In the News
SAN JOSE — A Bay Area congressman on Friday called for tougher security standards and a study of technology that could have spotted a teenager climbing a fence at Mineta San Jose International Airport and stowing away in the wheel well of a Hawaii-bound airliner nearly two weeks ago.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — California Congressman Eric Swalwell says a teen stowaway who flew to Hawaii in a jet wheel well should never have been able to climb the San Jose International Airport fence undetected.
Swalwell said Friday he's asking the Transportation Security Administration to test perimeter alert systems at several U.S. airports to see if technology can help prevent future breaches.
Yahya Abdi of Santa Clara, California, survived the April 20 trip to Hawaii.
A Bay Area congressman wants an updated assessment of the nation's airport perimeter security needs following a Santa Clara teen's stowaway voyage in the wheel well of a jetliner taking off from Mineta San Jose International Airport. The 15-year-old jumped a fence to get into the airport Sunday, and miraculously survived a five-and-a-half hour flight to Hawaii despite freezing temperatures and low oxygen levels.
When Vietnam veteran Leslie Jack Smith applied for Social Security, there was no record of earning his citizenship for fighting in the U.S. Army. He turned to a local congressman for help. John Ramos reports.
Les Smith thought he was a U.S. citizen but learned otherwise when he applied for Social Security after turning 65.
"What a surprise," he said.
The mix-up was resolved Wednesday when Smith took his citizenship oath at U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell's Hayward office, with his wife of 44 years sitting nearby, blinking, with tears in her eyes.
Smith moved to the United States from Switzerland with his parents when he was nine. He joined the Army in 1969, and received orders to go to Germany.
Colleges ranked as the best – or worst – in the country by U.S. News & World Report are judged on seven categories: undergraduate academics, graduation rates, retention rates, faculty resources like class size, admissions selectivity, wealth and alumni donations.
Now a dozen members of the House of Representatives are urging U.S. News to add one more category: campus safety.
A stock photo of San Francisco International Airport featured in an international publication – reportedly run by al Qaeda - is sounding off alarms on Capitol Hill, especially as the year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings nears.
OAKLAND — Whenever Vietnam veteran Don Cooper asked about his request for an in-home aide, the Oakland VA regional benefit office told him the same thing: A decision would take 14 months.
"Well, I'm going to be dead in 14 months," said Cooper, 72, of Livermore, who has stage 4 colon cancer. "But I couldn't get anybody to listen to me."
A year ago, amid outrage that VA bureaucracy was failing America's veterans, the agency promised to move quicker to help vets such as Cooper.
US President Barack Obama has signed into law a legislative measure allowing American taxpayers to claim deductions for donations they made to support relief and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda in the Central Philippines.
The new law, called the Charitable Giving Assistance Act, would allow taxpayers who made donations to relief efforts in the Philippines from the period March 25 – the day the law was signed by Obama — to April 15 to claim charitable deductions when they file their 2013 tax returns.
National issues took center stage at San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson's monthly breakfast meeting on Friday, with Congressman Eric Swalwell speaking and taking questions from the crowd.
The event drew about 50 people, the largest yet for the monthly meetings initiated by Clarkson after his election. Swalwell talked about the events that led to his run, some of the problems in Congress and plans for the future.