Larry Margasak of the Associated Press reports that an unlikely location made the cut as one of the five finalists for a $451 million Dept. of Homeland Security lab to study biological threats — Flora, Mississippi. This was despite a panel of experts ranking the locale 14th out of 17th.

There are two suspected reasons: Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and Sen. Thad Cochran, the no. 1 Republican on Senate appropriations and the subcommittee that does DHS appropriations. Thompson said he never met with DHS about the lab. But even the DHS itself said he spoke with Undersecretary Jay Cohen twice. Cohen, for his part, argued that scientists would surely move to Flora, Miss. if the lab were built there. Maybe they can be tempted by the chance to meet Bennie Thompson.-MB

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