Weekly Roundup - December 25, 2023
On Christmas Eve Bethlehem Ghost Town. Celebrations Halted Due To War | From Rome To Vietnam It’S Not A Time For Rejoicing |
Melanie Lidman for the Associated Press | By Associated Press published in the Waukesha Freeman |
December 24, 2023 | December 23, 1972 |
BETHLEHEM West Bank (AP) — The typically bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town Sunday after Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war. The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing as were the throngs of foreign tourists and jubilant youth marching bands that gather in the West Bank town each year to mark the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square. “Th … Read the full article here. |
As Christian countries around the world prepared to celebrate the birth of Christ Pope Paul VI spoke out Friday against the breakdown in negotiations between Washington and Hanoi and devoted most of a Christmas message to peace. In his annual Christmas address to the College of Cardinals in Vatican City the Pope said that recent events had raised fears in world opinion that an Indochina peace settlement was jeopardized. He did not specifically mention the bombing of Hanoi but Vatican sources said the mention of recent events referred to the American raids. “The unforeseen worsening of events has intensified bitterness and anxiety in world opinion. With increased fervor we offer up our prayer that the oppressive conflict may have a satisfactory and equitable conclusion as soon as possible.” In occupied Jordan officials of Bethlehem were preparing to halt ordinary traffic this weekend for the Christmas celebrations in the birthplace of Christ. From midnight Saturday through Christmas Eve only religious pilgrims tourists and those carrying special passes will be allowed to enter the hillton town. The move is a precaution against possible Palestine guerrilla attempts to sabotage the Christmas celebrations. The mayor of Bethlehem appealed to the world to send donations to help ‘rehabilitate the glory’ of Christs birthplace. Many of the 25000 US soldiers in South Vietnam who had hoped to be home for the holidays were in a cynical mood over the stalemated peace talks and resumption of the bombing but still hoped this would be their last Christmas in Vietnam. In Saigon U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker said in a message to Americans in Vietnam that there is now hope that the U.S. peace effort will succeed. In Peru Christmas symbols of foreign origin are out of favor this year. The Education Ministry declared St. Nick persona non grata in October saying that he Christmas trees sleighs and reindeer were symbols of Nordic countries and not of Peru. Santa was busy in Rome’s Piazza Novanna directing children and their parents into the open air stands which were doing a thriving business. |
Pilots Hide Mental Health Problems So They Do Not Lose Their Licenses | Team Pilot Uncleared For Flight |
Andrea Sachs for The Washington Post | News Wire Article published in the Kittanning Leader Times |
December 18, 2023 | October 28, 1970 |
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy had opened the day’s session with a critique of the aviation industry’s approach to mental health. She described it as punitive and shaming and harmful not just to the pilot but to the whole sector. “The safety risk comes from a culture of silence around mental health” she said. Penny Giovanetti a top medical official at the FAA who attended the event countered the criticism by sharing some recent developments. She said the understaffed agency has hired three psy … Read the full article here. |
OKLAHOMA UllY (UFhpes flight surgeon for the Federal Aviation Administration told a federal examiner Tuesday the pilot of a Wichita State University chartered flight which landed safely in Utah was not eligible to receive a required medical certificate because of psychiatric prob- lems. The pilot Leland T. Everett flew one of two planes carrying members of the Wichita State University football team to Logan Utah Oct. 2. The other plane crashed in the Rocky Mountains near Loveland Pass Colo. killing 30 persons. Dr. Harry W. Faulkner of Atlanta flight surgeon for the FAA’s southern region said a psychiatric report completed in 1968 said Everett had a “passive aggressive” personali- ty. Faulkner said the “charac- ter disorder’ was a mandatory disqualification for anyone seeking the necessary medical certification. Faulkner’s testimony came during a hearing conducted by an examiner for the National Transportation Safety Board on an appeal by Everett of the FAA’s emergency revocation of his pilot’s license. The FAA said Everett’s license was revoked because he did not have a valid medical certifi. cate. Faulkner said Everett surren: dered his medical certificate voluntarily July 1968 when the results of the psychiatric examination became known The doctor said an _aviatior medical examiner issued anoth er certificate to Everett i August 1969. Faulkner said he reviewec Everett’s case and wrote th pilot on Oct. 2 1969 telling hin the certificate was not valic because of his past psychiatri problems. Faulkner said h asked Everett to return th certificate but the pilot neve replied. Everett’s attorneys said th pilot never received Faulkner’ letter. |
