Downsyndrome.com

OREM — Alpine School District Board of Education member Andrea Forsyth has resigned due to health reasons.

Forsyth, who is fighting cancer, has served on the school board for 11 years.

“She’s always been an advocate for special-needs children,” board member JoDee Sundberg said. “Anything to do with improving programs for kids with special needs, she was an advocate for that. One of her big things was inclusion — getting those kids into their neighborhood schools and not being bused to schools away from their home.”

Forsyth has a child with Down syndrome.

Forsyth, who didn’t return a message seeking comment on Tuesday, lost her husband, Orem City Councilman Doug Forsyth, to leukemia in December 2005 and had been considering whether she wanted to run for a fourth term.

“But then, when her illness came, it took such a toll physically and emotionally on her, she thought this was best,” Sundberg said.

The school board accepted Forsyth’s resignation letter Friday.

“She was the one who read everything,” Sundberg said. “Every document that came our way, she would always come prepared, for all the nine years I’ve been on the board,” Sundberg said.

Forsyth also is a talented singer. Each year, she sang to Orem High’s seniors during her graduation speech, board president Debbie Taylor said.

Forsyth’s resignation creates an opening on the seven-member board.

The school board will appoint a new board member, who will serve through next year, when Forsyth’s term expires. The new member must run for the position in November 2008.

Forsyth represented the Orem High School area.

Board decisions will continue to require a four-member majority vote.

Forsyth served as the board’s vice president. A new vice president will be chosen when the new member is appointed, Taylor said.

Working on the school board, Sundberg said, requires 10-15 hours each week of reading and attending meetings. Board members must be willing to respond to parents’ e-mails and phone calls.

“Sometimes we’ll go a long time without having parent calls, but if there’s an issue in your particular area or a districtwide issue, you have more calls or e-mails,” Sundberg said.

Applications are due Nov. 16. More information on the process of getting appointed is available on the school district’s Web site: www.alpine.k12.ut.us.

E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com

Copyright C 2007 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

[Read more →]

CHICAGO (AFP) — Treadmills can help infants with Down syndrome learn how to walk months earlier than traditional therapies, a new study has found.

Parents of 30 babies with Down syndrome were asked to help their children walk on the treadmills for eight minutes a day, five days a week.

They sat on a bench which straddled the machine and held their babies as the treadmill belt encouraged them to take steps.

This exercise helped the babies learn to walk up to four or five months earlier than traditional physical therapy alone, the study found.

More intensive training helped the babies to walk even sooner, the study found.

The intensity of the training for half the babies was increased gradually after the infant could take 10, 20, and 30 steps per minute.

The speed of the treadmill was increased, as was the length of training. Some children were also given …

[Read more →]

Fifty years ago, Colorado Springs High School officials tried to nix Suellen Haney McAndrews’ senior project speech about her toddler brother Steve, born with Down syndrome.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate,” she was told.

She gave it anyway and got a standing ovation. Steve waved his hands and danced across the stage.

Monday, she gave another speech about her brother, this time at his memorial service at First Congregational Church as his effervescent smile flashed on a video screen.

Steve Haney, 54, died Oct. 14 from complications of pneumonia.

He was born in 1953, at a time when many people with Down syndrome were institutionalized. Instead, his family embraced him and took up the cause of others with developmental disabilities.

Monday, family and friends from his group home community gathered to honor the guy so full of mischief and merriment.

“He cracked me up,” said Jonathan Capshaw, his friend from Mosaic, an agency for those with developmental disabilities.

Jeff Haney, a national Mosaic foundation board member, said his younger brother exceeded many expectations.

“He didn’t have much of a chance, but he had a great life. He shouldn’t have lived to be 54. We were told he’d be gone by 10 or 25.”

When Steve Haney was born, “everybody suggested he be put in an institution,” McAndrews said.

J. Donald Haney, now 96 and a retired attorney, and the late Gratia Belle Blackman Haney refused to abandon their youngest of six children.

