Hi Glen!
The answer is that In The News is for discussing a wide range of topics of interest to FlyerTalk members. Stories like this one, on ID checking, are of relevance and interest to FlyerTalkers.
Lots of news stories get posted in OMNI that would be completely acceptable here In The News. But threads here should start with the news story (preferably with a link), while that is not (obviously) required for OMNI.