Traveler says she was forced to remove nipple ring

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — The Transportation Security Administration is investigating an incident last month in which a woman claims she was humiliated and forced to remove her nipple rings — one with pliers — as male TSA officers snickered on the other side of a curtain.

The woman, Mandi Hamlin, and her lawyer, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, want a public apology from the agency, as well as a guarantee that future passengers with piercings will be treated with dignity and respect. The incident in question occurred at the Lubbock, Texas, airport.

Allred pointed out that TSA’s Web site says passengers with piercings can undergo a pat-down inspection if they do not want to take their piercings out — an option she said Hamlin was never offered.

The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary, Allred told reporters at a news conference Friday. Last time that I checked, a nipple was not a dangerous weapon.

She said she wants an immediate response to her letter to the TSA demanding an investigation and an apology. If those are not forthcoming, she said, Mandi is going to have to consider her legal options. Watch the passenger demonstrate removing the jewelry

In a statement issued Friday TSA said it is actively investigating Ms. Hamlin’s allegations to ensure procedures were followed appropriately. … Our security officers are well-trained to screen individuals with body piercings in sensitive areas with dignity and respect while ensuring a high level of security.

It added that incidents of female terrorists hiding explosives in sensitive areas are on the rise all over the world. This scenario must be addressed at our nation’s airports.

The incident occurred February 24, as Hamlin, 37, was preparing to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth from Lubbock, where she had been visiting her elderly great-uncle.

Hamlin said she also has navel and ear piercings and has never set off a metal detector or been singled out for additional screening at an airport.

She did not set off the metal detector at Lubbock International Airport, but was pulled to the side for additional screening, Allred said. A hand wand used by a TSA officer beeped when it was waved over her breasts.

Hamlin told the officer she had nipple piercings, Allred said, and that officer called over another officer, who told her she would need to remove them.

Ms. Hamlin did not want to remove her nipple piercings, Allred said, reading from her letter to TSA. After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove. In addition, once removed, the pierced skin may close up almost immediately, making it difficult and painful to reinsert the piercing.

More officers were called over, and the group grew to four male and two female TSA officers, according to Hamlin. Also, a small crowd of onlookers had started to gather. The officers insisted that Hamlin remove the nipple rings, Allred said.

She felt humiliated by the scene that the TSA officers were making, Allred said.

With tears streaming down her face, she again asked to show the piercings to a TSA officer instead of having to remove them. She was told, however, she would not be allowed to fly unless she removed them. Had she been told that she had a right to a pat-down, she would have chosen that option.

She eventually was taken to a private area behind a curtain to remove the piercings, Allred said. One came out easily, but the other would not, and she called to an officer that she was having trouble and would need pliers. She was handed a large pair, Allred said.

As Ms. Hamlin struggled to remove the piercing, behind the curtain she could hear a growing number of predominately male TSA officers snickering in the background, Allred said in the letter.

Mandi Hamlin was publicly humiliated. … Clearly, this is not how passengers should be treated.

Afterward, Hamlin underwent another scan, but realized she had forgotten to remove her navel ring. She offered to remove it, Allred said, but an officer told her it was not necessary because he could see it. Hamlin wondered why a similar visual inspection of her nipple rings would not have sufficed, Allred said.

I wouldn’t wish this experience upon anyone, Hamlin told reporters. I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated and scared. No one deserves to go through this.

In response to her complaint, TSA’s customer service manager in Lubbock concluded the screening was handled properly, Allred said.

In its Friday statement, the agency said it is well aware of terrorists’ interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body. Therefore, we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm that we discover.

TSA included in its statement a picture of a prototype training device it will use to simulate a bra bomb in training and testing its officers.

Allred said she is not discounting the importance of security, but called for the agency to follow its own policies in handling passengers with piercings.

Hamlin said she had to visit the person who originally pierced her nipples to get the rings reinserted, and said the process was excruciatingly painful because of the scar tissue that had formed.

People who are pierced should not be snickered at, should not become the object of ridicule, should not be singled out for special and uneven and unequal treatment, Allred said. They should be respected just like everybody else.

She said she had received a call from TSA’s public affairs office Friday morning. We hope that means they’re going to jump on this and do something about it, she said. We want TSA to do the right thing now. We’re going to give them the opportunity.

Hamlin said she will continue to fly but will avoid the Lubbock airport. The next time she visits her great-uncle, she said, I will be driving.
Traveler says she was forced to remove nipple ring – found here.

College student missing almost two months

MIDDLEBURY, Vermont (AP) — The more the snow melts, the more the mystery deepens: What happened to Nicholas Garza?

The disappearance of the 19-year-old Middlebury College freshman — missing since he walked out of a dormitory February 5 — continues to puzzle searchers, with no trace of him on campus, no suggestion he left and no indication of foul play.

On Thursday, for the first time in more than a month, a large-scale search was conducted using dozens of Vermont State Police members and search experts, but it turned up nothing.

The hope had been that the gradual disappearance of the snow pack could end the uncertainty. Tom Scanlon, a police spokesman, said searchers would try again in two weeks.

