It's not complicated

Upstream Ideas  Dan ProftI

Local political officials and operatives have credibility with voters and thus turnout capacity that can’t be bought with Michael Bloomberg’s millions. Federal races are not national elections. They’re local ones. Just as local races can be federalized so can federal races be localized. Popular Republican governors with Republican legislative majorities matter too. That’s good news for key Senate and House races in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas The state and local Republicans in these states are popular because they’ve made choices in advance of economic liberty that have improved the vitality of life for their constituents, as a report earlier this year by the American Legislative Exchange Council found. It’s not complicated. I suspect voters in these states may elect to continue to keep it simple on November 6th by sticking with what’s working.

Mueller’s Fatal Mistake

Originally published at Fox News  Newt Gingrich

There is now no excuse for Special Counsel Mueller to ask to interview President Trump.

In fact, it is now clear the investigators have been given so much information about the President’s actions and had such remarkably open access, they should just close shop and write their final report.

They no longer have any grounds for going to court to get a subpoena to compel the President to testify.

Mueller’s fatal mistake was revealed Saturday in The New York Times story titled, “White House Counsel, Don McGahn, Has Cooperated Extensively in Mueller Inquiry.” Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman reported that there were at least 30 hours of interviews between the Mueller team and the White House Counsel.

Don McGahn asserted throughout the interviews that “he never saw Mr. Trump go beyond his legal authorities.”

McGahn’s cooperation is historically unique because President Trump waived both executive privilege and attorney-client privilege. President Trump was so confident of his innocence that he waived both of these protections to allow the Special Counsel to thoroughly question the White House attorney.

Accepting such thorough and detailed briefing from the White House Counsel will ultimately hurt the efforts of Mueller’s team of left-wing Democratic lawyers.

McGahn is a very widely-respected lawyer, who thoroughly understands the difference between legal and illegal behavior – and he was in the room for virtually all of President Trump’s activities.

It couldn’t be more clear: The Trump White House was comfortable talking for 30 hours with a pack of high-powered, very tough-minded investigators, because the President has done nothing wrong.

Nevertheless, at every stage, Mueller has conducted an aggressive, one-sided, and increasingly irresponsible, investigation.

Mueller was brought in to seek the truth about whether there was collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and Russians to impact the 2016 election.

His first step down the road of abusive aggressiveness was to hire a completely partisan team of mostly Democrat attorneys. Mueller could have hired a balanced team of Republican and Democratic lawyers. He could have avoided hiring lawyers who had worked for Hillary Clinton or gone to the Clinton election night party. Instead he hired totally biased opponents of Trump – who want to take down the President.

Mueller’s second step down the road was to find accusations that had nothing to do with the election, the Russians, or a question of collusion.

Look at the outrageous abuse of Paul Manafort. Manafort had been campaign chairman. He had ties with foreign businessmen. He had done extensive business in Ukraine. I’m sure the Mueller team believed if anyone was the obvious entry point for collusion, it would have been Manafort.

Yet, they found nothing.

Let me repeat this, because it is so ignored by the daily media headlines: The Mueller team found no evidence of Manafort colluding with any foreign entities on the 2016 election.

Manafort is being tried over tax and banking issues that have nothing to do with Russian collusion or any election.

In fact, the Manafort trial is a case study in how a ruthless prosecutor can use the power of the state to intimidate and punish an individual. Manafort and his wife were awakened in their pajamas in pre-dawn hours by FBI agents conducting a raid on their residence – even though the previous day Manafort had been cooperating with the Senate’s investigative body. Furthermore, there was no evidence Manafort represented any danger of violence or flight. The early morning attack was designed to frighten Manafort and send a signal to other potential witnesses to cooperate – or else.

An extraordinary abuse of power was displayed through Mueller’s holding of Manafort in solitary confinement in a cell for 23 hours a day as he awaited trial. This level of deprivation is astonishing when done to an American citizen, who has committed no violent crimes and has not been convicted of anything. Again, it is an effort to intimidate and coerce.

Mueller also understands that every person he goes after has to hire lawyers, spend their lifetime savings, and potentially end up deeply in debt to simply protect themselves from government lawyers who could potentially put them in prison.

Now, we are at the end of the failed investigation.

With McGahn’s 30 hours of testimony, it is clear there is no evidence of President Trump either colluding with the Russians or engaging in illegal obstruction of justice.

Saturday’s New York Times story should be the end of the story.

No sitting president has the time for distractions as big as the Mueller investigation absent the showing of a compelling need – the most important element of which is that any information President Trump has cannot be derived from some other source.

President Trump has not invoked any privilege and has permitted complete access to his White House Counsel, as well as others. Mueller can no longer even come close to meeting the compelling need standard.

