Watercooler Stories

MOBSTERS MAY HAVE TAPPED SCHOOL COMPUTERS

Security officials at Arizona State University say that organized crime figures in far away Russia may have infiltrated computers on the school's campus, and possibly at as many as four other American schools. The Arizona Republic is reporting that officials say that hard-drive units from as many as 20 of the school's computers have been seized by federal security officials who are checking them for a "paper trail."

The Secret Service has confirmed that the investigation is underway.

The hackers have apparently found ways to plant a "seed" in the computers that sets up a program that records all in-house transactions then relays them back to the hacker's master computers.

TONS OF ASH HEADED FOR MIAMI

No, a volcano hasn't erupted in the Everglades. But, nonetheless, officials in Miami tell the Miami Herald that tons of ash are headed for the south Florida city. The controversial ash has been rejected by countries as far away as Turkey. But now it's coming to Miami ... at least for a while.

The ash was the produce of months of burning of waste in Philadelphia some 16 years ago. The residue was then loaded on a barge. The barge has been like "the man without a country" for more than a decade. Now, the globe-trotting barge of ash will finally be headed for disposal back in Pennsylvania, where the trek started.

But, in the meanwhile, it will be traversing the Port of Miami, finally to be loaded on boxcars for the trip north.

Back in 1987 the ash almost found a home ... in Haiti. But when locals discovered it was not the fertilizer-type ash they thought, they wouldn't let the barge unload its unwanted cargo.

ERNIE PYLE'S ALMA MATER FINALLY HONORED

When the folks at the Hasbro toy company put out a G.I. Joe doll to honor award-winning World War II journalist Ernie Pyle, it got the biographical information on the box wrong. In a piece of mistaken writing that would have driven the journalist batty, Hasbro said that Pyle was a graduate of Indiana State University, not Indiana University.

This did not sit well with the people at Indiana University, nor the thousands of journalism students -- myself included -- who spent long semesters sitting in Ernie Pyle Hall on the I.U. campus.

The Indianapolis Star says that Hasbro has no plans to correct the mistake, unless there is a second production run of the doll.

Pyle was killed by sniper fire during the Pacific "island hopping" campaign, but not before he penned several books and hundreds of articles in which he became the "voice of the G.I. overseas" to millions of faithful readers back in the States. One of his titles tells it all: "This is Your War."

SUSPICIOUS POWDER FOUND AT CNN

The mailroom at the main headquarters of CNN was evacuated for a time Tuesday, after workers at the sprawling Atlanta facility say they found an envelope in the mailroom containing a "suspicious" powder. The network tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that about 15 people were involved in the evacuation.

One employee told the publication that when word got around about the discovery it was "pretty scary." CNN employees, of course, immersed as they are in current events, were well aware of the possible consequences had the substance been anthrax-laden.

Atlanta fire and police personnel responded, taking the envelope away for official testing. CNN says it kept its employees on top of the situation as it evolved. Meanwhile, an investigation is continuing.