Loose seats on 3rd American flight

The seats came loose during three flights on two planes American Airlines is evaluating dozens of planes "out of abundance of caution" The company says it has found six planes with seats that were not properly secured A pilots union an American could resume contract negotiations as early as Wednesday (CNN) -- American Airlines, already grappling with union issues and bankruptcy fallout, is now confronting a third problem: growing reports of loose seats. On Tuesday, the company said another flight had experienced loose seats, bringing the total to three flights on two planes in a week. A plane headed from Vail, Colorado, to Dallas on September 26 had seats come loose, the airline's vice president of safety confirmed Tuesday. The same aircraft experienced a similar problem on a New York to Miami flight on Monday morning. That flight had to return to John F. Kennedy Airport. AA: Loose seats on six planes Flyer: Loose plane seats a 'nightmare' Separately, a Boeing 757 from Boston to Miami carrying 175 passengers diverted to New York on Saturday when three seats in row 12 came loose shortly after takeoff. The airline said it would inspect 47 Boeing 757 planes after the incidents. "Originally, American planned to evaluate the seats on eight Boeing 757 airplanes, but out of an abundance of caution, the decision was made to proactively evaluate a total of 47 Boeing 757 airplanes that have the same model Main Cabin seats with a common locking mechanism," company spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said in a statement. "American's internal investigation has focused on one of three types of Main Cabin seats on the 757s and how the rows of these three seats fit into the track that is used to secure the rows to the floor of the airplanes. Our maintenance and engineering teams have discovered that the root cause is a saddle clamp improperly installed on the foot of the row leg," she said. The clamps were used on 47 of the company's 102 Boeing 757 airplanes. So far, American Airlines has inspected at least 36 planes and found that six -- including the two involved in the recent diversions -- had seats that were not properly secured. Not all of the seats were loose, the company said, but they had the potential to become loose. Eleven aircraft could be inspected Wednesday. Huguely said the seats issue does not appear to be connected to any one work group or maintenance facility, and apologized for any inconvenience to customers. "Safety is -- and always will be -- American's top concern," the spokeswoman said. The Federal Aviation Authority is looking into the incidents of loose seats, which are the latest in a string of woes for American Airlines. Earlier Tuesday, an American Airlines flight from Chicago to London made an unscheduled landing at Shannon Airport in Ireland after a passenger reported a smoky odor, an airline spokesman said. American Airlines Flight 98, a Boeing 777-200 carrying 246 passengers and 14 crew members, was diverted as a precaution, airline spokesman Ian Bradley said. An inspection revealed that the odor was coming from an overhead fan that had overheated, he said. Niall Maloney, head of operations for Shannon Airport, said such technical diversions are not uncommon. Who wants to fly American Airlines? The airline has also been beset recently by labor troubles, delays and flight cancellations. American, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last year, persuaded a judge to throw out its contract with the pilots union last month. Since then, the pilots have been engaging in what the airline calls a slowdown that has caused the number of flights that are delayed and canceled to skyrocket. More than 1,000 American flights have been canceled and 12,000 delayed in the past month alone. Airline management has blamed the situation on pilots filing what it claims are frivolous reports about aircraft problems. The pilots union has denied management's assertion. Late Tuesday, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association said it would resume contract negotiations with the airline. Tom Hoban said talks could start as early as Wednesday. A company spokesman similarly said that negotiations are set to resume this week. Meanwhile, Robert Gless, deputy director of the Air Transport Division of the Transport Workers Union of America, dismissed the notion that the problems with loose seats were linked to labor issues as "without any basis in fact." Seat installation work is largely carried out by outside contractors, rather than maintenance personnel employed by the airline, he said in a statement. "Problems related to seats are less likely a labor problem, but rather a management issue related to outsourcing work to third-party facilities," he said. American Airlines plans to increase its use of outside maintenance facilities, including in China and other overseas locations, as it seeks to exit bankruptcy, he added. Seats come loose on two American Airlines flights CNN's Stephanie Halasz, Saskya Vandoorne, Sherri Maksin, Nick Valencia and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.

