Police shut bridge to check truck, find no bomb

NEW YORK: Authorities shut down a major New York City bridge briefly late Wednesday and sent bomb squad investigators after an abandoned truck was reported, but found no explosives, police said.

Lieutenant Mike Wysokowski told AFP no bomb was found on the truck abandoned on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, also known as the Triboro Bridge.

The brief scare came just days after a failed bomb attack in Times Square raised fears of a new terror attack on the city, prompting a massive manhunt that led to the arrest of a Pakistani-American suspect.

Officials dispatched the bomb squad after the rental truck was found abandoned on the bridge, which links Manhattan to the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx.

Police said one person was seen leaving the truck on foot, sparking suspicion in the wake of the failed car bomb on a busy street near Times Square on Saturday.

NYC car bomb: suspect also carried a gun

NEW YORK: Faisal Shahzad, the suspect of failed bid to carry out car bomb attack in New York, not only eluded suriveillence but also carried a 9 millimeter handgun with him.

“I can”t give you the specifics, I can”t tell you why they lost surveillance on him,” said New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “It happens, we prefer it doesn”t happen.”

For at least 90 mintues, surveillance teams lost contact with a man accused of trying to set off a car bomb in Times Square.

“My understanding was that he was lost for several hours and obviously he came very close to getting out of the country,” said Rep. Peter King of New York.

According to a US news channel, by Sunday night, the FBI had not only identified Shahzad as a likely suspect, but knew of his whereabouts. By 12:30 Monday afternoon, Shahzad was placed on a no-fly list.

Also on Monday, a surveillance team was watching his apartment and monitoring his emails and phone calls. They could have arrested him, but sources tell CBS News they held back – hoping to uncover leads to other possible associates and plots.

By late Monday afternoon, he drove away from his Bridgeport, Connecticut apartment in his white Isuzu Trooper. Sources tell CBS News the surveillance team lost him in traffic as he drove south toward New York”s Kennedy airport.

“It”s only in TV and the movies where nothing goes wrong,” said former NYPD Officer Eugene O”Donnell, now a professor of police science.

Not only had Faisal Shahzad eluded a surveillance team, he was carrying a 9 millimeter hand gun with extra ammunition.

“If they had apprehended him at the airport and he pulled a gun in the parking lot – we could have had FBI agents losing their lives,” Rep. King said.

Or, perhaps he could have gone into the terminal shooting. Attorney General Eric Holder was confident the arrest would be made.

“I was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him,” Holder said.

But there are fears this story with a successful conclusion could have had a much different ending.

Fireworks store has video of Faisal Shahzad

NEW YORK: A suspect in the failed Times Square car bombing was videotaped at a Pennsylvania store buying fireworks, but store officials said Wednesday they weren”t strong enough to cause a mass detonation.

Faisal Shahzad bought fireworks from the Phantom Fireworks showroom in this small northeastern Pennsylvania town on March 8, said William Weimer, the store”s vice president. Shahzad bought six to eight boxes, each containing 36 Silver Salute M88 fireworks, a consumer-grade product made mostly of paper and cardboard.

Even if used together, the firecrackers could not have caused an explosion, Weimer said.

“The M88 he used wouldn”t damage a watermelon. Thank goodness he used that,” said Bruce Zoldan, president of Ohio-based Phantom Fireworks. He said law enforcement authorities asked that the video not be made public.

Each M88 has an amount of pyrotechnic powder equal in size to less of a sixth of an aspirin. Fireworks purchased illegally can be up to 1,000 times more powerful, Zoldan said.

“There”s no doubt, had he bought this on the black market, that the outcome in New York would have been totally different,” Zoldan said.

Shahzad also purchased two fireworks shells designed to go off high in the air as well as two ground-based sparklers. The purchase totaled less than $100.

“It was a very unremarkable event,” Weimer said. “As our purchases go, it was a pretty modest purchase.”

Authorities in New York on Saturday found an SUV parked in Times Square that has been linked to Shahzad. Inside the car, authorities found cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with M88 fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate several gas cans, propane tanks and fertilizer.

Shahzad was charged Tuesday in the plot to blow up the SUV. Authorities say Shahzad is cooperating with investigators, but don”t yet know whether others were involved.

In Pennsylvania, Shahzad had to show his driver”s license and fill out an application to buy the fireworks, Zoldan said. On the form, “the individual put his last name first, and his first name last, probably intentionally,” Zoldan said.

Phantom Fireworks requires proof of age and out-of-state residence to enter the store”s showroom because of laws that prohibit Pennsylvanians from buying most fireworks. The store is off an interstate near the New York border.

Weimer said the fireworks Shahzad purchased could never have worked as he intended.

“If this fellow was intent on having firecrackers chain fuse and mass detonate, he was just barking up the wrong tree. That would never happen,” Weimer said.

Zoldan said law enforcement authorities have viewed surveillance video from the store and asked that it not be made public.

“We sell our product to celebrate America”s birthday and America”s freedom and this person was buying this product to destroy America”s freedom, and to destroy the security of people walking the streets,” Zoldan said. “We”re disappointed.”

baskin robbins 31 cent scoop night

Get an ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins for 31 cents tonight between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. I already promised my girls I’d bring them over after dinner.

They do this every year and every year they use it as a chance to point out that they support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The Web site says you’ll be able to donate to your local fire fighter charity at the store. />Which raises a question I have for you all: When you go to an event like this where a company gives you something free or cheap but then is taking donations, do you make the day

jack in the box

TrendPK.com Jack In The Box
57930 29 Palms Highway
Yucca Valley CA 92284-5878
Phone: (760) 369-0904
Store# : 3306
Featuring: Drive-Thru
Jack In The Box:
Jack in the Box (NASDAQ: JACK) is an American fast-food restaurant founded in 1951 in San Diego, California, where it is still headquartered today. In total, the chain has 2,100 locations; primarily serving the [...]

Next Page »