Slashdot Mirror
DHS Pathogen Lab To Be Built In "Tornado Alley"
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that Department of Homeland Security is relying on a rushed, flawed study to justify its decision to locate the $700 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility for highly infectious pathogens in a tornado-prone section of Kansas. A GAO report says that it is not 'scientifically defensible' to conclude that lab can safely handle dangerous animal diseases in Kansas. Such research has been conducted up to now on a remote island on the northern tip of Long Island, NY. 'Drawing conclusions about relocating research with highly infectious exotic animal pathogens from questionable methodology could result in regrettable consequences,' the GAO warned in its draft report. Critics of moving the operation to the mainland argue that a release could lead to widespread contamination that could kill livestock, devastate a farm economy, and endanger humans. Along with the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, NBAF researchers plan to study African swine fever, Japanese encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, and other viruses in the Biosafety Level (BSL) 3 and BSL-4 livestock laboratory capable of developing countermeasures for foreign animal diseases. According to the article, DHS lobbied a Congressional committee to try and convince them that the GAO report was flawed, and to head off any hearings on the controversy. Despite this, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations subcommittee plans to hold a hearing Thursday on the risk analysis."
"My watch stopped."
"Durn shame."
"It's because of the heat." /obscure
Andromeda Strain
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
"Let's put the level 5 infectious disease lab right smack in the dead center middle of the continent! Then it'll be handy to all those farms and cows and stuff, if they get sick or something right?"
Behold, the bureaucratic mind.
And you Democrat voters want more of this, not less?
It's what my wife has, always sticking her foot into her mouth.
H1N1, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore
This is the plot to "Devil Winds".......one the all-time worst disaster films!
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/306319/Devil-Winds/overview
http://www.blockbusteronline.com/movies/devil-winds.html
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
At the end of the bridge to nowhere.
So lobbying wins out over common sense?
"The pigs are flying"
Congress is actually going to practice a little due diligence. How nice if they always did this.
F-5 Flu
110 miles from NYC is safe but Kansas is far too dangerous?
This doesn't make any sense.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Build it under the longterm nuclear waste storage facility.
some jerkoff senator is scratching some corporate donor's back by bringing the massive contruction contract to his own back yard in BFE, Kansas.
This is the worst kind of politicking. Anyone with any kind of common sense knows that the only facility safe in tornado alley is built underground.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Why not put it somewhere isolated that is very cold or very hot, like Alaska or the desert, where the environment would help limit the spread of any escaped pathogens, not give them an ideal breeding ground like Kansas would.
You could use the argument that researchers wouldn't want to live there, but you could say the same thing about Kansas!
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
Revolutionary. It will be resistant to terrorists attacks because it will obviously be _guarded_ by tornadoes.
It's the fact that they're moving it at all. This stuff is currently secure. It's locked up in a building that is supposed to be able to handle a dropped vial or something. It seems to my admittedly non-biotech-schooled mind that moving the stuff for a week is far more dangerous and has a much higher risk factor than letting it sit in the same place for 50 years.
Is called Plum Island.
Other than living relatively close to it i see no problem with just leaving it there. The only way to get to it is from a secure ferry and in it's 50+ years I haven't heard of one incident.
I'm not exactly sure what the big deal is. Yes, tornados do happen, however -every- place has its risks. Any place located on any cost has the possibility of hurricanes, California has a lot of earthquakes, etc. And honestly the chances of a tornado hitting that exact same place and causing any sort of major damage is slim.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
It could also have to do more with creating jobs for that area. Either way it's shameless pork.
Who cares what happens to Oz? They need do something about all those flying monkeys, this might just do the trick. Then it'll finally be safe to vacation there again.
If you don't understand a comment, don't moderate it. The Andromeda Strain used exactly this scenario -- a high-level pathogen research lab built in the middle of BFE, Kansas.
... in it's 50+ years I haven't heard of one incident.
Perhaps you should read the Wikipedia article that you linked to.
It references this NY Times article about outbreaks at the facility:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/nyregion/plum-island-reports-disease-outbreak.html
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
Perhaps the specimens and anticipated case-load for this lab are expected to come primarily from the surrounding areas. Bringing the lab close to where the incidents of interest are likely to occur offer some advantages. I know that whenever most of use hear of a Bio lab we immediately assume that it is meant for production of pathogens, but numerous such labs are actually diagnostic in nature. For example, many states have a Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (such as this one).
