Following Democratic Rep. Katie Hill’s resignation over allegations of a sexual relationship with a staffer and a campaign aide, the freshman lawmaker’s Palmdale office received a suspicious envelope Monday containing a white powder that was determined to be harmless. A department spokesman, Tony Atkins, said firefighters were alerted to an envelope containing an unidentified powder, and that two people complained of irritation. He said an initial test was negative for potentially harmful substances and a second, more time-consuming exam done with chemical weapons testing equipment also yielded a negative. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is conducting a criminal investigation into the incident, which seemed designed to scare those working in the office. One of the authors was a former campaign advisor to Steve Knight, who Hill ousted from Congress in 2018.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 05, 2019 01:52 UTC