Peace said, in part:

IMO, I expect that the phones would be used to time the releases of bio agents.

"Expect"?? Sure, that is one possibility, but we have nothing in the story that suggests that particular threat. One can "expect" that the phones were for nefarious purposes, but that particular one is no more likely than several others.

A bail of any amount is ludicrous, IMO. The money is there for them to skip and go elsewhere. Who's using what for brains?

I worked for 36 years for a US District Court, and I know that there are rules the court has to go by; the judge is not a free agent in what to set, or whether to set bond at all. I'm sure the prosecutor asked the court for an extremely high or no bond at all, but probably wasn't able to make the evidentiary level necessary. The fact that it's set for another hearing on bond suggests to me that they are trying to raise the amount or deny bond--and that defense counsel, of course, is trying to lower the amount set. The article doesn't say the defendants were able to make the $200,000 bond.

I agree that it would be a good thing if the judge were able (and willing) to deny bond.

I would suspect that the US Attorney for that US District Court is busy trying to transfer the case to federal court. Maybe we'll hear more about it.

Dave Oesterreich