Free Republic

Nearly 3,000 pounds of stolen ammonium nitrate are unaccounted for in North Carolina, even as the U.S. braces itself against a possible al Qaeda truck bomb attack. Two and a half tons of ammonium nitrate were stolen from a Royster-Clark fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem, N.C. in early July, according to the Winston-Salem Police Department, consisting of one hundred 50-pound bags. Mixed with fuel oil, ammonium nitrate is a favored ingredient used in al Qaeda truck bombs. Nearly a month after the theft was reported, 59 bags of the volatile fertilizer are still unaccounted for, police said Monday. Dozens of similar...

Dan Rather will be on Larry King in a few minutes to gin up interest in his full-hour interview with former pres. Clinton (7:00 sunday, cbs) "Veteran newsman Dan Rather discusses the beheading of an American hostage, and his interview with former President Bill Clinton. Tune in at 9 p.m. ET. "

Alberto Sanchez-Lopez, 32, was sitting in the Monmouth County jail, Freehold Township, this week waiting for a court appearance and not fully understanding the nature of the crime he is alleged to have committed that resulted in his arrest on the morning of June 8. According to a press release issued by the Manalapan Police Department, Sanchez-Lopez, of Jackson, was arrested near the Tennent post office, Route 522, and charged with obstruction of the administration of the law and hindering apprehension. He is being held in the county jail in default of $10,000 bail set by Manalapan Municipal Court Judge...

<p>LONDON — Britons bracing for a terror attack like last month's Madrid train bombings are coming to terms with the idea the attackers may not be foreign militants but the sons of friendly Asian families living next door.</p> <p>Police yesterday were questioning eight young British-born Pakistanis arrested a day earlier in raids that officials said had foiled a major bomb plot. Half a ton of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer suitable for making bombs, was seized.</p>

A trailer with Oklahoma tag number 4205CN is missing from a plant in Henry County, just south of Atlanta. Henry Co. PD has just notified surrounding agencies, and are looking for help...This is just breaking on television; details to come.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A former government scientist accused the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday of knowingly using unreliable data when it denied a petition to halt the use of sewage sludge for fertilizer. The microbiologist, David Lewis, testified at a House subcommittee hearing that the EPA used data about sludge quality at two Georgia dairy farms that had already been rejected by Georgia state officials as "completely unreliable, possibly even fraudulent." He asked the House Resources Committee's subcommittee on energy and mineral resources to call on the EPA for an internal investigation of the moratorium and other matters. Lewis, a...

"It's not as bad as it sounds," he said. "You get used to it. You can work in it. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty cool place to work." Sloan is part of a five-man crew mining the bat waste from the Bracken Bat Cave, home to 20 million or more Mexican freetail bats from February to October every year, making it the largest bat colony in the world. That many bats leave a lot of guano. In fact, in parts of the cave it's piled 30 feet deep, and if some of it weren't removed periodically, the...

E.P.A. to Study Use of Waste From Sewage as Fertilizer By JENNIFER 8. LEE The Environmental Protection Agency will sponsor a series of scientific and public health studies on the safety of using sewage sludge as fertilizer, including nationwide chemical tests and building a human health complaint database. The studies, in combination with the agency's announcement on Wednesday that it will more closely regulate 15 chemicals found in sewage sludge fertilizer, are part of the agency's efforts to address public concerns about an agricultural practice that has grown rapidly around the country over the last decade. The announcements also reflect...

FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER - A Scenario She is 25 years old, single, and very pretty. She is Saudi by citizenship and Palestinian by birth. Her father was killed by Israeli troops when she was 12 years old, and the hatred has festered for 13 years. Khadra came to the United States on a student visa in 1998, went to school for two quarters, and then just disappeared from view. When she left her family, she knew, and they probably knew, that they would never see each other in this life again. A mosque about 4 miles from downtown Manhattan has...

S. Korea to Send 200,000 Tons of Fertilizer to N. Korea -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seoul, May 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to provide 200,000 tons of fertilizer as humanitarian aid to North Korea from May through June, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said Friday. Jeong reported the plan to the unification, diplomacy and trade committee of the National Assembly.

Sorry if this was already posted. I did not find it on the NJ search list and my mother, sister and other family members live in this town in NJ. Please excuse this if it has already been posted. This is the first I am seeing it.

Scientists Urge Improved Nitrogen Management DENVER, Colorado, February 17, 2003 (ENS) - New strategies and opportunities for improved nitrogen management must be developed in order to meet future needs and preserve the environment, according to scientists at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) being held in Denver through Tuesday. "Given the critical need for nitrogen in food production and the sequential nature of the effects of too much nitrogen, it is imperative that strategies be developed to optimize nitrogen management in food and energy production and in environmental protection," James Galloway of...

Sewage Sludge Linked to Illnesses ATHENS, Georgia, August 2, 2002 (ENS) - A study by researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) links the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer with a host of health problems. Burning eyes, burning lungs, skin rashes and other symptoms of illness were found in the study of residents living near land fertilized with Class B biosolids, a byproduct of the human waste treatment process. Researchers found that affected residents lived within about one kilometer (0.6 miles) of land application sites and complained of irritation after exposure to winds blowing from treated fields. Staphylococcus...

Fire burning out of control in Quincy, Mass just outside Boston. Ferterlizer is stocked inside building....developing

Atlanta Channel 2 reports that "explosives" are missing. Anchor says they are the same as those used in OKC bombing. 240lbs of Ammonium Nitrate. FBI is investigating. Stolen from Robinson Paving Co. in Columbus GA.

President Bush's homeland security and local Vietnam-veteran patroness Dorothy "Mama" Schafernocker met head-on in St. Louis over the Fourth of July weekend, and Mama prevailed. Schafernocker, 75, was attending the annual Navy Seawolf light helicopter squadron's reunion when the incident occurred. Her oldest son, Mike, a Seawolf helicopter door gunner, was killed in Vietnam in 1969 while on a secret flight into Cambodia. Schafernocker dedicated her life to "mothering" Vietnam veterans and has connected with them all across the United States, giving them her trademark hugs. A white-haired woman wearing a jacket covered from top to bottom with unit shoulder...

Authorities alarmed at fertilizer thefts in SW Florida Wednesday, May 15, 2002 By SONJA BJELLAND, skbjelland@naplesnews.com The theft of large quantities of fertilizer from some Southwest Florida farms has authorities concerned. A report to the Lee County Sheriff's Office stated $80,000 worth of fertilizer was stolen from Farm Op on Six L's Farm Road in Estero. A quarterly inventory also revealed similar thefts from Six L's farms in Naples, LaBelle and Manatee County. The combined loot may total up to $500,000, stated the documents. Authorities wouldn't disclose very many details surrounding the theft, including what kind of fertilizer and the...

Wonder Marisa's first corn crop is tall and healthy, and early bolls of white fluff are already bursting in his sprawling cotton fields. "We drafted everybody in the family to put seeds in the ground," the new farmer remembered as he leaned on an ancient Yamaha motorbike on one of the pink-earth paths edging his 100-acre farm. "When I came here, I didn't know exactly how to farm, but I got good advice from the government. It's more work than I thought, but it's quite interesting." Marisa, 40, a former government civil servant, is one of the success stories of...