Recently in Notable Category

by Bailey Haack

A man on an Alitalia flight from Paris to Rome attempted to attack a flight attendant with a small knife, demanding to be flown to Libya instead.

The man, who other passengers said was "clearly agitated," grabbed a woman flight attendant from behind, and brandished a small knife, according to a Reuters report. Other attendants quickly intervened and subdued the man.

"He held her for just a few minutes and then the other flight attendants intervened," said Stefanie, a French woman on the flight. She told Reuters, "Passengers helped hold the man to the floor."

Police and Italian media have identified the man as a 48-year-old Kazakhstan citizen, who worked in Paris, but his name was not released, according to Reuters.

The flight attendant was unharmed, according to USA Today, and nobody else on the flight was injured.

by Bailey Haack
A plan implemented this week by the Federal Aviation Administration will guarantee air traffic controllers a minimum of nine hours off between each scheduled shift.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the changes in scheduling, saying that they would not be allowing workers to take naps during breaks, according to Fox News.

The changes implemented also include restrictions on workers switching shifts. Fox News said they will be prohibited from swapping, unless they adhere to the nine-hour rule, and will not be allowed to switch into an unscheduled midnight shift after a day off.

More managers will be on duty during early hours and at night, according to the Washington Post. The FAA said they will help remind controllers to stay awake.

Transportation officials will be visiting air traffic offices around the country over the next few weeks to review safety standards, Fox News said.

by Bailey Haack

Archaeologists in the Czech Republic discovered the 5,000-year-old skeleton of a man who they believe may have been either transgender or homosexual.

The man was buried on his left side with his head facing East, and according to ABC News, he was surrounded by domestic objects such as jugs and an oval shaped container at his feet.

These objects are usually associated with women's burials, according to FOX News. Lead researcher Kamila Remisova said men during that period were buried on their right side, facing West.

"We believe this is one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a transvestite or third-gender grave in the Czech Republic," said Remisova at a press conference Tuesday, according the FOX.

Men of this period were traditionally buried with weapons, including battle axes and flint knives, which were not found at the Czech gravesite, according to ABC.

"From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously," said Remisova, "so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake," ABC reported.

by Bailey Haack

Rigorous yoga has been shown to fix multiple health problems, now including irregular heartbeats, according to a U.S. study released Saturday.

Yoga cut, on average, up to half of episodes of atrial fibrillation, according to new research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 60th Annual Scientific Session. The Huffington Post reported that yoga was shown to significantly improve the quality of life of patients who participated in the study.

The study looked at 49 patients with irregular heartbeat disorders who had not tried yoga before. A Reuters report said that the participant's heartbeat episodes were measured for six months.

Participants were encouraged to practice daily yoga exercises at home, as well as taking 45-minute sessions with certified instructors three times a week, according to Reuters.

"These findings are important because many of the current conventional treatment strategies for atrial fibrillation include invasive procedures or medications with undesirable side effects," said Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, an associate professor of medicine with the University of Kansas Hospital.

by Bailey Haack

Serotonin, a chemical in the brain, has been shown by new research to play a role in the sexual preference of mice, with a lack of the chemical causing males to lose their preference for female partners.

Researchers said that "this is the first time," according to BBC News, "that a neurotransmitter has been shown to play a role in sexual preference in mammals."

A series of experiments was conducted to reach these results, said BBC. The research team bred mice whose brains were not receptive to serotonin, which caused the mice to show no overall preference for males or females.

A different set of mice were bred without the tryptonphan hydroxylase 2 gene, which is necessary to create serotonin.

These mice showed similar results said BBC, and when a male was introduced alone in a cage with a modified male, the modified males were more likely to demonstrate sexual behaviors.

The behaviors were reversed when the researchers restored serotonin to the modified mice, according to a FOX News article.

The article said that researchers haven't looked at how these experiments would work with female mice, and said that researchers cautioned that "the behavior of the mice cannot be extrapolated and applied to humans."

by Bailey Haack

The Transportation Security Administration ordered re-testing on Friday of all 247 full-body scanners in use after a review of maintenance records showed radiation levels were higher than expected, and calculation errors were found in the records.

The TSA said that the record errors are simply math mistakes, according to USA Today. They said that even the highest numbers of radiation reported would still be less than what a person absorbs in a day through natural background radiation.

Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security secretary, told a Senate committee that the machines are "more than safe."

