disruption

sure doesn't seem to take much to cause disruptions.


ABC News building evacuated in D.C.
7/26/07
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070726/ap_on_re_us/abc_news_evacuation_1

WASHINGTON - A building housing the Washington bureau of ABC News was evacuated Thursday because of a suspicious envelope containing a white powdery substance, District of Columbia authorities said.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter said there was no note or address on the small envelope. No one has reported any medical symptoms, he said.

Firefighters and police were on the scene trying to determine whether the packet poses a threat, and the downtown building was evacuated as a precaution, Etter said.


Game in bag prompts airport evacuation
7/26/07
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070726/ap_on_re_us/airport_evacuated_6

LONG BEACH, Calif. - A suspicious item in checked luggage that prompted the evacuation of a terminal at Long Beach Airport on Thursday turned out to be an electronic game, authorities said.

Several hundred people were evacuated from the terminal for about 90 minutes and five arriving aircraft were held on the tarmac until the all-clear was given.

Transportation Security Administration screeners spotted the suspicious item while X-raying a checked bag around 9:30 a.m., agency spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said.

The item turned out to be a handheld electronic game board in a "raw form" that showed its wiring, she said.

The passenger worked for "some sort of game or toy company," she added.

Firefighters, police and a bomb squad were called to the airport, about 25 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.


Bomb Squad Blows Up Suspicious Device
July 24, 2007 10:03 AM EDT
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=6828414

EAST TOLEDO -- Things are back to normal in an east Toledo neighborhood after a suspicious device was found on a railroad bridge. The call first came in around 4:00pm.

Police say some one found the device on a rail bridge near the grain elevators run by The Andersons and ADM. It appeared to be a cooler with wires and some sort of antenna sticking out of it.

Police evacuated a 5-block area of east Toledo, including the Starboard Side condominiums, which are near the bridge. They also shut down Miami Street from Bassett to Navarre, and stopped river traffic from the I-75 overpass to the High Level Bridge.

"Yeah, it was the right call to shut it down," said Joe Jarvis, a stranded boater who was blocked by the river closure. "You don't know what it was or anything, so if they thought it was a bomb, it was the best thing to do, is to shut it down."

After Norfolk Southern and Toledo Police investigators walked out on the bridge, the bomb squad decided to place a small charge next to the device, and blow it up. With a puff of white smoke and a loud "boom," the device exploded around 6:50pm.

The detonation went as planned, and no one was hurt. Police are investigating, and hope whoever put that possible research project there, will come forward. "If it's not illegal, it probably wasn't using really good judgment," said Lt. George Kral of the Toledo Police.

"You put something like that on a major railroad bridge that crosses a river, may want to re-think that without telling somebody," Kral added.

The Coast Guard helped block river traffic. The FBI was also called in to investigate, because the device was on a bridge.


Michigan Ave. reopens after package scare
By Jeremy Gorner Tribune staff reporter
3:52 PM CDT, July 19, 2007
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070719michigan-closure,0,7256332.story

The contents of a suspicious package found in the 100 block of North Michigan Avenue were deemed safe this afternoon and the block was reopened, Chicago police said.

The road was closed to traffic at about 1:30 p.m. while police bomb and arson detectives investigated the package found on the street.

Detectives determined the package was not harmful shortly before 3 p.m., and the strip was reopened, Officer JoAnn Taylor said. She did not know what was in the package.


Unattended salad prompts courthouse alert
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
By Gabrielle Banks, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07198/802294-100.stm

A salad left unattended in a bag under a restroom sink prompted the closing of the Grant Street entrance to the Allegheny County Courthouse and the evacuation of county Chief Executive Dan Onorato's office for about an hour this afternoon.

Bomb sniffing dogs were sent into the ladies room after a paper bag was spotted about 1:20 p.m.

Officials said a salad was found in the bag, and the alert was lifted by 2:20 p.m.

Officers said their actions were a precaution. Other entrances remained open and courts remained in session, but a second office, that of the controller's payroll division, also was evacuated.