Author: Laura Ingle

Today our Fox News team was invited to climb aboard an incredible aviation invention known as the “Osprey” during Fleet Week celebration here in New York City.  The Osprey, or V-22 as it’s known, takes off and lands like a helicopter, but flies like a plane with it’s tilt-rotor design.   The combat aircraft is being used currently by the U.S. Marine Corp. in the mountains of Afghanistan, has been used in the deserts of Iraq, and was also utilized to lift aid and resources to Haiti, which required fast in and out humanitarian missions.   The V-22 is being used by The U.S. Air Force as well.

There has been a bit of controversy surrounding the production and use of this aircraft. There have been several crashes, some of them deadly,  and the costs to build the V-22s skyrocketed and nearly derailed the program.

But engineers and designers pressed on.  The Osprey can be extremely effective in military combat,  because of its speed and sound, and many Marine Corp. pilots will tell you, it’s speed and capabilities are tough to beat.    The Osprey gives Marine Corp. Air Ground Task Force troops increased flexibility and reach that you just couldn’t get with the CH-46 helicopters, which are being phased out of combat service.  Usually, you can hear a helicopter coming from a mile away but since the Osprey can fly high like a plane, it can get closer to a target without being heard.  It can then convert to a helicopter type craft, and lower down, getting troops in place and ready to engage, giving the enemy little time to react.

Our team today included Fox News producer Mike Sorrentino, cameraman Tommy Chiu, and audio technician Melvin Davis.   After a short briefing, (and a lot of anticipation with the weather that stalled our departure) we watched the Osprey come in for a landing at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport.  All of us were craning our necks around the building waiting to get our first glimpse of the hovering beast that looked like a U.F.O. when it finally appeared and slowly sank down out of the gray sky in front of us.

After loading into the back ramp that was lowered down like a shipping dock, we got into positions wearing our helmets, goggles and life vests.  We strapped into our jump seats and waited to feel the movement of takeoff.  At first, it was a nice familiar feeling of lifting up and off, watching the helipad become smaller and smaller out of the big gaping hole that was our window.  But when the tilt-rotor blades lowered down from helicopter mode into turbo prop mode (which happens in 12 seconds flat), it was like being in a Corvette when someone puts the pedal to the metal.   The g-force was amazing and sudden, and I think all of us felt like little kids on a roller coaster ride for a few minutes.   Then, looking out the back hatch (that yes, remains open during flight) we could see the horizon turn from horizontal to vertical … a view of water turned to sky.  It was fast pitching movement, that most (hopefully) don’t experience while on a plane.

The V-22 can fly twice as fast as the CH-46 helicopter it’s replacing, can carry 3 times the payload, and fly 5 times the range.  Another cool thing, with the Osprey’s vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, pilots never need a runway!

March Madness has turned college basketball fans brackets upside down this year.   The Sweet Sixteen is underway, but without many of the teams that millions had picked to make it this far.  The #1 ranked team in the NCAA Tournament, Kansas was picked to win the title by 42% of the 4.78 million entries on ESPN.com, but was upset by #9 seed Northern Iowa in the second round.   Cornell made an unlikely run for the title, and set “Big Red” fan’s hopes ablaze before being taken out by Kentucky last night.  Upsets and heartbreaks have been felt all over the bracket grid, including first seed Syracuse’s loss to Butler in Salt Lake City Thursday night.  Butler, and its star Shelvin Mack who scored 14 points in last night’s game will now have a shot at making it to the Final Four for the first time in the University’s history. 

 There are many methods to picking a winner, but sports experts agree all the analysis and basketball knowledge won’t help you 100% of the time.    Whether you’re just guessing, or as some husbands do, let their wives chose for them for fun, the chance of getting a bracket right are nearly impossible.   According to BookofOdds.com, heading into this week’s Sweet Sixteen, the odds of being perfect are one in just over 13- million.  For the entire tournament, those odds drop to an astonishing one in 9.3 QUINTILLION.   However, one whiz kid had it right up until last night.  Alex Hermann, an autistic Chicago teenager, correctly predicted every game’s outcome before dropping a game.  He picked Syracuse to beat Butler.   The Sweet Sixteen continues tonight, with Northern Iowa trying to extend their unlikely run.  Which team makes it to the Final Four is anyone’s guess.

The woman who calls herself “Jihad Jane” made her second court appearance today inside a Philadelphia federal courtroom, pleading not guilty to charges of conspiring to provide material to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official, and attempted identity theft.  She had one brief court appearance after she was arrested in October 2009, when she was picked up on passport fraud charges.

Colleen LaRose, or “Jihad Jane,” was led into the packed courtroom with her hands cuffed behind her back — her hair pulled loosely in a ponytail with tight cornrow braids.

LaRose, 46, who is accused of going online to recruit men and women with U.S. passports to help her wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, appeared to be in good spirits. She smiled warmly at her team of federal public defenders.  She in return got a pat on the back from one of them, as a U.S. Marshal turned a clanky sounding key on her handcuffs, loosening the steel around her tiny wrists.

