Free Republic

Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime. ~ snip ~ The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an...

A mother and daughter whose puppy died while flying United are alleging that a flight attendant knowingly forced the animal into an overhead bin. And now Catalina Robledo and her young daughter, Sophia Ceballos, are saying the flight attendant responsible is lying about the encounter that killed their 10-month-old French bulldog, Kokito. "It makes me feel sad -- I just really miss him," Sophia, 11, said Tuesday in an interview with ABC News. "He was a member of our family. He was like my brother to me." "He was special," she added, holding back tears. "He was really smart and...

The mainstream media and the Left are unfairly blaming the National Rifle Association (NRA) for the February 14 Parkland, Florida shooting, and corporations are kowtowing to demands that they cut ties with the gun lobby group. Delta Airlines and United Airlines are two of those companies, both which just ended their NRA discount policies, and now Georgia Republicans are retaliating by pledging to kill the airline tax-cut bill.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Mayor Sly James is moving in fast to try and lure Delta Airlines to moving its headquarters to our city. Delta is in the middle of a little bit of a squabble with Republicans in Georgia. Delta pulled its discount program for NRA members to attend their annual meetings and is asking the gun rights group to remove any references to its airline from its website. Some Republicans say Delta's move is an attack on conservatives. Georgia's Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle tweeted his disapproval and says he will use his power to kill any...

In 2017, 771,556,886 passengers traveled through 440 federally secured airports. Of those, only 3,957 forget that a firearm was in their carry-on baggage. There are over 400 million private firearms in the United States, 16 million people with permits to carry firearms, and 13 states where no permit is required to carry a concealed weapon.  That less than 4,000 forgot a firearm in their carry-on is amazingly low. That is one for every 200,000 passengers. Just a little over 1/3 or 34.8% of the firearms had a round in the chamber. They could not have been accidentally discharged in...

A college student said she flushed her emotional support hamster down the toilet after Spirit Airlines refused to let her bring her furry pet on the plane. Belen Aldecosea, 21, of Miami Beach, Florida, told the Miami Herald that she contacted Spirit Airlines before her flight from Baltimore to South Florida on Nov. 21, 2017, regarding traveling with her dwarf hamster, Pebbles. Aldecosea claimed the airline told her it was not a problem to bring her hamster on the flight. However, when the student arrived at the airport she said the airline refused to let Pebbles on the plane. Aldecosea...

A student who flushed her hamster down the toilet when Spirit told her she couldn't fly home with it, is now attempting to sue the airline for causing emotional distress. Aldecosea, a Miami Beach High graduate, insists her doctor approved her hamster as a certified emotional support animal, and had the medical certificate to prove it when she went to the airport. She's bought the adorable rodent after developing a large but benign growth in her neck last year. 'She was so loving. It was like she knew I needed somebody,' said Aldecosea, a six-feet tall volleyball star who helped...

A new record has been set for the fastest ever transatlantic flight in a subsonic passenger aircraft from New York to London after the journey was completed in just over five hours. The Norwegian Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was able to reach a top speed of 776mph as it hurtled across the Atlantic Ocean after being pushed on the 3,458-mile journey by an extra strong jet stream that at times reached 202mph. This meant that Monday's Norwegian DY7014 service from JFK to London Gatwick only took a total of five hours and 13 minutes, shaving 53 minutes off the expected flight...

A New Zealand woman has complained about seeing the breasts and underwear of Air Asia flight attendants, saying their uniforms are ruining Malaysia's reputation. Dr June Robertson from Wellington has written a letter to Malaysian senator Hanafi Mamat which was posted to Facebook on Tuesday. In the letter, Dr Robertson said she 'felt very offended by the extremely short skirts these females wear on Air Asia'.

BOSTON (AP) - A Boston police detective is set to be sentenced Thursday for lying to federal officials so he could take his gun on planes during personal trips and allow a friend to avoid airport security. Sgt. Detective Bruce Smith faces up to a year of probation under the terms of a plea deal. He has also agreed to resign from the department and pay a $7,500 fine. The 28-year veteran of the force was charged last year with falsely telling Transportation Security Administration officials that he was on official police business and was authorized to carry his firearm....

A uniform policy by Scandinavian airline SAS banning staff who deal directly with customers from wearing religious symbols like headscarves does not breach anti-discrimination laws, Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) has judged. The policy first made headlines in April 2017, when a woman who had gone through the interview process for a job with the company was told she would not be allowed to wear a headscarf if she took the position. Aye Alhassani told The Local at the time that she thought it would have been better if the company told her about the policy at the start of the...

