Target Centermass

Though it may be nothing, it should be noted that an improvised explosive device has been found here in the homeland.

A San Francisco Starbucks is closed this afternoon after police defused a bomb placed in the bathroom.

Police received a call reporting a suspicious package at the coffee house, located at 1401 Van Ness Ave., at 1:15 p.m. The police explosives ordinance unit diffused an improvised explosive device, or IED, around 2 p.m., Sgt. Neville Gittens said.

Gittens said he could not comment on the size or type of device found or on its potential explosive capacity. A police investigation is ongoing.

A man working at Sushi Bar Wayo next door to Starbucks said police told him there was a pipe bomb in the coffee house and that he needed to evacuate his restaurant.

Ricardo Frias, a sales representative with Ellis Brooks Auto Center, located adjacent to the Starbucks, said a heavy police presence began at around 1 p.m. He said once the bomb squad arrived on scene an hour later, all auto center employees were directed to stand on the other side of the block-long store for about 30 minutes. He said he heard nothing when the IED was defused.

Islamist terror? Doubtful. Radical far-left terror? Slightly increased likelihood, though Starbucks, with their overrated and overpriced concoctions, seems to be the Mecca of the home-grown radical. McDonald’s would seem the likelier target.

Starbucks has issued a generic statement and authorities have made a generic claim of having leads.

Someday soon, Islamist terror will return to our shores. I just don’t think this was it.

Though not conclusively declaring causation, the U.S. has stated that yesterday’s tragic helicopter crash in Iraq occurred in heavy weather.

A U.S. military helicopter which came down in northern Iraq on Sunday killing all 12 aboard had been flying in bad weather, but the cause of the crash was still under investigation, the U.S. military said on Monday.

It was one of the deadliest air crashes in Iraq since the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson said all 12 aboard the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter were U.S. citizens. In a separate statement the military said the 12 included eight service personnel and four civilians.

“The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but we know the weather was severe at the time,” Johnson told Reuters.

The helicopter went down in a sparsely populated area 7.5 miles east of the town of Tal Afar shortly before midnight on Saturday. It had been flying between bases in northern Iraq when communications were lost.

That the flight was in the area of Tal Afar, which has recently been the scene of hostile action, leaves open the possibility of other causes. However, weather is the likely culprit, as it can wreak havoc on military aviation on or away from the battlefield … even here at home in Texas.

My best wishes for the families involved in yesterday’s loss.

Maybe it was the post-World Series celebrations, but Chicago has topped Houston once again. And Houston has no problem with it.

Houston has been downsized from No. 1 to No. 5 on Men’s Fitness magazine’s annual list of the fattest U.S. cities.

Houston traded its dubious 2005 distinction with Chicago, which was No. 5 last year.

Men’s Fitness placed Las Vegas an inch behind Chicago, followed by Los Angeles and Dallas.

“I’m proud of you guys,” said editor Neal Boulton. “You’re down to five … It takes an enormous effort to go down that much from that height.”

[...]

Houston has the most fast-food restaurants per capita, earning the title of Junk Food Capital.

“Houston has 70 percent more fast-food places than the average city in our survey,” Boulton said.

Mayor Bill White said the fitness magazine’s methodology is flawed.

“They count Subway as a fast-food establishment,” he said, “even though, in a city like New York, the neighborhood deli wouldn’t be counted as fast food. We ought to be on the fittest cities list, not the fattest.”

White was named one of the three fittest mayors in America by the magazine’s editors.

“His involvement is something we gave Houston points for,” Boulton said. “Mayor Bill White initiated Get Moving Houston, aimed at getting Houston off the list of the fattest cities. Well, Houston, you’re moving.”

The city acquired its pudgy label in 2001. It stuck like doughnuts until 2004, when Detroit surged to No. 1.

That didn’t last.

Houston took the title back a year later.

That year, White launched his Get Moving Houston campaign, which sponsored nutrition, running, walking and bicycling events.

Good for the city. This was an embarrassing title, and now Houston doesn’t even have to bear the mantle of fattest in Texas.