Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Time capsule from 1795 is opened

More than 200 years after Samuel Adams and Paul Revere first buried it in Boston, it took an hour to remove all the objects crammed inside a tiny time capsule.

Onlookers anxiously watched the unveiling Tuesday, worrying the items might not have weathered the years very well.

"Could we actually go through the whole box, or would things prove too fragile to take out?" said Malcolm Rogers, director of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. "It was like brain surgery, with history looking down on us."

Piece by piece, Pam Hatchfield, head of objects conservation for the museum, removed each item, whispering "wow" as she first caught a glimpse of some of them.

Among the stash Hatchfield removed from the 1795 time capsule: Five folded newspapers, a Massachusetts commonwealth seal, a title page from Massachusetts colony records and at least 24 coins.

And at the bottom, an inscribed rectangular silver plate, "probably made by Paul Revere and engraved by him," Rogers said.

"That was the treasure at the end," he said.

But getting to it was a painstaking process.

It took seven hours to remove the time capsule from the Massachusetts State House, and more than four hours before Tuesday evening's ceremony for officials to loosen the screws that were holding it shut.

At the broadcast event, which took place at the museum in front of a painting of George Washington, Hatchfield used a porcupine quill and her grandfather's dental tool to help her safely remove the contents of the 10-pound box, which was uncovered during repairs for a water leak at the State House last month.

The box-shaped capsule was placed in the State House cornerstone in 1795 by Revere, the metalsmith, engraver and Revolutionary War hero; Adams, the brewer and governor of Massachusetts; and William Scollay, a local developer, when construction began. Revere was responsible for overlaying the State House dome with copper.

The time capsule measured 5.5 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches, officials said.

It's not the first time the box has been uncovered. In 1855, during some other repairs, the time capsule was removed and its contents cleaned, only to be put back in the cornerstone for almost 160 years. The box's materials were noted in reports of the time.

But this time, historians have had the opportunity to go through the contents with modern tools. After its removal December 11, the box was taken to the Museum of Fine Arts, X-rayed and given a thorough once-over.

Having an idea about what might be inside was nothing compared to actually seeing it, Rogers told CNN.

"Though we knew a little bit about what was in the box, it was a moment of extraordinary excitement as this brass container just the size of a cigar box was slowly opened with surgical precision, and you suddenly found yourself in the presence of history," he said.

Newspapers inside the box were in "amazingly good condition," Hatchfield said.

The large number of copper coins inside might have helped protect the artifacts, she said, since copper helps block the growth of fungus.

The collection of coins recovered from the time capsule included half-cent, one-cent, half-dime, 10-cent and 25-cent coins. Another set of coins included a pine tree shilling from 1652 and a copper medal showing George Washington.

"This is the most exciting project I've ever worked on," a beaming Hatchfield told the crowd after she finished pulling out all of the box's contents, describing how thrilling it was to be part of building a bridge between the past and the present.

"This is what we, as conservators, live for," she said.

Going forward, conservators at the museum will work on preserving items removed from the time capsule.

Then the objects will go on display at the museum. Eventually, the time capsule will be placed again in the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House, said William F. Galvin, secretary of the commonwealth.

One question still remains, Galvin said: Will officials add anything new to the time capsule before they put it back?

"The governor has wisely suggested that we might," he said, "so we'll think about it."

U. S. Navy commander plead guilty to bribery

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. Navy commander pleaded guilty Tuesday in a massive bribery scheme involving a longtime military contractor in Asia who allegedly offered luxury travel, prostitutes and other bribes to Navy officers in exchange for confidential information.

Jose Luis Sanchez, 42, is the highest-ranking official to plead the guilty in the case, which rocked the Navy when the first charges were filed in 2013. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced March 27.

Sanchez, who lives in San Diego and remains on active duty, was asked to silently read four passages of a 24-page plea agreement and say if the wrongdoing described was accurate.

"Yes, sir," he told U.S. Magistrate Judge David Bartick each time.

Robert Huie, an assistant U.S. attorney, told reporters that Sanchez admitted taking bribes of cash, prostitutes and hotel stays over four years.

Sanchez was charged with accepting bribes for steering Navy ships to Leonard Glenn Francis, chief executive of a Singapore-based company that provided services to vessels at ports.

Francis, known in military circles as "Fat Leonard," and his company Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd., or GDMA, serviced Navy ships for 25 years. Prosecutors say he bought information that allowed his company to overbill the Navy for port services in Asia by at least $20 million since 2009.

Francis was arrested in September 2013 and has pleaded not guilty.

Sanchez, one of four Navy members charged in the case, held key positions in Singapore and Japan before he was reassigned to Tampa, Fla., in 2013. Prosecutors alleged that he took $100,000 in cash, plane tickets and prostitution for information on Navy shipping schedules and other information, some of it classified.

The judge agreed to let Sanchez remove a GPS monitor while free on bond and allowed him to back the bond with assets of his mother and sister, instead of his own property.

Sanchez's attorney, Vincent Ward, said his client needed his own money to pay legal fees and assured the judge that Sanchez wouldn't betray his family by failing to appear for sentencing. His mother and sister sat in the front row.

"He's closer to his mom and sister than anyone," Ward said.

Sanchez and his attorney declined to speak with reporters as they left the courtroom.

He is the fifth person to plead guilty in the case and the second Navy official. Daniel Layug, a petty officer who admitted providing classified shipping schedules and other internal Navy information to Francis, pleaded guilty in May.

Navy Cmdr. Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz has pleaded not guilty.

Taxpayers take hit if Rams pull out

ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – Taxpayers could take a hit if the Rams pull out and St. Louis is left without an NFL team.

Investigator Elliott Davis talked to Jim Shrewsbury the man appointed by Governor Nixon to head up the St. Louis Regional Sports Authority, the government agency that owns the Edward Jones Dome as well as Rams Park.

Shrewsbury says the City, State and County could end up forking over more dollars to help pay off the bonds if revenue from a loss of the Rams isn’t replace.

Right now the Rams pay $500,000 to use the Edward Jones Dome.

Right now the State pays $12 million a year, the City of St Louis $6 million, and St Louis County $6 Million to pay off the bonds sold to build and maintain the dome.

The bond pay off is over a 30 year period.

$129 million is still owed in bond payments that won’t be paid off till the year 2021.

The Rams also pay the Sports Authority $25,000 a year to rent Rams Park, the training facility in Earth City.

The Sports Authority would also have to make up that revenue if the Rams pulled out and we don’t get another team.

Shrewsbury says he’s confident they could eventually make up the losses saying they’d look for other tenants. But he admits that could take time.