0959
A CNN Exclusive and Frankenstein, the boy toy, is back. Heeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee's Johnny.
1001
Lengthy lead in. The News Round Up. (The Whip with an egotistical center.)
1002
Euthanasia on the coming holiday.
1003
Drew Griffin and his exclusive. Thursday nurses were making decisions about who would be removed from the hospital due to a ?need? for triage and who would survive. Louisiana Attorney General's Office. CNN states more than one person is being looked at regarding euthanasia. Life Care of New Orleans and Tenent Health Care are involved with the query.
1010
The New York Transit Strike - the laws governing public unions are oppressive.
An Unnecessary Transit Strike
Personally, I think New York Law is oppressive of Collective Bargaining. Across the river in New Jersey the public workers' unions are permitted to strike with notice. Those NJ unions are in large cities and in health care settings as well.
How is a union to do anything but give concessions if they can't assert their rights under collective bargaining to strike.
I think the pension issue is huge and shows a clear movement by the city away from supporting their workers rather than asking for 'participation' in an enforced payment for pensions.
The disciplinary actions are also huge. If there is overbearing performance pressure to every transit worker given the already dangerous circumstances they find themselves dealing with regularly then the job is nothing but a revolving door. There won't be pensions. The OBVIOUS fact that leads to this conclusion is that THESE are the TWO issues surrounding this strike. Where the two have common ground is the change in 'payment' to the pension fund.
No matter how much everyone likes the mayor of New York, he is still a Republican with ties to Bush who want privatization of SSI.
It seems very obvious to me what the city is 'up to' and whom pays the price of years of service only to be eliminated before they can be 'vested' enough to retire comfortably.
A unpopular position and the New York Times needs to investigate the disciplinary claims keeping in mind the people involved deserve having this issue treated with confidentiality, especially if they are "W"rongly disciplined. I would also like to know how many members of this union were dismissed before this job action could be called. I don't see this as a disciplinary matter either to relieve all those involved of their jobs. It seems to me where 'discipline' and 'pension' come together there is some solid ground of concern for these city employees.
Additionally, there is a real concern for the oppressive nature of New York law concerning public employees. I think we have the makings of a scandal. Possibly a constitutional scandal.
By the way, why shouldn't pay issues be generous considering the members are in a revolving door and never achieve the higher levels of pay rates.
1013
Commercial
New Year's Eve hosted by Anderson Cooper. Hm?
Just say no to New Year's Eve
By Anderson Cooper
Editor's note: Anderson Cooper anchors CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°," which airs weeknights at 10 p.m. ET. He also is a regular contributor for Details Magazine. This article was published in the December 2004 issue.
If you ask me, New Year's celebrations are proof that we are essentially optimistic creatures.
Despite hundreds of years of pathetic parties, ridiculous resolutions and hellacious hangovers, we still cling to the notion that it's possible to have fun going out on New Year's Eve.
It isn't.
There's too much pressure, too many people, and too few bathrooms.
New Year's Eve always frightened me as a kid. It seemed so mysterious, so adult, like a cocktail lounge I was too little to enter.
I'd try to stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV, but inevitably I'd fall asleep.
I didn't want to be in Times Square, mind you -- I was watching Dick Clark as a kind of sociological study, trying to understand why on earth anyone would want to stand in the freezing cold, crammed next to tens of thousands of people, all of whom screamed every time someone pointed a camera in their direction.
Even in those pre-hi-def days, you could almost smell the alcohol through the TV screen. It just didn't make sense.
I was born in Manhattan, and to most residents of this thin little island, the ball drop was best left to out-of-towners, like eating at Tavern on the Green or taking the Circle Line.
Pretty lights, sure, but not for us.
I know there's a whole industry built around maintaining the lie that going out on New Year's Eve is fun, and I certainly don't want to make anyone lose his job, but let's be honest, have you ever been to a New Year's Eve party that surpassed or even came close to meeting your expectations?
I didn't think so.
If you go to a party and drink on New Year's Eve, it's inevitable: You will at some point find yourself alone and despondent, and the manic merriment and slurred singing of "Auld Lang Syne" won't help.
I don't want to sound like Scrooge McDuck, but whenever I hear that maudlin, melancholy melody on New Year's Eve I'm instantly ravaged by the twin ghosts of failures past and future.
Sadly, these twins look nothing like the Olsens.
A friend of mine who works the door at a big Manhattan nightclub always tries to take New Year's Eve off.
"It's amateur night," he explains. "All these people who never go out try way too hard to have fun. As the hours go by, they begin to realize this party isn't going to be the best ever, this night is going to end, and this next year won't be all that better than the last one. So they drink or take another pill, and that's when it gets really messy."
I was stuck in Moscow one New Year's, and about the only difference is that in Russia the party starts much earlier and the vodka is much stronger.