Members of the Vermont State Police’s search-and-rescue team, with help from the Colchester Technical Rescue Squad and New England K-9 Search and Rescue, scoured the campus for Garza’s body or clues to his disappearance.

Garza was last seen leaving Stewart Hall at about 11:05 p.m., headed for his dormitory, about 500 yards away.

When friends couldn’t find him the next day, they notified campus security, but his mother didn’t file a missing persons report until five days later because friends thought Garza might have left campus to go to a cabin that was out of cell phone range.

Searches of the 350-acre campus have yielded no clues as to what happened to him. The last large-scale search ended February 23, though there have been spot searches since then. All 109 buildings on campus have been searched twice, as have roofs.

On Thursday, searchers used long Fiberglas poles, search dogs and global positioning systems to keep track of the areas covered. They looked near Otter Creek and in the north end of campus, where students were on spring break.

The poles were used to poke holes in the snow, in the hope that the holes would lead to a scent that the dogs could respond to, said Scanlon, who called it a recovery operation, not a rescue.

Snow depth has been a major concern throughout the investigation, as New England has endured one of the snowiest winters on record.

Garza’s mother, Natalie Garza, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who has maintained a constant vigil here, was not talking to reporters Thursday, hoping to keep the focus on the search, according to Middlebury College spokesman Stephen Diehl.

Foul play is not suspected, police said. A $20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to Garza’s return.

There’s always been the hope for Nick’s safe return, said college spokesman Sarah Ray. It’s just a sad situation and people continue to deal with it as best they can.
College student missing almost two months – found here.

Pyongyang expels South Korean officials

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) — Eleven South Korean diplomats left an industrial park their country runs with North Korea on Thursday after North Korea demanded their withdrawal, a spokesman for South Korea’s government said.

The diplomats left Kaesong, a North Korean city near the border between the two nations. Their departure follows comments made last week by South Korean Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong. He said it would be hard to expand the industrial complex without North Korean progress on denuclearization.

North Korea cited the minister’s remarks as a reason for demanding that the South Korean diplomats leave, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The diplomats left around 1 a.m. Thursday, said Kim Ho-nyeon, spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry. Five South Korean civilian employees continue to work at the Kaesong office, the ministry said.

We express deep concern over the North’s unilateral demand, Kim said. All responsibility resulting from the measure lies with the North Korean side.

The Kaesong industrial park is a potent sign of reconciliation efforts between the two Koreas. It hosts about 70 South Korean manufacturers and employs nearly 24,000 North Koreans, according to Yonhap. The two countries agreed last year to expand the complex.

North Korea also agreed last year to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and better relations with the United States.

The U.S. State Department says North Korea has done the majority of work related to disabling a plutonium-making facility but that it could do more.

The State Department said recently that North Korea has slowed the disabling process — and that it has failed to provide a complete declaration of its nuclear program to the United States and its partners in talks on the nuclear issue — Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

North Korea has largely blamed the United States for the deadlock, saying it failed to honor its promise to remove North Korea from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

The State Department said North Korea must make a complete declaration of its nuclear program before the United States will remove it from the terrorism list.

This declaration must include all nuclear weapons, programs, materials and facilities, including clarification of any proliferation activities, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month.
Pyongyang expels South Korean officials – found here.

Flourish of birdies puts Wilson atop Zurich

AVONDALE, Louisiana (AP) — Refreshed after a couple of weeks off, Dean Wilson birdied three of the last four holes in windy conditions for a 6-under 66 and a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Zurich Classic on Thursday.

Wilson played eight straight tournaments before taking the break.

I’ve struggled a little bit, Wilson said. I took a couple weeks off and just went home and tried to clear my brain and just play golf rather than maybe sit on the range and fiddle with my swing. I think that helped.

Briny Baird, Peter Lonard and Chez Reavie opened with 67s.

Baird got to 6 under with an eagle on the par-4 sixth and a birdie on the par-5 seventh, but finished with a bogey on No. 9 to drop back to 5 under.

On the sixth, he holed out from 208 yards with a 5-wood.

To be honest with you, I hit it just a touch thin, but it was exactly what the shot called for, Baird said. Being a little thin it stays under the wind a little bit better.

Steve Elkington, Vaughn Taylor, Jay Williamson, Cameron Beckman and John Mallinger opened with 69s, Woody Austin topped a group at 70 and defending champion Nick Watney had a 71 on the TPC Louisiana.

For a lot of players there is a lot more on the line than the $1.116 million (euro710,000) winner’s check. For 116 of the players teeing it up, this is a chance — for some the final, for some the best — to make it into the Masters in two weeks.

I think most of the players out here look forward to playing in the Masters and think they can actually win this week, Williamson said. That’s one of the reasons that I’m here. I’ve never played there, and I’m not getting any younger, unfortunately.

He’s come close. Last year, Williamson finished second at the Travelers Championship.

I was about 11 feet last year, at the Travelers from getting in, and I couldn’t make the putt, Williamson said. That’s definitely in the back of my mind and I think — I would say the majority of the guys teeing it up here feel like they have a chance.

Twenty-five players in the field this week have qualified for the Masters, including defending Masters champion Zach Johnson (72) and British Open champion Padraig Harrington (71).

