Author: Eric Shawn

The conservative activist filmmaker stood in federal court in New Orleans and pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering federal property under false pretenses. The 25 year old who made national headlines with his ACORN undercover video expose, was sentenced to serve 3 years probation, 100 hours of community service, and pay a $1,500 fine.

The case came after he was arrested at the New Orleans offices of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu. O’Keefe, along with three co-defendants, said their goal was to show that the Senator’s office phones were working, claiming there were complaints that people could not get through to register their opinions about the then pending Obama administration health care plan.

Two of the suspects were dressed as telephone repairmen, while O’Keefe taped them handling the phones in the reception area. In court, it was revealed that they also had a hidden camera in a construction helmet, and asked for the telephone junction box.

Prosecutors at first charged O’Keefe and the others with entering the offices “for the purpose of committing a felony,” and that they tried to “manipulate” and “maliciously interfere” with the phone system.  But in court, U.S. Attorney Jordan Ginsburg said that prosecutors “did not uncover evidence they attempted to commit a felony.”

When the story broke, some media reports claimed O’Keefe and the others were attempting to “wiretap” the Senator’s phones, but the defense always denied that. In a Fox News interview, O’Keefe branded the media wiretapping reports as “outrageous. .all we were there to do was ask questions, make statements and film their reactions. A politician or a representative is probably not willing to be honest about wrong doing with a self identified journalist.  So what I do is I go undercover. I  propose scenarios in order to get people to be honest with me, to  have a frank discussion, nothing more than that. That’s what I do in all my videos, it’s what I did in the ACORN video. I  make statements, I ask questions, and film reactions, that’s it.”

In court, O’Keefe said that he took full responsibility for the operation, and admitted that he “never considered the security concerns of a federal building.” He also said he did not “intend to misrepresent myself to any law enforcement officials.”

Federal Magistrate Daniel Knowles II told the defendants that they could be a “tremendous asset to our society,” but that he and the others had to learn that they had gone too far.

At one point Knowles asked co-defendant Robert Flanagan, “How could you have done something so stupid?”  Flanagan replied: “Poor judgment, sir.”

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval, in papers filed with a motion, expressed concern about the implications on the security of federal buildings, calling what O’Keefe and the others did,
“extremely serious,” nothing that the “deception” they used was “unconscionable.”

Having gone through the legal process, O’Keefe says he has a new video project in the works that he told Fox News he is releasing Thursday morning.

It looks like James O’Keefe won’t be in cuffs after all.

The conservative activist filmmaker, who was arrested in New Orleans in January along with three cohorts in the office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, is expected to enter a plea to a misdemeanor on Wednesday in federal court.  He’s accused of entering federal property under false pretenses.

Originally, O’Keefe faced much more potentially serious charges. At the time of the arrests, the U.S. Attorney’s office claimed O’Keefe and three others were in the process “of committing a felony.” But federal prosecutors never made the supposed “felony” clear, and the lesser misdemeanor plea of entering federal property “under false pretenses” is expected to spare O’Keefe and his co-defendants any jail time.

O’Keefe first made national headlines after going undercover in the offices of ACORN, the community activist group  whose workers have been accused and convicted of repeated voter registration fraud.  O’Keefe, along with fellow activist Hannah Giles, posed as a pimp and a prostitute seeking to obtain an ACORN housing loan to open a brothel for underage girls. They visited a number of ACORN offices around the country, where several workers didn’t bat an eye. ACORN then fired some of the workers when the tapes were made public.

The ensuing scandal sparked a firestorm against the group, and has threatened ACORN’S funding and its very future. The troubled organization saw Congress try to cut its federal funding, and has since shut down some local offices, though critics claim the move is just an attempt to reconstitute ACORN under different names.

O’Keefe then turned his attention to Landrieu’s telephones. Prosecutors said O’Keefe was standing in the reception area of the Senator’s New Orleans office, when two alleged accomplices came in, claiming they were from the telephone company.  They were dressed in “blue denim pants, blue work shirts, light green fluorescent vests, tool belts, construction-style hard hats.” They then pretended to check the main telephone at the reception desk, picking it up and even calling it from their cell phone. As they did this, O’Keefe was allegedly taping it all with his cell phone camera.

When the pair asked to check the telephone closet, and did not have telephone company credentials, Landrieu’s staff became suspicious and the intruders were later arrested by U.S. Marshalls.

O’Keefe claimed the video project was an investigative attempt to show that the Senator’s office phones worked. At the time of the arrest, the heated debate over the Obama administration health care plan was underway, and O’Keefe said there were claims that Landrieu’s office was ignoring complaints against the proposal.

Senator Landrieu issued a statement about the arrests, saying that “this is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my staff. ..I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which i hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward.”

Some news media branded the caper as an attempt to “wiretap” the Senator’s the phone system, an echo of a  Watergate-style operation. O’Keefe’s defense has denied that, and in fact, it turned out that prosecutors never presented any evidence that the young men attempted to actually wiretap the phone system.

At first they were accused by prosecutors of “entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony,” and that they were trying to “manipulate,” or “maliciously…interfere” with the Senator’s phone system.

But by March, the charges filed dealt only with the misdemeanor of “entering federal property under false pretenses” and that they “pretended to test the phone system.”

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. called the allegations “extremely serious,” saying “Deception is alleged to have been used by the defendants to achieve their purposes which in and of itself is unconscionable.”

But since the final charges are misdemeanors, the four will be facing a Federal Magistrate.

Since his first ACORN expose, O’Keefe has been busy on similar projects, and more of his video productions are expected to be released very soon.

He took on the Taliban as a clandestine C.I.A. officer, and was one of the first into Kabul during the American invasion in 2001.

Veteran C.I.A. officer Gary Berntsen gained prominence as one of the covert operatives who hunted Osama Bin Laden and spent years going after Al Qaeda terrorists.

Now he has set his sights on a different foe: New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer.

“This is as much of an insurrection against Chuck Schumer in New York as it is an election,” says Berntsen, who announced his candidacy as a Republican this weekend.

