At my recent check-in, the same security questions were asked. When I inquired, the agent said that they had not received any directive from their management not to ask the questions, and although she had seen the same news reports that I had, she could not go by that until higher-ups gave the word.

Interestingly, the news reports said those questions have been asked for 16 years. I seem to recall the questions were put in place in response to the Unibomber threat to blow up aircraft over the July 4 weekend in 1995 or so.