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A hacker recently tried to poison a Florida city’s water supply, police announced Monday. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said someone remotely accessed a computer system that controls the City of Oldsmar’s water treatment facility on Friday. The unidentified person increased the amount of sodium hydroxide being distributed into the city’s drinking water to a “dangerous” level, Gualtieri said at a press conference. The chemical, also known as lye, is used in small amounts to control the water’s acidity — but can be deadly if ingested in large quantities. A worker at the plant immediately noticed the change and reversed...

Authorities say a hacker gained access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to fill the water supply with a potentially harmful chemicalA hacker remotely gained access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to fill the water supply with a potentially harmful chemical, authorities said. An unknown suspect breached a computer system for the city of Oldsmar's water treatment plant on Friday and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference Monday....

LAKELAND, FL (The Miami Herald) – Pleading guilty to putting lye in sauce led to a seven-year prison sentence for a Florida restaurant worker — and possibly more punitive action at the federal level. Margarito Padilla began serving his sentence Monday, according to Florida Department of Corrections records. On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Tampa office filed a detainer on the 54-year-old Guadalajara, Mexico, native, meaning ICE wants to know when Padilla finishes doing his time.... [snip] “DANGER POISON HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED CAUSES SEVERE BURNS.”

Daniel Begay, who is Navajo, had always been told growing up that traditional American Indian foods were good for him. But because most American Indians are lactose intolerant, "they aren't getting that same source of calcium from dairy products," Begay says. Turns out that it's a traditional cooking method that is key to his bone health. The Navajo burn juniper branches, collect the ash and stir it into traditional dishes. The most popular: blue corn mush. Begay, a graduate student at Northern Arizona University, analyzed the amount of calcium in 27 samples of juniper from all over the reservation. But...

Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest — dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

SPENCER, Mass. (AP) -- Dozens of residents were taken to hospitals Wednesday with burns or rashes after the town's water supply was accidentally treated with too much corrosive lye, officials said. People in Spencer were advised not to use or touch the water until further notice, said Ed Coletta, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. Residents started complaining of skin irritation and moderate burns after showering early Wednesday, police Sgt. John Agnew said. He said officials determined that a malfunction at the town's water treatment plant had released too much sodium hydroxide into the water supply. Sodium...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. A South Kingstown man who became ill after he drank from a beer bottle ingested a caustic liquid. Police say the liquid that sent Michael Darigan to the hospital last Sunday resembles lye. Lye is a highly concentrated solution of potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide. It's often found in commercial drain and oven cleaners. The 53-year-old Darigan found the bottle along his jogging route last week. Sergeant Thomas Owens says there's no evidence suggesting Darigan was personally targeted. Local police sent two bottles of the liquid to the state Department of Health for testing. Darigan's wife has...

When you marry a Norwegian, you gain more than just a bride or groom. When John Hinsch, a German, married Jan Hilan, who is both Norwegian and Swedish, he acquired a set of Christmas food traditions that encompasses what many consider the best and the worst of culinary options. The best: Who could turn down rosettes and krumkake, lefse, meatballs and rommegrøt? The worst: By reputation - lutefisk. Songs, jokes and entire humor books have been written poking fun at the shimmering white fish which is a staple in Scandinavian-American households at Christmastime. "I ate about a half-teaspoon of lutefisk...