Terror-proofing the nation's ports
A maritime-security plan being considered by the Bush administration could mean airportlike backups for commuters and deeper financial troubles for the state’s cash-strapped ferry system, which would be required to pay for increased screening, ferry officials warned yesterday. “It would be analogous to stopping and searching every commuter crossing the Golden Gate Bridge,” Edmund “Ned” Kiley, emergency-management and security coordinator for Washington State Ferries, told a panel of security and transportation officials. The dour predictions came during a public meeting sponsored by the Coast Guard to talk about the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002. Full Story