As such, it is time to shut the investigation down and allow the President to do what Americans hired him to do – focus on making America great again. Continuing to draw out this partisan investigation only serves to confirm what most Americans now understand – it had no basis in law or fact.

Mueller should write his report to Congress and return to his retirement.

Will County Treasurer Steve Weber answers questions

Will County Farm Bureau questioneer

Hello, I am Steve Weber.

What is the function of the Treasurer’s office?

The function of this office is safeguard the County deposits, investments (350 million), pay the bills to run this government, mail tax bills, distribute tax levy to taxing bodies, and deal with the tax sale. We are the counties banker and collector. We pay all the county employees, bills to operate, and daily all the offices that take in money come to me to deposit it and invest it.

How are you qualified?

I am uniquely qualified with my education and work experience. I am a certified public accountant (CPA) with a focus on finance. I have 10 years in the banking industry (opened a small community bank) and 23 years as an antifraud professional. I am proud to serve you for 7.5 years as the Treasurer and was the Auditor (watchdog) prior to this office. I will only run for finance related offices that I can make more efficient and save you tax dollars. As a CPA I advise people and small business owners how to save taxes and operate with less. I helped put in a lot of the accounting in this office when I was the Auditor and closed the books each month. This helped the staff keep an open mind when I came in to make positive changes. The days of selecting a candidate by his name sounds good, should be behind us in elections. Please vote for qualified leaders.

How can we safeguard our county investments in a volatile economy?

That's pretty easy. What we do is go out to the market each month with about $10 million to invest and get the best rates. This helps us to diversify and avoid all our eggs in 1 basket (I raise 50+ chickens). We look at limits so we don't have too much with one bank. We review the banks call reports quarterly and can predict failures and move money away if needed. The law limits us to safer rated investments and we sell if they are downgraded like state of Illinois ratings. I like local investments because it helps our community and we know the players. Our focus in safety 1st and yield 2nd. We have adopted lots of protective banking practices like positive pay, remote deposit capture, ach protection to prevent fraud on our accounts. As a good accountant we reconcile almost 100 accounts each month. Last year on 2.2 billion dollars we were .11 cents off.

How can we make the county’s tax system even more efficient?

We are the model that most Treasurers in Illinois follow and copy due to our success. We started many great programs such as, the prepayment program so you pay when and what you want to help the family budget. We started the free e check program to pay from your bank account. We were the first in the state to have a smart phone app to pay RE tax. We started the email verses US postal mail bill system to save money. We started the investment management in-house to gain over $50 million in interest income to the County. My 1st year in office we made over five times more interest than budgeted and returned over $250,000 back to the County. We have outsourced the printing of the bills to save money and gain a backup plan. We started investing the tax levy so we could earn more money for the schools and reduce property taxes. My platform is results, not politics, and I achieve this by adopting best practices in business. If I advise others the best way, I best do the same. My savings are over $8 million dollars since elected.

Real costs to taxpayers often obscured from government budgets

Group warns real costs to taxpayers often obscured from government budgets

·         By Cole Lauterbach | Illinois News Network

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Chicagoans are on the hook for more public debt than residents of any of the nation’s 10 largest cities even though the total cost of the city’s debt is less than many others.

According to a new report by Truth in Accounting, Chicago’s debt burden is a little more than $45,000 per taxpayer. That’s much less than the city of New York. But if you add the burden from all of the other units of government, Chicago schools, the park district, and many more, the total taxpayer burden is $125,000, much more than the Big Apple.

Of that added burden, more than $50,000 comes from the state of Illinois’ pension burden, estimated at anywhere from $140 billion to as much as $250 billion. Other debt is couched in the total debt of Chicago Public Schools, Cook County, and other smaller levels of government that are able to take on debt.  

Bill Bergman, director of research with Truth in Accounting, says this allows Chicago and other cities to say they’re budgets are balanced when they’re highly leveraged.

“It allows them to balance budgets on a cash basis when they’re accumulating debt and spending more money than they take in,” he said.

Illinoisans should be concerned about their largest city carrying too much debt, Bergman said, because it could end up coming out of the entire state’s budget in one way or another.

“Chicago may have to rely on taxpayer money from, say, Kankakee in order to close their books,” he said.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is currently debating an initiative to force cities to factor in their debt when filing their annual budget reports, or accrual accounting standards.

Meanwhile, a bill on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk would allow local governments in Illinois to use another method of budgeting that solely factors cash on hand in their accounting.

