A TSA screener admitted to a woman traveling through Houston Airport that she was prevented from boarding her flight for retaliatory reasons as punishment for a bad attitude rather than any genuine security threat, after the woman refused to allow TSA agents to test her drink for explosives.
The audio and video in the clip above is scratchy, but the woman is heard saying, "Let me get this straight, this is retaliatory for my attitude, this is not making the airways safer it's retaliatory."
"It pretty much definitely is," the TSA screener responds.
The incident began when the woman refused to allow TSA agents to carry out a controversial policy where they test drinks for explosives that are purchased by passengers after they have already passed through security.
"This was inside the terminal at the Houston airport," the woman writes on her You Tube channel. "I was not allowed to board a plane (even though I had already been through airport security) because I drank my water instead of letting the TSA "test" it. The TSA agent finally admitted that it wasn't because they thought I was a security risk - it was because they were mad at me!"
The new policy, which as we highlighted is completely pointless and unnecessary, was back in the headlines earlier this week after the Drudge Report posted an Infowars story featuring a video which showed TSA screeners testing drinks in the departure lounge at Columbus Ohio Airport.
Source: Infowars
Society's Child
© CBS News
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy
The Chicago Public Schools will have some schools open for half a day, if there's a strike.
And that in itself is an issue for Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
"We do have concerns and we're working with CPS to ensure that rival gang members are not put into the same places," McCarthy said.
"The fact is, we just came out of the summer where those kids were not in school for the most part anyway," he said. "So it's really just going to extend exactly what we're doing."
He says he's working with the Chicago Public Schools to make sure rival gang members aren't placed in the same school.
McCarthy says police resources will be concentrated well into the early morning hours.
"If the kids aren't in school, the likelihood is they're going to be awake later and perhaps out on the street," he said.
© The Associated Press/Sitthixay Ditthavong
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union hold an informational picket outside Willa Cather Elementary School on Monday in an effort to call attention to ongoing contract talks with the city's Board of Education.
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union hold an informational picket outside Willa Cather Elementary School on Monday in an effort to call attention to ongoing contract talks with the city's Board of Education.
Chicago teachers say they're prepared to walk off the job for the first time in 25 years over issues that include pay raises, classroom conditions, job security and teacher evaluations. A strike would cause massive disruptions in the nation's third-largest school district, which has 400,000 students.
Both sides met Saturday to try to close the remaining gaps, but union Vice President Jesse Sharkey told reporters about an hour into the talks that there was more work to be done because the district's latest proposal fell short.
"The offer they came back with was disappointing to say the least and frankly there's not enough pieces of the puzzle there yet to make a picture," he said. "We're going to go back tomorrow."
A spokeswoman for Chicago Public Schools would not comment on Saturday's talks.
Meanwhile, hundreds of teachers stopped by the strike headquarters the union opened Saturday to pick up picket signs and T-shirts.
Here is a closer look at the situation:
© The Associated Press/Louisville Metro Corrections
Mahmoud Hindi
Mahmoud Hindi
A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of 55-year-old Mahmoud Yousef Hindi to charges of murder, assault and wanton endangerment in the Thursday evening shooting at a church.
Dressed in a blue jail outfit, Hindi showed no emotion and did not speak as he stood before a judge.
Afterward, defense attorney Todd Lewis called the case a "horrendous tragedy" and said the Hindi family's thoughts were with the victims' families. Lewis asked for patience in unraveling the case.
"We look forward to our day in court," he told reporters. "There's always another side to things."
What specifically sparked the attack wasn't clear.
Police say Hindi, a doctor educated in Jordan, had a history of disputes with the homeowners group revolving around a fence that the association said didn't meet its height or design requirements in the upscale neighborhood of Spring Creek.
The association's attorney says the organization brought the zoning violation charges to the city. Hindi wrote several letters to the attorney, expressing anger and contempt for the attorney.
© The Courier-Mail
Universal Medicine's founder Serge Benhayon claims to be Leonardo da Vinci reincarnated.
Universal Medicine's founder Serge Benhayon claims to be Leonardo da Vinci reincarnated.
Universal Medicine, whose practitioners offer controversial treatments to ward off cancer including "esoteric breast massage", is drawing a growing number of clients to its Brisbane clinic via referrals from eye and lung surgeons, rheumatologists and GPs.
UniMed Brisbane is based in a historic $1.75 million, 10-room former Fairfield homestead from the 1860s, now co-owned by Universal Medicine founder Serge Benhayon.
The one-time tennis coach founded the group, which has 2000 mainly female followers, after emerging from bankruptcy over an unpaid lease on a Sydney tennis centre in 1998.
He now boasts interests in property worth $7.4 million and an enterprise that turns over at least $2 million a year, extending from its NSW base in Goonellabah to north Queensland and Europe.