Sure you could probably quarantine and relocate an entire herd to a remote lab in Alaska but it could be better to move them to a facility much closer. But even if it were placed in Alaska people would then become concerned about protecting the wildlife and how the facility would cope with the freeze hazards. No place would be good enough.
MRI (Midwest Research Institute) is already in tornado alley at Kansas City, Missouri, just off the UMKC campus. MRI holds the largest archive of communicable pathogens in the world, down the road from the largest public-private science and technology library in the world (Linda Hall, from which library we faxed the University of Tehran [at DHS' approval] almost the entire bibliography of U.S. nuclear research a few years ago just before The Media(TM) started its 'Iran has nuclear tech' scare).
It makes perfect sense that They(TM) would want this new lab to be near the older and larger lab.
-=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
..hahahahahahahahha...sorry...
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
East Coast = Hurricanes
West Cost = Earthquakes
Midwest = Tornadoes
Here's a thought: regardless of where it's build, the dangerous part will be underground. Last I heard, tornadoes don't burrow.
Most citizens here know that if you see smoke coming from MRI, get out of town FAST.
-=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
What do you expect from a region of the country that has been largely responsible for the tilting of our national diet towards corn? Teaching of religious "alternatives" to evolution? Unconstitutional "homeland" "security"? Preemptive warmaking in the name of "freedom"?
Thanks to the political primaries and low population density, a bunch of ignorant and extremely socially conservative idiots have been driving and heavily influencing our political landscape.
Please help metamoderate.
They should put the lab in an underground complex under Raccoon City, Colorado. What could possibly go wrong?
It's only a matter of time before they start experimenting further...
That's a perfect choice, its not like there are any devistating natural disasters there that involve high speed far reaching winds and could destroy the lab and spread the airborne pathogens contained within at the same time!
Wait... there is something I'm missing here but these damn ruby red slippers keep popping in my head and interrupting my thought process...
Ah well, at least there aren't any actual people in KS.
for the money it better be tornado-proof... or at least tornado-resistant.
Those of us who think they know everything annoy those of us who do.
too early for April fools day ? I mean seriously ... the DHS couldn't be that stupid to implement yet another half-assed plan like this.
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" - Dr. Seuss
As a current resident of the state and city in question I can say that I can think of much worse places to put it. Manhattan, KS has only had one tornado in the past two years that did some very minor damage. Also if the agent that are going to be stored in the facility are as dangerous as stated then won't the building have the proper safety measures included in it construction.
Politicians... :/
Your idea of predictable, naturally-explainable weather patterns is just a theory. In Kansas, we teach that tornadoes are caused by an intelligent designer. This designer would never send His tornadoes to spread disease amongst His people without a good reason. It is our faith in Him that allows us to relocate this dangerous facility without fear. In fact, it is better to get this building as far away from the godless sodomites in NYC as possible. His will be done, amen.
</caricature>
was 1n the tea I example, 1f you impaired its hear you. Also, if
Re "it's 50+ years I haven't heard of one incident."
The infected workers in many labs like this around the would be dead or on disability and families are patriotic?
Asking for real autopsies and going to the courts, press ect can be very very very unhealthy.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Glad I am west of the divide, so long suckers!
we don't get hit with tornadoes all that often. They do happen, and small towns do get properly torn-up by them, but one of those only hits every few years. Most of our tornadoes touch down in uninhabited areas, because there's a /lot/ of space that's farm fields, pastures, or forested. Also, I'd much rather be here than where hurricanes or earthquakes or forest fires are apt to hit, because tornadoes by their nature affect only a small area.
