Monthly Archives: May 2011

Powder Found At Coakley, Brown Offices

Published May 3, 2011

Authorities investigate white powder found at Sen. Scott Brown's office at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston Tuesday. (Steve Brown/WBUR)

Authorities investigate white powder found at Sen. Scott Brown's office at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston Tuesday. (Steve Brown/WBUR)

Authorities say there is no threat from white powder found earlier today in envelopes at the offices of Attorney General Martha Coakley and Sen. Scott Brown.

Boston Fire Department officials found the first envelope at about 11 a.m. when an employee in Coakley’s office opened a piece of standard mail and the powder spilled out.

“Initial field tests have been conducted and the results do not indicate that the substance poses a risk,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “In an abundance of caution, additional testing will be conducted.”

The second envelope was found a short time later at Brown’s office in the John F. Kennedy Federal Building.

There were no injuries and no evacuations.

Update:

The AP reports:

A third letter containing a suspicious white powder also was being investigated Tuesday at the Franklin County Courthouse in Greenfield, which was evacuated as a precaution.

Bin Laden’s Death Brings Back Powerful 9/11 Memories

Published May 3, 2011

The Twin Towers stood tall in this photo from the 1970s. (AP)

The Twin Towers stood tall in this photo from the 1970s. (AP)

With Osama bin Laden’s death, many of us thought back to the event that seared the terrorist mastermind into America’s consciousness. Sept. 11 was on the mind of much of the world Monday, including WBUR News Director Martha Little, whose view of the LA skyline was drastically altered.

After the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers, the world sat in shock. Like many others, Jonathan Bohan was concerned for friends and family in New York.

Bohan remembers “frantically worrying about my cousin whom I mistakenly thought worked in the towers,” he wrote on WBUR’s Facebook page.

Barb Moser’s son was a sophomore at New York University. “I couldn’t reach him because the phone lines were jammed,” Moser wrote on Facebook. “He finally got through to me about six hours later. I was never happier to hear his voice.”

Some shared with us stories of people they lost.

“I remember most vividly the moment I learned that my friend John Ogonowski was the captain on Flight 11 which was the first plane to hit the World Trade Center,” Sonya Dunne wrote on Facebook.

“I lost my brother on 9/11/01 in South tower,” commenter Mflenihan wrote. “It was horrible then and continues to be for our family and the world. My mother has never been the same.”

Ten years after the attacks, it’s sometimes hard to remember just how scared we all were. We had no idea what the attacks were about, or where they might strike next.

[pullquote author = “commenter Mflenihan”] “It was horrible then and continues to be for our family and the world. My mother has never been the same.”[/pullquote]

WBUR’s Fred Thys remembers the world glued to its TVs and radios. After learning the news, Thys was assigned to head to Logan to cover the story from there.

“I ran to my car shouting repeatedly, ‘Oh, my God!'” Thys wrote. “In those days, before the I-90 Connector tunnel was open, it could take an hour to get to Logan. I made the trip in eight minutes. No one was on Boston’s roads.”

Some recalled other specific scenes.

“If someone was crying on the T or on the street, people stopped to comfort them,” Gretchen van Ness wrote on Facebook. “People asked complete strangers, ‘Did you lose anyone?’ and wanted to know the answer. I think it was at least a week before I heard a car horn again.”

Matthew Juros said he remembered “the silence of skies without air traffic.”

That fateful day is burned into the memory of most of us. It always will be.

“Can still feel the sun and see the clear blue sky and have the images from TV replaying in my head today,” commenter Shakespearegoddess wrote.

How do you remember 9/11? Share your story in the comments or on WBUR’s Facebook page.

Tuesday Morning: The Day After Bin Laden

Published May 3, 2011

One day after the nation learned of the death of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, the country is confronting what’s left of al-Qaida.

Boston and other major cities are bracing for reprisal attacks. Members of the military say the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still far from over. Many Muslims are confronting their religion’s image in a post-bin Laden America.

Like the Sept. 11 attacks that brought bin Laden to the forefront of Americans’ minds, bin Laden’s death is sure to go down in history. Details on the raid continue to emerge and the Globe has a great graphic explaining the logistics.

Families of 9-11 victims and soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan took yesterday to remember their loved ones. Sept. 11 will be a defining date of my life — for young kids, May 2, 2011 may be similar. And, for those wondering, the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list isn’t ranked, so Whitey Bulger doesn’t move to the “top spot” after bin Laden is removed.

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Boston today in non-bin Laden news:

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay its re-licensing decision for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth.

