El Paso, TX City Rep Rachel Quintana is in trouble - she's currently under investigation for forgery, using an old ID card from her previous employment at FedEx to purchase a discounted ticket on Southwest Airlines. Several El Paso city officials believe that Quintana's integrity has been severely challenged due to this incident - while some see it as a political stunt. Either way, Quintana used an ID card belonging to FedEx to purchase a ticket from Texas to California nearly one month after she left the company.

John F. Kennedy Middle School in Enfield, Mass. has launched a unique student ID program that allows students to use their cards not only for a variety of functions at school, but also at the Enfield Public Library. Perhaps the most exciting benefit of the new system is that students can gain entry over the Internet to the library's 11 research databases by entering the bar code number found on their IDs. And students can access all of these resources from their home computers.

Washington D.C. area airports may become the newest users of a unique travel ID card program. The Registered Traveler program, the brainchild of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), makes security checks at airports less of a hassle for frequent travelers. Registered travelers pay a small fee and then undergo a thorough background check before being issued an ID card which allows them to bypass the snaking lines of passengers that have become common at airport security checks.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors recently enacted a piece of legislation that would provide ID cards to all residents of the city - a program designed to make San Francisco residents that are in the "social margins" (namely the homeless and immigrant populations) receive city services and help them gain bank accounts.

Employee ID cards have become a fact of life for many workers - a permanent addition to work clothes or a uniform, ID badges help identify employees to customers, clients, and in larger offices, fellow employees. Multi-purpose ID cards with magnetic stripes or smart card functionality can also be used for access control, building security, parking, time and attendance, even meals in company cafeterias. ID badges are one of the cheapest and most effective forms of security for any business or organization - but widespread implementation has been a bit more difficult, due to the necessary development of a good ID card policy.