Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NEW YORK POLICE SAY FAKE BADGES A THREAT You can buy a bogus police badge over the Internet for $30 and that troubles police in New York City. At least one local legislator, Anthony Weiner -- who represents parts of Queens and Brooklyn -- tells the New York Post it's tough to put a security net over the Big Apple if people are able to masquerade as officers. Advertisement Some of the badges, he says, are "dead-on" copies of the real thing. There have been several incidents in the New York area where would-be robbers and other felons have gotten access to apartments and homes using the fake IDs. There is a federal law against the ownership of fake police IDs but Weiner thinks there are loopholes that need to be tightened. He says it is not illegal to own the items if they are considered mementos or used in display purposes. He notes terrorists should not be permitted to use the loopholes to obtain the badges to thwart security measures. Advertisement WASHINGTON AIRPORT COULD LOSE CARRIER There are indications Dulles International Airport in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia could lose most of the services of United Airlines. Published reports say the airline's creditors committee has suggested closing the airline's base of operations at the jetport as part of massive cost-cutting. The airline is trying to restructure under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It uses the sprawling airport -- about half an hour west of downtown Washington -- as a major East Coast base of operations. Many flights to other cities on that coast are hubbed out of the airport, whose code is IAD. Dulles, named for former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, is one of United's five major hubs. ST. LOUIS ROADWAY MAY GET SUBURBAN HELP If six St. Louis suburbs can work together, a major stretch of Manchester Road could get a long-awaited overhaul. The 6-mile stretch in question runs from Maplewood through Kirkwood, but for each mile of the road the street passes through a different jurisdiction. Because of the multi-jurisdictional oversight of the highway, repairs have always been made piecemeal. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports a plan is in the works that would revive the roadway and turn it into a higher-speed, beautiful thoroughfare. Advertisement One local businessman whose small strip mall fronts the roadway tells the publication he hopes something can be done to improve the street. He says revitalizing the road could do a lot to improve the business climate in his neighborhood. One long-range plan would turn Manchester Road into a "shopping corridor" that would feature landscaping and other improvements. The big question now is how to get the funding. New taxes after the establishment of a retail district could be one answer. MIAMI JOINS GRIEF FOR DEAD SUNBATHER The parents of two sisters crushed by a police vehicle on Miami Beach came to South Florida this week to mourn and pray. The Miami Herald says Claude and Marina Tunc arrived at the Miami International Airport and were driven to Jackson Memorial Hospital. There they visited the one sister who was critically injured, but survived being crushed by a police sport-utility vehicle pursuing a suspect. Both of the sisters lived in London and had come to the States on vacation. The publication says the accident is the third in recent memory. In April of 1999 another city vehicle ran over a pregnant woman at nearly the same spot but both the woman and her fetus survived. Advertisement In 1993 a tourist from Peru was run over by a Beach Patrol vehicle while sunbathing on a nearby beach. In this case is thought the glare of sunlight on the SUV windshield might have obscured the driver's vision as he topped a small rise.
