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Up in the air

By TIMES WIRES
Published October 12, 2006

Nukes, no. But Iran can have safe planes

If you're going to settle a problem, you have to find something you can talk about. For the United States and Iran, common ground is found in spare airplane parts. To heck with all that talk of terrorism and nuclear stuff, Iran Air needs parts to repair turbine engines on its fleet. The FAA says that the Iran Air planes may not even be airworthy. "We do not want to be in a position of threatening civil aviation," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

We are the FAA

While helping Iran deal with its problems with ancient aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration has a whole other problem: branding. The Washington Post reports that the agency's boss, Marion Blakey, was worried that people confuse her agency with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or, worse, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Yikes. So she started a "branding identity program," the hallmark of which is a spanking new logo for the whole FAA, replacing the hodgepodge of logos she had seen floating around the office.

OCTOBERFEST!

READY, AIM ... Break out the lederhosen, because Russian President Vladimir Putin is in town. The guys in Aying, Germany, all got together and let the visiting diplomat hold an antique pistol while he was in town to talk about trade and economics and official stuff. But you can tell, he's going to remember the gun.

LAW BREAKERS

Justice is blind, but has videocameras

Even if you work there and think no one is around, it's a bad idea to walk around government buildings naked. Scott Blauvelt, 35, a prosecutor in Hamilton, Ohio, was caught on video just strolling around the city and county offices, possibly contemplating legal briefs, but not wearing so much as boxers. He was alone, and didn't do anything, but was arrested and faces a month in jail and a $250 fine. The lawyer's lawyer says he has bipolar disorder and is stressed by his wife's recent miscarriage.

A windshield worth wrecking a career

It's hard to know what Mike McDonald, the police chief of Lamar, S.C., was thinking, but he seemed to want a windshield out of a golf cart. So he stole one at a used car lot. It wasn't a valuable windshield, worth about $80. He went to no lengths to be covert about it; he was wearing his uniform. He felt bad, and turned himself in. Now he faces charges of petty larceny and misconduct in office. "I messed up, your honor," McDonald told the judge. "It's embarrassing for my position." Or any other, really.

I think we got him

Some crimes are easy to solve. Like, when a guy robs a taxi driver, but leaves a bag in the car that includes his driver's license, Social Security card and paycheck. After that happened in Severn, Md., last week, police arrested a suspect at his house after a 12-minute investigation. "We didn't really have to do much," said Officer Sara Schriver. "Sometimes criminals aren't as clever as they think."

[Last modified October 12, 2006, 01:32:21]