So, I bet you’ve heard about the airline incident between a woman and Texas Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Katie wrote about it. In all, Jean-Marie Simon was booted from her first class seat on a United flight for Lee. Simon was obviously upset, voiced her objections, and was even threatened with being forced off the flight. She was eventually given a $500 voucher for her pre-paid seat and relocated to economy class. She alleges that United gave the Texas Democrat preferential treatment. The saga got even worse when Lee accused Simon of racism regarding this matter. I noted that this...

Vietnam's VietJet Aviation said on Thursday (Dec 28) it was standing by a controversial "bikini" calendar, a marketing ploy featuring scantily clad female models that has prompted criticism in conservative South-east Asia and beyond. The annual calendar, which has gone viral online, is part of a broader marketing push by VietJet that has propelled the start-up airline's rapid growth, as it has taken market share from Vietnam Airlines. The publication of the 2018 calendar - which critics say overly sexualises the image of flight attendants and other airline staff - comes as there is a growing debate in the global...

FULL TITLE: Family sues Alaska Airlines after wheelchair-bound grandmother fell down airport escalator and died following surgery to amputate her leg due to wounds from her accident A family is suing Alaska Airlines and a contractor after a disabled 75-year-old grandmother suffered a fall down a Portland International Airport escalator in June and later died. Video captured the moment that Bernice Kekona, seat-belted to her power wheelchair, tumbled and crashed down an escalator, landing near the bottom with the heavy chair on top of her. After her flight from Hawaii landed in Portland in June 2017, the family says they...

A plane heading from Los Angeles to Tokyo turned back because an unauthorized person was on board. KABC-TV reports All Nippon Airways Flight 175 left Los Angeles International Airport around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, but it never arrived at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. Model Chrissy Teigen, who was on the plane, tweeted that the flight made a U-turn about four hours into the 11-hour flight.A plane heading from Los Angeles to Tokyo turned back because an unauthorized person was on board. KABC-TV reports All Nippon Airways Flight 175 left Los Angeles International Airport around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, but it never arrived...

A negligence lawsuit claiming Spirit Airlines fed alcohol to rowdy female passengers and then failed to defuse a subsequent cabin brawl has crashed and burned. After a 12-day trial that ended Thursday in Los Angeles, a jury decided the carrier was not responsible for the violent March 2016 clash that was caught on video and quickly went viral. The lawsuit, announced in New York last year by three Delaware women and their plaintiff's lawyer Gloria Allred, claimed Spirit's flight attendants had an obligation to act when the problem passengers exhibited aggressive behavior such as blasting music and waving a boom...

One of the broadest provisions on the Republican-backed tax bill working its way through congress this week is a massive tax cut for corporations. And if the legislation is approved, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines may put some major fleet upgrades in the pipeline. According to Bloomberg, Gary Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines suggested that the tax cut "puts us in a position to think about growing faster" and "gives us an opportunity to begin to modernize our fleet." Southwest's fleet is uniquely made entirely up of variants of the Boeing 737, which makes maintenance easier for the carrier but which...

The Minnesota owners of Sun Country Airlines are selling the Eagan-based carrier. Apollo Global Management, a New York-based investment group, will purchase the airline for an undisclosed sum. Mitch and Marty Davis, the current owners, said they decided to sell Sun Country to a group that could help grow the company faster. The headquarters will stay in Minnesota and Jude Bricker will remain president and chief executive.

*Stephanie Ung, 26, and a friend were returning from a birthday trip to Cancun on Thursday when they were detained by immigration agents at the Atlanta airport *Delta officials said they alerted authorities because other passengers thought the two girls might be human-trafficking victims *The two girls were detained for more than an hour, causing Ung to miss Thanksgiving dinner *Ung says she believes she and her friend, who are Asian American, were racially profiled as human trafficking victims *She said in this case, the passengers' suspicions were wrong and they should have just minded their 'own business' Read more:...

State-owned airline Air China suspended flights Tuesday between Beijing and North Korea due to a lack of demand, deepening the North's isolation amid mounting U.N. sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. The move followed U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to add Pyongyang to a list of governments that support terrorism but there was no indication that prompted Air China's decision. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said he had no information. The suspension left North Korea's Air Koryo as the only airline with regularly scheduled service to the North. Its website lists flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Dandong in...