( CNN ) -- Erroll Southers In the aftermath of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 , it is likely the Senate will move to confirm the embattled nomination of Southers as head of the Transportation Security Administration when it returns from its winter recess . Objections to Southers ' confirmation were first made by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina over the potential unionization of TSA employees . Southers is the Los Angeles International Airport 's assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence . The airport 's police department , which Southers has helped manage since early 2007 , is the largest such operation in the country , with approximately 1,200 employees . Southers is also associate director at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events at the University of Southern California . The former FBI special agent served as a deputy director of homeland security for California Gov . Arnold Schwarzenegger . CNN Political Ticker : DeMint defends blocking appointment . Miriam Siefer The attorney who will defend the 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up Northwest Flight 253 is no stranger to terrorism cases , according to The Detroit News . Miriam Siefer , chief federal defender with the Federal Defender Office in Detroit , Michigan , represented James Nichols when he was a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing . His brother Terry Nichols was convicted for that act of domestic terrorism . Siefer is now the lead attorney for Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab , who is accused of hiding explosive materials sewn into his underwear that could have brought down the airplane . `` She 's one of a handful of people who is universally respected and admired by people in the U.S. Attorney 's Office , '' said Alan Gershel , the former head of criminal prosecutions in Detroit who now is a law professor at Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills , Michigan . Detroit News : Suspect 's lawyer old hand at terror cases . Micah Fialka-Feldman A U.S. district judge has ruled that Oakland University in Rochester , Michigan , violated a federal law by refusing to allow Fialka-Feldman , a disabled student , to live in a campus dorm and now must make a room available for him . The Detroit News and NPR report that Fialka-Feldman has a mild cognitive impairment that hinders his ability to read and write . But the university said because he was in a special program and not a full-time student , he could n't live on campus . It took him two buses and two hours to get to campus from his parents ' home . The judge ruled that Oakland University had discriminated against Fialka-Feldman , who says he will hang a poster in his room with quotes from civil rights leaders . One says : `` A community that excludes one member is not a community at all . '' NPR : Intellectually disabled student wins dorm suit . Detroit News : Student wins housing fight . William Koch The Palm Beach , Florida , billionaire says that a 1787 Lafite Bordeaux with Thomas Jefferson 's initials etched into the bottle is fake . `` I thought that I had a piece of history , a piece of America 's most important history , '' Koch told the Los Angeles Times . So Koch sued the seller and has filed four other lawsuits . He says there are more to come . His goal is to clean up an industry where a single bottle can go for more than $ 100,000 . In 1989 , Koch purchased the Lafite and three other bottles of Bordeaux , also purported to be Jefferson 's , for about $ 500,000 . In the federal lawsuit he filed in New York against the wine supplier , Koch claims Jefferson 's `` initials '' were etched into the bottle with modern-day power tools . Los Angeles Times : Wine collector sues over alleged fakery . Michael Landers This 15-year-old 10th-grader from Old Westbury , New York , is the youngest player to win the men 's national singles championship in table tennis , or pingpong . In a New York Times profile , Landers says his training can last 30 hours each week . For 14 months , Goran Milanovic , a former Serbian discuss thrower , has been putting him through 90-minute workouts two or three times a week . NY Times : The ping-pong prodigy . What makes a person intriguing ? There are people who enter the news cycle every day because their actions or decisions are new , important or different . Others are in the news because they are the ones those decisions affect . And there are a number of people who are so famous or controversial that anything they say or do becomes news . Some of these people do what we expect of them : They run for office , pass legislation , start a business , get hired or fired , commit a crime , make an arrest , get in accidents , hit a home run , overthrow a government , fight wars , sue an opponent , put out fires , prepare for hurricanes and cavort with people other than their spouses . They do make news , but the action is usually more important than who is involved in the story . But every day , there are a number of people who become fascinating to us -- by virtue of their character , how they reached their decision , how they behaved under pressure or because of the remarkable circumstances surrounding the event they are involved in . They arouse our curiosity . We hear about them and want to know more . What they have done or said stimulates conversations across the country . At times , there is even a mystery about them . What they have done may be unique , heroic , cowardly or ghastly , but they capture our imaginations . We want to know what makes them tick , why they believe what they do , and why they did what they did . They intrigue us .
Nominee for TSA chief held up by South Carolina senator . Search for a suspect familiar with terrorism cases . 10th - grader is youngest player to win national junior tennis title .