Can you imagine living through the worst nightmare of having a loved one murdered – then finding out your state can’t afford to follow through with a death penalty sentence?    

One of the most unlikely victims of the economic crunch…could be the death penalty. Now people who commit horrendous crimes in the future – could be spared the ultimate punishment. The reason? Leaders from more states claim pursuing capitol punishment cases are just too expensive. They say it is simply cheaper to keep convicts in prison the rest of their lives.

It *seems* like it would cost more money to keep a roof over a prisoner’s head, feed them, and give them medical aid — but after crunching the numbers, many state lawmakers say it’s more cost effective to keep death row criminals alive, and in some cases, could save them up to 500-grand per prisoner.

Last week, the Kansas Judiciary Committee debated the issue and may vote on it this week. One Republican Senator says the state’s deficit is so severe, that they have to look at every way they can to figure out where to cut costs, the death penalty being no exception. The average death penalty case costs the state of Kansas 1.26 million dollars — compared to 740-thousand dollars for keeping an inmate behind bars for life. death row cases involve longer trials, with more expert witnesses, lots of motions, and costly jury selection.

36 states have the death penalty, several of them are now looking at the possibility of eliminating it to save money. In fact a couple states have had to release non-death-row inmates to cut costs.

Some argue, that justice should not be decided by a price tag – and that those against the death penalty, are using the financial crisis to push their personal agenda. some victim’s family members have spoken out, saying punishing their loved-one’s killers is worth the cost and shouldn’t be debated. Lawmakers in the states considering scrapping the death penalty are thinking of using the money that would be saved to do other things, like pursue cold cases, and to spare employees from having to take work furlough.  

In case you are curios…

STATES WITH THE DEATH PENALTY (36)

Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas*
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
New Hampshire*
New Mexico
Nebraska
Nevada
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington
Wyoming
U.S. Govt
U.S. Military*

*Indicates jurisdictions with no executions since 1976.

STATES WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY (14)

Alaska
District of Columbia
Hawaii
Iowa
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Maine
New York
North Dakota
New Jersey
Rhode Island
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

While pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger became a household name after fight 1549’s Miracle landing on the Hudson….Could you name the people in the control tower who helped in find a safe place to land? The men and women responsible for defusing flight emergencies and helping millions of passengers take off and land safely are also getting some recognition this coming week, with the annual Archie League Medal of Safety Awards. The awards will be given out this coming Tuesday in Las Vegas by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

The man behind the microphone in the “Miracle on the Hudson” story, by the way, was air traffic controller Patrick Harten. The calm in his voice as he talked with Captain “Sully” on that infamous splash landing, is a tone that is heard day in, and day out, in air traffic control towers across the country.

Members of the N-A-T-C-A point out that the ability to think quickly and remain calm under pressure while resolving emergencies in the sky is a job not everyone could do. Here’s one example from Chicago’s Midway tower last June, and air traffic controller Bob Zeman.

(tanscript edited from Flight Assist)

pilot: were declaring an emergency. one two kilo bravo.

controller: ok. declaring an emergency?

pilot: yes sir.

controller: ok. southwest eighteen forty three, you know what im going to have to do for you sir is roll inbound on a final, start a climb to three thousand feet. do it quickly for me. ive got an emergency coming inbound, just off your nose.

southwest 1843: climbing to three thousand … southwest eighteen forty three.

controller: kilo bravo understand emergency. youre clear to land any runway. seven thirty seven northeast of the field about to climb above your altitude. winds one eight zero at one five.

And there is much more. I will come back to the blog after this first report I am doing at 1:15p eastern to plug in some more examples of these nerves of steel.

Here are the winners of this year’s awards…

Fifth Annual Archie League Award Winners

The National Office is proud to announce to you the winners of the 5th Annual Archie League Medal of Safety Awards, as chosen on Jan. 8 by our judges’ panel (Retired C90 member/fac rep Ray Gibbons, Capt. Brian Townsend and the head of AOPA’s Air Safety Foundation, Bruce Landsberg):

ALASKAN REGION

Mark Harris, Anchorage TRACON

CENTRAL REGION

Christian Manglona, Des Moines

EASTERN REGION

Steve Flickinger, Roanoke

GREAT LAKES REGION (tie)

Robert Zeman, Chicago Midway Tower

Stephanie Bevins, Cleveland Center

Jay McCombs, Cleveland Center

NEW ENGLAND REGION

Stephen Roebuck, Boston Center

Bruce Clough, Boston Center

John Therrien, Boston Center

Bill Wood, Boston Center

NORTHWEST MOUNTAIN REGION

Tom Hedeen, Denver Tower

SOUTHERN REGION (tie)

Kenny Ellis, Memphis Center

Joe Mackie, Greer, S.C.

SOUTHWEST REGION

John Charlton, Lake Charles, La.

WESTERN PACIFIC REGION

Neil Irvin, Northern California TRACON

Tom Gallagher, Northern California TRACON

We salute all of you, and all the other air traffic controllers in the U.S., who really are the unsung heroes of the sky!

