http://www.palmbeachpost.com/...
OCEAN RIDGE — The envelope mailed to the Ocean Ridge home of Vice President Joe Biden's younger brother, which contained a suspicious white powder and caused a hazmat emergency Saturday, was apparently mailed from India.
Francis Biden, 57, said the package - a manila envelope - was retrieved from his roadside mailbox at about noon by his girlfriend, Mindy. It was addressed to him.
"She retrieved it, but I was the one who opened it," Biden said. "It was mailed from India."
Biden said the moment he opened it a white powder spilled from the envelope and onto his skin. He said he immediately called authorities, who evacuated neighbors from the immediate area and closed off the street for eight hours.
Biden and his girlfriend were taken to Bethesda Hospital. Mindy was released Saturday but Biden stayed overnight.
"I was the only one who came in contact with the powder so they kept me," he said. He was released Sunday morning.
Apparently, the powder was harmless, according to the FBI. No word on what necessitated the hospitalization, perhaps Biden freaked out; I would.
Coincidentally, the Palm Beach Post ran with a story llast night recognizing the "white powder" scares following 9/11, particularly in our neck of the woods, iwhere a National Enquirer photgrapher died after exposure to a mailed envelope of powder.
It had been only weeks since Sept. 11. Not a square inch of America felt safe from attack. And it soon was learned that many of the hijackers had lived and plotted in Palm Beach County.
A plane flying into a building was one thing. But being afraid there'd be white powder when you opened your mail hit closer to home .
"All of South Florida was in a panic," Palm Beach County Commissioner Steven Abrams recalled recently . "We're good with dealing with hurricanes. Anthrax, not so much."
Bob Stevens, 63, a tabloid photo editor in Boca Raton, died Oct. 5, 2001, days after he was admitted to JFK Medical Center with anthrax. He had opened a mysterious letter weeks earlier.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/...