By the time the new year actually rolled around, my Russian host had passed out and his friends had taken off to find themselves some prostitutes.
The following year I was in London. Everyone talks about how elegant and refined the British are, but stand outside a London pub on New Year's Eve and those aren't the two words that come to mind.
Roman Vomitorium more accurately describes the scene.
Chunky lads and lasses standing in gutters spewing chunky bits and pieces, then returning inside to guzzle more Guinness. Cheerio!
Given my lifelong aversion to New Year's Eve, I was reluctant when asked two years ago to host CNN's special coverage of the ball drop in Times Square.
I was going to say no -- after all, Dick Clark has had a lock on the night for decades. But it had been a couple of years since I'd gone out on New Year's, and I figured, "What the hell?"
Dick Clark's face may not have grown older, but I have, so I decided to give New Year's Eve one last chance.
New York City sets up a stage and bleachers right in the center of Times Square, and each news organization is allotted a small spot on which to place a camera and correspondent.
On TV it looks like you are the only reporter in Times Square, but in fact you are jammed in almost shoulder to shoulder with dozens of others, many of whom seem pissed that they pulled the short straw and have to work.
A lot of the visitors who come to Times Square on New Year's have been before, but the newbies often don't know what they are in for.
First of all, it's cold -- really, really cold. I met a Spanish couple who arrived wearing denim jackets.
Within 10 minutes they seemed to be in the early stages of hypothermia, their teeth chattering like Castilian castanets. They wisely decided to go back to the warmth of their hotel and watch it on TV.
What many first-time visitors don't realize is that when they get to Times Square, they enter a maze of barricades and end up herded into pens.
Once they find a spot, they're stuck, unable to move -- much like ducks being bred for pâté.
As a reporter, there are certain Times Square traditions you are expected to adhere to.
The company that makes the ball supplies you with endless factoids about its weight and history and how it's made, so when you run out of things to talk about, you can always fall back on that.
New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes by and makes the rounds of reporters. It being New Year's, you have to ask him about his resolutions.
The first time I did, he made a joke about his golf score. I should have known it was a joke, because I saw him sort of chuckle, but the truth is I don't know anything about golf, and I think I kind of stared at him blankly.
I resolved to at least attempt a smile the next year .
I started a new tradition for CNN, although I'm not sure it's going to last.
In addition to the ball drop in Times Square, we had cameras covering the Drag Queen Drop in Key West, where, at the stroke of midnight more or less, a drag queen named Sushi, sitting inside a giant ladies' shoe, is lowered from the roof of a gay bar.
We'd interviewed Sushi live a couple of times throughout the night, and by midnight ... well, let's just say that Sushi was no longer too fresh.
When she started to descend, something malfunctioned, and the shoe stalled. The last we saw of Sushi, she was crawling on all fours along the roof of the bar.
I told the director to cut away. Seeing a drag queen actually drop off a roof is not how I wanted to kick off the new year.
Say what you will about New York, but it sure does know how to throw an amazing public party.
At the stroke of midnight, when the ball has landed and the new year has begun, it is a sight and a scene that can't adequately be captured in words or by the small lens of a TV camera.
It is a hurricane of confetti and light, a clash of neon and noisemakers, a collision of past, present, and future.
It is like New York itself: noisy and messy, cold and chaotic, wildly, exasperatingly wonderful.
As a television production, the ball drop gives off so much energy that all you really have to do is let the cameras roll and get out of the way. After that first time, I've continued to volunteer to host New Year's specials for CNN.
Something very magical happens in those crowded, confetti-covered streets. There is a continuity to it, a connection between strangers, a connection from one year to the next.
I still think going out on New Year's Eve is lame, so if you can't make it to Times Square, I recommend curling up with someone and watching it on TV.
The truth is the parties and promises never quite live up to expectations. And maybe that's the whole point. It gives us something to look forward to the next year.
After all, if New Year's Eve really were the most fun night of our lives, the wildest, the best, then what would be the point of waking up the next day?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/27/new.years.eve/
1016
A rapist on the loose
1022
The News Secretary
1020
commercials
1023
Murder in Raleigh of a man. Suspect is spouse and her teen lover.
1026
Commercials
1029
Dick Cheney and his upcoming segment. Hm.
1030
The Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Bulldozing bodies is illegal and a cover up.
1034
The airliner crash near Miami Beach.
1036
Cheney and his Mideast Trip Interruption. Breaking the tie of a Senate vote. Cheney, the bad boy. The Energy Task Force. The erosion of the Executive Office Powers. The Sixth Month extension of the Patriot Act.
NO MENTION OF 'The Government Spying Issue' or 'The National Dialogue regarding Impeachment.'
1042
Commercials
1044
Hurricane Katrina - try and keep the 'Anderson bounce' alive.
