AZ Governer's Office receives envelope with "White powdery substance"

'White powdery substance' sent to Arizona governor's office
by Mary Jo Pitzl - May. 4, 2010 11:22 AM
The Arizona Republic

State Capitol police shut down the access to the Executive Tower Tuesday morning after a letter containing an unknown "white powdery substance" was opened in the governor's constituency services office.

An employee opened the letter about 10:15 a.m. and contacted Capitol police, who then alerted Phoenix Fire Department about the substance. A hazardous materials crew was on scene.

Officials did not evacuate the Executive Tower, however they limited access in or out of the building, said Andrew Staubitz, chief of the Arizona Capitol Police. The lockdown was lifted at 11:23 a.m.

Staubitz did not know the contents of the letter, where it was from or to whom it was addressed. He said more details would be released later today. It was unclear whether anybody was injured.

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I have no doubt this was directed at the governer for signing the new anti-immigration bill. Although I don't agree with her decision (much needed to be corrected in that bill before it was anywhere near ready for signature), I can certainly empathize with her dilemma. She was gonna get backlash either way.

HazMat At Executive Tower Sparks Evacuation

POSTED: 10:51 am MST May 4, 2010
UPDATED: 12:08 pm MST May 4, 2010

PHOENIX -- A suspicious envelope found on the first floor lobby of the Capitol Executive Tower sparked an evacuation of the first floor Tuesday monring.

An employee opened up an envelope and a white substance spilled out onto a desk, police said. Authorities were notified.

The Phoenix Fire Department Hazmat team went in and cleaned up the area. Officers said the employee who opened the envelop was not harmed.

"The envelope was directed to the governor's office," said Capitol Police Chief Andrew Staubitz. "I don't have info on what the letter said."

Authorities are trying to determine the nature of the substance.

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Law enforcement officials are awaiting lab results on a white powder that spilled out of an envelope addressed to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Tuesday. The discovery of the powder briefly closed the State Capitol in Phoenix and sent Hazmat teams scrambling.

State police, Capitol police and the FBI are continuing to investigate after Phoenix's Capitol Tower was placed on lockdown for about an hour after a staffer opened the letter in the governor's offices there, the Arizona Republic reported.

A spokesman for the FBI's field office in Phoenix said a laboratory run by the state's Health Department has conducted tests on the white powder. He could not confirm whether the envelope was hand-addressed or contained any note or threat in addition to the substance. No one was sickened by the powder.

The incident has heightened tensions in Arizona, where protesters have targeted Brewer since she signed a controversial immigration bill into law last month.

Under the terms of the law, Arizona authorities are required to question people about their immigration status if they are suspected of being in the country illegally. Critics say the law will lead to racial profiling in Arizona, which has a large Hispanic population and shares a long border with Mexico.

Brewer has become the law's symbolic stand-in, widely vilified during pro-immigration protests that hit a peak on Saturday, the annual celebration of May Day. Some demonstrators in Dallas carried signs depicting Brewer in Nazi uniform with her arm extended in a stiff Nazi salute, the Associated Press reported.

Officials in Arizona's Capitol Police Department and state police did not respond to queries from FoxNews.com about whether investigators were considering possible ties to the immigration uproar.

Brewer has been pushing for stiffer enforcement along the border, accusing the federal government of ignoring growing violence from drug smugglers she says are "invading" the state through gaps in the border fence. One-third of all illegal immigrants cross into the U.S. through Arizona, according to government estimates.

Lawmakers opposed to the tough new immigration measure have also been singled out. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., received death threats over his opposition to the immigration law and was forced to close his district offices on the day Brewer signed the measure. He has since sent a letter to President Obama urging him to "limit [federal] cooperation with Arizona officials in their enforcement."

During the brief scare on Tuesday, no one was forced to evacuate the Capitol, though authorities quarantined the building as police and firefighters swarmed the area.

Brewer was not in the Capitol Tower when the envelope was opened; she was scheduled to be about 115 miles away in Tucson for all of Tuesday, according to publicly available documents.

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I wonder how long it will take to get the results back?

I don't see how they wouldn't have the results back yet. They had to have a pretty good idea of what it was already that same day with lab confirmation to follow which shouldn't take this long. It seems like maybe they're holding that information from the public for now which is rather concerning.

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