According to a CNN News report, she said that the amount of radiation emitted is about the same as a person would receive in two minutes in an airplane.

Sen. Susan Collins said that there were problems in more than a quarter of the TSA reports. According to CNN, she said they included "gross errors about radiation emissions."

The TSA announced that, in addition to retesting the machines, they will require their maintenance contractors to retrain the employees who are involved with conducting and overseeing the radiation measurement process, according to USA Today.

The tests on the machines will be finished by the end of the month. USA Today said the results will be released as they are completed.

by Bailey Haack

Outspoken members of the GLBT community attended a recent Anoka-Hennepin school board meeting, demanding a change to the board's neutrality policy.

Almost two dozen speakers testified to the board, asking them to rescind the policies in place that limit discussion of GLBT issues in the classroom, as well as bullying policies.

One speaker said, "The neutrality policy silences and isolates students because they are gay. It's a censorship policy," reported the Coon Rapids Herald.

A written statement by Superintendent Dennis Carlson said, "Anoka-Hennepin supports gay-straight alliances and it will continue to provide training on preventing harassment and on how best to support GLBT students. We believe that no one in our schools should be harassed for any reason," according to the Herald.

One outspoken woman was removed from the meeting by security, and many tempers were flared, but according to the Minnesota Independent, the rest of the meeting was civil.

by Bailey Haack

The director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Center in Enid, Oklahoma was arrested Monday after being accused of molesting a child.

Nathan Bowen, 32, faces charges of forcible sodomy, as well as two counts of lewd or indecent proposals to a child under 16, according to a report from EnidNews.com.

The report said that a teen's mother complained to the Enid Police Department, saying that her son had been molested at the GLBT Center.

In a statement from Bowen's attorney, Brittany Novotney, Bowen declares his innocence, saying that the teenager accusing him was actually the one who instigated the incident.

The statement, according to a NewsOK report, says that Bowen believes that forensic examination of the evidence will prove that he did not have sex with the accuser.

Bowen is being held in the Garfield County jail, and his bail was set at $250,000, according to the NewsOK report. He does not have any prior offenses on his record.

by Bailey Haack

On Saturday, nearly 70,000 protesters in Madison, Wis., took part in ongoing rival protests over planned budget cuts.

By the fifth day of this protest, opponents outnumbered the supporters of the bill, which was introduced by Republican state Governor, Scott Walker. A BBC News report said Walker insists that he has the backing of the state's voters and says that the bill is necessary to avoid painful job cuts.

The bill introduced in the Wisconsin congress would drastically cut wages and benefits of many public sector workers, including University of Wisconsin- Madison faculty, and Emergency Medical Services, according to the Star Tribune.

This bill would require government workers to put more money into their health care and pension costs, and it would limit collective bargaining, according to the Star Tribune. In addition, workers wouldn't be able to negotiate their benefits and working conditions.

Mariah Clark, a volunteer firefighter and an emergency medical technician at a University of Wisconsin hospital told Star Tribune that she stands to lose $250 per month from her income, including benefits. At the protest, she held a sign saying "EMT. Firefighter. Not the public enemy."

Union supporters in the Madison outnumbered the pro-Walker rally, organized by the conservative groups Tea Party Patriots and Americans for Prosperity, BBC News said.

Wisconsin is facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit in the next two years, and the public employee bill is expected to save $300 million in that period, according to BBC News.

Democrats said they were standing strong in their opposition of the budget, and a Star Tribune report said that negotiations at the capitol will continue.

by Bailey Haack

Police are investigating a crash involving a taxi that injured 23 people outside a San Diego club early Saturday.

The cab was apparently traveling about 15 miles per hour when it veered off the road into a crowd of people outside the club Stingaree, according to a CNN report.

23 people were taken to hospitals, and one woman's leg had to be amputated below the knee after being pinned between the wall and cab.

Authorities are looking into what caused the taxi driver to go off the road into the first place, according to San Diego police traffic Lt. Rick O'Hanlon.

He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the authorities are looking at surveillance tapes from businesses, as well as taking statements from witnesses.

Several fights broke out during the incident, and the taxi driver, whose name has not been released, sustained some cuts and bruises, according to the CNN report.

O'Hanlon said that the authorities are currently treating this as "an unfortunate accident," and that they don't believe that the driver was under the influence or acted deliberately, according to the Union-Tribune.