Berntsen accuses the two term Schumer of supporting policies that have hurt the economy, made America’s national security weaker, and believes he is in lock-step with the Obama administration.

“Schumer is a major part of the problem,” he says. “He’s a force in the Democratic party, he is President Obama’s man in the Senate, he is someone who hopes to become the new majority leader.”

Berntsen is especially critical of Democratic spending policies.

“The U.S. government owes $14 trillion dollars. Senator Schumer was part of this. The U.S. government has been borrowing money recklessly. By the year 2015 we will owe $20 trillion. Senator Schumer and his peers are passing on a debt not only to our children, but to our grand children. It’s complete irresponsibility.”

For his part, Schumer doesn’t seem worried. He refused to respond to a Fox News request about Berntsen’s candidacy, when he held a news conference on a local issue on Long Island, on Friday.

“Today’s not a day for politics, no comment,” he told us.

Bernsten faces long odds, say political experts.
Schumer has amassed a campaign war chest reported at nearly $22 million, won his last race with more than 70% of the vote, and Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York State by almost three million.

“He has a chance of riding the wave and knocking Schumer out of the seat, but not a very good chance,” observes Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran of many national and New York races.

“Chuck Schumer has a lot of money. He is the Democrat. He has done multiple, multiple candidacies, and races throughout the state. He’s still well regarded,” says Sheinkopf.

“Voters may worry about national security but what they are mostly worried about is financial security right now,” he adds. “(Bernsten’s) got to talk finances. People really don’t believe they are going to get blown up by a terrorist, what they do believe is they are going to get blown up by Wall Street.”

It is a theme Berntsen has already grabbed.

“Senator Schumer has a lot of money, but if he spends his money in this campaign the way he spends our tax dollars this task might not be so difficult,” Berntsen says. “I think people are exhausted by his policies. They are exhausted from him,” he says.

“It will be a shocker, but we will be at him every single day from now until the election. We will build a force against Senator Schumer in New York, and he will lose the election,” predicts Berntsen.

“It’s a perverse use of eminent domain,” says Brian Rainville. “There is no public good here.”

He stood on a green field, filled with alfalfa and grass, on the gentle rolling hills of his family’s Franklin, Vermont farm… just steps from the Canadian border. He says the barn dates back to 1800, and the land is on the national registry of historic places. But Brian’s family, who have been dairy farmers here since 1946, may not have the land much longer. The United States Government says it needs 4.9 acres of the family’s property to help protect national security.

The Rainville farm sits on the Morses Line border crossing, a sparsely used two lane blacktop with an aging Customs and Boarder Protection building that the Department of Homeland Security wants to modernize and expand. The agency plans to use stimulus funds to build a new $8 million dollar, multi-lane complex, and says it needs the nearly five acres of the Rainville’s farmland to complete it.

The Rainvilles say the project will put their farm out of business. With the farm losing money, every inch of land is needed, especially the land they use to grow hay to support their cows for the production of milk.

“We are in a good fight here,” says Brian, “This has been a good living for three generations. We are only the third family in 200 years to own the property, and the thought that our own government is going to destroy us! This has been our American dream for a century, it can’t end that way,” he says sadly.

The crossing is lightly used. Government statistics from the Customs and Border Protection agency show just over 14,800 vehicles cross the border every year. That works out to about 40 cars a day, or roughly two and a half an hour. The crossing is not even open 24 hours a day. Brian thinks it should be closed completely, and the traffic moved to larger crossings nearby. But the government is intent on upgrading the facility, which includes the small customs building built in the 1930’s, that sports a small bench with handcuffs.

“The Morses Line Port is more than seventy years old and has dilapidated infrastructure and outdated technology,” said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Rafael Lemaitre in a statement to Fox News.

“By making critical upgrades to the Port, we will meet essential Post-9/11 security and operational standards while fulfilling the economic goals of the recovery act.”

Lemaitre says the agency takes the concerns “very seriously,” and wants to “work to find a solution that balances security with the needs of the local community.”

Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy told a Senate hearing that “people have been driving back and forth on that roadway for decades,” and that the plan is “creating animosity.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano promised to conduct a public hearing on the issue, and to “have a meeting with the community.” She also said there are efforts to reduce the amount of land her agency would need for the project, but that there is a minimum amount of land that would be needed, and “unless you do it, you might as well not do it at all,” she said.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is beefing up crossings on both the borders of Canada and Mexico, and has received $420 million in stimulus funds for that purpose. The agency also says the project will help the local Vermont economy, by providing more than 90 jobs. The agency says “modernizing the Morses Line Port will address a critical national security need.” The goal of Homeland Security officials remains the protection of our country, and the agency insists it is working in a way to balance the local concerns with its mandate to protect the nation.

The government has offered $39,500 for the acreage, but Brian remains adamant. His 70 year old father still milks the cows, as he has since he was six years old, and his brother also works the farm. Brian, who teaches High School history and civics classes, has created the e-mail site: [email protected], to generate support.

“As a civics teacher, I’m astounded,” he told Fox News.”I talk to my students about a responsive government, a government that protects rights, a government that protects property. And I have a representative of my own federal government, sit down in my parents’ kitchen and tell them that the federal government sees no reason why they should keep their land?” he says angrily.

“We’ve been lied to, I’ve been misled and I’ve had enough of it,” he says defiantly. “It’s heartbreaking.”

If the government does resort to using eminent domain, Brian says “the message is we don’t care what you do, or how long you have been there. If we want it, get out of our way. And that’s not the United States of America.”

This is the latest installment of the Fox News “It’s Your Land” series. If you have property issues, contact Fox News Senior Correspondent Eric Shawn and Producer Becky Diamond at: [email protected]. Segments can also be seen on the Fox News Channel, Sunday mornings from 10 a.m. to 12 Noon, E.S.T.

New York is called “The Empire State.”

Its illustrious history has brought America a generation of political leaders, such as Teddy Roosevelt, and F.D.R.

So what happened?

“If you would ask the average person,” says former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, “they would say throw the bums out!, and I would agree.”

The state has been beset by a slew of problems, from politicians engaged in wrongdoing, to the state legislature unable to agree on how to deal with the projected $9.2 billion budget deficit.