Mr Benhayon's supporters include Kenmore dentist Rachel Hall, whose "holistic" clinic, dotted with da Vinci illustrations, attracts Universal Medicine followers from as far as the UK and Germany.
© The Courier-Mail
Kenmore dentist Rachel Hall's clinic caters to Universal Medicine followers.
Kenmore dentist Rachel Hall's clinic caters to Universal Medicine followers.
But the group has come under fire from family members of devotees, who say Mr Benhayon holds a Svengali-like sway over members' patterns of diet, sleeping, exercise, the music they listen to and sexual behaviour.
They claim Universal Medicine has led to the breakdown of at least 42 relationships.
During the celebrated murder trial, Simpson tried on bloody gloves and held up his hands in front of the jury box to let everyone see the leather bunched up around his broad palms. That demonstration became a powerful symbol for the defense, summed up by Cochran: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.
According to the news service:
On Thursday, during a panel discussion about the trial at Pace Law School in New York City, Darden, a member of the prosecution team, declared: "I think Johnnie tore the lining. There were some additional tears in the lining so that O.J.'s fingers couldn't go all the way up into the glove."The glove incident was seen as the pivotal moment in the 1995 trial.
Darden said in a follow-up interview on Friday that he noticed that when Simpson was trying on a glove for the jury its structure appeared to have changed. "A bailiff told me the defense had it during the lunch hour." He said he wasn't specifically accusing anyone, adding: "It's been my suspicion for a long time that the lining has been manipulated."
© Fabio Berti/ Shutterstock.com
During the two years Joe Sacco and I reported from the poorest pockets of the United States, areas that have been sacrificed before the altar of unfettered and unregulated capitalism, we found not only decayed and impoverished communities but shattered lives. There comes a moment when the pain and despair of constantly running into a huge wall, of realizing that there is no way out of poverty, crush human beings. Those who best managed to resist and bring some order to their lives almost always turned to religion and in that faith many found the power to resist and even rebel.
© Craig Warga/New York Daily News
As part of Stuyvesant High School's continuing crackdown after a high-profile cheating scandal, 66 students are now facing suspension, the city announced Friday.
Over the summer, the city uncovered new evidence of misdeeds during last spring's standardized tests, officials said.
The massive cheating ring saw students texting one another answers during Regents exams, the Daily News first reported in June.
In July, just six students at the elite school were facing the most severe punishment. The bulk of the students who'd received text messages were stripped of their leadership positions and the privilege of leaving campus during lunch.
Stuyvesant's new principal, Jie Zhang - who took over after longtime principal Stanley Teitel's resignation this summer - announced she's working with students on the possibility of creating an honor code.
© The Associated Press/Leah Dermody
an unidentified person examines a piece of metal that appears to be a landing gear door from an airplane is shown, Friday, Sept. 7, 2012, after it fell to the ground in Kent, Wash., south of Seattle.
an unidentified person examines a piece of metal that appears to be a landing gear door from an airplane is shown, Friday, Sept. 7, 2012, after it fell to the ground in Kent, Wash., south of Seattle.
Witnesses say the refrigerator-size panel hit the ground and skipped about 30 feet before stopping in a street Friday morning. No one in the neighborhood about 15 miles south of Seattle was hurt.
Neighbors say a cargo jet flew low over the area at about the same time the part came down.
Photos on news station KOMO's website show part of an identification plate on the object that has the word "aircraft" along with a serial number.
FAA officials aren't saying if they've located the plane that the part came from.
Source: KOMO TV and The Associated Press
© Unknown
The next time a tourist snaps a picture of the famous Hollywood sign, their photo won't be the only item added to the annals. The LAPD considers photography a suspicious activity, and trying to take certain shots may add a page to your personal file.
A memo released last month by Police Chief Charlie Bucks re-categorizes certain behaviors - including photo shoots in public spots - to constitute suspicious activity, which is enough to have cops file a report, open an investigation and forward any further information about a suspect to the federal authorities - all over just an itchy shutter finger.
In an interdepartmental statement dispatched on August 16, Beck writes, "Taking pictures or videos of facilities/buildings, infrastructures or protected sites in a manner that would arouse suspicion in a reasonable person" is enough of a red flag to have authorities file a suspicious activity report, or SAR. According to departmental policies, those SAR files are then sent into a Consolidated Crime and Analysis Database (CCAD), where they are occasionally added to a Crime Analysis Mapping System (CAMS) for further investigation. From there, intelligence can be stored in a Information Sharing Environment (ISE) Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Shared Space and accessed at fusion centers across the country, such as the LA area's Joint Regional Intelligence Center, where other intel is interpreted, dissected and divulged by agencies like the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security.