Elizabeth Cohen and the homeless that have medical problems. Cute story about Tony's Fishing Pier. Well done, Elizabeth.
1047
Commercials
1052
The Gay Marriage compliments of the Brits - and a diversion to heterosexual dilemma's of The Pre-Nup. This has to be the worst program on the television screen. I have no patience with the level of insult this 'blanding' of the news brings to the American public. It's the Non-News Cable News Networks. It's not exactly censuring the news so much as diminishing it's impact on the political 'climate of Bush.' No wonder the only 'interest' in AC 360 is the yelling. It's the only time concerns of the people are actually addressed. The odd aspect is that the 'yelling' is always focused on Democrats. I dare Anderson to yell at Cheney or Bush in an EXCLUSIVE interview.
CNN is a government focused media service. It's unfortunate it can't break out of the mold that is destroying it.
1100
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The Frequency of airline issues these days are larger than an occassional problem.
1000
Well done, John. Peaceful landing indeed.
The Jet Blue airliner was an Airbus and had to burn off it's fuel before it landed. I'm wondering what this Boeing did about it's fuel before it landed.
Flight Attendant's love to talk.
I think the aspect of the public address system, in the plane, being a 'tool' and not a matter of PR is an interesting observation by Mr. Tilmon. The aspect that it is times like this when people realize the pay a pilot receives is understandable is an unfortunate reality. Air flight is thought of as 'common place' but when one realizes what happens all along the way in a flight no matter how common place it is, is to realize exactly 'the pay' the pilots make. I am concerned about the 'trend' these planes are having. This is the third landing gear issue in a few months. Besides the Jet Blue landing gear is also Nike Plane with similar problems.
Nike plane safely on ground after landing-gear drama
By BRAD CAIN
Associated Press Writer
HILLSBORO — Nike CEO William Perez and other company executives went through a six-hour drama in the skies over Oregon on Monday as a wheel on their jet got stuck in a partially extended position, but the plane landed safely after aerial maneuvers meant to shake the wheel into landing position.
Portland International Airport and Hillsboro airport — where the Gulfstream V plane took off at 6 a.m. on a flight for Toronto — had both prepared for an emergency landing.
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2005/11/22/news/oregon/state02.txt
There seems to be issues with maintenance.
Then there is the accidents one has yet to hear about investigations:
The wing of a seaplane that crashed off Miami Beach, Fla., is lifted by a crane on a barge from the waters of the crash site Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005. The crash on Monday killed all 20 people on board. The rest won't be raised until Wednesday, Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said. Rosenker called it a delicate operation because moving the plane too quickly could cause it to break under the weight of the water. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1427011
Amazing. A passenger from the Midway flight. Well done. "The doors of the landing gear and sensor problem. …. The bearings turned out to be the problem." Bearings? What are they packing the bearings in? Water? Maybe vegetable oil? Is there a problem with maintenance equipment and not the mechanics at all? A mechanic can't work miracles if they don't have quality equipment to work with. Are these airlines cutting corners they aren't supposed to? There was this 'scandal' a while back. Something about 'out sourcing' the mechanical issues. What air crash did that come out? Hm.
1038
The Midway Airliner, the Boeing, dumped the fuel. Provides for a faster landing scenario. A safer plane.
HERE IT IS. It was involving the airline crash here in North Carolina.
Are Airlines Outsourcing Safety?
Eyewitness News Investigation
Steve Daniels
(05/09/05 - RALEIGH) - An Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering a new trend in outsourcing -- the outsourcing of airline maintenance.
Some airlines have been outsourcing nearly 80 percent of their maintenance. It's a way to save money, but we've discovered disturbing safety issues at one North Carolina maintenance company.
You can hear terror in the voice of the captain on US Airways Express flight 5481.
"We have an emergency in the cockpit for Air Midwest 5481," she said on a cockpit voice recorder tape.
The plane, operated by Air Midwest, crashed in Charlotte in January 2003, killing all 21 people on board.
"It came own nose first into a fireball," said Tracy Right, who saw the crash.
Flight 5481 was headed to Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, then to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The NTSB blamed the crash, in part, on an outsourced maintenance company in Huntington, West Virginia. Two nights before the crash, a mechanic who had never worked on that kind of plane made a major mistake. He incorrectly rigged critical cables that control the plane.
Just last week, the president of Air Midwest, Greg Stephens, apologized to the people who lost loved ones in the crash.
"We are truly sorry and regret and apologize to everyone affected by this tragedy," he said.
Ernie Kiss has spent his career as an airline mechanic. Now he's in charged of safety at the nation's largest mechanics union. When Steve Daniels met him at RDU International Airport, he told Eyewitness News what his union members are seeing on the job.