And that’s on top of more than $8 billion in new fees and taxes already imposed by Democratic Governor David Paterson.

And the budget is already late.

Again.

At 85 years old, Koch is spearheading an effort to spur voters to fix what many consider the New York State Mess. He’s behind the group, “New York Uprising,” intended to reform what the Brennan Center for Justice has called “the most dysfunctional legislature in the country.”

“We want a legislature that says we’re here to serve the people, not here to serve ourselves, not here to serve friends,” says Koch, who more than thirty years ago helped save New York City from bankruptcy when he was first elected mayor in 1977.

“I thought, someone’s going to stand up and organize and throw the rascals out, but nobody did,” he says. “I believe that this is the year to make the changes and if we don’t do it this year, we’ll never have an opportunity comparable…we have an opportunity now to make a difference.”

The state’s top officials, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and even one of the U.S. Senators are all unelected.

And a slew of state legislators, both Republican and Democrat, have been convicted of crimes ranging from financial fraud, to domestic abuse, – to even stealing money from the Little League.

Governor Paterson is not running for election. He’s under investigation for his alleged role in helping a top aide in a domestic abuse case. The Governor has denied any wrongdoing, but the scandal has been enough that he decided to not seek a full term on his own. He got the job after his predecessor, Governor Eliot Spitzer, resigned for patronizing prostitutes.

“Let’s face it, it’s been a pretty crazy year and a half,” admits the Democratic President of the State Senate, Malcolm Smith.

He insists progress is being made, ‘change comes slow,” he says.

“We reformed public authorities, local governments have changed, and we’ve reformed Rockefeller drug laws which were so critical for everybody, transportation and also a pension system. We’ve done all that for the first time in 50 years,” boasts Smith, who says “I think we have been functioning quite well.”

But the Republican minority leader of the Democratic controlled state Assembly wants what he calls “A Peoples’ Convention” to try and push reform and send a message to the politicians.

“I think this is our best opportunity to have effective change in Albany if we actually try and get this convention convened,” urges Assemblyman Brian Kolb.

He says you can’t count on the usual Albany politicians, “because the budget’s late again, last year they passed 8 and a half billion dollars worth of new taxes and fees,” and he says “the last four years it’s been an unmitigated disaster in the executive mansion. There’s been no leadership, we’ve had scandals and that adds to not being able to get things done.”

Mayor Koch notes there is a reason for the gridlock.

“You have people in office who are rarely thrown out. Less than 3% in any election lose, who are incumbents. They become satisfied and they begin to think it belongs to them and they don’t realize they’re there to serve the public, they think the public is there to serve them.”

The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that a state legislator in New York has a better chance of resigning amid a scandal or being convicted of a crime, than losing at the polls.

In the end, says Koch, the people lose because of the politicians.

“The good are not good enough. They didn’t stand up. And the bad are evil.”

-Fox News Senior Correspondent Eric Shawn has covered New York politics since he was in high school. He first interviewed then Congressman Ed Koch for a cable television public access school project in 1974.

The gentle, rolling waves embrace the white sand Gulf Coast beaches of Destin, Florida. But the quiet resort community, which likes to call itself “The World’s Luckiest Fishing Village,” is now a heated central battlefield over property rights.

“The government is taking our waterfront property and making a public beachfront property,” exclaims Linda Cherry, a spitfire with a cause who would seem an unlikely activist. She and her husband Jim, both political communications consultants, own a beachfront home on an exclusive stretch of beach, and have become symbols of what they consider to be the government stealing their beach.

The issue? The Cherrys say their private property extends to the surf, which means the pristine beach behind their house is their private backyard. When the state deems a stretch of waterfront land critically eroded though, it replenishes the beach in an effort to protect against storm damage. The government puts new sand along the shoreline, effectively extending the beach seaward. Under Florida law though, all new land created seaward of the erosion control line is public property. It’s a policy that Linda Cherry says amounts to the government illegally taking property.

“The government is trying to take our private property to make more public beach to bring more tourism into the area,” she charges. “If they can do that, they can take anybody’s property.”

Several beachfront property owners in the area have taken the issue to United States Supreme Court, where a decision is expected soon. The high court is weighing the issue of property rights versus state law, and the drama centers on the white sand beaches that run for seven miles along the Florida Panhandle.

“We want to be able to keep our beach; it’s what we paid for, it’s what is described in our deeds,” says Cherry, who organized the group Save Our Beaches to oppose the state’s moves. “When we buy property on the beach we assume that Mother Nature might take our backyard. We don’t expect the government to take our backyard,” she says.

The city of Destin denies it is land grabbing, only obeying state law. “We don’t believe we are taking private property,” explains the City Manager, Greg Kisela. “We believe that we are simply restoring these beaches and creating new beach,” he says. “It’s not a taking of their property rights. If we’ve done anything we’ve given them free sand to protect their upland structures,” he says of the homeowners. The program is designed to prevent beach erosion and provide “storm protection,” not only for the homeowners but says Kisela, for “the roads, sanitary sewer lines and gas lines.”

As we talked, couples strolled along the surf past the Cherrys’ house, and they do not disagree with that. It’s the principle of owning property that is unfairly infringed upon, they say, and having their property no longer extend all the way to the water. The Cherrys also point out that when strangers pitch tents on their property, they are not allowed to remove them.

“Everybody in America who owns property needs to understand if we can lose our property here, our waterfront property in Destin, they can lose their property,” warns Ms. Cherry.

But the state sees it differently.

The case is about “protecting the right of the state to preserve critically eroding shorelines for public interest and to protect the existing right for the public to use state-owned portions of the beach,” notes the Deputy Communications Director for the Florida Attorney General’s office, Ryan Wiggins. She says rather than “a taking of any recognizable property interest,” the law “is a governmental ‘giving’ of enormous benefits to beachfront owners that restores, rather than takes or diminishes their properties’ values along severely eroded shores.”

One private property owner who supports the State is John Comer, whose family owns a beachfront restaurant, The Back Porch, as well as several other restaurants.