Sen. Scott Brown said he’s planning to fulfill his National Guard service commitment in Afghanistan this year.

Thanks to a huge game from goalie Tim Thomas and an overtime goal by center David Krejci, the Bruins beat the Flyers 3-2 last night. The team returns home from Philadelphia with a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series.

What we’re following: We’ll continue to report on the corruption trial of former House Speaker Sal DiMasi, the death of former Globe publisher William O. Taylor and the security at Logan Airport.

With Bin Laden’s Death, What Are Your Sept. 11 Memories?

Published May 2, 2011

Dionne Layne, facing the camera, hugs Mary Power at ground zero in New York City Monday as they react to Osama bin Laden's death. (AP)

Dionne Layne, facing the camera, hugs Mary Power at ground zero in New York City Monday as they react to Osama bin Laden's death. (AP)

Osama bin Laden’s death — 10 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — has sparked remembrances of that tragic day. WBUR News Director Martha Little shares her thoughts, and asks for yours.

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For many of us, Sept. 11 was a day that triggered many emotions and many profound personal moments. For me it was how the event suddenly changed the view out my window. I lived in Los Angeles at the time, on a house on a hill that had a view of that downtown full of skyscrapers. What once was a lovely view of sparkling buildings became a view of foreboding. I imagined over and over again what it would look like if Boeing 767s and 757s full of passengers were sent careening into those skyscrapers. It was a view full of fear.

Now that I live in Boston, I’m interested to know your reflections, your realizations, your memories of that day. Please share in the comments.

Bin Laden’s DNA May Have Come From MGH

Published May 2, 2011

U.S. authorities used “multiple methods,” including DNA matching, to identify Osama bin Laden’s body as one of the dead after the early morning raid in Pakistan.

From NPR’s Two-Way blog:

The AP reports that two Obama administration officials say “DNA evidence has proven that Osama bin Laden is dead, with 99.9 percent confidence.”

The AP adds that the officials did not say where or how the testing was done.

That “where or how” is now the focus of questioning.

Boston’s WCVB-TV reports that the DNA used to identify bin Laden’s body was extracted at Mass. General. Bin Laden’s sister died at MGH about a year ago and authorities saved some of her tissue for DNA testing, according to the report.

WBUR’s CommonHealth, however, says that the report has not been verified. “A Massachusetts General spokesperson says that the hospital has checked with multiple sources there and has been unable to confirm any aspect of the ABC report,” CommonHealth’s Carey Goldberg wrote.

It would be easy to identify bin Laden by his sister’s tissue using “commonplace PCR methods,” according to a blog post by the Scientific American. The post’s author, a Cell and Molecular Biology PhD student, reckons that you could identify the body in under five hours.

UPDATE: ABC News has backed off its story a bit. “It is unclear whether bin Laden’s sister, who died of brain cancer in Boston in 2005, was one of the relatives used in the comparison,” ABC’s Katie Moisse wrote in a recent story.

Monday Morning: Boston Processes Bin Laden’s Death

Published May 2, 2011

With news that U.S. forces killed the world’s most wanted terrorist, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, spontaneous celebrations erupted in Boston and Cambridge Sunday night and Monday morning. UniversalHub has great video of the celebration streaming toward Boston Common.

Family members of Sept. 11 victims expressed relief that bin Laden had been killed. Mass. lawmakers from Sen. Scott Brown to Boston Mayor Tom Menino embraced the news but cautioned that the country’s threat from terrorist groups is not over.

The Herald headline sums up a lot of reaction around the country today: We Got Him! For families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks, however, bin Laden’s death does little to replace their loss.

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Boston today in non-Osama bin Laden news:

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority will sue several companies in response to the catastrophic water main break that left millions of Boston-area residents without drinkable water.

Murder investigations across the state could be compromised thanks to underfunded coroners, according to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Dr. Henry M. Nields — the head of the state office — says he can’t provide the right services without hiring more coroners.

Many Massachusetts school buildings were built significantly larger than what is required, according to a new report. The report questions whether communities in the midst of budget crises should close or consolidate schools.

Starting today, anyone with an Internet connection can see what’s going on in Quincy District Court. In an experimental project run by WBUR and funded by the Knight News Challenge, all proceedings will be live-streamed and an on-site blogger will provide full multimedia access. It’s called OpenCourt.us.

The Celtics dropped the first game of their playoff series to the Miami Heat yesterday. The Bruins, who won Game 1 of their series 7-3 Saturday, face off against the Philadelphia Flyers again tonight.