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US survey
More Hispanics leaving Catholic Church
An April survey by a travel industry organization was less bleak. The Travel Leaders Group said 87.5 percent of more than 2,700 consumers surveyed across the United States indicated they were satisďŹ ed with or neutral about airport security measures. / GETTY IMAGES
TSA seeks business execs to help improve service at US airports Plagued. Complaints about TSA include intrusive screening, long lines and agent misconduct. U.S. security officials are turning to tourism and travel executives for help in improving something the Transportation Security Administration is not famous for: customer service. The Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday it is creating six positions as part of its “loaned executive� program to advise the TSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection on how to improve operations affecting travel and tourism.
Customer service, lines and crowd management, self-service technology, logistics and improved analysis of international passenger flows at airports are among the six areas that will be analyzed by the visiting executives, the department said. The agency wants to twin its security mission with making air travel smoother on the ground so as not to deter travel that generates tourism dollars for the U.S. economy. “I am thrilled DHS is collaborating with private sector businesses to attract talented professionals in the travel and tourism industry to help us continue our efforts of making America a more attractive and accessible destina-
tion,� U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said in a statement. The DHS advisory positions would be for six months with an option to extend. The executives would be on loan and their salaries paid by their employer. REUTERS
Complaints are up
26%
A report by the non-partisan Government Accountability OďŹƒce last July said complaints against airport security workers had jumped 26 percent in the previous three years. The complaints included the use of drugs and alcohol by TSA agents while on duty and inconsistent use of security equipment, such as X-ray machines.
A growing number of U.S. Hispanics are turning away from the Roman Catholic religion of their youth and now identify as Protestant or unaďŹƒliated with any church, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Catholics represented 55 percent of U.S. Hispanics in 2013, a drop from 67 percent in 2010, the Pew Research Center survey found. About 16 percent of Hispanics are evangelical Protestants, up from 12 percent three years earlier, and 18 percent are unaďŹƒliated, up from 10 percent. Three-quarters of those interviewed said they were raised Catholic. More than half of those who left their childhood faith said they “gradually drifted away,â€? while 31 percent said they found a congregation that helps its members more. Religious scholars said the shift could serve as something of a warning to U.S. Catholic leaders, who have relied on the growing Hispanic population to ďŹ ll pews and collection plates.
City leaders in celebrity-ďŹ lled Beverly Hills voted on Tuesday to ban fracking, becoming the ďŹ rst municipality in California to prohibit the controversial technique for extracting natural gas and oil from underground rock deposits. Environmentalists say chemicals used in the process pollute underground water supplies. REUTERS
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HISPANICS MAKE UP AN INCREASINGLY LARGE SHARE OF US CATHOLICS. GETTY IMAGES
First in California
Beverly Hills to ban fracking
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