“To us it’s the lesser of two evils,” he says about having suddenly public beach front at the restaurant. As we talked, surfers were riding the waves and a girl was surf casting as diners ate lunch in the balmy breeze. He says if the state does not add to the beach, “then we feel like we’re going to lose our building … because we need the protection from the storms.”

The restaurant also rents out umbrellas for people to use their beach. But the homeowners are left with waterfront property that really isn’t. And Ms. Cherry is worried about the consequences.

“Can the government come in and take our waterfront property?” she asks. “If they can do that, then they can take anybody’s property.”

This is the second in the Fox News series, “It’s Your Land.” Have a land or private property issue? E-Mail Senior Correspondent Eric Shawn at: [email protected]. Reports can also be seen Sundays from 10 to 12 noon, E.S.T. on the Fox News Channel. Save Our Beaches can be reached at: beachfront owners of [email protected].

ACORN, the embattled community activist group, says it is disbanding.

The group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, claims it will close its affiliates and field offices by April 1st. But some of its critics think the move is really an April fool’s switch. They claim ACORN actually isn’t going anywhere, just rebranding under different local organizations with new names but with the same mission.
ACORN has faced a variety of allegations over the past two years, from voter registration fraud to Republican charges that it uses public funds for liberal political purposes. ACORN workers have gone to jail, and undercover tapes of ACORN workers seemingly giving advice on how to skirt the law especially made the group a lightning rod for criticism.

ACORN has denied the charges, pointing to its own commissioned investigation that found allegations against it baseless.
“ACORN has faced a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded right wing attacks that are unprecedented since the McCarthy era,” claims ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. In a statement she said in part, “Our effective work empowering African-Americans and low-income voters made us a target.”

But critics say ACORN’s undoing is entirely its own fault.

“I don’t think we are done with this,” Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King, a noted ACORN critic, told Fox News. “This is a big step in the right direction because I believe they are a corrupt, criminal enterprise.”

King calls the move “a downsize of ACORN,” but believes its operations will be shifted to state organizations that “may well grow.” He says “tigers don’t change their stripes and neither to people who are operating in a corrupt fashion.”

Critics point to a variety of new local organizations that are springing up to apparently take ACORN’s place. In Brooklyn, New York the ACORN office now has a new sign: “New York Communities for Change,” and in Massachusetts the president of the new group, “New England United for Justice” is listed as Maude Hurd, the president of ACORN, in its articles of Organization.

There are a growing number of such local groups replacing ACORN, according to Matthew Vadum, of the Capital Research Center. He says ACORN Housing has changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America, Inc., and that other ACORN connected groups include: Arkansas Community Organizations, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and Missourians Organizing for Reform Empowerment.

“This is a trick, a public relations trick,” says Vadum, calling the move an attempt “to dupe Congress and the American people to think they have gone away and they have not.” He says “the same people are running the new chapters that have sprung up and in some cases, out of the same offices.”
The moves in Congress to cut ACORN’s funding came after the shocking undercover video-tapes made by conservative activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles who posed as a pimp and a prostitute trying to secure ACORN’s help to open a supposed brothel using underage girls. A federal Judge has since declared the Congressional move unconstitutional, but the financial damage may have been done. Several federal agencies have cut their ACORN funding and ACORN even tried to use the example of the tapes for fundraising purposes.

Giles has not returned a request for comment on ACORN’s announcement, and O’Keefe told me he cannot comment because of the on-going investigation of another of his video projects. He and three others have been charged with trying to “manipulate” the phone system of Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. O’Keefe says he was engaged in a journalistic endeavor, going undercover to try and show that there was no problem with the Senator’s phone system during the run-up to the health care vote.

A new trend has local governments on guard: global computer hackers stealing their money.

It is happening across the country, local municipalities, town and village governments, school districts and counties becoming victims of cybercrime.

The Duanesburg School District in upstate New York was hit, and lost $3 million; the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts, $34,000; Sherwood, Arkansas, about $200,000; and a reported $415,000 from Bullitt County, Kentucky.

“You think you are going to be dealing with teachers and providing the best program for students,” says Duanesburg School District Superintendent Chris Crowley, “and suddenly you are told you lost 3 million dollars to computer hackers… you can’t even fathom what it feels like.”

She says the money was siphoned off to accounts in Hong Kong, the Ukraine and Cyprus.

“In these countries there are brazen and competent criminals who are looking to attack U.S. institutions and do exactly what appears to be happening here, which is wiring money out of these bank accounts,” says Edward Stroz, a former F.B.I. agent who helped start the first cybercrimes unit in the New York F.B.I. office. He now is co-president of a high-end computer forensics company, Stroz Friedberg, which investigates cybercrime, computer forensics and data breaches.

“Here you are dealing with somebody who has targeted it, thought about it, knows how to use computer communications,” says Stroz. “It is a much more thoughtful and savvy criminal” than previous bank robbers.

“The bank robbers don’t carry guns anymore, they carry computers,” the regional President of Duanesberg’s bank, NBT, Jeffrey Levy, told Fox News.

The bank says it was not compromised and that it takes every effort internally to protect its customers’ accounts.

“It certainly is evolving,” said NBT’s Bank Secrecy Act officer James Terry, who notes that “the human factor is very, very important.”

The American Bankers Association and others experts urge customers to monitor their accounts and take extra security precautions.

Stroz says municipalities should have multiple passwords, and people should be careful about opening e-mail that seems unfamiliar. Once the link is established, cybercriminals can then implant malicious software, known as malware, in a town’s system and once they are inside they can be free to commit their crimes. And even though the money may end in foreign accounts, he notes, does not mean the cybercriminals are foreign. They could be Americans who use the offshore accounts to try and hide their ill-gotten booty.

Luckily, in the Duanesberg case almost all of the stolen money was recovered but it is not clear if anyone has been arrested.

“When you are done with the shock, you are angry,” says Ms. Crowley, noting cybercrime can now happen to anyone. “They would have no idea and they would go to their account and find they are missing millions of dollars or thousands of dollars. It is very frustrating.”

