Transportation

When travel plans go awry, airline passengers may take out their frustrations on customer service agents. We surveyed 104 customer service agents. About half said passengers had verbally threatened them and 10% said passengers had physically assaulted them in the past year. One prosecutor told GAO the transitory nature of airports makes it difficult to get witnesses to testify at trial; when prosecuted, passengers generally face misdemeanor charges. While stakeholders GAO interviewed generally did not identify gaps in resources, some said incidents could be further mitigated if, for example, airports made law enforcement’s presence more visible or airlines provided conflict de-escalation training to customer service agents. more »

Since June 2019, several large scale and smaller political demonstrations have taken place in various areas of Hong Kong, including at Hong Kong International Airport. Most have been peaceful, but some have turned confrontational or resulted in violent clashes. These demonstrations, which can take place with little or no notice, are likely to continue. This latest update to the Department of State’s Worldwide Caution provides US citizens with general information regarding terrorist activities, political violence and criminal activity that transpire abroad. more »

Diane Girard writes: I ride city buses frequently and so do many seniors in my town, especially the older women. Fortunately, we have good public transit, because for some of us it is our only transportation except for the occasional taxi ride. The women I will mention here don’t resemble Xena, the Warrior Princess. They go about their business mostly unnoticed and uncelebrated except perhaps by their kindred. So, why do I refer to these older women I know a little about, the women who tell me personal stories, as warriors? Because they are honorable fighters. They get on with their lives, with grace in most cases and with smiles, almost always. more »

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the lunar surface – the first men on the moon. The US space agency, NASA, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of this historic event in style – by restoring and reopening the control room that handled the historic Apollo 11 mission. Today it is a museum, but it looks every bit alive and real as it did in 1969, as though engineers and scientists just stepped away for a moment. Lesia Bakalets visited the control room. Anna Rice narrates her story. more »