U.S. Wire

Deadline extended for swimming pool accessibility standards for disabled

U.S. News - FNC -

The Justice Department says it is extending to next Jan. 31 a deadline for making existing swimming pools accessible to the disabled.

The deadline was originally this coming Monday.

The department determined that an extension was necessary to provide additional time for compliance and to respond to concerns and misunderstandings about the standards. The department is preparing a technical assistance document to assist pool owners with a government regulation on standards for accessible design.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, places of public accommodation in existing facilities are required to remove accessibility barriers to the extent that is readily achievable.


Former President George W. Bush to return to White House for unveiling of official portrait

U.S. News - FNC -

Former President George W. Bush plans to return to the White House for the unveiling of his official portrait later this month, marking a rare visit by the two-term president who has largely shunned the spotlight since leaving office.

The White House and Bush's office said Bush and former first lady Laura Bush will return to the White House on May 31 for the release of their portraits.

Bush has avoided politics since he left office in January 2009. The portrait ceremony will be his first visit to the White House in more than two years.

Bush appeared with President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton at the Rose Garden following the devastating Haiti earthquake in January 2010. The Republican former president accompanied Obama last year to New York's ground zero on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Bush spokesman Freddy Ford said the couple was "looking forward to seeing a lot of their friends from the administration and they are grateful to the President and First Lady for their hospitality."

Obama criticized Bush's economic and foreign policy record during his 2008 campaign and has said that Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney would help restore the policies that preceded the economic collapse at the end of Bush's presidency.

But in their appearances together, they have maintained a presidential protocol. In New York last year, Obama and Bush ran their hands over bronze panels bearing the names of victims listed on the Sept. 11 memorial. Following the earthquake in Haiti, Obama called Bush and Clinton "gentlemen of extraordinary stature" who would marshal financial resources to help the country recover.

The Bushes bought a home in Dallas and have been working on the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which is scheduled to open in 2013.

Bush's portrait unveiling was first reported by The Dallas Morning News.

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas


Judge imposes time limits on witnesses to speed Clemens trial; main accuser says he 'misspoke'

U.S. News - FNC -

Roger Clemens' lawyer jabbed his left index finger and hammered away, relentlessly attacking Brian McNamee over his personal life and accusing the government's chief witness of "making up this stuff on the fly." The attorney finally sprung his trap and pointed out what appeared to be a flaw in the McNamee's story about the collection of evidence that turned up in a beer can.

McNamee's explanations: "I misspoke; I'm sorry" and "It's never been asked that way to me."

Clemens' longtime strength coach endured a fifth day Friday of questioning — he's now spent some 24 hours in the swivel chair between jury and judge in the perjury trial of the 11-time All-Star pitcher.

Clemens is charged with lying to Congress in 2008 when he said he never used steroids or human growth hormone. McNamee is the only witness who will claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens using performance-enhancing drugs, and he never wavered from that central accusation during Hardin's cross-examination.

McNamee will return to the stand Monday in a trial moving so slowly that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton — for the first time in more than three decades on the bench — imposed time limits to speed things up: Only 90 minutes per side for witnesses after McNamee and closing arguments limited to two hours apiece.

"I just can't let this case meander on forever," the judge said.

The trial was supposed to last four to six weeks, but it's just wrapping up its fifth week — and the government said Friday it still has nine witnesses to call, down from the 14 it estimated the previous day. If the trial isn't done by June 8, Walton said he may have to call a recess for about a month because of various scheduling conflicts.

"And then we'll have some real unhappy jurors," Walton said.

Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin spent three-plus days of cross-examination portraying McNamee as a chronic liar who frequently changes his story. Toward the end, Hardin raised numerous unsavory personal details: McNamee tampered with a dead body when he was a New York City policeman, he lied to investigators looking into a Florida incident in 2001, he had two driving-under-the-influence arrests in 2002, he got caught up in an Internet fraud investigation after ordering diet pills over the Web in 2004.

"Would you agree that you had a severe drinking problem?" was among the many accusatory questions from Hardin. McNamee answered "No, sir" to that one.

The aim was to take McNamee down little by little, and his weariness showed as he hung his head more than once. During one of many pauses in testimony, a juror reached over and handed McNamee a tissue so the witness could wipe his nose. McNamee also indicated, reluctantly, that he was hypoglycemic, thus explaining why he needed frequent breaks to elevate his low blood sugar.