Taco, would you get around to firing kdawson already? His sensationalism was amusing during the election cycle, but it's getting really tiresome.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
In Tom Clancy's book Rainbow Six, 1998. The Horizon corporation has one of it's facilities in central Kansas. It' goal was to engineer a virus to kill everyone but it's members, so they could save the earth's environment from people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Six_%28novel%29
I actually live in the town (to call it a city is a bit laughable) where the NBAF is going, and there is a sizable portion of the local population who is against it's construction as well. I hesitate to call it a majority, as I certainly havent taken a scientific poll or anything, but several people I know are rather opposed to the idea. Their main concern (besides the usual Not In My Back Yard mentality associated with stuff like this) is about the effect an outbreak would have on the local livestock populations. The Manhattan area, despite being a college town, still has a pretty agriculture oriented economy. Cows and sheep and wheat all over the place. A good deal of people are concerned about the repercussions of an outbreak, not only on the macro level (millions of dollars spent containing infections, yet another beef embargo, the slaughter of who knows how many heads of livestock, etc.), but on the micro level (farmers being forced to exterminate what could easily be their only source of income, the possibility of local residents becoming infected with virus variants that can make humans sick, etc.). Programs like Locate In 48, while a great idea, are not very widely implemented, and thus make it much more difficult to track down infections without slaughtering a quarter of the state's cows. And yes, we do have a bit of a tornado problem. Last summer a tornado came straight through Manhattan and tore up several buildings in town and on campus. K-State and the city government like to talk up how great of an economic boost to the community the lab will be, with all the jobs created from the technical staff and construction labor, and how it belongs in Kansas because there is an ample sized pool of scientists and collaborators in this region to work for/with the NBAF, and the number of animal health researchers at K-State and the Biosecurity Research Institute that we already have here.
You could use the argument that researchers wouldn't want to live there, but you could say the same thing about Kansas!
No kidding. I fucking hate it here...
What do you mean disasters never happen in North Dakota?
Also, I'd much rather be here than where hurricanes or earthquakes or forest fires are apt to hit, because tornadoes by their nature affect only a small area.
Hurricanes don't often rip (properly constructed) buildings to shreds. Tornadoes obliterate anything in their path.
Both hurricanes and forest fires are easily "built for." Tornadoes? Not so much.
How hilarious that a bunch of idiots on slashdot with virtually no qualifications are questioning the validity of a study done by the GAO, which presumably has at least SOME people who know what they're talking about.
Please help metamoderate.
In short, don't forget that a lot of other places fought AGAINST the biolab. For instance in a fairly rural portion of North Carolina:
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/835757.html
Before starting, I should probably mention that I actually live in Manhattan, KS and attend Kansas State University, the proposed site for the lab.
I have to start by say that not putting something here because of tornadoes is a pretty thin claim, as tornadoes are a pretty rare occurrence by all accounts, especially in Manhattan due to it's location. In the seven years I've lived here only one has even brushed a portion of the town. While for some this may be too much of a risk, there are plenty of precautions that can be taken to lessen the risk.
More importantly, the campaigning for the location of this lab and all the money and frills that come with it has been very competitive and heated over the last couple years with a number of accusations and claims coming from all the sites. A good number of them coming from the contender site that was almost chosen in Texas that has been very critical of the Kansas location. Though it is rarely mentioned that the section of Texas in question has a greater likelihood of tornadoes by a large margin.
"To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today." -Isaac Asimov
It's standard practice to at least mention what an acronym stands for before using it, especially when it's not well known. The GAO is the Government Accountability Office, which is apparently designed to provide some oversight to what Congress does.
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
It's what my wife has, always sticking her foot into her mouth.
Funny, she's got bird flu too, from putting too much cock in her mouth.
Ba da bing!
Lecter: Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center. Sounds charming.
Clarice: That's only part of the island. There's a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There's beautiful...
Lecter: Terns?...If I help you, Clarice, it will be 'turns' for us, too. Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no? Yes or no, Clarice? Poor little Catherine is waiting.
Clarice: Go, doctor.
I've posted this elsewhere on this story, but it's worth pointing out that we've been transporting nuclear material by road for quite some time, and without major incident.
Part of the reason behind this is that the containers used for shipping are deigned to withstand a collision from a fully-loaded high speed train.
That sort of accident is extremely unlikely, given that trains are not permitted to run at high speeds through grade crossings, while commercial/hazmat truck drivers are required to make a full stop at such crossings. I'm having trouble finding any record of an at-grade high speed collision (the Acela once hit a car while traveling at 70mph, while France's TGV has been operating for 25+ years without a single fatal accident).
