Washington, D.C.

Picture in IRS form helps find missing child

Missing children aren’t pictured only on the back of milk cartons. A taxpayer found a missing child this spring after seeing her picture in an Internal Revenue Service tax instruction booklet.

The anonymous taxpayer helped authorities locate Michelle Branch, missing seven years from her home in Fremont, Calif.

Branch went missing at age 17. She’s now 24 years old and living in Detroit. Her family plans to send her a plane ticket so she can fly to California and visit them in May.

The reunification marks the first time the IRS can say with certainty that a photograph in a tax publication led the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to a missing child.

The IRS started publishing photos in its widely used tax publications in 1999.

Washington, D.C.

American Airlines admits data disclosure

American Airlines became the third U.S. airline to acknowledge giving passenger records to the government, sparking denunciations from privacy advocates.

The world’s largest airline said late Friday that in June 2002 it shared approximately 1.2 million passenger itineraries with the Transportation Security Administration and, inadvertently, four research companies vying for contracts with the agency.

Fort Worth, Texas-based American said it agreed to provide the TSA with the information “because of the heightened interest in aviation security at the time and American’s desire to ensure its passenger and crew safety” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which two of its planes were hijacked.

California

Six Flag worker struck, killed by roller coaster

An employee at Six Flags Magic Mountain was struck and killed by a roller coaster Friday, authorities said.

The employee, who was not immediately identified, walked onto the Scream roller coaster’s tracks in a restricted area shortly before the Santa Clarita park opened, said park spokeswoman Sue Carpenter. The worker died at a hospital.

No one was on the ride at the time.

Washington, D.C.

Tax news releases may be politicking

The Treasury Department issued a batch of tax-related press releases Friday that each carried a message saying America has a choice between growing the economy and raising taxes that could hurt the recovery.

Democrats denounced the action as an improper use of government resources to subsidize political propaganda.

“America has a choice: It can continue to grow the economy and create new jobs as the president’s policies are doing; or it can raise taxes on American families and small businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation,” the message on the releases said.

Asked whether the message was referring to Kerry, Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols said: “No, it is a reference to anyone who suggests that raising taxes is the right thing to do. There have been many who suggest that taxes should be raised. We don’t share that view.”

Washington, D.C.

FDA warns against eight supplements

The government is warning consumers not to use a list of liquid products touted as providing a “safe legal high” because they actually may contain some risky chemicals — including a date-rape drug.

On the warning list: Trip2Night, Invigorate II, Snuffadelic, Liquid Speed, Solar Water, Orange Butterfly, Schoomz and Green Hornet Liquid.

The Food and Drug Administration first warned against Green Hornet in February, after four Colorado teenagers used it and then suffered seizures, racing heartbeat, severe body rashes and high blood pressure.

FDA analyzed other products sold by the same company, and announced Friday that investigators had the drug ephedrine and the controlled substances GHB, also known as the date-rape drug, and a GHB derivative called GBL.

Those two chemicals can cause life-threatening reactions.