But Hardin also aimed for a classic "gotcha" moment while asking McNamee about the Miller Lite beer can. McNamee says he put the needle and other waste from a 2001 steroids injection of Clemens into the can, but he also says the can contained remnants from injections related to other players.

When Hardin talked McNamee through a timeline of events dealing with the can, it became apparent that McNamee had not accounted for the actual moment at which he put the items from the other players into the can.

Hardin angrily demanded to know how materials from other players "flew" or "showed up magically" in the beer can. When prosecutors objected, the lawyer said: "Well, how did they get in there?"

"I put them in the can that night" after injecting Clemens, McNamee said.

McNamee went on to say "I misspoke; I'm sorry" when explaining the apparent gap in the story. When Hardin asked whether McNamee ever told government investigators that he put the other players' material in the beer can that night, McNamee said: "It's never been asked that way before."

"Isn't this," concluded Hardin, "a classic example of you making up this stuff on the fly?"

McNamee never wavered over his core testimony that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs from 1998 to 2001, but the government has its work cut out for it as they try to rebuild their key witness in front of the jury. The judge said he would allow only 90 minutes of follow-up questioning from prosecutors, and they used up 20 minutes of that allotment before court adjourned for the weekend.

To bolster McNamee's credibility, the government hopes to win an argument to include previously barred evidence that shows McNamee supplied drugs to other players who have since acknowledged that they were users. Hardin claimed that would open up a "bunch of minitrials" over each player associated with McNamee and could extend the trial for months.

The judge said he will rule on the matter Monday morning.

Late Friday afternoon, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and its chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, filed a motion to quash Clemens' subpoenas for Issa's testimony and committee documents. That committee held the hearing that Clemens testified before in 2008; Issa, a California Republican, was not chairman at the time.

The motion argues that the subpoenas are barred by the Constitution's speech or debate clause, which protects elected officials from being questioned in a lawsuit about their legislative work.

"In particular, the subpoena to Chairman Issa should be quashed because high-ranking government officials may not be compelled to testify absent extraordinary circumstances, including that the official is uniquely able to offer that testimony, unlike here," the House general counsel's office said in its motion.

___

Associated Press writer Frederic J. Frommer contributed to this report.

___

Follow Joseph White at http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP


South Texas airline founder lists enemies as he takes stand in own defense at child porn trial

U.S. News - FNC -

The founder of a South Texas cargo airline testified in his own defense on Friday, the fifth day of his federal trial on child pornography charges, and described several people motivated to set him up.

Robert Hedrick told jurors about disagreements with two business partners, his ex-wife, a city commissioner and officials at the Brownsville airport where his airline was based. Hedrick was the defense's last witness and both sides rested Friday afternoon. Closing arguments were scheduled for Monday.

Hedrick is charged with five counts related to child pornography and sexual exploitation of children. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison on just one count of distributing child pornography. His lawyers have said he is the victim of a conspiracy. The prosecution rested Thursday.

Hedrick was president of three companies: a global pool supply company, a logistics company and Pan American Airways, an air cargo company connecting the U.S. and Latin America. His testimony Friday bounced from secret government contracts during the Cold War to business disputes in the months preceding his arrest. Each venture, including the marriage to his now ex-wife, seemed to produce another enemy.

Hedrick's attorney Ed Stapleton said in opening remarks Monday that the defense would not be able to offer proof of who was behind a conspiracy. Authorities found 2,400 pornographic images on three hard drives in Hedrick's home and traced Internet identities that had graphic conversations with undercover detectives posing as teen girls back to Hedrick. Three hours of Hedrick's testimony sketched a list of enemies.

There was a business partner who ran a South Texas pool company that Hedrick alleged hired ex-convicts with sex offenses. Hedrick said he forced that partner to resign from the company after he failed to live up to their business agreement.

"He was furious," Hedrick said.

Another man was a vice president at Pan American Airways who Hedrick said encouraged him to form partnerships with shady business entities in Colombia that Hedrick suspected were involved in drug trafficking. That man had his own company that sold spy and security equipment.

"It was a good relationship until it came down to greed," Hedrick said.