“They knew there must be other children like this around,” McAndrews said. “They teamed up with other parents and started a little preschool called Hope House. Everybody thought this was a big waste of time for these kids, saying, ‘They aren’t going to amount to anything.’”

Monday’s service was proof of the contrary.

Mosaic clients formed a choir to sing “Kum Ba Ya, My Lord.”

“His favorite song,” said Mosaic singer Cory Garner. “He was a good role model.”

Chaplain Joyce Higgins told about “the hundreds of others in the Pikes Peak region who received help because Steve was born.”

The Haney family helped start many organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Rehabilitation Center, the local Association for Retarded Citizens and Martin Luther Homes, now Mosaic.

Through Mosaic, Steve Haney learned to use sign language.

“He was nonverbal,” McAndrews said. “Mosaic taught him about 70 different signs.”

He inspired joy, not pity.

“Nobody ever felt sorry for him,” McAndrews said.

“Having Steve in my family made me more interested in people I don’t understand. Steve gave me permission to keep being silly.”

CONTRIBUTIONS

Memorial contributions may be made to The Stephen S. Haney Endowment c/o Mosaic Colorado Springs, 1785 N. Academy Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80909.

Copyright 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

[Read more →]

LAS VEGAS — The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company announced today that they will bring their renowned collector car extravaganza to the city of Las Vegas in 2008. The world-famous event will take place October 16-18, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center where spectacular autos, from vintage muscle cars to pre-war classic gems, will share the stage with luxurious lifestyle vendors and exclusive parties. SPEED will bring the action home with live TV coverage during the auction as approximately 600 of the world’s finest collector cars are sold at No Reserve.

"Las Vegas as a city mirrors the dynamic atmosphere of a Barrett-Jackson event," said Craig Jackson, Chairman/CEO of Barrett-Jackson. "We believe the two are an ideal match and we intend to become a significant part of the city’s landscape in the coming years."

"Barrett-Jackson represents the gold standard in classic car auctions by providing an exhilarating mix of vintage vehicles, high-energy crowds and thrilling bidding wars," said Mandalay Bay President and COO Bill Hornbuckle. "The energy and excitement of Mandalay Bay and Las Vegas will provide the perfect complement to this highly anticipated event."

Barrett-Jackson has been producing "The World’s Greatest Collector Car Events[TM]" since 1971 in Scottsdale, Ariz., with an auction in Palm Beach, Fla., launching in 2002. In 2007, more than 300,000 attendees and millions of SPEED television viewers from around the world witnessed over 1,870 cars being auctioned off for approximately $144 million in these two events combined.

Beyond the auction, the three-day event will encompass a wide range of lifestyle offerings, including an automobilia auction, a vast display from auto vendors, The Garage venue for live music and fashion shows and a grand gala with a significant charity component benefiting the Lili Claire Foundation. The Lili Claire Foundation was established to enhance the lives of children living with Williams Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Autism and other neurogenetic disorders, while providing hope and resources for the families who love them.

"Auto collecting continues to grow at an amazing pace," said Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson. "Adding the Las Vegas auction allows an even greater audience to participate in the Barrett-Jackson experience, with the added excitement of Las Vegas as a backdrop."

About The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company

Established in 1971 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Barrett-Jackson specializes in providing products and services to classic and collector car owners, astute collectors and automotive enthusiasts around the world. The company produces the "World’s Greatest Classic Car Event" in Scottsdale, AZ, and has expanded to other venues, including Palm Beach, FL and in 2008, Las Vegas, NV. For more information about Barrett-Jackson, visit www.barrett-jackson.com or call (480) 421-6694.