"Approximately 84 to 90 percent of our technicians have seen mistakes made at third-party vendors," Kiss said. "We're having to re-work maintenance that is farmed out, and it's costing the carrier more to farm out than if we did it in house to start with."
In fact, our Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering disturbing safety issues at a TIMCO in Greensboro. United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Fed Ex and America West all outsourced maintenance work to TIMCO.
A source showed us pictures of a panel above the wing that flew off a United Airlines Boeing 757 on a flight leaving TIMCO.
The source says workers at TIMCO forgot to screw in panels during a maintenance overhaul. Another United plane a wide-body Boeing 767 also had serious safety problems after it left TIMCO, according to our source and documents obtained by Eyewitness News.
A panel under the wing nearly ripped off in flight. Cockpit warning lights indicated repeated problems with the slats and flaps on the wings. The cockpit control sticks were not working properly, and the emergency evacuation lighting system wasn't working properly.
"It sounds like it's a total quality management problem, there at TIMCO with their quality assurance and their lack of training," Kiss said.
We also obtained documents revealing problems on another United Boeing 767, which our source says was at TIMCO in December 2003. Pilots reported a series of cockpit warnings connected to the slats and flaps on the wings. Our source says another 767 had problems with the emergency evacuation lighting after going to TIMCO last October.
Back in 2001, the FAA fined United Airlines for work that TIMCO did on a Boeing 737. The report said TIMCO "failed to properly re-install fuel system components, rendering the aircraft unairworthy."
TIMCO would not answer our questions about the documents we obtained. They did release a statement saying TIMCO is an industry leader in safety:
"In fact, our safety standards surpass those required by both the FAA and commercial airlines. TIMCO performs millions of maintenance tasks annually. Just like airline maintenance operations, we are not immune to an infrequent service issue. If there are service issues, we are quick to investigate to determine the root cause and to implement corrections actions."
The statement also said TIMCO has an experienced, well-trained workforce.
During our investigation, we discovered the NTSB has blamed maintenance outsourcing at other companies in several other crashes, including the ValuJet crash in Miami in 1996 and the crash of an Emery cargo plane in Sacramento, Calif., in February 2000.
"It doesn't cross anybody's mind that these things are being maintained by unlicensed technicians at a third-party vendor," Ernie Kiss said. "I don't think the American flying public knows that."
Greg Stephens, the man whose company operated the US Airways Express flight that crashed in Charlotte, says his airline has learned some tough lessons.
"We have taken substantial measures to prevent similar accidents and incidents in the future, so that your losses will not have been suffered in vain," he said. Stephens also said his company is following all of the NTSB safety recommendations that emerged from the crash investigation.
United Airlines says in a statement:
"We have worked cooperatively with TIMCO for maintenance work for years. At no time has the safety of United's passengers, employees or aircraft ever been compromised. Safety -- the cornerstone of United's business -- is the company's number one priority. Outsourced and internal maintenance operations are in strict compliance with United Airlines' FAA-approved maintenance program and all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations. FAA safety inspectors and United's own Quality Assurance division also provide additional oversight to our maintenance programs."
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=investigative&id=3054470
Okay, everybody, how much of these problems are outsourced?
1054
commercials
1057
Frankenstein? John you have got to be joking? Junior Achievement's voice toy of Glitz and Glitter? This is nothing but garbage and cheap stunts. Anderson needs a permanent vacation. Heeerrreeee's Johnny !
1058
Stuff about airliners.
1105
The News Round Up.
1107
The Transit Strike. They hold out long enough the million dollar a day fine will become irrelevant.
1109
Spying of Citizens without a warrant. A letter requesting a joint investigation. It needs more than that. This is a national emergency concern. Bush is impeachable and so is Cheney. This 'poor state of repair' of this country is not a desirable position for a nation at war and an illegal war at that. We need relief from this situation as a nation concerned with the security of this nation. We don't know if this president and his administration is abusing their power to 'blunt' efforts that secure this nation that they PERSONALLY don't approve of. This abuse of power is at empowering their personal and political control over this country. That is no longer a democracy, it's a dictatorship. This abuse of power has NO PROOF of it's benefit.
1113
commercials
1116
The plane that crashed off Miami. "A great deal of science that goes along with this type of recovery, I assure you." Science? Are you sure? I thought is was all luck.
Engineers approve latest Boeing contract offer
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WICHITA, Kan. -- Engineers at the Boeing Co.'s defense operations in Wichita on Tuesday overwhelmingly accepted a new contract offer that looks a lot like the one they turned down earlier this month.
In their second election, 73 percent of the engineers who voted approved of the three-year contract. The vote was 184-69 to accept the company's latest proposal.
The contract covers 788 engineers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace at Boeing's defense operations in Wichita.
"The engineers were ready to move on, rather than fuss over the contract," said SPEEA executive director Charles Bofferding.
