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CNN Live At Daybreak

Anthrax Investigation: More Contamination in Hart Senate Office Building

Aired October 25, 2001 - 08:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get right to the new anthrax discovery on Capitol Hill.

For that, we go to Kate Snow, who always has the details. She works the phones all night long. She talks to everybody she can talk to all day long. She's the woman with the answers this morning.

What is the latest from there, Kate?

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I sleep a little bit, Paula.

And this is no laughing matter. New evidence of anthrax has been detected in that building that has been the focus of all of the trouble here on Capitol Hill. That's the Hart Senate office building. It's where Sen. Tom Daschle's office is located. The southeast corner of that building, you will recall, that wing of the building, where Daschle's office is, was shut down the day after the letter was opened containing anthrax. But the new hot spot that's been identified is in a freight elevator in a different wing of the Hart Building, the southwest corner of that building. That area, we are told, has also now been sealed off.

And one other piece of news: A journalist working inside the Hart Building on that Monday when the letter was opened is in the hospital this morning with suspicious symptoms. No word yet on whether those are anthrax-related symptoms or not.

In the meantime, environmental tests continue here on Capitol Hill. Yesterday, crews were at work inside some of the House office buildings. Two of those House buildings will be reopening this morning. That's very good news for those trying to get some work done here on Capitol Hill. One building remains shut down, so they can continue environmental testing.

And on the Senate side of the United States Capitol, one Senate building is open this morning. That's the building that opened up yesterday, the Russell Senate Building. But the other two, the two we've been talking so much about, the Hart Building and the Dirkson Building, next door, where the mail room is for the Senate, will remain closed, Paula. However, they are letting Senators go into the buildings if they need to, to retrieve some of their personal belongings -- back to you.

ZAHN: Thanks, Kate.

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