LaRose, who also goes by the alias, “Fatima Rose,” stands just 4′ 11” tall and weighs roughly 100 pounds.  Between her slight build, and her sheepish grin, she hardly seems like a woman bent on terrorism. That is exactly the reason why LaRose, and others like her are so potentially dangerous, according to safety and terrorism experts.  Homegrown terror suspects use their physical appearance, and American citizenship to “blend in” and go unnoticed for as long as possible.

The indictment unsealed last week by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, reveals a timeline that prosecutors say shows LaRose’s increasing desire to take part in a plot to kill  Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilk.

Vilk drew a sketch in 2007 depicting the prophet Mohamed’s face on the body of a dog, which outraged Muslims.   LaRose allegedly used social networking sites and chat rooms to engage in conversations with co-conspirators to “become a martyr in the name of Allah.”  Investigators say she also made plans to help others in the murder plot obtain residency in a European country so that they could be near their target. Their plan, according to the indictment, was to kill Vilk “in a way that the whole Kufar (non-believer) world would get frightened.”

When LaRose was initially questioned by federal agents she said that she never solicited funds, made terrorist postings, and had never used the name “Jihad Jane.”

According to investigators with the U.S. Department of Justice, LaRose is part of the “evolving nature of the threat we face.”  LaRose was ordered to remain in custody at this Federal Detention Center.

Federal Detention Center Philadelphia, PA

A trial date was set for May third. If convicted of the charges, she could receive a life sentence and a $1 million fine.

Students around the world reaching for a full-calorie soft drink at school will have limited options in the future.  This week, PepsiCo Inc. announced plans to phase out all sugary drinks from campuses over the next two years, following the success of similar programs in the U.S. that target childhood obesity.

Currently, PepsiCo only sells water, fat-free or low-fat milk and juice with no added sugar at primary schools.   In secondary schools, low-calorie soft drinks and sports drinks are mixed into the menu options for students.   The model which has been in place since 2006 for the second biggest soft drink maker will be integrated into PepsiCo’s international plans, with the goal of having all sugary drinks in schools around the world removed by 2012.

Pepsi’s biggest competitor, the Coca-Cola Co. also is making changes in it’s global sales polices, but is still leaving the door open for parents and school districts to allow the sales of full calorie drinks in secondary schools if they ask for it.

The changes come at the urging of The World Heart Federation which has been looking at ways to combat the growing trend of childhood obesity.

They came in droves to the Big East Job Fair today at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Recruiter talks with student

Over 1,000 students and alumni from the 16 Big East Conference Schools put their “game faces” on to meet employers, shake hands and pass out resumes to score a job in a wide range of fields, including Accounting, Science, Finance, and Health Care.

Job Fair representatives say they saw a new trend at the sixth annual event: an increase in alumni looking for work, many of whom had high paying jobs in the past, but have been laid off in the last year due to downsizing and the failing economy.

Big smiles and resumes at the Big East Job Fair

Hundreds of entry level jobs and internships were on the table from companies like Apple, AT&T, and Wells Fargo.  Recruiters say they are keeping their eyes peeled for the best and brightest in the bunch.   The Hess Energy Marketing based in New Jersey is looking for logistic managers, Hamilton Insurance Company based in Virginia is searching for customer service employees, as well as positions in sales and marketing.

Looking for Jobs

With the nation’s unemployment rate at 9.7 percent – many attendees said they can’t afford to pass up the chance to get some face time with prospective employers.

The school webcam spy case continues to spark questions about student security and school administrators’ rights in Philadelphia. Last week, a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against the Lower Merion School District, its board of directors and the superintendent for allegedly violating the privacy of a 15-year-old student at Harriton High School by remotely activating the webcam inside a school-issued laptop computer. Now, the FBI has reportedly opened an investigation into the case to see if there were any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws that were violated.

School Spy Alleged Victim

Blake Robbins and his 18-year-old sister both attend Harriton High School and were among the 2,300 students in the district to receive the Apple laptops. All students and their parents had to sign a “memorandum of understanding” to take the laptops home with wording that explained the rules and regulations that came along with the computers. The paperwork did not include the disclosure that the school district had the ability to remotely activate the embedded webcams at any time, without student’s permission.

Last November, Blake Robbins was called to the office by the vice principal to talk about what she called his “improper behavior” at home. Vice Principal Lindy Matsko allegedly cited as evidence a photograph taken with the computer’s webcam that had been activated in Blake’s bedroom. Robbins claims that the Matsko accused him of selling drugs when she saw him holding up what she believed to be pills. The 15-year-old says he was simply holding his favorite candy, “Mike And Ikes,” which are small oblong, chewy jelly beans.

Mother of Blake Robbins shows what her son

Blake’s mother Holly backs up her son’s claim that he is constantly eating the candy, and believes that he was not selling drugs. She and her husband Mike are extremely concerned that the school district turned on their son’s webcam and feel it was a gross invasion of privacy inside their home. The mother of two says it felt like discovering a Peeping Tom in their house.