Boeing spokesman Forrest Gossett said the company was obviously pleased that engineers accepted the region-leading contract.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_KS_Boeing_Wichita.html
1119
The News Secretary
1121
Senator Stevens plays blackmail with piers.
For Stevens, drilling in Alaska is personal payback
By LAURIE KELLMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Incredible Hulk appeared Tuesday on the Senate floor, adorning the necktie of Sen. Ted Stevens - a familiar sign that the veteran from Alaska is pumped for the fight to open part of an arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling.
But to hear his colleagues tell it, Stevens is more like the Grinch who would steal Christmas - and New Year's, if need be - to collect on his end of a vote-swapping deal he struck with two Democrats 25 years ago.
"A promise made is a debt unpaid," Stevens, 82, is fond of repeating. "This is a debt unpaid to this Senate, to the country, to Alaska."
Back in 1980, the deal went like this: Vote yes on setting aside 19 million acres of wilderness, said Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Congress will support permission to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Stevens agreed. Tsongas and Jackson, meanwhile, died before Congress could grant permission to drill.
Their debt survives, Stevens insists. And he's playing procedural hardball to make the Senate pay up.
"We're going to have to face up to ANWR either now or Christmas Day or New Year's Eve or sometime," Stevens thundered from the Senate floor Tuesday, bucking criticism from drilling opponents furious that he succeeded in attaching the drilling permission to a must-pass bill to fund the military.
Off the floor, Stevens acknowledged he has little to lose by muscling opponents into this uncomfortable choice: Vote for a bill that allows arctic drilling or be seen as blocking money for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, new aid for hurricane victims and subsidies to help the poor meet what are expected to be record winter heating bills.
"This is the toughest battle I've ever had," Stevens said Tuesday, a senatorial red handkerchief perched in a jacket pocket just inches from his surly alter ego.
The big green guy on the necktie is famous in the Senate for injecting a bit of playfulness into spending fights during Stevens' years chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I've won every other battle with it on, so I'm wearing it for this one," Stevens said.
All-night sessions and a list of stalled bills have left little humor on Capitol Hill as the clock ticks toward the end of the year.
"This is, after all, Christmas!" Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., complained on the Senate floor.
The showdown vote could come as early as Wednesday.
The 1980 law doubled to 19 million acres the size of the Alaska wildlife refuge. Stevens said he supported that law only after Jackson and Tsongas promised him that Congress would later consider allowing drilling on a 1.5 million-acre tract bordering the Beaufort Sea.
Democrats disagreed on whether current senators are obligated to pay what Stevens calls a "debt" owed him by Jackson and Tsongas.
"The Grinch Who Stole the Defense Bill," they called Stevens in a news release put out Tuesday by the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
"Every Sen. in Washington liked the defense bill a lot," they added, channeling Dr. Seuss. "But Stevens, who lives north, in Alaska, did NOT."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Stevens_Hurrah.html
COMMERCIALS
1124
Joe Johns
There is no such thing as 'responsible exploration.' The oil industry is exploitive and that is all it is.
The Alaskan Coastal Plain could produce more than all of Texas. ANYWHERE these days produces more than Texas. Texas is mostly DRY. Try again.
1128
Cantwell vows Senate fight to stop oil drilling
Democrat may lead filibuster to preserve Arctic refuge
By CHARLES POPE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Maria Cantwell vowed Monday to keep the Senate in session until the brink of Christmas to defeat legislation that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
"If this language is allowed to stand, one of our nation's most pristine wildlife areas will be lost," Cantwell, a Democrat, said as she outlined plans by her party and its allies to defeat language offered by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens to open ANWR.
"This is nothing more than a sweetheart deal for Alaska and the oil companies," Cantwell said. "That's why I am prepared to use every procedural option available to me as a senator to prevent this language from moving forward."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/252683_anwr20.html
commercials
1131
Passenger's perspective
1134
Jim Tilmon's perspective.
1138
The News Round Up
1139
The Happy Living Together Ever After Crowd. Good for them. 86 million single adults. The "Marriage Discrimination" issue. It's real and Bush's agenda promotes it.
Unmarried persons raise children well, too.
1143
Commercials
1146
Intelligent design is theology. Their arguments, including DNA, is very poorly put forward. It's all political. There is no basis in fact. Part of what this might be, could be good ole Texas politics. See the idea is to allow the opposition to feel confident and boastful only to be defeated later by the 'self-righteous.'
It is upto the 'MATURE' citizens of the USA to see through the political volleys laughed at in back rooms and continue to pursue the 'correct' path regardless the idiocy otherwise.
That 'type' of politics allows for the opposition to Bush/Cheney to exist regardless of their domination. It tells me the calls to impeachment are being heard and returned in ways to underhandedly control.
