Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Oklahoma Abortions

Okla. high court says abortion laws unconstitutional
Okla. cuts funds for women’s clinics

"Steve Davis, the University of Oklahoma’s starting quarterback when it won back-to-back national championships in the 1970s, was one of two people killed when a small aircraft smashed into three homes in northern Indiana, officials said Monday."

Related: Steve Davis, 60; quarterbacked Oklahoma to 2 national titles

Also see: 2 killed in medical helicopter crash

They weren't texting, were they?

"Pilot’s texting contributed to copter crash" by Joan Lowy  |  Associated Press, April 10, 2013

WASHINGTON — Texting by the pilot of a medical helicopter contributed to a crash that killed four people, federal accident investigators declared Tuesday, and they approved a safety alert cautioning all pilots against using cellphones or other distracting devices during critical operations.

It was the first fatal commercial aircraft accident investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board in which texting has been implicated. And it underscored the board’s worries that distractions from electronic devices are a growing factor in incidents across all modes of transportation: planes, trains, cars, trucks, and even ships.

The five-member board unanimously agreed that the helicopter crash was caused by a distracted and tired pilot who skipped preflight safety checks, which would have revealed his helicopter was low on fuel, and then, after he discovered his situation, decided to proceed with the last leg of the flight.

Thu$ there will be no one el$e to balme.

The case ‘‘juxtaposes old issues of pilot decision-making with a 21st-century twist: distractions from portable electronic devices,’’ said the board chairwoman, Deborah Hersman.

The helicopter ran out of fuel, crashing into a farm field in clear weather early on the evening of Aug. 26, 2011, near Mosby, Mo.....

One board member, Earl Weener, dissented on the safety alert decision, saying the cases cited as the basis for it were the result of bad decisions by pilots without a direct connection to the use of distracting devices.

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