Laura Michelle and Hunter take Reactive ads for a test drive

Think you determine whether or not you watch certain ads?

Think again.

On video screens in places like malls, health clubs and grocery stores - *YOU’RE* the one being watched.Small cameras are analyzing you – and what they see tells advertisers what they think you’ll want to buy.

When you hear about the technology being tested, and used on consumers right now, you might think about that Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report” — you know, the futuristic thriller with billboards that recognizes your face, then the ads turn into direct electronic pitches of a product right to you.

That kind of advanced advertising may not too far off, now that companies like “Tru-Media Technologies” are putting cameras inside digital billboards that are programed with face recognition systems. One of the things advertisers hope to do with this, will be to have the ability to shift their product pitch immediately when one gender or the other gets in the billboard’s range.  That means, if you walk up to an ad that is “watching you” and you are a woman, it might automatically shift from a generic or male oriented ad to an ad targeted to YOU.   (think perfume, cosmetics… girl stuff) 

But, privacy advocates have raised concerns about the technology saying that cconsumers should be made aware when they are being watched, by perhaps attaching a disclaimer to the ads to give them the heads up they are being monitored.   We talked with Harley Geiger, with the Center for Democracy and Technology who said “consumers need to know what is happening to their information, who is collecting it, and for what purpose, and know whether a certain screen is actually photographing things”. We tested out the system here at FNC yesterday with a demo sent to us by the Tru-Media company, and it does work fast!  The camera picked us up immediately, with green and gray boxes around our faces identifying our gender, and clocked how long we were checking out the sample ads.   I recruited Michelle Melnick, and Hunter Ryan to do the demo with me so we could see how well it works..

laura tests profile on reactive ads, it works!

Reactive ads work even in profile! I tried at one point to turn my head to see if the cameras would still pick me up and monitor my gender and approximate age (I’m not telling…) and it did.  You can see the box around my face and the faces of Michelle and Hunter in different positions. 

The cameras don’t *record* any content, so there is no privacy violation according to Tru-Media, but that’s not to say other companies will have the same policy in the future, so it’s a technology for us *all* to keep an eye on…

In case you missed the report the other night on the Iraqi band that has resettled in America … here it is!  I have received a lot of requests for a link to the piece, and wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it.  So, sit back, and get ready to rock, and click here for my in depth blog on the story.

Faisal in Vice offices ready to rock

Laura and Acrassicauda

I was thrilled to have the chance to tell this story which ran last night on the FOX Report with Shepard Smith  which included exclusive footage taken backstage last Sunday February 1st, when the band had a chance to meet their heavy metal heroes, Metallica!

Throwin' the Horns

I wanted to share a little more about reporting on this story, now that I have a chance to sit with my computer for a few minutes.    I first heard about the band after catching a blurb about “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” in a local newspaper last year.   The title peaked my interest as a rock n’ roller (see previous blogs) and as a reporter.  I went to a screening that night of the movie that featured a Q-n-A session with the film makers afterwards.  The movie was captivating, engaging, and a total cliff hanger.   The band’s practice place was hit by a scud missile, their lives were being threatened for playing western style music,  and daring to wear American heavy metal t-shirts.   They quite literally, became a band on the run after leaving Iraq and were living as rock n’ roll refugees in some pretty horrible conditions.  It made me want to learn more about them immediately, and quite honestly, go over there and get them out myself if I could.   (everyone deserves the right to rock)

After talking with film makers Suroosh Alvi, and Eddie Moretti about the efforts being made by many to help get the band out of there, I gave them my business card and called them the following week.   I worked on finding a way to tell this story for months, but the timing just didn’t work out for a variety of reasons.    Travel and time were the biggest issues, but as luck would have it, the best chapter of this heavy metal saga, (so far) wouldn’t unfold until just last week.

Before I go any further, let me say, that coming to the United States as a legal refugee is no easy task.   There are miles and miles of red tape one must go through to get resettled here, and many don’t make it.   In the past year, the U.S. admitted just under 13,000 refugees from Iraq.  There are over 2 million refugees who have fled the country, and 2 million who are displaced within Iraq since the war.   We had extensive interviews with the people over at the International Rescue Committee (known as the IRC) about how this works.  Some of you reading this may wonder… “so, if you just want to come over to America and rock, you get a pass?”   The answer is a defiant no.  In fact, the only people that can even be considered for resettlement under the legal refugee terms, are those who have a founded fear of persecution, or death.   Bob Carey with the IRC told us that many refugees from Iraq have had a direct experience of violence, and all have to prove it.   Many have either had a family member kidnapped or killed or tortured, or they themselves have had a very legitimate death threat.

While the documentary  exposed the band members to a new legion of underground metal fans, it also exposed their story to people who were not so enthusiastic about their heavy metal tale.    Needless to say, it did not go over well with the extremists.   Because of the very real and serious danger that the band had found themselves in, Surooshand Eddie felt compelled to help get them out alive, and spearheaded a massive effort to get the band safely to America.   They reached out to the IRC  which helped the guys get through the process of applying for refugee status with the United States.   It took years of background checks, security checks, name checks, and many interviews to get the approval they needed.

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