Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., is co-sponsoring a bill to require every U.S. employer to use the E-Verify database to screen for illegal workers. But until discovered by reporters earlier this month, the senator’s offices weren’t signed up for E-Verify. Boozman was one of seven senators (four Republicans, three Democrats) violating a 1996 law that makes E-Verify checking mandatory for all congressional office hiring.
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The low-cost Irish airline Ryanair was forced to turn back a plane carrying 200 passengers after a cockpit window sealed with duct tape came loose 20 minutes after takeoff. Crews allegedly taped around the edges of the pilot’s window before the plane left on a flight from England to Latvia. “We were kept in the dark, and were terrified,” said one passenger. “I could see guys taping in the windscreen.”
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DirecTV subscribers may soon lose access to shows such as “The Simpsons,” “Glee” and NFL games due to a dispute with Fox Networks. The satellite provider said Fox wants DirecTV customers “to pay 40 percent more for the exact same Fox channels that they already receive.” DirecTV has threatened to pull the plug on Fox channels Nov. 1.
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Facebook is under investigation by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission on charges of privacy violations, including collection of “extensive profiles” on non-users who are in contact with Facebook members. The complaint alleges that Facebook Ireland gathers “excessive” personal information “without notice or consent.” Privacy rights lawsuits against Facebook are also filed in Mississippi, Louisiana, Kansas and Kentucky. The Federal Trade Commission is probing complaints about the Palo Alto-based social network and Congress is considering hearings.
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DIM BULB: The U.S. Postal Service inspector general reported that the deficit-ridden agency could save as much as $335 million a year if it cleaned up its slipshod workers’ compensation practices. Some 16,200 USPS employees and retirees are currently on the long-term workers’ comp rolls — more than one-third of the total for the entire federal workforce. About two-thirds of the 150 case files reviewed by the inspector general “lacked claims forms, medical documentation or correspondence.”
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The unguarded truck carrying teleprompters, official seals and podiums for President Barack Obama’s three-day bus tour was stolen from the parking lot of a suburban Marriott hotel outside Richmond, Va. The truck was found near the Richmond airport, but all the cargo is still missing and no arrests have been made. A top political security expert interviewed by The Associated Press pointed out how prohibitively expensive it would be to guard all the equipment for a traveling president.
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DIM BULB: South Korean officials said they were embarrassed by a 60-year-old law forcing them to give a woman only $4.33 as death compensation for her brother killed in combat during the 1950-53 Korean War. The woman was 2 years old when her brother died, but never knew of his existence until a neighbor happened to mention it. The South Korean government is now looking at passing a new law that would pay more generous war death benefits.
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Jeremy Hollinger, a special-education teacher at Eichold-Mertz Elementary School in Mobile, Ala., is accused of repeatedly belittling his second-grade students on Facebook. He allegedly posted status updates that said, “I guess crayons are on the menu” and “why is there s--- on the floor?” and took one of the kids’ helmets, put it on his head, took a picture and put it on Facebook. The school refused to comment on the situation, but Hollinger is still thought to be working as a teacher.
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Fake concert promoters cheated Indonesian music fans out of an estimated $60,000 in ticket sales for a Mötley Crüe show that never existed. Jakarta media were also fooled, excitedly spreading news that the heavy metal group would play its first-ever Indonesian concert in October. Mötley Crüe members went on the Internet to deny rumors of the false concert as soon as they heard about it. But by then, some 1,500 people had already bought $40 tickets.
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DIM BULB: Officials at Monroe Regional Airport in Louisiana panicked when it seemed the passenger-loading bridges at their new stimulus-funded $36 million terminal were built too short to reach the airliners. But a recheck of the measurements revealed that the only problem was that the landing position marks were painted 30 feet too far out on the runways. So a quick repaint was the only fix necessary to enable passengers to walk directly into the aircraft.
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URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/44227/44227?page=3&type[story]=story