When Hedrick objected to Brownsville's consideration of a company that proposed offering passenger service to Monterrey, he said he antagonized and received threats from a local city commissioner. Hedrick said the city had turned him down when he made a similar proposal but was then considering offering the same kind of subsidies to another outfit.

Hedrick said he also made enemies of airport officials by complaining to federal authorities about security violations at the airfield.

And after 14 years of marriage, Hedrick said he caught his wife having sex with another man in their apartment. He initiated a divorce that he said was finalized while he was in jail awaiting trial. He said his ex-wife has a couple hundred thousand shares in his company "and I don't know what else she's been offered." He said her adult son also beat him up once.


Obama's support for gay marriage emboldens activists, politicians in battleground states

U.S. News - FNC -

President Barack Obama's support for gay marriage has emboldened activists and politicians on both sides of the issue, setting off a flurry of political activity in a number of states and serving as a rallying point in others where gay marriage votes are being held this fall.

With the nation divided on gay marriage, Obama's declaration this month — a day after North Carolina voters approved an amendment to the state constitution affirming that marriage may only be a union of a man and a woman — has added a wrinkle in the political debate on a touchy subject.

Obama's stand has put wind in the sails of gay marriage supporters, while providing political fuel to opponents, said Kamy Akhavan, president of ProCon.org, a nonpartisan California-based nonprofit that researches pros and cons on controversial issues.

"It has altered the national discussion to some degree," he said.

Same-sex marriage is now legal in six states and the District of Columbia. Thirty-one states have passed amendments aimed at banning it. The issue is expected to come up in at least four ballot measures this fall:

— Maine's ballot question asks whether gay marriage should be legalized.

— Minnesota is asking whether a ban on gay marriage should be part of the state constitution.

— Maryland and Washington are expected to have ballot measures seeking to overturn same-sex marriage laws that were recently passed by the legislatures.

In Maine, the announcement has invigorated activists who favor and oppose November's statewide referendum seeking to legalize same-sex marriage. The Maine Legislature passed a gay marriage bill in 2009, but it was overturned by 53 percent of the voters in a referendum that fall.

David Farmer, spokesman for Mainers United for Marriage, said Obama's description of his personal evolution on gay marriage illuminates the conversations that supporters are having in door-to-door and phone discussions with residents — talking about their "personal journeys" and people they know who are gay.

"A lot of people who agree with the president got a burst of energy, that feeling of momentum, about the first sitting president of the United States endorsing a cause that they support and are working very hard on," Farmer said.

Obama's words also made referendum opponents realize they have their work cut out for them, said Bob Emrich, chairman of Protect Marriage Maine and pastor of Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church.

"It's deepened people's awareness that this is a major issue that isn't going away and we need to have more people involved in it," Emrich said.

It's not just Maine where Obama's words have energized gay marriage supporters.

In Illinois, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn said he "stands with the president" while announcing his stepped-up support for gay marriage, vowing to work with state legislators to legalize same-sex marriage there without waiting for the courts to act. Illinois currently allows civil unions, which afford couples many of the rights of marriage.

In Rhode Island, which allows civil unions but not gay marriage, Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed an order proclaiming the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere; Chafee, an independent, said Obama's announcement is positive momentum. Maryland's highest court ruled Friday that same-sex couples can divorce in the state even though Maryland does not yet permit gay couples to wed.

Former Nebraska Gov. and Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat who is again running for the Senate, voiced his support for gay marriage this week. And in Minnesota, gay marriage supporters say Obama's position is galvanizing opponents of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban it and should help fundraising efforts.

Obama's announcement has also drawn response from gay marriage opponents.

In Oklahoma, the state Senate recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution reaffirming opposition to gay marriage, even though there's a ban already enshrined in state law and the state constitution. Republican Sen. Clark Jolley said he introduced the resolution in direct response to Obama's position.

A Democratic state senator accused Jolley of introducing the resolution because he has "a difficult re-election campaign coming up and needs promotional material for the God and gays section" of a campaign leaflet.

In Colorado, the Republican House speaker accused Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper of "reading straight from President Obama's campaign playbook" in calling for a special legislative session to vote on civil unions a day after Republicans had killed a bill. The resurrected legislation was again killed during a special session this week.

In Minnesota, Minnesotans for Marriage spokesman said Obama's announcement "demonstrates why marriage needs to be protected and put in the state Constitution where politicians can't get at it."