There was a very meaningful event in Manhattan on Sunday. The first man on the moon, American Astronaut Neil Armstrong, made a rare public appearance on the U.S.S. Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. He was accompanied by Bob Gilliland, the first man to fly the SR 71 Blackbird, and Vietnam ace Air Force General Steve Ritchie.

The group was supposed to return Saturday from an around the globe tour of our troops overseas, called “The Legends of Aerospace.” But the storms that hit the East coast delayed their arrival by one day. We can go to the moon, but try landing at J.F.K. in a 767 in 70 mile per hour winds! The group discussed their trip and careers.

I spent Saturday waiting for their arrival on the Intrepid, an Essex class aircraft carrier transformed into a floating museum, that was hit several times during World War II by Kamikazes. The worst attack, on November 25, 1944, killed 69 on board. After repairs, the Intrepid went right back into service, and five months after the first attack, was hit yet again, costing the lives of 8 more.

Today you can walk in the very hanger bay, observe the airplanes from different eras, and walk where the dive-bombers targeted the ship. Real news footage of the attacks brings back the day with vivid reality. It is a sobering realization to stand in the same spot where the courageous young sailors and officers once fought off the enemy amid the inferno.

Today, confronted by Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda, the threats to our nation remain. A visit to the Intrepid is an inspiring reminder of those who have gone before and of how we faced earlier threats with dedication and resolve.

When does cute not cut it?

A child, or even two, clearing airliners for takeoff from John F. Kennedy International airport is shocking many today. On the tower tapes a child is heard, using correct air traffic control lingo, clearing a Jet Blue and an AeroMexico flight as they depart J.F.K.

Child: “Jet Blue 171, clear for takeoff.”

Pilot: “Clear for takeoff, Jet Blue 171.”

Child: “Jet Blue 171, contact departure.”

Pilot: “Over to departure, Jet Blue 171, awesome job.”

Child: “Aeromex 403, contact departure, Adios.”

Pilot: “Contact departure, Aeromexico 403, Adios.”

What you can hear is an apparent controller laughing and telling the pilots: “That’s what you get, guys, when the kids are out of school.”

The youngster was reportedly in the control tower on February 17th, two weeks ago today, during the Presidents’ Day holiday week when many New York area schools were on vacation, and now it turns out he wasn’t the only one. The F.A.A. says a controller brought his young son into the tower on the first night, and then brought another youngster the next evening . The unidentified controller has been suspended.

The F.A.A. has launched an investigation but the incident is clearly an embarrassment and also shocking for the lack of judgment by aviation professionals, even if the experienced controllers were standing over the child, including,  presumably, the father.

“This is totally unprofessional and stupid,” one retired air traffic controller who had worked for many years in the J.F.K. tower told me. “You don’t do this type of behavior. There’s a supervisor in the tower, this is not what you do,” he said.

Only certified air traffic controllers are supposed to be in towers, but as anyone who works in an office knows, friends and family can sometimes tag along to work but it’s a different story when the job requires guiding airliners full of passengers into the sky.

Some are saying the incident is being blown out of proportion, since the youngster was repeating standard, routine directions to pilots, with the adults presumably alongside the children.

“That’s not the point,” aviation lawyer Doug Latto told Fox News. His firm, Baumeister and Samuels, one of the premier aviation law firms in the country, represents victims of last August’s mid-air collision over the Hudson River in New York between a small plane and a helicopter. Nine people were killed.

“I think this is awful,” says Latto. “Controllers in their air traffic control manual are required to eliminate distractions and obviously this was a distraction. Unfortunately we’ve seen controller distraction result in aviation accidents.”

Latto says in the August mid-air crash, “a controller was on the phone with his girlfriend while simultaneously directing traffic,” even as the small plane and helicopter were under visual flight rules.

In August of 2006, 49 passengers and the crew of Delta Comair flight 5191, a small commuter jet, took off from the wrong runway just after 6 in the morning in Lexington, Kentucky. The pilots didn’t notice the runway was too short, and the controller in the tower had turned his back to do administration duties as the jetliner barreled down its fatal path, not realizing the pilots’ mistake.

Fortunately, nothing of that sort happened with the youngster behind the J.F.K. tower microphone. The pilots seemed to get a kick out of having a kid bid them goodbye, exclaiming: “awesome job.”

The FAA sees it otherwise, saying in a statement: “Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic….This behavior is not acceptable.”

Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in a statement: “We do not condone this type of behavior in any way. It is not indicative of the highest professional standards that controllers set for themselves and exceed each and every day in the advancement of aviation safety.”

Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation, Operations, Safety and Security, called it “suprising and stunning.” She thinks there should be a Congressional investigation because “you are talking about people’s lives and their saftey is at stake…this is an issue that must be treated very seriously.”

As the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency considers how to address Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, those trying to stop Iran from building a bomb have notched what they boast is a victory.

Caterpillar, the giant American construction equipment company, has announced it will make sure its earth movers and bulldozers no longer end up in Iranian hands.

Questions about whether Caterpillar equipment may have helped build some of the secret tunnels or underground bunkers that hide Iran’s disputed nuclear facilities were raised by the group, United Against Nuclear Iran. Its head, Mark Wallace, is a former American Ambassador at the United Nations, where among other duties, he gained a reputation for diligently chasing down international financial dealings with rogue nations, legal and otherwise.

“It is irresponsible for an American based company to be doing business in Iran and providing the heavy equipment if you will, to support Iran’s natural oil and gas industry and perhaps their nuclear program,” Wallace told Fox News.

Caterpillar says it has no assets in Iran and does not do business there. But United Against Nuclear Iran points out that a Caterpillar owned firm, the Canadian construction company Lovat, has “recently done business” in Iran. In addition, Wallace’s group says, a company called Tunnel Boresh Machine is identified as a distributor of Caterpillar equipment in Iran. Caterpillar acknowledges that it cannot control where its machines end up, saying “Caterpillar’s foreign subsidiaries may, under some circumstances, sell products to independent dealers that resell to users in this country…” meaning, Iran.

Could one of those users ultimately be the Iranian Revolutionary Guards building the huge Iranian nuclear projects?

