Powder-laced letters to banks in 9 cities

WASHINGTON - More than 30 letters containing a suspicious powder were mailed to Chase banks in nine cities, authorities said yesterday in what was being investigated as a first, if extreme, public backlash over the nation's financial crisis. Initial tests on the powder proved negative for poisonous or otherwise dangerous toxins, the FBI said. An FBI spokesman in Oklahoma, where eight letters turned up, said local preliminary assessments showed the powder was harmless calcium. Additional tests were being run on the letters yesterday as Officials zeroed in on possible suspects near Amarillo, Texas, where the letters were postmarked. A law enforcement official said the letters were mailed to Chase bank branches in or near Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Denver, Newark, N.J., New York City, Oklahoma City, and Washington. (AP)

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to extend New York's term-limits law was put on the fast track for a vote tomorrow in City Council, even though some members are still undecided about bypassing voters to give themselves and the mayor a chance at third terms. Opposition to Bloomberg's plan has gained momentum this week, and the failure of council Speaker Christine Quinn to schedule the vote Monday was seen as a sign the bill lacked support. The bill needs 26 votes to pass the 51-member council. The latest count shows 21 against it, about 17 publicly supporting it, and the rest undecided. (AP)

MINNEAPOLIS - A camper from Washington, D.C., has been indicted on charges of causing a wildfire that blackened nearly 120 square miles of forest in northeast Minnesota and Canada, federal prosecutors announced yesterday. Stephen George Posniak, 64, is charged with three counts, including giving false information to a US Forest Service officer. Posniak camped on Ham Lake and started a trash fire on the morning of May 5, 2007, then left the fire unattended, the indictment says. The blaze, the worst in Minnesota since 1918, lasted more than a week, blackening about 57 square miles of the Superior National Forest and 61 square miles in Ontario. (AP)