Lasers a Growing Concern for Aircraft Pilots (+video)

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesThe pilot in the Asiana Airlines crash complaining of being temporarily blinded by a bright flash in the cockpit has revived concerns about the risks from people pointing lasers at aircraft.

Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said it wasn’t clear what could have caused the pilot’s problem when the plane was 500 feet in the air. Asked specifically whether it could have been a laser pointed from the ground, Hersman said she couldn’t say what caused it.

“We need to understand exactly what that is,” Hersman said. “It was a temporary issue.”

Whether at fault in the crash Saturday in San Francisco, lasers have been a persistent, growing concern for pilots, airlines and federal regulators. While they look relatively harmless, lasers pointed at a cockpit can temporarily blind pilots and distract them while they are taking off or landing a plane.

In 2012, there were 3,482 laser incidents, slightly down from the 3,591 the year before but a stark contrast to the 1,527 incidents in 2009, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The 2012 figure was roughly the same as the total number of reports from 2006 through 2009.

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Gas Prices Expected to Surge Again Soon

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Photo Credit: Grant Hindsley APGas prices are heading up again.

Rising crude oil prices and a fall in U.S. supplies are driving wholesale gas prices up sharply. That has yet to be fully reflected at the retail level.

Prices at the pump — up 4 cents the past week to a national average of $3.52 a gallon — could climb another 15 cents or higher over the next two weeks. A year ago, the national average was $3.38.

“It’s getting ugly,” says Patrick DeHaan, senior analyst for GasBuddy.com. “First and foremost, the political problems in Egypt are driving crude oil prices, but there has also been a sharp drop in oil supplies the past two weeks. This is coming at a time when demand is at its annual July peak.”

Egypt is not a major oil supplier, but ongoing political woes threaten Middle Eastern shipments and were the catalyst behind crude oil prices rising to 15-month highs earlier this week. Benchmark West Texas crude oil eased 1.5% to $104.91 a barrel Thursday. Wholesale gas prices — up 30 cents to 50 cents a gallon on some markets since late June — rose 0.8% to $3.04 a gallon for mid-August delivery. Typically, pump prices are about 75 cents higher.

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State Department Official Grilled Over Benghazi at Confirmation Hearing (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe debate over the Benghazi terror attack flared once again Thursday as senators grilled a diplomatic nominee over her role in massaging the Obama administration’s initial story-line on the attack.

Republican senators repeatedly challenged Victoria Nuland, nominated as chief U.S. envoy for Europe, during her confirmation hearing before a Senate panel. The post typically would not receive this much scrutiny, but Nuland’s prior job was as the top spokesperson in the State Department — she was the face of the department in the days and weeks following the Benghazi attack.

Republicans say the full truth has not yet been told, and prodded for answers on the role Nuland played in pushing to change the so-called “talking points” after the attack. Those notes were ultimately used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to give a faulty account to the public about the nature of the attack.

“It is pretty remarkable how sanitized they really were,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said of the talking points.

He accused Nuland of being more interested in protecting her bosses’ image than getting the truth out.

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Man Swims 5 Hours To Save Family Who Clung To Boat

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Photo Credit: WBOCA family of four clung to a capsized boat in the Tangier Sound, hanging on for their lives, as 46-year-old John Riggs, of Salisbury, swam five hours against strong waves in the middle of a storm for help.

“It wasn’t an option, it just had to be done because they had been out there all night,” said Riggs. He told WBOC, he swam because the lives of his father, sister and young niece and nephew depended on it.

“Just not knowing what’s going on with them while I was gone,” said Riggs. He added, “It was getting nasty and blowing harder. And not knowing if we [rescue crews and Riggs] would be able to find them when we got back out there.”

So he did what instinct told him to do, and didn’t look back.

“It’s an amazing story,” said Deal Island Fire Chief Donald Ford. “The man’s a hero. He swam from Haines Point and ended up, when he came to shore, at Hall Point.”

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Egypt’s Christians Face Backlash for Morsi Ouster

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Photo Credit: APWith a mob of Muslim extremists on his tail, the Christian businessman and his nephew climbed up on the roof and ran for their lives, jumping from building to building in their southern Egyptian village. Finally they ran out of rooftops.

Forced back onto the street, they were overwhelmed by several dozen men. The attackers hacked them with axes and beat them with clubs and tree limbs, killing Emile Naseem, 41. The nephew survived with wounds to his shoulders and head and recounted the chase to The Associated Press.

The mob’s rampage through the village of Nagaa Hassan, burning dozens of Christian houses and stabbing to death three other Christians as well, came two days after the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi from power. It was no coincidence the attackers focused on Naseem and his family: He was the village’s most prominent campaigner calling for Morsi’s removal.

Some Christians are paying the price for their activism against Morsi and his Islamist allies in a backlash over his ouster last week.

Since then, there has been a string of attacks on Christians in provinces that are strongholds of hard-liners. In the Sinai Peninsula, where militant groups run rampant, militants gunned down a priest in a drive-by shooting as he walked in a public market.

