Passports Required: New Travel Rules

By: Britney Glaser

Beginning January 23rd, there will be new passport regulations affecting everyone flying away from U.S. soil. At the Lake Charles Post Office, passport clerks are seeing the highest number of applicants ever to come through their doors.

Prior to October, the Lake Charles Post Office had been steadily seeing about 40 people per month applying for passports, but last month brought in a huge influx with 40 per day. These applicants are getting ready for the new list of regulations and if you're planning on traveling abroad any time soon-then you might be next in line.

The new regulations are a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Congress amended portions of the Act in 2006, and now, the Department of Homeland Security is prepared to require all travelers to present a passport when entering the United States.

Postal Service Passport Clerk, James Coleman, says, "The increase with the new demands for passports in 2007 and 2008, yes, people are kind of panicking right now getting passports and having them ready for special cruises, traveling, or a lot of citizens that are naturalized here in the United States have to be able to go home."

The new passport requirements come in two phases. The first phase takes effect January 23rd, 2007 and requires all persons traveling between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda to carry passports. The second phase takes effect the following year and will require passports for land or sea travel to the listed destinations.

If you need to get a passport, here's what you need to bring to the passport office: birth certificate, two passport photos, a driver's license and a form of payment (check, cash or credit card). And remember, it takes 6-8 weeks to receive a passport, so allow plenty of time before your travel date. The current price for a passport is $97.00, but if expedited it costs $187.00.

The Busiest Travel Days of the Year

The TSA estimates 25-million people will take to the skies this weekend.

This is the first major holiday since the new checked baggage restrictions were put in place in August.

And according to the Air Transport Association, airlines are filling a record number of seats.

That means longer security lines, and more people on flights means more luggage for airlines to keep track of.

And Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, wasn't the busiest this week. Sunday is and so is Monday, with everyone coming home.

But you might not know it when you hear from the people we talked to.

When it comes to traveling, Sierra Campbell knows what she's doing.

"For the fall, I go home in August, Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, Easter, and then the summer. My next trip is Japan, in the summer. That's my next farthest trip," said Sierra.

Usually the only thing Sierra really worries about is getting to the gate on time.

"Please come an hour ahead of your flight because you'll get left. Like you can't check in after an hour. And try to buy your tickets as early as possible because then you'll get the best seat. You don't want to sit all the way in the back close to the toilet," said Sierra.

While Sierra needs only to consider herself, there's 6 people in Michelle Albright's family.
She says she had a feeling they'd run into a few glitches this time.

"Every body says it's the busiest travel week of the year. So we thought we'd have to wait and it'd be longer," said Michelle.

But it turned out to be a very smooth trip.
They went to New York City for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The hardest thing about their trip was fighting the rain.

"Staying dry on Thursday," said Michelle.

And in a week many of us overeat and feel a little black and blue over Black Friday, it turned out well for both savvy travelers.

"We went, we came back, it was no hassle, no thought," said Michelle.

Some things to think about if you're traveling for Christmas.

If you come bearing gifts, don't wrap them. They could get examined by security.

By Kristin Smith

Lucescu ideas bearing fruit

FC Shakhtar Donetsk remain in contention to join Valencia CF in the knockout rounds from UEFA Champions League Group D after defeating a "tired" AS Roma in Ukraine. Home coach Mircea Lucescu was obviously delighted with the three points, but took more pleasure from the manner of victory.

Mircea Lucescu, Shakhtar coach
The win was sweet because Roma are one of the strongest sides in Italy. The margin of victory wasn't big, but it still gives us revenge after the [4-0] defeat we suffered in Rome. The result could have been even more impressive because we had a number of chances and Elano Blumer hit the post. We prepared thoroughly and starved [Francesco] Totti, Mancini and [Simone] Perrotta of the ball; that's why we won. I'm happy with the result but more so that my ideas are finally starting to bear fruit.

Luciano Spalletti, Roma coach
Shakhtar deserved the victory as we didn't come to our usual standards. It was one of our worst performances of late. They were strong but we made too many defensive mistakes which cost us the match. They took advantage of our frailty and taught us a lesson. We did not underestimate them because you cannot do that to any team in the Champions League. We lost because we were tired and we couldn't produce what we're capable of.