Clear Wants To Scan Your Face At Airports. Privacy Experts Are Worried. | Screening Devices To Help Security |
Sofia Andrade for The Washington Post | News Wire Article published in the Big Spring Herald |
December 20, 2023 | September 17, 1972 |
The private security screening company Clear is rolling out facial recognition technology at its expedited airport checkpoints in 2024 replacing the company’s iris-scanning and fingerprint-checking measures. With a presence at more than 50 U.S. airports Clear’s update is the latest sign in a broader shift toward biometrics in air travel that is raising concerns from some privacy experts and advocates. Clear’s shift to its new screening technology which the company is calling NextGen Identity … Read the full article here. |
A $2.7 million purchase of 1090 walk-through passenger-screening devices and 1200 hand-held units for added airport security was announced Saturday by the Transportation Department. Transportation Secretary John A. Volpe said the units would be operated and maintained by the airlines for screening passengers before boarding. All the hand-held units are to be delivered by November. The walk-through devices screening passengers as they pass through an electromagnetic field in a passage-way about four feet long three feet wide and eight feet high are to be in place by next January. Volpe said the purchase under a $5.3-million authorization from the Congress will provide added protection at all 531 airports served by scheduled airlines. The airlines already have in service about 700 detection devices purchased with their own funds: John H. Shaffer administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration said the new equipment would be a great boost toward attaining the principle objective of the anti-hijacking program — preventing the hijacker from boarding the airplane. The hand-held devices resemble a walkie talkie radio and are about 14 inches long four inches wide and two inches thick. They are to be used at the less busy airports and for special purposes at the major airports Shaffer said. |
How Ai Is Being Used By Law Enforcement To Help Disrupt Fentanyl Production Distribution | Busy Chasing Addict-Pushers Dope Control Chief Says Agents Work At Wrong End |
Kurt Knutsson, Cyberguy Report for the Fox News | News Wire Article published in the Tucson Daily Citizen |
December 18, 2023 | March 25, 1969 |
Law enforcement is always looking at ways to make sure drugs aren\t coming into the country and into your neighborhood. Agencies are now turning to artificial intelligence to help keep us safe especially on the southern border. That\s where Border Patrol agents found nearly 99% of the fentanyl smuggled into the United States. A drug like fentanyl can be near … Read the full article here. |
The director of the government’s war on narcolies trafficking says federal agents have spent toa much time in the past ‘‘chasing addict-pushers down the streets” and not enough pursuing the major distribulors of illicit drugs. The “‘stated approach” was to cut off drugs at their source said John E. Ingersoll head of the Justice Department’s Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. But he added “J don’t think il was implemented.” “What they said they were doing and what they were actually doing were often two very different things” Ingersoll said in an interview. “They were chasing addict-pushers down the Streets al the same time they were trying to reach the higher echelons of traffic. There were too many low level arrests heing made.”* “Tngersoll a former police chief and Justice Department official was put in command last August of the radically shaken up U.S. effort to combat increasing traffic in narcotics and drugs. The bureau he heads was created by merging the Treasury Departments Narcotics Bureau with the Department of Health Education and Welfare’s Bureau of Drug Abuse. “Were focusing our efforts on the major traffickers — in the case of drugs the operators: of clandestine laboratories and the major dis- tributors’’ he said. “In the case of the importation of hard nar- colics and marijuana we are focusing our atten- tion on as high a level of trafficking within the country as we can get plus we’re going to make a greater effort overseas to reduce or eliminate ihe source of these narcotics” As for the relationship between drug use and the recent wave of campus demonstrations In- gersoll said ‘“‘there’s an association — that is a number of the kids who are active in these dem- onstrations and things also are using drugs — “Whether the drugs are causing them to be active or whether they are using’drugs because of the kind of environment they are in I really can’t answer. “…I think the best thing I can say is that there is a significant’ amount of drug traffic among these people.” |
