Feature 1: The TSA is threatening to ground Texas because the Lone Star State is about to pass legislation (HB 1937) that bans the TSA from “touching your junk.”

The TSA sent a letter to Texas legislators explaining what would happen if the state passes the law. This may have been the right thing to do under the circumstances, but it’s never a good idea to pick a states’ rights fight in Texas when you’re a federal agency.

To make matters worse, this issue is no longer just about the TSA vs. Texas. The “United States for Travel Freedom Caucus,” with state legislators from nine states, is now gearing up to “stop TSA abuses.”

This is yet another example of the TSA finding itself trying to get out of a bad situation.

United States for Travel Freedom Caucus plans to stop TSA abuses- Hawaii Reporter
Blogger Bob: There is more to security than simply going through a checkpoint – Elliott.org
Think twice before frowning in the security line - Fast Company

Feature 2: The American Airlines vs. GDS fight over American’s Direct Connect took a few steps forward with interesting new developments.

First up, American was more than happy to let the cat out of the bag about the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust probe into global distribution systems practices.

Then Travelport filed its own response to American’s earlier antitrust lawsuit. The response is a motion to dismiss, alleging that American is just using the lawsuit as a bargaining chip.

American Airlines cooperating with DOJ’s antitrust GDS probe - AA.com
Travelport’s motion to dismiss filing – Travelport.com
U.S. probe into GDSs could last months - Travel Weekly
American wants to know what Sabre has planned - dallasnews.com

Here’s the rest of the week’s interesting news:

Ashton Kutcher knows his start-ups - NYT
Ashton Kutcher invests in Airbnb, joins team - Airbnb Blog

ViajaNet secures $19 million – ViajaNet (pr)
Hipmunk CEO: Entrepreneurs think it’s getting wacky, too – peHUB
How Hipmunk gained traction as the go-to flight-search site – Entrepreneur.com

Google testing flight search results in UK - SEOgadget
Social search goes global – Google Social Web

gtrot launches as the evolved social travel site – gtrot.com
Visa launches travel-themed marketing campaign with Facebook app – Visa.com

Foursquare: Is your business worth bragging about? Wilhelmus.ca
One week on Foursquare: Where people go and what they do – WSJ

Jet Tracker database: Where private jet owners go - WSJ
Social flights brings private jet travel to the masses – Mashable

Kayak hires first-ever CFO ahead of pending IPO – AllThingsD
Spirit Airlines Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVE) completes IPO, opens 5.4 percent down – WSJ

Disney cuts taxes by selling tickets to itself - OrlandoSentinel
Brandjacking costs hotels $2.2 billion per year - MarkMonitor via HNN

Grounded British test plane highlights ash data gaps - Reuters
IATA slams Europe’s response to Grimsvotn – IATA.org
Ash flight rules to be overhauled - Telegraph

Photo – TSA.gov

Related posts:
TravelTechnology Weekly #25 – May 20, 2011
TravelTechnology Weekly #24 – May 13, 2011
TravelTechnology Weekly #23 – May 6, 2011