Impeach ANYWAY. (This is PSYOPS used by Bush/Cheney for personal agendas while telling the mlitary it is a matter of national security.)
This is a tactic of control at some levels.
This decision will make it's way to the 'pre-loaded' Supreme Court. If this country wants to promote 'Anti-Intelligence' then it has lost it's basis of validity in the greater international community of science.
The country is in sad shape. It has been lead by an Anti-American who believe in regression and not progress.
1150
Nelson Mandela. His mission never ended.
1150
Commercials
1153
Secrets.
1156
John's good night.
1157
Well done, John. Peaceful landing indeed.
The Jet Blue airliner was an Airbus and had to burn off it's fuel before it landed. I'm wondering what this Boeing did about it's fuel before it landed.
Flight Attendant's love to talk.
I think the aspect of the public address system, in the plane, being a 'tool' and not a matter of PR is an interesting observation by Mr. Tilmon. The aspect that it is times like this when people realize the pay a pilot receives is understandable is an unfortunate reality. Air flight is thought of as 'common place' but when one realizes what happens all along the way in a flight no matter how common place it is, is to realize exactly 'the pay' the pilots make. I am concerned about the 'trend' these planes are having. This is the third landing gear issue in a few months. Besides the Jet Blue landing gear is also Nike Plane with similar problems.
Nike plane safely on ground after landing-gear drama
By BRAD CAIN
Associated Press Writer
HILLSBORO — Nike CEO William Perez and other company executives went through a six-hour drama in the skies over Oregon on Monday as a wheel on their jet got stuck in a partially extended position, but the plane landed safely after aerial maneuvers meant to shake the wheel into landing position.
Portland International Airport and Hillsboro airport — where the Gulfstream V plane took off at 6 a.m. on a flight for Toronto — had both prepared for an emergency landing.
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2005/11/22/news/oregon/state02.txt
There seems to be issues with maintenance.
Then there is the accidents one has yet to hear about investigations:
The wing of a seaplane that crashed off Miami Beach, Fla., is lifted by a crane on a barge from the waters of the crash site Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005. The crash on Monday killed all 20 people on board. The rest won't be raised until Wednesday, Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said. Rosenker called it a delicate operation because moving the plane too quickly could cause it to break under the weight of the water. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1427011
Amazing. A passenger from the Midway flight. Well done. "The doors of the landing gear and sensor problem. …. The bearings turned out to be the problem." Bearings? What are they packing the bearings in? Water? Maybe vegetable oil? Is there a problem with maintenance equipment and not the mechanics at all? A mechanic can't work miracles if they don't have quality equipment to work with. Are these airlines cutting corners they aren't supposed to? There was this 'scandal' a while back. Something about 'out sourcing' the mechanical issues. What air crash did that come out? Hm.
1038
The Midway Airliner, the Boeing, dumped the fuel. Provides for a faster landing scenario. A safer plane.
HERE IT IS. It was involving the airline crash here in North Carolina.
Are Airlines Outsourcing Safety?
Eyewitness News Investigation
Steve Daniels
(05/09/05 - RALEIGH) - An Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering a new trend in outsourcing -- the outsourcing of airline maintenance.
Some airlines have been outsourcing nearly 80 percent of their maintenance. It's a way to save money, but we've discovered disturbing safety issues at one North Carolina maintenance company.
You can hear terror in the voice of the captain on US Airways Express flight 5481.
"We have an emergency in the cockpit for Air Midwest 5481," she said on a cockpit voice recorder tape.
The plane, operated by Air Midwest, crashed in Charlotte in January 2003, killing all 21 people on board.
"It came own nose first into a fireball," said Tracy Right, who saw the crash.
Flight 5481 was headed to Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, then to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The NTSB blamed the crash, in part, on an outsourced maintenance company in Huntington, West Virginia. Two nights before the crash, a mechanic who had never worked on that kind of plane made a major mistake. He incorrectly rigged critical cables that control the plane.
Just last week, the president of Air Midwest, Greg Stephens, apologized to the people who lost loved ones in the crash.
"We are truly sorry and regret and apologize to everyone affected by this tragedy," he said.
Ernie Kiss has spent his career as an airline mechanic. Now he's in charged of safety at the nation's largest mechanics union. When Steve Daniels met him at RDU International Airport, he told Eyewitness News what his union members are seeing on the job.
"Approximately 84 to 90 percent of our technicians have seen mistakes made at third-party vendors," Kiss said. "We're having to re-work maintenance that is farmed out, and it's costing the carrier more to farm out than if we did it in house to start with."
In fact, our Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering disturbing safety issues at a TIMCO in Greensboro. United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Fed Ex and America West all outsourced maintenance work to TIMCO.
A source showed us pictures of a panel above the wing that flew off a United Airlines Boeing 757 on a flight leaving TIMCO.