Detroit police chief accused of affair with officer

Rebecca Cook / Reuters, file Police Chief Ralph Godbee, pictured on Jan. 6, has been suspended amid claims of an affair with an officer. By NBC News staff and wire reports Detroit Mayor Dave Bing on Tuesday suspended the city's police chief and ordered a full investigation into claims that the senior cop dated a female internal affairs officer in the department. Police Chief Ralph Godbee Junior, who is married, is the latest Detroit city leader to face accusations of a sexual relationship with a subordinate, including Godbee's immediate predecessor, Warren Evans, and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. "After learning of the allegations regarding Chief Ralph Godbee, I have placed him on a 30-day suspension pending a full and thorough investigation of this matter," Bing said in a statement. Assistant Chief Chester Logan assumed the duties and responsibilities of police chief in the interim, Bing said. A police spokesman declined to comment on the suspension. Godbee could not be reached immediately for comment. Court records show that Godbee filed for divorce in August and that a settlement conference has been scheduled for Nov. 26. NBC station WDIV reported the internal affairs officer involved was Angelica Robinson, a 17-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department. Lawyer: Officer contemplated suicide Robinson, who is also married, told the station that she was in a sexual relationship with Godbee for more than a year. "If he is a man of God, he will tell the truth," she added. "I truly apologize to his wife and my husband." Robinson's attorney, David Robinson, also told WDIV that she had tried to break off the affair and Godbee was "disenchanted with rejection and so he continues to make overtures to promising that everything is going to be OK." "It got to the point of the crescendo of contemplated suicide," the lawyer said. "So, absolutely the pressure got to her." Read more US stories from NBC News Godbee succeeded Evans in mid-2010 after Evans resigned in part due to fallout from an alleged affair with a subordinate, and one day after a local television station aired an excerpt from a video pitch he made for a possible reality TV show. Kilpatrick, who is on trial now on public corruption charges, pleaded guilty in 2008 to obstruction of justice and resigned from office after prosecutors alleged he lied in a civil lawsuit to conceal an affair with his chief of staff. The city of Detroit is in financial crisis and has made deep cuts in city services. Reuters contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com: Report: Homeland Security 'fusion' centers spy on citizens, produce 'shoddy' work VA weeks, months late paying student veterans A week later, search still on for 73-year-old accused of killing daughter-in-law Video: Like hurricanes, winter storms to get names too Cell phone video shows cop striking woman after Philadelphia parade State Dept: Missing American journalist Austin Tice believed held by Syria regime Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Hearing set for Fort Hood suspect

Maj. Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, has been admitted to a Texas Army hospital. The military psychiatrist is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 The court-martial has been delayed since August because of the suspect's beard "My religion requires me to wear a beard," Hasan says (CNN) -- The beard that has stalled the court-martial of accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan will be the topic of conversation at a hearing next week, military officials said. The October 11 hearing at the Army Court of Criminal Appeals was called to address his continued refusal to shave before court appearances, the Army said. The military psychiatrist is accused of opening fire three years ago at the Texas Army post's processing center, where soldiers were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. The attack left 13 dead and 32 people wounded. Hasan was paralyzed from the waist down after police exchanged fire with him. His court-martial tied to the shooting had been scheduled to start in August. But the Army Court of Criminal Appeals had delayed its start indefinitely to determine whether the suspect's beard can be forcibly shaved during trial. Army regulations prevent soldiers from wearing facial hair while in uniform. Hasan, who is still considered a soldier, is a practicing Muslim and maintains he has the right to wear the beard under U.S. laws protecting religious freedoms. At an earlier hearing, Hasan spoke about his beard. "Your honor, in the name of almighty Allah, I am a Muslim. I believe that my religion requires me to wear a beard," he told a judge in August. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death. A U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, he was a licensed psychiatrist who joined the Army in 1997. He had been scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan before the killings in November 2009, but had been telling his family since 2001 that he wanted to get out of the military. Hasan had told his family he had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Investigations tied to the Fort Hood shootings found he had been communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent radical Yemeni-American cleric killed by a U.S. drone attack in 2011. Accused Fort Hood shooter makes first statement

