Explosion rocks meatpacking plant

March 24, 2008

BOONEVILLE - An explosion at a meatpacking plant yesterday caused an ammonia gas leak that forced 180 people from their homes, but no one was injured. The explosion occurred in the refrigerated section of the Cargill Meat Solutions plant, which makes frozen ground beef patties and steaks. The company said about 20 contractors and a few other employees were at the site at the time of the fire. (AP)

A government laptop computer containing medical information on 2,500 patients at the National Institutes of Health was stolen in February, potentially exposing seven years' worth of clinical trial data, including names, medical diagnoses, and details of the patients' heart scans. The information was not encrypted, in violation of the government's data security policy. NIH officials did not acknowledge the theft until Thursday. (Washington Post)

NEW YORK - Congress set aside a record $2.3 billion in pet projects for colleges and universities last year for research on subjects such as berries and reducing odors from swine and poultry, according to an analysis by The Chronicle of Higher Education to be released today. Despite recent calls for a ban on home-state projects, the total of college earmarks was $300 million more than in the last survey, in 2003. (New York Times News Service)

DETROIT - Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy today will disclose the results of her investigation into whether Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, committed perjury when they denied having a romantic relationship. The Detroit Free Press published excerpts of sexually explicit text messages sent to Beatty's pager, contradicting statements Kilpatrick and Beatty gave during a whistle-blowers' trial. (AP)

MINNEAPOLIS - Old photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show two steel connecting plates were bent as early as 2003, four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. The defects were revealed in two photos examined by the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the Aug. 1 collapse. (AP)

CHICAGO - Chicago police yesterday arrested six people who disrupted an Easter Mass by squirting fake blood on themselves to protest the war in Iraq. Police said the three men and three women stood in Holy Name Cathedral and shouted their opposition to the war during Cardinal Francis George's homily. (AP)