About Mandalay Bay

Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, a AAA Four Diamond Award-winning destination resort, is set on 60 lush acres and offers 3,644 rooms and suites including 424 accommodations managed by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Mandalay Beach, an 11-acre tropical pool environment, features real California sand, a wave pool and lazy river. The property also features the 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center, award-winning restaurants, Shark Reef and the 1.5-million-square-foot Mandalay Bay Convention Center - the largest convention center on the Las Vegas Strip. Mandalay Bay’s brands include THEhotel, an all-suite hotel which features 1,117 luxurious one-bedroom suites and the BATHHOUSE Spa, and Mandalay Place, a collection of 41 unique boutiques and restaurants. Mandalay Bay is a wholly owned subsidiary of MGM MIRAGE[TM]. For more information and reservations, visit the web site at www.mandalaybay.com, or call toll free at (877) 632-7000.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

[Read more →]

To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Joey Marie McCool of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,
+1-267-426-6070, McCool@email.chop.edu

PHILADELPHIA,Oct. 26/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –Children with Down
syndrome are more likely than their unaffected siblings to have
higher levels of a hormone associated with obesity, according to
pediatric researchers. The hormone, leptin, may contribute to the
known higher risk of obesity among children and adults with Down
syndrome.

A research team from The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and
the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine published their
study …

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

[Read more →]

More Sensitive Technology Improves Assessment of Down Syndrome Risk

BURLINGTON, N.C. — Laboratory Corporation of America[R] Holdings (LabCorp[R]) (NYSE: LH), an industry leader in prenatal clinical laboratory testing, announced that it now offers Integrated screening and Sequential screening tests under license from Intema Limited. When Integrated screening and Sequential screening test results include a fetal ultrasound nuchal translucency measurement, the highest Down syndrome detection rates are achieved and fewer false positives are experienced than with current first- or second-trimester screening.

In January 2007, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a Practice Bulletin recommending that regardless of age, all pregnant women be offered screening for Down syndrome, and ideally, be offered screening that combines first- and second-trimester screening. Subsequently, LabCorp announced an agreement with Intema, Ltd. to license its technology for combining first and second trimester Down syndrome screening test results.

"LabCorp is pleased to be the first full-service, national clinical laboratory to license and make commercially available Integrated and Sequential Down syndrome screening technology," said LabCorp’s Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Medical Director, Myla P. Lai-Goldman, M.D. "Adding these tools to our comprehensive menu of prenatal testing services will allow physicians to offer patients a broader range of screening tests with higher detection rates and low false positive rates. This can help reduce the number of invasive tests needed and potentially reduce the number of procedure-related pregnancy losses."

About LabCorp([R])

Laboratory Corporation of America([R]) Holdings, a S&P 500 company, is a pioneer in commercializing new diagnostic technologies and the first in its industry to embrace genomic testing. With annual revenues of $3.6 billion in 2006, over 25,000 employees nationwide, and more than 220,000 clients, LabCorp offers clinical assays ranging from routine blood analyses to HIV and genomic testing. LabCorp combines its expertise in innovative clinical testing technology with its Centers of Excellence: The Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology, National Genetics Institute, Inc., ViroMed Laboratories, Inc., The Center for Esoteric Testing, DIANON Systems, Inc., US LABS, and Esoterix and its Colorado Coagulation, Endocrine Sciences, and Cytometry Associates laboratories. LabCorp clients include physicians, government agencies, managed care organizations, hospitals, clinical labs, and pharmaceutical companies. To learn more about our organization, visit our Web site at: www.labcorp.com.

Each of the above forward-looking statements is subject to change based on various important factors, including without limitation, competitive actions in the marketplace and adverse actions of governmental and other third-party payors. Actual results could differ materially from those suggested by these forward-looking statements. Further information on potential factors that could affect LabCorp’s financial results is included in the Company’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, and subsequent SEC filings.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

[Read more →]

Whenever I’ve been with Eunice Kennedy Shriver, I’ve always come away thinking, "I must become a better person."

A similar thought may have entered the minds of some of the tens of thousands who gathered from Oct. 2 to 11 in Shanghai, China, for the Special Olympics World Summer Games. Some 7,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 160 nations competed in 23 sports.