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Union Prevents Commissioner From Canceling IRS Bonuses as Promised

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerActing IRS commissioner Danny Werfel’s promise to suspend taxpayer-funded bonuses to IRS officials might not be fully realized because it will violate a contract between the scandal-plagued agency and a public-employee labor union.

“In this unprecedented budget situation, I do not believe the IRS should pay performance awards this year to employees, managers or executives,” Werfel wrote in an email to IRS employees this week.

“This is not a reflection of the quality or performance of the work done by you and your colleagues, but rather an unfortunate byproduct of the difficult budgetary situation we find ourselves in,” Werfel wrote. The IRS is currently under fire after revelations that it improperly targeted the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups.

But due to a union contract Werfel will not be able to successfully halt all bonuses this year. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, said that bonuses already promised to unionized IRS workers must be paid, because the bonuses represent work done in 2012, before Werfel canceled bonuses.

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N.C. House Approves Restrictive Abortion Legislation

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Photo Credit: Gerry BroomeRepublican lawmakers pushed ahead Thursday with their demand for new rules at North Carolina’s abortion clinics, saying they will make the procedure safer for women. Opponents argued it was a blatant attempt to shut down clinics and curb a woman’s right to choose.

The House voted 74-41 to approve new rules after a highly-charged, three-hour debate watched from the gallery by advocates on both sides of the issue.

The bill directs state regulators to change standards for abortion clinics to bring them in line with more regulated outpatient surgical centers. It also requires doctors to be present for an entire surgical abortion and when a patient takes the first dose for a chemically induced abortion.

The bill was tweaked after Republican Gov. Pat McCrory threatened to veto a separate bill approved quickly by the Senate last week. The governor said he supported more safety measures but was worried it would result in restricting a woman’s access to an abortion.

House leaders adjusted the Senate’s language with input from McCrory’s top health agency administrator. The standards have not been changed since 1994, officials have said. The governor hasn’t spoken publicly about the updated measure, which now must return to the GOP-led Senate next week. It would have to get approved there before it goes to McCrory’s desk.

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Federal Appeals Court Rejects Christian University’s Request to Overturn ObamaCare

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Photo Credit: APA federal appeals court in Virginia on Thursday rejected a Christian university’s bid to overturn the Obama administration’s health care law.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing Liberty University’s lawsuit.

Liberty argued the employer health insurance mandate of the Affordable Care Act violates the school’s religious rights by requiring it to provide coverage for abortion inducing drugs. The appeals court found no merit in the claim.

“Plaintiffs present no plausible claim that the act substantially burdens their free exercise of religion, by forcing them to facilitate or support abortion or otherwise,” Judge James A. Wynn Jr. wrote in the opinion. He wrote the law “allows an individual to obtain, and an employer to offer, a plan that covers no abortion services at all.”

The opinion was joined by Judges Andre M. Davis and Diana Gribbon Motz. Davis and Wynn are Obama appointees, and Motz was appointed by Bill Clinton. The same panel in 2011 ruled Liberty’s lawsuit was premature. The Supreme Court upheld the health care law in another case in June 2012, and in November the justices ordered the appeals court to reconsider Liberty’s case in light of that ruling.

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What Boondoggle? Carney Unaware of $34M Military HQ Troops Won’t Use

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Photo Credit: APWhite House Press Secretary Jay Carney apparently isn’t reading his hometown paper.

The Washington Post carried a fairly explosive story on Wednesday about a $34 million military headquarters in southwestern Afghanistan that probably will never be used by U.S. forces. A scathing inspector general letter was also released Wednesday morning on the war-zone boondoggle.

But asked on Thursday whether President Obama was outraged by the waste, Carney said he hadn’t heard anything about it.

“I would have to take the question. I haven’t seen the report,” Carney said.

He added: “But we’re obviously outraged by wasteful spending in general — again, I’m not aware of this report, or any specifics about the base that you described.”

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Convicted Child Sex Abusers Sue For $10M, Claim NY State Program Violated Their Rights

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Photo Credit: rakkhiThey are some of the most sexually violent predators, convicted of hideous crimes, such as sexually abusing a five-year-old.

Now they want $10 million.

The civil case in Manhattan’s federal court pits half a dozen child sex offenders against the former governor of New York, George Pataki, and a slew of former state prison and health officials. The six are suing the officials over a 2005 state government program that was designed to keep child sex offenders off the streets, but was disbanded a year later after a New York court ruled against it.

The plaintiffs were serving their prison sentences for their crimes. But they claim that the program, “The Sexually Violent Predator Initiative,” violated their rights by confining them to psychiatric hospitals without a court hearing, just before their sentences were scheduled to be completed.

The lawsuit of lead plaintiff Kenneth Bailey says that “after twelve years behind bars, in the final days of his sentence, [he] was deprived of his freedom and civilly committed to an indefinite sentence in a state-run psychiatric facility. Although the New York State Corrections Law requires that a specific procedure be followed when an inmate is to be confined in a psychiatric facility, those responsible for putting plaintiff there blatantly and deliberately ignored the prescriptions of that law.”

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