A security threat issued this week by Homeland Security regarding shoe bomb attacks on international flights into the U.S. is due to intelligence reports showing Al-Qaeda plotting the attacks.
DHS issued the warning after Ibrahim Hassaon al-Asiri, a Saudi Arabian man who plotted other failed shoe bomb attacks for the terrorist group, reportedly has developed a new method of hiding explosives in shoes.
U.S. officials label al-Asiri the best terrorist bomb maker in the world.
The bulletin to security screeners around the world calls on them to use swabs containing explosive detecting chemicals on shoes because an X-ray may not be able to detect the devices.
Increased security has already been seen in London and Amsterdam.
The DHS report says that the current plot is not connected in any way to plot involving the current Olympic games.
An FCC commissioner is raising the alarm about some within the administration and the FCC that want to investigate internal workings of newsrooms.
Ajit Pai wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the FCC is proposing what they term a “voluntary” study of broadcasters regarding the stories they run and the stories that do not make it to air. Investigators would enter newsrooms across the country and question reporters, editors and station owners about the items covered on their air and what information was included in those reports.
Commissioner Pai says that the FCC is seeking to discover “station bias” and “perceived responsiveness to underserved populations.” The investigators will ask questions directed to find out “the process by which stories are selected.”
One of the questions that will be asked of reporters is “Have you ever suggested coverage of what you consider a story with critical information for your customers that was rejected by management?”
Commissioner Pai noted while those at the FCC pushing this study say it’s voluntary, the people being asked to participate cannot operate their businesses without licenses from the FCC. Rejecting the study could be seen as a negative when the station asks for a license renewal.
The study also wants to include newspapers when the FCC has no authority to regulate print media.
The H1N1 virus, which killed over 14,000 people in a 2009 global pandemic, has returned with a vengeance in the 2013-14 flu season.
The Centers for Disease Control says that for the first time since that 2009 outbreak, H1N1 has been killing victims at an epidemic level.
The CDC says that the death toll is only a fraction of the 2009 outbreak but that levels are significantly higher than previous years. With six weeks to go in the flu season, some states have seen more than a nine-fold increase in deaths. California has 243 deaths this year compared to 26 at this time last year.
Some California hospitals have been so overrun with flu patients that they have set up triage units in their parking lots to keep infected patients away from potentially immunosuppressed patients in the main hospital building.
Many Californians rushed to get flu shots after a woman who worked for Sacramento’s ABC TV affiliate died from H1N1 within four days of feeling ill.
The CDC also says that surveillance reports in Virginia and Maryland show a wide outbreak of H1N1 but they along with the District of Columbia do not record deaths from the flu.
Duke University Medical Center reported a disturbing trend in that most hospitalized flu patients were younger, an average age of 28.5, and had more significant complications than in previous H1N1 outbreaks.
The latest winter storm to hit the East Coast has helped raise record levels of snow.
In Philadelphia, the snowfall Tuesday raised this winter’s total to the third highest in the history of the city. Officials said the snowfall level was surprising because only one of the 13 winter storms that brought snowfall reached more than one foot of snow, although 11 storms with more than one inch of snow ties two other winter seasons since recordkeeping began in the 1800s.
Another 2-4 inches is possible on Wednesday before temperatures will rise into the 40s.
In New York, the storm brought enough snow to raise the amount of February snowfall to 28 inches, more than the average snowfall for the entire winter season in Central Park. The overall snowfall total is the seventh highest in New York City history.
New Jersey officials who had been facing a shortage of road salt decided to stop waiting on the Department of Homeland Security to give a waiver for an international barge to bring salt from Maine and have found an American barge which is heading to Maine.
Another day, another winter weather record.
Meteorologists say that 5 inches of snow fell at Chicago’s O’Hare airport Monday bringing the total for the winter season to 67.9 inches. The total ranks as the 5th highest in the history of the state.
The storm brought whiteout conditions to Chicago through Cleveland and forced the cancellation or delay of over 2,000 flights from Chicago’s two major airports.
Some of the snowfall was “thunder snow” accompanied by lightning and thunder. Some communities reported as much as two inches of snow falling in a single hour. Parts of northern Michigan reported up to 9 inches of snow from the storm.
