The GAO makes the point that airlines have begun imposing a variety of fees on a wide range of optional services — things like checked and carry-on bags, meals, blankets, early boarding and seat selection.

Airline officials say the fees are based on a combination of factors, including the cost of providing the service, competition and consumer demand.

The fees have supplemented airline revenues, providing at least $3 billion in 2009 — a small but growing amount of total revenue. However, information about the fees is not always fully disclosed to consumers, making it difficult for them to compare the total cost of flights offered by different carriers.

Click here for a link to the report summary, where you can also find a link for the whole report and its useful tables.

The Government Accountability Office reported recently that if the flu reaches a pandemic, a surge in telecommuting and children accessing video files and games at home could clog local networks.

And the government has no plan to deal with that problem, the GAO said.

Surprise, surprise.

Health and safety folks have been warning IT and upper managers for years that they need to have some plan in place to deal with flu in the workplace. But few organizations, at last count, have bothered to come up with a plan and take the time to assess the impact of flu.

The federal government seems to be no exception.

Network operators such as Comcast, AT&T, Cox and Verizon are limited in their options. They could add bandwidth capacity and lay down private lines for essential workers, but that is expensive and would take too long. Shutting down certain Web sites or prioritizing traffic could run into technical and regulatory hurdles, the report said.

An Internet service provider could decide to slow all connections in a certain neighborhood, but then that network operator would be violating contracts with customers, says the report.

“Private Internet providers have limited ability to prioritize traffic or take other actions that could assist critical tele-workers. Some actions, such as reducing customers’ transmission speeds or blocking popular Web sites, could negatively impact e-commerce and require government authorization,” the GAO report said.

To find out more about the GAO’s report, visit here.