Ives Response to Sauer Resignation

For Immediate Release

Ives Response to Sauer Resignation

August 1, 2018 - "Representative Sauer did the right thing by resigning today. Sexual misconduct and abuse has no place in the work place or any place for that matter. Mr. Sauer's resignation is not, however, the ending of this difficult chapter in the Illinois legislature. In October, over 300 women working in Springfield signed a #MeToo letter detailing the toxic culture in the capitol. For three years, leaders left the position of Legislative Inspector General vacant. Today, we only have an interim LIG. This is not how people who are serious about reform and accountability operate. The position of LIG must be kept independent and made permanent. And a transparent process must be put in place for complainants. Whether or not more women come forward, we know that many have been hurt by our elected officials - professionally and otherwise. It is a disgrace. If we are to change that culture, we must change out Illinois' political leadership. As I have stated, we cannot hope to have a good and virtuous government without good and virtuous men and women to lead it."  

###

For more information, or to book Jeanne Ives, contact Kathleen Murphy at 630-329-4680 or kathleenemurphy26@gmail.com.

Facebook and Fake News

The week's news that wasn't 

Demonetizing, wiping (like with a cloth), hacking, enslaving and state's righting the most hateful, Russiaphobic, indictable, demagogic and murderous fakeries in the week's fake news. 

Poynter doesn't ask about CNN

Facebook execs recently held a little "on-the-record shindig for media and tech reporters in New York City" in which they discussed the technical and policy changes they've made to combat what the elites and once-and-future gatekeepers perceive as fake news.

During a question-and-answer session, CNN reporter Oliver Darcy asked a question: "Why does Facebook allow InfoWars, a regular purveyor of hateful and damaging conspiracy theories, to use the platform as a channel to disseminate its odious misinformation?"

"I guess just for being false that doesn't violate the community standards," was one answer from the recently appointed head of News Feed John Hegeman.

Well that answer seems to have set off The Poynter Institute's Alexios Mantzarlis, a former UN propagandist who heads up Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network. It prompted him to ask some questions of his own in a piece in which he notes that InfoWars has been flagged by fact-checkers — of which Poynter is one — as distributing "false content" and suggesting that InfoWars should be banned from advertising and monetizing on Facebook. 

Who is Poynter, you might ask. We've written about them before. It is the world's leading journalism "instructor, convener and resource for anyone who aspires to engage and inform citizens." As such, Poynter touches every American journalist in mainstream media — and most of the world's — in various ways. It happens through its control over the standard curriculum, school instruction and influence on journalism schools and within the industry. On its website, Poynter claims:

We teach leadership, ethical decision-making and fact-checking; we teach editing, writing, reporting and digital media skills; we teach those in broadcast, print, online and mobile; we teach those trying to remake their organizations and those trying to remake their journalistic skills set.

What it doesn't teach, apparently, are the concepts of liberty enshrined in the 1^st Amendment or how to really spot bias. If it did, Mantzarlis would point out the hypocrisy in Darcy's question.

Without even trying we've caught CNN lying as many as 2,000 times a month, by our very unscientific analysis. The network spends all day every day promoting the false notion that Russia colluded with President Donald Trump to get him elected. And its hosts and guests utter the most hateful and vile things imaginable about him. The completely unhinged CNN contributor John Brennan— spymaster under Barack Obama, admitted communist during the Cold War and likely one of the instigators of the phony "Trump dossier" — called Trump a traitor just this week and suggested the GOP should expel him from office. CNN treats Trump even worse than the mainstream media treated Ronald Reagan, and that's saying something.

Aside from the fact that if Facebook is a neutral platform — as it claims — it should "allow" anyone to post their information whether the muckity-mucks at Poynter like it or not, one would think that an organization that purports to support journalism would want as many viewpoints as possible to be "allowed" in the public sphere.

There are really three questions that need to be asked:

• Why does Facebook allow CNN, a regular purveyor of hateful and damaging conspiracy theories, to use the platform as a channel to disseminate its odious misinformation?"
• Why does Poynter hold people in such low esteem that it thinks they aren't smart enough to discern for themselves what is fake and what is not and thus have need of some nanny organizations deciding what they should see and hear?
• And why does Poynter (and CNN) so fear InfoWars, a website with only 3.1 million unique visitors a month in a world of 7.6 billion people?

Trump and those servers

A lot of sound and fury erupted after Trump's appearance alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, so some little gems got overlooked. Like this one, from Trump on the indictments of 12 Russians for hacking the DNC server:

Let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server; why haven't' they taken the server. Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months and I've been Tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying?

Those fine folks at Politifact didn't miss it, however, and labeled Trump's claim that the FBI never saw the server as false. Politico called the statement "unmoored from reality." So what's the truth?

The truth is the DNC denied the FBI access to the servers, so Trump is correct. Former FBI Director James Comey admitted as much in Congressional testimony, though it should be noted that Comey has been caught, shall we say, stretching the truth in some of his testimony. But here's what he said under questioning:

Well we never got direct access to the machines themselves. The DNC in the spring of 2016 hired a firm that ultimately shared with us their forensics from their review of the system.

