Pilots killed in LaGuardia Airport crash saved lives with quick reflexes, passengers say

NEW YORK — Passengers of the Air Canada jet that slammed into a Port Authority firetruck at LaGuardia Airport praised the two pilots killed in the crash, saying their quick reflexes likely prevented further deaths.

Multiple passengers recalled feeling the pilots braking “extremely hard” as the plane touched down on the Queens runway moments before the 11:35 p.m. Sunday crash. “I think he kind of saved our lives because he must have had incredible reflexes,” passenger Clément Lelièvre told The Canadian Press.

Several other passengers recalled the same hard braking and believed that pilot Antoine Forest put the plane into reverse thrust to slow it down just seconds before the crash.

Passengers agreed that more deaths could have occurred if Forest and first officer Mackenzie Gunther hadn’t taken immediate action.

—New York Daily News

Michigan's Grosse Pointe parent's LGBTQ flag video led to school ban. Now he's suing

DETROIT — A Grosse Pointe Public School System parent has sued the district after it issued him a no-trespass order for posting a video on social media criticizing LGBTQ flags hung at the middle school in September 2024, arguing the district violated his free speech rights.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleged parent Gary Pruitt was wrongfully banned from the school and asked for the no-trespass order to be lifted, among other things.

"A foundational core of our Constitutional Republic is that the State cannot punish citizens for engaging in speech that is protected by the First Amendment," according to the lawsuit. "Just as citizens cannot be criminally punished for protected speech, a public school cannot retaliate against or punish speech that falls within the ambit of the First Amendment."

Superintendent Andrea Tuttle did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

—The Detroit News

Could salad get you high? Wastewater irrigation raises contamination questions

Drugs found in treated wastewater can be stored in the leaves of vegetables irrigated with that water, Johns Hopkins researchers found. But are drug-infused greens sitting on your grocer’s shelf, and how powerful is the dose?

“Farming practices place a high demand on freshwater resources. With limited rainfall and droughts threatening global water supplies, we’re looking at a future with shortages that may only be met by repurposing treated wastewater,” Daniella Sanchez, a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University and study lead author, told ScienceDaily.com.

“To continue to use wastewater safely, we need a more sophisticated understanding of where and how crop species metabolize, or break down, agents in the water.”

In their lab, Sanchez’s team grew lettuce, tomatoes and carrots in water infused with tiny amounts of psychoactive chemicals as often found in treated wastewater. They found that the leaves stored much more of the drugs than the edible fruits and roots. The findings are intended to help understand how crops process contaminants as farmers turn to new sources of water for irrigation, including processed wastewater.

—Baltimore Sun

Iran is the first war of the social-media age. It’s a black box

It’s been half a century since the Vietnam War, when journalists had almost unrestricted access to the battlefield. In the years since the fall of Saigon ended that first conflict of the television age, restrictions on press freedom have grown.

Now, with the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran — the first major military engagement with American involvement of the social-media era — the world is facing an information black box.

Internet blackouts have been imposed in Iran. In Gulf states dealing with Tehran’s response, filming damage from attacks is banned, and people who defy the orders are being arrested in large numbers.

Earlier this month, The Telegraph reported that Sky was terminating a joint venture with the United Arab Emirates over concerns that the Sky News Arabia channel was spreading propaganda in the region, with Sudan being a particular area of concern.

—Bloomberg News