Nevertheless, should extreme stupidity prevail, the container would still survive. It's hard to imagine an incident that would breach the container without also killing the pathogens stored inside.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Think of it from another perspective: This facility will attract thousands of scientists and researchers to the (sparsely populated) area, most of whom will be registered voters.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Think of all the money saved by not having to outfit the place with centrifuges.
Tornado? We're worried about a tornado? Build it like a nuclear containment dome, and we're just fine. People inside won't even know there's a storm, with an F5 tornado dancing on top of it. And NIMBYs are just another variety of people trying to stop something, come at a dime a dozen, and deserve to be ignored like all the others.
M-o-o-n... that spells Kansas!
Like what? -40 temperatures are not a "disaster". The lacks of people and natural disasters is probably why the AF a big part of put so many missiles in Minot.
Before you were shipped off to ND, did anyone tell you how there were beautiful women there behind every tree?
Oddly enough, we already have facilities in highly questionable locations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_Level
Look for:
"National Biocontainment Facility"
"Shope Laboratory"
These are Biosafety level 4 facilities in Galveston, Texas.
They have hurricanes in Galveston... Big ones...
No, I don't believe it! Everything they do makes total sense!
Oh, hang on, the doorbell just rang. Looks like some guys in dark suits. Wonder what they want.
My house has been sitting in Kansas since 1964. It has never received tornado damage. It was never built to survive a tornado either. The bio-defense facility is going to be a modern and more-or-less tornado proof building. Simple construction techniques can make buildings pretty much indestructible. An earth wall with a 3-4 foot high concrete wall on top of that with a total height the same as the facility would be enough to protect the facility from even the most powerful tornadoes. I just don't see this as a problem.
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
I've lived in the Fort Riley area for 20+ years.
Growing up in northeast Kansas, I'm aware of the stereotypes. Fort Riley has a large influx of migrating soldiers and their families who echo your sentiments.
The most common complaint is "There's nothing to do here in Kansas".
Being a geeky kid, I shrug. Each city I've lived in had around 20+ fast food joints (due to the soldiers and college kids), a few movie theaters, and malls + shopping centers if that's what they meant. Sure, we lack a major league sports franchise. Kansas City is the closest and I always hated having to drive there to attend a Magic: the Gathering tournament.
There's not many concerts/conventions here except for Kansas State University's events & the annual country music one.
I wish we had better ISP choices. COX cable is tolerable, & I detest AT&T/SBC DSL. Some places near the Missouri border get Timewarner/Roadrunner instead. We also lack GOOD public transportation. Owning a car is a necessity.
I grew up thinking this area was safe from tornados. I was wrong, I experienced my first one last year. We had a flood in 1993 but my side of town was unaffected.
What do you expect from a region of the country that has been largely responsible for the tilting of our national diet towards corn?
From Wikipedia:
The agricultural outputs of the state are cattle, sheep, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, hogs, corn, and salt.
Growing up here, I've not seen many corn fields compared to wheat and soybeans. And I was surprised to see sheep, cotton, and salt mentioned.
I've met many people who produce beef, hogs, wheat, and soybeans however. But that's just my personal experience.
Teaching of religious "alternatives" to evolution?
I'm passing the blame here. I've never been taught creationism in public school. We do have a lot of Catholics & Protestants residents however. Dr. George Tiller was murdered in nearby Wichita, Kansas. On a junior high school field trip to Topeka, we saw Fred Phelps picketing the roadways from our school buses. Before that day, I never witnessed a hate-group.
Unconstitutional "homeland" "security"? Preemptive warmaking in the name of "freedom"?
Thanks to the political primaries and low population density, a bunch of ignorant and extremely socially conservative idiots have been driving and heavily influencing our political landscape.
Kansas can't help but be associated with Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, & Nebraska on locale. We are a "red state" but our recently former governor is Kathleen_Sebelius who I'm proud to say I've met personally.
I spent a lot of time with table-top gaming, Magic: the Gathering, and LAN parties. Most of the soldiers I met were very cool and down-to-earth. Instead of trying to recruit me, they actively warned me about the downsides of military life. They were funny, quick thinkers, skilled, and had amazing stories. But each moved out-of-state when their military-service was complete.
