Authorities investigating new case of powder found in Las Vegas hotel room

LAS VEGAS " Police, firefighters and homeland security officials are checking a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel where a man reported finding an unidentified white powder on his bed.

Clark County Fire Department spokesman Scott Allison says a hazardous materials team is in the room at the Excalibur hotel-casino trying to determine what the powder is.

Allison says the unidentified man shows no signs of sickness, and authorities don't immediately think he was exposed to anything dangerous.

One theory, he says, is that laundry soap may have been left on the sheets.

The hotel has not been evacuated.

Firefighters were called at 9:22 a.m. after the man notified hotel staff about the powder.

Authorities searched a room at the Excalibur last Friday in connection to an investigation into the discovery of the toxin ricin at an off-Strip motel. No ricin was found, they say.

Officials said they went to the Excalibur in that case after finding out that a relative of a man involved in the ricin case stayed there earlier.