• Bomb threat shuts crossing between Detroit and Canada -- again

    Elizabeth Conley / The Detroit News via AP

    Members of the Detroit Police Department patrol following a bomb threat that closed the Ambassador Bridge to Canada on Monday.

    By Isolde Raftery, NBCNews.com

    Authorities shut down one of the busiest bridge crossings between Canada and the United States on Monday evening after receiving a bomb threat, according to Dan Stamper, president of the Detroit International Bridge Company.

    “We take any threat very seriously, and set in motion the security measures the bridge has had in place since 9/11, staying in constant contact with first responders,” Stamper said in a statement. “We cannot confirm, but suspect, that this has something to do with Canada's disinvestment at the border by cutting back on customs' agents.”

    The bridge reopened around 1 a.m. Tuesday. No device was found, WDIV-TV reported.

    The bridge closing comes four days after a man called from a street pay phone, making a similar threat to a nearby commuter tunnel that also connects Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, in Canada, The Associated Press reported. No explosives were found and the call was determined to be a hoax, according to the Detroit Free-Press.

    Monday night’s bomb threat was called in around 7:20 p.m. Authorities immediately stopped traffic on the bridge. 

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  • Another day at the office: Workers paint George Washington Bridge 330 feet above water

    John Munson / The Star-Ledger

    Painting supervisor Kevin McSweeney walks out onto one of the cables on the George Washington Bridge to inspect the painting operations in Fort Lee, NJ, on July 10.

    John Munson / The Star-Ledger

    Obed Gonzalez paints one of the large cables on the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, NJ, on July 10.

    By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News

    It was as he was selecting his harness that New Jersey Star-Ledger photographer John Munson realized that he, too, would be joining the George Washington Bridge painters high above rush-hour traffic on the cables suspending the bridge over the Hudson River. As he and reporter Steve Strunsky headed to the span's midpoint, Munson focused on shooting the Port Authority workers and tuning out the vibrations from morning commuters heading into New York City below them.

    For the painters, it is just another day at the office. They work on maintaining the bridge year-round, completing a full paint job in approximately 18 months. The Star-Ledger's Steve Strunsky reports:

    Kevin McSweeney stood 330 feet above the Hudson River on one of four 36-inch diameter cables strung between the twin towers of the George Washington Bridge.

    Manhattan-bound cars and trucks whooshed 100 feet below him as his crew of five bridge painters worked on a narrow platform. Clipped to safety wires, they used rollers to coat the cables with an aluminum-based protective layer.

    It was 9 a.m. and already hot under a blazing July sun. But the small gang of adrenaline junkies applied the silvery coating with amazing speed and coordination, seemingly oblivious to the dizzying height.

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    John Munson / The Star-Ledger

    Keith Schmitt paints the top of the south cable on the George Washington Bridge. Fort Lee, NJ, on July 10.

  • 5 anarchists nabbed in plot to blow up Ohio bridge

    Five men were arrested in Ohio, accused of plotting to blow up the Route 82 Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge near Cleveland. Charges are now pending against Douglas L. Wright, 26, Brandon L. Baxter, 20, and Anthony Hayne, 35, Connor C. Stevens, 20, and Joshua S. Stafford, 23. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent

    Federal agents have arrested five people who were plotting to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, Ohio, an incident not connected to the anniversary of former al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's death, officials say.

    Douglas L. Wright, 26, Brandon L. Baxter, 20, and Anthony Hayne, 35, were arrested by members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force on April 30 on charges of conspiracy and attempted use of explosive materials to damage physical property affecting interstate commerce. Also arrested were Connor C. Stevens, 20, and Joshua S. Stafford, 23. Charges are pending against them.

    The five were "controlled by an undercover FBI employee," and agents had them under extensive surveillance for a long period of time. The explosives they allegedly purchased were inoperable.

    "There was never any danger," one federal official said.

    On what appeared to be the Facebook pages of Hayne, Stafford and Baxter, there were claims that they were affiliated with Occupy Cleveland, which moved swiftly Tuesday to distance itself from the bridge plot.

    Occupy Cleveland canceled May Day protest plans to march in the city and hang signs after “we awoke to the news of the arrests,” coordinator Johnny Peskar, 22, told msnbc.com.

    'Occupy' protesters hit the street

    “We don’t need any implications in this nonsense,” Peskar said.

    Occupy organizers had seen a few in the plot hanging around earlier events, but their actions were “autonomous,” he said.

    Court documents say the FBI became aware of the men in October. A confidential source told the FBI that they were acting suspiciously at a protest event, wearing masks, talking on radios, and saying they didn't believe in peaceful protest. They carried flags associated with anarchist groups.

    From that point on, the informant was in constant touch with the group members. Their goal, one of them said, was to destroy private property "to send a message to corporations." Last November, they discussed setting off smoke grenades on Veterans Memorial Bridge in Cleveland as a diversion while they would be knocking bank signs off the tops of tall buildings downtown.

    Federal officials say Wright, Baxter and Hayne describe themselves as anarchists who considered a series of evolving plots over several months.

    As Stevens and Stafford came into the plot, they started talking about using explosives.

    The informant brought in two people he said could help them get explosives. These people were actually FBI undercover agents. The group members agreed to buy tear gas and gas masks. Two weeks later, they said they wanted to buy plastic explosives.

    Library of Congress

    A photo of the Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge taken in 1995 as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey and Historic American Engineering Record projects for the U.S. National Parks Service.

    In late April, they settled on trying to blow up the Route 82 Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge. This bridge crosses from Brecksville, Ohio to Sagamore Hills, Ohio over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

    On April 29, they met with the undercover agents and bought what they thought were two homemade bombs for $450. They planned to place them on April 30 but were arrested by the FBI.

    The members of this group had a strong desire to commit acts of violence but no idea how to do it. At one point, a member of the group says what they needed was "mainly bleach," because, he said, that's what land mines and hand grenades were made with during World War II.

    "The complaint in this case alleges that the defendants took specific and defined actions to further a terrorist plot," said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven Dettelbach. "The defendants stand charged based not upon any words or beliefs they might espouse, but based upon their own plans and actions."

    This story is developing. Please check back for more details.

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