School district officials say the only time they ever turn on the webcams is when one of the school-issued laptops have been reported lost, stolen or missing, so that they can try to track them down. They concede that the wording in the laptop policy was not sufficient, and did not explain the security feature, but insist that they never spied on students. Lower Merion officials say that they turned the cameras on 42 times in the past 14 months, which helped them recover 28 missing laptops.

“It is not legal for anybody, the government, the police, or the school district, without some sort of warrant or some kind of invitation to come into your home and record what you are doing, or what you are saying,” said Mark Haltzman, the Robbins’ attorney.

The LMSD issued a statement Friday to parents and students, stating that the webcams have been deactivated while a thorough review of the case — and policy — moves forward.

Reaction among students is mixed. Some students tell Fox News that they want to learn more facts before casting judgment on their vice principal and other school administrators. Others say they will only use their computers with a piece of tape over the camera’s eye. With the alleged incident happening in November of last year, Victoria Zuzelo, vice president of the student council at Harriton High, says she wants to know why it took so long for all of this to come out.

The Toy Industry Association kicked off it’s massive annual toy fair today at the Javits Center in New York City.  The four day event is the largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere according to event coordinators.   More than 30-thousand visitors are expected to check out the toys, games, and interactive items on display, with over 7-thousand never before seen products hitting the floor.  The event is not open to the public, it is only for toy retailers and vendors who meet and greet and place orders for the upcoming year.     The hot trends this year are 1) active 2) accessible 3) affordable, and 4) aspirational, a new category that toy experts say is meant to give children toys that empower them to make their own choices.

U.S. Toy Industry sales generated 21.47 billion dollars last year, which is only a 1% decline from 2008.  Toy Industry experts way those are promising numbers for a profitable 2010.

Some of the “wow-factor” toys unveiled today:  stuffed animals called “Perfect Pets”, which gives the illusion that the animals are breathing, a new and improved electronic Rubix Cube called the “Rubix Slide” that has thousands of outcomes, and a little motor bike for girls made by Razor.  The “Hello Kitty Pocket Mod” is like a little moped for girls 12 and older, complete with pink and white paint, and a Hello Kitty purse attached near the headlight.

30 parents who have been waiting to pick up their Haitian adoptive children are in a holding pattern tonight at the Orlando Sanford International Airport trying to get through mounds of red tape.  26 kids are left out of the original 79 – Federal Officials are going BACK through all of their paperwork (home check, background check) and then re-interviewing all parents.  We’re being told each interview will last an hour and there are 30 parents left

Once the interview process is finished and the kids are released to the parents, it is on a temporary basis pending the completion of all paperwork.  The adoption process is not complete and the kids could be taken back from the parents.  A federal spokesperson said that was highly unlikely, but possible.

US Department of Health and Human services is in charge on the ground – all kids are under temporary custody of the office of refugee resettlement.  All kids left are part of their “Category 2” – meaning that all of the paperwork was not done before the earthquake and in the eyes of the law, the kids don’t have a legal guardian in the US.  All kid who’s paperwork was done, or Category 1, have been released to their parents.  And some of the kids that went to Denver, were Category 2, but their adoptions were expedited.

As of 8:20pm tonight, the kids are not being moved from the airport – although HHS has secured beds at a local foster facility just in case.  There are 4 people on the ground from HHS processing paperwork last we heard.  There are no time lines on how long it will take, and frustration is mounting.   1 infant was taken to the hospital, but they won’t say which hospital or for what.  Earlier today, there was  another plane standing by to fly 29 kids from Haiti into Florida, but the Haitian government stopped all orphans leaving the country until a total evaluation was done, on a case by case basis.

Fox News Producer Chris Laible contributed to this story

Haiti Adoptive Parents wait at airport

After several grueling days of waiting for clearance from the US State Department, and Haitian and American officials, a handful of adoptive parents will be able to hold their children tonight.

79 orphans from the House of God’s Children Orphanage buckled up in jump seats and in the laps of caregivers aboard a C-17 military aircraft at the Port-au-Prince airport this afternoon.  The children were handed earplugs and water, and after getting everyone strapped in, the precious cargo was up in the air and headed for Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida.  That is where at least 20 adoptive families are anxiously standing by… including Josh and Liz Daby from Rochester, New York who have been in the process of adopting  a 3 1/2 year old little girl named Marie, and a 2 1/2 year old boy named Johnny.  After the Daby children make it through customs they will head to a hotel for their first overnight sleepover in America.  Josh and Liz Daby have toys for the kids, including a “My Little Pony” for Marie, and some “Matchbox” cars for Johnny, new clothes and then it will be off to the hotel to bed for well deserved night of rest.   The legal paper work isn’t over yet – there is a lot more to get through, but the Dabys say they are thankful the hardst part, getting them out safely, is now over.