The storm is now moving rapidly to the East Coast for the third heavy snowstorm in the last three weeks. New York, Philadelphia and Boston are all expected to see significant accumulations. Power outages are likely with at least 2,000 customers in southeastern Pennsylvania in the dark as of Tuesday morning.
Officials from Maryland to Maine have issued travel advisories for the afternoon commute.
A major credit card company has changed their rules with cardholders that allow them access that not even the government can have without obtaining a warrant from a judge.
Capital One issued an update saying “we may contact you in any manner we choose” and specifies that in addition to calls, emails, texts or faxes the company can pay you a “personal visit.”
The visits are specified to be both at the cardholder’s home or their place of employment.
Government organizations such as the Internal Revenue Service are prohibited from visiting your home without an arrest warrant.
Lawyers specializing in illegal-search cases say the Constitution only applies to law enforcement so it’s unlikely that anyone will be able to stop Capital One on grounds it violates a citizen’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The company’s agreement also states they are allowed to use fake Caller ID information in attempts to reach consumers. That means they can create bogus charitable organizations such as Disabled Children Fund and use that to identify themselves on home and cell phones.
Capital One officials say that despite the ominous language in the agreement, they will not be visiting the homes of customers unless the items are large ticket items like snowmobiles or Jet Skis.
A spokesman for Capital One said they are reviewing the language.
A new study from the Defense Commissary Agency says that food stamp use by soldiers and their families has skyrocketed during the current administration.
The DCA report says that use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has more than tripled since 2008. In 2008, the amount of SNAP benefits used by troops was $31.1 million. At the end of fiscal year 2013, the amount used by troops had jumped to $103.6 million.
The report did show the rate of increase is slowing.
Pentagon officials interviewed by CNN said they do not track soldiers who are receiving assistance but that the troops using food stamps are likely those who are at the bottom of the ranks. Base pay for a new soldier with a spouse and child is about $20,000.
The amount given to soldiers is only a small amount of the $80 billion annually given out on the food stamp program.
The lethal combination of heroin and fentanyl that had been making its move along the East Coast has now killed at least 80 people in the last few weeks.
The tainted heroin has now drawn a bulletin from the Drug Enforcement Association to local authorities for “killer heroin.” Fentanyl is considered 80 times stronger than morphine and is used for people in extreme pain such as cancer patients.
Police in Vermont have released information that pure fentanyl is being sold as heroin in their state.
Ellen Unterwald of the Center for Substance Abuse Research at Temple University said the dealers sell the drug as creating a “super high” but don’t mention the fentanyl. Unterwald said just a small amount of the drug can be lethal by stopping the victim’s breathing.
New York City police released information that the heroin that killed actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was not a tainted batch of heroin but pure drug.
A woman who had been accused of stabbing a man to death after luring him to a meeting using the social media site Craigslist shocked officials when she not only admitted to the murder but many others.
Miranda Barbour, 19, said that she stopped counting the number of people she killed when she reached 22. Barbour said that not only did she remember every killing but also that she could point out on a map the locations of all of her victims.
Barbour said that she joined a satanic cult when she was 13 and living in Alaska with her mother. She said that she then killed people in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California and that all killings were being done for the cult.
Barbour and her husband Elytte are facing the death penalty for the killing of Troy LaFerrara.
“He said the wrong things,” Barbour told the Sunbury Daily Item. “And then things got out of control. I can tell you he was not supposed to be stabbed. My husband was just supposed to strangle him.”
A judge has granted a request for a forensic psychiatrist to evaluate Barbour.
The massive winter storms that shut down most of the eastern United States have now caused more flight cancellations than any storm in the last 25 years.
According to data from the flight tracking website FlightAware, 5.5% of all U.S. flights scheduled since December 1st have been cancelled because of the winter storms that have wreaked havoc from the Gulf Coast to the Canadian border.
At least 14,000 flights have been cancelled so far this week because of the most recent storm.
On Thursday, more than 70% of flights from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Charlotte were cancelled because of the dangerous icy conditions. The record flight data since December 1st also notes that ice caused cancellations in airports where it normally has very little impact like Dallas and Houston.
Part the increase is related to a 2010 Department of Transportation rule that airlines may not keep passengers in a plane on the tarmac more than 3 hours.