FAA may raise pilot age limit
The government is considering raising the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots from 60 to 65, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday.
The agency said the change is prompted by the United Nations organization that governs aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organization. ICAO will increase the international standard to 65 on November 23.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey ordered a forum of airline, labor and medical experts to recommend whether the United States should raise the age limit.
Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, will co-chair the group.
The FAA forum has 60 days to report its findings.
Washington
GOP chooses Twin Cities site
Republicans will hold their 2008 presidential convention in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, choosing a location in the politically pivotal Midwest.
Party and state officials announced the selection Wednesday. The convention is slated for Sept. 1-4, 2008.
Losing out were New York City, Cleveland and a joint bid from Tampa and St. Petersburg, Fla., other cities that had sought the convention.
The four-day event will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., a concert venue and the home of the National Hockey League’s Minnesota Wild.
New York
Candidate faces probe of taping
Republican state attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro said Wednesday she was under federal investigation for plotting to secretly record her husband to find out whether he was having another affair.
Pirro, speaking at a Manhattan news conference, said that any probe into her troubled marriage was “highly improper” but she had no intention of quitting her campaign, calling the investigation politically motivated and sexist.
She also said that federal prosecutors had no business delving into her union with millionaire lobbyist Albert Pirro, who spent 11 months in prison after being convicted on tax fraud charges in 2000.
“Sometime last year, I came to believe that my husband was seeing another woman,” Pirro said. “In the midst of matrimonial discord, I was angry and had him followed to see if what I suspected was true. “