Did Lovat or Tunnel Boresh help construct the tunnels such as those in Qom, for example, the formerly secret nuclear site made public by the Obama administration last fall?

A spokesman for Lovat referred Fox News back to Caterpillar, and Caterpillar says only one tunnel boring machine was used by Lovat in Iran, in the late 1990’s, before Caterpillar acquired the company. That machine was used for a water, sewer, and drainage project in Tehran. In addition, Caterpillar notes, there is no way to determine if its equipment may have been used in the nuclear program because used construction equipment is so widely available in the Middle East, and sold at large auctions to many buyers.

Tunnel Boresh Machine told Fox News that Caterpillar equipment was not used in the construction of Iran’s nuclear facilities. But that possibility was raised in the most public of ways. United Against Nuclear Iran paid for a billboard near Caterpillar’s Illinois headquarters that plastered a photograph of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and a bulldozer, with the question: “Today’s work, Tomorrow’s Nuclear Iran?”

The answer it no, according to Caterpillar.

The company has announced it will no longer permit its machinery to end up in Iran.

While Caterpillar says many of the claims made by Wallace’s group “are simply not supported by the facts,” it has taken steps to make sure its products are not used in Iran.

“The policy of Caterpillar, Inc. and its affiliates has been to comply with applicable U.S. export control and economic sanctions laws and regulations,” the company said in a statement. “But Caterpillar now has gone a step further by prohibiting its non-U.S. subsidiaries from accepting any orders for Caterpillar machines, engines, and new parts where the subsidiary knows that product would be shipped to Iran.”

The construction of the Iranian tunnels has clearly become a target for the Obama administration. Just last month, the Treasury Department slapped sanctions on four Iranian construction companies believed to be linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that “directly support various mining and engineering projects” in Iran.

While there is no indication that Caterpillar equipment was or is used by any of those firms, Wallace hails Caterpillar’s decision to end subsidiaries sales to Iran.

“We applaud Caterpillar’s decision,” said Wallace. “All responsible companies that transact business in Iran through the veil of a foreign subsidiary should take this as a wakeup call.”

Meanwhile, the administration and U.S. allies are moving to try and impose stricter sanctions on the Iranian regime at the United Nations Security Council. But many experts concede that the full extent of the Iranian tunnels dug to protect its nuclear program, remains unknown.

ACORN, the advocacy organization, is apparantly rebranding.

Reports say it is changing it’s name across the country, and reorganizing under new local community groups to get away from the notierity the name ACORN has, to some, engendered.

Fox News paid a visit to the ACORN office in Brooklyn, New York and found a banner with the name “New York Communities for Change” added to the front entrance. The employees inside the office said it is a whole new organization.

Others say the name swap is just a bait and switch.

“This desolving of the national structure by ACORN is just a PR head fake. It’s a sham,” Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C. told Fox News. He says the new organizations will just continue ACORN’s work with the same agenda, in the same offices, just under different names.

He says it’s all about ACORN trying to stay alive after Congress voted to cut off funding last year, a move a Judge later ruled was unconstitutional.

“ACORN wants to keep the money flowing,” says Vadum. “In order to do that, they figure they need to change the name and change their image and they’re doing that by re-incorporating their state chapters under new names.”

A spokesman for ACORN did not return our request for comment, but was quoted as blaming ACORN’s critics for the change. Scott Levenson, the ACORN spokesman, was quoted in news reports as citing “a series of vicious right wing attacks over the past year and a half, and this has made it harder for ACORN to raise funds and organize and serve its members.”

The efforts to stop taxpayer money from going to ACORN accelerated after the debut of the explosive undercover videos made by conservative activist filmmakers James O’Keefe and his partner, Hannah Ghiles, last September. They pretended to be a pimp and a prostitute, and on the tapes some ACORN employees were shown apparantly advising them on how to skirt the law. ACORN later fired some of the employees.

ACORN has harshly denounced O’Keefe, but perhaps in an indication of its financial straits, has also used him to try to raise money. Earlier this month, a fundraising solicitation from ACORN repeatedly cited O’Keefe as a reason for people to donate.

“Can you chip in $52 to help us keep the pressure on O’Keefe and his corporate paymasters?” the fundraising letter asked.

“The smear campaign initiated by O’Keefe has allowed attacks not just on ACORN’s good works, but on all aspects of the change agenda,” it claimed. “All corporate forces have to do now is imply that a person, organization, or policy has some past association with ACORN and it becomes a lightning rod for more smears from the corporate-funded attack media…With your help we can expose the corporate-backed anti-Main Street agenda behind O’Keefe’s sleaze, and step up the fight for a progressive pro-Main Street agenda.”

There is no word if any of the solicated funds would remain with ACORN, or end up with any new organizations.

He’s out.

It was just before 7 a.m. when former President Bill Clinton walked out of New York Presbyterian after having two stents implanted in one of his arteries. He walked slowly, accompanied by his daughter Chelsea, and shook hands with his doctor, Alan Schwartz, and others as he left. When his black SUV passed our Fox News crew that was carrying his departure live on the Fox News Channel, the former President rolled down his window and waved, telling us “Bye guys, thank you very much!”

As the Fox News reporter who traveled with him when he ran for President in 1992, I noticed his optimism and enthusiasm has remained intact. We have been told he was talking and joking after the procedure, even on the cell phone as he was being wheeled into the operating room, and was up and walking last night. Doctors say he will do fine, is in “excellent” health, and is expected to be back in the office on Monday.

One of our country’s leading aviation accident lawyers told me he has a simple private rule for his family: No flying in propeller commuter planes in bad winter weather.

That rule may seem rather extreme, considering all the thousands of turboprop commuter flights that safely complete their journeys each day, but listening to the National Transportation Safety Board hearing about last year’s crash in Buffalo, New York, one can understand why. The investigators sketched a tragic scenario of pilot inattention, distraction, confusion, miscommunication and deadly mistakes that led to their tragic deaths and that of their passengers.