Later he said:

[A]though we got the forensics from the pros that they hired which — again, best practice is always to get access to the machines themselves, but this — my folks tell me was appropriate substitute.

So Politifact was wrong again. Trump's statement was the opposite of false. It was true, and Politifact — used as one of Facebook's fact-checkers — is once again publishing fake news.

And speaking of those "pros" working on the DNC's servers…

Crowdstrike, the "pros" hired by the DNC to clean its servers of the effects of Russian hackers, claimed more than year ago in a blog post that after the DNC retained its services it "immediately identified" and took action against the Russian intruders.

As The Daily Caller notes:

DNC officials and security experts told The Washington Post in June 2016 that all hackers were expelled from the DNC's network in a "major computer cleanup campaign" earlier that month. "When we discovered the intrusion, we treated this like the serious incident it is and reached out to CrowdStrike immediately. Our team moved as quickly as possible to kick out the intruders and secure our network," Wasserman Schultz told The Post. The New York Times expanded on CrowdStrike's cleanup campaign in a December 2016 article, saying the security firm replaced the DNC's entire computer system "in total secrecy" within six weeks of being retained in April 2016. "All laptops were turned in and the hard drives wiped clean, with the uninfected information on them imaged to new drives," The Times reported.

But the indictment of 12 Russian hackers handed down by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tells a different story.

Again from TDC:

The indictment, filed by the office of Special Council Robert Mueller, reveals that CrowdStrike was unsuccessful in expelling intruders from the DNC's networks in June and that a malicious program "remained on the DNC network until in or around October 2016." The hackers also gained access to DNC computers hosted on a third-party cloud-computing service around September 2016, which enabled them to steal data from the DNC by creating backups, or snapshots, of the DNC's cloud-based systems.

The boss told you a little about Crowdstrike more than a year ago.

And this is the company the FBI is relying on to provide it with prosecutable evidence on the DNC hack?

Hillary Clinton claims Brett Kavanaugh's nomination will bring back slavery

In a speech before the American Federation of Teachers last week, twice-failed and likely future presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — or as we've come to fondly know her, the Witch from Chappaqua — warned of dire consequencesshould Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's pick for associate justice of the Supreme Court, be confirmed to the bench:

"Let me say a word about the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court," Clinton said in her speech. "This nomination holds out the threat of devastating consequences for workers rights, civil rights, LGBT rights, women's rights — including those to make our own health decisions." "It is a blatant attempt by this administration to shift the balance of the Court for decades and to reverse decades of progress," Clinton continued. "I used to worry that they [the Republicans] wanted to turn the clock back to the 1950s. Now I worry they want to turn it back to the 1850s," Clinton said.

What was going on in the 1850s? Well, women couldn't vote and black people were enslaved. There was also no income tax, Abraham Lincoln hadn't yet started a war that would kill 650,000 people, there was no social media or CNN and there was no Hillary Clinton, so it wasn't all bad. But I digress.

Hillary, being a former lawyer and all, certainly knows that Kavanaugh cannot roll us back to the 1850s because he can't roll back the 13^th and 14^thAmendments — even if they were ratified under dubious circumstances. Besides, the social justice warriors on Twitter would never let us even propose a plan to bring back slavery, much less create a plan, even if we wanted to. We don't, by the way, though we'd probably be better off if most women didn't vote.

All Kavanaugh wants to do — ostensibly, at least — is return the Supreme Court to a time when it sought to restrain government to its enumerated powers and cease its practice of the last 100 years or so of legislating from the bench.

The left has used the courts to create laws that could not be passed by Congress or the states because they went against the will of the electorate. Hillary — and all of the left — sees that practice ending if Kavanaugh is confirmed. That's what they fear most.

I think they're overreacting. The court has been activist almost since its inception. It's practice of judicial review – something not granted it under the Constitution — is judicial activism.

Recall that ominous warning from Thomas Jefferson:

"The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one."

Finally a leftist understands the 10th Amendment

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is threatening to sue if the Supreme Court rolls back Roe v. Wade. From his statement:

For years, what the Republicans in the Senate have said, "well, we don't need New York law because we have Roe v. Wade and nobody's crazy enough to try to roll back Roe v. Wade." Yeah, accept the man they nominated for President of the United States who wound up winning the election. But that was always the answer, you don't need a New York law. We have Roe v. Wade. Well now we know we're not guaranteed Roe v. Wade. And the New York law, my friends does not currently go as far as Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wadehas the protections that we now rely on in New York. We never passed the New York State law because we relied on Roe v. Wade and everyone assumed it would always be there and because the Republicans wouldn't pass it, using that as an excuse. We now need to codify Roe v. Wade, which will actually increase the protections in New York. God forbid they do what they intend to do. I want to get it done before the Supreme Court does that because I don't want any gaps in a woman's right to protection and we have a better legal case when the Supreme Court acts because I will sue when the Supreme Court acts and I want the New York State law in place.

