“I Vacationed With Obama” On Martha’s Vineyard

by Libby Zay on

President Obama is on a week-long vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts — a favorite vacation spot for the Obamas long before they became the presidential family. This marks the fourth time the family has visited Martha’s Vineyard since Obama became Commander in Chief, and some locals are cashing in on the Obama tourism craze. Shops have created T-shirts, bumper stickers and other items emblazoned with phrases like “I vacationed with Obama,” and a restaurant called Flatbread Company changed the name of their weekly “Dance-O-Rama” event to “Dance-O-Bama.”

The Obamas were welcomed to Martha’s Vineyard with handmade signs, and when the first couple dined at the Sweet Life Café on Saturday night, a crowd formed outside the restaurant. The Obamas are reportedly staying in Chilmark, an exclusive area where actor Ted Danson, singer Carly Simon and Washington power broker Vernon Jordan have homes.

%Slideshow-45981%

Sinkhole Swallows Resort Near Disney World

by Libby Zay on

Visitors staying at a resort near Disney World in Orlando, Florida said they heard loud “popping” and “cracking” just before a 60-foot-wide sinkhole opened up underneath them last night. A three-story building collapsed and another slowly sank into the 15-foot-deep hole. Luckily, all the guests staying at the affected buildings at Summer Bay Resort — an estimated 35 people — were safely evacuated just before the ground gave way.

Passersby are no doubt ogling at the buckled resort buildings this morning, as they have been doing in western Kansas, where tourists are flocking to a 200-foot-wide sinkhole. Despite warnings from the landowner and town law enforcements, visitors are coming from miles around for the rare chance of getting to watch the earth open up.

Shocking Things The TSA Gets Away With

by Reena Ganga on


To many people, airport security is something of a necessary evil — a royal pain in the behind that they tolerate because ultimately, it’s designed to keep us safer. But a new study into the Transportation Security Administration raises questions about just how well the agency actually protects us. Airport screeners have been accused of everything from sleeping on the job to stealing and accepting bribes. And many are not really penalized for their actions.

An audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed some shocking behavior by TSA agents stationed at airports around the country. In several instances, agents were found sleeping while on duty. Other agents might as well have been asleep given that they allegedly let people pass through to the secure zone of the airport without actually going through the screening process.According to the report, the agency has processed 56 cases of theft by TSA agents over the past three years. That included one agent at Orlando Airport who confessed to swiping more than 80 laptops from passengers. (These neglected to make an appearance on the agency’s new Instagram feed of confiscated goods.) Other disciplinary issues involve things like “neglect of duty,” credit card abuse and even bribery. In one such case last year, TSA agents were accused of pocketing bribes from drug traffickers in Los Angeles.

The number of allegations against TSA employees runs well into the thousands, but the GAO says few of the agents were adequately punished for their behavior. In some cases, TSA agents were disciplined by their superiors after very little investigation, while in others, agents guilty of misconduct barely received a slap on the wrist.

The findings of the audit are unfortunate for an agency already facing public scrutiny. Just recently, the TSA came under fire for telling a 15-year-old girl that her clothes were too revealing. They have also been criticized for racially profiling passengers, and aggressively screening young children.

Can We Please Keep Phones Away From Drivers?

by Libby Zay on

Investigators in Spain are saying the driver of the train that derailed last Wednesday, killing 79 people, was using his cell phone at the time of the accident. It has also become clear that the train was going 94 mph on a sharp bend of track where the speed limit was only 49 mph. It doesn’t matter if a driver is operating a train, car, tour bus, airplane, tug boat or bicycle — I think we can all agree he or she should be giving their undivided attention. In this instance, it appears the driver received a call on his work phone to take direction on an approach to the train’s final destination, and it seems he was also consulting a paper document. It’s still unclear whether a computer failure is partly to blame for the accident, especially since the brakes should have been applied 2.5 miles before the train hit the dangerous curve. Either way, the train company should have had procedures that would have prevented this from happening.

Gang Allegedly Tags $2.3 Million Jet At Van Nuys Airport

by Libby Zay on

Not content with putting its mark on buildings and train cars, a gang has allegedly taken things to a higher level by tagging a $2.3 million jet. The graffiti artists snuck into Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles to scrawl the words “R.I.P.” and “flame” across a Learjet Model 60.

It’s estimated the jet’s owners will have to pony up $110,000 to fix the plane. The FBI and Los Angeles police are investigating how the secure area was breached, with authorities believing the tags may be “gang related and gang initiated.”

“This is a big deal to me, to have somebody who could get onto the airfield and who could do that kind of damage, that kind extensive graffiti to an aircraft, and not be seen,” Los Angeles Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon tells the Aviation Writer. “I’m not happy about it.”

[via news.com.au]