In my area (eastern Iowa, western Illinois) there is a spate of several pipebombs being placed in mailboxes. All the new stations are issuing warnings to be very careful when checking mail…Supposedly the bombs are placed next to a letter containing anti-government rantings. All the postal carriers are being pulled off their routes in an 8 county area.
Info here
and here.
I saw that on foxnews, as a former Rock Islander with my best friend working for the post office in Davenport delivering mail, is rather scary. I hope they gut this nutjub like a fish.
Strange. The town over from me has been having a rash of pipe bombs recently also. They’re not restricted to mailboxes here, though.
All mail service from Cedar Rapids east to the Mississippi is cancelled for Saturday…they pulled the mail carriers off the routes as fast as they could today.
They’re pulling the mail carriers off the route…but what about the hapless homeowners who are just checking to see if the mail is there? Gosh, I send my kids out to check.
I’m going to send Mrs. G. out to check the mail in the morning. I hope the flag isn’t up. 
Swell just when I’m expecting 3 packages from ebay auctions.Luckily none of them look like pipes.
It took almost 3 weeks to get the last item. This will probably take til 2006.
evilbeth where are you?
Holy Crap!
My 84 year old grandparents live in Eldridge. As well as my aunt, my father, my cousin and her family and my other grandmother.
Dave, you need to call or e-mail me or something when major stuff like this happens.
I’m not really a news person and I work such odd hours during the weekend that I probably would never have known about this. Even more so being out of the area this week.
According to the morning paper one of the rural mail carriers is in critical condition. I assume from head wounds. The paper also printed the message that accompanied the bombs. It is cryptic to say the least. Something about “control” and blowing up “non-famous” people to attract attention. It is pretty clearly the work of a crazy with no obvious cause. From the locations of the explosions it may be that this guy drove a loop from Davenport up the Illinois side of the river and then back down the Iowa side. The flip comment about having Mrs. G. pick up the mail aside, this is a little scary but it is probably over.
Tennessee. Our pipebomb crisis is nothing close to the one in Iowa and Illionois. I think ours is just local punks being stupid.
Yikes! I can’t imagine not going to the mailbox for days!
I just read about this and was very surprised - I’m from Geneseo, IL, so this is kinda my old stomping grounds!
CRAZY! Nothing ever happens in the QCA.
Colin
This is getting scarier by the hour! I hope they catch the person/people before anyone else gets hurt.
Wow, I used to live in Clinton, Iowa, so I know a lot of those towns, on both sides of the Mississippi.
I grew up in Bettendorf, and have relatives in Eldridge, Farley, & Asbury, three of the Iowa towns mentioned in the news reports.
Apparently, the bomber has moved on to Nebraska. Note that one of the Nebraska bombs was found in a town named Davenport. Coincidence?
P.S. To any FBI/NSA/ATF types, I’ve been at home in Atlanta the last two days 
My friend the letter carrier in Davenport, IA says on Saturday, they suspended mail service, but he still had to go to work and get ready for delivery monday, which he is not looking forward to with the vast amount of mail piling up.
My husband is a letter carrier, though in a non-rural suburb of Chicago. Not all that long after the anthrax mailings and the worries over that, we get this lunatic. My thoughts are with everyone affected by this.
I posted a Pit rant about this too; I’m really angry about this latest attempt to kill postal workers and wanted to vent.