Deadly meningitis outbreak investigated

14 patients develop meningitis after receiving steroid injections All but of one of the infected got injections at Nashville facility Two people have died (CNN) -- Non-contagious meningitis struck 14 patients -- all but one in Tennessee -- who received steroid injections, leaving two dead, according to health officials investigating the outbreak. Thirteen of the victims -- in their late 40s to their early 80s -- received injections at a Nashville medical facility, Woody McMillin, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Health, told CNN on Tuesday. The 14th individual contracted the illness in an unspecified state. "This is a serious disease," said Marion Kainer, an infectious disease expert with the state health department. "There is not a lot of experience in treating this, but we are getting the best experts together." The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are among the agencies investigating the rare form of meningitis. Eleven of the patients are hospitalized, McMillin told CNN. St. Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgery Center in Nashville contacted 737 patients who had lumbar epidural steroid injections between July 30 and September 20, officials said. The facility was temporarily closed on September 20 and will remain closed until investigating authorities "are confident the current concerns have been resolved," the health department said. Between 100 and 200 patients at Specialty Surgery Center in Crossville, Tennessee, may have been exposed or at risk because of lumbar injections during the same time period, according to McMillin. Some of the patients may have had multiple procedures. Meningitis is a general term for an infection or inflammatory process involving the lining of the brain and central nervous system.

Ex-Penn State coach sues school

Former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the university. Mike McQueary was a key prosecution witness in the case against Jerry Sandusky He testified he saw Sandusky in a shower with an underage boy McQueary has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Penn State He says he believes cooperating with authorities in the case led to his termination (CNN) -- Former Penn State assistant football coach Mike McQueary, who testified that he saw Jerry Sandusky in a shower with an underage boy, filed a whistleblower lawsuit Tuesday against the university, according to a court document from Centre County, Pennsylvania. McQueary was a key prosecution witness and was the only individual -- excluding the victims themselves -- who said he witnessed an apparent sexual encounter between Sandusky and a boy. Sandusky, who has maintained his innocence, was convicted in June for abusing young boys over a 15-year-period. In support of McQueary's whistleblower claim, the lawsuit states he was the only assistant football coach who was not invited to interview for employment with the incoming new head football coach after longtime coach Joe Paterno was fired amid the Sandusky scandal. Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse on December 13, 2011, in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. McQueary also claims he was the only former employee who was not reimbursed for legal fees, and that he did not receive his severance payments on time. The lawsuit states McQueary believes those situations and his employment termination were the result of his cooperation with authorities in the Sandusky case. Read details of the lawsuit (PDF) According to the lawsuit, after testifying in court, McQueary was placed on administrative leave with pay in November 2011, only to later be terminated in July 2012. A copy of a letter from the university athletics director concerning the administrative leave was filed along with the lawsuit. Calls to McQueary's lawyer after the suit was filed were not returned. Penn State University spokesman David La Torre responded to CNN with "no comment" regarding the suit. According to the lawsuit, McQueary is seeking $4 million from the university as the equivalent to a total life-long salary as a football coach with the school. CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.