Sega Golf Club Playtest

The ugliest PS3 launch title is also a fun game of golf

By Anoop Gantayat

From its announcement in early September, we had a feeling that Sega Golf Club would be one of the PS3 launch's throw-away titles. The PS3 version appeared to resemble its Chihiro (that's the Xbox arcade board) counterpart, only running in high definition, something that's even more apparent now that we've actually played it. The game's menus even use borders to fake wide screen!

We should've known to trust Sega's arcade expertise a bit more. While Sega Golf Club is indeed the ugliest thing at the PlayStation 3's Japanese launch, it, like its arcade counterpart, is also an enjoyable game of digital golf.

The arcade version of the title is known for a unique swing controller, where you flip a lever back to select your power, then release when an on-screen marker reaches a hot spot. The PS3 version replicates this with the right analogue stick. You tilt the stick to select your power. A power meter indicates the power that you've selected, so you can make fine adjustments before releasing. A bar cycles right and left on top of the power meter. When it reaches the middle, you release the stick and your character swings away. Swinging is a bit more involved than in a certain other golf game that we'd been expecting at the PS3's launch, but after a bit of fiddling, you should get the "swing" of things.

On top of the swing controls, you have a variety of options that affect your shot. You can adjust your aim by turning your character left and right. You can select between wood, iron, wedge and putter clubs, although the game chooses this for you automatically if you don't want to worry about the specifics. You can also select the type of spin you want to give the ball: drop spin, top spin, fade spin and back spin. The arcade version had a touch screen for these options. The PS3 can't hope to replicate that, but at least everything is easily accessible with a single button press.

In addition to these realistic golf options, Sega's also given the title a set of five special shots, the same five forms that were featured in the arcade version: high power, high spin, super impact, super approach, and putting line. These shots give your character special abilities, from better aiming to added power. Each shot drains a certain amount of energy from an energy meter, so they can only be used a few times over an 18 hole match.

Most of these gameplay options should be familiar to players of the arcade version. The game's five courses are also pulled straight out of the latest arcade version. You'll find four real settings in Phoenix Country Club, Taiheiyo Club Gotemba, St. Andrews Old Course and Bali Hai Golf Club, along with one original creation, Sega Golf Club Sea Side Resort.

The big bonus for the PS3 version comes in the form of the Miyazato siblings. Yusaku Miyazato, Kiyoshi Miyazato and Ai Miyazato, three professional golfers who caused somewhat of a golf boom in Japan, are featured in the PS3 game as playable characters. The in-game versions look the part, although we find ourselves wishing that Sega had saved them for a game that truly uses the PS3's power.

Outside of the three, the game includes eight typically wacky Sega arcade characters, rated on power, control and spin. But if these aren't enough, you can make your own variation of all the characters, selecting clothing and golf gear. As you play the game, you earn items that can be used to dress up your character further. The only nuisance with character creation is that the game doesn't have an option to automatically load up your character; it's somewhat of a hassle to have to reload your character from memory each time you begin play.

Most of the game modes will be familiar from the arcade, but there's still plenty to suck up your time, especially when playing on your own. Single player modes include 18 hole round play versus 3 computer opponents, a putter golf mode featuring obstacles and prizes to earn, and challenge mode, in which short single-stroke challenges are set up in an Outrun-like progression chart. The putter mode is particularly fun thanks to the variety of obstacles and the amount of strategy required in order to collect the items that are placed on the course. Challenge mode includes 45 challenges for each of the five courses, and should require a substantial time investment, especially considering how tough some of the challenges are.

Multiplayer supports up to four players and includes 18 hole play and a short three hole match. You can gamble items in this mode, in case you want to make sure everyone takes things seriously. Those who aren't willing to invest $150 buying three additional Sixaxis controllers will be pleased to learn that multiplayer can be played by switching a single controller off. The only thing missing from multiplayer play is online play, a strange absence, considering the arcade version at least allowed players to face off in nation-wide tournaments using player data.

But expecting full network play would probably be asking too much. Sega clearly didn't invest too much time in the home version of Sega Golf Club. While it's an enjoyable game, and a good way to pass the time given the limited Japanese launch lineup, the PS3 is still waiting for a true golf title, which we expect will arrive from Sony some time next year.