WESTERLY — Layng Martine Jr. — the 81-year-old Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame songwriter who s written songs for Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Reba McEntire and the Pointer Sisters —
Rising airline fees reached new milestones last week with a charge for pillows and blankets and record charges for frequent-flier award tickets. | eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News
manich@leaderherald.com
State Assemblyman Robert Smullen, left, and Purple Heart recipient Gary Stoller unveil a sign during a Purple Heart ceremony Monday at the Sir William Johnson Park bandshell in Johnstown. (The Leader-Herald/Michael Anich) Dr. Tamara Dunlap, right,of the Quarantine the Quarantine group, speaks at the Fulton County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday at the County Office Building in Johnstown. To the left is speaker Kristen Baker. Seated is Stratford Supervisor Heather VanDenburgh. (The Leader-Herald/Michael Anich) State Assemblyman Robert Smullen, left, and Purple Heart recipient Gary Stoller unveil a sign during a Purple Heart ceremony Monday at the Sir William Johnson Park bandshell in Johnstown. (The Leader-Herald/Michael Anich)
wrap up. some of the fines or maybe all of the fine money at the faa when they find a problem actually be invested back into the airlines programs to improve these maintenance programs. that s one idea. whether it work whether it will work, i guess we don t know. mary, you go ahead, what do you think will work? i m going to use the big r word, regulation and re-regulation. the airlines are in a situation like they were in the 30s, they re bleeding red ink. they need help on safety. they have lost control on some of the operations. the airlines were regulated because they asked for it in the 30s, i think we re in a situation where we have to seriously consider whether we don t need more federal oversight on these operations to make sure we don t backslide. we want to keep safety where it is, number one priority. mary schiavo and gary stoller from the usa today. it is an interesting, albeit, scary read. thank you both for being here. hopefully we will continue this
the maintenance programs reflect that commitment to safety. now, after your reporting, gary, do you have a problem with that statement? well, i believe airlines do want to have safe flights. no one wants to have flights that have problems. however, these problems just keep recurring. the inspector general for the department of transportation has pointed out that airlines and the faa have poor oversight over a lot of the repair-station work, so the oversight is not being done, the work is not being done. yes, i believe the airlines would like to have safe operation, but there are so many problems. the last thing to both of you, quickly, if you can, do the airlines need some kind of help? of course, they are trying to keep a business running and we historically over the past few years, several years at least, they have been losing, hemorrhaging money, in a lot of ways, do they need federal help to raletz tise the standards, b a lot of it seems to be cut corners. gary, you take it and