Free Republic

THE STATE ETHICS Commission came up with three solutions to state Senator Dan Wolf's conflict-of-interest problem. Allow me to suggest a fourth. Wolf is the pilot and entrepreneur who founded Cape Air in 1989 and over the next two decades built it into one of the country's most successful regional airlines. He was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 2010, and now hopes to run for governor. But the Ethics Commission ruled last month that Wolf was in violation of state law, which bars elected officials from having a business relationship with any state agency. Since Wolf still owns...

A Chicago woman has settled with the city of Chicago after she was left with more than $100,000 in parking fines when her ex-boyfriend abandoned her car in an inaccessible airport parking lot for nearly three years. Jennifer Fitzgerald initially owed the city of Chicago a whopping $105,000 after a 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo – a used car that was bought for $600 and registered in her name – was parked at O’Hare Airport for three years starting in November 2009. It was parked there by Fitzgerald’s ex, According to DNA Info Chicago the city agreed to drop $100,000 in...

Rabbi Yaakov Pinsky, director of Chaiyanu/Chai Lifeline Israel, who was traveling with the group, explained that after everyone was checked in the medical staff gave the kids their last pre-flight exam after which they were seated on the plane. A staffer collected the passports, but was shocked to discover that one was missing. “No one could find Inbar’s passport. Our staff looked high and low, in and under every seat and seat pocket. No passport was found. The flight attendants immediately called the ground crew to help them locate the lost passport. The airport was alerted, and they too...

The highly lethal nerve agent VX -- used in weapons of mass destruction -- appears to have been discovered in a mail facility at JFK Airport where two US customs agents were sickened this morning, a law-enforcement source said. Both victims suffered respiratory distress and were taken for emergency treatment after being overcome while inside the US Postal Service facility on North Boundary Road at 9:40 a.m., the source said. Initial testing after the incident revealed the presence of "chemical-grade weapons and nerve gas," and subsequent testing produced a positive reading for VX, the source said.

Maggots found in Atlanta airport sandwich, food inspections enhanced ATLANTA — Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport officials tell Channel 2 Action News they are enhancing the way they inspect restaurants inside the airport after a man showed Channel 2 Action News a sandwich he purchased from an airport vendor had maggots. The passenger told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri he bought a sandwich at an airport restaurant Wednesday morning. When he opened it he said he was stunned to find maggots on it. Joel Woloshuk says he got out his phone and recorded video of the bugs crawling on his focaccia...

The Muslim terrorist group Qa’adat el-Jihad claimed responsibility Saturday for a terrorist bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria. The bombing in Bulgaria last week killed five Israelis, one a pregnant woman. The Lebanese paper El-Nashra reported that the group, which has ties to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility in an email to the Arab press.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's military says it has ordered the closure of the airport in the Red Sea resort of Eilat. An official in the military spokesman's office said Thursday that the military has instructed the airport to cancel all landings and departures until further notice. She says the decision was made as a result of a security assessment, but did not elaborate. She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.

A huge fire destroyed a large part of Nairobi’s international airport early on Wednesday, closing East Africa's most important transport hub with dozens of high-season holiday flights diverted and disruption expected to last days. It is the 15th anniversary of al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania but officials said there was no immediate indication the fire was caused by a bomb or a deliberate act. The Kenya Red Cross said that there were no reports of casualties.

WASHINGTON — As hundreds of commuters emerged from Amtrak and commuter trains at Union Station on a recent morning, an armed squad of men and women dressed in bulletproof vests made their way through the crowds. The squad was not with the Washington police department or Amtrak’s police force, but was one of the Transportation Security Administration’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response squads — VIPR teams for short — assigned to perform random security sweeps to prevent terrorist attacks at transportation hubs across the United States. “The T.S.A., huh,” said Donald Neubauer of Greenville, Ohio, as he walked past the...

Snowden Gets Temporary Asylum in Russia, Leaves Airport By PAUL SONNE MOSCOW—National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has received asylum for a year in Russia and has left Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, his lawyer said on Thursday. NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, says the U.S. has left him "stateless". Is that the case? What happens when the U.S. revokes an American's passport? How often does that happen? How do you renounce your citizenship? WSJ's Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer. Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who has been representing Mr. Snowden in Moscow, said the U.S. fugitive received so-called "temporary asylum" for a period of...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Federal aviation officials have advised all foreign airlines to use a GPS system instead of visual reckoning and cockpit instruments when landing at San Francisco International Airport in the wake of the deadly Asiana Airlines crash.</p>

Explosion in arrivals hall at Beijing airport - media reports The blast occurred in the arrivals hall of terminal three, Xinhua news agency reported. The agency gave no immediate details on the cause of the blast or the potential number of casualties. But local media quoted by the South China Morning Post said there had been at least one victim of the blast – a wheelchair user – who was rushed to hospital. His condition remains unknown.

<p>A man died after suffering a heart attack at Kennedy Airport after two teams of first responders failed to reach him — because their electronic ID cards couldn’t open secure doors at the newly renovated Delta terminal...</p> <p>A Port Authority police emergency operator got the call at about 6:30 a.m. and was told Adekunle was “unresponsive” but breathing.</p>

Most dangerous airport Top 16

A navigation system that helps pilots make safe descents was turned off at San Francisco airport on Saturday when a South Korean airliner crashed and burned after undershooting the runway ... The system, called Glide Path, is meant to help planes land in bad weather. It was clear and sunny, with light winds, when Asiana ... San Francisco International has turned off the system for nearly the entire summer on the runway where the Asiana flight crashed, according to a notice from the airport on the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site

Airport spokesman Doug Yakel said, “The way we look at it…this was in the interest of maintaining a good relationship with ground transportation providers.” Ah, but did they use public money? Yes they did. Mr. Yakel says that those resources were nominal, with work done by in-house plumbers. So how does this square with the very people, many who live in San Francisco, who are always crying “Separation of Church and State”? Apparently they are just fine with it.

The mixed messages coming out of Russia surrounding Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked sensitive information, have now been clarified. According to a RT news report, President Vladimir Putin told reporters today that Snowden remains at the Moscow airport — and that he will not, despite U.S. demands, be extradited.

KABUL, Afghanistan Large explosions are being heard coming from the military side of Kabul international airport, which houses a NATO headquarters. The explosions began about 4:30 a.m. Monday from the direction of the military headquarters.

A group of about 100 high school students traveling from New York to Atlanta were thrown off a flight, along with their chaperones, after the pilot and crew lost patience with some kids who wouldn't sit down and put away their cellphones. The teenagers, all seniors at the Yeshiva of Flatbush, in Brooklyn, were ordered off the AirTran flight around 6 a.m. Monday as it sat at a gate at LaGuardia Airport. AirTran's parent company, Southwest Airlines, said in a statement that flight attendants asked passengers several times to take their seats and put their mobile devices away. The airline...

I’ve been asked by several followers to share my experiences and thoughts on Israeli airport security and how it stacks up against the TSA here in the U.S. First let me detail my experiences with Israeli security. We arrived to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv via a local taxi. The car was stopped at the gate to the airport and a security guard armed with an M4 rifle asked the driver a few questions in Hebrew. He then walked around the car and opened the rear door to ask me where I was going. I responded I was going...