More States Receive Suspicious Letters With White Powder

Add Iowa’s Democratic Gov. Chet Culver to the growing (and bipartisan) list of governors who have received letters containing a mysterious powder this week, according to our sister site, The Iowa Independent.

On Monday, the governors of Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and Rhode Island received these letters. All laboratory tests of the powder, which some feared would be anthrax or another biological or chemical agent, came back negative.

Over the course of the week, more states reported similar letters. Yesterday, another TWI affiliate, The New Mexico Independent reported that more than a dozen people who were exposed to the powder at Gov. Bill Richardson’s office were rushed to the hospital and quarantined until scientists determined today that the substance was harmless.

The report from Iowa brings the total number of states receiving these letters to 32.