Sealants, like weather stripping, are what separates the inside from the outside of a building, byproviding a barrier that prevents water from seeping in, for example, or heat from leaking out.

Just as a chain is as strong as its weakest link, a building is as secure against the environment as its most degraded joint sealants, about 50 percent of which fail in less than 10 years after installation.

By Thomas Frank WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration may allow airports to ban firearms from terminals, parking lots, roads and other airport areas where many states currently allow passengers to carry lethal weapons.

By Laura McCandlish, The Baltimore Sun Apr. 1--Soothing blue and purple lights, ambient music, free Ziploc bags for liquid toiletries -- these are the government's latest tactic for better safeguarding the nation's passenger planes.

ATLANTA - Starting Monday, two federal inspectors stationed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will begin training with bomb-sniffing dogs as part of a nationwide effort to increase cargo screening on passenger planes.