The source says workers at TIMCO forgot to screw in panels during a maintenance overhaul. Another United plane a wide-body Boeing 767 also had serious safety problems after it left TIMCO, according to our source and documents obtained by Eyewitness News.
A panel under the wing nearly ripped off in flight. Cockpit warning lights indicated repeated problems with the slats and flaps on the wings. The cockpit control sticks were not working properly, and the emergency evacuation lighting system wasn't working properly.
"It sounds like it's a total quality management problem, there at TIMCO with their quality assurance and their lack of training," Kiss said.
We also obtained documents revealing problems on another United Boeing 767, which our source says was at TIMCO in December 2003. Pilots reported a series of cockpit warnings connected to the slats and flaps on the wings. Our source says another 767 had problems with the emergency evacuation lighting after going to TIMCO last October.
Back in 2001, the FAA fined United Airlines for work that TIMCO did on a Boeing 737. The report said TIMCO "failed to properly re-install fuel system components, rendering the aircraft unairworthy."
TIMCO would not answer our questions about the documents we obtained. They did release a statement saying TIMCO is an industry leader in safety:
"In fact, our safety standards surpass those required by both the FAA and commercial airlines. TIMCO performs millions of maintenance tasks annually. Just like airline maintenance operations, we are not immune to an infrequent service issue. If there are service issues, we are quick to investigate to determine the root cause and to implement corrections actions."
The statement also said TIMCO has an experienced, well-trained workforce.
During our investigation, we discovered the NTSB has blamed maintenance outsourcing at other companies in several other crashes, including the ValuJet crash in Miami in 1996 and the crash of an Emery cargo plane in Sacramento, Calif., in February 2000.
"It doesn't cross anybody's mind that these things are being maintained by unlicensed technicians at a third-party vendor," Ernie Kiss said. "I don't think the American flying public knows that."
Greg Stephens, the man whose company operated the US Airways Express flight that crashed in Charlotte, says his airline has learned some tough lessons.
"We have taken substantial measures to prevent similar accidents and incidents in the future, so that your losses will not have been suffered in vain," he said. Stephens also said his company is following all of the NTSB safety recommendations that emerged from the crash investigation.
United Airlines says in a statement:
"We have worked cooperatively with TIMCO for maintenance work for years. At no time has the safety of United's passengers, employees or aircraft ever been compromised. Safety -- the cornerstone of United's business -- is the company's number one priority. Outsourced and internal maintenance operations are in strict compliance with United Airlines' FAA-approved maintenance program and all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations. FAA safety inspectors and United's own Quality Assurance division also provide additional oversight to our maintenance programs."
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=investigative&id=3054470
Okay, everybody, how much of these problems are outsourced?
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commercials
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Frankenstein? John you have got to be joking? Junior Achievement's voice toy of Glitz and Glitter? This is nothing but garbage and cheap stunts. Anderson needs a permanent vacation. Heeerrreeee's Johnny !
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Stuff about airliners.
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The News Round Up.
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The Transit Strike. They hold out long enough the million dollar a day fine will become irrelevant.
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Spying of Citizens without a warrant. A letter requesting a joint investigation. It needs more than that. This is a national emergency concern. Bush is impeachable and so is Cheney. This 'poor state of repair' of this country is not a desirable position for a nation at war and an illegal war at that. We need relief from this situation as a nation concerned with the security of this nation. We don't know if this president and his administration is abusing their power to 'blunt' efforts that secure this nation that they PERSONALLY don't approve of. This abuse of power is at empowering their personal and political control over this country. That is no longer a democracy, it's a dictatorship. This abuse of power has NO PROOF of it's benefit.
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commercials
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The plane that crashed off Miami. "A great deal of science that goes along with this type of recovery, I assure you." Science? Are you sure? I thought is was all luck.
Engineers approve latest Boeing contract offer
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WICHITA, Kan. -- Engineers at the Boeing Co.'s defense operations in Wichita on Tuesday overwhelmingly accepted a new contract offer that looks a lot like the one they turned down earlier this month.
In their second election, 73 percent of the engineers who voted approved of the three-year contract. The vote was 184-69 to accept the company's latest proposal.
The contract covers 788 engineers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace at Boeing's defense operations in Wichita.
"The engineers were ready to move on, rather than fuss over the contract," said SPEEA executive director Charles Bofferding.
Boeing spokesman Forrest Gossett said the company was obviously pleased that engineers accepted the region-leading contract.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_KS_Boeing_Wichita.html
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The News Secretary
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Senator Stevens plays blackmail with piers.
For Stevens, drilling in Alaska is personal payback
By LAURIE KELLMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Incredible Hulk appeared Tuesday on the Senate floor, adorning the necktie of Sen. Ted Stevens - a familiar sign that the veteran from Alaska is pumped for the fight to open part of an arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling.