Before the Supremes fabricated a national right to murder babies, such topics were considered to be a state issue, where it belonged. Abortion would currently be illegal in many, if not most, states if not for Roe v. Wade. That means that hundreds of thousands of babies never given a chance would still be with us.

But I'm quite curious who it is that Cuomo thinks he's going to sue in order to overcome a SCOTUS decision.

— Jay Baker 

Register to vote on Line and call to get a ballot mailed to your Home

To Register to vote on line go to https://ova.elections.il.gov/  and follow the directions.

Vote by mail is the easy way to vote and check out who you are voting for from the convenience of your home.

Just call The Will County Clerk (815) 740-4620 and ask that a ballot be mailed to you.

You can also email the Clerk at votebymail@willcountyillinois.com
____________________________________________________________________________

WHO CAN REGISTER TO VOTE
A U.S. citizen 18 years of age by the date of the next election (some 17 year olds may vote in the General Primary) and a resident at a current Will County address for 30 days immediately prior to the next election.

WHEN CAN I REGISTER TO VOTE
Registration is open throughout the year except during the following times:

• In-person or any mail-in registration is not available during the 27 days preceding the election
• Online registration is not available during the 15 days preceding the election

Registration reopens the second day following an election.  If you missed either of the registration deadlines mentioned above, you may be eligible for Grace Period Registration and Voting or Same Day Registration at your Polling Place on Election Day.

WHERE CAN I REGISTER TO VOTE
– Online using the Illinois Online Voter Registration Application Website
– By mail: fill in and print the Illinois Voter Registration Applicaton
– In-person with a Registrar
– At  your Polling Place on Election Day
Two forms of identification are required when registering at your Polling Place.

• one must show your current name and address
• only one may be a piece of mail postmarked within the past 30 days
• some acceptable forms of identification:
  Driver’s License  •  State ID Card  •  Utility Bill  •  Checkbook  •  Library Card  •  Credit Card  •  Birth Certificate  • Social Security Card  •  Employee ID Card  •  Student ID Card  •  Insurance Card

CHANGED MY ADDRESS 
Fill in the back of your Voter’s Card and mail it in or use the Change of Address Online Form

No longer a resident of Will County, re-register with the election authority in the county where you currently live.

**Change of address must be received in the County Clerk’s Office no later than 28 days before an Election or must be postmarked by the 28th day before an Election.  Click here if you moved and did not change your address with the Will County Clerk.

CHANGED MY NAME– Must re-register to vote (see Where Can I Register to Vote above)
– Still reside at the same address, vote at your current Will County Polling Place after completing an affidavit there

UPDATING FAMILY MEMBERS INFORMATION
If a member of your immediate family has moved outside of Will County or is now deceased, you may complete and submit the Voter Registration Information Update. The form must be submitted by an immediate family member ONLY.

For questions about Voter Registration call (815) 740-4620.

The ultimate guide to airport security options

TSA Precheck, Global Entry, CLEAR can speed you through the screening process

By Allie Johnson  |  Published: July 2, 2018

Personal Finance Writer
Award-winning writer covering consumer and small-business credit cards.

The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date. Please review our list of best credit cards, or use our CardMatch tool to find cards matched to your needs.

If you fly, you’ve endured the chaos of airport security screening: long lines, wrestling to take off your shoes and jacket in the middle of a cranky crowd, and maybe even missing a flight. 

As screening has become stricter to make flying safer, it’s become a huge hassle for travelers. 

Trusted traveler programs such as TSA Precheck, Global Entry and CLEAR can speed you through security, and rewards credit cards increasingly offer credits to cover the costs of this fast-track to your plane. 

If you’re unsure of what these programs offer and which one is best, you’re not alone. The availability of multiple programs, and the fact that some can be used together, tends to cause confusion among harried travelers. 

Use this helpful guide to learn the ins and outs of getting through airport security faster, along with the pros and cons of each major trusted traveler program. 

Airport security screening 101

If you use general airport security screening, you’re probably familiar with the steps in the process. 

First you stand in one line to have your boarding pass and ID checked. Then you wait in another line for physical screening. You take off shoes and outerwear and empty your pockets. You remove electronics bigger than a cellphone and place your stuff in plastic bins on a conveyor belt. 

Your bags get X-rayed, and your body gets scanned. If you are unlucky, you get pulled aside for a pat down. 

The expedited traveler programs available allow you to skip or speed up some or all of the above steps. Some programs also allow you to re-enter the United States more quickly after a trip abroad. 

