The brief: Poison in the mail

the presence of anthrax. “The test came back negative,” Buczek said. “That immediately went (from) a biological response into a criminal investigation by the NCIS and the FBI.”

Most of the base was not affected by the scare. Base officials said children at the child development center were never at risk or among those held for testing.

Suspicious powder in envelope briefly closes Elgin Chase facility: A suspicious substance was found inside an envelope at the Chase Bank credit card processing center on

in Elgon, Illinois, Thursday morning, prompting officials to close the center for a short time. No one was injured and it eventually was determined that the substance found shortly before 8 a.m. was not a health threat, said Battalion Chief Greg Benson of the Elgin Fire Department. The center was closed down for about an hour while police and fire officials investigated, he said.

Thursday’s incident comes almost a year after envelopes containing suspicious powder and threats were sent to the Elgin center and other Chase facilities throughout the country. A New Mexico man eventually was arrested on charges of sending the threatening letters.

The Elgin Chase location and other Chase facilities across the country received a number of envelopes with a suspicious powdery white substance and threatening notes inside in late October 2008. The letters claimed whoever breathed in the powder would die within ten days, prompting authorities to evacuate the facilities.

White powder sparks haz-mat response at postal plant: A Canada Post employee, one of six possibly exposed to an unknown white powder Tuesday at the

processing plant in Widsor, Ontario, is directed to a waiting ambulance by paramedics after he was stripped of his clothes, scrubbed down, and dressed in white coveralls. It appeared that the worst effect from the powder was a mild irritation by one worker, a mail truck driver who was exposed to it in the back of his vehicle before 6 p.m., then went into the processing plant for some help. A total of five people came in some sort of contact with him as he was ushered to the first aid room. When firefighters and paramedics arrived, they enacted a full hazardous materials response. That involved isolating the exposed people and the area in the plant where the exposure happened. Specialists donned protective clothing and air masks to strip the victims of their clothing, scrub them down, and dress them in white coveralls for transport to the Met campus of WindsorRegionalHospital. In the end, only two - the driver and one inside worker - were transported. They were later released from hospital.

After firefighters and paramedics treated the victims, they turned their attention to the unknown substance that was still in the postal truck, which was backed up to the building. To isolate the van, it was driven to the back of the property.

Tom Dalby, a Canada Post spokesman, said the incident at the plant held up some trucks, but the delays were “nothing we can’t recover from.” He said Canada Post has dealt with a number of similar scares in recent years. “We don’t fool around, we err on the side of caution,” he said.