In New Hampshire, the sponsor of a failed bill to repeal gay marriage sent out an email calling Obama "arrogant and out of touch" with his announcement.

Frank Schubert, political director for the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes gay marriage, said Obama's opinion will continue to have ramifications as November's elections close in, particularly for Democrats who don't share his view.

"I think he's scrambled the omelet quite a bit here and made it complicated for Democrats, in swing states in particular, because it puts them in position of having to, sometimes publicly, distance themselves from the president," he said.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ivan Moreno in Denver, Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Wash., and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md.


Fla. man pleads guilty to running Internet-based Ponzi scheme; thousands of investors involved

U.S. News - FNC -

A Florida man faces more than six years in prison after pleading guilty to running an Internet-based Ponzi scheme that prosecutors say ripped off thousands of investors.

Thomas A. Bowdoin Jr., of Quincy, pleaded guilty to wire fraud Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Prosecutors say the 77-year-old Bowdoin operated an online advertising company and marketed himself as a "money magnet." He promised huge returns to thousands of investors. But authorities say the vast majority of investors never saw big returns, and Bowdoin used some of the funds to buy himself a boat, luxury vehicles and a lake house.

He faces a maximum sentence of 61/2 years. No sentencing date was set.

A lawyer for Bowdoin did not immediately return a call or email seeking comment.


APNewsBreak: Mother of student at Kansas military school claims cellphone video depicts abuse

U.S. News - FNC -

The mother of a 14-year-old boy says a cellphone video depicting her son struggling to stand on two broken legs is proof that her son was harmed while attending a Kansas military school and supports claims in a federal lawsuit that the school encouraged a culture of abuse.

The 3:39-minute video clip obtained exclusively by The Associated Press depicts Jesse Mactagone of Auburn, Calif., at St. John's Military School wobbling and pleading for help as an instructor tries to make him stand. Both of the boy's legs were broken during the four days in August 2011 that he attended the school, and he was hospitalized before being flown home. He no longer attends the school.

Mactagone and the families of six other students filed a federal lawsuit in March seeking unspecified damages, claiming the school allowed and encouraged abuse. St. John's has settled nine previous abuse lawsuits filed since 2006. However, law enforcement authorities in Kansas have declined to file assault charges against anyone at the school, citing a lack of evidence.

"How many more kids need to be hurt before they are heard?" his mother, Jennifer Mactagone, said in a phone interview from California. "Can you imagine what some of these boys go through, how scared they are? This is the worst case of bullying I have seen and it is all orchestrated by the adults at the school."

The Episcopal boarding school, which charges families nearly $30,000 per year for students enrolled in grades 6-12, draws students from across the nation to its military-styled program. In a statement from its public relations firm, the school said it had not seen the video and cannot comment on it. But it said in an email that other parents have expressed outrage at the abuse allegations and told the school how pleased they were at their own sons' complete turnarounds during their time at the school.

"St. John's Military School prides itself on its 120-year history of helping young men develop leadership and academic skills in a safe and structured environment and emphatically denies the existence of a culture of abuse," the school said.

The school on Thursday filed a motion seeking a protective order prohibiting distribution of videos and photos related to the lawsuit. There has been no resolution to that motion.

Jesse's injuries are among some of the most egregious alleged in the latest litigation. The boy apparently broke the tibia bone in his left leg on the first day he was at the school. His right leg was broken on the third day, with a hospital x-ray showing his femur bone displaced several inches below the knee, according to the lawsuit.

Just exactly how both of Jesse's legs were broken remains somewhat of a blur, according to his mother. He was pushed while running on the first day, and his mother said that the drill instructor ordered other students to run over him as they passed him. She said the boy also vaguely remembers being beaten before and after the mess hall incident depicted in the video.

In the mess hall video, captured on a cellphone by someone inside, the boy pleads with an adult instructor to "please help me" as laughter from classmates drowns out his cries. The adult instructor repeatedly orders Jesse to stand up on his left leg, then his right leg as he struggles with his crutches. His legs tremble furiously, unable to support the weight of his body. At one point, the instructor asks the boy, "You've had a broken leg before?"

Jesse screams in pain as the instructor tells him to pick up his leg up.

"I can't do," the boy repeatedly says.

