Fake Grenade Causes Airport Scare

— -- A fake grenade sparks a scare at a San Diego airport; the CDC is starting smallpox training; Sept. 11 victims honored with 1,500 quilts; a memorial on Aspen mountain opens, and interest in Islam surges.

Fake Grenade on San Diego Flight

S A N D I E G O , Dec. 17 — A woman boarded a plane with a security screener's bag that held a fake grenade, which rolled onto thefloor and delayed takeoff for hours.

Authorities don't know how Lolita Austria got the bag Sunday and were conducting a petty theft investigation. Austria, 57, of Rochester, N.Y., was questioned and released.

"She made a big mistake one way or the other," said Port District spokeswoman Rita Vandergaw. "Whether it was inadvertent or not, she shouldn't have had that bag."

Austria picked up a small shopping bag holding a sweatshirt at the end of an X-ray screening baggage ramp at Lindbergh Field,authorities said. The bag also contained a fake grenade used to test security.

The checkpoint security personnel had successfully completed a test using the test grenade on the machine moments before Austria entered the security checkpoint area, a Port District news release said.

After boarding American Airlines Flight 788, Austria pulled the sweatshirt out of the bag and saw the grenade. She "began to panic and alerted flight personnel that the item was not hers," the news release said. The grenade then rolled onto the floor.

The flight, bound for Chicago, sat for more than three hours on the runway while crews came to the scene. All passengers were takenoff the aircraft and rescreened before the plane left.

— The Associated Press

CDC Begins Training for Small Pox

A T L A N T A, Dec. 17 — The government isn't taking any chances about smallpox.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has started training state and local health officials on how to recognize smallpox.

They'll also discuss how to quickly contain an outbreak.

The CDC classes in Atlanta will last for three days.

Health officials say there's no real evidence that intentionally released smallpox is any more of a threat than it was before Sept. 11.

But the CDC wants to make sure state and local health officials don't confuse smallpox in its early stages with less dangerous infections, like chickenpox or even syphilis.

Smallpox is an extremely contagious and deadly virus.

A top CDC official says, "It's a sad day that we feel this meeting is necessary." But he says, hopefully it's a "big waste of time."

—The Associated Press

Quilts Delivered for Terror Victims’ Families

DES MOINES, Iowa , Dec. 17 — She wishes she could put her armsaround all of the families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks. Since she can't — she figured she'd give themeach a quilt, to represent a consoling embrace from the nation.

Betty Nielsen and other volunteers were in New York Sunday,to start giving away the 1,544 hand-made quilts that theyhad brought with them from rural Iowa.

She says she can't count all the hugs she received from familieswho lost loved ones. Nielsen tells the Des Moines Register theresponse was "way beyond our dreams."

The Freedom Quilt Project first grew into a statewide effort — and then a national one. It includes donations from nearly everystate.

Organizers began giving the quilts away Sunday at a freeshopping event organized by the city of New York for the victims'families.

One family member called it "a beautiful idea" — saying,"You knew it came from somebody's heart."

— The Associated Press

Aspen Mountain Gets Sept. 11 Memorial

A S P E N, Colo., Dec. 17 — An anonymous group of well-wishers has put up asign on Aspen Mountain to remember the victims of the September11th terrorist attacks.

The wooden sign reads "In remembrance of those…" with redroses on either side. Below that is a rendering of the New YorkCity skyline with the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

The sign also includes the words "May we know peace" and twoAmerican flags.

Aspen resident Gary Gleason says it's a connection in Aspen tothe events in New York. Gleason says he doesn't want to reveal whoerected the sign, which also asks people to write the names ofloved ones or post photos.

Aspen Mountain, also known as Ajax, also has memorials on itsslopes to Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, John Denver andJerry Garcia.

— The Associated Press

Interest in Islam Surges

W A S H I N G T O N , Dec. 17 — The Sept. 11 attacks on New York andWashington and the subsequent war in Afghanistan have generatedan enormous amount of interest in Islam, and schools,publishers and the media are scrambling to meet the newdemand.

The American Muslim Council this month sent to governmentagencies about 10,000 copies of a full-color brochureexplaining the basic tenets of Islam, which has over 1 billion believers worldwide and is the fastest-growing religionin the United States.

"On Sept. 12 and Sept. 13, the phone was just ringing andringing nonstop," said Zulfiya Kadir, a spokeswoman for thegroup. "All kinds of people were looking for information orwanting to express their opinion. Most of them weresupportive."

Scholastic Corp, a large children's publishingand media company, responded quickly after the Sept. 11 attacksand President Bush's call to avoid discriminatingagainst Muslim or Arab Americans.

The company, which reaches 25 million children in nearlyevery school across the United States, issued weekly magazinescrammed full with information about the attacks, maps ofAfghanistan and Muslims — all replete with calls fortolerance.

"We've gotten thousands upon thousands upon thousands ofresponses from teachers and also, obviously, students," saidDavid Goddy, editor-in-chief of Scholastic Magazines.

"They've been asking for, and we've been providing, a largevolume of material," he said.

Goddy said Scholastic had been including Islam in itscoverage of world religions for at least five years, drivenpartly by rising immigration to the United States from Muslimcountries and growing openness by teachers.

"The difference is that … where people are ignorant, theyadmit their ignorance, that people are open to learning aboutRamadan and the holidays of other religions," Goddy said. "Moreand more across the country, they are doing more to teachchildren about all of the different religions and the holidays.I think it's significantly more inclusive these days than itwas even five or 10 years ago."

Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, whichhas provided information kits sent to teachers by theNational Education Association, lauded Bush for his leadershipin preventing a greater backlash against Arab and MuslimAmericans.

"By near identical margins of 6 to 1, U.S. opinion has afavorable attitude toward Arab Americans and American Muslims,"Zogby wrote in a recent column," he said.

Moreover, he said, 83 percent of people polled in a recentsurvey said they were "concerned about the treatment of ArabAmericans during this crisis"; with 84 percent similarly"concerned about the treatment of Muslim Americans".

— Reuters