by Jim Kouri

U.S. Senators during their Homeland Security Committee hearings heard testimony by the country's upper-echelon law enforcement and anti-terrorism officials -- including FBI director Robert Mueller, National Counterterrorism Center director Michael Leiter, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano -- that none of them were consulted by the White House or the Department of Justice about the decision to process the Christmas Day "Underwear Bomber" in the civilian criminal justice system.

On December 16, 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, purchased a round-trip ticket from Lagos, Nigeria to Detroit. Abdulmutallab went through physical security screening conducted by foreign airport personnel at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on December 24 prior to boarding a flight to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. This physical screening included an x-ray of his carry-on luggage and his passing through a walk-through metal detector. Abdulmutallab went through additional physical screening, conducted by Dutch authorities, when transiting through Amsterdam to Northwest Flight 253 to Detroit, and presented a valid U.S. visa. Abdulmutallab was not on the No Fly or Selectee Lists.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Air America, a politically liberal talk-radio network, said on Thursday it would cease operations and file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection to begin an orderly wind down of its business.

The radio network was launched in 2004 by comedian Al Franken, now a U.S. Senator and has helped launch other careers such as that of liberal television personality Rachel Maddow.

by Jim Kouri


Hearings before the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today revealed that the nation's top intelligence officer, the Homeland Security secretary and the CIA chief were not consulted by the White House after the capture of the so-called "Underwear Bomber."

In testimony he gave as he sat before the committee senators, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said the Christmas Day airline bombing suspect should have been detained as a terror suspect when the plane landed and that it was a mistake to arrest him as a criminal suspect.

In an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy for nearly half a century, leaving President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in doubt and marring the end of his first year in office.

Addressing an exuberant victory celebration Tuesday night, Brown declared he was "ready to go to Washington without delay" as the crowd chanted, "Seat him now." Democrats indicated they would, deflating a budding controversy over whether they would try to block Brown long enough to complete congressional passage of the health care plan he has promised to oppose.

A man returning from Haiti who walked through a restricted door and set off an alarm that led to the evacuation of a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport simply went the wrong way, his attorney said Sunday.

"He just walked through the wrong door," said defense attorney Scott Dufault, who declined to comment further when reached by phone at his office following his client's arraignment.

The holding company for MediaNews Group Inc. newspapers, including The Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News, says it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Affiliated Media Inc. said Friday it would file a "prepackaged" plan already approved by lenders, which should allow it to emerge from bankruptcy more quickly.

Months after the crash, Doreen Welsh had a panic attack when she inhaled a little water in the shower. Anastasia Sosa no longer finds swimming fun — it feels too much like survival training. And Jorge Morgado can't bring himself to get back on a plane.

A year after the 155 people aboard the crippled US Airways Flight 1549 survived a splash-landing on the frigid Hudson River, some are suffering the psychological aftereffects of their terrifying descent and harrowing evacuation.

Arctic winds chill the South, threaten Fla. strawberry, tomato crops; blanket East in snow

Bitter cold and snow sweeping into the eastern U.S were leaving part of New England under record snowfall and hitting Southerners with subfreezing temperatures that farmers fear could destroy crops.

The deep freeze was expected to last for at least the rest of the week. The National Weather Service said the mercury could fall below zero in St. Louis later this week for the first time since 1999.

A man who caused a security breach at Newark Liberty International Airport, causing major delays and grounding flights for six hours, left about 20 minutes after he walked the wrong way through a security checkpoint, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday.

Someone picking up a passenger told an officer guarding the exit that he thought he saw a man enter through the doors Sunday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said. TSA reviewed surveillance video before sweeping the airport, she said.

The video confirmed the man had entered through the exit, and officials made passengers leave the terminal and be rescreened.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Air travelers from Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and nine other countries will face full-body pat downs before boarding airliners under new security screening procedures targeting foreign passengers announced by the United States on Sunday.

The procedures, which go into effect on Monday, follow the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner blamed on a Nigerian man who U.S. officials believe was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen.

Conservative talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh said Friday tests showed nothing was wrong with his heart after he was hospitalized with chest pains.

Limbaugh, 58, was released from The Queen's Medical Center two days after he was rushed there during a vacation. Doctors said he did not have a heart attack or heart disease.

"The pain was real, and they don't know what caused it," Limbaugh said, adding his best guess was he had a spasm in an artery.

Limbaugh said he was not taking painkillers.

For more than 60 years, TV stations have broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer.

The business model is unraveling at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the local stations that carry the networks' programming. Cable TV and the Web have fractured the audience for free TV and siphoned its ad dollars. The recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.

Gov't says the system worked, but orders review into how alleged terrorist evaded security

The Obama administration has ordered investigations into the two areas of aviation security — how travelers are placed on watch lists and passengers screened — as critics continued to question how a young man on a watchlist with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

"The investigation will look backwards and figure out if any signs were missed, if any procedures can be changed," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on ABC's "This Week".

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says investigators did not have enough information to keep a terror suspect from boarding a flight bound for Detroit and that the system worked as it should have.

The father of the man accused of attempting to blow up the jetliner told U.S. officials in Nigeria he was concerned about his son's extreme religious views. However, Napolitano says there was no specific information to place Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a no-fly list.

The alleged Christmas Day terrorist had been in one of the U.S. government's many terror databases since November, which is when his father brought him to the attention of embassy officials in Nigeria.

However, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came to the attention of intelligence officials months before that, according to a U.S. government official involved in the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because it is ongoing.

Still, none of the information the government had on Abdulmutallab rose to the level of putting him on the official terror watch list or no-fly list. On Christmas Eve, the 23-year-old Nigerian — who later claimed to law enforcement that he was operating on orders from al-Qaida — was able to carry a concealed explosive device onto a U.S.-bound airplane.