I'm sympathetic to the soldiers. Most need the job for income. But they get treated poorly. If they are lucky enough to return from duty, they usually face high divorce rates and health problems.
So far, you have stereotyped this entire region and I'm disappointed. I would have expected more convincing facts, and less inane drivel from an intellectual authority such as yourself.
Disclaimer: I am a student at Kansas State University who has lived in Iowa, Missouri, Georgia, and Germany.
Well, technology changes, we can create more secure labs, and in the case of an attack from, say, another country, it's a lot better to have this located in the center of our country far away from any border. Moving it isn't 100% secure, but these things are already moving around the country whenever we bring them to the existing labs. Personally, I'd rather it be in Kansas than at the CDC which was across the street from the summer camp I used to work at.
The 520,000 square-foot facility is scheduled to begin construction in 2010, become operational by 2014, and employ up to 300 people.
The shift in voters wouldn't be huge. But the town's economy depends on the University and we become a ghost town during summer.
Also to be at some point on the receiving end of this whole debacle: a lot of very curious and very dead Munchkins.
That Island was perfectly good enough to offer to Hannibal Lecture as a vacation spot, why is it too good for these diseased animals?
"Don't be a martyr -- BE THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY!"
I think that it is funny that it is just now getting to the news about the NBAF facility being built in Kansas. Having lived the past 2 years in the town it is moving to (Manhattan, KS) I have already heard lots about it.
One of the reasons that it is moving to KS is the fact that there are many people who are experts in these diseases already in Manhattan. Kansas State University has a good Animal science program.
Tornadoes should not be that big of deal. If they are smart about their construction it should be able to withstand almost anything. Other people have also mentioned the small likelihood of a tornado hitting the facility. There is a very large amount of area that tornado alley covers and relatively little of it is populated densley.
Some people don't like the fact that this dangerous of facility is coming to Kansas, but many people are glad for the economic boost it will provide.
This is absolutely absurd. I live in the Manhattan, Kansas area and to hear people actually questioning the location of this lab because of tornadoes is beyond stupid. Anyone who lives in the Midwest would know that tornadoes aren't actually as common as people apparently think they are. The chances of a tornado hitting the exact location the NBAF lab is to be built is next to nothing. Of course, anything is possible, but it's not likely. There's 50,000 people in Manhattan and we don't spend our lives in constant fear of being killed in a tornado. I've never once in my life ever witnessed even a funnel cloud and I've only heard tornado sirens go off a few times. In the last 100 years, Manhattan has been hit by two tornadoes: once sometime in the 60s and another time in 2008 (it caused pretty minimal damage). I will admit that there are valid questions about locating the NBAF lab in Kansas (mostly the proximity to livestock that could be infected by some of the diseases and placing it in the middle of the mainland continential US rather than an isolated island), but the article makes it sound like the decision to locate it in Kansas was made purely for politcal reason. It wasn't. The primary reason for putting it in Manhattan was to place it near Kansas State University, a college that specializes mostly in agriculture and the fact that a similar, but smaller facility already exists here. Anywho, I best be leaving. Gotta head down to the shelter before the twisters come and suck up me and maw and paw and the lil'uns..... Also, LAWL at the comments suggesting the entire facility be built underground. Does Kansas really have that bad of a reputation elsewhere in the world?
Have the people writing sentences like "a remote island off Long Island, New York" ever looked out the plane window when flying over..oh, say the rest of the continent? How is anything connected at all to Long Island even close to remote?
Remote is driving straight on the most populated road for 60 minutes in hopes that you'll find a gas station, not "off the shore of one of the most heavily populated areas in the nation".
Trust me, tornados can rip apart brick, and steel buildings just like a trailer home. I live in a town that has been hit multiple times. I also have searched for survivors while the rain and hail was still falling minutes after a tornado. I agree that with the right construction, buildings can survive, but it takes a lot more thought and better construction than the government would be willing to do. 2009 Lone Grove Oklahoma Tornado.
Spills or leaks of radioactive materials don't spread like contagious diseases.
:).
There's also the steps of getting stuff into that secure container.