However, if you don’t travel enough to justify signing up for one or more of these programs, you can still make general security screening easier and less frustrating by being a savvy traveler. 

What to know about airport security screening

“The lines are getting longer and it can be really crazy,” says Stephanie Miller, founder of the travel site The Scenic Suitcase. “So just be prepared.”

What’s the best way to be prepared? 

Knowing which items of clothing you must take off during screening can help to speed the security screening process and ensure you don’t hold up the line. Here’s a list of requirements for accessories and clothing: 

• Take off belts, watches and bulky jewelry.
• Empty your pockets of all items, including coins, papers and your wallet.
• Remove your jacket and shoes, unless you are a traveler age 75 or older
• Place your items in plastic bins and put them on the conveyor belt. 

These items come off and out to avoid setting off a metal detector and to ease the screener’s job, says Mike O’Rourke, a travel security expert and CEO Advanced Operational Concepts, a global security consultancy. 

“Ask any street cop and he will tell you people tend to conceal weapons around the waist because a belt helps hold things in place,” O’Rourke says. “And jackets have large pockets to conceal things that shouldn’t go onboard an aircraft.” 

It’s even more important to know what you can and can’t carry on the plane with you. 

Going through screening with a prohibited item slows the line and might force you to chuck it or check it. For a comprehensive list, see the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) page on what you can carry on a plane. 

Carry-on bags: Some items that are allowed

• Baby supplies, including carriers, diapers, food and wipes
• Beauty items such as bobby pins, curling irons, hairdryers, disposable razors, nail clippers and tweezers
• Books and magazines
• Cigarettes, cigars, electronic cigarettes and vaping devices
• Medical items such as blood sugar test kits, braces, canes and crutches and prosthetics (some medical devices, such as CPAPs and syringes, require you to follow special instructions)
• Solid foods such as candy and crackers and granola bars
• Clothing, belts and shoes
• Laptops, tablets and cellphones
• Some sports equipment, including basketballs, bowling balls and soccer balls
• Some hobby items, including crochet and knitting needles
• Some gun accessories such as holsters or scopes
• Small kitchen appliances including coffee makers, mixers and tortilla presses 

Many items, including cymbals, parachutes, scissors and even cremated remains are allowed but require you to follow special instructions. If you plan to bring an odd or iffy item, check ahead of time to see if you need to jump through any special hoops. 

And a cautionary tale for parents: Breast milk may be carried on in “reasonable quantities” but you may be singled out for special screening. That added screening could cause a delay, even if you’re a member of a trusted traveler program. 

Frequent traveler, founder of Business Travel Life, and TSA Precheck member Kristina Portillo was traveling with her 8-month-old son and a bottle full of breast milk when she was stopped at security. “It set off their bomb detector,” she says. 

She had to wait 20 minutes for a TSA explosives expert to come check the bottle. “He shook it twice and said, ‘You’re good to go,’” she says. “He told me he gets called down multiple times a day over breast milk.” 

Carry-on luggage: Items not allowed on the plane

• Any kind of flammable fuel, such as cooking fuel or gasoline
• Other flammable items such as dynamite, firecrackers, spray paint and strike-anywhere matches
• Gel heating pads
• Sports equipment that could be used as a weapon, including bows and arrows, baseball bats, darts and golf clubs
• Many tools, such as box cutters, drills and drill bits, hammers and saws
• Many sharp objects, including wine corkscrews, ice picks, meat cleavers and sabers
• Weapons such as knives, guns, swords and throwing stars 

Liquids and electronics: Rules about what can and cannot fly with you

• Remove from your bag any electronics larger than a cellphone, including laptops, e-readers, tablets and handheld games. Place each one in a plastic bin by itself with nothing else under, around or on top.
• Follow the 3-1-1- Rule for liquids. This means all liquids, aerosols, creams, gels and pastes must be in a sealable quart-sized bag in containers no larger than 3.4 ounces. You should remove the baggie from your carry-on and place it in a plastic bin for screening.
• Be aware that there are exceptions for liquid medications. You can carry medically necessary liquids in quantities larger than 3.4 ounces, but these must be removed and screened separately. If you’re traveling with an infant or toddler, you can bring baby food, formula and juice in “reasonable quantities.”
• Be careful with packing food in your carry-on, especially any items that have a creamy, liquid or gel consistency. These foods, including creamy cheeses, liquid chocolate and yogurt, are subject to the 3-1-1 rule. Canned food is allowed but could draw extra scrutiny because of how it looks on an X-ray. For that reason, the TSA recommends stowing it in your checked baggage. 

Many foods can cause glitches in security lines, and traveling internationally with food is likely to get you snagged at the point of entry. “I understand budget-conscious travelers don’t want to pay the high prices for airport or onboard food,” O’Rourke says. “However, my honest advice is to leave most food at home.” 