The event could really have been called the Eunice Shriver. World Games. For 40 years she has traveled the planet, to every continent except Antarctica, doing the hard labor of rousing governments, schools, corporations, volunteers and families to include "the special people" in all parts of life.

She did that in her Massachusetts childhood as the sister of the mentally disabled Rosemary Kennedy, and in the 1960s when she persuaded–browbeat, some say–her brother President John F. Kennedy to get on the legislative ball regarding the intellectually handicapped. She set out to prove, and eventually did, that the confidence Special Olympians gain through sports could be transferred to their academic and working lives, including acquiring marketable skills in the service industries.

What began in the spring of 1962, when Eunice Shriver invited a few children with Down syndrome to meet and compete on her front lawn, is now the world’s largest sports program, one involving several million athletes and coaches. A 1994 poll taken by the Chronicle of Philanthropy said that the Special Olympics ranked first as the nation’s most credible nonprofit venture, well ahead of the Girl Scouts, the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Eunice Shriver left for Shanghai in late September. I have to think that all kinds of observers told her not to go, saying, "You’re 87. You had a stroke in July and doctors said you would never speak again. You’ve been hospitalized twice in critical condition. You’ve had two severe car crashes. You’ve grown old and now it’s time to get sedentary."

Similar cautions have been thrown at Eunice Shriver for decades: "You can’t do much about retardation. It’s a genetic or prenatal defect for which early intervention or education–much less winning medals in the 100-yard dash–won’t help."

"Baloney," she barked. Or, in more stately language, as she said in a white House dinner in honor of her 85th birthday two years ago: "Let us not forget that we have miles to go to overturn the prejudice and oppression facing the world’s 180 million citizens with intellectual disabilities…. As we go forward, all of us, may our numbers increase in this noble battle. May you overturn ignorance. May you challenge indifference at every turn. And may you find great joy in the new daylight of the great athletes of the Special Olympics."

I came to know Eunice Shriver in the mid-1960s when I worked for her husband, Sargent Shriver. To describe him the word "ebullient" was invented. Maybe I’ve missed the others, but I can’t think of any other couple whose works of mercy and rescue for almost a half century have uplifted the lives of more people in more parts of the world.

For Sargent Shriver, it was the Peace Corps, Head Start, Legal Services, Job Corps, Foster Grandparents, Upward Bound–all programs he started and then protected as Republicans in Congress and the White House attacked them. For Eunice Shriver, her lasting achievement was not only to give the mentally disabled the chance they deserve but to completely reverse the negative thinking of mental health experts about retardation.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

More work is ahead. Timothy Shriver, who has succeeded his mother as the head of Special Olympics, tells of a recent Gallup poll in which 62 percent of Americans said they don’t want their child to be in a school with a retarded child.

I don’t know whether that’s true in China, but after the Shanghai games, those ideas may be changing.

[Colman McCarthy teaches peace studies at colleges and schools in the Washington area.]

COPYRIGHT 2007 National Catholic Reporter
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

[Read more →]

When Edward Batha’s newborn daughter was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome, he thought it would spell a lifetime of suffering. But one year on, her resolute character and sunny nature has led him to rethink what it means to be a member of society

After a traumatic birth last August, we were informed sympathetically that our daughter had Down’s syndrome. We struggled to come to terms with how something so full of promise could suddenly morph into such a nightmare. A lifetime of special needs and second-bests gaped dispiritingly before us and my fatherly dream of walking proudly down the street, holding hands with my perfect daughter, crumbled to dust.

Luckily, one of humanity’s greatest assets is its adaptability. Within weeks, my wife, Tash, and I had started to accept that the map ahead for Mia would be different to the default one we’d expected. In many ways, it was lucky that she was our first child; it meant that this was not an entrenched map and we could grow together, unhindered by comparison or precedent.

Down’s syndrome is medically known as trisomy 21. Most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes in every body cell. Mia has an extra copy of chromosome 21, causing her to have 47 chromosomes per cell instead of 46. During the genetic creation stage, it is not uncommon for extra copies of a chromosome to be present in a cell, but the implications for the foetus are usually so extreme that it self- terminates.