Witness In House Gop Impeachment Inquiry Says No Evidence Joe Biden Involved In Family Business Dealings | Nixon Backers Want Many Witnesses Called |
Ken Tran, Usa Today for the Usa Today | News Wire Article published in the Waxahachie Daily Light |
December 20, 2023 | June 2, 1974 |
Republican investigators leading the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden interviewed another witness on Monday as they hunt for evidence showing the president financially benefited from his family’s business dealings. The committee on Monday interviewed Carol Fox a trustee for Americore a now bankrupt healthcare company. She was asked about her knowledge of the president’s brother James Biden and a $600000 loan Americore gave to James Biden. Fox according to three s … Read the full article here. |
President Nixon’s Republican supporters on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding that the panel call many witnesses before taking a vote on whether to recommend that Nixon be impeached. Their demand conforms with and a trial in ff as oe i ya 4nd dozens of witnesses summoned to testify the panel’s timetable calling for a decision in early July on whether to recommend impeachment will be thrown off for weeks perhaps more than a month. This White House supporters hope will give some of the anti-Nixon feeling in Congress and the country time to die down. The committee has heard all the evidence its staff has gathered on the President\s possible involvement in the At a press conference Monday House Republican tactic. He said the committee access to Nixon\s urged members to get on to summoning witness testimony. nearly every day the same thing. lic committee meet- y Rep. David Dennis nted subpoenaed as witnesses to testify on the single question of whether Nixon authorized the payment of hush money |
The Newest Class Of Gun Influencers Show Off Fierce Weapons Online. Some Arent Teens Yet. | Mom Who Killed Self Leaves Gun Advice To Her Son |
Nick Penzenstadler, Usa Today for the Usa Today | News Wire Article published in the Centralia Evening Sentinel |
December 20, 2023 | November 16, 1949 |
Grant Davis has the perfect AR-15 for you. It has a muzzle brake for straighter shooting an extended magazine release for faster reloads and a tactical handguard. He shows it off on Instagram reels strutting around the Florida shooting range squeezing off rounds synced to music. Grant is about to turn 10. He’s part of the burgeoning group of kid gun influencers “kidfluencers” nationwide and one half of the “2A Boys” – with his 14-year-old brother James. They’re relative newcomers on the s … Read the full article here. |
Ten-year-old Lynn Wells has inherited the rifle with which his mother committed suicide Monday. In a note to her husband Mrs. Kate Merrell Wells 29 instructed that the weapon be cleaned as soon as possible since it will be Lynn\s. It\s new and beautifully accurate. Some day he will get a lot of pleasure out of it. A coroner\s jury has held that the woman killed herself while temporarily insane. She was the wife of Stephenson Wells. Another note addressed to Lynn by his mother set out 13 things I want you to do always. She listed them as: 1. When there is a job to do do a good job. Never a sloppy one. 2. Work hard when you work. But play hard too. 3. When your time is free explore the things you think might be interesting. Follow your curiosities. 4. Be active with your hands and mind; but find plenty of time to observe how beautiful and strange the world is. 5. Respect your body. Keep it clean and healthy. 6. Never live too far away from outdoors. From trees and birds animals plants and insects mountains and blue water. 7. Don\t load yourself down with too many things. Have only such property as you really love and use. Have those few things as fine as possible and then cherish them and care for them lovingly. 8. Never never start a fight. But if someone else does give \em back what they asked for. 9. Never make excuses for yourself. Own up to your mistakes and don\t repeat them if you can help it. 10. Think for yourself. Don\t believe what you read or what other people say unless it seems true to you. 11. Make plenty of friends. But learn to enjoy being alone too. Don\t ever count on anyone but yourself. 12. When you\re older if you have to go to war remember it\s better to fight like a man and die than to spend the rest of your life an invalid depending on other people to take care of you. 13. When you\re older remember sex is natural and fun if you make it so. |