Still have doubts about an item you plan to take with you? Snap a photo and run it past AskTSA on Facebook messenger or Twitter between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern time daily. 

On Twitter, AskTSA has given its blessing to carrying on an array of items, including: condoms, fidget spinners and rotisserie chickens. But AskTSA has nixed other items, such as souvenir mini baseball bats, music stands and large “massager sticks.” 

Want to avoid snafus caused by unprepared travelers and security glitches? Keep an eye on the people in line when choosing which X-ray machine to go to, Portillo recommends. 

“Scan the lines and see which are moving and which are not,” she says. “Whether there is an extra picky screener, a group of kids or people with water bottles, one line may take twice as long to get through.” 

Don’t get grounded by the wrong ID

One important part of breezing through general security screening is having your ID out and ready to show a TSA agent. Now, a law known as the Real ID Act is affecting some flyers. 

Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005 in response to recommendations by the 9/11 Commission. The law prevents federal agencies from accepting IDs that do not meet minimum security standards. The goal? To thwart terrorists who try to use fake IDs. 

As of June 2018, 32 states are compliant with the REAL ID Act and the other 18 states, which include California, Missouri and Pennsylvania, have been granted extensions. All U.S. territories also have been granted extensions, except for American Samoa, which is non-compliant. Now, travelers from American Samoa can no longer use their IDs at airports. 

Right now, residents of all U.S. states can still use their IDs, but that will change on October 1, 2020, when all air travelers will be required to carry compliant IDs. 

If you are flying from a state that has been given an extension and you want to start carrying a compliant ID now, a U.S. passport or passport card might be your best options. However, they’re not your only choices. You can use other types of ID, including military IDs and the ID cards issued by Global Entry and other trusted traveler programs. 

But if you arrive at the airport without the proper ID, or you’ve forgotten your ID, you still might be allowed to fly if you undergo the TSA identity verification process, which includes filling out a form with your personal information and extra security screening. 

“The Real ID Act, especially as it relates to air travel, is about safety and security,” O’Rourke says. 

Fly through the airport with trusted traveler programs

If you’re eager to bypass some of the hassles of general security screening, consider a trusted traveler program. Most cost $100 or less for five years of much less stress at the airport. 

Comparing TSA Precheck, Global Entry and CLEAR

	TSA Precheck	Global Entry	CLEAR
Cost	$85 (5-year membership)	$100 (5-year-membership, includes TSA Precheck)	$179 a year
Why you should get it	TSA Precheck is best if you only fly within the U.S., at least a couple of times a year.	Global Entry is best if you travel internationally or plan a trip abroad	CLEAR is pricey, but it is best if you are a frequent flyer departing from airports that have CLEAR
Where is it available?	More than 200 airports and 53 airlines are participating in program.	Global Entry kiosks are in about 60 airports	Available in 24 airports
How does it improve the travel experience?	Dedicated TSA Precheck security line with expedited screening. You also don’t need to take off your shoes, belt and jacket, and won’t need to remove electronics from your bag.	On your return to the United States, you get to skip filling out the paper U.S. Customs and Border Protection form. In the airport, you go to a Global Entry kiosk, scan your passport and fill out the form electronically.	If you have CLEAR, you scan your boarding pass and tap your finger (or, if there’s a glitch, have your irises scanned) at a CLEAR kiosk. A CLEAR employee then escorts you straight to the front of the line for physical security screening.
Passport required?	No	Yes, or lawful permanent resident card	No
Application process?	Pre-enroll online, visit an enrollment center, get fingerprinted and verify your ID.	Pre-enroll online, visit an enrollment center for an interview, get fingerprinted and verify your ID.	Start the process online, visit a CLEAR location (no appointment necessary), complete your enrollment in 5-10 minutes (all you need is your ID).

Here’s a rundown of the main programs and their benefits: 

1. TSA Precheck

Get TSA Precheck if you only travel domestically and you fly at least one or two times a year. 

TSA Precheck is designed to allow trusted travelers at U.S. airports to speed through security screening faster. After you become a TSA Precheck member, you get to use a dedicated TSA Precheck security line, which is typically shorter than the general security screening line. Your wait might be as short as five minutes.

 As a TSA Precheck member, you also won’t need to take off your shoes, belt and jacket. And you won’t need to remove electronics from your bag. “It’s just a huge timesaver,” Portillo says. 

The application fee is $85, and the downside is that if you get rejected for any reason, you don’t get your money back, Miller points out. 

More than 200 airports and 53 airlines participate in TSA Precheck. But you might want to verify that an airline is part of the program before booking, Miller says. On a recent trip to South Africa, she unknowingly booked a flight on a non-participating airline. 