The video then shows cadets taking the crutches away and dragging Jesse under his arms to the far corner of the mess hall. Then, it cuts out.

The lawsuit claims that he was then taken outside and thrown on the ground, where staff and students dragged him by his ankles, shaking them wildly and kicking him in the knees. They demanded he stand up on his broken legs and threatened to punch him in his mouth if he did not stop screaming. Surveillance video from the school shows cadets later wheeling him back to his room in a shopping cart.

Staff and cadets at the school gave police a different account. One cadet told police that everyone assumed Jesse was "faking his injury," according to police reports obtained by AP through an open records request.

It isn't clear if the instructors or the cadets knew the extent of his injuries during the videotaped incident. A police report says Jesse went to the nurse's office multiple times, and was treated with the medical supplies on hand. An emergency room nurse later told police he arrived with an extremely swollen knee and the school should have reacted more quickly.

The instructor depicted in the video told police that he had sent a cadet to get the nurse while he stayed with Jesse in the mess hall. He acknowledged asking the boy to get himself up while he steadied the crutches, but said he told cadets to get Jesse back to the barracks after he was done with his meal. He said he did not stay to see how he was removed from the mess hall. He told police he noticed later that some cadets were carrying the boy by holding him under his legs and he told them not to do that.

Jesse's mother says her son has been withdrawn since returning home to California. A steel plate remains inside his leg and a centipede-like scar extends from the bottom of his knee all the way to his thigh where his leg was cut open to fix his femur.

"His leg is a constant reminder of what happened to him and that is why psychologically he has buried this so deep," his mother said. "It is very hard to get anything out of him — he curls up into a ball and starts crying because I think it was just so horrific what he went through."

___

Follow AP writer Roxana Hegeman at twitter.com/rhegeman


In first meeting with Obama, French president sticks to early Afghan troop pullout timetable

U.S. News - FNC -

In his first visit to the Oval Office, French President Francois Hollande declared he will withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end, making clear to President Barack Obama the timeline for ending the U.S.-led war will not trump a campaign pledge that helped Hollande gain his new job.

Obama nodded along on Friday, knowing what was coming, but did not otherwise directly respond. Heading into a NATO summit on the course of the war and beyond, the White House has sought to emphasize the war coalition will remain firm even as nations pull back. And Hollande assured Obama that France was not out to cut and run.

"We will continue to support Afghanistan in a different way. Our support will take a different format," Hollande said. "I'm pretty sure I will find the right means so that our allies can continue with their mission and at the same time I can comply to the promise I made to the French people."

France's declaration has significance far beyond its borders. Hollande's move means France, one of the top contributors of troops to the war, will be removing the combat forces a full two years before the timeline agreed to by allies in the coalition. That could shift more of the burden to those allies and give them reason to hasten their own exit.

Hollande later told reporters that some "residual" number of France's current 3,300 troops will remain in Afghanistan after this year to provide training and to bring home equipment. But he alluded to the reaction that France's fast-track withdrawal may get from its NATO allies when they gather in Chicago Sunday and Monday.

"Our decision will be taken," he said. "I can't tell you that it will be applauded, but it will be taken."

The United States and its allies plan to end the combat mission in Afghanistan at the end 2014. Afghanistan will move into the combat lead in 2013. The United States has about 90,000 troops in Afghanistan, far more than any partner nation, and is on pace to shrink that number to 68,000 by the end of September.

Obama and Hollande had never met, and their first interactions were closely watched given both the historic importance of the U.S-France relationship and the crises of war and economic strife confronting both leaders.

The mild-mannered Hollande, who has little international experience, ousted the more brash Nicolas Sarkozy and was sworn into office just days ago.

Now, in a hurry, Obama and Hollande will begin shaping a relationship that could prove one of the U.S. president's most important ones should he win a second term. Beyond their White House talks, Obama and Hollande are meeting at the G-8 summit Friday and Saturday in Maryland before shifting to the NATO conference in Obama's home town.

On the economy, Hollande and Obama both underscored that they want Europe to embrace a new approach to its debt crisis: more growth, less budget cutting. Obama's administration sees such a balanced approach as essential to stabilizing the eurozone and preventing its economic chaos, particularly in Greece, from spilling more broadly.