Hopefully they don't use this as an opportunity to screw up the labeling
Actually, the presence of the Ogallala aquifer in Nebraska and Kansas means that the water table can be quite close to the surface. In my home town, especially in the southern area, the water table is actually near the level of your average basement. Anything more than an half inch of rain falls, and some people are gonna be pumping water out of their basements.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
If you're using the proper container, spills and leaks should be virtually impossible, especially given the fact that these samples are likely to be fairly small, meaning that they can be encased in many inches of steel. (If the government is hoarding tanker trucks of pathogens, we have a separate issue to deal with)
My original post linked to a video showing a nuclear waste container remaining completely intact after a firey head-on collision with a high speed train -- pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a truck (or a train for that matter).
If you somehow manage to breach the container, it seems fairly likely that you'd destroy the sample inside in the process. (You could also line the container with something flammable or explosive that would ignite at the first sign of trouble, and destroy the sample without compromising the container)
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
H23N67, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Kansas is an interesting choice, its one of the prime areas for cattle mutilations. Perhaps the Feds are trying to make life easier for themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_mutilation
I assume its to keep the diseases inert - since Kansas is one of the few places in the world evolution doesn't happen... :P
Kansas has problems with Evolution, but they have no problem with Armegeddon and Plagues.
-Eric
How else can the government orchestrate the necessary die-off? See you at the FEMA camp, you fuckin' animals!
Remember that the British government finally admitted that they were the ones who released Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), not once, but twice, into the wild and then killed over 6,000,000 healthy animals in their burnt ground policy? How comforting that our government is on top of things, too. Not. Visit http://nonais.org/ [nonais.org] and see what this means. Our government would do the same for us...
Out of curiosity, I'm wondering if it's common for US houses to be of the wooden construction I often see in videos / pictures of the US. Essentially we have a similar albeit much smaller structure in most UK gardens called a "garden shed". ;-) If the lab was constructed mainly of wood I could see some concern in placing it in a "tornado alley" region.
Anyway, my question is as follows - are there many wooden-constructed homes in the US compared to more reasonable materials like brick or stone? If so, what is the rationale behind this?
This lab will be within eyesight of Kansas State University's recreation center, basketball coliseum AND football stadium. My Alma Mater was more than willing to receive this blatant pork-barrel largesse that could well have an associated body count. They've been crowing about it in the alumni mag for months now.
I happen to live in the town that the NBAF lab is scheduled to be built in. There was minimal an largely ineffectual noise made here when the project was announced. A few people feel that living in proximity to lethal viruses is maybe a bad thing. All in all, not a huge public outcry. It seemed (still seems really) that the project will go forth and multiply, as it were.
As for the whole "Tornado Alley OMGWTF" business: this was all started by Texas. Texas was butt hurt that they didn't land the project because, after all, who has even HEARD of Kansas? At first they tried to file an injunction to stop the process because there were going to be tornadoes here. That didn't go over too well with the courts, so they tried again arguing that Kansas law stipulates that land offered for federal projects has to be given unconditionally and that the current proffered land grant is conditional on the fact that said lab would actually be built. That direction seems to be landing too a little short of its mark.
A couple of things:
1) We had a smallish tornado here last year. Prior to that the last tornado we had here was nigh 20 years ago and it touched down for about 30 seconds. I've lived here for 30 years and I don't fear tornadoes.
2) I almost guarantee that the paper trail of this tornado-leveling-NBAF scare leads directly to Texas politicians. It seems they're going to try their damnedest to keep this in a court somewhere until such time as the feds give up and just plant the thing in Galveston. "Try" is the operative word here. I'm no fan of Sam Brownback, but he's a pretty powerful influence on Capitol Hill and doggedly determined to get this lab landed in my back yard.
3) Texas sucks.
Everybody just chill-- they'll build the Bio facility and surround it with tower-like structures for added TowerDefense. It's a strat called AggroDefense: I saw it done in WC3 Battle.net once.
Let's see "Department of Homeland Security is relying on a rushed, flawed study"
This sounds like every bill passed by the Thundering Herd of Dumbass formerly know as Congress this year.
Rushed and flawed should be the motto of the Obama Administration!
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
As if the eastern end of Long Island doesn't get hit by hurricanes.
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
Before you were shipped off to ND, did anyone tell you how there were beautiful women there behind every tree?
It's true, she's smokin' hot! It is a really nice tree too.