Tularemia

Zeus the wonder dog scared up a rabbit near the house the other day. Go ahead and mock me for mentioning it, but in the rabbit department, that's big news. Because in our suburban village, out on the western rind of Cook County, I haven't seen more...

WASHINGTON -- Year after year, health officials meeting at invitation-only government conferences leveled with one another about BioWatch, the nation's system for detecting deadly pathogens that might be unleashed into the air by terrorists. They...

WASHINGTON — For two years, the nationwide BioWatch system, intended to protect Americans against a biological attack, operated with defective components that left it unable to detect lethal germs, according to scientists with direct knowledge of...

It's possible that not every problem has a technological solution. That will come as a shock to U.S. policymakers, who since the 9/11 terrorist attacks have invested in multiple technologies to protect us from evildoers. Some have been a success, while...

WASHINGTON — Scientists who helped pioneer BioWatch, the government's system for detecting a biological attack on the U.S., knew from the start that it was prone to false alarms, records show. Between 2003, when the nationwide network of air...

Invasive species are a natural disaster waiting to happen. In some cases, there is a very real danger to humans, such as the Burmese Python in South Florida. In many cases, the threat to humans is indirect, yet no less important, such as Saltcedar's...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has rushed to acquire a new, multibillion-dollar version of the BioWatch system for detecting biological attacks without establishing whether it was needed or would work, according to a new...

DENVER — As Chris Lindley drove to work that morning in August 2008, a call set his heart pounding. The Democratic National Convention was being held in Denver, and Barack Obama was to accept his party's presidential nomination before a crowd of...

Area outdoors people have been reporting an uptick in, well, ticks this spring. But pinning the blame on a mild winter for an upswing in numbers may not be a catch-all answer anymore. The upswing could be simply because of the tick's normal expansion...

It is officially spring and my preparations and patience waiting for the snow and ice storms were not needed. I feel it is only remotely possible to have a winter-like storm now, so, I say let’s prepare for warmer weather. Because of the lack of...