Times Hit by White Powder Scare

White powder sent in swastika envelope

(NEWSER) - Good things rarely come in envelopes bearing a skull and bones symbol and a swastika sticker, the husband of New York Times assistant managing editor Susan Chira discovered on Wednesday. The envelope he opened, which had a Manhattan post office box as the return address, contained a plastic bag labeled "weaponized Anthrax" and containing white powder, reports the Huffington Post . Cops and federal agents determined that the powder was harmless. The incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime. More»

Air Force One backup planes flies low around Statue of Liberty

(NEWSER) - A photo op by the Defense Department caused buildings in lower Manhattan and New Jersey to be evacuated this morning, the New York Times reports. A backup for Air Force One flew low over Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty accompanied by two fighter jets. The deployment was coordinated with the city, the Pentagon said, but the low-flying plane brought back terrifying Sept. 11 memories. More»

Debt-laden paper enters sale-leaseback with investment firm

(NEWSER) - The New York Times Company has raised $225 million through a sale-leaseback of its Eighth Avenue skyscraper, it announced this morning. The deal gives investment firm WP Carey ownership of the Times' share of the Renzo Piano-designed headquarters, which the newspaper moved into in 2007. The company will then lease the real estate back at $32 a square foot, about half the going price of similar office space. More»

(NEWSER) - Rumors of the New York Times’ demise are greatly exaggerated, reports... the New York Times. “Despite some published alarms to the contrary, the company has positioned itself to ride out another year of recession, maybe two,” Richard Péréz-Peña writes in a review of his employer’s finances. The Times hopes to "fill the void" left as other papers fold or cut back, a so-called last-man-standing strategy. More»

(NEWSER) - White powder mailed to executives of the Wall Street Journal and to Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz is harmless, authorities say. Authorities have no suspects or motive, but the Journal notes that Dershowitz wrote an essay for the paper earlier this month defending Israel's assault on Gaza. The Journal got a dozen letters and evacuated two floors of its Manhattan offices this afternoon. Dershowitz got one letter at Harvard Law School. More»