Current Nationwide
Threat Level
ELEVATED
Significant Risk of Terrorist Attacks
For information, click here: http://www.dhs.gov


Seven people were injured when the West Seattle Water Taxi impacted the seawall in
Seattle, Washington September 26. (See item 24 )
A gunman wearing a ski mask and brandishing a rifle entered a library at the University of
Texas at Austin September 28 and fired several shots before taking his own life, university
officials said. No other injuries were reported. (See item 38 )
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Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels: Physical: ELEVATED,
Cyber: ELEVATED
Scale: LOW, GUARDED, ELEVATED, HIGH, SEVERE [Source: ISAC for the Electricity Sector (ES-ISAC) -
[http://www.esisac.com
]
1.
September 28, WYFF 4 Greenville – (South Carolina) Duke Energy: 10,000
Greenville homes lose power. Ten thousand homes in Greenville, South Carolina lost power September 27, according to a Duke Energy representative. The outages were first reported at 9:30 p.m., and lasted until daybreak September 28. A strong line of thunderstorms moved through the area and blew tree limbs into powerlines. Duke
Energy dispatched crews to locations across Greenville, a representative said. As of 8 a.m., only 31 homes were still without electricity, according to the Duke Energy Web
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site.
Source: http://www.wyff4.com/r/25190186/detail.html
2.
September 28, Associatd Press – (Idaho) EPA fines E. Idaho company for water violations. Federal environmental regulators said an Idaho Falls, Idaho oil company has agreed to pay $15,000 in fines for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act
(CWA). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the penalty
September 27 for John C. Berry & Sons Inc. The company operates an oil storage and distribution facility that is located about 800 feet from the Snake River. The alleged violations emerged during a 2009 inspection. EPA inspectors said they identified several violations, including the company’s failure to prepare an adequate spill prevention plan and inadequate secondary containment structures. An EPA official said the CWA requires companies to show they have a solid plan in place to deal with spills.
Source: http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=13228819
3.
September 28, Associated Press – (New York) 3 hurt after upstate N.Y. college chemical release. Authorities in New York said a firefighter and two University of
Rochester employees were taken to hospitals after chemicals were released in the college utilities plant September 27. Rochester fire officials said crews were called to the campus around 9:30 p.m. after chemicals overflowed from a mixing tank and led to a chlorine dioxide release in the plant’s basement. The gas is used to disinfect the campus cooling system and can be toxic in high concentrations. The building was evacuated as firefighters used hoses to dilute the chemicals and flush them down floor drains. Officials said the firefighter was treated at Highland Hospital and released. The two employees were being treated at Strong Memorial Hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.
Source: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13229291
4.
September 27, Associated Press – (California) Los Angeles 113-degree record heat triggers numerous power outages. Thousands of heat-related power outages are being reported in Southern California where temperatures are soaring in a blistering fall heat wave. A Southern California Edison spokeswoman said more than 30,000 heat-related outages were reported as of 8 p.m. September 27. Some of the cities affected include
Santa Monica, Compton, Whittier and West Hollywood in Los Angeles County and
Santa Ana, Fullerton and Huntington Beach in Orange County. A Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power spokeswoman said about 5,400 DWP customers are without power.
Source: http://www.news10.net/news/article.aspx?storyid=97863&provider=top&catid=188
5.
September 27, KTVZ 21 Bend – (Oregon) BPA transformer blast cuts power, spills oil. A transformer exploded at a Bonneville Power Administration substation west of
Redmond, Oregon September 25, knocking out power to thousands and punching a fistsized hole in the transformer that spilled 8,500 gallons of oil before crews were able to contain it on site, officials said September 27. The loss of power from the BPA facility on Highway 126 occurred around 9:20 p.m. and blacked out 4,161 Pacific Power
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customers for about 5 minutes, said a utility spokeswoman. A BPA spokesman said the regional power-marketing agency was able to reroute power quickly, using Pacific
Power’s facilities until a replacement transformer can be brought in.
Source: http://www.ktvz.com/news/25181025/detail.html
6.
September 27, Bloomberg – (Michigan) Enbridge says gradual restart of line 6B has begun. Enbridge Energy Partners LP has begun the “gradual restart” of Line 6B, which was shut down after a rupture 2 months ago, a company spokeswoman said. The restart is being conducted in accordance with the previously approved restart plan accepted by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration as amended September 22, the spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed message. Line 6B is a 30-inch pipeline that can carry 290,000 barrels pe day of heavy crude oil from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia,
Ontario in Canada according to Enbridge.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-27/enbridge-says-gradual-restart-ofline-6b-has-begun-update1-.html
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For more stories, see items 34 and 36
7.
September 28, Coosa Valley News – (Georgia) Cartersville plant explosion sends 2 to hospital. An explosion inside Tintoria Piania, an industrial plant in Cartersville,
Georgia, sent two men to the hospital September 27 around 3 p.m. Reports said that the accident occurred during a test where a lid blew off an empty vat. Medical officials tried to evacuate one of the men with a helicopter but could not due to the weather.
Tintoria Piana works with fiber and specializes in dyeing and chemical application for natural and synthetic staple fibers in the non-woven industries and textile yarn manufacturers.
Source: http://www.coosavalleynews.com/np87451.htm
8.
September 27, Associated Press – (Connecticut) 1 injured in Connecticut acid spill. Connecticut authorities said an acetic acid spill has injured a man at AldLab
Chemicals, a company that manufactures laboratory chemicals and cancer-fighting drugs, in North Haven. A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP) said the man suffered burns September 27 and was taken to Yale-New Haven
Hospital. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said acetic acid, which is found in vinegar, is used in many manufacturing processes including the production of plastic and can cause burns. The DEP said the company and a neighboring business have been evacuated and authorities have begun the cleanup.
Source: http://www.necn.com/09/27/10/1-injured-in-Connecticut-acidspill/landing_newengland.html?&blockID=3&apID=bbe5befb079744bd97f0b6020928
45c4
For more stories, see items 3 and
36
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9.
