
"Authorities arrested today a 29-year-old man who they say tried to blow up the Springfield courthouse with an explosives-filled van.
Authorities say Michael Finton, also known as "Talib Islam," drove a van containing what he thought was explosive material, parked it directly in front of the Paul Findley Federal Building and Courthouse, then tried to detonate it with his cell phone.
The attempt was apparently part of a federal ruse. Finton got out of the van, locked the door and got into another vehicle driven by an undercover FBI agent and drove away, authorities said.
Within blocks, Finton used a cell phone to remotely detonate the purported bomb, agents said, according to the State Journal-Register.
The case has nothing to do with the major terrorism investigation under way in New York and Colorado, federal officials say.
Finton appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron G. Cudmore in Springfield and said he was a part-time cook in a Decatur fish and chicken restaurant."
LinkScrewy stuff going on in my part of the state. Recently a family of 5 was murdered, in a little crossroads town called Beason, not far from here.