[Letitring]

Good grief. Can you call your locals for an update? I'd sure want to know about the middle of the night sirens.

[StillProud2BeFree]

We've had them too. The nuclear emergency and tornado sirens have gone off several times when drills weren't scheduled. Everything was fine - some bozo just hit the wrong button. In the meantime they gave me a bit of a scare and a chance to see how fast I could round up my emergency evac supplies LOL. Top speed so far: 3 minutes from the time the sirens start until I'm ready to roll if need be.

[JustPiper]

Jordan arrests terror suspects
02/14/04 15:27 PM, EST

Jordanian authorities have indicted a Finance Ministry employee and three other men with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in Jordan, the Jordanian Interior Ministry confirmed Saturday.
FULL STORY at CNN

[JustPiper]

Alert Name: Acts of terror

Radio: Bush outlines plan to stop spread of WMD
02/14/04

President Bush emphasized on Saturday the need to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, stressing the dangers of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons getting in the hands of terrorists.
FULL STORY at CNN

[JustPiper]

HEADS UP MERCURY WARNING !!!

Fear of mercury pollution fuels debate over Zion incinerator - February 15, 2004

BY GREG BARRETT {{Illinois}}} Chgo Sun-Times

ZION -- It's not the fear of a smokestack spewing two pounds of mercury a year into the air over Lake Michigan that has Sandra deBruyn eating meat and potatoes these days.

Nor do Verena Owen's four sons eat fish from the pristine waters that abut their Lake County home two miles north of Zion | Owen, clean air coordinator for the politically charged Lake County Conservation Alliance, is among the 1,000 people protesting Zion's sludge incinerator | Lake Michigan is one of thousands of U.S. water sources under state fish consumption advisories. The reason: mercury pollution generated by 421 coal-burning power plants, sewage incinerators and other belchers of industrial smog. The United States emits 150 tons of mercury every year. At any given time, about 4,500 tons of mercury is circulating worldwide <

[JustPiper]

I'd like to make a suggestion. I am going through my paper..Chgo Sun-Times and finding articles on a daily basis for this thread. If each of us covers a local paper daily in our states, imagine the things we'd be finding out. Opinions...Comments?


Johns Manville to clean up asbestos in Waukegan

February 15, 2004

BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter

Asbestos-contaminated lagoons in Waukegan would be drained and cleaned up under a proposed settlement between manufacturer Johns Manville and state and federal authorities.

The lagoons, which have leaked the cancer-causing material into Lake Michigan, are on the site of a former asbestos factory operated by Johns Manville. A million tons of asbestos waste is capped in a landfill there.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-asbestos15.html

If my waters are this contaminated, imagine the waters in our country!

[JustPiper]

You may want to use the link for this is a 4 page story!

New York Police Take Broad Steps in Facing Terror
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and JUDITH MILLER

Published: February 15, 2004

The New York Police Department, working with city health officials, federal authorities and other agencies, has been preparing for a possible attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, perhaps the most daunting threat facing municipalities in a post-9/11 world.

Meeting in secret and conducting complex drills, the department has brought together government agencies in a broad effort for much of the last year. In doing so, it has put together a program that some national security and law enforcement officials describe as unrivaled among American cities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/nyregion/15THREAT.html?th

[JustPiper]

Islamabad accused of nuclear 'cover-up'
By Edward Luce in Islamabad

Published: February 13, 2004

Relatives of six scientists who worked with A.Q. Khan, the disgraced "father of the Islamic bomb", have accused Islamabad of indulging in a cover-up to protect the Pakistani military from being tainted by the nuclear proliferation scandal.

The Pakistani government alleges that the scientists, five of whom have been held since 17 January and one since 27 November, "passed on" nuclear materials, designs and machinery to "foreign countries" - thought to be Libya, Iran and North Korea.

http://www.nytimes.com/financialtimes/international/FT1075982536042.html

[JustPiper]

H.I.V. Surge Catches Tradition-Bound Estonia Off Guard
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

Published: February 15, 2004

ALLINN, Estonia — The virus first crept in at the Russian border and, for a time, nobody in Estonia blinked.

For more than a decade, beginning in 1988, only a handful of people in Estonia tested positive for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Those who did were easily ignored — young, Russian-speaking heroin users in the country's depressed northern reaches. The problem seemed small enough to shrug off.

Not any more. Estonia is in the grips of a "concentrated" H.I.V. epidemic among intravenous drug users that has migrated south and west to the country's graceful medieval capital, Tallinn, and is threatening to spread still wider through unprotected sex.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/international/europe/15ESTO.html

[JustPiper]

Iran Says It's Ready to Sell Nuclear Fuel Abroad
By REUTERS

Published: February 15, 2004

TEHRAN, Feb. 14 (Reuters) — The Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said Saturday that Iran was willing to sell nuclear fuel to international buyers.

Iran has said it will enrich uranium only to fuel power stations and not to the level of weapons-grade purity.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a country that has the potential to produce nuclear fuel, is ready to offer fuel to international markets," Mr. Kharrazi told the official IRNA news agency.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/international/middleeast/15TEHR.html