Trisomy 21 babies have one of the few chromosome imbalances that means nature deems them fit for survival. Unfortunately, one side effect was announced a few days after the birth, when we were told that Mia had two holes in her heart. In addition, the audiologist informed us that she was not responding to her hearing test. Anything else while we’re at it? The order of the world seemed unbalanced; how could someone have so many tragic things happen while so many other babies move obliviously towards a rosy future?

Mia was a tiny baby and showed no discernible enthusiasm to rectify the situation. Her milk intake was paltry, despite Tash’s best efforts to feed her up to 12 times a day. From the start, Mia had trouble keeping milk down. Around 1am every night, she would guzzle and slaver at the bottle for half an hour, followed by 45 minutes of trying to get her to settle. Inevitably, this would culminate in the decoration of her father with all the recently administered milk, now in a hot, rancid form. We tried to work out if this was reflux or colic; or perhaps the teat. The milk? The timing? Eventually, anti-reflux concoctions were added to the battery of medicines we were already administering by syringe four times a day, and, although the situation was still bad, it did head off the threat of the nasogastric feeding tube.

The weekly weigh-in with our GP, Dr Brunner, showed a growth that ghosted that of the smallest 5 per cent of children with Down’s syndrome. At one point, just after we had started her heart medicine, Mia’s weight plummeted, nearly taking Tash’s sanity with it. We hadn’t known that, as a diuretic, it would drain the body of all excess water.

But those early days were by no means all hardship. Like any baby, Mia’s character emerged as the months rolled on. Her responses to the pain showed a resolute side to her, while her enthusiasm for life was evident in her cheerful, everyday interactions - nothing generated such joy as stealing the magazine I was reading and shaking the living daylights out of it. On Christmas Day, she rewarded us with her first laugh as we danced to The Beatles.

With her feeding almost under control, the roller-coaster process then turned its attention to her hearing. At one point, we were told the nerves from the middle ear to her brain were too damaged. This was a massive blow: without hearing, speech becomes but a distant hope. Thankfully, this diagnosis was retracted and she has been given a provisional all-clear. Likewise, the appearance of nystagmus, a flickering eye condition, settled after a while.

There is no real method of assessing where Mia stands relative to other children with Down’s syndrome. Forty years ago, such a child was often separated from society at an early age. Now, the emphasis is on inclusive education and independent living, with intensive work on speech and motor skills in the critical early developmental stages. To this end, we have been assigned a portage worker, Ruth, whose knowledge and cheer galvanises our efforts to cajole Mia through the milestones of midline, holding, rolling, sitting, clapping, and onwards to crawling and standing.

Under our new status as Team Mia, Tash and I forge on, our characters contributing in different ways, frequent witnesses to the admirable side of each other’s nature. There are still times when you want to scream, “I can’t do this anymore,” but there are many more when we are delighted to see her finally sitting up unaided, or we can say, “Look, look - she’s turning the pages of the book herself!” Mia is remarkably sociable and can smile for England, melting me every time. When people say, “Aren’t you a lovely little girl?” her favourite trick is to leave a perfect pregnant pause, look straight at them, then deliver a colossal raspberry followed by evident toothless glee.

[Read more →]

We are the parents of Brigham Larkin, a senior at Layton High School with Down syndrome. Missed by many in the community is the fact that last week the student body of Layton High honored our handicapped son as the 2007 Layton High homecoming king. The purpose of this open letter is to express our thanks and admiration to the students of Layton High for the kindness and charity we saw on display.

With all the activities involving homecoming royalty, we had increased opportunity to interact with the students and faculty at Layton High. In every interaction, we were met with respect, enthusiasm, assistance and support. As we walked the halls and fields of the school or the aisles of local stores, we were touched by the consistent show of friendly support from Brig’s peers — friends and strangers alike. Literally all week, no matter where we were, Brig was met with comments of support and affection. Thanks to these outstanding students for a measure of civility in an increasingly uncivilized world.

