5:18 pm 6/5/13

Staff of the Iowa State Daily were evacuated from the newsroom in 108 Hamilton Hall after discovering a white powder in a package on Wednesday. 

The return address on the package was from Robert Alberg and “contained a few letters and a CD. Letters had traces of white powder,” said Daily staff member, Levi Castle in a Facebook post after being evacuated. The CD in the envelope had Alberg’s name on it along with his photo. 

The editor-in-chief of the Daily, Stephen Koenigsfeld, tweeted that the package “looked completely normal.” 

Koenigsfeld also tweeted that “Ames Fire, City of Ames, ISU police, and a Hazardous Materials truck” were all on the scene.

Check back to the Iowa State Daily for more details as this story develops and follow @skoenigsfeld for live updates.

 6:32 PM 6/5/13

FBI and service employees from Des Moines are on their way to conduct a more formal evaluation of the substance. 

6:44 PM 6/5/13

According to The Seattle Times, November 9, 2005, “[Robert Alberg], a mentally ill and disabled man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in a federal prison for violating his parole by trying to make the poison ricin.” 

7:09 PM 6/5/13

Des Moines Hazardous Materials team and FBI has arrived and began suiting up in preparation for handling the unknown powder.

7:47 PM 6/5/13

FBI and U.S. Postal Inspectors debrief quarantined ISDaily staff members calling this incident a “credible threat.” Agent Jay Knox, who specializes in powders and bombs, says, “FBI went out and talked to Robert Alberg last week in regards to his letters, all of which contained no powder with the exception of your letter.” Knox says that the powder came back as not harmful and was a byproduct of the contents of the package.