Yellow crop-dusters are as common a sight round Beedeville as farmers' pick-up trucks. At this time of year, they normally buzz above the fields that surround this tiny rural town, spraying their mist of chemicals on cotton, rice and soybean crops. Not for much of this week. Reports that one of the hijackers had shown an interest in crop-duster aircraft fed fears of bioterrorism, and the Federal Aviation Administration grounded them on September 23rd. The ban was later rescinded, but the townsfolk of Beedeville are still frightened that smallpox, anthrax or mustard gas might fall on them from the skies.
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