We recognize there are other students, perhaps, more deserving of being elected to the homecoming royalty, and there are still many more for whom such an honor would have been a dream come true. Regardless, from every group within the school community, our son was met with nothing but love and support. It has been said that the measure of a community is how they treat the least among them. The individual and collective behavior of these young people says so much about them and about the future of our community!

We hope these students have experienced joy in their small acts of service and that this experience will be as memorable for them as it has been for us.

As far as handicaps go, Down syndrome is obvious and relatively easy to be around. There are many others who have far more serious challenges. May we encourage these Layton High students and all members of our community to continue to find ways to strengthen those around us, even (and especially) those whose challenges may be less obvious or harder to be around.

Jay Larkin writes on behalf of Monique Larkin and Dan and Carole Garber.

Copyright C 2007 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

[Read more →]

Date: 3-Oct
Incident: A drunken German tourist who had been refused bar service aboard an
international flight above Western Australia allegedly threatened to kill
passengers on board by opening an exit door at 30,000 feet. Federal police
alleged that Burkard Kottsiepor could have caused a catastrophe on board the
Etihad Airlines flight had it not been for the actions of the cabin crew and a
former Australian army officer who subdued him. After the aircraft touched down
at Sydney International Airport last Friday, he had spent three days in custody
after failing to find his wife to raise bail for him. A slew of charges have now
arisen from the alleged confrontation and all-out brawl between Kottsiepor and
the A340 crew that erupted at 2am on Friday, awakening passengers from their
sleep as the aircraft, bound for Sydney from Bahrain, was crossing over Western
Australia's north-west Kimberley region. Kottsiepor appears in court again on 05
Oct.

Date: 2-Oct
Incident: TSA officials, citing "credible specific information" of terror
tactics, announced that travelers carrying remote-controlled toys through
airport security checkpoints would henceforth be subject to extra scrutiny.
Passengers who don't want the extra hassle "should pack the toys into their
checked baggage", they said. It would therefore appear that wireless/cellphone
triggering (from the cabin) of a baggage- or cargo-hold-carried device is not
yet on the TSA agenda of concern.

Date: 30-Sep
Incident: The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) says there has been a
worrying recent increase in the number of laser attacks on Australian aircraft.
Police are investigating an incident on Sunday night where a laser beam was
directed at a media helicopter as it hovered over the Sydney Olympic Stadium for
the NRL football grand final. TV footage clearly showed the effect of the green
laser beam as it temporarily blinded the TV cameraman. The footage provided
meant police were able to narrow down the beam's source to a specific residence
in Carnarvon St, Flemington, in Sydney's west. CASA spokesman Peter Gibson says
there has been about 180 attacks reported by pilots in the past 18 months. Two
days earlier, a Bell 412EP carrying a critically ill brain surgery patient was
forced to restart its landing procedures when struck by a green beam from a
residence in Sydney's Marrickville around 10.30pm on Friday. It was the second
time in three weeks that the same pilot had been hit.

Date: 30-Sep
Incident: A woman late to her plane became irate, was put in handcuffs, shackled
to a bench and was later found dead in a holding cell, police said. Authorities
were investigating Saturday if the woman choked herself while trying to get free
from the handcuffs. Carol Ann Gotbaum, 45, of New York, was arrested Friday at
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after a largely verbal conflict with
gate crews who refused to allow her to board a plane. Police said Gotbaum may
have tried to get out of her shackles and handcuffs, and became entangled in the
process - with the cuffs ending up around her neck. However a cause of death
couldn't be determined by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner. An autopsy
conducted Tuesday on Gotbaum was inconclusive, and toxicology results needed to
determine a cause of death will not be available for a few weeks, the county
medical examiner said. "The body showed signs of a struggle, and ligature marks,
with some of those ligature marks clearly matching the chain that they used to
chain h

