2008 Woodie Awards
Doomsday threat closes school
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: News
'You can never be too cautious': Two Midwest colleges reopen after graffiti threats, 3rd closed
1 CHICAGO (AP) - Two colleges returned to normal class schedules after a promised doomsday scrawled in graffiti came and went without incident, but one university remained closed Tuesday as administrators weighed the seriousness of the threats.
Administrators told students and nonessential personnel to remain off campus at St. Xavier University, where a message in a bathroom reading "Be prepared to die on 4/14" resulted in empty campuses Monday not only at the Catholic liberal arts college on the city's southwest side, but also at four nearby elementary and high schools.
Unlike officials at St. Xavier, administrators at Malcolm X College, a public school west of downtown, and Michigan's Oakland University decided to resume classes Tuesday.
Malcolm X evacuated students and canceled daytime classes Monday after a similar threat was found in a campus bathroom. Administrators closed Oakland because of threatening graffiti mentioning April 14.
"We feel it is safe to return to normal operations Tuesday," Oakland University Chief of Police Sam Lucido said in a statement.
Scientists say California faces an almost certain risk of a strong earthquake by 2037
2 LOS ANGELES (AP) - California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said in the first statewide temblor forecast.
New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years. The odds of such an event are higher in Southern California than Northern California, 97 percent versus 93 percent.
"It basically guarantees it's going to happen," said Ned Field, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena and lead author of the report.
The 1994 Northridge earthquake under Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley was magnitude 6.7. It killed 72 people, injured more than 9,000 and caused $25 billion in damage in the metropolitan area.
1 CHICAGO (AP) - Two colleges returned to normal class schedules after a promised doomsday scrawled in graffiti came and went without incident, but one university remained closed Tuesday as administrators weighed the seriousness of the threats.
Administrators told students and nonessential personnel to remain off campus at St. Xavier University, where a message in a bathroom reading "Be prepared to die on 4/14" resulted in empty campuses Monday not only at the Catholic liberal arts college on the city's southwest side, but also at four nearby elementary and high schools.
Unlike officials at St. Xavier, administrators at Malcolm X College, a public school west of downtown, and Michigan's Oakland University decided to resume classes Tuesday.
Malcolm X evacuated students and canceled daytime classes Monday after a similar threat was found in a campus bathroom. Administrators closed Oakland because of threatening graffiti mentioning April 14.
"We feel it is safe to return to normal operations Tuesday," Oakland University Chief of Police Sam Lucido said in a statement.
Scientists say California faces an almost certain risk of a strong earthquake by 2037
2 LOS ANGELES (AP) - California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, scientists said in the first statewide temblor forecast.
New calculations reveal there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike in the next 30 years. The odds of such an event are higher in Southern California than Northern California, 97 percent versus 93 percent.
"It basically guarantees it's going to happen," said Ned Field, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena and lead author of the report.
The 1994 Northridge earthquake under Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley was magnitude 6.7. It killed 72 people, injured more than 9,000 and caused $25 billion in damage in the metropolitan area.
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