Airline lighter ban was not activated
Washington Airline passengers could still carry butane lighters onto planes Tuesday, the date by which Congress last year ordered them banned.
The Transportation Security Administration, charged with prohibiting dangerous items on aircraft, offered no comment on why it missed the deadline.
Senators were concerned the lighters could be used to ignite a bomb on an airline. Richard Reid, the convicted shoe bomber, could have succeeded in blowing up a trans-Atlantic flight three years ago if a flight attendant hadn’t smelled the sulfur from his burning match, they said.
“There’s some foot-dragging going on,” a TSA official said.
An official said the TSA intends to issue an order on the lighters within a few days.
Pentagon considers laser plane warnings
Washington The Pentagon is considering using lasers to warn pilots they’ve flown into restricted airspace, an unusual choice because the government says terrorists might use the beams of light to blind pilots as they approach airports.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been researching use of lasers as a way to communicate with pilots flying too near the Capitol or White House when they can’t be reached by radio.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, hundreds of small planes have flown within the restricted airspace around the capital. In some cases, fighter jets have been scrambled to escort planes to a nearby airport.
Smokestack incident prompts jail time
Pittsburgh Six Greenpeace activists were sentenced Tuesday to jail terms ranging from five to 30 days for climbing a smokestack at a coal-fired power plant in protest of President Bush’s energy policy.
The protesters cut a hole in a fence around Allegheny Energy’s Hatfield Ferry Power Station about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh on June 23, then climbed the 700-foot smokestack and unfurled a 2,500-square-foot banner.
The six pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor charges that included reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and defiant trespass, according to Tom Wetterer, general counsel for Greenpeace. Felony charges of criminal trespass were dropped.
Poker-dog paintings fetched $590,400
New York A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker fetched nearly $600,000 at auction Tuesday.
The two works – “A Bold Bluff” and “Waterloo” – were among 16 paintings artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was commissioned to create for a Minnesota-based advertising company in 1903. Of the 16, nine are of dogs playing poker.
The two works that sold Tuesday for $590,400 capture moments in a poker game played by five dogs, among them a St. Bernard that ends up collecting the pot on a bluff.
The sale was part of Doyle’s “Dogs in Art” auction, which coincides with the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
Death sentence issued in killing of inspectors
Oakland, Calif. A sausage factory owner was sentenced to death Tuesday for killing three meat inspectors nearly five years ago.
Stuart Alexander, 43, was convicted in October of three counts of first-degree murder in the 2000 shooting of two federal inspectors and one state inspector at his Bay Area factory.
The case will be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Alexander’s defense argued he was driven to kill after months of harassment by the inspectors, and the death penalty wasn’t intended for “emotion driven killings.”
Prosecutors argued he planned to plead insanity, then write a book or movie for profit.