News Briefs

I have no television access apart from web streams, but I know enough that the big story of the past couple of days was that failed Christmas attack aboard an airplane headed to Detroit.

Multiple law enforcement officials said the suspected attacker — identified as a Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab — claimed to have acted on instructions from al-Qaida to detonate the explosive device over U.S. soil. The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

The law enforcement officials cautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and said the man may have been acting independently — inspired but not specifically trained or ordered by terror groups.

One law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the case, said Mutallab's name had surfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but not to the extent that he was placed on a watch list or a no-fly list.

As investigators try to determine the veracity of his claims, they also want to figure out exactly how the explosive device was made — and how much of a broader threat it may pose to air security.

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I really hate to see cursive writing go the way of the dodo bird; there is a lot of be said about developing fine motor skills.

There are a lot of teachers out there who don't know how to teach cursive, let alone write it.