Ricin letter isn't first

WASHINGTON — A series of tests on a powder found in a Senate office mail room Monday confirmed that the substance is the deadly poison ricin, but no staffers have fallen ill from exposure, Capitol Hill police said Tuesday.

In another revelation, federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday that a letter containing ricin was found at a postal facility that processes mail for the White House in November. That investigation is tied to another package of ricin found a month earlier at a Greenville, S.C., mail distribution center. The officials would not provide further details about the two incidents, saying it is an ongoing investigation.

The package containing ricin that was intercepted in October was addressed to the Department of Transportation, Fox News reported, citing anonymous law enforcement officers. Both letters demanded that new federal regulations extending permissible hours for long-haul truck drivers not be put into force.

The letters were reportedly signed "Fallen Angel" and implied that if the demand was not met, the sender would make more ricin.

Monday's discovery prompted the closing of three Senate office buildings, including the Dirksen Senate Office Building where it was found in the mail room of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

To demonstrate to the world that Congress would not be intimidated, Frist sought to keep the Senate on as regular a schedule as possible. He announced that at least some Senate hearings, scrapped Tuesday, would be held in Capitol meeting rooms or in a House office building.

The three Senate buildings were likely to be closed for most of the week, at least. Senators were being told they could soon make quick trips to pick up papers, books and — in the case of Sen. John Breaux, D-La. — their goldfish.

On Tuesday, staffers of Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, worked from home.

"We're all using our laptops and Blackberries (wireless communication devices) and all the other high-tech equipment we have to work from our homes," said Mary Jane Collipriest, press secretary to Bennett.

Meanwhile, Bennett and Hatch themselves were working inside the U.S. Capitol inside their rarely used, small, "hideaway" offices there — along with a few top aides. They were able to participate from there in continuing Senate debates.

"Sen. Bennett was able to hold some of the meetings he had been scheduled with people there but had to cancel some," Collipriest said.