The crash of Continental Connection flight 3407, actually operated by the commuter line Colgan Air, has already, critics say, exposed the underbelly of our nation’s regional airline industry: pilots sleeping on couches in airport ready rooms, being paid by the hour (the co-pilot of the ill-fated flight, 24 year-old Rebecca Shaw, earned about $23 an hour and at one time had to work in a coffee shop as a second job,) commuting cross country to their jobs, flying while feeling ill, having conversations that violate the “sterile” cockpit rule, and most importantly in this case, not even noticing the plane was flying too slowly for 18 seconds before it went out of control.

Investigators said that as the plane started to stall during the approach to the Buffalo airport, the pilot, 47 year-old Marvin Renslow, pulled back on the controls to pull the nose up, when he should have pushed the nose down. They also concluded that he did not add enough power to prevent the plane from careening into the ground. In addition, investigators said Renslow lacked proper training on what is known as the “stick shaker,” which alerts pilots that the plane is in trouble. And it turns out that Renslow had “flunked” several pilot training tests, said officials.

“What this investigation reveals is a picture of complacency that resulted in catastrophe,” declared the N.T.S.B. Chairwoman, Deborah Hersman about the two pilots. “Neither of them called “stall,” neither of them appeared to be communicating, recognizing what was going on at the time.”

They did not recognize what was going on at the time.

“I’m wondering,” Hersman asked, “why the first officer (Ms. Shaw,) didn’t recognize what was going on, perhaps overrule the Captain if he was in a situation where he couldn’t identify what was going on?”

“We can’t say for sure,” answered Captain Roger Cox, the N.T.S.B. Operations Group Chairman. “There was an need to intervene, ” he said, “what it takes to intervene with another crew member…is a product of experience, it is a product of maturity, a product of being able to recognize a really bad situation and take decisive action.”

N.T.S.B. Vice-Chair Christopher Hart observed that “this accident was really an eye opener,” for the industry, lamenting that “we no longer have the world class training of military pilots” that once filled America’s commercial airliner cockpits. Officials said there are different training procedures between civilian and military pilots. “What makes a good pilot is discipline, attitude, and approach to professionalism,” noted one official, defending the civilian training.

The accident also has focused attention on code-sharing, the practice of major airlines relying on commuter lines to actually operate the flights, the training and standards of regional carriers, as well as issues pilot fatigue, hours, and experience.

Buffalo area Republican Congressman Chris Lee has introduced legislation that passed the House addressing some of the issues, such as pilot fatigue and training.  But his spokesman, Matthew Harakal, says the bill remains stuck in the Senate Finance Committee because of the continuing health care debate.

The N.T.S.B. will issue more than 20 recommendations as a result of this crash. But the sad legacy of flight 3407, is the proper questions that have been raised about all those upon whom we trust our lives when we fly.

“What we have seen in this accident are things we have seen before,” says Chairman Hersman. “We have concerns…that have not been addressed. History is repeating itself. These are issues we have seen time and time again and unfortunately it has taken 50 more lives.”

That is why the aviation lawyer I know will continue to bar his wife and children from boarding such planes in bad winter weather, despite the regional airline industry’s assurances and record of safety.

Toyota says it is moving quickly to address a potentially deadly problem: gas pedals that can get stuck.

“We are doing everything we can -as fast as we can- to make things right,” vowed Toyota’s U.S. President, Jim Lentz.  He outlined the plan to ship replacement steel parts to dealers and start a crash course of training dealerships on how to repair the problem in the recalled cars and trucks. Toyota owners will be notified by mail this week.

But do the math.

Vehicles recalled: 2.3 million.
Repair time: 30 Minutes each.

It could take weeks or months for all owners to have their cars inspected or fixed.

Toyota says a worn part can cause friction, which could make the pedal stick or respond slowly. “In some cases,” says the carmaker, “friction could increase to a point that the pedal is slow to return to the idle position, or in rare cases, the pedal sticks, leaving the throttle partially open.”

If you suspect a problem as you drive, Toyota advises drivers to apply steady pressure to the brakes, do not pump them,
pull over to a safe area, and shut the engine off.

The repairs involves installing a steel reinforcement bar in the gas pedal assembly to reduce the friction that causes the problem.

The company says the faulty pedals were manufactured by the CTS Corporation, of Elkhart, Indiana. CTS says it has “deep concern that there is widespread confusion and incorrect information,” about its product. The company notes it does not make the pedals for Lexus models and no Toyota models manufactured before 2005.

Nevertheless, owners of the following Toyota models are affected by the recall:

Certain 2009-2010 RAV4
Certain 2009-2010 Corolla
2009-2010 Matrix
2005-2010 Avalon
Certain 2007-2010 Camry
Certain 2010 Highlander
2007-2010 Tundra
2008-2010 Sequoia

Toyota will bear the cost of the repairs, and advises car owners to get more information from its website, www.Toyota.com/recall, or call 1-800-331-4331.

“We are taking care of our customers as soon as they call up,” says Dennis Lauzon of Parkway Toyota, in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. “Customer first, that’s the way it is at Toyota,” he added.  Lauzon told me he hasn’t had one vehicle with the problem yet, and he runs two dealerships, adding with dealers having anywhere from 15 to 25 mechanics available, he says any problems can be rectified.

The broader struggles for Toyota started in August, when a Toyota-owned Lexus driven by a veteran California Highway Patrol officer went out of control, the accelerator stuck, as the car careened at 125 miles per hour. A searing 911 call captured the horror, as a panicked passenger said “We’re in a Lexus…our accelerator is stuck..we’re in trouble…there’s no brakes…hold on…hold on and pray…pray”

The call ended with a crash, all four in the car were killed.

That cause of that accident was determined to be a floor mat that was wedged under the gas pedal, and lead to a separate recall, unrelated to the current gas pedal issue, of certain Toyota and Lexus models, in November.

Now Toyota has the new gas pedal problem on its hands.

Critics claim the company has moved too slowly to identify and address the problems, after many complaints. “Toyota’s Slow Awakening to a Deadly Problem,” is how a front-page “New York Times” article puts it this morning, which says several class action lawsuits are already underway.

But the problem has left million of Toyota owners on edge, and despite the company’s actions to rectify the issue, many may not be completely reassured for some time.