But to hear his colleagues tell it, Stevens is more like the Grinch who would steal Christmas - and New Year's, if need be - to collect on his end of a vote-swapping deal he struck with two Democrats 25 years ago.
"A promise made is a debt unpaid," Stevens, 82, is fond of repeating. "This is a debt unpaid to this Senate, to the country, to Alaska."
Back in 1980, the deal went like this: Vote yes on setting aside 19 million acres of wilderness, said Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Congress will support permission to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Stevens agreed. Tsongas and Jackson, meanwhile, died before Congress could grant permission to drill.
Their debt survives, Stevens insists. And he's playing procedural hardball to make the Senate pay up.
"We're going to have to face up to ANWR either now or Christmas Day or New Year's Eve or sometime," Stevens thundered from the Senate floor Tuesday, bucking criticism from drilling opponents furious that he succeeded in attaching the drilling permission to a must-pass bill to fund the military.
Off the floor, Stevens acknowledged he has little to lose by muscling opponents into this uncomfortable choice: Vote for a bill that allows arctic drilling or be seen as blocking money for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, new aid for hurricane victims and subsidies to help the poor meet what are expected to be record winter heating bills.
"This is the toughest battle I've ever had," Stevens said Tuesday, a senatorial red handkerchief perched in a jacket pocket just inches from his surly alter ego.
The big green guy on the necktie is famous in the Senate for injecting a bit of playfulness into spending fights during Stevens' years chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I've won every other battle with it on, so I'm wearing it for this one," Stevens said.
All-night sessions and a list of stalled bills have left little humor on Capitol Hill as the clock ticks toward the end of the year.
"This is, after all, Christmas!" Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., complained on the Senate floor.
The showdown vote could come as early as Wednesday.
The 1980 law doubled to 19 million acres the size of the Alaska wildlife refuge. Stevens said he supported that law only after Jackson and Tsongas promised him that Congress would later consider allowing drilling on a 1.5 million-acre tract bordering the Beaufort Sea.
Democrats disagreed on whether current senators are obligated to pay what Stevens calls a "debt" owed him by Jackson and Tsongas.
"The Grinch Who Stole the Defense Bill," they called Stevens in a news release put out Tuesday by the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
"Every Sen. in Washington liked the defense bill a lot," they added, channeling Dr. Seuss. "But Stevens, who lives north, in Alaska, did NOT."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Stevens_Hurrah.html
COMMERCIALS
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Joe Johns
There is no such thing as 'responsible exploration.' The oil industry is exploitive and that is all it is.
The Alaskan Coastal Plain could produce more than all of Texas. ANYWHERE these days produces more than Texas. Texas is mostly DRY. Try again.
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Cantwell vows Senate fight to stop oil drilling
Democrat may lead filibuster to preserve Arctic refuge
By CHARLES POPE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Maria Cantwell vowed Monday to keep the Senate in session until the brink of Christmas to defeat legislation that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
"If this language is allowed to stand, one of our nation's most pristine wildlife areas will be lost," Cantwell, a Democrat, said as she outlined plans by her party and its allies to defeat language offered by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens to open ANWR.
"This is nothing more than a sweetheart deal for Alaska and the oil companies," Cantwell said. "That's why I am prepared to use every procedural option available to me as a senator to prevent this language from moving forward."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/252683_anwr20.html
commercials
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Passenger's perspective
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Jim Tilmon's perspective.
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The News Round Up
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The Happy Living Together Ever After Crowd. Good for them. 86 million single adults. The "Marriage Discrimination" issue. It's real and Bush's agenda promotes it.
Unmarried persons raise children well, too.
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Commercials
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Intelligent design is theology. Their arguments, including DNA, is very poorly put forward. It's all political. There is no basis in fact. Part of what this might be, could be good ole Texas politics. See the idea is to allow the opposition to feel confident and boastful only to be defeated later by the 'self-righteous.'
It is upto the 'MATURE' citizens of the USA to see through the political volleys laughed at in back rooms and continue to pursue the 'correct' path regardless the idiocy otherwise.
That 'type' of politics allows for the opposition to Bush/Cheney to exist regardless of their domination. It tells me the calls to impeachment are being heard and returned in ways to underhandedly control.
Impeach ANYWAY. (This is PSYOPS used by Bush/Cheney for personal agendas while telling the mlitary it is a matter of national security.)
This is a tactic of control at some levels.
This decision will make it's way to the 'pre-loaded' Supreme Court. If this country wants to promote 'Anti-Intelligence' then it has lost it's basis of validity in the greater international community of science.
The country is in sad shape. It has been lead by an Anti-American who believe in regression and not progress.
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Nelson Mandela. His mission never ended.
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Commercials
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Secrets.
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John's good night.
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