WASHINGTON — A lot of things became off-limits at airports after Sept. 11, 2001, but a surprising number of passengers still get caught with a particularly big no-no: firearms.

The Transportation Security Administration says that so far this year 793 firearms have been discovered at U.S. airport checkpoints — and we’ve still got two major league holidays to go: Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last year, in total, there were 902 firearms found.

“The most common excuse we’ve heard would simply be that the individual forgot the item was in the bag,” says TSA spokeswoman Lauren Gaches.

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“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful
that thorns have roses.” Alphonse Karr

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Husayn Muhammad al-Umari/fbi photo

WASHINGTON — The FBI has added two people to its Most Wanted Terrorists list.

One of those people is Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, who is wanted in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors, the FBI said.

The second man is Husayn Muhammad al-Umari, who is wanted in the 1982 bombing of Pan Am Flight 830, which killed a teen passenger and injured 16. The flight, bound from Japan to Hawaii, carried 267 people.

The additions bring to 24 the number of people on the Most Wanted Terrorist list.

The State Department is offering  up to a $5 million reward for each man for information leading to the capture or conviction.

Thanksgiving at the Gotti home may be filled with a little more laughter than at the homes of the New York  prosecutors and FBI agents who worked his case.

That’s because the odds of a mistrial for John Gotti Jr. are improving by the day.

On Tuesday, for the second time during the 9 days of  deliberations, federal jurors in New York let the judge know they were deadlocked and couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict in the racketeering trial that includes allegations of murder and drug trafficking, the Associated Press reported.

John Gotti Jr./youtube photo

U.S. District Judge Kevin P. Castel rejected the defense request to declare a mistrial and ordered the jury to continue deliberating, AP reported.

“This trial has been conducted at considerable expense and human effort to both the government and the defendant,” the judge told them, according to AP. “If your deliberations do not end in a verdict, in all likelihood it would have to be tried again before another jury.”

The jury is expected to cut off at 2 p.m. Wednesday and return Tuesday. This is Gotti’s fourth trial. The other three ended in mistrials after the jury deadlocked.

It’s hard to get all teary eyed and nostalgic about the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives list, but you have to admit the list looked pretty cool hanging on the post office walls. It brought a little excitement to a place that is anything but exciting.

For decades, the baddest of the bad stared out from FBI wanted posters in post offices nationwide.

Bank robber Willie Sutton. Serial killer Ted Bundy. Osama Bin Laden.

Multiple murderer Thomas James Holden — the first name on the FBI’s first 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, back in 1950. Holden once escaped from the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth and was captured two years later on a Kansas City golf course.

Seeing the faces on a post office wall is a rarity now. They have disappeared over the past decade.

Post offices no longer want the Most Wanted.

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By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON — When Kentucky Census Bureau worker William E. Sparkman was found dead in September — with the word “FED” scrawled on his chest — everyone assumed the obvious: He was murdered.

Not so,  state and federal investigators said Tuesday.

The Washington Post reported that authorities believe Sparkman committed suicide. He was found in eastern Kentucky, his hands, feet and mouth loosely bound with duct tape and a rope loosely tied around his neck, the paper reported.

Investigators concluded that he had written “FED” on his chest. People told investigators he was suicidal, the Post reported.

What’s more, shortly before his death, he had taken out two life insurance policies totaling $600,000, which would not pay out for suicide, the Post reported. The money reportedly was to go to his son.

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