This is the third time the Zurich Classic has been played on the 7,341-yard TPC Louisiana course. Completed in time for the 2005 tournament, Hurricane Katrina hit the Pete Dye-designed course hard, flooding several holes and knocking down nearly 2,000 trees. It was closed for 10 months.

I think this is the best conditioned course we’ve played on tour this year and the best set of greens I’ve seen in maybe four or five years on tour, said Elkington, a consultant on the design, who describes it as a thinking-man’s course.

Elkington said Katrina actually helped the course.

We had to keep about 80 acres of trees just by law, but 50 (acres) got knocked down, so there’s much more air, he said. I think that’s why the course is flourishing.
Flourish of birdies puts Wilson atop Zurich – found here.

Flourish of birdies puts Wilson atop Zurich

AVONDALE, Louisiana (AP) — Refreshed after a couple of weeks off, Dean Wilson birdied three of the last four holes in windy conditions for a 6-under 66 and a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Zurich Classic on Thursday.

Wilson played eight straight tournaments before taking the break.

I’ve struggled a little bit, Wilson said. I took a couple weeks off and just went home and tried to clear my brain and just play golf rather than maybe sit on the range and fiddle with my swing. I think that helped.

Briny Baird, Peter Lonard and Chez Reavie opened with 67s.

Baird got to 6 under with an eagle on the par-4 sixth and a birdie on the par-5 seventh, but finished with a bogey on No. 9 to drop back to 5 under.

On the sixth, he holed out from 208 yards with a 5-wood.

To be honest with you, I hit it just a touch thin, but it was exactly what the shot called for, Baird said. Being a little thin it stays under the wind a little bit better.

Steve Elkington, Vaughn Taylor, Jay Williamson, Cameron Beckman and John Mallinger opened with 69s, Woody Austin topped a group at 70 and defending champion Nick Watney had a 71 on the TPC Louisiana.

For a lot of players there is a lot more on the line than the $1.116 million (euro710,000) winner’s check. For 116 of the players teeing it up, this is a chance — for some the final, for some the best — to make it into the Masters in two weeks.

I think most of the players out here look forward to playing in the Masters and think they can actually win this week, Williamson said. That’s one of the reasons that I’m here. I’ve never played there, and I’m not getting any younger, unfortunately.

He’s come close. Last year, Williamson finished second at the Travelers Championship.

I was about 11 feet last year, at the Travelers from getting in, and I couldn’t make the putt, Williamson said. That’s definitely in the back of my mind and I think — I would say the majority of the guys teeing it up here feel like they have a chance.

Twenty-five players in the field this week have qualified for the Masters, including defending Masters champion Zach Johnson (72) and British Open champion Padraig Harrington (71).

This is the third time the Zurich Classic has been played on the 7,341-yard TPC Louisiana course. Completed in time for the 2005 tournament, Hurricane Katrina hit the Pete Dye-designed course hard, flooding several holes and knocking down nearly 2,000 trees. It was closed for 10 months.

I think this is the best conditioned course we’ve played on tour this year and the best set of greens I’ve seen in maybe four or five years on tour, said Elkington, a consultant on the design, who describes it as a thinking-man’s course.

Elkington said Katrina actually helped the course.

We had to keep about 80 acres of trees just by law, but 50 (acres) got knocked down, so there’s much more air, he said. I think that’s why the course is flourishing.
Flourish of birdies puts Wilson atop Zurich – found here.

Pyongyang expels South Korean officials

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) — Eleven South Korean diplomats left an industrial park their country runs with North Korea on Thursday after North Korea demanded their withdrawal, a spokesman for South Korea’s government said.

The diplomats left Kaesong, a North Korean city near the border between the two nations. Their departure follows comments made last week by South Korean Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong. He said it would be hard to expand the industrial complex without North Korean progress on denuclearization.

North Korea cited the minister’s remarks as a reason for demanding that the South Korean diplomats leave, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The diplomats left around 1 a.m. Thursday, said Kim Ho-nyeon, spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry. Five South Korean civilian employees continue to work at the Kaesong office, the ministry said.

We express deep concern over the North’s unilateral demand, Kim said. All responsibility resulting from the measure lies with the North Korean side.

The Kaesong industrial park is a potent sign of reconciliation efforts between the two Koreas. It hosts about 70 South Korean manufacturers and employs nearly 24,000 North Koreans, according to Yonhap. The two countries agreed last year to expand the complex.

North Korea also agreed last year to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and better relations with the United States.

The U.S. State Department says North Korea has done the majority of work related to disabling a plutonium-making facility but that it could do more.

The State Department said recently that North Korea has slowed the disabling process — and that it has failed to provide a complete declaration of its nuclear program to the United States and its partners in talks on the nuclear issue — Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

North Korea has largely blamed the United States for the deadlock, saying it failed to honor its promise to remove North Korea from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

The State Department said North Korea must make a complete declaration of its nuclear program before the United States will remove it from the terrorism list.

This declaration must include all nuclear weapons, programs, materials and facilities, including clarification of any proliferation activities, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month.
Pyongyang expels South Korean officials – found here.