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View Full Version : Chalk another one up for San Antonio?


coddat
Jan 20, 2007, 8:05 AM
Looks like San Antonio might get a biomedical lab.....
Bigger Than Toyota? San Antonio Wants Bio-Defense Lab
Last Update: 1/19/2007 3:29:38 PM
Posted By: Vickie Jean Summers

It may be the biggest thing happening to San Antonio. The federal Department of Homeland Security wants to build a national laboratory to fight bio-terrorism and San Antonio is on the short list. City leaders are making their final push and hoping the community shows its support.
Scientists in space suits could someday mean as much to our local economy as all those assembly line workers at the Toyota plant. The lab would provide hundreds of high-paying jobs, sprout suppliers and spin-off businesses, and put San Antonio at the center of the war on terrorism.

"In terms of national security, this is vaccine development,” says Dr. Harold Timboe, Vice Chairman of the consortium of research facilities trying to land the laboratory. “It protects human lives. It protects livestock and our food supply." The lab would replace Plum Island in New York as the national headquarters for studying animal-to-human diseases and biological weapons. San Antonio is one of a dozen cities still in the running, with three possible sites in town: the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Brooks City-Base, and the Texas Research Park.

The Southwest Foundation is already one of only a few labs in the country allowed to conduct the most dangerous biological research.

“We have an impeccable record in containment research,” says Timboe. "We think we'll compete very well amongst the other 11 cities that are still in the running for this very prestigious federal laboratory."

Community leaders are meeting Wednesday, January 24th to plan their strategy. Department of Homeland Security officials will do site visits here this spring. And a decision on this $500 million facility will be made in 2008.

METALMiKE
Jan 20, 2007, 3:56 PM
Wow.Awesome news, Thanks.

JACKinBeantown
Jan 21, 2007, 4:08 AM
That's great for SA. Although I'm so sick of hearing the words, "the war on terrorism." How about, "the continuing effort of our government to properly do its job."

arbeiter
Jan 22, 2007, 2:33 PM
How about, "the continuing effort of our government to properly do its job."

Oh, I didn't know it was our government's job to waste our taxpayer dollars!

arbeiter
Jan 22, 2007, 2:34 PM
San Antonio is one of a dozen cities still in the running, with three possible sites in town: the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Brooks City-Base, and the Texas Research Park.


umm? this is even appropriate?

kornbread
Jan 22, 2007, 3:16 PM
Oh, I didn't know it was our government's job to waste our taxpayer dollars!
Where have you been? This statement is about as vague as the title of this thread or as "the war on terror". Is this even appropriate:jester:

Must have been a slow news day.

KevinFromTexas
Jan 23, 2007, 12:15 AM
I think he was talking about the $400 billion the US has spent in Iraq with no results. Oh, crumbs indeed.

coddat
Jan 23, 2007, 1:08 AM
as a moderator you should know to keep this kind of talk to the general discussions forum

ryan5021
Jan 23, 2007, 4:18 AM
Ditto Coddat!

JACKinBeantown
Jan 23, 2007, 4:21 AM
Sorry, my previous statement had about three levels of sarcasm. What I meant to say is... George W. Bush sucks. Let's count the number of times he says "terror", "September 11th" and "freedom" in his state of the union address. And no doubt he'll end it with the words "may god bless America." Go, George!

Anyway, back to the subject. I hope SA gets this thing, and that the city starts building up instead on continuing to build out.

KevinFromTexas
Jan 23, 2007, 4:55 AM
Arguing with a moderator is not the best idea. I didn't make that comment to create an argument. It was pretty light hearted infact.

coddat
Jan 23, 2007, 5:08 AM
It wasn't an argument, it was a suggestion that a thread on a possible bio-defense lab should be, well limited to developments on the bio-defense lab.

ryan5021
Jan 23, 2007, 6:27 AM
I guess only moderators are allowed to make so called "light hearted" comments.

Kevin, did you not read JackinNYC comments or did you just choose to ignore them?

Coddat's suggestion that comments such as yours be left to the general discussion boards was absolutely right and your highly arrogant reply was inappropriate in my opinion.

JACKinBeantown
Jan 23, 2007, 1:34 PM
My commentary was a direct reaction to the end of the second paragraph in the original article. Someone reacted to my comment. I commented back. Then I got back to the topic at hand.... which I will do once again.

Go Spurs!

arbeiter
Jan 23, 2007, 3:54 PM
How is this newsworthy though? SA is one of a dozen cities that may get this.

KevinFromTexas
Jan 24, 2007, 12:19 AM
I guess only moderators are allowed to make so called "light hearted" comments.

Kevin, did you not read JackinNYC comments or did you just choose to ignore them?

Coddat's suggestion that comments such as yours be left to the general discussion boards was absolutely right and your highly arrogant reply was inappropriate in my opinion.

My first reply was only meant to say, "Hey, I think this is what arbeiter meant." It may have been more direct than what he said, but I thought it was pretty light hearted. It was much better than calling George Bush a dumbass, which I do actually think he is, but that's not the point.

My last reply that I made was made at the same exact moment JackinNYC replied. I didn't see that he had replied until later when I came back to the thread, which by then, it was too late to change it.

And I'm not arrogant, if I was I'd just delete all these posts.

tmathis
Jan 24, 2007, 10:57 PM
Would like to say hello to the forum!

I think its great that San Antonio is making the cut each time. I mean SA was 1 of something for Toyota, Washington Mutual and Microsoft and eventually landed all three. It could be a different story with this research lab but making the cut is a good thing.

austlar
Jan 25, 2007, 9:37 AM
Kevin, you rock! Stick to your guns on this one 'cause you are so right on this topic.

Meanwhile, I was thinking to myself that I am not certain that I would want to live in a place where a bio-terrorism lab was located, any more than I would want to live in a place that was home to all sorts of intelligence gathering by the likes of the NSA. I was kind of hoping to see SA begin to end it's reliance on military and government related job creation. Yeah, I know it is good for the local economy and in many ways has been driving the local economy, but it all strikes me as being kind of creepy.