MAILINGS Newspapers in southern states receive letters containing suspicious powder

ATLANTA (AP) -- Two newspapers in southern states were the latest to receive letters containing suspicious white powder, raising to four the number of newspapers that have reported receiving such mailings.
Both The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer and The Atlanta Journal Constitution received the letters Monday.
The envelope that arrived in Atlanta was sent from Virginia and contained a three-page, single-spaced letter claiming the powder was poison, said Madelyn R. Adams, The Journal Constitution's vice president of administration and diversity. The newspaper said the letter was discovered by mail screeners.
The FBI is investigating the envelope, which is similar to envelopes that have been sent to other newspapers around the country in recent days, the newspaper said.
In Charlotte, the fire department's Hazardous Materials Team couldn't immediately determine what the substance was but said it posed no immediate threat to employees at that newspaper.
Note
The package included a typed note with comments critical of the Iraq war and of President Bush, said John McDonald, a security official with The Observer. He said the first line of the letter said the substance was snail bait.
The letter was addressed to The Observer, but no one in particular. McDonald said. The address and return address of a post office box in Arlington, Va., were both computer-generated.
The Plain Dealer in Cleveland received a similar envelope Saturday with a letter that claimed the powder contained snail poison, but it was determined to be onion powder and other seasonings. A day earlier, The Des Moines Register also received such a package, prompting the evacuation of 70 employees at the newspaper. No one was injured.
Both of those envelopes also came from Virginia.