Results tagged “macarthur”

Speaking to Newsday from behind bars at a "private federal prison" in Queens, 20-year-old Steven Nobles says he "made a huge mistake" when, in a rush to catch his flight at MacArthur airport on Long Island last Thursday, he shoved a pipe bomb in his carry-on luggage. He must also be smacking his forehead for packing those fireworks, the 7-inch knife, the electrical circuit boards, and a dozen .22-caliber rounds used in a nailgun to drive nails into concrete. Nobles says we wants to write a letter to "all of New York" saying he's "sorry for what happened." Nevertheless, a judge denied bail and called Nobles "a danger to the community." He faces up to 20 years in prison, but his uncle Frank Henderson, who gave Nobles a job, says, "A terrorist would try to hide it. He didn't hide anything. He put it on the scanner. He hasn't grown up yet. I tried to keep him on the straight and narrow by giving him a trade. A kid is going to be a kid."

An Army soldier was arrested at MacArthur airport on Long Island Saturday morning after she tried to bring a loaded revolver on a flight to San Antonio, Texas. The piece was not Army issue and 38-year-old Spc. Vonda Collier, who has been stationed for the past year at Camp Liberty near Baghdad, did not have a New York license to carry it. She was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon after it was found during a routine baggage check. Collier is on bereavement leave to attend her mother's funeral in Texas; police say she was visiting relatives on Long Island but her father tells Newsday she has no family here. And last Thursday a man was arrested at MacArthur for trying to bring a pipe bomb on the plane home to Vegas. He says he just wanted to "cause a giant smoke cloud, a flash of light and hopefully a loud noise."

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has granted 25 more geniuses a cool half million dollars through their fellows program. The foundation's website states, "They include a neurobiologist, a saxophonist, a critical care physician, an urban farmer, an optical physicist, a sculptor, a geriatrician, a historian of medicine, and an inventor of musical instruments. All were selected for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future. Each received a phone call from the MacArthur Foundation with news of $500,000 in no-strings-attached support over the next five years."