Wendover Air Base to rise again

The government's plan to try cult leader Sahara Knax and a number of her high priestesses for treason took another step forward today with the announcement that a former air force base in Wendover, Utah, will be home to a temporary Federal Courthouse and a short-term U.S. Air Force operation.

Wendover Air Force Base was the training site for the B59 unit which dropped atomic bombs on Japan in the latter days of World War II. The base had been given to Wendover City and converted to a civilian field, but many of the original military buildings and two long runways remain. The runways are key to the continuing efforts by the USAF to suppress magical contamination in the town of Indigo Springs, Oregon.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about the move, but it seems apparent that setting up a temporary courthouse on a military base is a strategy to prevent attempts to rescue Knax, by bring a concentrated security presence to bear on the trial. Federal authorities lost considerable face last year when two of Knax's co-conspirators, Astrid Lethewood and Mark Clumber, escaped from a base in Washington State. Since that time, Alchemites have clashed with the Navy, Coast Guard, National Guard and numerous state and federal police forces. Though a number of highly-placed Alchemites have been arrested in these clashes, the price has been high: at least 200 police officers, federal agents and soldiers have been listed as missing.