Date: 28-Sep
Incident: An air rager has been sent to prison for 12 months. Stephen Robinson
clambered over seats to hit his victim after being told to put out a cigarette
on the Thomas Cook Turkey to Newcastle flight in March. At Newcastle Crown Court
he admitted endangering the safety of the aircraft and causing actual bodily
harm. Robinson of Hope Town Lane, Darlington, forced the plane to be diverted.
"Kristian Mills, defending, said Robinson had no money and was forced to eat
leftovers from canteens as he roamed around the German airport at Frankfurt for
two days - after being denied passage through immigration." He eventually asked
a charity to fund his flight home as nobody in the UK was willing to act as a
guarantor. For the whole story and photo, see tinyurl.com/2mxq69

Date: 27-Sep
Incident: Anybody looking querulous, confused or evincing anything other than
cud-chewing contentment is now a bona-fide target under new guidelines on
suspicious behavior recently issued to its operatives by the Transport security
Administration. The TSA has now "trained" nearly 2,000 employees to use the
tactic, which is raising alarms among civil libertarians and minorities who fear
illegal arrests and ethnic profiling. It's also worrying researchers, including
some in the Homeland Security Department, who say it's unproven and potentially
ineffectual. The practice, pioneered by Israeli airport security, involves
picking apparently suspicious people out of crowds and asking them questions
about travel plans or work. All the while, their faces, body language and speech
are being studied for plausibly incriminating cues. As shown by the Gotbaum
incident (see 30 Sep above), having a bad hair day could quickly lead to
something entirely terminal. As one wit observed: "to avoid suffering the
Gotbaum syndrome, one should

Date: 25-Sep
Incident: Albany International Airport was closed to the public for several
hours Tuesday after an unknown powdery substance was found on the floor of the
baggage claim area. The substance turned out to be nothing more than powdered
soap. About 4 to 5 grams of white powder were found by an airport worker on the
baggage floor area at about 6:45 p.m., prompting emergency response teams to
close off that area, the access entrance road into the airport and rental car
areas The airport was completely reopened shortly before 10 p.m. The Sheriff's
Dept, washing their hands of the abortionate affair, characterized it as "an
excellent example of a good training exercise. "Everyone did what they were
supposed to do," Captain John Layton said, noting that the operation had brought
together members of the Capital Region Forensics Hazardous Materials Unit.

Date: 25-Sep
Incident: The Transportation Security Administration is exploring whether it can
guarantee a short wait at checkpoints with a reservation system aimed at
enticing travelers to go through airport security at off-peak times. "It's like
Open Table, only for checkpoints," TSA chief Kip Hawley said, referring to an
online restaurant reservation system. Hawley acknowledged that airports and
airlines he spoke to about running a system were "not interested." "The TSA
would do well to stop diverting its limited resources away from programs that
could more efficiently screen all passengers," said David Castelveter of the Air
Transport Association, an airline trade group. Overall the reaction to the TSA's
latest tilt at the security windmill tended to confirm that each successive TSA
"bright idea" was serving only to further alienate a disenchanted and frustrated
traveling public.

Date: 21-Sep
Incident: A Northwest Airlines flight carrying 49 people was diverted to
Rochester's airport Friday night after a suspicious package was found in the
plane. The package was checked and was not an explosive, but the incident shut
down the airport's runways for about an hour. At least five other flights were
diverted from Greater Rochester International Airport to airports in Buffalo and
Toronto. An attendant on the aborted flight from Detroit to Portland, Maine,
Flight 2908, spotted the suspicious package in a bathroom and warned the pilot,
who decided that the safest procedure was to divert to Rochester. Damelio said
the FBI, the sheriff's bomb squad, members of the local office of the
Transportation Security Administration and the airport fire and rescue crews all
responded when the plane landed in Rochester about 10:38 p.m. Damelio said the
airport drills routinely on scenarios like this and that the response "went
flawlessly." The bomb squad searched the plane and found the package, which
turned out to be a nonexplo

[Read more →]