Oct. 8, 2013 Huffington Post
The 9-year-old boy who snuck onto a plane without a ticket has had several brushes with the law.
On Thursday, the boy, who has not been identified, got through security at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and boarded a Delta Airlines plane headed for Las Vegas, without presenting a boarding pass. Now, the Star Tribune reports that, before this latest incident, the boy had stolen a car and snuck into a water park, prompting child protection investigators to undertake four "child-protection assessments" on the boy’s family.
The paper also reports that authorities are investigating whether the boy's mother helped her child get on the plane to Las Vegas, since she works at the Minneapolis airport.
The Associated Press reported on Sunday that, before the boy boarded the flight on Thursday, he went on a test run of sorts the day before. On Wednesday, the boy traveled to the airport, grabbed a random bag from the baggage carousel, ordered lunch at an airport restaurant and skipped out on the tab. Read More
James Arthur Ray
On October 8, 2009, two people die and more than a dozen others are hospitalized following a botched sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat run by motivational speaker and author James Arthur Ray near Sedona, Arizona. A third participant in the ceremony died nine days later.
Achille Lauro
On October 7, 1985, Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro shortly after it left Alexandria, Egypt. The well-armed men, who belonged to the Popular Front for the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), the terrorist wing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Abu Abbas, easily took control of the vessel since there was no security force on board.
Oct. 6, 2013 CNN
Three correctional officers in Pennsylvania have been accused of organizing inmate fights and rewarding the victors with food and coffee, according to Pennsylvania State Police.
York County Prison correctional officers David Whitcomb, 28, Mark Haynes, 26 and Daniel Graff, 37, were charged with official oppression and harassment on Friday after a state police investigation, Pennsylvania State Trooper Robert Hicks told CNN.
The investigation into the alleged incidents began after video surveillance showing Haynes and Whitcomb grabbing an inmate by his back and neck was discovered during an unrelated investigation. A captain then asked the inmate involved to provide a written statement about the event, the state police report said.
| "Even though it was consensual, correctional officers were still using the power of their position. They controlled the distribution of the food and the coffee, and they were using them to entice the inmates to engage in these activities," Trooper Hicks said. |
The inmate, David Wright, 27, wrote that officers Whitcomb, Haynes and Graff had arranged for him to fight another inmate, James Hicks, 27. Wright won the fight and was rewarded with extra lounge food and coffee, according to a state police report.
The state police report also said that officers also told Wright that they would give him lounge food if he permitted them to punch him in the leg and arm. Graff reportedly also sprayed pepper-foam in Wright's face in exchange for coffee, though Wright reported that he never received more lounge food or coffee, according to the report.
Like Wright, James Hicks also was given food in exchange for letting the officers punch and choke him, police said. Additionally, James Hicks told investigators that the three officers challenged him to perform tasks such as drinking a gallon of milk in an hour, eating a spoonful of cinnamon, snorting a line of spicy vegetable Ramen noodle powder and drinking water with pepper foam in it. James Hicks wrote that the correctional officers called their challenges the "Retard Olympics." He said that the acts were consensual and that he was rewarded with food, the report said. Read More
On October 5, 1892, the Dalton gang attempts to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas, but meets resistance from townspeople, who wind up killing four of the five bandits.
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker
On October 4, 1988, televangelist Jim Bakker was indicted on federal charges of mail and wire fraud and of conspiring to defraud the public. The case against the founder of Praise the Lord (PTL) Ministries and three of his aides exploded in the media when it was revealed that Bakker had sex with former church secretary Jessica Hahn.
Oct. 3, 2013 AFP
Moscow - Russian investigators said Thursday they had charged all 30 crew members of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship with piracy over a protest against Arctic oil exploration, an offence that carries the risk of a lengthy prison term.
A court in the northern city of Murmansk last week detained the crew members including freelance journalists for two months pending an investigation into their protest on an oil platform owned by energy giant Gazprom.
"All 30 participants in the criminal case have been charged over the attack on the Prirazlomnaya platform," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
"They are all charged with... piracy committed by an organised group."
Piracy by an organised group carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years in Russia.
Investigators accused the activists of trying to seize property with threats of violence.
The first 14 activists were charged on Wednesday and the rest indicted Thursday.
Greenpeace denies the crew members -- who come from 18 different countries including Britain, Russia, New Zealand, Canada and France -- committed any crime.
"Our activists have been charged with a crime that did not happen," Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said in a statement. Read More
On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the city’s firefighters. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick O’Connor, the facts—or a lack of them—didn’t add up. Justice on Fire is OConnor’s detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters’ deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Also available from Amazon