Border Patrol agent killed in Arizona

Border Patrol agent Nicholas Ivie, 30, was killed Tuesday near Naco, Arizona. The agent is identified as 30-year-old Nicholas Ivie Another agent is wounded The FBI and a local sheriff's office are conducting a joint investigation Ivie is the third Border Patrol agent killed in the line of duty this year (CNN) -- A Border Patrol agent was shot and killed Tuesday, while another was wounded near Naco, Arizona, authorities said. The agents fell under fire after responding to a sensor that had gone off near the border, according to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The agent killed was identified as 30-year-old Nicholas Ivie. A native of Provo, Utah, he joined the Border Patrol in January 2008. Ivie is survived by a wife and two children. The agent who was wounded was not identified. After the shooting, he was airlifted to an area hospital and was reported to be in stable condition. His injuries were not life-threatening. "Agent Ivie died in the line of duty, protecting our nation against those who threaten our way of life. His death only strengthens our resolve to enforce the rule of law and bring those responsible to justice," Deputy Commissioner David Aguilar said in a statement. The FBI is conducting a joint investigation with the Cochise County Sheriff's Office. James Turgal, special agent in charge of the FBI for the Phoenix division, declined to say whether the agents involved in the incident returned fire. He also declined to comment on whether any weapons had been found. Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, said investigators are at the scene. "Every time that a law enforcement person is either killed or shot or injured in the line of duty, we have to take a moment and think of our families and think of the heroes involved," Breuer said. Agent Ivie is the 14th killed in the line of duty since 2008, including three this year. He was killed near a border station recently named for Brian Terry, whose 2010 death led to the public disclosure of the botched Fast and Furious gun-smuggling sting, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. "There's no way to know at this point how the agent was killed, but because of Operation Fast and Furious, we'll wonder for years if the guns used in any killing along the border were part of an ill-advised gunwalking strategy sanctioned by the federal government. It's a sad commentary," the Republican senator said. Turgal declined to comment on whether there could be a possible Fast and Furious connection to Tuesday's killing. CNN's Deanna Proeller and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.

