WASHINGTON
Official mulls expanded airplane laptop ban
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday he’s considering banning laptops from the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States.
That would dramatically expand a ban announced in March that affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. The current ban was put in place because of concerns about terrorist attacks.
The ban prevents travelers from bringing laptops, tablets and certain other devices on board with them in their carry-on bags. All electronics bigger than a smartphone must be checked in.
Kelly was asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether he would expand the ban to cover laptops on all international flights into and out of the U.S.
His answer: “I might.”
The current U.S. ban applies to nonstop U.S.-bound flights from 10 international airports in Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. About 50 flights a day, all on foreign airlines, are affected.
U.S. officials have said that initial ban was not based on any specific threat but on longstanding concerns about extremists targeting jetliners.
“There’s a real threat,” Kelly said, adding that terrorists are “obsessed” with the idea of downing a plane in flight, “particularly if it’s a U.S. carrier, particularly if it’s full of mostly U.S. folks. It’s real.”
Kelly said that the U.S. is going “to raise the bar for, generally speaking, aviation security much higher than it is now, and there’s new technologies down the road, not too far down the road, that we’ll rely on. But it is a real sophisticated threat, and I’ll reserve making that decision until we see where it’s going.”
MINNEAPOLIS
Museum will remove gallows-like sculpture
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will remove a gallows-like sculpture because of protests from Native Americans who say it brought back painful memories of the mass hanging of 38 Dakota men in 1862.
“Scaffold” is a two-story sculpture by Los Angeles artist Sam Durant. It was inspired in part by the 1862 hanging in Mankato at the end of the Dakota War, which was the largest mass execution in U.S. history. It was set to debut this coming Saturday when the Walker’s Sculpture Garden reopens.
While Durant intended to raise awareness about capital punishment and America’s violent past, protesters said it was insensitive and trivialized history.
HYANNIS, Mass.
Events mark centennial of JFK’s birth
Several events will be held in Hyannis to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of President John F. Kennedy.
The slain 35th president would have turned 100 on May 29.
A Mass will be held Monday at St. Francis Xavier Church. It is the same church Kennedy’s parents — Rose and Joe Kennedy — attended after buying their home in Hyannis Port in the 1920s. A memorial service will also be held at the JFK Memorial.
The John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum will have a special exhibit called “JFK at 100: Life & Legacy.” The exhibit displays more than 80 photographs, text panels and artifacts of Kennedy’s life. The museum promotes the legacy of Kennedy, his family and their connection to Cape Cod and the islands.