She had to go through general screening with five big camera lenses and a laptop, pulling everything out of her perfectly packed bag and then trying to shoehorn it all back in. “It was just a massive hassle,” she says. 

2. CLEAR

Get CLEAR if you’re a business traveler or other frequent flyer and you often fly out of airports that have CLEAR. 

CLEAR is a service offered by a private company that complements, but doesn’t replace, TSA Precheck. It’s pricey at $179 a year, but you might be able to get a discount, and many frequent travelers, especially business travelers, swear by the program. 

CLEAR uses biometrics, both scans of the eye and fingerprints, to verify the identity of members. If you have CLEAR, you can skip the initial wait in line to show your ID and boarding pass to a TSA agent. Instead, you scan your boarding pass and tap your finger (or, if there’s a glitch, have your irises scanned) at a CLEAR kiosk. 

A CLEAR employee then escorts you straight to the front of the line for physical security screening. If you have TSA Precheck, you go through that screening and get those benefits, such as not taking off your shoes. If you don’t, you go through standard screening. 

Frequent traveler Jacob Fu and his wife, Esther, who run the travel blog Local Adventurer, have had Global Entry and TSA Precheck for years and recently added CLEAR after seeing it in action at an airport. “It’s this amazing VIP experience,” he says. 

The service is offered only in 24 select airports, so it’s important to check which airports have it before you pay. Airports with CLEAR include those in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. 

In some airports, CLEAR can cut your wait in line down to a minute or so, says Andy Abramson, a business traveler who averages 200 days a year of travel and has done two round-the-world trips. 

“The smart travelers are using Precheck,” he says. “The really smart travelers are using Precheck and CLEAR.” 

3. Global Entry 

Get Global Entry if you fly at least once or twice a year and sometimes travel internationally or have plans for a trip abroad. 

Global Entry is a program that speeds up your re-entry into the United States after an international trip. There are Global Entry kiosks at about 60 airports. 

And Global Entry comes with TSA Precheck, so you get all those benefits when you head to the airport to leave the country. Global Entry costs only $15 more than TSA Precheck alone, so experts say it’s a good value. 

On your return to the United States, you get to skip filling out the paper U.S. Customs and Border Protection form. In the airport, you go to a Global Entry kiosk, scan your passport and fill out the form electronically. You get to skip the lines and avoid getting grilled by a customs agent. 

“Global Entry is the fastest way to getting back on U.S. soil,” Abramson says. 

Global Entry also offers benefits in some other countries. 

For example, U.S. citizens with Global Entry can use the Smartgate expedited traveler system when entering Australia and also can apply for expedited traveler systems in the Netherlands, Korea, Panama and Mexico. Global Entry status also is honored in the U.K. and New Zealand, Abramson says. 

Tip: If you don’t want to pay for Global Entry, you can still get expedited entry into the United States by using Mobile Passport Control, a free app authorized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “The Mobile Passport app is huge, and nobody knows about it,” Miller says.

The three programs above are the ones most U.S. travelers would find most useful. But depending on your situation, you might want to consider either NEXUS or SENTRI. 

NEXUS is designed to expedite travel between the United States and Canada.

SENTRI speeds up car travel between the United States and Mexico. 

Global Entry members also can apply to use both NEXUS and SENTRI benefits, so Global Entry still might make the most sense for a majority of travelers. 

“Of all the trusted traveler programs, Global Entry is my favorite,” O’Rourke says. 

Credit cards can cut trusted traveler costs

A number of credit cards will reimburse your application fee for a trusted traveler program. 

Some of these cards are premium cards that have high annual fees. For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card ($450 annual fee) includes a $100 credit for TSA Precheck or Global Entry and an annual $300 travel credit to offset that annual fee. 

It’s smart to weight the benefits versus the cost to see if paying a premium card’s annual fee is worth it to you, Portillo says. 

However, you don’t need to pay a hefty annual fee to get the perk. The new United Explorer Card, from Chase, has no annual fee during the first year ($95 thereafter) and offers up to $100 statement credit for your application fee for Global Entry or TSA Precheck. 

And the Capital One Venture card offers up to $100 credit for the application fee, and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year. 

If you are a Delta SkyMiles frequent flyer or credit cardholder, you can get a free or discounted CLEAR membership of $70 or $99 a year, with the cost depending on your status with the airline. 

Don’t apply for a trusted travel program just because you can get it at a discount. Instead, take the time to weight the cost, the pros and cons and whether you’ll use the benefits. 

“Choose the program that best fits your traveling style,” O’Rourke says. 

See related:

TSA Precheck, Global Entry credits now offered on lower-annual-fee cards, 9 travel-related fees, perks your rewards card may cover for free