"President Hollande and I agree that this is an issue of extraordinary importance, not only to the people of Europe but also to the world economy," Obama said. He said managing the fiscal crisis in Europe must be coupled with a "strong growth agenda."

Hollande, elected May 6, is insisting on rethinking a European austerity treaty. But he also is trying to convince Obama and other leaders at the Group of Eight economic summit that his position will not worsen the debt crisis.

The French president also spoke for himself and Obama in sending a message to Greece, where fears remain that the debt-riddled country may have to abandon the 17-member currency union, which could jolt the global economy. Greece is set to hold elections on June 17 to end a political deadlock.

"We share the same views — Greece must stay in the eurozone," Hollande said. Ahead of the election, he said, both he and Obama "wanted to send a message to that effect to the Greek people."

Hollande is trying to defend France's interests while building a relationship with Obama, widely popular in France but seen by some in Hollande's camp as too friendly with the recently ousted president, the conservative Sarkozy.

Obama and Hollande traded some light-hearted thoughts about presidential life and American fast food. Both offered expected assurances of their alliance.

"France is an independent country and cares about its independence," Hollande said, "but in old friendship with the United States of America."

On the war, a senior U.S. official said the early combat exits of Dutch and Australian troops are the model for a probable agreement with France. In those cases trainers or other support forces are supplanting front-line combat forces. Such an agreement is likely to emerge from NATO discussions this weekend, the official said.

Polls show most French, and many other Europeans, want their countries out of Afghanistan, as do most Americans. Sensing the political winds, Sarkozy had prepared to break with NATO's in-together, out-together mindset and announced during the campaign that he'd pull out combat troops by the end of 2013, a year early.

___

Associated Press writers Anne Gearan in Washington and Angele Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

___

Follow Ben Feller at http://twitter.com/BenFellerDC


Pa. boy ordered into state custody for 2009 deaths of father's pregnant fiancée, unborn son

U.S. News - FNC -

A 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy accused of killing his father's pregnant fiancée and her unborn child will be sent to an undisclosed juvenile facility where he could remain in state custody until his 21st birthday.

Jordan Brown, who was 11 at the time of the slayings, was ordered by a Lawrence County judge on Friday to be transferred to a treatment center. The teenager is to be evaluated every six months to determine if he should be released.

The judge last month found Brown delinquent, the juvenile court equivalent of a guilty verdict, in the February 2009 deaths of 26-year-old Kenzie Houk and her unborn son.

Houk, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, was shot in the back of the head with Brown's .20-gauge youth model shotgun as she slept. At the time, she was engaged to Jordan Brown's father, Christopher Brown, and pregnant with his son.

The shooting occurred after the boy's father left for work, with only Jordan Brown and Houk's two daughters, ages 7 and 4, inside the New Castle house. State police investigators say they found a spent shotgun shell dropped along a path that Brown walked with Houk's older daughter to catch a bus to school minutes after the shooting.

Defense attorney Stephen Colafella said no decisions have been made on whether to appeal.

Judge John Hodge approved a recommendation from the Lawrence County Juvenile Probation Department for Brown's placement and treatment. Prosecutor Anthony Krastek said the specifics will not be released.

The criminal case drew attention to Pennsylvania laws governing juvenile homicide suspects and prompted two Superior Court appeals, including an unsuccessful attempt by western Pennsylvania newspapers to open the trial to the public even though the judge had the discretion to close the case because the defendant was under 12 when the killings occurred.


Pilot charged with trying to board flight in NY with loaded gun, allegedly had on many flights

U.S. News - FNC -

An airline pilot is accused of trying to board a flight at Buffalo for New York City with a loaded revolver in his bag, and authorities believe he'd been flying with it for two days.

The U.S. Attorney's Office charged 52-year-old Brett Dieter of Barbersville, Va., with possessing a concealed firearm. A screener spotted the .357 Magnum before Dieter boarded Friday at Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

The Piedmont Airlines employee was to pilot a US Airways-contracted flight to LaGuardia International Airport.

Investigators believe Dieter had been flying with the gun since Wednesday, when he flew from Charlottesville, Va., to New York City without having his bag X-rayed. He'd made seven flights since.

Dieter appeared without a lawyer in court. He's due back May 23. He couldn't be reached by phone.


Subscribe to InFrequently Asked Questions aggregator - U.S. News Wire