Texas Ricin story IS bollocks

The Austin Statesman reports a mysterious whitish-brown powder found in a roll of quarters in a dormitory room on the University of Texas campus might not be the poison ricin after all.

A preliminary test by the Texas Department of State Health Services laboratory in Austin returned a positive result for the potentially fatal substance, prompting an evacuation of the Moore-Hill residence hall, an investigation by the FBI and worries of a link to terrorism.

Students were allowed to return to the Moore-Hill residence hall after two cleanings of affected areas, but the UT dorm was abuzz with activity Saturday as the investigation continued. UT police officer Adrian Slaymaker stands watch.

But three subsequent tests at the same lab came up negative.

In addition, none of the people who might have been exposed — including the student with the quarters, her mother, her roommate and their residence hall assistant — has symptoms of ricin poisoning. The symptoms, which typically include breathing difficulty, cough, fever, nausea and tightess in the chest, usually develop within hours of exposure, health officials said.

"I'm pretty confident it's not ricin," Mike Elliott, senior district commander for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, said Saturday. "The state lab tends to be more presumptive in telling you what it might be."

Difficult to believe stories from Texas, VP shoots a 6"2" lawyer mistaking him for 6 ounce quail ...

The FBI called in specialists in weapons of mass destruction from Quantico, Va.,
also called in were ... the Joint Terrorism Task Force .... on Saturday, local hazardous materials crews took apart washing machines at the dorm to see if they could find any additional powder....

You can begin to understand how difficult it was investigating 9/11.... good job they shipped all the evidence to a chinese scrapyard ... save all that stupid forensic nonsense.

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