September 28, Brattleboro Reformer – (Vermont) NRC staff: Submerged VY cables not safety issue. The New England Coalition (NEC) asked the Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board (ASLB) to reopen its hearing on Entergy’s license renewal application after it learned some low- and medium-voltage cables at the power plant were submerged in water. The cables were not designed to be submerged. In responding to a motion to reopen a hearing before the ASLB on the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vermont, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staffers stated that
NEC’s motion does not address a significant safety issue and that its motion is not timely. NRC staffers also claimed that NEC has not demonstrated that a “materially different result” is likely if the ASLB takes further evidence on the matter. In addition, a new contention submitted by the NEC “will broaden the issues and delay the proceedings (and) raises ongoing compliance issues not subject to resolution in a license renewal hearing” because it is outside the scope of the renewal review process, the NRC said.
Source: http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_16191070
10.
September 28, Salt Lake Tribune – (Utah) Interior won’t fight ruling on nuclear site. The federal government has decided not to fight a court ruling that might allow the
Skull Valley Goshute Indians to revive their plans to store reactor waste on their Tooele
County, Utah reservation. Two months ago, a U.S. District judge threw out a pair of
U.S. Interior Department decisions that, in effect, led many Utahns to believe that the storage site plans were dead 4 years ago. Interior officials’ decision to pass up on an appeal by the September 24 deadline has angered Utah leaders, who had urged the agency to vigorously contest the ruling. With the feds’ inaction, the issues in dispute now return to the agency “for further consideration” in light of the judge’s ruling. A spokeswoman said the Utah governor believes it is inappropriate to have high-level nuclear waste stored 50 miles from downtown Salt Lake City.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50365983-76/interior-department-nuclearruling.html.csp
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11.
September 28, Nuclear Engineering International – (Virginia) NRC approves uprate of Surry NPP. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved a request by
Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) to increase the generating capacity of its Surry Power Station in Surry County, Virginia by 1.6 percent. VEPCO plans to increase the reactors’ output primarily through more accurate means of measuring feedwater flow, which NRC has deemed to be safe. The uprate, which will increase the capacity of units 1 and 2 from 842MW to 857MW, should be implemented by
November 2010.
Source: http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?sectioncode=132&storyCode=2057669
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Nothing to report
12.
September 28, Aviation Week – (National) GE-Rolls examines F136 after fan problem. General Electric and Rolls-Royce are focusing on manufacturing records as they investigate the causes of an incident that forced the shutdown of a F136 development engine September 23. The shutdown was triggered when the F136 endurance engine, 008, “experienced an anomaly at near-maximum fan speed,” the GE-
Rolls Fighter Engine Team said. “Initial inspection revealed damage to airfoils in the front fan and compressor area. The engine is currently being disassembled for a thorough investigation,” it added. The test incident comes at a potentially perilous time for the F136, which is once again struggling for survival in the continued debate in
Washington D.c. over funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine. The
U.S. President has promised to veto any bill prolonging the F136, although the House of Representatives already is on record challenging the threat. The issue is likely related to an assembly or set-up problem linked to this specific engine rather than a deeper, systemic failure. Although GE-Rolls is not commenting on specific focus areas, the statement points to the front fan in the Rolls-Royce-led fan module as being the chief suspect.
Source: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=new s/awx/2010/09/28/awx_09_28_2010_p0-257899.xml
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For another story, see item 36
13.
September 28, Roanoke Times – (Virginia) Blacksburg bank hit again by phishers seeking info. For the third time this year, the National Bank of Blacksburg,Virginia has become the target of a scam that attempts to obtain account information from customers. About 6 p.m. September 25, several people called Blacksburg police to report that they had received text messages from National Bank asking them to respond with bank account and personal identification information, a sergeant said. The texts are part of a phishing scam, he said, attempting to gain personal information through the use of fraudulent messages that appear to come from a legitimate business. Similar scams using National Bank’s name happened in April and May. “As soon as we learned of the scam late on Saturday afternoon, we started working with our security consultants to have the criminals’ telephone number deactivated,” said National Bank’s
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chairman, president and CEO.
Source: http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/261935
14.
September 27, Network World – (National) 6 tips for guarding against rogue sys admins. The vice president of the fraud program at the BITS Financial Services
Roundtable said there has been an increase in insider incidents among U.S. financial services firms. “You have intentional breaches like theft of financial or propriety information and placement of logic bombs and malware, but you also have the unintentional breaches caused by insiders such as employees accidentally opening an infected file, installing unauthorized software or threats from social media,” the vice president said. “We’ve seen an increase in the intentional and the unintentional” insider-related security breaches. Network World spoke with CISOs and IT security experts about what practical steps IT departments can take to minimize the insider threat. Their advice is: Restrict and monitor users with special privileges; Keep user access and privileges current, particularly during times of job changes or layoffs;
Monitor employees found guilty of minor online misconduct; Use software to analyze log files and to alert when anomalies occur; Consider deploying data-loss prevention technology; and educate employees about the insider threat.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9188145/6_tips_for_guarding_against_rogue_ sys_admins
15.
September 25, Wall Street Journal – (National) Credit unions bailed out. Two years after the peak of the financial crisis, the federal government swooped in to stabilize a crucial part of the credit-union sector battered by losses on subprime mortgages.
Regulators announced September 24 a rescue and revamping of the nation’s wholesale credit union system, underpinned by a federal guarantee valued at $30 billion or more.
The majority of retail credit unions are sound, but they will have to shoulder the losses through special assessments over the next decade. The moves include the seizure of three wholesale credit unions, plus an unusual plan by government officials to manage
$50 billion of troubled assets inherited from failed institutions. To help fund the rescue, the National Credit Union Administration plans to issue $30 billion to $35 billion in government-guaranteed bonds, backed by the shaky mortgage-related assets.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499604575512254063682236.htm
l?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
16.
September 25, azfamily.com
– (Arizona) Device detonated at bank near Anthem following robbery. A bomb scare took place outside a bank near Anthem, Arizona
September 24. Workers at a Bank of America witnessed a robbery and a bomb scare just before closing at the location on Daisy Mountain and Gavilan Parkway. Police said a man walked into the bank and handed a note to the teller demanding money. The suspect also told the teller there was a bomb outside. Workers immediately called 911, and Maricopa County deputies found a small device left on the front door of the bank when they arrived at the scene. The bomb squad detonated the device. Authorities said they are still not sure what th3 device was. The suspect remains at large.
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Source: http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Bomb-scare-after-robbery-outside-banknear-Anthem-103768609.html
17.
