<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The federal government came down hard yesterday on the nation's largest provider of airline passenger and baggage screening after a series of security lapses that culminated with last week's fiasco at San Francisco International Airport.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta announced that repeated problems with Argenbright Security Inc. prompted his decision to begin phasing out the company's services from airports across the nation.</font>