk posed by terrorists. Passengers aren't so sure that these hoops really make them safer. The fact remains... terrorists who want to hit the airlines have plenty of time on their hands to come up with new and creative ways to circumvent the current security procedures.

Forensic accountant Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations through her company, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners honored Tracy as the 2007 winner of the prestigious Hubbard Award and her first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, will be on bookshelves in March 2008.