September 24, Memphis Commercial Appeal – (Mississippi; Tennessee) Southaven couple plead guilty to fraud charges. A Southaven, Mississippi couple have pleaded guilty to federal wire and mail fraud charges stemming from a scam involving insurance checks totaling nearly $700,000. They admitted to siphoning money from the woman’s employer, Direct General Insurance Corp. of Memphis, Tennessee by creating fraudulent checks on insurance claims. She was a claims adjuster at Direct
General whose job was to issue claims checks for legitimate claims. According to a criminal complaint, she created fraudulent checks on existing insurance claims by adding her name or her husband’s as payees. She also created checks for her husband and for an unspecified number of others in Mississippi who then would give the defendants a percentage of the checks, according to court documents. The fraud, which occurred between December 3, 2004, and March 6, 2009, totaled $678,704.26, court records show. The couple entered guilty pleas the week of September 20.
Source: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/sep/24/southaven-couple-admitfraud/
18.
September 24, Lincoln Journal Star – (Nebraska) Lincoln golf courses, restaurant sources of credit card leaks. Two Lincoln, Nebraska golf courses and a restaurant said they are the sources of more than 200 credit and debit card numbers stolen recently from Lincoln-area residents. In a news release September 24, Wilderness Ridge golf course and restaurant and Hidden Valley Golf announced they had uncovered a security breach that exposed the card numbers of its recent customers. “All offending systems were immediately shut down,” the release said. It is not clear how far back the breach stretched. The Lincoln police chief said one affected cardholder had not been to either business since March. As of the morning of September 24, police had taken 225 reports of credit and debit card fraud they believe to be connected, an officer said. Police suspect the number of victims to be far greater because some people have chosen to handle the fraud through their banks instead of filing police reports.
Source: http://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_c15fce1e-c84d-
11df-a241-001cc4c03286.html
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For another story, see item 41
19.
September 28, WOWT 6 Omaha – (Nebraska) Stun gun accidentally taken on plane. An Omaha, Nebraska woman flying to St. Louis, Missouri earlier this month made a shocking discovery after takeoff. A 200,000 volt stun gun she keeps for protection was still in her purse. “I realized there was something in my purse that could get me in big trouble,” she said. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said the woman won’t be assessed a civil fine. The TSA is reviewing security camera
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tapes of the night the woman and a friend passed through the checkpoint at the Eppley
Airfield terminal. TSA also took photos of the stun gun so screeners can see what was missed passing through X-ray. The stun gun looks like a camera in a canvas case.
Source: http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/103921659.html?ref=659
20.
September 28, Kearney Hub – (Nebraska) Bomb squad responds to suspicious device on UP Railroad property. Officials are investigating after a suspicious device was found on Union Pacific Railroad (UP) property in Nebraska, September 27. The device was found about 1:30 p.m. on UP property about 8 miles east of Cozad, according to a press release from the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office. The Nebraska State Patrol was called, and the destructive device was made safe by a bomb technician of the Nebraska
State Patrol bomb squad. The Lexington Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department was standing by at the scene. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Union Pacific Railroad
Police Department, Nebraska State Patrol and Dawson County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the incident.
Source: http://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/article_6e4c38e0-cb02-11df-ac96-
001cc4c002e0.html
21.
September 27, WNYW 5 New York – (New York) MTA unveils subway emergency intercom. Deep underground on a subway platform with no cell phone service or station agent in sight, reporting an emergency can be difficult. New York City’s
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) highlighted a new intercom device that would help alert transit workers in seconds. The intercoms offer emergency assistance or travel information with the push of a button. The intercoms are highly visible, unlike the current call boxes, and they instantly give one’s exact location. They can also be equipped with cameras. One of the first help point intercoms will be introduced at the
23rd Street and Lexington Avenue subway station in November. The goal is to have them in all stations citywide in 2 years.
Source: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/traffic/mta/mta-unveils-subway-emergencyintercom-20100927
22.
September 27, Atlanta Journal-Constitution – (Georgia) Weather causes landing problems for Delta’s ATL-Savannah flight. A Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to
Savannah in Georgia had to be towed to the gate after it landed on the runway past the point it could taxi back to the airport, a Delta spokesman said. Flight 339 landed “long” or past the point it could turn and taxi back to the airport, a spokesman said. A so-called
“tug” was needed to tow the plane to the gate because aircraft cannot back up on their own. There was heavy rain around Savannah as the plane tried to land. “Due to where the aircraft came to rest at the end of the runway, it needed to be towed,” the spokesman said. There was an initial media report that erroneously said the DC-9 jetliner crash landed in the sand after overshooting the runway. The plane was at the gate about 35 minutes after its scheduled time. None of the 51 passengers or five crew members on board were injured.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/news/weather-causes-landing-problems-641006.html
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23.
September 27, Agence France-Presse – (International) Gels, liquids may be allowed back onto planes by 2012. Airline passengers may once again be allowed to board flights with creams, gels and liquids that were banned over security concerns, the
International Civil Aviation Organization said September 27. “In the next two years
(the ban) will end,” the ICAO Secretary General told AFP ahead of the UN organization’s 37th general assembly. New equipment capable of detecting explosives in water bottles, makeup kits or toothpaste tubes, for example, would be installed at most airport security checkpoints by 2012, he explained. The unprecedented security measure took effect in 2006 after British police foiled a transatlantic plot to detonate liquid explosives aboard airliners flying to Canada and the United States. Controversial full body scanners, opposed by nations including Italy, will still be used to varying degrees in the short term because they allow for quicker inspections and reduce lines at airport security checkpoints.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jW79YzpxBemb4fv5EIBxxM
YUKjhw?docId=CNG.4c0adf87019fdcb41173c1f2f50269df.6e1
24.
September 26, West Seattle Herald – (Washington) Water taxi impacts seawall;
Several injured. The West Seattle Water Taxi impacted the seawall in Seattle,
Washington September 26 at about 11:30 a.m., and seven people were injured. The
Rachel Marie hit the historic Pier 50 at approximately 7 mph. One person fell in the water and was rescued. Seventy-eight passengers and crew were aboard at the time.
Those injured were taken to the waterfront division of the Seattle Fire Department
(SPD) or to the hospital. A SPD lieutenant said there was no known cause at this time, but that all possibilities including pilot error would be examined. One crewman on the dock suggested that it was mechanical error. After impact, the packing gland around the propeller failed causing the vessel to take on water. This was dealt with by the crew. At no time was the vessel in danger of sinking. The Rachel Marie was towed out by a tugboat around 2:30 p.m. While a piling was clearly damaged along the seawall and the front of the boat was damaged, it appeared that the windows on the front of the vessel took the brunt of the impact. Two of them were smashed in. The U.S. Coast Guard will take the lead in the investigation.
Source: http://www.westseattleherald.com/2010/09/26/news/update-slideshow-watertaxi-impacts-seawall-sever
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For more stories, see items 36 ,
51
, and 58
25.
September 27, KUSI 18 San Diego – (California) Steel Canyon High School suspicious package contained no explosives. The suspicious package delivered to
Steel Canyon High School in Spring Valley, California did not contain explosives.
However, there is a connection between the suspicious package and last week’s car bomb explosion which seriously injured a Spring Valley resident. The suspicious
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package was flagged by staff at the school because it was addressed to the car bombing victim’s son. Administrators promptly alerted police who then evacuated the administrative building and put the entire school on lockdown. After careful examination, police determined the package was filled with party favors for an event the student is overseeing at the school.
Source: http://www.kusi.com/home/Steel-Canyon-High-School-suspicous-package-noexplosives--103900324.html
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26.
September 28, Food Safety News – (International) China cracks down to keep melamine out of food. The Chinese government is launching a nationwide registry aimed at keeping melamine out of the food supply and in the industrial sector, where the chemical is typically used for making plastic products. China’s general office of the
State Council issued a notice saying the purchase and sale of the industrial chemical — which continues to show up as a dairy adulterant to create the facade of higher protein content — must be conducted on a “real-name” basis so that products can be traced, according to state media. The notice requires that dairy manufacturers keep records of all raw materials purchased and test for melamine before sending product into commerce.
Source: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/09/china-to-require-records-testing-tokeep-melamine-out-of-food/
27.
September 28, Wisconsin Ag Connection – (Wisconsin; National) State meat plant recalling cured uncooked sausage. Mekong Fresh Meats in Mosinee, Wisconsin, is recalling nearly 30,000 pounds of cured uncooked pork ginger sausages because they contain an undeclared allergen “wheat,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)
Food Safety and Inspection Service announced. Each package bears the establishment number “EST. 27488A” inside the USDA mark of inspection. The sausage products were produced between June 21 and September 21. These products were distributed to retail establishments in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan,
Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
Source: http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=1131&yr=2010
28.
September 27, Associated Press – (Minnesota) Heavy rain interrupts start of Minn. corn harvest. Heavy rain the week of September 20 interrupted the start of
Minnesota’s corn and soybean harvest. In its weekly crop report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said September 27 that Minnesota’s corn harvest advanced only
1 percentage point from the previous week, to 2 percent harvested. That compares with a five-year average of 3 percent. Soybeans were 6 percent harvested, compared with 4 percent last year at this time and an average of 13 percent. The USDA said as of
September 26, an average of 7.2 inches of rain had fallen in south-central Minnesota, followed by 5.1 inches in the southwest and 4.4 inches in the southeast. The rain caused
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widespread flooding.
Source: http://wcco.com/wireapnewsmn/Minn.corn.soybean.2.1934720.html
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29.
September 27, Associated Press – (Kansas) State of Kansas gets $1.1 million federal grant to improve livestock feed inspection. Kansas is receiving a $1.1 million federal grant to improve its efforts to keep animal feed safe. The state department of agriculture announced the grant September 27 from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. The state agency will use part of the money for 50 additional inspections each year of companies that make, distribute or transport animal feed. It now does 287 inspections annually. The inspections are designed to make sure the feed is free of materials that could lead to mad cow disease. Also, the Kansas agriculture department said the grant would allow it to replace aging lab equipment used to test grain feed for toxins caused by mold.
Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/27/2255989/state-of-kansas-gets-11million.html
30.
September 27, Homeland Security NewsWire – (International) Worldwide groundwater depletion rate accelerating. In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled, said scientists who have conducted an unusual, global assessment of groundwater use and recently released results of their study. These fastshrinking subterranean reservoirs are essential to daily life and agriculture in many regions, while also sustaining streams, wetlands, and ecosystems and resisting land subsidence and salt water intrusion into fresh water supplies. Today, people are drawing so much water from below that they are adding enough of it to the oceans
(mainly by evaporation, then precipitation) to account for about 25 percent of the annual sea level rise across the planet, the researchers found. Soaring global groundwater depletion bodes a potential disaster for an increasingly globalized agricultural system, said a researcher of Utrecht University in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and leader of the new study. He and his colleagues will publish their new findings in an upcoming issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American
Geophysical Union. In the new study, which compares estimates of groundwater added by rain and other sources to the amounts being removed for agriculture and other uses, the team taps a database of global groundwater information including maps of groundwater regions and water demand.
Source: http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/worldwide-groundwater-depletion-rateaccelerating
31.
September 27, Pollution Online – (National) Elevated nitrogen and phosphorus still widespread in much of the nation’s streams and groundwater. Elevated concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that can negatively impact aquatic ecosystems and human health, have remained the same or increased in many streams
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and aquifers across the United States since the early 1990’s, according to a new study by the U.S.Geological Survey (USGS). “This report provides the most comprehensive national-scale assessment to date of nitrogen and phosphorus in our streams and groundwater,” said the USGS director. USGS findings show that widespread concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus remain two to ten times greater than levels recommended by the EPA to protect aquatic life. Most often, these elevated levels were found in agricultural and urban streams. These findings show that continued reductions in nutrient sources and implementation of land-management strategies for reducing nutrient delivery to streams are needed to meet EPA recommended levels in most regions. The study also found that nitrate is a continuing human-health concern in many shallow aquifers that are sources of drinking water.
Source: http://www.pollutiononline.com/article.mvc/Elevated-Nitrogen-And-
Phosphorus-Still-0001?VNETCOOKIE=NO
32.
September 27, Associated Press – (Washington) EPA fines 2 Puget Sound developers. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined two Puget Sound developers a total of $49,000 for stormwater run-off violations at their contruction sites in the state of Washington. The EPA said Garco Construction of Spokane will pay
$34,000 to settle several alleged Clean Water Act violations at its construction site at a fuel storage facility at the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island. The agency said
Robert West of Scottsdale, Arizona, will pay $15,000 to settle alleged violations at its
Fox Island construction site in June 2010. The Garco vice president said in a statement
September 27 that the company never allowed polluted run-off to leave the project site.
He said the company denied the allegations and settled to avoid prolonged litigation with the EPA.
Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013012391_apwaepadeveloperfine1 stldwritethru.html
33.
September 24, Associated Press – (Alabama) Warrants served at Dothan, Ala. wastewater plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said federal agents served search warrants at two wastewater treatment plants in Dothan, Alabama, as well as the city’s information technology department. The Dothan Eagle reports that the agents arrived at the plants September 23. Federal agents were posted at each gate and recorded identification information from those coming and going. An EPA spokesman declined to discuss what the agents were seeking. City officials said they have not been told much either, but did confirm the warrants had been served. The City of Dothan faces potential fines for violations related to overflows at Beaver Creek. The
Attorney General’s office filed the original suit against the city, which blocked environmental groups from taking action in court. The EPA got involved in April 2009.
Source: http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=13211811
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For another story, see item 2
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34.
September 28, Associated Press – (California) LA electrical vault explodes, knocks out power. An underground electrical vault exploded in flames September 28, shattering windows and cutting power to a 15-story downtown Los Angeles, California medical building. The explosion in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
(DWP) vault was reported at 2:14 a.m. at Wilshire Boulevard just west of Interstate
110. Glass doors and windows were blown out by the blast. A city fire spokesman said an urban search and rescue squad was called in to examine the building and no structural damage was found. It is unclear if the explosion is related to the record heat wave. The DWP said electricity demand reached a peak 6,217 megawatts at 3:45 p.m.
September 27, breaking the record 6,165 megawatts on July 24, 2006.
Source: http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/28/1358495/la-electrical-vault-explodesknocks.html
35.
September 27, DOTmed.com
– (New York) Personal data from ‘thousands’ of N.Y. hospital patients on Internet. Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical
Center in New York City, New York said September 27 that personal information, including at least 10 Social Security numbers, were “inadvertently” made publicly accessible on the Internet. Hospital officials said in a statement that information from
6,800 patients was accidentally posted on a server, according to reports from Fox News and The New York Times. The hospital has since removed the information, the media reports said. Information briefly visible included names, ages, blood pressure and heart rates, although not full medical records, a New York-Presbyterian spokeswoman said, according to Fox.
Source: http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/14349
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For another story, see item 8
36.
September 28, Nextgov – (National) Feds’ third cybersecurity exercise to attack content and identities. DHS kicked off its third large-scale cybersecurity drill
September 28 to test government’s and industry’s ability to respond to hackers hijacking Web content and stealing personal identities with the goal of grabbing sensitive information and crippling federal and commercial operations. The primary goal of Cyber Storm III, which will run through October 1, is to test procedures the
Presidential administration outlined for how agencies and companies should work together during cyberattacks. The White House established the roles and responsibilities for public and private sector managers in its classified National Cyber
Incident Response Plan. The exercise includes participants from seven Cabinet-level agencies, including the Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice,
Transportation and Treasury departments, as well as other members of the intelligence and law enforcement community. Eleven state governments and 60 companies also will
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participate, along with representatives from the chemical, information technology, communications, electrical and transportation sectors. The Homeland Security Deputy
Secretary will act as DHS secretary for the exercise, which will test how news of incidents feed up and down the chain of command. The White House cyber coordinator will represent himself.
Source: http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100928_1360.php
37.
September 28, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot – (Virginia) Nothing found after bomb threat to courthouses in three cities. Portsmouth’s Circuit Court along with courthouses in
Newport News and Hampton have been evacuated because of a bomb threat. The threat
— a caller who said bombs were planted inside courthouses in all three Virginia cities
— was received shortly after 9 a.m., said a Newport News police spokesman. Before noon, courts in all three cities had been cleared and people were allowed back inside after clearing the buildings, officials in each city said. The caller said bombs would detonate at 10:30 a.m., the spokesman said. Portsmouth’s Circuit Court was being evacuated before 10 a.m., said a Portsmouth Fire Department spokesman. The building will be searched as a precaution, he said. Courthouses in Hampton also were evacuated and police with sniffer dogs were being assisted by personnel and dogs from Joint Base
Langley-Eustis, said a Hampton police spokeswoman. An investigation is under way and authorities have a possible suspect.
Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2010/09/courthouses-three-cities-evacuated-afterbomb-threat?cid=ltst
38.
September 28, ABC News – (Texas) Shots fired at University of Texas Austin, cops hunt possible second suspect. A gunman wearing a ski mask and brandishing a rifle entered a library at the University of Texas at Austin September 28 and fired several shots before taking his own life, university officials said. Officials said a suspect brought a semi-automatic gun to the school’s library. Police are still looking for a possible second suspect and the campus, site of an infamous 1966 school shooting, remains on lockdown. “The armed suspect is dead. No other injuries have been reported,” the university president wrote in a campus e-mail. An e-mail and text alert was sent to students and faculty around 8 a.m., just as the day’s first classes were beginning, warning that an “armed subject was reported last seen at Perry Castaneda
Library” and telling students to remain in place.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/shots-fired-university-texas-austin-cops-huntgunman/story?id=11744405
39.
September 28, Florida Today – (Florida) Driver in custody after bomb scare at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station. A man was taken into Baker Act custody after he tried to enter Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida September 27 while driving a van reported to be carrying suspicious goods. Inside the vehicle, the Brevard County
Sheriff’s Office bomb squad found a briefcase, motor oil, and antifreeze, officials said.
“They didn’t find anything dangerous on him,” said a spokesman for the 45th Space
Wing. “But he was acting strangely.” The sheriff’s office took the man into custody under the Baker Act, which allows the police to commit individuals to the care of medical professionals against their will. Investigators said the man had contact with
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people at the Air Force station, but they would not confirm the details of those connections. The incident began about 9 a.m. outside Gate 1, the southernmost entrance to the base on State Road 401. Though the van was beyond the station’s fence line, it did not reach the gate.
Source: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100928/NEWS01/9280320/1006/Driver+in+cus tody+after+bomb+scare+at+Cape+Canaveral+Air+Force+Station
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For more stories, see items 3 and
25
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See item 49
40.
September 28, Help Net Security – (International) U.S. leads the way in malware and firewall attacks. The United States has overtaken India and Russia to become the biggest producer of viruses once more, according to Network Box. The United States is now responsible for 12 percent of the world’s viruses, up from 4 percent from August, when the United States trailed both India and Russia. India takes second place with
7.17 percent, after its virus production declined by 6.56 percent. Russia, which was in third place, has dropped to fifth after a fall of 5.53 percent, to be replaced by Korea, which saw an increase in production of 0.27 percent (reaching 6.29 percent of virus production). Viruses produced in the United Kingdom have dropped again (by 0.29 percent). The United Kingdom has now dropped from fourth largest producer in July, to tenth in September. The United States and India still dominate when it comes to spam production, being responsible for 10.79 and 6.88 percent of the world’s spam, respectively. Russia has replaced Brazil as the third largest spam producer, after an increase of 2.53 percent from last month, to 6.04 percent of the world’s spam. The majority of firewall attacks still originate from the United States (18.65 percent) — in fact there was a slight increase of 0.32 percent in September.
Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=1473
41.
September 28, SC Magazine UK – (International) Email spam campaigns continue to rise as LinkedIn users targeted. A significant e-mail spam campaign was detected
September 27 which targeted the LinkedIn social media community. Targets were emailed an alert link with a fictitious social media contact request and after clicking the link, victims were taken to a Web page that said “please waiting ..... 4 seconds,” which redirected them to the Google homepage. According to Cisco, during those four seconds, the victim’s PC was infected with the Zeus data theft malware by a drive-by download. It detected that within a 15-minute interval, these messages accounted for as
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much as 24 percent of all spam sent. Cisco advised organizations to encourage individuals to delete such requests, especially if they do not know the name of the contact and suggests that the criminals behind this attack are most interested in employees with access to financial systems and online commercial bank accounts.
Source: http://www.scmagazineuk.com/email-spam-campaigns-continue-to-rise-aslinkedin-users-targeted/article/179761/
42.
September 27, TrendLabs Malware Blog – (International) ZeuS now uses false download URLs. A TrendLabs Malware blogger has recently been seeing ZeuS variants whose default configuration file references a suspicious list of URLs from which it can download backup configuration files. This particular list is from a ZeuS variant detected by Trend Micro as TSPY_ZBOT.BVQ. The list from its configuration file seems longer than most of the typical ZeuS variants and the domain names looked atypical. When checked, all of these URLs are already inaccessible and most of the domains are unregistered. In addition, the list of URLs does not include
BLOCKEDikal.com, where its drop zone and updated copy are located. It is typical of
ZeuS variants’ drop zones, updated copies, and configuration files to be contained in the same domain. Cybercriminals using ZeuS intentionally did this to prevent security researchers from easily gathering information on their activities. Alternately, these extra URLs can be used as backup update locations, just in case the main location is taken down.
Source: http://blog.trendmicro.com/zeus-trojan-now-uses-false-configuration-urls/
43.
September 27, The Register – (International) Microsoft to issue emergency patch for
ASP.Net vuln. Microsoft was slated to release an emergency patch September 28 that plugs a security hole in a variety of its Web developer tools that has been under active attack for more than 1 week. The vulnerability in ASP.Net applications allows attackers to decrypt password files, cookies, and other sensitive data that is supposed to remain encrypted as they pass from the server to a Web browser. It works by flooding a server with thousands of corrupted Web requests and then analyzing the error messages and other responses that result. The series of responses are known as a “cryptographic padding oracle” that over time deliver information that an attacker can deduce the secret key used to scramble the communications. The vulnerability was disclosed the week of September 13 at the Ekoparty conference in Argentina. Microsoft soon responded with an advisory that warned that the vulnerability was under “limited attack.” It recommended that users implement several temporary measures to make the exploits harder to carry out.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/27/asp_dot_net_padding_oracle_fix/
44.
September 27, Help Net Security – (International) Google warns Gmail users on spying attempts from China. Recently, a number of users have been witnessing a glaring red banner popping up when they accessed their Gmail account, saying
“Warning: We believe your account was recently accessed from: China (IP
ADDRESS)”. ThreatPost reports that among the seemingly random victims — gamers, doctors, media consultants — was also a member of Privacy International in the United
Kingdom. Even though his Gmail account is wholly unconnected with his work for the
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human rights organization, he said that it is possible that he was targeted because of a
EU-China Human Rights Network seminar during which he discussed freedom of speech issues and differences between the EU and China on that account. All users who have been similarly warned are advised by Google to change their passwords.
Technolog asked Google to comment on the occurrence, and they said that the banner is simply part of the security feature introduced in March.
Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9917
45.
September 27, Computerworld – (International) Stuxnet worm can re-infect scrubbed
PCs. A security researcher September 27 revealed yet another way that the Stuxnet worm spreads, a tactic that can re-infect machines that have already been scrubbed of the malware. Previously, researchers had spotted several propagation methods in
Stuxnet that ranged from spreading via infected USB flash drives to migrating between machines using multiple unpatched Windows bugs. The manager of operations on
Symantec’s security response team said he had found another way that the worm spreads. According to the manager, Stuxnet also injects a malicious DLL into every
Step 7 project on a compromised PC, ensuring that the worm spreads to other, unaffected PCs whenever an infected Step 7 file is opened.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9188238/Stuxnet_worm_can_re_infect_scrub bed_PCs
46.
September 27, The H Security – (International) Spamhaus launches whitelist. Spamhaus, previously known mainly for its anti-spam blacklists, is launching an online whitelist project. Spamhaus said that checking whitelists as well as blacklists allows users to improve their spam filtering. According to Spamhaus, e-mails originating from whitelisted mail servers can pass unfiltered, while e-mails from blacklisted servers can be blocked as before. As a consequence, fewer e-mails than before need to be processed via more elaborate secondary filters. Reportedly, this reduces processing loads and errors. The Spamhaus whitelist is to include “qualified corporations” such as banks, accounting firms, and airlines as well as medical centers and government agencies. In its announcement, Spamhaus said the mail servers of large telecommunications providers and ISPs, which jointly generate a major proportion of the e-mail traffic worldwide, as well as the senders of solicited bulk e-mails are not eligible for whitelisting. Priority treatment of such senders can be achieved via a separate whitelist that Spamhaus said is in preparation, or via a project with a wider scope such as DNSWL.
Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Spamhaus-launches-whitelist-
1096753.html
Internet Alert Dashboard
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US-CERT at sos@us-cert.gov
or visit their Web site: http://www.us-cert.gov
Information on IT information sharing and analysis can be found at the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and
Analysis Center) Web site: https://www.it-isac.org
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47.
September 27, Sikeston Standard Democrat – (Missouri) Signal loss leads to weekend
Charter cable and Internet outage. Approximately 13,000 Charter Communications customers in and between Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, Missouri, were affected by disrupted cable television and Internet services September 25. The outage happened just before 1 p.m. when most channels froze or went out completely while Internet services went out. The government relations manager for Charter said the company experienced a signal loss at the interconnect between Fredericktown, Missouri, and
Cape Girardeau.
Source: http://www.semissourian.com/story/1667874.html
48.
September 27, Danbury News-Times – (Connecticut) Metro-North severs telephone line in Branchville. Workers readying the ground for the modernization of the
Danbury-to-Norwalk Metro-North train line accidently severed an AT&T cable near the Branchville station in Ridgefield, Connecticut, September 26, cutting telephone and cable TV service to many in the Georgetown area. A spokeswoman for Metro-North said crews were repairing the damaged line September 27. However, she said the repair involved splicing about 600 wires together. She said crews plowing the ground near the
Branchville station cut the line. The crews are doing preliminary work on the $53 million project to modernize the signaling system along the 24-mile railroad line. She said Metro-North had done its due diligence with utilities, including AT&T, to find any cable in the area before it began the work.
Source: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Metro-North-severs-telephone-line-in-
Branchville-676882.php
49.
September 27, Associated Press – (National) Report: U.S. would make Internet wiretaps easier. The U.S. President’s administration is pushing to make it easier for the government to tap into Internet and e-mail communications. But communications firms may be wary of its costs and scope. Frustrated by sophisticated and often encrypted phone and e-mail technologies, U.S. officials said law enforcement must improve its ability to eavesdrop on conversations involving terrorism, crimes or other public safety issues. Critics worry the changes might make citizens and businesses more vulnerable to identity theft and espionage. The new regulations that would be sent to Congress in 2011 would affect American and foreign companies that provide communications services inside the U.S. It would require service providers to make the plain text of encrypted conversations — over the phone, computer or e-mail — readily available to law enforcement, according to federal officials and analysts.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_internet_wiretaps;_ylt=Aqu25DccBH64QmMR8cCdS8
2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNscnR1cmQwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwOTI3L3VzX2lud
GVybmV0X3dpcmV0YXBzBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMwRwb3
MDMTEEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA3JlcG9ydHVz
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50.
September 27, Agence France-Presse – (International) French police dismantle mobile phone hacking ring. French police busted a network of mobile phone hackers, a fraud worth millions of euros, and arrested nine people, including employees of cellular phone companies, investigators said September 26. Three people were still in custody September 26 following the arrests across the country that came after a yearlong investigation into the network, which had been operating for a decade and is the first of its kind in France, according to officials in an investigative unit of the Marseille gendarmerie. Investigators explained that fraudsters purchased codes to unlock SIM cards for $4 each from high-ranking phone company employees, who had access to company databases. The network subsequently sold the codes on the Internet for $40.
The money earned from these sales were put into tax-free overseas bank accounts. With the codes, individuals could access any SIM card, even foreign cards, with their mobile phones. The investigation began at the end of 2009 after a complaint at French phone company SFR in the southern city of Marseille about discrepancies in its security system. Two other companies, Bouygues Telecom and Orange, were also affected by the fraud.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jsQg3o74Kx_0QvOzWKs0r4P pz_Vg
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For another story, see item 36
51.
September 27, Washington Post – (District of Columbia ) Suspicious package found near Nats Park. Traffic in the vicinity of Nationals Park, the stadium where the
Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball play in Washington D.C., was disrupted September 27 after a suspicious package was discovered in the area.
Authorities investigated the package using X-ray equipment, then removed the packaged. The incident occurred near the Navy Yard train station on the Washington
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Green Line, which is one of the main means of access to the stadium. One entrance of the station was reported closed.
Source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/crime-and-publicsafety/suspicious-package-found-near.html
52.
September 27, WSBT 22 South Bend – (Indiana) Possible sticks of dynamite explode in trash in LaPorte County. Two apartment buildings containing 15 units in Michigan
City, Indiana were evacuated September 27 after a quarter-stick of dynamite blew up as a garbage truck was emptying a dumpster into the trash compactor. It was the first of two explosions caused by quarter-sticks of dynamite thrown into the trash. According to police, the first explosion occurred at Normandy Village Apartments about 10:30 a.m. as the truck with its mechanical arm was emptying the dumpster. Police said the garbage truck was rocked but not damaged. After that explosion, the garbage hauler made the 30-minute trip back to the Waste Management-owned transfer station at the
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Kingsbury Industrial Park in Kingsbury to examine the contents of the compactor to try and find out what caused the blast. As the contents were being dumped out, there was another much more powerful blast that shattered lights and a windshield on a payloader, and knocked a bathroom sink off the wall, police said. That blast prompted an emergency response back to Normandy Village where the apartment buildings were evacuated and the area sealed off for 4 hours as a precaution. Recovered from the trash was a paper bag containing roughly 50 gunpowder-filled cylinders roughly 3 to 4 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. The source of the illegal explosives was still being investigated.
Source: http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/Possible-sticks-of-dynamite-explode-in-trashin-LaPorte-County--103903344.html
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53.
September 28, Staunton News Leader – (Virginia) Valley fire continues to burn. A forest fire in a steep, remote stretch of National Forest south of Deerfield, Virginia, continued to burn despite steady rain September 26 and 27. The fire, about 1 mile southwest of Marble Valley and 1 mile south of Phillips Road, covers about 150 acres and is burning along ridgetops. The Forest Service has had 30 firefighters working the fire, using two bulldozers to cut containment lines. The crews had cut enough lines to isolate the fire in the middle of a 1,500-acre block, the district ranger said. He said the fire does not pose a risk to the public. The fire is one of seven burning in the George
Washington and Jefferson national forests, including a small, 11-acre fire in the St.
Mary’s Wilderness area about 4 miles from Steele’s Tavern. All of the fires were started by lightning strikes.