Homeland Security 'fusion' centers called intrusive, ineffective

By Michael Isikoff NBC News The Department of Homeland Security has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a network of 77 so-called "fusion" intelligence centers that have collected personal information on some U.S. citizens — including detailing the "reading habits" of American Muslims — while producing "shoddy" reports and making no contribution to thwarting any terrorist plots,  a new Senate report states.  Follow Open Channel on Twitter and Facebook. The " fusion centers," created under President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama, consist of  special   teams of  federal , state and local officials collecting and analyzing  intelligence on suspicious activities throughout the country.  They have been hailed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as "one of the centerpieces"  of the nation's counterterrorism efforts. But a bipartisan report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released Tuesday concludes that the centers "often produced irrelevant" and "useless" intelligence reports. "There were times when it was, 'What a bunch of crap is coming through,'" one senior Homeland Security official is quoted as saying . A spokesman for Napolitano immediately blasted the report as "out of date, inaccurate and misleading." Another Homeland Security official, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said the department has made improvements to the fusion centers and that the skills of officials working in them are "evolving and maturing."  While dismissing the value of much of the fusion centers' work, the Senate panel  found  evidence of what  it called  "troubling" reports by some  centers that may have violated the civil liberties and privacy of U.S. citizens.  The evidence cited in the report could fuel a continuing controversy over claims that the FBI and some local police departments, notably New York City's, have spied on American Muslims without a justifiable law enforcement reason for doing so. Among the examples in the report:  One fusion center drafted a report on a list of reading suggestions prepared by a Muslim community group, titled "Ten Book Recommendations for Every Muslim." The report noted that four of the authors were listed in a terrorism database, but a Homeland Security reviewer in Washington chastised the fusion center,  saying, "We cannot report on books and other writings" simply because the authors are  in a terrorism database. "The writings themselves are protected by the First Amendment unless you can establish that something in the writing indicates planning or advocates violent or other criminal activity." A fusion center in California prepared a report about a speaker at a Muslim center in Santa Cruz who was giving a daylong motivational talk—and a lecture on "positive parenting." No link to terrorism was alleged.  Another fusion center drafted a  report on a U.S. citizen speaking at a local mosque that speculated that --  since the speaker had been listed in a terrorism data base — he may have been  attempting "to conduct fundraising and recruiting" for a foreign terrorist group.  "The number of things that scare me about this report are almost too many to write into this (form)," a Homeland Security reviewer wrote after analyzing the report. The reviewer noted that "the nature of this event is constitutionally protected activity (public speaking, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion.)" The Senate panel found 40 reports -- including the three listed above -- that were drafted at fusion centers by Homeland Security officials, then later "nixed" by officials in Washington after reviewers "raised concerns the documents potentially endangered the civil liberties or legal privacy protections of the U.S. persons they mentioned."  Despite being scrapped, however, the Senate report concluded that "these reports should not have been drafted at all." It also noted that the reports were stored at Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C., for  a year or more after they had been  canceled —a potential violation of the U.S. Privacy Act, which prohibits federal agencies from storing information on U.S. citizens' First Amendment-protected activities if there is no valid reason to do so. The report said the retention of these reports also appears to contradict Homeland Security's own guidelines, which state that once a determination is made that a document should not be retained, "The U.S  person identifying information is to be destroyed immediately." The 107-page report was primarily prepared by the Republican staff of the subcommittee but approved by the panel's chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking member, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.  It stated that much basic information about the fusion centers – including exactly how much they cost the federal government — was difficult to obtain. Although the fusion centers are overseen by Homeland Security, they are funded primarily through grants to local governments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Although Homeland Security "was unable to provide an accurate tally," the panel estimated the federal dollars spent on the centers between 2003 and 2011 at between $289 million and $1.4 billion. In its response to the Senate panel , Homeland Security said that the canceled reports could still be retained "for administrative purposes such as audit and oversight." The report cited multiple examples of what it called fusion center reports that had little if any value to counterterrorism efforts. One fusion center report cited described how a certain model car had folding rear seats to the trunk, a feature that it said could be useful to human traffickers. This prompted a Homeland Security reviewer to note that such folding rear seats are "featured on MANY different  makes and model of vehicles" and "there is nothing of any intelligence value in this report." Another fusion center report, entitled "Possible Drug Smuggling Activity,"  recounted the experiences of two state wildlife officials who spotted a pair of men  in a bass boat "operating suspiciously" in the body of water off the U.S.-Mexico border. The report noted that the fishermen "avoided eye contact" and that their boat appeared to be low in the water, "as if it were laden with cargo" with high winds and choppy waters. "The fact that some guys were hanging out in a boat where people normally do not fish MIGHT be an indicator of something abnormal, but does not reach the threshold of something we should be reporting," a Homeland Security reviewer wrote, according to the Senate panel. "I … think that this should never have been nominated for production, nor passed through three reviews." In the Homeland Security Department's response, spokesman Matt Chandler said the Senate subcommittee "refused to review relevant data, including important intelligence information pertinent to their findings."  The senior Homeland Security official who spoke to NBC News said that, while the Senate panel reviewed fusion center reports from 2009 and 2010, a more recent June 2011 case in Seattle shows that a fusion center played a key role in helping to thwart a terrorist plot against a local U.S. military processing center. Chandler added:  "The (Senate) report  fundamentally misunderstands the role of the federal government in supporting fusion centers and overlooks the significant benefits of this relationship to both state and local law enforcement and the federal government. Among other benefits, fusion centers play a key role by receiving classified and unclassified information from the federal government and assessing its local implications, helping law enforcement on the frontlines better protect their communities from all threats, whether it is terrorism or other criminal activities."  More from Open Channel:   Ex-Penn State football aide McQueary files $4 million whistleblower suit Energy firm uses 'land grabs' to obtain fracking rights, pays landowners zero Environmentalists, Persian Gulf oil barons have common enemy: fracking Wild horses sold by US later ending up at slaughterhouses? Class-action suit against FEMA trailer makers settled for $42.6 million RNC cuts ties with firm over voter registration allegations Big GOP donor among 2 indicted in Dominican resort scam Black youths exposed to more alcohol advertising, study finds Judge rejects ex-Penn State officials' bid to dismiss perjury charges   Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook