Al-Jazeera, the Arab news service growing by leaps and bounds worldwide and spreading its reach into the western world, has a new name for suicide bombings –"Paradise Operations."
An accredited Arabic-language translator spied the new phrase in the current issue of the Arabic-language news site. In a story about the Russian foreign minister criticizing the Palestinian Authority for failing to combat terrorist movements, a paragraph reads:"Ariel Sharon ordered the defense minister Shaul Mofaz previously to undertake wide attacks on the movement of the Islamic Jihad, whose military wing yesterday undertook (am-ma-li-a al cha-deer-ra) operations of paradise, which killed five Israelis and injured tens of Israelis – or whoever was standing around."Previously suicide bombings have been called "ammaliat in-ta-har-i-a" – suicide operations.
They've been called everything from visionaries to vigilantes. Whatever you think of these self-described night watchmen of the border, the Minutemen seem to be right about one thing: "It's going to grow, and it's going to surprise a lot of people who were hoping we would go away," one Minuteman says.
The Minutemen have been trying to expand beyond Arizona, to California, New Mexico and Texas. To prove their increased numbers, they launched what they call a 30-day patrol this month with thousands of volunteers turning out to guard the border in all four states. "I think our next 9/11 is going to be coming right through this Southern border," Minuteman Dr. Lee Vickers says. Vickers, a veterinarian and a rancher, is helping to lead the charge in Texas. He estimates at least 100 illegal immigrants sneak across his ranch every single night. His duty as a Minuteman, he says, is simple: "To document this flood of people, to try to assist the border patrol to catch them and to show Washington what's going on andhow bad it really is," Vickers explains. But this month, the Minutemen also tried another tack — not just patrolling the border, but patrolling big cities with big immigrant populations. Chris Simcox is the organization's president. "Our job is to intimidate law enforcement," Simcox, president of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp, says. But they're not targeting law enforcement. They're targeting day laborers — undocumented immigrants, who gather on street corners looking for work while the Minutemen say police look the other way. "We want to go after the fact that people are employing illegal aliens and that's a violation of federal law," Simcox says. They're now videotaping those doing the hiring and if it scares off day laborers like Jose Sedillo in the process, that's O.K. too. One man told Cowan he would run if Minutemen appeared at his corner. "But I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just looking for work," he says. Critics argue it's not only unreasonable to expect the police do to the work of the immigration officers, but it's practically impossible. "They don't have enough police officers to keep the city as safe as it needs to be, and putting them in charge of border enforcement would be a massive disaster," Rene Wizig-Barrios of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a non-partisan community political group, says. Either way, Vickers isn't proud of trying to shame his government into fixing the problem, but as he puts it: "We have no other choice, we're on our own out here," he says. Not a new frontier, but an old one, growing more crowded by the day.
US President George W. Bush's administration is urging nations from China to the former Soviet states to deny overflight rights to aircraft from North Korea that the United States says are carrying weapons technology.
Citing two senior administration officials, the newspaper said that at the same time, the administration is accelerating an effort to place radiation detectors at land crossings and at airports throughout Central Asia. The devices are intended to monitor the North Koreans and the risk that nuclear weapons material could be removed from facilities in the former Soviet states. The new campaign was speeded up this summer after a previously undisclosed incident in June, when American satellites tracked an Iranian cargo plane landing in North Korea. The two countries have a history of missile trade -- Iran's Shahab missile is a derivative of a North Korean design -- and intelligence officials initially suspected the plane was picking up missile parts. The paper said that rather than watch silently, senior Bush administration officials began urging nations in the area to deny the plane the right to fly over their territory. China and at least one Central Asian nation cooperated, according to senior officials. The officials said they believed the Iranian plane left without its cargo, but they were not sure. Nonetheless, the new effort underscored the efforts the administration is undertaking to curb the North's exports of missile parts, drugs and counterfeit currency that are widely believed to be its main source of revenue and the way it finances its nuclear program. In interviews, the officials insisted that the more aggressive tactics would enhance the effort by the US to continue negotiations over disarming North Korea, which have lasted for two years and resulted last month in a statement of broad principles to disarm, but no agreement about when or how, the paper pointed out.
Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski was a professional wrestler considered a man of the people because of his blue-collar Milwaukee roots.
Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski
Lisowski died Saturday night at the age of 79. His son David Lisowski told reporters that his father never fully recovered from surgeries to remove a tumor at the base of his brain stem. Promoter Frank DeFalco called Lisowski a constant in the world of wrestling in a career that went from the 1950s to the 1970s. Lisowski learned to wrestle while in the Army in Germany during World War II. His son says one night after his father returned he accepted a fight in a carnival ring for the prize of one dollar. He won and then never looked back. The beer-drinking, cigar-chomping wrestler began his career as a bad guy but people liked him anyway. He told a reporter in 1985 that his popularity in Milwaukee came because of his worker roots. Lisowski said he worked in a packing house, in manufacturing and was a bricklayer before he gave up punching the clock for fighting in the ring.
The Amish, whose religion dictates that they keep their distance from outsiders and modern conveniences, didn't want to get political.
But they say a township's restrictions on the size of home-based businesses prevent them from opening woodworking shops at a time when small farming is no longer profitable enough. Such shops allow them to continue to work alongside their children - one of the tenets of the Amish lifestyle. And now they're campaigning to eliminate the zoning laws on Nov. 8. "There's never been a campaign like this before amongst our people," said Nathaniel Byler, one of three Amish men who circulated a petition to put the zoning issue on the ballot. Geauga County has an estimated 12,000 Amish, the fourth-largest settlement in the world, and horse-drawn buggies are as common a sight on Huntsburg Township roads as Fords or Chevrolets. Amish children walk the roads, worn rough from horseshoes, waving with a shy smile at passing cars. Two years ago, Byler's son applied to build a cabinetmaking shop larger than the 1,000 square feet allowed under the township's zoning code. He was denied by the zoning inspector, then the board of zoning appeals. He tried to point out that none of his neighbors objected to the 4,000-square-foot shop he planned. The township's trustees told him to file a "friendly lawsuit" against them so it could be resolved in court. "That's not the Amish way of life," Byler said. "There's three words that I don't like: court, suing, judge. It's not scriptural to sue someone." However, the Amish agreed to try the court system. It took two years for Byler's son to get his permit to build. Township trustee Clark Adams said he's always been supportive of the Amish, and understands their need to open shops. But he says the trustees have been advised by the county prosecutor that the best way for them to handle such zoning requests is through the courts. "We feel we've found a solution, but they don't want to abide by it," he said. At the same time the lawsuit was filed, the Amish formed a committee with the trustees to work out an alternative solution. "They led us on to believe that they'll work with us," Byler said. "It never happened." He and other Amish men say economic forces no longer make small farming profitable and they need more than 1,000 square feet for their shops. "We did not want to do this but we have to look out for our family," Byler said. The Amish estimate they have about 500 registered voters in the township of 3,500 residents and are asking the non-Amish to support their ballot issue. They also plan to hire four or five taxis to take them to the polls on Election Day - the Amish are permitted to ride in cars, but are not allowed to drive or own them.
There is nothing in the Amish religion that prohibits putting an issue on the ballot, said Donald Kraybill, a sociologist and Amish expert at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. But Kraybill said he's never heard of it happening before. Less than 10 percent of the Amish voted in the last presidential election, and they tend to vote more often on local issues such as school levies, he said. "In many communities, as their numbers have grown, they have experienced more political activism, more political power," Kraybill said. Adams, who has been a trustee for 40 years, said he's surprised the Amish took the matter to the voters. He said he's come up with an alternative that would allow property owners to build bigger shops depending on their acreage. But he said it will be a moot point if the issue passes.
After a Washington Post story suggesting that Vice President Dick Cheney’s office is involved in the Plame-CIA investigation, rumors are flying around Washington that Cheney might step aside – and be replaced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"If that should happen, there will undoubtedly be those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated – another brilliant Machiavellian move by the VP,” a White House insider told Paul Bedard of U.S. News & World Report. Some observers are whispering that the driving force behind the Rice-for-Cheney scenario is political pundit Dick Morris’ new book "Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race.” In the book, Morris and co-author Eileen McGann warn that Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the U.S. unless she can be stopped. And Condoleezza Rice, they say, is the only Republican who can win the GOP nomination, beat Hillary and hold on to the White House for the GOP. A move now to elevate Condoleezza to the vice president’s position would better prime her for a run against Hillary in 2008.
A phone scam asking for credit card numbers is targeting veterans in Minnesota and across the country. Officials said an organization calling itself Patient Care Group is scamming veterans. The organization tells veterans it is handling prescriptions for the VA and tells people if they want to continue getting their medicine, they will need to provide a credit card number. “The VA has not changed the way it dispenses prescriptions,” said Tom Ramsey, Director of Pharmacy at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center. “If veterans or their families receive such calls, they should under no circumstances give out their credit card numbers. Veterans who have received similar calls are asked to call the St. Cloud VA at 320-255-6381. Officials from the St. Cloud VA add that no one, including veterans, should give their credit card information out in a phone call they have not initiated.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that she has no interest whatsoever in running for president.
Condoleezza Rice
But Dick Morris, whose new book, "Condi vs. Hillary," makes the case for a Rice presidential campaign in 2008, tells reporters, "Unlike in dating, no doesn't always mean no in politics." "We have always known that Condi does not plan to run and does not want to run," he said. "She is focused on being a good secretary of state as opposed to hoping something higher up on the food chain materializes. That is one of the things that makes her so attractive." "The real question," says Morris, "is would she refuse to run if millions of Americans cast votes for her and she appeared to be on the way to winning the nomination?"
Dick Morris
The architect of President Clinton's re-election victory said the temptation for Rice to enter the race will be irresistible, predicting, "I believe Condi will do her duty." "I believe her commitment to this nation and her belief that events often ask us to go out of our normal path to serve the greater good would impel her to run and to win." Rice's claim that running for president is not "what I want to do with my life," notes Morris, "falls far short of the standard formulation for declining a nomination, which was set by General Sherman in 1884 when he said: 'If nominated, I refuse to run. If elected, I refuse to serve.'" Rice, he said, "stopped well short of that," proving that"in politics, no doesn't mean no."
White Sox Advance To World Series. First Time In 46 Years
Joe Crede homered to tie the game in the seventh inning and drove in the winning run with a single in the eighth following a huge error by Kelvim Escobar, as the Chicago White Sox clinched their first World Series berth in 46 years with a 6-3 victory over the LA ...Angels ...of...Anaheim. Jose Contreras became the fourth straight Chicago pitcher to throw a complete game, as the White Sox polished off the Angels in five games in the American League Championship Series.
If Michelle Kosinski's canoe had sprung a leak on NBC's "Today" show Friday, she didn't have much to worry about.
In one of television's inadvertently funny moments, the NBC News correspondent was paddling in a canoe during a live report about flooding in Wayne, N.J. While she talked, two men walked between her and the camera - making it apparent that the water where she was floating was barely ankle-deep. Matt Lauer struggled to keep a straight face, joking about the "holy men" who were walking on water. "Have you run aground yet?" Katie Couric asked. "Why walk when you can ride?" Kosinski replied. Later, an NBC News spokeswoman explained that Kosinski had been riding in deeper water near an overflowing river down the street, but there were concerns that the current was too strong for her. "It's not like we were trying to pass it off as something it wasn't," spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said. (Wink-Wink)
Culpepper, McKinnie, Smoot Raping & Pillaging on Vikings Cruise
Quarterback Daunte Culpepper, offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie and cornerback Fred Smoot are on a list of Minnesota Vikings football players whom investigators are interested in questioning about asex party on charter boats on Lake Minnetonka, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation said.
The list, which has been given to investigators and Vikings team officials by the charter boat company, names 17 players whom crew members identified as passengers on the boats during an Oct. 6 outing. Some players on the list allegedly participated in sex acts. The list also includes players who apologized for the behavior of some teammates and who tried to protect the charter boat employees. Authorities were trying to determine how many players on the list they should interview as witnesses or potential participants in lewd behavior. It was unclear how many other passengers were also of interest to investigators. Culpepper declined to comment when asked this week what he knew of the cruise. McKinnie told reporters to "get over it." Smoot has repeatedly denied that he organized the party. A Vikings team spokesman had no comment Friday about the list. The list of players is based on the recollections of crew members. After the reporters obtained the names on the list, the news agencys attempted to contact all of the players and was able to reach 13. Most declined to comment. One player on the list, running back Mewelde Moore, confirmed he was on a boat but said he didn't see any sexual activity. The list also includes: All-Pro defensive tackle Kevin Williams, tight end JermaineWiggins; running back Moe Williams; wide receivers Nate Burleson, Troy Williamson, Travis Taylor and Koren Robinson; cornerback Ralph Brown, and safety Darren Sharper. At least 90 people took the excursion on two yachts chartered from Al & Alma's Supper Club and Charter Cruises in Mound. Before the boat rides, Smoot came to the charter company in person to work out details for the party and put money down, the company's attorney Stephen Doyle has said. Both boats returned to shore 40 minutes into the 3½-hour cruise after crew members grew alarmed by the sexual activity, Doyle said. Crew members later reported the episode to police. Crew members reported that some players allegedly engaged in public sex acts, drank heavily and propositioned female crew members. The sex was apparently consensual, and some was photographed as passengers watched and cheered, Doyle said. The list turned over to investigators does not include every Vikings player who attended the boat parties. Doyle has said at least 20 players were aboard, but not all were identified by the crew. It is unclear which of the 17 engaged in lewd behavior and which ones aided the crew and apologized for the others.
The St. Paul mayoral election continues to intensify, as a debate on Tuesday clearly illustrated.
St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly debated Wednesday about taxes, education and public safety, although they did share a desire for the Twins to relocate to St. Paul. Kelly went on the offensive against Coleman, questioning his opponent’s character. “Quite honestly, I don’t know who Chris is. Four years ago he was supporting me,” Kelly said. Coleman defended himself, saying the election is about the better agenda for the city. “I have laid out my vision. It’s there for all to see and this election is about whose vision you prefer,” Coleman said. Regarding taxation, Kelly says he has tried to keep property taxes down. “We aught to make it harder for us to raise property taxes in this city. Harder for politicians to dig into our pockets,” he said.
Coleman responded, “This mayor is running as the anti-taxation candidate and it is simply without credibility. For thirty years in the state legislature there wasn’t a tax hike that he didn’t support.” The only agreement was that a St. Paul Twins stadium would benefit the city, although they disagreed on the method. “It could potentiall be a wonderful thing for the City of St. Paul, but it is not the responsibility of taxpayers to foot the majority of that bill,” said Coleman.
Timeline Shows How Columbus Day Became A National US Holiday
1792 a ceremony organized by the Society of St. Tammany, or Colombian Order was held in New York City honoring Columbus and the 300th anniversary of the landing.
Oct. 12 1866 out of the pride for their native son, the Italian population of New York organized the first celebration of the discovery of America.
1869 when Italians in San Francisco celebrated Oct. 12 they called it Columbus Day.
1892 President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the 400th anniversary of the event.
1905 Colorado became the first state to observe a Columbus Day.
Since 1920 the day has been celebrated annually.
1937 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every Oct. 12 as Columbus Day.
1968 President Johnson declared it a federal public holiday on the 2nd Mon. in Oct.
Details emerged, on Friday, about an alleged plot to attack New York City`s subways with bombs hidden in bags and possibly baby strollers as local and federal officials jostled over the credibility of the threat.
A Department of Homeland Security said the attack was reportedly scheduled to take place, on or around Sunday, with terrorists using timed or remote-controlled explosives hidden in briefcases, suitcases or under strollers. The memo said that the department had received information indicating the attack might be carried out by a team of terrorist operatives, some of whom may travel or who may be in the New York City area. The memo, issued on Wednesday, to state and local officials, said that homeland security and FBI agents doubted the credibility of the information, but it provided four pages of advice about averting a possible attack. In Iraq, authorities detained a third suspect in the plot and investigated whether a fourth had traveled to New York as part of the scheme, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. The official said the man`s trip to New York was described by an informant who had spent time in Afghanistan and proved reliable in past investigations. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, added that authorities had not confirmed whether the fourth man even exists. Those arrested had received explosives training in Afghanistan, the law enforcement official said on Friday. They had planned to travel through Syria to New York, and then meet with operatives to carry out the bombings. A federal official said one of the suspects arrested in Iraq apparently told interrogators that more than a dozen people were involved in the plot, and that they were of various nationalities, including Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Homeland security officials in Washington downplayed the threat and said it was of "doubtful credibility." But Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vigorously defended their decision to discuss the threat publicly, on Thursday. "If I am going to make a mistake you can rest assured it is on the side of being cautious," Bloomberg said at a news conference, on Friday. President Bush when asked, on Friday, if he thought New York officials had overreacted, said, "I think they took the information we gave and made the judgments they thought were necessary."
President George W. Bush defended his policy on Iraq again, calling the country a "central front" to fight terrorism and vowing "no retreat."
President Bush speaks before the National Endowment for Democracy at the Reagan Building in Washington
"Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response. We will never back down, never give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory," he said at a ceremony held by the National Endowment for Democracy to commemorate the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The speech is in a series of Bush's recent moves to step up defense of his policy on Iraq in the wake of waning domestic support for the war and next week's constitutional referendum in Iraq, which is seen as a crucial test for his Iraq policy. The President claimed that terrorists have made Iraq the "central front," because they believe that controlling one country will enable them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical empire that "spans from Spain to Indonesia." "The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity, and we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror," said Bush. He noted that his administration will not "rest until the war on terror is won." Bush also rejected growing criticism that US invasion of Iraq has fanned radicalism and terrorism. To those critics, he said he will "remind them that we were not in Iraq on Sept. 11, 2001, and al-Qaida attacked us anyway." Mentioning the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, he urged Americans to support his policy in order to "confront this mortal danger to all humanity." Bush added his government has foiled three terrorist strikes planned by al-Qaida on the US soil and seven others elsewhere since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Prosecutor reveals Third Grand Jury Had Refused DeLay Indictment
A Travis County grand jury last week refused to indict former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as prosecutors raced to salvage their felony case against the Sugar Land Republican. In a written statement Tuesday, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle acknowledged that prosecutors presented their case to three grand juries — not just the two they had discussed — and one grand jury refused to indict DeLay. When questions arose about whether the state's conspiracy statute applied to the first indictment returned last Wednesday, prosecutors presented a new money-laundering charge to second grand jury on Friday because the term of the initial grand jury had expired. Working on its last day Friday, the second grand jury refused to indict DeLay. Normally, a "no-bill" document is available at the courthouse after such a decision. No such document was released Tuesday. Earle's statement on Tuesday said he took money-laundering and conspiracy charges to a third grand jury on Monday after prosecutors learned of new evidence over the weekend. Lawyers for DeLay immediately called foul after Earle released his statement after 5 p.m. Tuesday. "What could have happened over the weekend?" said Austin lawyer Bill White, who represents DeLay. "They investigate for three years and suddenly they have new evidence? That's beyond the pale!" White suggested that Earle released his statement Tuesday because he feared reporters would learn about the no-bill. In his statement, Earle said he would have no further comment because grand jury proceedings are secret. DeLay's legal team, led by Houston lawyer Dick DeGuerin, has been taking to the airwaves to portray Earle as an incompetent prosecutor who is pursuing DeLay only as a political vendetta. "It just gets worse and worse," DeGuerin said. "He's gone to three grand juries over four days. Where does it stop?" The first grand jury, impaneled by state District Judge Mike Lynch, a Democrat, had spent six months hearing evidence that Republican groups had violated a state ban against spending corporate money in the 2002 campaigns, including the exchange of $190,000 of corporate money for the same amount of campaign donations from the Republican National Committee. The grand jury indicted DeLay on charges of conspiring to violate the state election laws, a state-jail felony. As DeLay's lawyers waited to raise an issue whether the conspiracy law applied to the election code, prosecutors apparently learned of the issue. According to Earle's Tuesday statement, prosecutors presented "some evidence" to a second grand jury impaneled by District Judge Julie Kocurek, a Republican, "out of an abundance of caution." It's unclear whether those grand jurors refused to indict DeLay on money-laundering charges, a first-degree felony, because of the evidence or because it was given to them on the last day of their 90-day term. Earle did not say in his statement what new evidence surfaced over the weekend. White, who said he doubts the evidence exists, challenged Earle to reveal it. Prosecutors also called Lynch's grand jurors over the weekend to poll them on how they would have voted on money-laundering charges if they had been given the chance. Then prosecutors tried again Monday with a new grand jury. When Monday's grand jury, impaneled by District Judge Brenda Kennedy, a Democrat, reported for its first day, Earle was there to ask them to indict the second most powerful Texan in Washington. About four hours later, the new felony indictments were returned. DeGuerin said he assumes Earle persuaded the third grand jury to act by telling them about the telephone poll of the grand jurors who had spent six months on the case. "That's outrageous," DeGuerin said. "That's criminal."
Several border area Congressmen said they're preparing to introduce a measure calling for a federally funded, sworn border militia to patrol the country's borders and assist the U.S. Border Patrol, the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal border security agencies, 1200 WOAI news reported today.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) says the proposal calls for the federal government to spend $100 million over several years to hire, train, and equip 'reserve deputies,' who would patrol the border under the authority of border county sheriffs. Cuellar said the measure is in response to the activities of the Minutemen and other civilian groups which have recently encamped in border areas of Texas and Arizona, and claimed to be helping report illegal immigrant activity. "These people would be trained, they would be sworn, they would be inside the law enforcement chain of command, and this would be a lot different than the Minutemen, who are out there on their own, and we don't know who they are or what their motives are," Cuellar said. Other members of Congress who Cuellar says have signed on as co sponsors include Republicans John Culbertson and Henry Bonilla, both of Texas. he said he expects to obtain additional co-sponsors before the measure is introduced, which he expects to occur before the end of October. Cuellar says the members of the militia would be 'reserve deputies.' He says they could be retired law enforcement officers, or part time officers who work on an as needed basis at the command of local officials. "Those sheriffs would work arm in arm with the Border Patrol to provide security along the border." Cuellar says how the reserve officers would be deployed, what their duties would be, and whether they would be armed would be up to the local officials and would be handled according to the laws in place in each jurisdiction. He says the militia would have a decided advantage over the Minutemen, whom Cuellar said he 'doesn't want' in Texas. Cuellar said most of the Minutemen are untrained volunteers from out of the area, and the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized. "They know the trails," he said. "They know the area because they have been doing this kind of work for a long time." Cuellar unveiled his proposal at a time when several hundred Minutemen volunteers are engaged in a border watch operation in Brooks County, in rural south Texas.
Health officials are investigating the case of an infant from central Minnesota who was infected with the virus that causes polio, the Minnesota Department of Health said.
The infant is hospitalized but does not have symptoms of the paralytic illnesses that sometimes result from a polio infection, the department said. The child had previously been diagnosed with immune system problems. "It is important to note that there is no risk to the general public," Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach said in a statement. But the department said this is the first case of polio infection reported in the United States since 2000, when the country stopped using the live-virus oral polio vaccine. The last case of naturally occurring polio in the United States was reported in 1979, and naturally occurring polio is considered eradicated in the Western Hemisphere. The last case of polio reported in Minnesota had been in 1992, and it was a vaccine-related case, according to the department's Web site. All vaccinations in the United States are now done with an injected, killed-virus vaccine. Before use of the live virus vaccine was halted, it caused an average of about eight cases of paralytic polio a year in the United States, the department said. The virus strain found in the Minnesota infant appears to be a variant of the oral vaccine strain, which is still used in some countries, the department said. State and federal health officials were trying to determine how the child became infected, but the virus can be transmitted by direct contact with the stool or oral secretions of an infected person, the department said. "Only unvaccinated people who have had direct contact with the infant are at risk, and we are following up directly with them to make sure their immunizations are up to date," said Kris Ehresmann, who heads the department's immunization section. "If you don't hear from a public health or health care official, you're not at risk." Citing state and federal data practice laws, the department said it could not release further information on the infant. The community and hospital involved were not disclosed. Ehresmann said the unusual case is a reminder for people to check with their health care providers to make sure their immunizations are up to date, and that their children are also protected. About 93 percent of Minnesota residents have had the full primary series of three polio shots, which was usually given during infancy.