Source: http://www.newsleader.com/article/20100928/NEWS01/9280317/Valley-firecontinues-to-burn
54.
September 27, KXLF 4 Butte – (Wyoming) Antelope Fire in Yellowstone reaches
3,000+ acres, 50 percent containment. The Antelope Fire, Yellowstone National
Park’s largest fire this year, has grown to 3,072 acres and is 50 percent contained. The park issued a final report on the fire September 26, unless any significant activity occurs. Small spots of smoldering vegetation were observed within the interior of the burned area. Helicopter water drops cooled isolated torching of small trees and fire that had creeped into the grass in the southeastern corner, the park said. “The Antelope fire is helping Yellowstone achieve its fire and resource management goals. It has provided a new fuels buffer that will increase the defensibility of the Tower developments in the event of future fires in the Mount Washburn area,” the park said. “Yellowstone
National Park is a fire adapted ecosystem, and fire plays an important role in maintaining the health of the area’s wildlife habitat and vegetation.”
Source: http://www.kxlf.com/news/antelope-fire-in-yellowstone-reaches-3-000-acres-
50-percent-containment/
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55.
September 27, Associated Press – (Oklahoma) Fire destroys barracks at historic
Fort Washita. The replica of a military barracks at Fort Washita in southeastern
Oklahoma was destroyed by fire about 7:30 a.m. September 26. The state fire marshal’s office is looking for the cause of the blaze. The site is near Durant — about 135 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. It was established in 1842 as a military fort. The site was acquired by the Oklahoma Historical Society in 1962 and the barracks were built in
1972. It was designated a National Historic Location in 1965. The park superintendent estimated the damage at $2 million.
Source: http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=13222724
56.
September 28, Worcester Telegram and Gazette – (Massachusetts) Repairs finally set for dangerous dam. Long-awaited repairs at the 160-year-old Rockwell Pond Dam in
Leominster, Massachusetts, will be done in the spring. The city council September 27 approved a special permit for the $700,000 project after a presentation by the public works director and a brief public hearing. Bids on the work will go out in late
December. The state office of dam safety 7 years ago deemed Rockwell, which is near downtown, a high-hazard dam. It is unclear how the project will be funded. Work will consist of building a new downstream spillway buttress, with stabilized concrete buttresses and with horizontal and vertical steel anchors to be attached to the existing masonry spillway. The project also includes repositioning a guard rail and installing new sidewalks from the Rockwell Pond bridge to Elm Street. Repairs should take about
2 months.
Source: http://www.telegram.com/article/20100928/NEWS/9280337
57.
September 27, Associated Press – (Wisconsin) Wis. neighborhood becomes island as levee weakens. Floodwaters from the burgeoning Wisconsin River turned a rural neighborhood into a virtual island September 27, cutting off dozens of homes from the outside world. The river was seeping through and surging around a levee protecting the
Blackhawk Park neighborhood in Caledonia just southeast of Portage. A spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said the levee was in “bad shape” Monday night, but that officials were optimistic conditions would improve before a complete failure. A few homes in the neighborhood’s low-lying areas were surrounded by water, but most stood on high ground and were untouched. Emergency workers asked people to leave September 26 as the river began to rise after last week’s heavy rains. Some 300 people live in the neighborhood, and the Columbia County
Emergency Management director said about 25 homes were occupied. He said the worst-case scenario was water washing away the access road, stranding those residents for up to 1 week. A century-old earthen dike, part of a 14-mile berm, separates Portage and the neighborhood from the river. But the river rose so high and so forcefully it surged around the dike and poured into the bottom lands around the neighborhood.
DNR workers patrolled the length of the berm September 27 using sandbags to control
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the seepage. The DNR spokesman said the effort seemed to be working.
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/7220790.html
58.
September 27, Louisville Courier-Journal – (Kentucky) Crews cleaning up spill that flowed onto CSX yard. An environmental crew was cleaning up stormwater with a slight auto-fluid taint September 27 after it spilled from a scrap recycling company into a drainage ditch that went through a neighboring CSX freight yard in Louisville,
Kentucky. Firefighters from Okolona and Fairdale, Kentucky and other officials responded after the leak of about 10,000 gallons of the fluid near Grade Lane, south of
Louisville International Airport. Fire officials were treating it as a level-one situation, but cleared the scene by early afternoon, according to an emergency response pretreatment inspector for the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District. The stormwater was collected in a retention pond at Industrial Services of America Recycling, which normally uses it to reduce smoke and fire risk during the auto shredding process, according to the company’s vice president. Due to a problem with a pump, the water was drained into a stormwater ditch that runs through the nearby CSX site.
Source: http://www.courierjournal.com/article/20100927/NEWS01/309270049/Chemical+spilling+onto+CSX+pro perty+near+airport
59.
September 24, Monroe News-Star – (Louisiana) Levee fixes to run $4.2M. Three
Ouachita River bank cave-ins in Monroe and West Monroe, Louisiana, created by record flooding last fall will finally be repaired beginning the week of September 27, while a fourth cave-in in Columbia will get a temporary fix until a levee set-back can be built. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has contracted with Target Construction of
New Orleans for $4.2 million to repair the Monroe and West Monroe cave-ins, while the local Tensas Basin Levee District must foot the bill for the temporary repair in
Columbia. All four cave-ins have either cut into the levee system or the permanent flood wall protecting Monroe and West Monroe. An official said the fixes should take about 6 weeks.
Source: http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20100924/NEWS01/9240321
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For another story, see item 24
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DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
About the reports - The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a daily [Monday through Friday] summary of open-source published information concerning significant critical infrastructure issues. The DHS Daily
Open Source Infrastructure Report is archived for ten days on the Department of Homeland Security Web site: http://www.dhs.gov/iaipdailyreport
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Content and Suggestions:
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Visit the DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report and follow instructions to Get e-mail updates when this information changes .
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.
Contact DHS
To report physical infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact the National Infrastructure
Coordinating Center at nicc@dhs.gov
or (202) 282-9201.
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US-CERT at soc@us-cert.gov
or visit their Web page at www.us-cert.gov
.
Department of Homeland Security Disclaimer
The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a non-commercial publication intended to educate and inform personnel engaged in infrastructure protection. Further reproduction or redistribution is subject to original copyright restrictions. DHS provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or accuracy with respect to the original source material.
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