Treetops glisten, but fierce Christmas storm brings snow storms, snarls holiday for some

A fierce Christmas storm dumped more snow and ice across the nation's midsection Friday after stranding travelers as highways and airports closed and leaving many to celebrate the holiday just where they were.

Meteorologists predicted the slow-moving storm would glaze highways in the East with ice through Christmas night and that gusty thunderstorms would hamper the South. An ice storm warning was issued for parts of West Virginia and the Blue Ridge mountains in North Carolina and Virginia, while a wind chill advisory cautioned of temperatures as low as 30 below zero in Montana.

A Los Angeles hospital spokeswoman says actress Brittany Murphy has died. She was 32.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Spokeswoman Sally Stewart says Murphy died at 10:04 a.m. Sunday. She would not provide a cause of death, or any other information.

Census: Whites to hold US majority 8 years longer than expected; economy slowing immigration

The estimated time when whites will no longer make up the majority of Americans has been pushed back eight years — to 2050 — because the recession and stricter immigration policies have slowed the flow of foreigners into the U.S.

Census Bureau projections released Wednesday update last year's prediction that white children would become a minority in 2023 and the overall white population would follow in 2042. The earlier estimate did not take into account a drop in the number of people moving into the U.S. because of the economic crisis and the immigration policies imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The mayor railed against gun violence on Friday, one day after a street peddler died in a shootout with police outside a hotel in bustling Times Square.

Raymond Martinez, 25, was killed by a plainclothes sergeant Thursday after trading gunfire in an area crowded with tourists and holiday shoppers.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked about the shooting while appearing at a Manhattan charity event, and he used the question to discuss one of his signature issues — illegal firearms and gun violence in New York and other big cities.

The Tiger Woods sex scandal has been a boon for online publications, even though it hasn't generated the same amount of Internet traffic as Michael Jackson's death or President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Provocative remarks by Yahoo Inc. CEO Carol Bartz at an investor conference in New York this week illustrate how major Internet channels and niche publications are benefiting from the Woods controversy.

A Florida trooper who suspected Tiger Woods was driving under the influence sought a subpoena for the golfer's blood results from the hospital he was taken to after crashing his SUV, but prosecutors rejected the petition for insufficient information, according to a police report released Monday.

A witness, who wasn't identified in the report, told trooper Joshua Evans that Woods had been drinking alcohol earlier. The same witness also said Woods had been prescribed two drugs, Ambien and Vicodin.

Early season snow was expected across the Appalachians on Saturday as an intense, low-pressure system developed off the Eastern Seaboard.

Fueled by warm Gulf Stream waters, the storm was forecast to rapidly intensify throughout the day helping to enhance snow amounts in the region. In addition to snow in the higher elevations, heavy rain and strong winds were anticipated at the coast. Exceptionally cold air was expected to fill in behind the storm as it moved toward the northeast throughout the day, and some of the rain in the coastal plain was to switch over to snow as it tapered off.

Tigers Woods was reportedly undergoing intense marriage counseling on Thursday, a day after the golf superstar admitted "transgressions" in his private life.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Woods was holed up at the family home in Florida with his wife Elin as the steady stream of tabloid revelations concerning his alleged affairs showed no sign of abating.

A lawyer for the first woman linked to Woods -- Rachel Uchitel -- canceled a Los Angeles press conference citing "unforeseen circumstances" as fresh allegations about the woman and the world number one emerged.

'Our security at stake,' Obama declares, ordering 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan war

Declaring "our security is at stake," President Barack Obama ordered an additional 30,000 U.S. troops into the long war in Afghanistan Tuesday night, nearly tripling the force he inherited as commander in chief. He promised an impatient public he would begin bringing units home in 18 months.

The buildup to about 100,000 troops will begin almost immediately — the first Marines will be in place by Christmas — and will cost $30 billion for the first year alone.

President Barack Obama's aunt buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she described her anguish that she no longer has contact with him and his family after the revelation she had been living illegally for years in the United States in public housing.

Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUH'-nee awn-YAHN'-goh) told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that she is troubled that her immigration woes have made her a political liability to her nephew.

Golf superstar Tiger Woods took responsibility for an "embarrassing" late-night car crash, but declined to tell his story to police even as he lashed out at "unfounded and malicious rumors."

Woods, 33, posted a statement on his website Sunday saying he was solely responsible for the accident outside his Florida home, which left him with facial cuts, some bruises and a welter of unwelcome publicity.

New York's Rep. King calls White House gate-crash unforgiveable, says there must be punishment

A member of the House panel that oversees the Secret Service says the security lapse that allowed a couple to crash a White House state dinner is unforgiveable and must be corrected.

A bad drive sends Woods to the hospital, and police looking for answers

There are plenty of vivid details from the car crash that sent Tiger Woods to the hospital:

His SUV hit a fire hydrant and a tree; his lips were cut and he had blood in his mouth; his wife smashed a rear window with a golf club to get him out; he briefly lost consciousness.

There are also plenty of questions, among them:

(File Photo of Tiger Woods by Ron McCann)

Prentice Jones worked construction jobs around Chicago for most of his 60 years and is quick to boast of a foreman job he once held at a revamped city college and 23 years at a steel company.

But these days, work has been so scarce that the man with a penchant for cowboy hats has been forced to move in with his mother and do something this week he never expected — visit a food pantry.

The nation's retailers ushered in the traditional start of the holiday shopping season on Friday with expanded hours and deep discounts on everything from toys to TVs to lure crowds of shoppers.

A number of stores, including Walmart and many Old Navy locations, opened on Thanksgiving, hoping to make the most of the extra hours. Toys R Us opened most of its stores just after midnight Friday.