Barely one week after Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts, seen by some as ending the political coattails of the Kennedy family, the grandson of the man defeated by John F. Kennedy for President in 1960 has entered the political fray.

Chris Cox…Christopher Nixon Cox.. is running for Congress. The 30 year-old is President Richard Nixon’s grandson and has announced his candidacy for the state’s First Congressional district, on Long Island. The announcement came on his campaign website, Chriscoxforcongress.com, and he promised to “revitalize Suffolk County’s economy, protect jobs from being outsourced overseas, end this period of over taxation, and make sure those tax dollars are well spent.”

The incumbent, Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop, told Fox News, “I don’t know much about Christopher… I have several people vying for the Republican designation and I would be happy to talk about my opponent extensively once I know who he or who she is.”

Chris’ mother is Nixon’s daughter Tricia, and his father is Ed Cox, current chairman of the New York State Republican party. They were married in the White House in 1971, but have spent the past decades mostly working behind the political scenes.

Chris was born in 1979 and he’s someone most Americans have never known about, but he has spent the better part of his life cutting his political teeth.

I first met Chris in November of 1993, when he walked over to the reporters to quietly observe the media mayhem in the New York Hilton ballroom on election night. He was 14 years old and I was covering the headquarters of Rudolph Giuliani for his second run for Mayor of New York City. When you’re at an election night headquarters while still in high school, on a school night no less, you know politics runs in your blood along with your family genes. Just ask the Kennedys, Bushes and Roosevelts.

His grandfather died of a stroke the next year, in 1994.

Cox graduated from Princeton and New York University Law School, and embarked on a career as a lawyer, international business advisor, and political talking head. In the past several years he has appeared as a political commentator on television and became directly involved in Republican politics, serving as a John McCain delegate and was the New York State Executive Director of McCain’s 2008 Presidential run. His father’s family has deep roots in the Congressional district now represented by four-term Democrat, Bishop.

The district is a varied one, probably one of the most diverse in the nation. It stretches from the tip of Long Island, Montauk to the east, toward the center of the New York City Long Island suburbs. It includes the tony Hamptons (and all the Hollywood glitz and Democratic political money associated with it,) as well as the fishermen of Montauk, the farms and vineyards of the Long Island North Fork, and the bedroom communities to the west that feed the Long Island Railroad to the city.

The district has also had a recent history of swapping parties.

It was represented by conservative Republican Michael Forbes, who was swept into office with the Newt Gingrich revolution in 1994. But in 2000, Forbes shocked the G.O.P. by becoming a Bill Clinton Democrat. That ensured his loss in the Democratic primary and lead to the election of Republican Felix Grucci, a member of the famed Grucci fireworks family of Bellport.

Just one term later, Grucci narrowly lost to Southampton College administrator Tim Bishop, who has handily won ever since.

Bishop has trounced his Republican opponents, the latest, in 2008, by 16 points. But the district has roughly 15% more registered Republicans than Democrats, which is why some think it will be ripe for the G.O.P. picking by a strong contender. Local elected offices are represented by a mix of Republican and Democratic politicians and the district has flip-flopped in Presidential runs. President Bush narrowly defeated John Kerry in 2004, and President Obama won by four points.

Cox  says now “there is a lot of voter anger about what is going on in Washington, and to have an incumbent who has voted 97% of the time with Nancy Pelosi, is someone who is representing San Francisco much more that he is representing Suffolk County. I want to be representing Suffolk County, I want to represent Suffolk County values and that’s why I want to go to Washington.” 

Bishop, who says the most important issue in the district “is the economy and jobs,” says he has “accomplished quite a bit.” He points to funding for higher education, school funding, veteran’s issues and the enviornment. He says “The best way to present myself to my constituents as a candidate or re-election is to do the job I was elected to do, and so I am focusing 100% of my energy on being the best member of Congress I can be.”  

There are seven candidates vying for the Republican nod, but Cox will certainly become the best known, and perhaps nationally financed, by dint of who he is. His grandfather was only three years older than Cox is now, when in 1946 he challenged a five-term incumbent Congressman and won, launching his political career that included election to the Senate, Vice-Presidency, and finally, the Oval Office.

James O’Keefe, the conservative activist filmmaker, made quite a name for himself for his shocking undercover video tapes of ACORN. The tapes, in which he and a friend posed as a pimp and a prostitute, sparked a firestorm against the community group, even threatening its federal funding.

Now O’Keefe has spent a night behind bars, arrested in the aftermath of what presumably was his latest video project.

Federal prosecutors have charged him, and three alleged cohorts, with “entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony.” The Feds say they tried to “manipulate,” or “maliciously…interfere” with the phone system of Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu.

The allegations are basically this –that O’Keefe was standing in the reception area of the Senator’s New Orleans office, when two alleged accomplices came in, claiming they were from the phone company. They were dressed in “blue denim pants, blue work shirts, light green fluorescent vests, tool belts, and construction-style hard hats.” They then proceeded to check the main telephone at the reception desk, picking it up, and even calling it from their cellphone. As they did this, O’Keefe was allegedly taping it all with his cellphone camera.

When the pair asked to check the telephone closest, and did not have telephone company credentials, workers became suspicious and they were later arrested by U.S Marshalls. Authorities say O’Keefe and the others, including one who is the son of a federal prosecutor, admitted they were all part of this operation.

What was his intent?

No where in the media material provided by the Department of Justice is there an allegation that they were trying to wiretap the Senator’s phones, though there are reports a listening device was found in one of the suspect’s cars.
The nature of O’Keefe’s apparent video project also remains unclear. He spent the night in jail and his lawyer was waiting to hear from him. Attorney Michael Madigan told me, “We don’t have any of the facts yet, but James O’Keefe, at heart, is a really good kid. We are looking into this further and are awaiting hearing from James directly.”

A source close to James told me “they were not attempting to wiretap the phones or anything like that,” and another source said “he would not want to do anything wrong.”

But now he and the others face federal charges that could potentially bring ten years in prison if convicted, while the reason O’Keefe was allegedly recording remains unexplained.